2 And he hedged it, and chose stones thereof, and planted a chosen vinery [or vineyard]; and he builded a tower in the midst thereof, and reared a wine press therein; and he abode, that it should make grapes, and it made wild grapes.
3 Now therefore, ye dwellers of Jerusalem, and ye men of Judah, deem between me and my vinery [or vineyard].
4 What is it that I ought to do more to my vinery [or vineyard], and I did not to it? whether that I abode, that it should make grapes, and it made wild grapes?
5 And now I shall show to you, what I shall do to my vinery [or vineyard]. I shall take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be into ravishing; I shall cast down the wall thereof, and it shall be into defouling;
6 and I shall set it deserted, either forsaken. It shall not be cut, and it shall not be digged, and briars and thorns shall grow upon it; and I shall command to [the] clouds, that they rain not rain on it.
7 Forsooth the vinery [or vineyard] of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah be the delightable burgeoning of him. I abode, that it shall make doom, and lo! wickedness; and that it should do rightfulness [or rightwiseness], and lo! cry.
8 Woe to you that join house to house, and couple field to field, till to the end of [a] place. Whether ye alone shall dwell in the midst of the land?
9 These things be in the ears of me, the Lord of hosts; If many houses be not forsaken, great and fair, without dweller, believe ye not to me.
10 For why ten acres of vines [or vineyards] shall make one pottle, and thirty bushels of seed shall make three bushels.
11 Woe to you that rise altogether early to follow drunkenness, and to drink till to eventide, that ye burn with wine.
12 Harp, and gittern, and tympan, and pipe, and wine be in your feasts; and ye behold not the work of the Lord, neither ye behold the works of his hands.
13 Therefore my people is led captive, either prisoner, for it had not knowing; and the noblemen thereof perished in hunger, and the multitude thereof was dry in thirst.
14 Therefore hell hath alarged his soul, and opened his mouth without any end; and the strong men thereof, and the people thereof, and the high men, and the glorious men thereof, shall go down to it.
15 And a man shall be bowed down, and a man of age shall be made low; and the eyes of high men shall be pressed down.
16 And the Lord of hosts shall be enhanced in doom, and [the] holy God shall be hallowed in rightfulness [or rightwiseness].
17 And lambs shall be fed by their order, and comelings shall eat of the desert places turned into plenty.
18 Woe to you that draw wickedness in the cords of vanity, and draw sin as the bond of a wain;
19 and ye say, The work of him hasten, and come soon, that we see; and the counsel of the Holy of Israel nigh, and come, and we shall know it.
20 Woe to you that say evil good, and good evil; and put darknesses light, and light darknesses; and put bitter thing into sweet, and sweet thing into bitter.
21 Woe to you that be wise men in your eyes, and be prudent before yourselves.
22 Woe to you that be mighty to drink wine, and be strong to meddle [or mingle] drunkenness;
23 and ye justify a wicked man for gifts, and ye take away the rightful-ness [or rightwiseness] of a just [or rightwise] man from him.
24 For this thing, as the tongue of fire devoureth stubble, and the heat of flame burneth, so the root of them shall be as a dead spark, and the seed of them shall ascend [or go up] as dust; for they casted away the law of the Lord of hosts, and blasphemed the speech of the Holy of Israel.
25 Therefore the strong vengeance of the Lord was wroth against his people, and he stretched forth his hand on it, and smote it; and hills were troubled [or the mountains be disturbed], and the dead bodies of them were made as a turd in the midst [or the middle] of streets. In all these things the strong vengeance of him was not turned away, but yet his hand was stretched forth.
26 And he shall raise [up] a sign among nations afar, and he shall hiss to him from the ends of [the] earth; and lo! he shall hasten, and shall come swiftly.
27 None is failing neither travailing in that host; he shall not nap, neither sleep, neither the girdle of his reins shall be undone, neither the lace of his shoe shall be broken.
28 His arrows be sharp, and all his bows be bent; the hoofs of his horses be as flint, and his wheels be as the fierceness of tempest.
29 His roaring shall be as of a lion; he shall roar as the whelps of lions; and he shall gnash, and shall hold prey, and shall embrace, and none shall be, that shall deliver.
30 And he shall sound on it in that day, as doeth the sound of the sea; we shall behold into the earth, and lo! darknesses of tribulation, and light is made dark in the darkness thereof.
<- ISAIAH 4ISAIAH 6 ->