tribe, and their capital city of Jerusalem. The majority of the ‘house of Israel’ went north after their captivity by Assyria and never returned to the Holy land. They continued north, over the Caucasus Mountains, becoming known as ‘Caucasians’, settling mostly in Western Europe and Asia Minor. These two ‘houses’ are still split today. But not the entire ‘house of Judah’ even returned to Jerusalem, as written in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, after their 70 year captivity from Babylon. Most people think that the modern nation of Israel is made up of all twelve tribes. This is not true, for God said that He would multiply Abraham’s "...seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the sea shore..." (Gen. 22:17). Common sense tells us that the modern nation of Israel is not that big, so, where’s the rest? All one has to do is look at the Christian nations and reason a little, and of course, read the Word which informs man on all Truth.

Isa 5:8   Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

      We’re now going to see some of the conditions produced by this sad state of rebelling against God, for these ‘Woes’ are curses. It doesn’t take much to see all the poverty and crime, and lack of the presence of God in our major cities. Even when we drive away from the city, much of the crime is lessened as we travel further out of the city. When people build houses so close together that they no longer have the chance to experience the good of the land, and that peace that comes from breathing the fresh air of the country, hearing the sounds of birds and smelling the nectar of the flowers, then many evil things that Satan loves comes forth in that big city. I don’t have to tell you about what goes on in cities; you see the differing amounts of the evil in degrees, accordingly as the city starts out small, and grows larger and larger, until the inner parts become virtual dumps. Do you remember who built the first city? It was the offspring of Cain, the city of Enoch (Gen.4:17). The ground was cursed for Cain, not bearing its yield, so he couldn’t survive in farming. He had to resort to other devices to survive, and building cities was the result (have you looked up the meaning of Kenite yet?).(Son’s of Cain)

Isa 5:9    "In Mine ears" said the LORD of hosts, "Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.

      These ‘woes’ make it difficult for even those who would follow God. Offering my opinion, when I have travelled into many cities, being from a rural area, many places and people were so much into ‘fads’, that I kind of stuck out like a sore thumb amongst them, and I was looked down upon as being ‘out of fashion’, not knowing the latest ‘slang’, etc., mainly because I had to ask a lot of questions as to what those things meant. And many of those were absolutely blind to any real truth other than how to get money and survive on the street. Living the moment, that’s what many of them were doing. "How bored you must be, we have everything here in the city," they would say. Well, God is saying here in Isaiah that their ‘houses’ are full of ‘nothings’, if they don’t follow Him, even great and beautiful houses, built ‘house upon house’. I’m not striking out against city people, necessarily, but you tell me. Isn’t there more distractions and overcrowded populations, crime, and the like? Can you imagine growing up poor in a large city and never having seen a pasture of cows or a well planted field, or deer grazing out in the open?

Isa 5:10   Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.

     A ‘bath’ here, is about 6 English gallons. A ‘homer’ is about 8 bushels, and an ‘ephah’ is around 3 pecks. For ten acres, that isn’t much friend. Remember the curse of the ground to Cain? That’s what I could produce on one acre, so 1/10^th is all they produce for ten acres.

Isa 5:11   Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!