³ And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and people of Judah,
judge between me
    and my vineyard.
⁴ What 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?

⁵ And 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.
⁶ I 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.

⁷ For 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!

¹¹ Ah, you who rise early in the morning
    in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
    to be inflamed by wine,
¹² whose 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!
¹³ Therefore my people go into exile without knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
    and their multitude is parched with thirst.

¹⁴ Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
    and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalem^[b] and her multitude go down,
    her throng and all who exult in her.
¹⁵ People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
    and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
¹⁶ But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
    and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.
¹⁷ Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture,
    fatlings and kids^[c] shall feed among the ruins.

¹⁸ Ah, you who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,
    who drag sin along as with cart-ropes,
¹⁹ who 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!’
²⁰ Ah, 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!
²¹ Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes,
    and shrewd in your own sight!
²² Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine
    and valiant at mixing drink,
²³ who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
    and deprive the innocent of their rights!

²⁵ Therefore 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.

²⁶ He 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!
²⁷ None of them is weary, none stumbles,
    none slumbers or sleeps,
not a loincloth is loose,
    not a sandal-thong broken;
²⁸ their arrows are sharp,
    all their bows bent,
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
    and their wheels like the whirlwind.
²⁹ Their 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.
³⁰ They 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.