Isaiah 5:17

Lambs ¹  will graze as if in their pastures, amid the ruins the rich sojourners will graze. ² 

Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.

Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.

In those days flocks will feed among the ruins; lambs and kids will pasture there.

And lambs will graze as if they owned the place, Kids and calves right at home in the ruins.

Then the lambs will get food as in their grass-lands, and the fat cattle will be feasting in the waste places.

Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture, fatlings and kids shall feed among the ruins.

Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture, And in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat.

Lambs ¹  will graze as if in their pastures, amid the ruins the rich sojourners will graze. ² 

¹ tn Or “young rams”; NIV, NCV “sheep”; NLT “flocks.”

² tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and ruins, fatlings, resident aliens, will eat.” This part of the verse has occasioned various suggestions of emendation. The parallelism is tighter if the second line refers to animals grazing. The translation, “amid the ruins the fatlings and young sheep graze,” assumes an emendation of “resident aliens” (גָּרִים, garim) to “young goats/sheep” (גְּדַיִם, gÿdayim) – confusion of dalet and resh is quite common – and understands “fatlings” and “young sheep” taken as a compound subject or as in apposition as the subject of the verb. However, no emendations are necessary if the above translation is correct. The meaning of מֵחִים (mekhim) has a significant impact on one’s textual decision and translation. The noun can refer to a sacrificial (“fat”) animal as it does in its only other occurrence (Ps 66:15). However, it could signify the rich of the earth (“the fat ones of the earth”; Ps 22:29 [MT 30]) using a different word for “fatness” (דָּשֶׁן, dashen). If so, it serves a figurative reference to the rich. Consequently, the above translation coheres with the first half of the verse. Just as the sheep are out of place grazing in these places (“as in their pasture”), the sojourners would not have expected to have the chance to eat in these locations. Both animals and itinerant foreigners would eat in places not normal for them.

sn The image completes the picture begun in v. 14 and adds to the irony. When judgment comes, Sheol will eat up the sinners who frequent the feasts; then the banqueting halls will lie in ruins and only sheep will eat there.