Daily Text and Bible Reading: Friday, August 1 [Press play below]

5.1 Let me sing, please, to my beloved A song about my loved one and his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fruitful hillside.
5.2 He dug it up and rid it of stones. He planted it with a choice red vine, Built a tower in the middle of it, And hewed out a winepress in it. Then he kept hoping for it to produce grapes, But it produced only wild grapes.
5.3 “And now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Please judge between me and my vineyard.
5.4 What more could I have done for my vineyard That I have not already done? Why, when I hoped for grapes, Did it produce only wild grapes?
5.5 Now, please, let me tell you What I will do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, And it will be burned down. I will break down its stone wall, And it will be trampled on.
5.6 I will make it a wasteland; It will not be pruned or hoed. It will be overgrown with thornbushes and weeds, And I will command the clouds not to send any rain on it.
5.7 For the vineyard of Jehovah of armies is the house of Israel; The men of Judah are the plantation he was fond of. He kept hoping for justice, But look! there was injustice; For righteousness, But look! a cry of distress.”
5.8 Woe to those who join one house to another house And who annex one field to another field Until there is no more room And you live by yourselves on the land!
5.9 Jehovah of armies has sworn in my ears That many houses, though great and beautiful, Will become an object of horror, Without an inhabitant.
5.10 For ten acres of vineyard will produce but one bath measure, And a homer measure of seed will produce only an ephah.
5.11 Woe to those who get up early in the morning to drink alcohol, Who linger late into the evening darkness until wine inflames them!
5.12 They have harp and stringed instrument, Tambourine, flute, and wine at their feasts; But they do not consider the activity of Jehovah, And they do not see the work of his hands.
5.13 So my people will go into exile For lack of knowledge; Their glorious men will go hungry, And all their people will be parched with thirst.
5.14 So the Grave has enlarged itself And has opened its mouth wide without limit; And her splendor, her noisy multitudes, and her revelers Will certainly go down into it.
5.15 And man will bow down, Man will be brought low, And the eyes of the haughty will be brought low.
5.16 Jehovah of armies will be exalted by his judgment; The true God, the Holy One, will sanctify himself through righteousness.
5.17 And the lambs will graze as in their pasture; Foreign residents will feed on the desolate places of well-fed animals.
5.18 Woe to those who drag along their guilt with ropes of deception And their sin with wagon cords;
5.19 Those who say: “Let Him speed up his work; Let it come quickly that we may see it. Let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel take place That we may know it!”
5.20 Woe to those who say that good is bad and bad is good, Those who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, Those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
5.21 Woe to those wise in their own eyes And discreet in their own sight!
5.22 Woe to those who are mighty in drinking wine And to the men who are masters at mixing alcoholic drinks,
5.23 Those who acquit the wicked for a bribe And who deny justice to the righteous!
5.24 Therefore, just as the tongue of fire consumes the stubble And dry grass shrivels in the flames, Their very roots will rot, And their blossoms will scatter like powder, Because they rejected the law of Jehovah of armies And disrespected the word of the Holy One of Israel.
5.25 That is why the anger of Jehovah burns against his people, And he will stretch out his hand against them and strike them. The mountains will quake, And their corpses will be like refuse in the streets. In view of all this, his anger has not turned back, But his hand is still stretched out to strike.
5.26 He has raised up a signal to a distant nation; He has whistled for them to come from the ends of the earth; And look! they are coming very swiftly.
5.27 None among them are tired or stumbling. No one is drowsy or sleeps. The belt around their waist is not loosened, Nor are their sandal laces broken.
5.28 All their arrows are sharp, And all their bows are bent. The hooves of their horses are like flint, And their wheels like a storm wind.
5.29 Their roaring is like that of a lion; They roar like young lions. They will growl and seize the prey And carry it off with no one to rescue it.
5.30 In that day they will growl over it Like the growling of the sea. Anyone who gazes at the land will see distressing darkness; Even the light has grown dark because of the clouds.
Chapter 6
6.1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw Jehovah sitting on a lofty and elevated throne, and the skirts of his robe filled the temple.
