5

God’s Disappointing Vineyard

¹Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved ⚓regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard
On a very fruitful hill.
²He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also made a winepress in it;
⚓So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.
³“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
⚓Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
⁴What more could have been done to My vineyard
That I have not done in ⚓it?
Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,
Did it bring forth wild grapes?
⁵And now, please let Me 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.
⁶I will lay it ⚓waste;
It shall not be pruned or dug,
But there shall come up briers and ⚓thorns.
I will also command the clouds
That they rain no rain on it.”
⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.

Impending Judgment on Excesses

⁸Woe to those who join ⚓house to house;
They add field to field,
Till there is no place
Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
⁹⚓In my hearing the Lord of hosts said,
“Truly, many houses shall be desolate,
Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant.
¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one ⚓bath,
And a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.”
¹¹⚓Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
That they may follow intoxicating drink;
Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!
¹²⚓The harp and the strings,
The tambourine and flute,
And wine are in their feasts;
But ⚓they do not regard the work of the Lord,
Nor consider the operation of His hands.
¹³⚓Therefore my people have gone into captivity,
Because they have no ⚓knowledge;
Their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude dried up with thirst.
¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself
And opened its mouth beyond measure;
Their glory and their multitude and their pomp,
And he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.
¹⁵People shall be brought down,
⚓Each man shall be humbled,
And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
¹⁶But the Lord of hosts shall be ⚓exalted in judgment,
And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
¹⁷Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture,
And in the waste places of ⚓the fat ones strangers shall eat.
¹⁸Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity,
And sin as if 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 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 prudent in their own sight!
²²Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,
Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,
²³Who ⚓justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away justice from the righteous man!
²⁴Therefore, ⚓as the fire devours the stubble,
And the flame consumes the chaff,
So⚓their root will be as rottenness,
And their blossom will ascend like 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 is aroused against His people;
He has stretched out His hand against them
And stricken them,
And ⚓the hills trembled.
Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.
⚓For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.
²⁶⚓He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,
And will ⚓whistle to them from ⚓the end of the earth;
Surely ⚓they shall come with speed, swiftly.
²⁷No one will be weary or stumble among them,
No one will slumber or sleep;
Nor ⚓will the belt on their loins be loosed,
Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;
²⁸⚓Whose arrows are sharp,
And all their bows bent;
Their horses’ hooves will seem like flint,
And their wheels like a whirlwind.
²⁹Their roaring will be like a lion,
They will roar like young lions;
Yes, they will roar
And lay hold of the prey;
They will carry it away safely,
And no one will deliver.
³⁰In that day they will roar against them
Like the roaring of the sea.
And if one⚓looks to the land,
Behold, darkness and sorrow;
And the light is darkened by the clouds.

5

The Song of the Vineyard

¹I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
²He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.

³“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
⁵Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
⁶I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it.”

⁷The vineyard of the Lord Almighty
is the nation of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are the vines he delighted in.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Woes and Judgments

⁸Woe to you who add house to house
and join field to field
till no space is left
and you live alone in the land.
⁹The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing:
“Surely the great houses will become desolate,
the fine mansions left without occupants.
¹⁰A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath⚓ of wine;
a homer⚓ of seed will yield only an ephah⚓ of grain.”

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning
to run after their drinks,
who stay up late at night
till they are inflamed with wine.
¹²They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
pipes and timbrels and wine,
but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord,
no respect for the work of his hands.
¹³Therefore my people will go into exile
for lack of understanding;
those of high rank will die of hunger
and the common people will be parched with thirst.
¹⁴Therefore Death expands its jaws,
opening wide its mouth;
into it will descend their nobles and masses
with all their brawlers and revelers.
¹⁵So people will be brought low
and everyone humbled,
the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
¹⁶But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice,
and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.
¹⁷Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;
lambs will feed⚓ among the ruins of the rich.

¹⁸Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
and wickedness as with cart ropes,
¹⁹to those who say, “Let God hurry;
let him hasten his work
so we may see it.
The plan of the Holy One of Israel—
let it approach, let it come into view,
so 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 champions at mixing drinks,
²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice to the innocent.
²⁴Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so their roots will decay
and their flowers blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty
and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
²⁵Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people;
his hand is raised and he strikes them down.
The mountains shake,
and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.

²⁶He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.
Here they come,
swiftly and speedily!
²⁷Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,
not one slumbers or sleeps;
not a belt is loosened at the waist,
not a sandal strap is broken.
²⁸Their arrows are sharp,
all their bows are strung;
their horses’ hooves seem like flint,
their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
²⁹Their roar is like that of the lion,
they roar like young lions;
they growl as they seize their prey
and carry it off with no one to rescue.
³⁰In that day they will roar over it
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks at the land,
there is only darkness and distress;
even the sun will be darkened by clouds.