1: Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones of it, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein: and he expected that it would bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 3: And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4: What more could have been done to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected that it would bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 5: And now come; 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 the wall of it, and it shall be trodden down: 6: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon 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 judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. 8: Woe to them that join house to house, [that] lay field to field, till [there is] no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! 9: In my ears [said] the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, [even] great and fair, without inhabitant. 10: Yes, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah. 11: Woe to them that rise early in the morning, [that] they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, [till] wine inflameth them! 12: And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands. 13: Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because [they have] no knowledge: and their honorable men [are] famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. 14: Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. 15: And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be abased. 16: But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. 17: Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. 18: Woe to them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope: 19: That 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 nigh and come, that we may know [it]! 20: Woe to 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! 21: Woe to [them that are] wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 22: Woe to [them that are] mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: 23: Who justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! 24: Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, [so] their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25: Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills trembled, and their carcasses [were] torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still. 26: And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar, and will hiss to them from the end of the earth: and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: 27: None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: 28: Whose arrows [are] sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: 29: Their roaring [shall be] like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yes, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry [it] away safe, and none shall deliver [it]. 30: And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if [one] looketh to the land, behold darkness [and] sorrow, and the light is darkened in its heavens.
