1Please let me sing to the One I love, a song for my loved One regarding His vineyard: my loved One has a vineyard on a fertile hill.

2And He dug it up and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a watchtower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it. And He waited for the yielding of grapes, but it yielded rotten ones.

3“And now, O inhabitant of Yerushalayim and man of Yehuḏah, please judge between Me and My vineyard.

4“What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I waited for the yielding of grapes, did it yield rotten ones?

5“And now, please let Me inform you what I am doing to My vineyard: To take away its hedge and it shall be burned; to break down its wall and it shall be trampled down;

6and I lay it waste; it is not pruned or dug and thornbushes and weeds shall come up; and I command the clouds not to rain on it.”

7For the vineyard of יהוה of hosts is the house of Yisra’ĕl, and the man of Yehuḏah is His pleasant plant. He looked for right-ruling, but see, oppression; for righteousness, but see, weeping.

8Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!

9In my hearing יהוה of hosts said, “Truly, many houses shall be a waste – big and fine ones, without inhabitant.

10“For ten acres of vineyard yield one bath, and a ḥomer of seed yields one ĕphah.”

11Woe to those who rise early in the morning pursuing strong drink, who stay up late at night – wine inflames them!

12And the lyre and the harp, the tambourine and flute, and wine are in their feasts; but they do not regard the deeds of יהוה, nor see the work of His hands.

13Therefore my people have gone into exile, because they have no knowledge. And their esteemed men are starved, and their crowd dried up with thirst.

14Therefore the grave has made itself wide and opened its mouth beyond measure. Their splendour and their crowd and their uproar, and he who is exulting within her, shall go down into it.

15And man is bowed down, and mortal man humbled, and the eyes of the proud are humbled.

16But יהוה of hosts is exalted in judgment, and the set-apart Ěl is set-apart in righteousness.

17And the lambs shall feed in their pasture, and strangers shall eat in the waste places of the fat ones.

18Woe to those who draw crookedness with cords of falsehood, and sin as with wagon ropes,

19who are saying, “Let Him hurry! Let Him hasten His work, so that we see it! And let the counsel of the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl draw near and come, so that we know.”

20Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyesa, and clever in their own sight!

22Woe to the mighty to drink wine, and brave men to mix strong drink,

23who declare right the wrong for a bribe, and the righteousness of the righteous they turn aside from him!

24Therefore, as a tongue of fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, their root is as rottenness, and their blossom goes up like dust – because they have rejected the Torah of יהוה of hosts, and despised the Worda of the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

25Therefore the displeasure of יהוה has burned against His people, and He stretches out His hand against them and smites them, and the mountains tremble. And their carcass is as filth in the middle of the streets. With all this His displeasure has not turned back, and His hand is still stretched out!

26And He shall lift up a banner to the nations from afar, and shall whistle to them from the end of the earth. And see, they come with speed, swiftly!

27Not one of them is weary or stumbling, not one slumbers or sleeps. Not a belt shall be loosened on their loins, nor the thong of their sandals be broken.

28Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses’ hooves shall seem like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.

29Their roar is like that of a lion, they roar like young lions. And they growl and seize prey, and slip away, with no one to rescue.

30And in that day they shall growl over it as with the growling of the sea. And one shall look at the earth, and see, darkness and distress! And light shall be darkened by the clouds.