The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard

1Let me sing for my beloved

my love-song concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard

on a very fertile hill.

2He dug it and cleared it of stones,

and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watch-tower in the midst of it,

and hewed out a wine vat in it;

he expected it to yield grapes,

but it yielded wild grapes.

3And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem

and people of Judah,

judge between me

and my vineyard.

4What more was there to do for my vineyard

that I have not done in it?

When I expected it to yield grapes,

why did it yield wild grapes?

5And now I will tell you

what I will do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge,

and it shall be devoured;

I will break down its wall,

and it shall be trampled down.

6I will make it a waste;

it shall not be pruned or hoed,

and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;

I will also command the clouds

that they rain no rain upon it.

7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts

is the house of Israel,

and the people of Judah

are his pleasant planting;

he expected justice,

but saw bloodshed;

righteousness,

but heard a cry!

Social Injustice Denounced

8Ah, you who join house to house,

who add field to field,

until there is room for no one but you,

and you are left to live alone

in the midst of the land!

9The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing:

Surely many houses shall be desolate,

large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.

10For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,

and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.5.10 The Heb bath, homer, and ephah are measures of quantity

11Ah, you who rise early in the morning

in pursuit of strong drink,

who linger in the evening

to be inflamed by wine,

12whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,

tambourine and flute and wine,

but who do not regard the deeds of the LORD,

or see the work of his hands!

13Therefore my people go into exile without knowledge;

their nobles are dying of hunger,

and their multitude is parched with thirst.

14Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite

and opened its mouth beyond measure;

the nobility of Jerusalem5.14 Heb her nobility and her multitude go down,

her throng and all who exult in her.

15People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,

and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.

16But the LORD of hosts is exalted by justice,

and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.

17Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture,

fatlings and kids5.17 Cn Compare Gk: Heb aliens shall feed among the ruins.

18Ah, you who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,

who drag sin along as with cart-ropes,

19who say, ‘Let him make haste,

let him speed his work

that we may see it;

let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfilment,

that we may know it!’

20Ah, you 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!

21Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes,

and shrewd in your own sight!

22Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine

and valiant at mixing drink,

23who acquit the guilty for a bribe,

and deprive the innocent of their rights!

Foreign Invasion Predicted

24Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,

and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,

so their root will become rotten,

and their blossom go up like dust;

for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of hosts,

and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people,

and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;

the mountains quaked,

and their corpses were like refuse

in the streets.

For all this his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is stretched out still.

26He will raise a signal for a nation far away,

and whistle for a people at the ends of the earth;

Here they come, swiftly, speedily!

27None of them is weary, none stumbles,

none slumbers or sleeps,

not a loincloth is loose,

not a sandal-thong broken;

28their arrows are sharp,

all their bows bent,

their horses' hoofs seem like flint,

and their wheels like the whirlwind.

29Their roaring is like a lion,

like young lions they roar;

they growl and seize their prey,

they carry it off, and no one can rescue.

30They will roar over it on that day,

like the roaring of the sea.

And if one looks to the land—

only darkness and distress;

and the light grows dark with clouds.