6.2 Seraphs were standing above him; each had six wings. Each covered his face with two and covered his feet with two, and each of them would fly about with two.
6.3 And one called to the other: “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of armies. The whole earth is filled with his glory.”
6.4 And the pivots of the thresholds quivered at the sound of the shouting, and the house was filled with smoke.
6.5 Then I said: “Woe to me! I am as good as dead, For I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of armies himself!”
6.6 At that, one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
6.7 He touched my mouth and said: “Look! This has touched your lips. Your guilt is removed, And your sin is atoned for.”
6.8 Then I heard the voice of Jehovah saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said: “Here I am! Send me!”
6.9 And he replied, “Go, and say to this people: ‘You will hear again and again, But you will not understand; You will see again and again, But you will not get any knowledge.’
6.10 Make the heart of this people unreceptive, Make their ears unresponsive, And paste their eyes together, So that they may not see with their eyes And hear with their ears, So that their heart may not understand And they may not turn back and be healed.”
6.11 At this I said: “How long, O Jehovah?” Then he said: “Until the cities crash in ruins without an inhabitant And the houses are without people And the land is ruined and desolate;
6.12 Until Jehovah removes men far away And the deserted condition of the land becomes very extensive.
6.13 “But there will still be a tenth in it, and it will again be burned, like a big tree and like an oak, which after they are cut down leave a stump; a holy seed will be its stump.”
Chapter 7
7.1 Now in the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to wage war against Jerusalem, but he could not capture it.
7.2 A report was made to the house of David: “Syria has joined forces with Ephraim.” And the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people began to tremble, like the trees of the forest shaking in the wind.
7.3 Jehovah then said to Isaiah: “Go out, please, to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool by the highway of the laundryman’s field.
7.4 You must say to him, ‘Take care to stay calm. Do not be afraid, and do not lose heart because of these two stumps of smoldering logs, because of the hot anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.
7.5 For Syria with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah have plotted harm against you, saying:
7.6 “Let us go up against Judah and tear it apart and conquer it for ourselves, and let us appoint the son of Tabeel as its king.”
7.7 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: “It will not succeed, Nor will it take place.
7.8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, And the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within just 65 years Ephraim will be completely shattered and cease to be a people.
7.9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, And the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. Unless you have firm faith, You will not be firmly established.”’”
7.10 Jehovah continued speaking to Ahaz:
7.11 “Ask for a sign from Jehovah your God; it may be as deep as the Grave or as high as the sky.”
7.12 But Ahaz said: “I will not ask, nor will I put Jehovah to the test.”
7.13 Isaiah then said: “Listen, please, O house of David. Is it not enough that you try the patience of men? Must you also try the patience of God?
7.14 Therefore, Jehovah himself will give you a sign: Look! The young woman will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel.
7.15 He will eat butter and honey by the time that he knows how to reject the bad and choose the good.
7.16 For before the boy knows how to reject the bad and choose the good, the land of the two kings whom you dread will be completely abandoned.
7.17 Jehovah will bring against you and against your people and against the house of your father a time such as has not come since the day Ephraim broke away from Judah, for He will bring the king of Assyria.
7.18 “In that day Jehovah will whistle for the flies from the distant streams of the Nile of Egypt and for the bees in the land of Assyria,
7.19 and they will all come and settle down on the steep valleys, on the rocky clefts, on all the thornbushes, and on all the watering places.
7.20 “In that day by means of a hired razor from the region of the River, by means of the king of Assyria, Jehovah will shave the head and the hair of the legs, and it will sweep away the beard as well.
7.21 “In that day a man will keep alive a young cow of the herd and two sheep.
7.22 And because of the abundance of milk, he will eat butter, for everyone remaining in the land will eat butter and honey.
7.23 “In that day wherever there used to be 1,000 vines worth 1,000 pieces of silver, there will be only thornbushes and weeds.
7.24 Men will go there with bow and arrow, because all the land will become thornbushes and weeds.
7.25 And all the mountains that used to be cleared with a hoe, you will not go near for fear of thornbushes and weeds; they will become a grazing place for bulls and a trampling ground of sheep.”