¹ Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill ² And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones of it, and planted it with the best vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress in it: and he looked that it should bring forward grapes, and it brought forward wild grapes. ³ And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. ⁴ What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? why, when I looked that it should bring forward grapes, brought it forward wild grapes? ⁵ And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge of it, and it will be eaten up; and break down the wall of it, and it will be trodden down ⁶ And I will lay it waste: it will not be pruned, nor dug; but there will come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no 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 judgment, but see oppression; for righteousness, but see a cry. ⁸ Woe to them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! ⁹ In my ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses will be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. ¹⁰ Yes, ten acres of vineyard will produce one bath, and the seed of a homer will produce an ephah. ¹¹ Woe to them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, until wine inflame them! ¹² And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands. ¹³ Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. ¹⁴ Therefore hell has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoices, will descend into it. ¹⁵ And the mean man will be brought down, and the mighty man will be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty will be humbled ¹⁶ But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy will be sanctified in righteousness. ¹⁷ Then will the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones will strangers eat. ¹⁸ Woe to them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were 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]! ²⁰ Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ²¹ Woe to them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! ²² Woe to them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink ²³ Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! ²⁴ Therefore as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will go up as 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 is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he has stretched forward his hand against them, and has smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. ²⁶ And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss to them from the end of the earth: and, see, they will come with speed swiftly ²⁷ None will be weary nor stumble among them; none will slumber nor sleep; neither will the girdle of their loins be released, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken ²⁸ Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs will be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind ²⁹ Their roaring will be like a lion, they will roar like young lions: yes, they will roar, and lay hold of the prey, and will carry it away safe, and none will deliver [it]. ³⁰ And in that day they will roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look to the land, see darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens of it.