A song about the vineyard of the Lord
1I want to sing a song
for Someone whom I love.
I want to sing about his vineyard
because I love Him.
He has a vineyard on a hill
where the land is good and fertile.
2He ploughed the land on the hill
and He took out all the stones,
and planted good vines.
Then He built a tower in the vineyard
and He made a wine-press.
He hoped that the vines
would give Him good grapes,
but the vines gave only bad grapes.
3And now He says to the people
who live in Jerusalem
and the people of Judah:
‘You must say who has done right,
Me or my vineyard.
4What more must I do for my vineyard
that I have not done already?
I hoped that my vines
would give good grapes,
but they gave only bad fruit.
5Now I am going to tell you
what I will do with my vineyard:
I will break down the wall around my vineyard,
and then the animals can come
and eat the vines and trample them.
6I will leave the vineyard.
I will not cut off the bad branches
and I will not take out the weeds.
Thorns and bushes will grow
in the vineyard and I will tell the clouds
not to rain on my vineyard.’
7Who is the vineyard of the Lord,
who rules over all?
Israel is the vineyard of the Lord
and the people of Judah are his garden.
The Lord wanted to rejoice over them,
and He waited for them to do
what is right to other people,
but they did not do it.
The people who sin will suffer
8You will suffer, all of you
who take the land of other people.
Now they have no place to live,
and only you have a place.
9The Lord who rules over all
said to me: ‘The enemies will come
and they will destroy all your homes,
this is sure.
No one will live in your big,
beautiful homes.
10You will get only a little wine
from a big vineyard,
and you will sow a lot of seed,
but you will get only a little wheat.’
11You will have a lot of trouble,
you who get up
early in the morning to drink wine,
and who stay up late at night
for the wine to make you warm.
12You listen to the music of lyres,
harps, tambourines and flutes.
You drink wine when you celebrate,
but you don't see what the Lord is doing.
You don't see the work of his hands.
13My people do not want to be near Me.
That is why the enemies
will take them away to other lands.
The people and their leaders will die
because they will not have
food to eat or water to drink.
14My people do not want to be near Me.
That is why the grave is like a big animal
that opens its mouth wide to eat them.
All those people who
are shouting and rejoicing,
all the important people,
will go down to the underworld.
15Then the people who are proud
will not be important anymore.
16The Lord who rules over all,
the holy God, He alone
will be important and holy
because He does what is right to people,
and He is always fair.
17Sheep will eat where the city was before.
They will stay there like long ago.
18All who serve_idols will suffer.
The sin that they do
is like a wagon that they pull
behind them with strong ropes.
19They say: ‘The holy God of Israel
must hurry up.
He must do his work quickly,
because we want to see it.
What He decided to do must happen now.
We want to know what He does.’
20You will have a lot of trouble,
you who say that bad things are good
and good things are bad.
You say the dark is light
and the light is dark, and you say that
bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.
21Everyone who thinks he is very clever,
and everyone who thinks
he knows very much, will suffer.
22Everyone who thinks he is very strong,
and all who drink wine and strong beer, will suffer.
23Then they say that people
who have done wrong are right,
and people who have done right
are wrong, because they pay them
bribe money to say that.
24That is why they will burn like chaff,
like grass that is burning.
There will be nothing left of them,
because they have not done what the Lord
who rules over all has said.
The holy God of Israel talked to them,
but they did not want to listen
to his laws, and they disobeyed Him.
25That is why the Lord
became angry with his people.
He put out his hand and punished them.
The mountains trembled and the bodies
of dead people were everywhere
in the streets like dirt.
And the Lord continues punishing them.
He stays angry with them.
26He lifts up his flag
and He calls a nation who is far away.
He whistles to call them
and they come very quickly
from their land far away.
27Not one of them gets tired,
no one falls, no one is sleeping,
no one loosens his belt
or wants to go to the toilet
and no one's sandals break.
28Their arrows are sharp,
and they get ready to shoot
their bows_and_arrows.
The hooves of their horses are hard as stone,
and the wheels of their war-chariots
turn as fast as the wind.
29The enemies are like lions
that roar when they catch an animal
and take it away where no one can save it.
30When the enemies come on that day,
there will be a loud_noise
like the roaring sea.
The land_of_Israel will become dark,
and the people will suffer.
Dark clouds will come and it will be very dark.
