Song of the Vineyard

1Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill:

2And he dug it, and gathered out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress in it: and he expected that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

3And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.

4What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? why, when I expected that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes?

5And now; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down:

6And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor dug; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

Woes Coming

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

9In my hearing said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.

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

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

12And the harp, and the lyre, the timbrel, and flute, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.

13Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

14Therefore sheol has enlarged itself, and opened its mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that exults, shall descend into it.

15And man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:

16But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in justice, and God who is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

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

18Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:

19That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!

20Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

21Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

22Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mix strong drink:

23Who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the justice of the righteous from him!

24Therefore as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he has stretched forth his hand against them, and has stricken them: and the hills did tremble, and their dead bodies were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

26And he will lift up a banner to the nations from afar, and will whistle unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed, swiftly:

27None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the belt on their waist be loosed, nor the strap of their shoes be broken:

28Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.

29Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safely, and none shall deliver it.

30And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one looks unto the land, behold, darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in its heavens.