5:1 Now will I sing to My well-beloved a song of My beloved touching His kerem (vineyard). My wellbeloved has a kerem (vineyard) in a very fruitful hill:
5:2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
5:3 And now, O inhabitants of Yerushalayim, and men of Yehudah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and MY kerem (vineyard).
5:4 What could have been done more to MY kerem (vineyard), that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
5:5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to MY kerem (vineyard): I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; [and] break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
5:6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
5:7 For the kerem (vineyard) of ADONAI (יהוה) Tzva'ot (צבא) [is] the Bayit Yisrael, and the men of Yehudah his pleasant plant: and he looked for misphat, but behold oppression; for tzedekah (צדקה), but behold a cry.
5:8 Woe to them that join house to house, [that] lay field to field, till [there be] no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
5:9 In mine ears [said] ADONAI (יהוה) Tzva'ot (צבא), Of a truth many batim (houses) shall be desolate, [even] great and fair, without inhabitant.
5:10 Yea, ten acres (yokes) of kerem (vineyard) shall yield one bath, and the zera (seed) of an homer (six bushels) shall yield an ephah (3/5 bushels).
5:11 Woe to them that rise up early in the morning, [that] they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, [till] wine inflame them!
5:12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of ADONAI (יהוה), neither consider the operation of his hands.
5:13 Therefore My people are gone into captivity, because [they have] no knowledge: and their honourable men [are] famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
5:14 Therefore hell has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
5:15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
5:16 But ADONAI (יהוה) Tzva'ot (צבא) shall be exalted in misphat, and EL ha Kodesh shall be sanctified in tzedekah (צדקה).
5:17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
5:18 Woe to them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
5:19 That say, Let him make speed, [and] haveen his work, that we may see [it]: and let the counsel of the Set apart One of Yisrael draw nigh and come, that we may know [it]!
5:20 Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
5:21 Woe to [them that are] wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
5:22 Woe to [them that are] mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
5:23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the tzedekah (צדקה) of the tzaddik from him!
5:24 Therefore as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, [so] their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of ADONAI (יהוה) Tzva'ot (צבא), and despised the word of the Set apart One of Yisrael.
5:25 Therefore is the anger of ADONAI (יהוה) kindled against his people, and he has stretched forth his hand against them, and has smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases [were] torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still.
5:26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss to them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
5:27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
5:28 Whose arrows [are] sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
5:29 Their roaring [shall be] like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry [it] away safe, and none shall deliver [it].
5:30 And B'Yom ha Hu they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if [one] look to the land, behold darkness [and] sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.