Day 153 of 365

¹For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water;

²the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder,

³the captain of fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, the skilled craftsman, and the clever enchanter.

⁴I will give boys to be their princes, and children shall rule over them.

⁵The people will be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor. The child will behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable.

⁶Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, "You have clothing, you be our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand."

⁷In that day he will cry out, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. You shall not make me ruler of the people.

⁸For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

⁹The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves.

¹⁰Tell the righteous "Good!" For they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

¹¹Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.

¹²As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.

¹³The Lord stands up to contend, and stands to judge the peoples.

¹⁴The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and their leaders: "It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The spoil of the poor is in your houses.

¹⁵What do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor?" says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

¹⁶Moreover the Lord said, "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes, walking to trip as they go, jingling ornaments on their feet;

¹⁷therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion, and the Lord will make their scalps bald."

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces,

¹⁹the earrings, the bracelets, the veils,

²⁰the headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the perfume bottles, the charms,

²¹the signet rings, the nose rings,

²²the fine robes, the capes, the cloaks, the purses,

²³the hand mirrors, the fine linen garments, the tiaras, and the shawls.

²⁴It shall happen that instead of sweet spices, there shall be rottenness; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of well set hair, baldness; instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty.

²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war.

²⁶Her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate and sit on the ground.

¹Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing: only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach."

²In that day, the Lord's branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors of Israel.

³It will happen, that he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem;

⁴when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from its midst, by the spirit of justice, and by the spirit of burning.

⁵The Lord will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy.

⁶There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain.

¹Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.

²He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in its midst, and also cut out a winepress therein. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

³"Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.

⁴What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?

⁵Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall of it, and it will be trampled down.

⁶I will lay it a wasteland. It won't be pruned nor hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it."

⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

⁸Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!

⁹In my ears, the Lord of hosts says: "Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah."

¹¹Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!

¹²The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they do not regard the work of the Lord, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.

¹³Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend into it.

¹⁵So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;

¹⁶but the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.

¹⁷Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.

¹⁸Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope;

¹⁹Who say, "Let him make speed, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!"

²⁰Woe 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!

²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

²²Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;

²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!

²⁴Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵Therefore the Lord's anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them, and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.

²⁶He will lift up a banner to the nations from far, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.

²⁷None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the belt of their waist be untied, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

²⁸whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses' hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.

²⁹Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver.

³⁰They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.

¹In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.

²Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.

³One called to another, and said, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory!"

⁴The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵Then I said, "Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.

⁷He touched my mouth with it, and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven."

⁸I heard the Lord's voice, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am. Send me!"

⁹He said, "Go, and tell this people, 'You hear indeed, but do not understand; and you see indeed, but do not perceive.'

¹⁰Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed."

¹¹Then I said, "Lord, how long?" He answered, "Until cities are waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land becomes utterly waste,

¹²And the Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

¹³If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remains when they are felled; so the holy seed is its stock."