Isaiah 5


Isaiah 5 is the fifth chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets.

Text

The original text was written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 30 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, Codex Leningradensis.
Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls :
  • 1QIsaa: complete
  • 4QIsab : extant: verses 15–28
  • 4QIsaf : extant: verses 13–14, 25
  • 4QIsap : extant: verses 28-30
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus.

Parashot

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex. Isaiah 5 is a part of the Prophecies about Judah and Israel . : open parashah; : closed parashah.

Parable of the vineyard (5:1–7)

In relation to the "Parable of the Vineyard", the New Oxford Annotated Bible identifies the vineyard in as "Israel".
The "choicest vine" is an allusion of the people of Israel.
The failing grapes are described as "wild" in the King James Version and the English Standard Version, "rotten" in the New American Bible and "sour" in the Good News Translation. In Brenton's Septuagint Translation, the vineyard "brought forth thorns".

The six woes (5:8–23)

Verses 8 to 24 contain "the six woes". Anglican theologian Edward Plumptre suggests that the form of the woes preached by Jesus in is based on this passage. After the general warning conveyed to Israel by the parable of the vineyard, "six sins are particularised as those which have especially provoked God to give the warning".
The six woes of Isaiah relate to those responsible for:
  • Amalgamation of land
  • Drunkenness and revelry
  • Compound sinfulness, or "sin with a cart rope"
  • Use of language to justify evil
  • Self-conceit
  • Corruption associated with intoxication, cf. :

    Verse 8

The law of Israel provided "very stringently and carefully, that as far as possible there should be an equal distribution of the soil, and that hereditary family property should be inalienable. All landed property that had been alienated reverted to the family every fiftieth year, or year of jubilee; so that alienation simply had reference to the usufruct of the land till that time."
Micah 2:2 and the Jerusalem Bible's translation of make similar points:

Verse 20

"This fourth woe relates to those who adopted a code of morals that completely overturned the first principles of ethics, and was utterly opposed to the law of God."

Verse 21

See also :

Foreign nations will attack (5:24–30)

Verse 25

This is the first occurrence of a refrain which appears again in Isaiah 9:12, 9:17, 9:21 and 10:4.

Jewish

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