A song about the people who were like Yahweh’s vineyard

1Now I will sing a song about my dear friend, and about his vineyard.
The vineyard was on a very fertile hillside.

2My friend plowed the ground and cleared away the stones. Then he planted very good grapevines on that ground. In the middle of the vineyard, he built a watchtower, and he dug a ◄winepress/pit for squeezing the grapes►. Then he waited each year to harvest some good grapes, but the vines produced only sour grapes.

3Now this is what Yahweh says: “You people of Jerusalem and other places in Judah, I am like the friend, and you are like my vineyard; so you judge which of us has done what is right.

4What more could I have done for you than what I have already done? I expected you to be doing good deeds [MET], so it is disgusting that [RHQ] you were doing only evil things
like the vineyard that produced only sour grapes!

5So, I will now tell you what I will do to Judah, the place that is like my vineyard.
I will cut down the hedges, and they will be destroyed. I will tear down the walls of the cities and allow wild animals to trample the land.

6I will cause it to become a wasteland where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed. It will be a place where briers and thorns [DOU] grow. And I will command that no rain will fall on it.”

7The nation of Israel is like [MET] the vineyard of the Commander of the armies of angels. The people of Judah are like the garden that was pleasing to him. He expected you to be doing what is just/fair, but instead, what he saw was people murdering [MTY] others. He expected that you would be doing righteous deeds, but instead, he heard cries from people who were being attacked violently.

Yahweh promises to punish Judah

8Terrible things will happen to you who continually illegally acquire houses and fields.
You force one family after another to leave their homes until you are the only ones [HYP] still living in the land.

9But I heard the Commander of the armies of angels solemnly declare this: “Some day, many of those huge houses will be empty/deserted; no one will be living in those beautiful mansions.

10The vines on ten acres of land will not produce enough grapes to make ◄six gallons/22 liters► of juice/wine, and ten baskets of seed will produce only one basket of grain.”

11Terrible things will happen to those who get up early each morning to begin drinking alcoholic drinks, and who stay awake until late at night drinking a lot of wine until they are completely drunk.

12They have big parties and provide lots of wine. At their parties, there are people playing harps and lyres and tambourines and flutes, but they never think about what Yahweh does or appreciate what he has created.

13So, my people will be ◄exiled/taken to other countries► far away because they do not know about me. Those who are now very important and honored will starve, and the other people will die from thirst.

14It is as though [PRS] the place where the dead people are is eagerly looking for more Israeli people, opening its mouth to swallow them, and a huge number of people will be thrown into that place, including their leaders as well as a noisy crowd of people who enjoy living in Jerusalem.

15Yahweh will get rid of a huge number of people; and he will humble many more people who now are proud/arrogant.

16But the Commander of the armies of angels will be exalted/praised because of his acting justly. God will show that he is holy by doing righteous/just deeds.

17Then lambs and fat sheep will be able to find good grass to eat, even among the ruins of the houses of rich people.

18Some people constantly tell lies, and it is as though they are dragging behind them the wrong things that they have done. Terrible things will happen to them!

19They make fun of God and say to him, “Go ahead, do something to punish us!
We want to see what you will do. You, the Holy One of Israel, should do what you are planning to do, because we want to know what it is.”

20Terrible things will happen to those who say that evil is good, and that good is evil, that darkness is light and that light is darkness, that what is bitter is sweet and what is sweet is bitter.

21Terrible things will happen to those who think that they are wise and that they ◄are very clever/know everything►.

22Terrible things will happen to those who think that [IRO] they are great/heroes because they are able to drink lots of wine,
and boast about being able to mix good alcoholic drinks.

23If people offer them bribes in order that they will enable wicked people not to be punished, they accept those bribes,
and they cause people who are innocent to be punished.

24Therefore, just like [SIM] fires burn up stubble and dry grass shrivels up and quickly burns in flames, it will be as though those people have roots that will rot and have flowers that will wither. That will happen because they rejected the laws of the Commander of the armies of angels; they have despised the messages of the Holy One of Israel.

25That is why Yahweh is extremely angry with his people; it is as though his hand is raised and he is ready to smash them. When he does that, the mountains will shake, and the corpses of people will be scattered in the streets like [SIM] manure. But even when that happens, Yahweh will still be very angry; he will be ready to punish his people [MET] again.

26Yahweh will send a signal to summon armies of nations far away; it is as though he will whistle to summon those soldiers who are in very remote places on the earth. They will come very swiftly [DOU] to Jerusalem.

27They will not get tired or stumble. They will not stop to rest or to sleep. None of their belts will be loose,
and none of them will have sandals with broken straps, so they will all be ready to fight in battles.

28Their arrows will be sharp, and their bows will be ready to shoot those arrows in a battle. Because their horses pull the chariots fast, sparks will shoot out from their hooves, and the wheels of the chariots will spin like a whirlwind.

29They will roar like very strong lions [DOU] that growl and then pounce on the animals they want to kill and carry them off, and no one is able to rescue them.

30Similarly, your enemies will roar when they see the people they are about to kill, like [SIM] the sea roars. On that day, if someone looks across the land, he will see only people who are in darkness and distressed;
it will be as though even the sunlight is hidden by dark clouds.