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 bath5:10 That is, about 22 litres of wine;

a homer5:10 That is, probably about 160 kilograms of seed will yield only an ephah5:10 That is, probably about 16 kilograms 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 tambourines 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 revellers.

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 feed5:17 Septuagint; Hebrew / strangers will eat 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 that we may see it.

The plan of the Holy One of Israel –

let it approach, let it come into view,

so 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 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.