5
V
1Let me sing now to my Beloved,
A song of my Beloved touching his vineyard.
My Beloved had a vineyard
Upon a very fruitful hill.
2He digged it, and cleared it of stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine,
And he built a tower in the midst of it,
And also hewed out a wine-vat therein;
And he expected, that it should bring forth grapes;
But it brought forth baneful berries.
3And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Judah,
Judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.
4What could have been done more to my vineyard,
Than I have done unto it?
Why, when I expected that it should bring forth grapes,
Brought it forth baneful berries?
5But come now, and I will make known unto you
What I will do unto my vineyard
I will remove its hedge, and it shall be eaten up;
I will demolish its wall, and it shall be trodden down.
6And I will make it a waste:
It shall not be pruned, neither shall it be weeded; But there shall come up briers and thorns;
And to the clouds I will give command,
That they rain no rain upon it.
7For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel;
And the men of Judah his pleasant plant:
He looked for judgment, and behold a shedding of blood;
For justice, and behold a cry.
8Wo unto them, who join house to house;
Who lay field unto field together;
Until there be no more room left,
And ye dwell by yourselves alone in the midst of the land.
9In my ears hath Jehovah of hosts revealed it:
Surely, the many houses shall become a desolation;
The great and the fair ones, no one shall inhabit.
10Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
And a chomer of seed shall produce an ephah.
11Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning to follow after strong drink;
Who sit late in the evening, that the wine may inflame them:
12And the lyre, and the harp, the tabor, and the pipe,
And wine, are in their feasts;
But the work of Jehovah they regard not;
And the operation of his hands they do not perceive.
13Therefore my people goeth into captivity by surprise;
Their nobles die with hunger;
And their multitude are parched up with thirst.
14Therefore bath Hades opened its jaws with greediness;
And hath stretched open its mouth without measure:
And down go her nobility, and her multitude;
And her busy throng, and all that exult in her.
15And the mean man shall be bowed down, and the great man shall be humbled;
And the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
16But Jehovah of hosts shall be exalted in judgment;
And the Holy God shall be sanctified in righteousness.
17Then shall the sheep feed, as upon their own pasture; And in the desolate possessions of the rich shall strange flocks graze.
18Wo unto them that draw punishment along with a rope of vice;
And destruction as with a cart-rope.
19Who 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 near and come to pass, that we may know it.
20Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
21Wo unto them that are wise in their own eyes;
And prudent in their own conceit.
22Wo unto them that are powerful to drink wine;
And men of might to mingle strong drink.
23Who justify the guilty for reward,
And take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.
24Therefore as the flame of fire devoureth the stubble,
And as the dry grass sinketh down into the flame;
So their root shall be as rottenness,
And their blossom shall go up like the dust:
Because they have despised the law of Jehovah of hosts;
And scornfully rejected the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25Therefore is the anger of Jehovah kindled against his people;
And he hath stretched out his hand against them,
And smitten them; and the mountains trembled;
And their carcases became as the mire in the midst of the streets.
For all this his anger is not turned away;
But his hand is still stretched out.
26And he will erect a standard for the nations afar off;
And he will hiss unto them from the end of the earth;
And behold, with speed swiftly shall they come.
27None among them is faint, and none stumbleth;
No one slumbereth, and no one sleepeth:
Neither is the girdle of their loins loosed,
Nor the latchet of their shoes torn off.
28Whose arrows are sharpened,
And all their bows are bent:
The hoofs of their horses are counted like unto the flint;
And their wheels unto the whirlwind.
29Their roaring is like that of the lioness;
They roar like the young lions:
They rage, and seize the prey;
They bear it away, and no one doth rescue.
30In that day shall they roar against them, like the roaring of the sea;
And if one look unto the land, behold there darkness;
Perplexity mid light;
It becomes dark in the clouds thereof.