For ten acres of vineyard will yield but a bath of wine, and a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.”
Parallel translations
- WEB For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.”
- KJV Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
- NKJV For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, And a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.”
- NASB “For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine, And a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain.”
- NLT Ten acres of vineyard will not produce even six gallons of wine. Ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket of grain.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The land itself will fail, yielding only a fraction of what was planted. It pictures economic ruin as the fruit of injustice and greed.
Overview
A 'bath' from ten acres and an 'ephah' from a homer of seed represent crushing losses, far less harvested than was sown. The barrenness of the land mirrors the spiritual barrenness of the people. This judgment overturns the prosperity the greedy sought, showing that God can reverse a nation's blessing when it turns from Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Lev 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.
- Hag 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 a bag pierced through.”
- Hag 2:16from 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.
- Hag 1:9–11You 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 is busy with his own house.
- Joel 1:17The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away.
- Lev 27:16If a man consecrates to the LORD a parcel of his land, then your valuation shall be proportional to the seed required for it—fifty shekels of silver for every homer of barley seed.
- Ezek 45:10–11You must use honest scales, a just ephah, and a just bath.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 5:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.