Isaiah:5

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* Let me sing to my loved one a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard : My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hill . * He dug the soil all around and removed its stones . He planted it with the choicest vine . And he built a tower in the middle of it and also hewed out a wine vat in it . Then he expected it to produce good grapes , but it only produced worthless ones . * »Now then , you inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah , judge between my vineyard and me ! * »What more could have been done for my vineyard than what I have already done for it ? When I waited for it to produce good grapes , why did it produce only sour , wild grapes ? * »Here is what I am going to do to my vineyard : I will take away the hedge and break down the wall that protects it . I will let wild animals eat it and trample it down . * »It will turn into a desert , neither pruned nor cultivated . It will be covered with thorns and briars . I will command the clouds not to send rain .« * I am Jehovah of Hosts ! Israel is the vineyard , and Judah is the garden I tended with care . I had hoped for honesty and for justice , but dishonesty and cries for mercy were all I found . * Cursed are those who are joining house to house , and putting field to field , till there is no more living-space for any but themselves in all the land ! * With my own ears I heard Jehovah of Hosts say : »Many houses will become empty . Large , beautiful houses will be without people to live in them . * »A ten-acre vineyard will produce only six gallons of wine , and two quarts of seed will produce only four quarts of grain .« * How horrible it will be for those who get up early in the morning to look for a drink and who sit up late at night until they are drunk from wine . * At their feasts there are lyres and harps , tambourines and flutes , and wine . Yet , they do not pay attention to what Jehovah is doing or respect what his hands have done . * My people will go into exile because they do not understand what I am doing . Honored men will starve , and common people will be parched with thirst . * That is why the grave 's appetite increases . It opens its mouth very wide so that honored people and common people will go down into it . Those who are noisy and joyous will go down into it . * People will be brought down . Everyone will be humiliated and the eyes of arrogant people will be abased . * Jehovah of Hosts shows his greatness by doing what is right . He reveals his holiness by judging his people . * In the ruins of the cities lambs will eat grass and young goats will find pasture . * Woe to those who scatter sin with cords of falsehood and iniquity with a cart rope ! * You say : »Let Jehovah hurry up and do what he says he will , so that we can see it . Let Israel 's holy God carry out his plans . Let us see what he has in mind .« * You are doomed ! You call evil good and you call good evil . You turn darkness into light and light into darkness . You make what is bitter , sweet , and what is sweet you make bitter . * You are doomed ! You think you are wise . You think you are so very clever . * You are doomed ! Heroes of the wine bottle ! Brave and fearless when it comes to mixing drinks ! * You let the guilty go free for a bribe and you keep the innocent from getting justice . * You will go up in flames like straw and hay ! You have rejected the law of the holy God Jehovah the All-Powerful Holy One of Israel . Now your roots will rot , and your blossoms will turn to dust . * You are Jehovah ’s people , but you made him terribly angry , and he struck you with his mighty arm . Mountains shook , and dead bodies covered the streets like garbage . Jehovah is still angry . He is ready to strike you again . * Jehovah raises up a flag for the nations far away . With a whistle he signals those at the ends of the earth . Look , they are coming very quickly ! * None of them grow tired or stumble . None of them slumber or sleep . The belts on their waists are not loose or their sandal straps broken . * Their arrows are sharpened . All their bows are strung and ready to shoot . Their horses ' hoofs are as hard as flint . Their chariot wheels are as quick as the wind . * They roar like a lioness . They growl like a young lion . They growl as they snatch their prey and carry it off to where no one can rescue it . * In that day they will roar over their prey as the sea roars . If they look at the land , they will see only darkness and distress . Thick clouds will darken even the light .

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