Isaiah

The Song of the Vineyard

1I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyardon a very fertile hill.

2He dug it up and cleared the stonesand planted the finest vines.He built a watchtower in the middleand dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes,but the fruit it produced was sour!

3“And now, O dwellers of Jerusalemand men of Judah,I exhort you to judgebetween Me and My vineyard.

4What more could have been done for My vineyardthan I have done for it?Why, when I expected sweet grapes,did it bring forth sour fruit?

5Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge,and it will be consumed;I will tear down its wall,and it will be trampled.

6I will make it a wasteland,neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up.I will command the cloudsthat rain shall not fall on it.”

7For the vineyard of the LORD of Hostsis the house of Israel,and the men of Judahare the plant of His delight.He looked for justice,but saw bloodshed;for righteousness,but heard a cry of distress.

Woes to the Wicked

8Woe to you who add house to houseand join field to fielduntil no place is leftand you live alone in the land.

9I heard the LORD of Hosts declare: “Surely many houses will become desolate,great mansions left unoccupied.

10For ten acres of vineyardwill yield but a bath of wine,and a homer of seedonly an ephah of grain.”

11Woe to those who rise early in the morningin pursuit of strong drink,who linger into the evening,to be inflamed by wine.

12At their feasts are the lyre and harp,tambourines and flutes and wine.They disregard the actions of the LORDand fail to see the work of His hands.

13Therefore My people will go into exilefor their lack of understanding;their dignitaries are starvingand their masses are parched with thirst.

14Therefore Sheol enlarges its throatand opens wide its enormous jaws,and down go Zion’s nobles and masses,her revelers and carousers!

15So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled;the arrogant will lower their eyes.

16But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice,and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

17Lambs will graze as in their own pastures,and strangerswill feed in the ruins of the wealthy.

18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceitand pull sin along with cart ropes,

19to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His workso that we may see it!Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel comeso that we may know it!”

20Woe to those who call evil goodand good evil,who turn darkness to lightand light to darkness,who replace bitter with sweetand sweet with bitter.

21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyesand clever in their own sight.

22Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wineand champions in mixing strong drink,

23who acquit the guilty for a bribeand deprive the innocent of justice.

24Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw,and as dry grass shrivels in the flame,so their roots will decayand their blossoms will blow away like dust;for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hostsand despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25Therefore the anger of the LORD burns against His people;His hand is raised against them to strike them down.The mountains quake,and the corpses lie like refuse in the streets. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away;His hand is still upraised.

26He lifts a banner for the distant nationsand whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come!

27None of them grows weary or stumbles;no one slumbers or sleeps.No belt is looseand no sandal strap is broken.

28Their arrows are sharpened,and all their bows are strung.The hooves of their horses are like flint;their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.

29Their roaring is like that of a lion;they roar like young lions.They growl and seize their prey;they carry it away, and no one can rescue it.

30In that day they will roar over it,like the roaring of the sea.If one looks over the land,he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.

1I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place.

2And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it broutht forth wild grapes.

3And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard.

4What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it?

5And now I will shew you wnat I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.

6And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be digged: but briers and thorns shall come up: and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.

7For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do judgment, and behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry.

8Woe to you that join house to house and lay field to field, even to the end of the place: shall you alone dwell in the midst of the earth?

9These things are in my ears, saith the Lord of hosts: unless many great and fair houses shall become desolate, without an inhabitant.

10For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one little measure, and thirty bushels of seed shall yield three bushels.

11Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink till the evening, to be inflamed with wine.

12The harp, and the lyre, and the timbrel, and the pipe, and wine are in your feasts: and the work of the Lord you regard not, nor do you consider the works of his hands.

13Therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not knowledge, and their nobles have perished with famine, and their multitude were dried up with thirst.

14Therefore hath hell enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth without any bounds, and their strong ones, and their people, and their high and glorious ones shall go down into it.

15And man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be brought low.

16And the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be sanctified in justice.

17And the lambs shall feed according to their order, and strangers shall eat the deserts turned into fruitfulness.

18Woe to you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as the rope of a cart.

19That say: Let him make haste, and let his work come quickly, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it.

20Woe to you 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.

21Woe to you that rue wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits.

22Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drunkenness.

23That justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the justice of the just from him.

24Therefore as the tongue of the fire devoureth the stubble, and the heat of the dame consumeth it: so shall their root be as ashes, and their bud shall go up as dust: for they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed 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 struck them: and the mountains were troubled, and their carcasses became as dung in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

26And he will lift up a sign to the nations afar off, and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth: and behold they shall come with speed swiftly.

27There is none that shall faint, nor labour among them: they shall not slumber nor sleep, neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken.

28Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. The hoofs of their horses shall be like the hint, and their wheels like the violence of a tempest.

29Their roaring like that of a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea they shall roar, and take hold of the prey, and they shall keep fast hold of it, and there shall be none to deliver it.

30And they shall make a noise against them that day, like the roaring of the sea; we shall look towards the land, and behold darkness of tribulation, and the light is darkened with the mist thereof.