1. I will sing, if you please, of my friend, my friend's song of his
vineyard.
My friend had a vineyard in a hill of great fertility; 2. and he
digged it up, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it
with Sorek, and built a tower in the midst of it; and he waited for
it to produce grapes, and it produced wild grapes.
3. And now, O inhabitant of Jerusalem and man of Judah, judge, I pray
you, between me and my vineyard. 4. What more is there to be done to
my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why did I wait for it to bear
grapes, and it bore wild grapes?
5. And now I will let you know if you please what I am about to do to
my vineyard: Remove its hedge, and it shall become a pasture; break
down its wall, and it shall become a trampling-place; 6. and I render
it a desolation. It shall not be pruned and it shall not be dressed,
and there shall come up thorns and briars. And I will lay my commands
upon the clouds from raining rain upon it. 7. For the vineyard of
Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is the
plant of His pleasures. And He waited for judgment, and behold
bloodshed, for righteousness, and behold a cry!
8. Woe to the joiners of house with house, field to field they bring
together, even to a failure of place, and ye are made to dwell by
yourselves in the midst of the land. 9. In my ears Jehovah of hosts
(is saying), Of a truth many houses shall become a desolation, great
and good for want of an inhabitant. 10. For ten acres shall make one
bath, and a bower of seed shall produce an ephah.
11. Woe to those rising early in the morning to pursue strong drink,
delaying in the twilight (until) wine inflames them. 12. And the harp
and viol, the tabret, and the pipe, and wine (compose) their feasts;
and the work of Jehovah they will not look at, and the operation of
His hands they have not seen.
13. Therefore my people have gone into exile for want of knowledge,
and their glory are men of hunger, and their multitude dry with
thirst. 14. Therefore the grave has enlarged herself and opened her
mouth without measure, and down goes her pomp and her noise and her
crowd and he that rejoices in her; 15. and man is brought low, and
man is cast down, and the eyes of the lofty are cast down; 16. and
Jehovah of hosts is exalted in judgment, and the Mighty, the Holy
One, is sanctified in righteousness; 17. and lambs shall feed as (in)
their pasture, and the wastes of the fat ones shall sojourners devour.
18. Woe to the drawers of iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as
with a cart-rope; 19. those who say, Let Him speed, let Him hasten
His work that we may see; and let the counsel of the Holy One of
Israel draw night and come, that we may know (it).
20. Woe unto those saying to evil good, and to good evil, putting
darkness for light and light for darkness, putting bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
21. Woe unto the wise in their (own) eyes, and the prudent in their
own estimation.
22. Woe to the mighty men that drink wine, and men of strength that
mingle strong drink; 23. justifying the guilty as the result of a
bribe, and the righteousness of the righteous they will take from him.
24. Therefore as a tongue of fire devours chaff, and as ignited grass
falls away, their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom as
fine dust shall go up. For they have rejected the law of Jehovah of
hosts, and the word of the Holy One of Israel they have treated with
contempt. 25. Therefore the anger of Jehovah has burned against His
people, and He stretched forth His hand against them, and smote them,
and the mountains trembled, and their carcass was like sweeping in
the midst of the streets.
In all this His anger was not turned back, and still His hand is
stretched out; 26. and He raises a signal to the nations from afar,
and whistle for him from the ends of the earth; and behold in haste,
swift he shall come. 27. There is no one faint, and there is no one
stumbling among them. He sleeps not, and he slumbers not, and the
girdle of his loins is not opened and the latchet of his sandals is
not broken; 28. whose arrows are sharpened and all his bows bent; the
hoofs of his horses like flint are reckoned, and his wheels like a
whirlwind. 29. He has a roar like the lioness, and he shall roar like
the young lions, and shall growl, and seize the prey, and secure it,
none delivering (it). 30. And he shall roar against him in that day
like the roaring of a sea. And he shall look to the land, and behold
darkness! Anguish and light! It is dark in the clouds thereof!