4. What more could I have done for my vineyardthat I have not already done?When I expected sweet grapes,why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes?
5. Now let me tell youwhat I will do to my vineyard:I will tear down its hedgesand let it be destroyed.I will break down its wallsand let the animals trample it.
6. I will make it a wild placewhere the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed,a place overgrown with briers and thorns.I will command the cloudsto drop no rain on it.
7. The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the lord of Heaven’s Armies.The people of Judah are his pleasant garden.He expected a crop of justice,but instead he found oppression.He expected to find righteousness,but instead he heard cries of violence.
8. What sorrow for you who buy up house after house and field after field,until everyone is evicted and you live alone in the land.
9. But I have heard the lord of Heaven’s Armiesswear a solemn oath:“Many houses will stand deserted;even beautiful mansions will be empty.
10. Ten acres of vineyard will not produce even six gallons of wine.Ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket of grain.”
11. What sorrow for those who get up early in the morninglooking for a drink of alcoholand spend long evenings drinking wineto make themselves flaming drunk.
12. They furnish wine and lovely music at their grand parties—lyre and harp, tambourine and flute—but they never think about the lordor notice what he is doing.
13. So my people will go into exile far awaybecause they do not know me.Those who are great and honored will starve,and the common people will die of thirst.
14. The grave is licking its lips in anticipation,opening its mouth wide.The great and the lowlyand all the drunken mob will be swallowed up.
15. Humanity will be destroyed, and people brought down;even the arrogant will lower their eyes in humiliation.