5:1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
5:2 And he dug it, and removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress in it: and he expected that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
5:3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.
5:4 What more could have been done to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
5:5 And now come; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; [and] break down the wall of it, and it shall be trodden down:
5:6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor dug; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
5:7 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.
5:8 Woe to them that join house to house, [that] lay field to field, till [there is] no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
5:9 In my ears [said] the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, [even] great and fair, without inhabitant.
5:10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
5:11 Woe to them that rise early in the morning, [that] they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, [till] wine inflames them!
5:12 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.
5:13 Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because [they have] no knowledge: and their honourable men [are] famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
5:14 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.
5:15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be abased:
5:16 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
5:17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
5:18 Woe to them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
5:19 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]!
5:20 Woe to 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!
5:21 Woe to [them that are] wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
5:22 Woe to [them that are] mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mix strong drink:
5:23 Who justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
5:24 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.
5:25 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 trembled, and their dead bodies [were] torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still.
5:26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar, and will hiss to them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
5:27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the belt of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
5:28 Whose arrows [are] sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
5:29 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].
5:30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if [one] looketh to the land, behold darkness [and] sorrow, and the light is darkened in its heavens.