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My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with the finest vines.
He built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and cut out a winepress there.
So He expected it to yield good grapes,
but it only yielded wild grapes.
3 “So now, O people of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge between Me and My vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for My vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I expected it to yield good grapes,
why did it only bring forth wild grapes?
5 “So now I will tell you
what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be consumed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled upon.
6 I will make it a wasteland;
it will not be pruned or cultivated;
and briars and thorns will grow there.
I will also command the clouds
that rain should not fall on it.”
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are His pleasant garden.
He looked for justice,
but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but heard cries of distress.
8 Woe to those who add house to house;
and join field to field,
until there is no more room,
and you alone are left in the land!
9 The Lord of Hosts has declared in my hearing:
“In truth, many houses will become desolate,
large and beautiful houses without inhabitants.
10 For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine,
and a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning
to pursue strong drink;
who tarry long into the evening
to be inflamed by wine.
12 At their feasts they have the lyre and the harp,
the tambourine and the flute and wine,
but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,
and they do not see the work of His hands!
13 Therefore My people go into exile
for lack of knowledge;
their dignitaries will perish from hunger,
and their masses will be parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol enlarges its appetite,
and opens its mouth wide;
from Zion will descend her nobles and her masses,
her throngs, her brawlers, and her revellers.
15 People are humiliated, and man is humbled,
and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
16 But the Lord of Hosts is exalted by His justice,
and the holy God is distinguished by His righteousness.
17 Then lambs will graze in their own pastures,
and strangers will eat among the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who drag along iniquity by cords of falsehood,
and drag sin along as with cart ropes;
19 who say, “Let God make haste, and do His work quickly,
that we may see it;
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfilment,
that we may know it.”
20 Woe 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!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and clever in their own sight.
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and champions at mixing strong drink,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice to the innocent.
24 Therefore, as tongues of fire consume straw,
and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so their roots will be rotten,
and their blossom will blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the Lord of Hosts,
and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord burns against His people;
He stretches out His hand against them and strikes them down.
The mountains quake,
and their carcasses are like refuse in the streets.
Yet for all this, His anger is not turned away,
and His hand is still stretched out.
26 He will raise up a banner for a nation far away,
and whistle to them from the ends of the earth.
See how quickly
and swiftly they come!
27 None of them grows weary or stumbles;
no one slumbers or sleeps,
no belt is loose on their loins,
and no strap on their sandals is broken.
28 Their arrows are all sharpened,
all of their bows are bent.
Their horses’ hooves seem like flint,
and their wheels like the whirlwind.
29 Their roaring is like a lion,
like a young lion they roar;
they growl as they seize their prey,
they carry it off, and no one can rescue.
30 On that day they will roar over it.
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks at the land,
he will see only darkness and distress;
even the light will be darkened by the clouds.