New International Version NIV
The Message Bible MSG
1 I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
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I'll sing a ballad to the one I love, a love ballad about his vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard, a fine, well-placed vineyard.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.
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He hoed the soil and pulled the weeds, and planted the very best vines. He built a lookout, built a winepress, a vineyard to be proud of. He looked for a vintage yield of grapes, but for all his pains he got junk grapes.
3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
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"Now listen to what I'm telling you, you who live in Jerusalem and Judah. What do you think is going on between me and my vineyard?
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?
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Can you think of anything I could have done to my vineyard that I didn't do? When I expected good grapes, why did I get bitter grapes?
5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.
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"Well now, let me tell you what I'll do to my vineyard: I'll tear down its fence and let it go to ruin. I'll knock down the gate and let it be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”
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I'll turn it into a patch of weeds, untended, uncared for - thistles and thorns will take over. I'll give orders to the clouds: 'Don't rain on that vineyard, ever!'"
7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
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Do you get it? The vineyard of God-of-the-Angel-Armies is the country of Israel. All the men and women of Judah are the garden he was so proud of. He looked for a crop of justice and saw them murdering each other. He looked for a harvest of righteousness and heard only the moans of victims. You Who Call Evil Good and Good Evil
8 Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.
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Doom to you who buy up all the houses and grab all the land for yourselves - Evicting the old owners, posting no trespassing signs, Taking over the country, leaving everyone homeless and landless.
9 The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing: “Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.
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I overheard God-of-the-Angel-Armies say: "Those mighty houses will end up empty. Those extravagant estates will be deserted.
10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine; a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain.”
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A ten-acre vineyard will produce a pint of wine, a fifty-pound sack of seed, a quart of grain."
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine.
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Doom to those who get up early and start drinking booze before breakfast, Who stay up all hours of the night drinking themselves into a stupor.
12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets, pipes and timbrels and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands.
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They make sure their banquets are well-furnished with harps and flutes and plenty of wine, But they'll have nothing to do with the work of God, pay no mind to what he is doing.
13 Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; those of high rank will die of hunger and the common people will be parched with thirst.
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Therefore my people will end up in exile because they don't know the score. Their "big men" will starve to death and the common people die of thirst.
14 Therefore Death expands its jaws, opening wide its mouth; into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers.
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Sheol developed a huge appetite, swallowing people nonstop! Big people and little people alike down that gullet, to say nothing of all the drunks.
15 So people will be brought low and everyone humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
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The down-and-out on a par with the high-and-mighty, Windbag boasters crumpled, flaccid as a punctured bladder.
16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.
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But by working justice, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be a mountain. By working righteousness, Holy God will show what "holy" is.
17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.
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And lambs will graze as if they owned the place, Kids and calves right at home in the ruins.
18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes,
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Doom to you who use lies to sell evil, who haul sin to market by the truckload,
19 to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel— let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.”
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Who say, "What's God waiting for? Let him get a move on so we can see it. Whatever The Holy of Israel has cooked up, we'd like to check it out."
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
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Doom to you who call evil good and good evil, Who put darkness in place of light and light in place of darkness, Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
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Doom to you who think you're so smart, who hold such a high opinion of yourselves!
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,
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All you're good at is drinking - champion boozers who collect trophies from drinking bouts
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.
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And then line your pockets with bribes from the guilty while you violate the rights of the innocent.
24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
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But they won't get by with it. As fire eats stubble and dry grass goes up in smoke, Their souls will atrophy, their achievements crumble into dust, Because they said no to the revelation of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Would have nothing to do with The Holy of Israel.
25 Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
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That's why God flamed out in anger against his people, reached out and knocked them down. The mountains trembled as their dead bodies piled up in the streets. But even after that, he was still angry, his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.
26 He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily!
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He raises a flag, signaling a distant nation, whistles for people at the ends of the earth. And here they come - on the run!
27 Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal strap is broken.
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None drag their feet, no one stumbles, no one sleeps or dawdles. Shirts are on and pants buckled, every boot is spit-polished and tied.
28 Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses’ hooves seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
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Their arrows are sharp, bows strung, The hooves of their horses shod, chariot wheels greased.
29 Their roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue.
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Roaring like a pride of lions, the full-throated roars of young lions, They growl and seize their prey, dragging it off - no rescue for that one!
30 In that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks at the land, there is only darkness and distress; even the sun will be darkened by clouds.
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They'll roar and roar and roar on that Day, like the roar of ocean billows. Look as long and hard as you like at that land, you'll see nothing but darkness and trouble. Every light in the sky will be blacked out by the clouds. Holy, Holy, Holy!
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.