1 Now I will sing to my Beloved a song of my Beloved concerning His vineyard. My Beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
2 And He fenced it, and cleared out its stones, and planted it with choice vines, and built a tower in its midst, and hewed out a winepress in it; and He looked for it to produce grapes, but it produced rotten grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, 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 then, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield rotten grapes?
5 And now I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard; I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down;
6 and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor dug; but briers and thorns shall come up. And I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of Jehovah of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold an outcry!
8 Woe to those who join house to house, laying field to field, until there is no more space for you to dwell alone in the midst of the earth!
9 Jehovah of Hosts said in my ears, Truly many big and pleasant houses shall be laid waste, without inhabitant.
10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah.
11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning to pursue strong drink; remaining until the evening while wine inflames them!
12 And the lute, and the harp, the tambourine, and pipe, and wine, are at their feasts; but they do not regard the work of Jehovah, neither do they give attention to the work of His hands.
13 For this My people have gone into captivity without knowledge, and their honorable men into famine, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their tumult, and he who exults, shall go down into it.
15 And people are prostrated, and great men are brought low and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
16 But Jehovah of Hosts is exalted in justice, and the Mighty God, the Holy One, is sanctified in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs feed in their pastures, and the waste places of the fat ones shall sojourners eat.
18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin with cart ropes;
19 who say, Let Him hurry and hasten His work, so that we may see it; and let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, so 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 understanding in their own sight!
22 Woe to those mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mix strong drink;
23 who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away justice from the righteous!
24 Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root shall be like rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up like dust, because they have cast away the Law of Jehovah of Hosts, and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of Jehovah is kindled against His people, and He has stretched out His hand against them, and has stricken them; and the hills trembled, and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. In all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.
26 And He will lift up a banner to distant nations, and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth; and behold, they shall come with speed, swiftly.
27 No one shall be weary nor stumble among them; no one shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the waistband of their loins be loosened, nor the thong of their sandals be broken;
28 whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses hooves seem like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roaring shall be like a lion; they shall roar like young lions; and they shall roar and lay hold of the prey, and carry it away safe, and no one shall deliver it.
30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea; and if one looks to the land, behold darkness and distress; and the light is darkened by clouds.