1Let me sing now for my beloved a song of my dear one about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
2He dug it up and cleared it of stones, and he planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in its midst, and also hewed out a winepress in it. Then he waited for it to yield grapes, but it yielded rotten grapes.
3And now, inhabitant of Jerusalem and man of Judah, judge, please, between me and my vineyard.
4What more was there to do for my vineyard that I did not do in it? Why, when I waited for it to yield grapes, did it yield rotten grapes?
5And now let me tell you what I am about to do to my vineyard: remove its hedge so that it becomes fuel, break down its wall so that it becomes a trampling-place.
6I will make it a wasteland; it will not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns will grow up. And I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.
7For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is the planting of his delight. He waited for justice (mishpat), but behold, bloodshed (mispach); for righteousness (tsedaqah), but behold, an outcry (tse’aqah).
8Woe to those who join house to house, who bring field near to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
9In my ears Yahweh of hosts has sworn: Surely many houses will become a desolation, great and good ones, with no inhabitant.
10For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath, and a homer of seed will yield only an ephah.
11Woe to those who rise early in the morning to pursue strong drink, who linger into the twilight while wine inflames them.
12Lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, and wine are at their feasts, but the work of Yahweh they do not regard, and the deeds of his hands they do not see.
13Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored ones are men of hunger, and their multitude is parched with thirst.
14Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth beyond measure, and down go her splendor and her multitude, her uproar and whoever exults in her.
15So humankind is bowed down, and each man is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
16But Yahweh of hosts is exalted in justice, and the holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
17Then lambs will graze as in their own pasture, and strangers will feed among the ruins of the fat ones.
18Woe to those who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood, and sin as with cart-ropes,
19who say, “Let him hurry, let him hasten his work, so that we may see it; let the plan of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it.”
20Woe 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.
21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
22Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and men of valor at mixing strong drink,
23who acquit the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.
24Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours stubble, and dry grass collapses in the flame, so their root will become like rot, and their blossom will go up like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25Therefore the anger of Yahweh burned against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out.
26He will raise a signal-banner for the nations from afar, and whistle for it from the ends of the earth; and behold, swiftly, speedily it will come.
27None among them is weary, none stumbles; none slumbers or sleeps; not a belt on their waist is loosened, not a sandal thong is broken.
28Their arrows are sharpened and all their bows bent; their horses’ hooves are reckoned like flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind.
29Their roaring is like a lion; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize the prey and carry it off, and there is no one to rescue.
30They will growl over it on that day like the growling of the sea; and one looks to the land, and behold, darkness and distress, and the light grows dark in its clouds.
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