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The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard

I will sing for my beloved
    my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.(A)
He dug it and cleared it of stones
    and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it
    and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded rotten grapes.(B)

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and people of Judah,
judge between me
    and my vineyard.(C)
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 rotten grapes?(D)

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.(E)
I will make it a wasteland;
    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.(F)

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
    are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
    but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
    but heard a cry!(G)

Social Injustice Denounced

Woe to those who join house to house,
    who add field to field,
until there is room for no one,
    and you are left to live alone
    in the midst of the land!(H)
The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
    large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.(I)
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
    and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.[a](J)

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning
    in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
    to be inflamed by wine,(K)
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!(L)
13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
    and their multitude is parched with thirst.(M)

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.(N)
15 People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
    and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.(O)
16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
    and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.(P)
17 Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture;
    fatted calves and kids[c] shall feed among the ruins.

18 Woe to those who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,
    who drag sin along as with cart ropes,(Q)
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 fulfillment,
    that we may know it!”(R)
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!(S)
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
    and shrewd in their own sight!(T)
22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
    and valiant at mixing drink,(U)
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe
    and deprive the innocent of their rights!(V)

Foreign Invasion Predicted

24 Therefore, 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.(W)

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.(X)

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!(Y)
27 None of them is weary; none stumbles;
    none slumbers or sleeps;
not a loincloth is loose;
    not a sandal strap broken;(Z)
28 their arrows are sharp;
    all their bows strung;
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
    and their wheels like the whirlwind.(AA)
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.(AB)
30 They will roar over it on that day,
    like the roaring of the sea.
And if one look to the land—
    only darkness and distress;
and the light grows dark with its clouds.(AC)

Footnotes

  1. 5.10 The Heb bath, homer, and ephah are measures of quantity
  2. 5.14 Heb her nobility
  3. 5.17 Gk: Heb aliens