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Isaiah 5-8 Listen 
Judgment upon the wicked (Isaiah 5)
1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard
On a very fruitful hill.
2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also made a winepress in it;
So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.
3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
4 What more could have been done to My vineyard
That I have not done in it?
Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,
Did it bring forth wild grapes?
5 And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;
And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will lay it waste;
It shall not be pruned or dug,
But there shall come up briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds
That they rain no rain on it.”
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
8 Woe to those who join house to house;
They add field to field,
Till there is no place
Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
9 In my hearing the LORD of hosts said,
“Truly, many houses shall be desolate,
Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,
And a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
That they may follow intoxicating drink;
Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!
12 The harp and the strings,
The tambourine and flute,
And wine are in their feasts;
But they do not regard the work of the LORD,
Nor consider the operation of His hands.
13 Therefore my people have gone into captivity,
Because they have no knowledge;
Their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself
And opened its mouth beyond measure;
Their glory and their multitude and their pomp,
And he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.
15 People shall be brought down,
Each man shall be humbled,
And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
16 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment,
And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
17 Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture,
And in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat.
18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity,
And sin as if with a cart rope;
19 That say, “Let Him make speed and hasten His work,
That we may see it;
And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,
That we may know it.”
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,
Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,
23 Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away justice from the righteous man!
24 Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble,
And the flame consumes the chaff,
So their root will be as rottenness,
And their blossom will ascend like dust;
Because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts,
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of the LORD is aroused against His people;
He has stretched out His hand against them
And stricken them,
And the hills trembled.
Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.
For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.
26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,
And will whistle to them from the end of the earth;
Surely they shall come with speed, swiftly.
27 No one will be weary or stumble among them,
No one will slumber or sleep;
Nor will the belt on their loins be loosed,
Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;
28 Whose arrows are sharp,
And all their bows bent;
Their horses’ hooves will seem like flint,
And their wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roaring will be like a lion,
They will roar like young lions;
Yes, they will roar
And lay hold of the prey;
They will carry it away safely,
And no one will deliver.
30 In that day they will roar against them
Like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks to the land,
Behold, darkness and sorrow;
And the light is darkened by the clouds.
Isaiah prophesies judgment upon the wicked people of Judah. But he doesn't just say it in this chapter, he gives it in lyrical form; perhaps he even sang this prophecy. And you'll notice that he gives the prophecy using a metaphor. Here, God is the keeper of the vineyard and Israel/Judah is the vineyard. Despite great care, the vineyard is a mess. In verse 2 we see that, instead of bringing forth good grapes, it brought forth "wild grapes." Literally, these wild grapes refer to worthless berries. The Hebrew word (be-oo-sheem´) literally means "stinking or worthless things," holding the connotation that the resulting grapes were just plain ol' bad, bad, bad. Verse 10 indicates that God's large investment in Israel/Judah yielded a minimum return.
Isaiah is in the warning mode in this passage. His six woes are seen in verse 8-25:
In verse 18, Isaiah draws the image of these wicked people having a "cart" of sin behind them that they drag around with a rope. Whoa! That's heavy!
I can't resist quoting and paralleling Isaiah 5:20-23 to our own day and age:
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,
Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,
23 Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away justice from the righteous man!
I know that in these verses Isaiah is talking about Judah's failure and impending fall, but many of the verses in this chapter sound like contemporary times in our world. That's why God turned his back to the inhabitants of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. when they fell into captivity. It's man's sinful nature that promotes an anti-God agenda. The warning of Isaiah here includes the false justification of Judah/Israel concerning their actions. In so doing, they dismissed true godliness, substituting instead their own actions of rebellion and calling their despicable-before-God actions righteous. In reality, man does not have the right or ability to redefine God's righteous standard.
Verses 26-30 describe the wrath of God which shall come upon Judah/Israel in the form of a conquering army. This army is that of the Assyrians who would, in Isaiah's lifetime, conquer the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah), except for Jerusalem itself. While the Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 721 B.C., by a miracle of God, Jerusalem was spared until 609 B.C. when attacked by Egypt and then the Babylonians. The regime in Jerusalem after that time was comprised of puppet kings loyal to the conquering nations (first Egypt, then Babylon). The Assyrians themselves fell to the Babylonians in 604 B.C., and finally Jerusalem itself in 586 B.C. completely collapsed. Isaiah prophesied all of this.
Isaiah's commissioning (Isaiah 6)
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.
2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3 And one cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”
4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 ¶ So I said:
“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The LORD of hosts.”
6 ¶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.
7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said:
“Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged.”
8 ¶ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
“Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?” ¶ Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
9 ¶ And He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 “Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed.”
11 ¶ Then I said, “Lord, how long?” ¶ And He answered:
“Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,
The houses are without a man,
The land is utterly desolate,
12 The LORD has removed men far away,
And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 But yet a tenth will be in it,
And will return and be for consuming,
As a terebinth tree or as an oak,
Whose stump remains when it is cut down.
