⁴ ‘I will make mere youths their officials;
    children will rule over them.’

⁵ People will oppress each other –
    man against man, neighbour against neighbour.
The young will rise up against the old,
    the nobody against the honoured.

⁶ A man will seize one of his brothers
    in his father’s house, and say,
‘You have a cloak, you be our leader;
    take charge of this heap of ruins!’
⁷ But in that day he will cry out,
    ‘I have no remedy.
I have no food or clothing in my house;
    do not make me the leader of the people.’

⁸ Jerusalem staggers,
    Judah is falling;
their words and deeds are against the Lord,
    defying his glorious presence.
⁹ The look on their faces testifies against them;
    they parade their sin like Sodom;
    they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
    They have brought disaster upon themselves.

¹⁰ Tell the righteous it will be well with them,
    for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.
¹¹ Woe to the wicked!
    Disaster is upon them!
They will be paid back
    for what their hands have done.

¹² Youths oppress my people,
    women rule over them.
My people, your guides lead you astray;
    they turn you from the path.

¹³ The Lord takes his place in court;
    he rises to judge the people.
¹⁴ The Lord enters into judgment
    against the elders and leaders of his people:
‘It is you who have ruined my vineyard;
    the plunder from the poor is in your houses.
¹⁵ What do you mean by crushing my people
    and grinding the faces of the poor?’
declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

¹⁶ The Lord says,
    ‘The women of Zion are haughty,
walking along with outstretched necks,
    flirting with their eyes,
strutting along with swaying hips,
    with ornaments jingling on their ankles.
¹⁷ Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion;
    the Lord will make their scalps bald.’

²⁴ Instead of fragrance there will be a stench;
    instead of a sash, a rope;
instead of well-dressed hair, baldness;
    instead of fine clothing, sackcloth;
    instead of beauty, branding.
²⁵ Your men will fall by the sword,
    your warriors in battle.
²⁶ The gates of Zion will lament and mourn;
    destitute, she will sit on the ground.
4 In that day seven women
    will take hold of one man
and say, ‘We will eat our own food
    and provide our own clothes;
only let us be called by your name.
    Take away our disgrace!’

³ ‘Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
    judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴ What 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?
⁵ Now 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.
⁶ I 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.’

⁷ The 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.

‘Surely the great houses will become desolate,
    the fine mansions left without occupants.
¹⁰ A ten-acre^[d] vineyard will produce only a bath^[e] of wine;
    a homer^[f] of seed will yield only an ephah^[g] of grain.’

¹¹ Woe 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.
¹² They 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.
¹³ Therefore 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.
¹⁴ Therefore Death expands its jaws,
    opening wide its mouth;
into it will descend their nobles and masses
    with all their brawlers and revellers.
¹⁵ So people will be brought low
    and everyone humbled,
    the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
¹⁶ But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice,
    and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.
¹⁷ Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;
    lambs will feed^[h] among the ruins of the rich.

¹⁸ Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
    and wickedness as with cart ropes,
¹⁹ to 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.’

²⁰ Woe 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.

²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
    and clever in their own sight.

²² Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
    and champions at mixing drinks,
²³ who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
    but deny justice to the innocent.
²⁴ Therefore, 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.
²⁵ Therefore 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.

²⁶ He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
    he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.
Here they come,
    swiftly and speedily!
²⁷ Not 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.
²⁸ Their arrows are sharp,
    all their bows are strung;
their horses’ hooves seem like flint,
    their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
²⁹ Their 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.
³⁰ In 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.

² God looks down from heaven
    on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
    any who seek God.
³ Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt;
    there is no one who does good,
    not even one.

⁴ Do all these evildoers know nothing?

They devour my people as though eating bread;
    they never call on God.
⁵ But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,
    where there was nothing to dread.
God scattered the bones of those who attacked you;
    you put them to shame, for God despised them.

⁶ Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
    When God restores his people,
    let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!