The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!

Therefore the Lord, the Lord Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah! I will vent my wrath on my foes and avenge myself on my enemies.

Zion will be delivered with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness.

The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire.”

Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,

the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.

People will oppress each other— man against man, neighbor against neighbor. The young will rise up against the old, the nobody against the honored.

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!”

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!”

The Song of the Vineyard

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.

The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing: “Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.

to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel— let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.

Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.”