So the holy seed shall be its stump.”
In this passage we see the call of Isaiah to his prophetic ministry of warning Judah regarding their wickedness. It is prophesied, however, that the people will hear, but not respond. We are told the time of this commissioning; the text plainly says that God commissioned Isaiah "In the year that king Uzziah died." You may click on the link at the top of this page for a complete overview of the kings, but here's what we know about Uzziah. He was the 10th king of Judah and was known also as Azariah. He reigned from 790-739. We read about him in II Kings 14:21-22 (see notes); II Kings 15:1-7 (see notes); II Chronicles 26 (see notes). So, Isaiah's formal commissioning into the prophetic ministry was in 739 B.C.; some fix the date of Uzziah's death in 740 B.C.
In his vision, Isaiah expresses concern about his worthiness in verse 5, but this is resolved by "one of the seraphims" in verses 6-7. But are they going to listen to Isaiah's prophetic warnings? NO! Look at verses 9-13. The hearts of Isaiah's contemporaries were hard toward God. It is important to take note that these words of God to Isaiah are quoted or referenced in each of the Gospels - Matthew 13:14-15 (see notes), Mark 4:10-12 (see notes), Luke 8:10 (see notes) and John 12:39-41 (see notes). Paul quotes Isaiah in Acts 28:26-27 (see notes) and Romans 11:8 (see notes). Because of the hardness of their hearts, they rejected God's warning - both in the days of Isaiah as well as in the first century A.D.
Isaiah sent to King Ahaz (Isaiah 7:1-9)
1 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it.
2 And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.
3 ¶ Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field,
4 and say to him: “Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah.
5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying,
6 “Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”—
7 thus says the Lord GOD:
“It shall not stand,
Nor shall it come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,
And the head of Damascus is Rezin.
Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken,
So that it will not be a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son.
If you will not believe,
Surely you shall not be established.” ’ ”
Ahaz was the son and successor of Jotham, king of Judah. In addition to Isaiah's writings, we read about Ahaz in II Kings 16 and II Chronicles 28 (see notes). He gave himself up to a life of wickedness and idolatry. Notwithstanding the warnings of Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah, he appealed to Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria, for help against Rezin, king of Damascus (Syria), and Pekah, king of Israel, who threatened Jerusalem. This help from Assyria resulted in great injury to his kingdom and his own humiliating subjection to the Assyrians (II Kings 16:7-9, see notes; II Kings 15:29, see notes). He also introduced among his people many heathen and idolatrous customs as seen in Isaiah 8:19 (see below) and Isaiah 38:6-8 (see notes). He died at the age of thirty-five, after reigning sixteen years (B.C. 740–724). He was succeeded by his son Hezekiah. Because of the wickedness of King Ahaz he was "not brought into the sepulchre of the kings."
So, these verses represent what Isaiah told Ahaz, King of Judah, about the attack from Syria and the Northern Kingdom (Israel). While Ahaz was a wicked king of Judah, still God says through Isaiah that their attack upon him will not be successful. He further prophesies that Ephraim (an alternative reference to the Northern Kingdom) will "not be a people" in sixty-five years. Since the fall of the Northern Kingdom to the Assyrians was not that far off, this undoubtedly refers to the deportation of the inhabitants of Israel and the mixture of other races with those who remained. Used by the Assyrians and Babylonians to keep a nation under their subjection, this transferring of people from one conquered nation to another destroyed national pride and served to prevent future uprisings.
A Messianic foreshadowing (Isaiah 7:10-25)
10 ¶ Moreover the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying,
11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.”
12 ¶ But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!”
13 ¶ Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?
14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
15 Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.
16 For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.
17 The LORD will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father’s house—days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.”
18 And it shall come to pass in that day
That the LORD will whistle for the fly
That is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt,
And for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19 They will come, and all of them will rest
In the desolate valleys and in the clefts of the rocks,
And on all thorns and in all pastures.
20 In the same day the Lord will shave with a hired razor,
With those from beyond the River, with the king of Assyria,
The head and the hair of the legs,
And will also remove the beard.
21 It shall be in that day
That a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep;
22 So it shall be, from the abundance of milk they give,
That he will eat curds;
For curds and honey everyone will eat who is left in the land.
23 It shall happen in that day,
That wherever there could be a thousand vines
Worth a thousand shekels of silver,
It will be for briers and thorns.
24 With arrows and bows men will come there,
Because all the land will become briers and thorns.
25 And to any hill which could be dug with the hoe,
You will not go there for fear of briers and thorns;
But it will become a range for oxen
And a place for sheep to roam.
