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Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes,

Brought it forth wild grapes?

 

⁵And now come, I will tell you

What I will do to my vineyard:

I will take away the hedge thereof,

And it shall be eaten up;

I will break down the fence thereof,

And it shall be trodden down;

⁶And I will lay it waste:

It shall not be pruned nor hoed,

But there shall come up briers and thorns;

I will also command the clouds

That they rain no rain upon it.

 

⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,

And the men of Judah the plant of His delight;

And He looked for justice, but behold violence;

For righteousness, but behold a cry.

 

⁸Woe unto them that join house to house,

That lay field to field,

Till there be no room, and ye be made to dwell

Alone in the midst of the land!

⁹In mine ears said the Lord of hosts:

Of a truth many houses shall be desolate,

Even great and fair, without inhabitant.

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,

And the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah.

 

¹¹Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning,

That they may follow strong drink;

That tarry late into the night,

Till wine inflame them!

¹²And the harp and the psaltery, the tabret and the pipe,

And wine, are in their feasts;

But they regard not the work of the Lord,

Neither have they considered the operation of His hands.

¹³Therefore My people are gone into captivity,

For want of knowledge;

And their honourable men are famished,

And their multitude are parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore the nether-world hath enlarged her desire,

And opened her mouth without measure;

And down goeth their glory, and their tumult, and their uproar,

And he that rejoiceth among them.

¹⁵And man is bowed down,

And man is humbled,

And the eyes of the lofty are humbled;

¹⁶But the Lord of hosts is exalted through justice,

And God the Holy One is sanctified through righteousness.

¹⁷Then shall the lambs feed as in their pasture,

And the waste places of the fat ones shall wanderers eat.

 

¹⁸Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity,

And sin as it were with a cart rope,

¹⁹That say: 'Let Him make speed, let Him 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!'

 

²⁰Woe unto them that call evil good,

And good evil;

That change darkness into light,

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