Isaiah sings a love song about a vineyard that produced wild grapes, a picture of Israel and Judah, which has yielded injustice instead of justice. Six woes follow against greed, drunkenness and calling evil good, and God's anger is stirred.
1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard . My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill :
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine , and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes , and it brought forth wild grapes .
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem , and men of Judah , judge , I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard .
4 What could have been done more 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 go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard : I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up ; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down :
6 And I will lay it waste : it shall not be pruned , nor digged ; but there shall come up briers and thorns : I will also 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 men of Judah his pleasant plant : and he looked for judgment , but behold oppression ; for righteousness , but behold a cry .
8 Woe unto them that join house to house , that lay field to field , till there be no place , that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth !
9 In mine ears said the LORD of hosts , Of a truth many houses shall be desolate , even great and fair , without inhabitant .
10 Yea , ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath , and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah .
11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning , that they may follow strong drink ; that continue until night , till wine inflame them!
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 .
13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity , because they have no knowledge : and their honourable men are famished , and their multitude dried up with thirst .
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.
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 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment , and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness .
17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner , and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat .
18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity , and sin as it were with a cart rope :
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 nigh and come , that we may know it!
20 Woe unto 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 !
21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes , and prudent in their own sight !
22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine , and men of strength to mingle strong drink :
23 Which justify the wicked for reward , and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
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 .
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 did tremble , and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets . 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 sharp , and all their bows bent , their horses ' hoofs shall be counted like flint , and their wheels like a whirlwind :
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.
30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea : and if one look unto the land , behold darkness and sorrow , and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.