Isaiah offers Ahaz a sign from God to validate the prophecy of verses 1-9. The familiar verse assigned to the Messiah by Matthew himself in Matthew 1:23 (see notes) is Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." Since Matthew was inspired by God to use this passage as a reference to Jesus, I'm inclined to side with the scholars who claim that the mother referenced here was a royal contemporary of the prophet, whose child’s name would symbolize the presence of God with his people, but would also foreshadow the Messiah in whom God would be incarnate. The reason for adhering to this position is the fact that this was to be a sign to Ahaz himself, and the rest of the chapter seems relevant to the scenarios of his day. However, there can be no question that this is also a reference to Jesus.
We are never actually told by Isaiah who exactly this contemporary fulfillment would be, but this much is clear from the context: This was a real child born during the days of Ahaz as a sign to him that the assault of verses 1-9 would fail; the accompanying details are too descriptive to be dismissed. The fact that Matthew quotes verse 14 as a prophecy concerning the birth of Jesus simply means that this sign to Ahaz was also intended to be the means by which the Messiah himself would one day appear - as a result of a virgin birth.
The Assyrians are coming to an Israel near you (Isaiah 8:1-10)
1 Moreover the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll, and write on it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
2 And I will take for Myself faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”
3 ¶ Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz;
4 for before the child shall have knowledge to cry “My father’ and ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria.”
5 ¶ The LORD also spoke to me again, saying:
6 “Inasmuch as these people refused
The waters of Shiloah that flow softly,
And rejoice in Rezin and in Remaliah’s son;
7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them
The waters of the River, strong and mighty—
The king of Assyria and all his glory;
He will go up over all his channels
And go over all his banks.
8 He will pass through Judah,
He will overflow and pass over,
He will reach up to the neck;
And the stretching out of his wings
Will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel.
9 “Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces!
Give ear, all you from far countries.
Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces;
Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing;
Speak the word, but it will not stand,
For God is with us.”
Can you say "Mahershalalhashbaz?" I can't say it, but I can write it. God told Isaiah to name his son "Mahershalalhashbaz." Surely he had a nickname. This name was to denote the sudden attack on Damascus and Syria by the Assyrian army; it means "a speedy plunder." Here's the prophecy concerning the child in verse 4, "for before the child shall have knowledge to cry 'My father' and 'My mother,' the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria."
Here's a note I find helpful from the Expositor's Bible Commentary regarding the fall of the Northern Kingdom:
Isaiah’s wife is called “the prophetess” (v.3) because she was his wife or because, as the one who bore children with prophetic names, she became involved in the communication of the message of God. It is less likely that she was a prophetess in her own right as there is no other evidence of this. If, as seems probable, the events of vv.1-4 are set out in chronological order (though “then” in v.3 is purely narrative and not sequential in the Hebrew), the time involved - including both the pregnancy and the inarticulate babyhood of the child (v.4) - would be between eighteen months and two years. This would place the inscribed prophecy in 734 B.C., for Damascus was occupied and probably Samaria plundered (cf. II Kings 15:29) by Tiglath-pileser III in 732 B.C.
Fear God and wait on the Lord (Isaiah 8:11-22)
11 ¶ For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:
12 “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’
Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy,
Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.
13 The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow;
Let Him be your fear,
And let Him be your dread.
14 He will be as a sanctuary,
But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense
To both the houses of Israel,
As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many among them shall stumble;
They shall fall and be broken,
Be snared and taken.”
16 Bind up the testimony,
Seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait on the LORD,
Who hides His face from the house of Jacob;
And I will hope in Him.
18 Here am I and the children whom the LORD has given me!
We are for signs and wonders in Israel
From the LORD of hosts,
Who dwells in Mount Zion.
19 ¶ And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?
20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
21 ¶ They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
22 Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.
These are encouragement verses from God for Isaiah to remain firm. First of all, Isaiah, don't listen to the wicked people surrounding you and don't be alarmed by their talk. Notice verse 13, "The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread." That's good advice - then and now. The people around you will listen to everyone but God, including wizards and sorcerers (verse 19). But here's the solid word from God to Isaiah in verse 20, "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." When big trouble comes, those people will be all out of legitimate answers (verses 21-22).
Isaiah uses an interesting phrase here which gets frequently quoted by many later on; notice verse 14, "He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Isaiah goes on to say in verse 15, "And many among them shall stumble; They shall fall and be broken, Be snared and taken." This becomes an oft-repeated phrase in reference to the rejection of Christ, quoted numerous times in the New Testament. Isaiah also makes reference to this in Isaiah 28:16 (see notes). The cornerstone of verse 16 here is the Messiah as Isaiah proclaims, "He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." We first saw this reference back in Psalm 118:22 (see notes), "The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone." This verse is also used by Jesus himself in a parable to the Jewish leaders regarding his imminent crucifixion in Matthew 21:42/Mark 12:10/Luke 20:17 (see notes). Later in the New Testament we then see Jesus as the cornerstone in Acts 4:11 (see notes), Romans 9:33 (see notes) and I Peter 2:6 (see notes). All of the New Testament usages are based upon these Old Testament scriptures.