Discovery BoxIsaiah 5:8-10
Context5:8 Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, 1
those who also accumulate landed property 2
until there is no land left, 3
and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. 4
5:9 The Lord who commands armies told me this: 5
“Many houses will certainly become desolate,
large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. 6
5:10 Indeed, a large vineyard 7 will produce just a few gallons, 8
and enough seed to yield several bushels 9 will produce less than a bushel.” 10
[5:8] 1 tn Heb “Woe [to] those who make a house touch a house.” The exclamation הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death.
[5:8] 2 tn Heb “[who] bring a field near a field.”
[5:8] 3 tn Heb “until the end of the place”; NASB “until there is no more room.”
[5:8] 4 tn Heb “and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.”
[5:9] 5 tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”
[5:9] 6 tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”
[5:10] 7 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] 8 tn Heb “one bath.” A bath was a liquid measure. Estimates of its modern equivalent range from approximately six to twelve gallons.
[5:10] 9 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] 10 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.
