1 The prophet said, Now I will sing to Israel, who is like a vineyard, the seed of Abraham my beloved, a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My people, my beloved Israel, I gave them an inheritance on a high mountain, in a fertile land. 2 I sanctified them and made them glorious; I propped them up like a precious vine. I built my sanctuary among them, and I also gave my altar to make atonement for their sins. I thought they would do good works before me, but they did evil works. 3 The prophet said to them, They have revolted from the Torah and are not willing to return. Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge the case between me and my people. 4 What more good could I have thought to do for them that I have not done? And what is this? I thought they would do good, but they have done evil. 5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my people: I will cause my Shekinah to depart from them, and they will be plundered; I will break down the house of their sanctuary, and they will be trampled down.⁠a 6 I will make them abandoned; they will not be visited or supported; they will be cast out and forsaken. I will command the prophets not to prophesy to them. 7 For the people of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant. I thought they would do justice, but they are oppressors; I thought they would do righteousness, but they are multiplying sins. 8 Woe to those who join house to house, who bring the field of violence near to their own fields, saying, “Until we possess every place”; and they think they will dwell alone in the midst of the land. 9 The prophet said, With my own ears I have heard when this was decreed from before the LORD of hosts, “Truly, many houses will be desolate, even the great and the fair, with no inhabitant.” 10 Because of the sin of not giving tithes,⁠b a place of ten acres of vineyard will produce one bath, and the place where a cor of seed was sown will produce three measures. 11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning chasing after old wine, slow to leave it, lingering on their couches until the dawn of morning. The wine of oppression inflames them! 12 At their feasts there are the harp and the viol, the cithara, the organ, and the wine; but they do not regard the Torah of the LORD, nor consider the work of His power. 13 Therefore my people have gone into captivity unawares, their honored men have died of famine, and their multitude of dryness and thirst. 14 Therefore hell has enlarged itself and opened its mouth without measure; and their nobles, and their multitudes, and their tumultuous assemblies, and whoever is strong among them, will descend into it. 15 The common man will be humbled, the strength of the strong will be weakened, and the eyes of the proud will be humbled. 16 And the LORD of hosts will be mighty in judgment, and the holy God will be sanctified in righteousness. 17 And the righteous will be fed, as it is promised concerning them, and they will multiply; and the righteous will possess the possessions of the ungodly. 18 Woe to those who begin to sin a little at a time, drawing sins along with the ropes of vanity, and they go on and increase until they are strong, and their sins are like a cart-rope. 19 those who say, “When will He hasten and reveal His miracle, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!” 20 Woe to those who say to the wicked who prosper in this world, “You are good”; and say to the meek, “You are wicked.” Is it not so? When light comes to the righteous, will it not be dark for the wicked? The words of the Torah will be sweet to those who do them, but bitterness will come to the wicked, and they will know that in the end sin is bitter to those who commit it. 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight! 22 Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and mighty lords of riches, who make themselves drunk with old wine. 23 who justify the guilty in order to receive from him the mammon of falsehood, and wickedly take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. 24 Therefore they will be devoured like stubble in the fire and like dry hay in the flame; their strength is multiplying, but it will be like an ulcer, and the money of their oppression like the dust that flies away; because they despised the Torah of the LORD of hosts and rejected the Memra, the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore the anger of the LORD of hosts is mighty against His people, and He has lifted the stroke of His power upon them. When He struck them, the mountains moved, and their carcasses were cast out like dung in the midst of the streets.⁠c For all this they do not turn away from their sins, that His fury might turn away from them; but until now their rebellion grows stronger, and His stroke is again to take vengeance on them. 26 And He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away, and He will call him from the end of the earth; and a king with his army will come swiftly, like light clouds. 27 None among them will be weary or stumble; none will slumber or sleep; the belt at their waist will not be loosened, nor the strap of their sandals broken. 28 Their arrows are sharp and their bows bent; their horses’ hooves are hard like flint, and their wheels swift like a whirlwind. 29 His roaring will be like a lion, and he will roar like a young lion; he will roar and seize the prey and carry it away safely, and none will rescue it. 30 And at that time he will roar against them like the roaring of the sea, so that if the wicked seek support from the inhabitants of the earth, he will bring upon them oppression and destruction; but the righteous who are in that hour will be protected on account of the evil.