 1 Now I will sing to my Beloved a song of my Beloved concerning His vineyard. My Beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. 2 He fenced it, and gathered out the stones of it, and planted it with choice vines, and built a tower in its midst, and hewed out a wine vat in it. And He looked for it to produce grapes. And it produced wild grapes. 3 Now, O people of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Who knows? I looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded rotten 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 waste. It will not be pruned nor dug. But briers and thorns will come up and I will command the clouds to not 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 behold bloody iniquity. For righteousness, but behold a cry. 8 Woe to those who join house to house, laying field to field, until the end of space, and you are made to live alone in the middle of the land. 9 The Lord of hosts swore in my ears, Truly many houses shall be deserted, big and fair without inhabitant. 10 Ten acres of vineyard will yield one bath and the seed of a homer will yield a bushel. 11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning to go after strong drink. They tarry in the twilight while wine inflames them. 12 The lyre and the harp the timbrel and pipe and wine are at their feasts. But they do not regard the work of the Lord. They do not see the work of His hands. 13 For this my people will go into exile without knowledge. The honorable go into famine. The multitude are dried up with thirst. 14 Hell has enlarged itself and opened its mouth without measure. The glory and multitude of pride and those who rejoice in her will go down into it. 15 Mankind will be brought down and the mighty will be humbled. The eyes of the lofty will be humbled. 16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted in judgment. God the holy one is sanctified in righteousness. 17 Then the lambs feed in their manner, and strangers will eat in the waste places of the fat ones. 18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin with cart ropes. 19 They say, Let Him hurry and hasten His work so that we may see it. Let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come so that we may know. 20 Woe 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. 21 Woe to those wise in their own eyes, and bright in their own sight. 22 Woe to those mighty to drink wine, and brave men to mix strong drink; 23 who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. 24 So, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame burns up the chaff. Their root shall be like rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up like 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 the anger of the Lord is kindled on His people, and He has stretched out His hand against them, and has stricken them. And the hills trembled, and their dead bodies were as filth in the midst of the streets. In all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. 26 He will lift up a banner to distant nations, and will hiss to them from the ends of the earth. And behold, they shall come with swift speed. 27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them. None shall slumber nor sleep. Neither shall the waistcoat of their waist+ be loosened, nor the thong of their sandals be broken; 28 whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses' hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. 29 Their roaring will be like a lion. They will roar like young lions. They will roar and lay hold of the prey and carry it away safe, No one will deliver it. 30 In that day, they will roar against them like the roaring of the sea. One looks to the land. Behold darkness and darkness. Distress. The light will be darkened by its clouds.
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