1 Let me sing for my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his
vineyard. My wellbeloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2 and he
digged it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the
choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a
winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it
brought forth wild grapes. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men
of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4 What could have
been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I
looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
5 And 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 down the wall
thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 6 and I will lay it waste; it shall
not be pruned nor hoed; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will
also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard
of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant
plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness,
but, behold, a cry. 8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay
field to field, till there be no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the
midst of the land! 9 In mine ears saith Jehovah of hosts, Of a
truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed
shall yield but an ephah. 11 Woe unto them that rise up early in
the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that tarry late into the
night, till wine inflame them! 12 And the harp and the lute, the tabret
and the pipe, and wine, are in their feasts; but they regard not the
work of Jehovah, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity for lack of knowledge; and
their honorable men are famished, and their multitude are parched with
thirst. 14 Therefore Sheol hath enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth
without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he
that rejoiceth among them, descend into it. 15 And the mean man is
bowed down, and the great man is humbled, and the eyes of the lofty are
humbled: 16 but Jehovah of hosts is exalted in justice, and God the Holy
One is sanctified in righteousness. 17 Then shall the lambs feed as in
their pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones shall wanderers eat.
18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and sin as it
were with a cart rope; 19 that 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
nigh and come, that we may know it! 20 Woe unto them that call evil good,
and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put
bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe unto them that are wise in
their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 22 Woe unto them that are
mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink; 23 that
justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the
righteous from him! 24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devoureth the
stubble, and as the dry grass sinketh down in the flame, so their root shall
be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have
rejected the law of Jehovah of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One
of Israel. 25 Therefore is the anger of Jehovah kindled against his
people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten
them; and the mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the
midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand
is stretched out still. 26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations
from far, and will hiss for them from the end of the earth; and, behold, they
shall come with speed swiftly. 27 None shall be weary nor stumble among
them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins
be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: 28 whose arrows are
sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses' hoofs shall be accounted as
flint, and their wheels as a whirlwind: 29 their roaring shall be like a
lioness, they shall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold
of the prey, and carry it away safe, and there shall be none to deliver.
30 And they shall roar against them in that day like the roaring of the
sea: and if one look unto the land, behold, darkness and distress;
and the light is darkened in the clouds thereof.
Genesis - Public
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