Isaiah 5:4-6

5:4 What more can I do for my vineyard

beyond what I have already done?

When I waited for it to produce edible grapes,

why did it produce sour ones instead?

5:5 Now I will inform you

what I am about to do to my vineyard:

I will remove its hedge and turn it into pasture, ¹ 

I will break its wall and allow animals to graze there. ² 

5:6 I will make it a wasteland;

no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, ³ 

and thorns and briers will grow there.

I will order the clouds

not to drop any rain on it.

Isaiah 5:10

5:10 Indeed, a large vineyard ⁴  will produce just a few gallons, ⁵ 

and enough seed to yield several bushels ⁶  will produce less than a bushel.” ⁷ 

[5:5]  ¹ tn Heb “and it will become [a place for] grazing.” בָּעַר (ba’ar, “grazing”) is a homonym of the more often used verb “to burn.”

[5:5]  ² tn Heb “and it will become a trampled place” (NASB “trampled ground”).

[5:6]  ³ tn Heb “it will not be pruned or hoed” (so NASB); ASV and NRSV both similar.

[5:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “a ten-yoke vineyard.” The Hebrew term צֶמֶד (tsemed, “yoke”) is here a unit of square measure. Apparently a ten-yoke vineyard covered the same amount of land it would take ten teams of oxen to plow in a certain period of time. The exact size is unknown.

[5:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “one bath.” A bath was a liquid measure. Estimates of its modern equivalent range from approximately six to twelve gallons.

[5:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “a homer.” A homer was a dry measure, the exact size of which is debated. Cf. NCV “ten bushels”; CEV “five bushels.”

[5:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “an ephah.” An ephah was a dry measure; there were ten ephahs in a homer. So this verse envisions major crop failure, where only one-tenth of the anticipated harvest is realized.