6. I will make it a wasteland.It will never be pruned or hoed.Thorns and weeds will grow in it,and I will command the clouds not to rain on it.
7. The vineyard of the Lord of Armies is the nation of Israel,and the people of Judah are the garden of his delight.He hoped for justice but saw only slaughter,for righteousness but heard only cries of distress.
8. How horrible it will be for youwho acquire house after house and buy field after fielduntil there’s nothing leftand you have to live by yourself in the land.
9. With my own ears I heard the Lord of Armies say,“Many houses will become empty.Large, beautiful houses will be without people to live in them.
10. A ten-acre vineyard will produce only six gallons of wine,and two quarts of seed will produce only four quarts of grain.”
11. How horrible it will be for thosewho get up early to look for a drink,who sit up late until they are drunk from wine.
12. At their feasts there are lyres and harps,tambourines and flutes, and wine.Yet, they don’t pay attention to what the Lord is doingor see what his hands have done.
13. “My people will go into exilebecause they don’t understand what I’m doing.Honored men will starve,and common people will be parched with thirst.”
14. That is why the grave’s appetite increases.It opens its mouth very wideso that honored people and common people will go down into it.Those who are noisy and joyous will go down into it.
15. People will be brought down. Everyone will be humbled.And the eyes of arrogant people will be humbled.
16. The Lord of Armies will be honored when he judges.The holy God will show himself to be holy when he does what is right.
17. Then lambs will graze as if they were in their own pasture,and foreigners will eat among the ruins of the rich.
18. How horrible it will be for thosewho string people along with lies and empty promises,whose lives are sinful.
19. They say,“Let God hurry and quickly do his workso that we may see what he has in mind.Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel happen quicklyso that we may understand what he is doing.”
20. How horrible it will be for thosewho call evil good and good evil,who turn darkness into light and light into darkness,who turn what is bitter into something sweetand what is sweet into something bitter.