Woes and Judgments

       Woe to you who add house to house
          and join field to field
       till no space is left
          and you live alone in the land.

       THE LORD ALMIGHTY has declared in my hearing:

       "Surely the great houses will become desolate,
          the fine mansions left without occupants.
       A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine,
          a homer of seed only an ephah of grain."

       Woe to those who rise early in the morning
          to run after their drinks,
       who stay up late at night
          till they are inflamed with wine.
       They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
          tambourines and flutes and wine,
       but they have no regard for the deeds of THE LORD,
          no respect for the work of HIS hands.
       Therefore my people will go into exile
          for lack of understanding;
       their men of rank will die of hunger
          and their masses will be parched with thirst.
       Therefore the grave enlarges its appetite
          and opens its mouth without limit;
       into it will descend their nobles and masses
          with all their brawlers and revelers.
       So man will be brought low
          and mankind humbled,
          the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
       But THE LORD ALMIGHTY will be exalted by HIS justice,
          and THE HOLY GOD will show HIMSELF holy by HIS righteousness.
       Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;
          lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.

       Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
          and wickedness as with cart ropes,
       to those who say, "Let GOD hurry,
          let HIM hasten HIS work
          so we may see it.
       Let it approach,
          let the plan of THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL come,
          so we may know it."

       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.

       Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
          and clever in their own sight.

       Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
          and champions at mixing drinks,
       who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
          but deny justice to the innocent.
       Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
          and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
       so their roots will decay
          and their flowers blow away like dust;
       for they have rejected the law of THE LORD ALMIGHTY
          and spurned the word of THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL.
       Therefore THE LORD'S anger burns against HIS people;
          HIS hand is raised and HE strikes them down.
       The mountains shake,
          and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.
       Yet for all this, HIS anger is not turned away,
          HIS hand is still upraised.

       HE lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
          HE whistles for those at the ends of the earth.
       Here they come,
          swiftly and speedily!
       Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,
          not one slumbers or sleeps;
       not a belt is loosened at the waist,
          not a sandal thong is broken.
       Their arrows are sharp,
          all their bows are strung;
       their horses' hoofs seem like flint,
          their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
       Their roar is like that of the lion,
          they roar like young lions;
       they growl as they seize their prey
          and carry it off with no one to rescue.
       In that day they will roar over it
          like the roaring of the sea.
       And if one looks at the land,
          he will see darkness and distress;
          even the light will be darkened by the clouds.


The Book of Isaiah: chapter 5, verses 8 - 30