The Tanach, with the evidence built in
This is the complete Hebrew Bible in the Jewish Publication Society translation. Wherever a real archaeological find bears on the text, those words are underlined in gold✦. Hover over them or tap them to see the artifact and what it confirms. From there, Next find takes you to the next underline, so you can tour a whole book’s evidence, and the share button turns the verse into an image.
Each chapter lists its finds under its title, and the chapter picker shows how many finds every book and chapter has. The AA button sets the text size, light or dark, and English, Hebrew, or the two together.
Chapter 5
1Let me sing for my belovedA song of my lover about his vineyard.My beloved had a vineyardOn a fruitful hill.
2He broke the ground, cleared it of stones,And planted it with choice vines.He built a watchtower inside it,He even hewed a wine press in it;For he hoped it would yield grapes.Instead, it yielded wild grapes.
3“Now, then,Dwellers of JerusalemAnd men of Judah,You be the judgesBetween Me and My vineyard:
4What more could have been done for My vineyardThat I failed to do in it?Why, when I hoped it would yield grapes,Did it yield wild grapes?
5“Now I am going to tell youWhat I will do to My vineyard:I will remove its hedge,That it may be ravaged;I will break down its wall,That it may be trampled.
6And I will make it a desolation;It shall not be pruned or hoed,And it shall be overgrown with briers and thistles.And I will command the cloudsTo drop no rain on it.”
7For the vineyard of the LORD of HostsIs the House of Israel,And the seedlings he lovingly tendedAre the men of Judah.And He hoped for justice,But behold, injustice;For equity,But behold, iniquity!
8Ah,Those who add house to houseAnd join field to field,Till there is room for none but youTo dwell in the land!
9In my hearing [said] the LORD of Hosts:Surely, great housesShall lie forlorn,Spacious and splendid onesWithout occupants.
10For ten acres of vineyardShall yield just one bath,And a field sown with a ḥomer of seedShall yield a mere ephah.
11Ah,Those who chase liquorFrom early in the morning,And till late in the eveningAre inflamed by wine!
12Who, at their banquets,Have lyre and lute,Timbrel, flute, and wine;But who never give a thoughtTo the plan of the LORD,And take no noteOf what He is designing.
13Assuredly,My people will suffer exileFor not giving heed,Its multitude victims of hungerAnd its masses parched with thirst.
14Assuredly,Sheol has opened wide its gulletAnd parted its jaws in a measureless gape;And down into it shall go,That splendor and tumult,That din and revelry.
15Yea, man is bowed,And mortal brought low;Brought low is the pride of the haughty.
16And the LORD of Hosts is exalted by judgment,The Holy God proved holy by retribution.
17Then lambs shall grazeAs in their meadows,And strangers shall feedOn the ruins of the stout.
18Ah,Those who haul sin with cords of falsehoodAnd iniquity as with cart ropes!
19Who say,“Let Him speed, let Him hasten His purpose,If we are to give thought;Let the plans of the Holy One of IsraelBe quickly fulfilled,If we are to give heed.”
20Ah,Those who call evil goodAnd good evil;Who present darkness as lightAnd light as darkness;Who present bitter as sweetAnd sweet as bitter!
21Ah,Those who are so wise—In their own opinion;So clever—In their own judgment!
22Ah,Those who are so doughty—As drinkers of wine,And so valiant—As mixers of drink!
23Who vindicate him who is in the wrongIn return for a bribe,And withhold vindicationFrom him who is in the right.
24Assuredly,As straw is consumed by a tongue of fireAnd hay shrivels as it burns,Their stock shall become like rot,And their buds shall blow away like dust.For they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts,Spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25That is whyThe LORD’s anger was rousedAgainst His people,Why He stretched out His arm against itAnd struck it,So that the mountains quaked,And its corpses layLike refuse in the streets.Yet His anger has not turned back,And His arm is outstretched still.
26He will raise an ensign to a nation afar,Whistle to one at the end of the earth.There it comes with lightning speed!
27In its ranks, none is weary or stumbles,They never sleep or slumber;The belts on their waists do not come loose,Nor do the thongs of their sandals break.
28Their arrows are sharpened,And all their bows are drawn.Their horses’ hoofs are like flint,Their chariot wheels like the whirlwind.
29Their roaring is like a lion’s,They roar like the great beasts;When they growl and seize a prey,They carry it off and none can recover it.
30But in that day, a roaring shall resound over him like that of the sea; and then he shall look below and, behold,Distressing darkness, with light;Darkness, in its lowering clouds.
Translation: Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (Jewish Publication Society, 1985), via Sefaria, used under CC BY-NC.
Paragraph divisions follow the Masoretic text (Miqra according to the Masorah, CC BY-SA).