V. I Let me, I pray, sing for my beloved a song of my loved one for his vineyard. My beloved bath a vineyard, on a hill-top, the son of oil;
2 And he digged it, and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the vine of Sorek, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a wine-fat therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild-grapes.
3 And now, ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and man of Judah, judge, I pray, betwixt me and my vineyard.
4 What is there yet to do to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild-grapes?
5 And now let me, I pray, tell you what I will do to my vineyard; Ι will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be consumed; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down;
6 And I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned, nor hoed; and there shall come up briers and thorns; and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah his pleasant plant 3 and he looked for judg- ment, and behold oppression; for righteousness, and behold a cry.
8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there is no room, and ye are made to dwell alone in the midst of the earth!
9 In mine ears (said) the LORD of Hosts, If there be not many houses desolate, great ones and fair, without inhabitant!
10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.
11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that tarry late in the dusk, while wine inflames them!
12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are their banquet; but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity, for lack of knowledge: and their glory are men of famine, and their abundance dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol hath enlarged her appetite, and opened her mouth without measure: and her honour, and her abundance, and her uproar, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into her.
15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be. humbled:
16 And the LORD of Hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy sheweth himself holy in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs feed as (in) their pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones shall sojourners eat.
18 Woe, they that drag iniquity with cords of vanity, and (their) sin as it were with a cart rope:
19 That say, Let him make speed, let him hasten his work, that we may see: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know;
20 Woe, they 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!
21 Woe, they that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe, they that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to ’strong drink:
23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the justice of the just from him!
24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devoureth the stubble, and the dry grass sinketh down in flame, their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have rejected the law of the LORD of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched ’ his hand against them, and hath smitten them; and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were as refuse in the midst of the open places. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
27 None shall be weary, nor stumble among. them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
28 Whose arrows are sharpened, and all his bows bent, his ’ hoofs shall be counted like flint. and his wheels like. a whirlwind:
29 His roar is like a ’; he shall roar like young lions; and he growleth, and seizeth the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.
30 And in that day he shall growl over him, as the growling of the sea; and if one look unto the earth, behold darkness, distress, and light; it groweth dark in the heavens thereof.
Isaias. . ed. Richard Rusden Ottley. Germany. 2016.
Sponsored by University of Leipzig.
Funding provided by European Social Fund Saxony.