1. I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one's vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
2. He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and even hewed out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes.
3. So now, residents of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between Me and My vineyard.
4. What more could I have done for My vineyard than I did? Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes?
5. Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
6. I will make it a wasteland. It will not be pruned or weeded; thorns and briers will grow up. I will also give orders to the clouds that rain should not fall on it.
7. For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, the plant He delighted in. He looked for justice but saw injustice, for righteousness, but heard cries of wretchedness.
8. Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there is no more room and you alone are left in the land.
9. In my hearing the LORD of Hosts has taken an oath: Indeed, many houses will become desolate, grand and lovely ones without inhabitants.
10. For a ten-acre vineyard will yield only six gallons, and 10 bushels of seed will yield only one bushel.
11. Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of beer, who linger into the evening, inflamed by wine.
12. At their feasts they have lyre, harp, tambourine, flute, and wine. They do not perceive the LORD's actions, and they do not see the work of His hands.
13. Therefore My people go into exile because they lack knowledge; the dignitaries are starving, and the masses are parched with thirst.
14. Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion's dignitaries, her masses, her crowds, and those who carouse in her!
15. Humanity is brought low, man is humbled, and haughty eyes are humbled.
16. But the LORD of Hosts is exalted by His justice, and the holy God is distinguished by righteousness.
17. Lambs will graze as if in their own pastures, and strangers will eat among the ruins of the rich.
18. Woe to those who drag wickedness with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,
19. to those who say: "Let Him hurry up and do His work quickly so that we can see it! Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel take place so that we can know it!"
20. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute 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 opinion and clever in their own sight.
22. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, who are fearless at mixing beer,
23. who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.
24. Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes straw and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will become like something rotten and their blossoms will blow away like dust, for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts, and they have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25. Therefore the LORD's anger burns against His people. He raised His hand against them and struck them; the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like garbage in the streets. In all this, His anger is not removed, and His hand is still raised to strike.
26. He raises a signal flag for the distant nations and whistles for them from the ends of the earth. Look-- how quickly and swiftly they come!
27. None of them grows weary or stumbles; no one slumbers or sleeps. No belt is loose, and no sandal strap broken.
28. Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows strung. Their horses' hooves are like flint; their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.
29. Their roaring is like a lion's; they roar like young lions; they growl and seize their prey and carry it off, and no one can rescue it.
30. On that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. When one looks at the land, there will be darkness and distress; light will be obscured by clouds.