3. “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
4. What more could have been done to My vineyardThat I have not done in it?Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,Did it bring forth wild grapes?
5. And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
6. I will lay it waste;It shall not be pruned or dug,But there shall come up briers and thorns.I will also command the cloudsThat they rain no rain on it.”
7. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
8. Woe to those who join house to house;They add field to field,Till there is no placeWhere they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
9. In my hearing the Lord of hosts said,“Truly, many houses shall be desolate,Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant.
10. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,And a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.”
11. Woe to those who rise early in the morning,That they may follow intoxicating drink;Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!
12. The harp and the strings,The tambourine and flute,And wine are in their feasts;But they do not regard the work of the Lord,Nor consider the operation of His hands.
13. Therefore my people have gone into captivity,Because they have no knowledge;Their honorable men are famished,And their multitude dried up with thirst.
14. Therefore Sheol has enlarged itselfAnd opened its mouth beyond measure;Their glory and their multitude and their pomp,And he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.
15. People shall be brought down,Each man shall be humbled,And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
16. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment,And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
17. Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture,And in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat.
18. Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity,And sin as if 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 near and come,That we may know it.”
20. Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!