Discovery BoxIsaiah 5:9-10 
Context5:9 The Lord who commands armies told me this: 1
“Many houses will certainly become desolate,
large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. 2
5:10 Indeed, a large vineyard 3 will produce just a few gallons, 4
and enough seed to yield several bushels 5 will produce less than a bushel.” 6
1 tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”
2 tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”
3 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.
4 tn Heb “one bath.” A bath was a liquid measure. Estimates of its modern equivalent range from approximately six to twelve gallons.
5 tn Heb “a homer.” A homer was a dry measure, the exact size of which is debated. Cf. NCV “ten bushels”; CEV “five bushels.”
6 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.
