The Vineyard of the Lord Destroyed
1Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had va vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with wchoice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and xhe looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
3And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4yWhat more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
xWhen I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
5And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove zits hedge,
and it shall be devoured;1
aI will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and bbriers and thorns shall grow up;
cI will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
7dFor the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;2
for righteousness,
but behold, an outcry!3
Woe to the Wicked
8Woe to those who ejoin house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is no more room,
and you are made to dwell alone
in the midst of the land.
9The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
f“Surely many houses shall be desolate,
large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
10gFor ten acres4 of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
and a hhomer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”5
11Woe to those who irise early in the morning,
that they may run after strong drink,
who tarry late into the evening
as wine inflames them!
12jThey have lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,
kbut they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,
or see the work of his hands.
13Therefore my people go into exile
their mhonored men go hungry,7
and their multitude is parched with thirst.
14Therefore Sheol has nenlarged its appetite
and opened oits mouth beyond measure,
and the nobility of Jerusalem8 and her multitude will go down,
her revelers and he who pexults in her.
15qMan is humbled, and each one is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty9 are brought low.
16rBut the Lord of hosts is exalted10 in justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
17Then shall the lambs graze sas in their pasture,
and tnomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.
18Woe to those who draw iniquity with ucords of falsehood,
who draw sin as with cart ropes,
19who say: v“Let him be quick,
let him speed his work
that we may see it;
let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
and let it come, that we may know it!”
20Woe to wthose who call evil good
and good evil,
xwho put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21Woe to those who are ywise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
22Woe to those who are zheroes at drinking wine,
and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23who aacquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of his right!
24Therefore, bas the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so ctheir root will be das rottenness,
and their blossom go up like dust;
for they have erejected the law of the Lord of hosts,
and have fdespised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25Therefore gthe anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,
and hthe mountains quaked;
and their corpses were ias refuse
in the midst of the streets.
jFor all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
26He will kraise a signal for nations far away,
and lwhistle for them mfrom the ends of the earth;
and behold, quickly, speedily they come!
27nNone is weary, none stumbles,
none slumbers or sleeps,
not a waistband is loose,
not a sandal strap broken;
28otheir arrows are sharp,
all their bows bent,
their horses' hoofs seem like flint,
and their wheels plike the whirlwind.
29Their roaring is like a lion,
like young lions they roar;
they growl and qseize their prey;
they carry it off, and none can rescue.
30They will growl over it on that day,
like the growling of the sea.
And if one looks to the land,
behold, rdarkness and distress;
and the light is darkened by its clouds.
Footnotes
- 1 5:5 Or grazed over; compare Exodus 22:5
- 2 5:7 The Hebrew words for justice and bloodshed sound alike
- 3 5:7 The Hebrew words for righteous and outcry sound alike
- 4 5:10 Hebrew ten yoke, the area ten yoke of oxen can plow in a day
- 5 5:10 A bath was about 6 gallons or 22 liters; a homer was about 6 bushels or 220 liters; an ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters
- 6 5:13 Or without their knowledge
- 7 5:13 Or die of hunger
- 8 5:14 Hebrew her nobility
- 9 5:15 Hebrew high
- 10 5:16 Hebrew high
The Prophesied Kingdom — Part One
Ezra 1:1 – Malachi 4:6 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 36:31 • ID: 2390The Prophesied Kingdom — Part Two
Ezra 1:1 – Malachi 4:6 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 43:38 • ID: 2391Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.