Now will I sing to
my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his
vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a
very fruitful hill:
02 And he fenced 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
made a winepress therein: and he looked that it
should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth
wild grapes.
03 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men
of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my
vineyard.
04 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?
05 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do
to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge
thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down
the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
06 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be
pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up
briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
07 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the
house of Israel, and the men of Judah his
pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but
behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold
a cry.
08 Woe unto them that join house to house, that
lay field to field, till there be no place, that
they may be placed alone in the midst of the
earth!
09 In mine ears said the Lord of hosts, Of a
truth many houses shall be desolate, even great
and fair, without inhabitant.
10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one
bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an
ephah.
11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the
morning, that they may follow strong drink; that
continue until night, till wine inflame them!
12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and
pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they
regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider
the operation of his hands.
13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity,
because they have no knowledge: and their
honourable men are famished, and their multitude
dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and
opened her mouth without measure: and their
glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and
he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and
the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of
the lofty shall be humbled:
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16 But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in
judgment, and God that is holy shall be
sanctified in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner,
and the waste places of the fat ones shall
strangers eat.
18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of
vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
19 That say, Let him make speed, and 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 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take
away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble,
and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root
shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall
go up as dust: because they have cast away the
law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word
of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled
against his people, and he hath stretched forth
his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and
the hills did tremble, and their carcases were
torn 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 unto 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 counted like
flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall
roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and
lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away
safe, and none shall deliver it.
30 And in that day they shall roar against them
like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto
the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the
light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
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