Yesaya 5:8-9

Disaster is Coming

5:8 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 

Yesaya 65:21-22

65:21 They will build houses and live in them;

they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

65:22 No longer will they build a house only to have another live in it, ⁷ 

or plant a vineyard only to have another eat its fruit, ⁸ 

for my people will live as long as trees, ⁹ 

and my chosen ones will enjoy to the fullest what they have produced. 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]  sn This verse does not condemn real estate endeavors per se, but refers to the way in which the rich bureaucrats of Judah accumulated property by exploiting the poor, in violation of the covenantal principle that the land belonged to God and that every family was to have its own portion of land. See the note at 1:23.

[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.”

[65:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “they will not build, and another live [in it].”

[65:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “they will not plant, and another eat.”

[65:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “for like the days of the tree [will be] the days of my people.”

[65:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the work of their hands” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “their hard-won gains.”