New Living Translation NLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 Now I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a rich and fertile hill.
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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 plowed the land, cleared its stones, and planted it with the best vines. In the middle he built a watchtower and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks. Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but the grapes that grew were bitter.
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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 people of Jerusalem and Judah, you 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 I have done for my vineyard that I have not already done? When I expected sweet grapes, why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes?
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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 let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will tear down its hedges and let it be destroyed. I will break down its walls and let the animals trample it.
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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 wild place where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed, a place overgrown with briers and thorns. I will command the clouds to drop no 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 nation of Israel is the vineyard of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. The people of Judah are his pleasant garden. He expected a crop of justice, but instead he found oppression. He expected to find righteousness, but instead he heard cries of violence.
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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 What sorrow for you who buy up house after house and field after field, until everyone is evicted 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 But I have heard the LORD of Heaven’s Armies swear a solemn oath: “Many houses will stand deserted; even beautiful mansions will be empty.
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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 Ten acres of vineyard will not produce even six gallons of wine. Ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket 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 What sorrow for those who get up early in the morning looking for a drink of alcohol and spend long evenings drinking wine to make themselves flaming drunk.
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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 furnish wine and lovely music at their grand parties— lyre and harp, tambourine and flute— but they never think about the LORD or notice what he is doing.
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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 So my people will go into exile far away because they do not know me. Those who are great and honored will starve, and the common people will die of 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 The grave is licking its lips in anticipation, opening its mouth wide. The great and the lowly and all the drunken mob will be swallowed up.
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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 Humanity will be destroyed, and people brought down; even the arrogant will lower their eyes in humiliation.
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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 of Heaven’s Armies will be exalted by his justice. The holiness of God will be displayed by his righteousness.
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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 In that day lambs will find good pastures, and fattened sheep and young goats will feed among the ruins.
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And lambs will graze as if they owned the place, Kids and calves right at home in the ruins.
18 What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them with ropes made of lies, who drag wickedness behind them like a cart!
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Doom to you who use lies to sell evil, who haul sin to market by the truckload,
19 They even mock God and say, “Hurry up and do something! We want to see what you can do. Let the Holy One of Israel carry out his plan, for we want to know what it is.”
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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 What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is 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 What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever.
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Doom to you who think you're so smart, who hold such a high opinion of yourselves!
22 What sorrow for those who are heroes at drinking wine and boast about all the alcohol they can hold.
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All you're good at is drinking - champion boozers who collect trophies from drinking bouts
23 They take bribes to let the wicked go free, and they punish 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, just as fire licks up stubble and dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will rot and their flowers wither. For they have rejected the law of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies; they have despised 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 That is why the LORD ’s anger burns against his people, and why he has raised his fist to crush them. The mountains tremble, and the corpses of his people litter the streets like garbage. But even then the LORD ’s anger is not satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike!
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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 will send a signal to distant nations far away and whistle to those at the ends of the earth. They will come racing toward Jerusalem.
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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 They will not get tired or stumble. They will not stop for rest or sleep. Not a belt will be loose, not a sandal strap 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 will be sharp and their bows ready for battle. Sparks will fly from their horses’ hooves, and the wheels of their chariots will spin like a whirlwind.
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Their arrows are sharp, bows strung, The hooves of their horses shod, chariot wheels greased.
29 They will roar like lions, like the strongest of lions. Growling, they will pounce on their victims and carry them off, and no one will be there to rescue them.
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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 They will roar over their victims on that day of destruction like the roaring of the sea. If someone looks across the land, only darkness and distress will be seen; even the light 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!