The Song of the Vineyard
1 Let me sing for my greatly beloved, a song of my beloved about his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fruitful hill.
2 He dug up its stones and cleared them away,
planted it with the choicest vine,
built a tower in the middle of it,
and also cut out a wine press in it.
He looked for it to yield good grapes,
but it yielded bitter grapes.
3 “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
I ask you to judge
between me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes,
did it yield wild grapes?
5 Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be eaten up.
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled down.
6 I will lay it a wasteland.
It will not be pruned or cultivated,
but it will grow briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain on it.”
7 For 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 there was oppression,
for righteousness,
but there was a cry of distress.
Woes to the Wicked
8 Woe to those who join house to house,
who lay field to field,
until there is no room,
and you dwell alone in the middle of the land!
9 In my ears, the Lord of Hosts says:
“Surely many houses will be desolate,
great and beautiful, unoccupied.
10 For ten acres of vineyard
shall yield one gallon of wine,
and a half gallon of seed
shall yield an less than a cup of grain.”
11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning,
looking for strong drink,
who stay late into the night,
until wine inflames them!
12 The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute,
with wine are at their feasts,
but they do not respect the work of the Lord,
nor have they considered the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people will go into captivity
for lack of knowledge.
Their honorable men are famished,
and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
14 Therefore the grave has enlarged its jaws
and opened wide its mouth,
and their glory, their multitude, their pomp,
and he who rejoices among them, descend into it.
15 So man is brought low,
mankind is humbled,
and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled,
16 but the Lord of Hosts is exalted in justice,
and the Lord, the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.
17 Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit,
and wickedness as with cart rope,
19 who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his work,
that we may see it.
Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,
that we may know it!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
who turn darkness to light, and light to darkness;
who turn bitter to sweet, and sweet to 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 for the innocent!
24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame,
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.
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord burns against his people,
and he has stretched out his hand against them to strike them down.
The mountains tremble,
and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets.
Despite all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still stretched out.
26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away,
and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth.
Look! They will come speedily and swiftly.
27 No one shall be weary nor stumble among them.
No one shall slumber nor sleep,
nor shall the belt of their waist be untied,
nor the strap of their sandals be broken,
28 whose arrows are sharp,
and all their bows bent.
Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint
and their wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roaring will be like a lioness.
They will roar like young lions.
Yes, they shall roar
and seize their prey and carry it off,
and there will be no one to deliver.
30 They will roar against them in that day
like the roaring of the sea.
If one looks to the land,
he will see darkness and distress.
The light is darkened in its clouds.