Isaiah 5:10
in Isaiah 5For ten acres of vineyard will yield but a bath of wine, and a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.
KJV
Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
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This verse in Isaiah 5
Commentary
10 notes on this verse(Verse 10.) For they will make one small jar from ten acres of vineyards, and they will make three bushels from thirty bushels of seed. For the small jar, which only the seventy translated, all others have interpreted as a bat, which is said in Hebrew Beth (). And for the thirty bushels, which we have called a cor, which in Hebrew is called Omer (), the seventy translated as six artabas: which is an Egyptian measure and makes twenty bushels.
This site's exposition
join house to house
on Isaiah 5:8-10
The first woe names a specific sin of the wealthy, buying up field after field and house after house until a family owns a district and lives on it alone, which the older commentators read against the land laws that kept ancestral plots inside a family. The Lord of hosts answers in the prophet's own hearing rather than through a vision, a form the bench notes as unusual weight: many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. Verse ten measures the judgment in the currency the sin was committed in, ten acres of vineyard yielding one bath and a homer of seed yielding only an ephah, roughly a tenth of what was sown, the land itself turning against the men who consolidated it.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
There are many instances in which the land suffers because of people's sins. Why are you surprised if the people's sin makes the land infertile and unfruitful when we caused it to be corrupt in the first place (and will again make it incorruptible)?… See Noah, for example. When humanity had become utterly perverse, turmoil ensued everywhere. Everything—the seed, the plants, all types of animals, the land, the sea, the air, the mountains, the valleys, the hills, the cities, the ramparts, the houses and the towers—everything was covered by the flood. When the time came for humanity to be replenished, the land was restored to the order and beauty it had before. It is clear that the land was restored in part as an honor to humanity.
The Medieval Church1 voice
175. Second, as to the barrenness of the vineyard, he says: for ten jugera (a jugerum is 120 feet in length) of vineyard shall yield one little measure. Another reading has one bath, which is the same volume in liquids as an ephah is in …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,.... They shall get nothing by laying field to field, for their fields shall be barren and unfruitful; though Jarchi and Kimchi take this to be a reason why their houses should be desolate, and without inhabitants, because there would be a famine, rendering the words, "for ten acres", &c.
The bath contained about eight gallons. Thus an acre did not yield one gallon. An ephah - Which was of the same quantity with the bath, only the bath was the measure of liquid things, the ephah of dry things; and a ephah was the tenth part of an homer.
), for the king himself is served of the field, Eccl. v. 9 . And when the vintage fails the drunkards are called upon to weep, because the new wine is cut off from their mouth ( Joel i.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Note, Those that set their hearts upon the world will justly be disappointed in their expectations from it. Here is a woe to those that dote upon the pleasures and delights of sense,
God created not the earth in vain; he formed it to be inhabited, ch. xlv. But men's projects are often frustrated, and what they frame answers not the intention. We have a saying, That fools build houses for wise men to live in; but sometimes, as the event proves, they are built for no man to live in.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Yea, ten acres - In this verse a reason is rendered why the houses mentioned in the previous verse should become desolate. The reason is, that the land would become sterile and barren, as a divine judgment for their oppression. To what particular time the prophet refers, here, is not apparent. It is certain, however, that the land of Canaan was frequently given up to sterility. The withholding of the early and latter rains, or the neglect of cultivation from any cause, would produce this.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
For ten acres of vineyard And, because of the famine, the inhabitants of the house will be exiled, leaving no one dwelling in them.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Because of the sin of not giving tithes, the place of ten acres of vineyard shall produce one bath; and the place where a cor of seed was sown shall produce three measures.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֗י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| עֲשֶׂ֙רֶת֙ | ʾaseret | ten | H6235 → | 176 times |
| צִמְדֵּי־ | tzimdei- | acres of | H6776 → | 15 times |
| כֶ֔רֶם | kherem | vineyard | H3754 → | 92 times |
| יַעֲשׂ֖וּ | yaasu | they will produce | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| בַּ֣ת | bat | a bath | H1324 → | |
| אֶחָ֑ת | ʾechat | one | H259 → | 971 times |
| וְזֶ֥רַע | vezera' | and seed of | H2233 → | 229 times |
| חֹ֖מֶר | chomer | a homer | H2563 → | 31 times |
| יַעֲשֶׂ֥ה | yaaseh | it will produce | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| אֵיפָֽה׃ פ | ʾeifah | an ephah | H374 → |
כִּ֗יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
עֲשֶׂ֙רֶת֙ten
ʾaseretH6235 →176 times
צִמְדֵּי־acres of
tzimdei-H6776 →15 times
כֶ֔רֶםvineyard
kheremH3754 →92 times
יַעֲשׂ֖וּthey will produce
yaasuH6213 →2628 times
בַּ֣תa bath
batH1324 →
אֶחָ֑תone
ʾechatH259 →971 times
וְזֶ֥רַעand seed of
vezera'H2233 →229 times
חֹ֖מֶרa homer
chomerH2563 →31 times
יַעֲשֶׂ֥הit will produce
yaasehH6213 →2628 times
אֵיפָֽה׃ פan ephah
ʾeifahH374 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Haggai 1:6You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into…
it leads to
- Haggai 1:9
You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you…
- Hosea 4:10
They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have stopped obeying the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 28:38–40
You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.
- Malachi 3:9–11
You are cursed with a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing Me.
- Haggai 2:16
from that time, when one came expecting a heap of twenty ephahs of grain, there were but ten. When one came to the winepress to draw out fifty baths, there were but twenty.
- Haggai 1:9
Through
Leviticus 26:26When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.
it leads to
- Micah 6:14
You will eat but not be satisfied, and your hunger will remain with you. What you acquire, you will not preserve; and what you save, I will give to the sword.
- Psalms 105:16
He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food.
- Isaiah 3:1
For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water,
- Micah 6:14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Isaiah
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 5:4; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.