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1 Let me sing for my well beloved,
a song of my beloved about his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He thoroughly dug it, removed its stones,
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and also hewed out a winepress in it.
He looked for it to yield grapes,
3 “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
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.
It won’t be pruned nor hoed,
but it will grow briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain on it.”
7 Surely the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his delightful plant.
And he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but behold, a cry of distress.
Woe to the Wicked8 Woe to those who add house to house,
and you live alone in the midst of the land!
9In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says:
“Surely many houses will be desolate,
even great and beautiful ones will be unoccupied.
11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning
in pursuit of beer;
who stay up 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 what Yahweh is doing,
neither have they considered the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people go into captivity
because of lack of knowledge.
Their honorable men are starving,
and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite,
and opened its mouth beyond measure,
and Jerusalem’s dignitaries, her multitude, her revelers,
and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
15 So mankind is brought low; people are humbled,
and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled,
16 but Yahweh of Armies is exalted by justice,
and God the Holy One shows himself holy by righteousness.
as in their own pasture,
and strangers will eat
among the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who drag iniquity
with cords made of deceit,
and sin as if with cart ropes,
19 who say, “Let him make speed,
let him 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!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine,
and champions at mixing beer,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe
and deny justice for the innocent!
24 Therefore as a tongue of fire devours the stubble
and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will be as rottenness
and their blossom will go up as dust,
the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people,
and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them.
The mountains tremble,
and their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the streets.
Despite all this, his anger is not turned away,
but his hand is still stretched out.
26 He will lift up a banner for the nations far away,
and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth.
Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.
27 None will be weary nor stumble among them;
nor will the belt of their waist be untied,
nor the latchet of their sandals be broken,
Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint,
and their chariot wheels like a windstorm.
29 Their roaring will be like a lioness.
They will roar like young lions.
They will roar and seize their prey
and carry it off,
and there will be no one to rescue.
30 They will roar against them in that day
like the roaring of the sea.
If one looks to the land,
behold, darkness and distress;
and the light is darkened by its clouds.
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