1Now will I sing to my beloved a song of my beloved to his vineyard, My beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.
2And he hedged it, and gathered out the stones of it, and he planted it with the best plants, and he built a tower in the midst thereof, and made a winepress therein, then he looked that it should bring forth grapes: but it brought forth wild grapes.
3Now therefore, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.
4What could I have done anymore to my vineyard that I have not done unto it? why have I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it bringeth forth wild grapes?
5And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up: I will break the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
6And I will lay it waste: it shall not be cut, nor dug, but briers and thorns shall grow up: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7Surely the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant, and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression: for righteousness, but behold a crying.
8Woe unto them that join house to house, and lay field to field, till there be no place, that ye may be placed by yourselves in the midst of the earth.
9This is in mine ears, saith the Lord of hosts. Surely many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair without inhabitant.
10For ten acres of vines shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
11Woe unto them, that rise up early to follow drunkenness, and to them that continue until night, till the wine do inflame them,
12And the harp and viol, timbrel and pipe, and wine are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the work of his hands.
13Therefore my people is gone into captivity, because they had no knowledge, and the glory thereof are men famished, and the multitude thereof is dried up with thirst.
14Therefore hell hath enlarged itself, and hath opened his mouth without measure, and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth among them, shall descend into it.
15And man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled, even the eyes of the proud shall be humbled.
16And the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be sanctified in justice.
17Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the strangers shall eat the desolate places of the fat.
18Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin, as with cart ropes:
19Which say, Let him make speed: let him hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it.
20Woe unto them that speak good of evil, and evil of good, which put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for sour.
21Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.
22Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and unto them that are strong to pour in strong drink:
23Which justify the wicked for a reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.
24Therefore as the flame of fire devoureth the stubble, and as the chaff is consumed of the flame: so their root shall be a rottenness, and their bud shall rise up like dust, because they have cast off the Law of the Lord of hosts, and contemned the word of the Holy one of Israel.
25Therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched out his hand upon them, and hath smitten them that the mountains did tremble: and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets, and for all this his wrath was not turned away, but his hand was stretched out still.
26And he will lift up a sign unto the nations afar, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and behold, they shall come hastily with speed.
27None shall faint nor fall among them: none shall slumber nor sleep, neither shall the girdle of his loins be loosed, nor the latchet of his shoes be broken.
28Whose arrows shall be sharp, and all his bows bent: his horse hoofs shall be thought like flint, and his wheels like whirlwind.
29His roaring shall be like a lion, and he shall roar like lion’s whelps: they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey: they shall take it away, and none shall deliver it.
30And in that day they shall roar upon them, as the roaring of the sea: and if they look unto the earth, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light shall be darkened in their sky.