Day 255 of 365

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."

¹It happened in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.

²It was told the house of David, saying, "Syria is allied with Ephraim." His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.

³Then the Lord said to Isaiah, "Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field.

⁴Tell him, 'Be careful, and keep calm. Do not be afraid, neither let your heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

⁵Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying,

⁶"Let's go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let's divide it among ourselves, and set up a king in its midst, even the son of Tabeel."

⁷This is what the Lord God says: "It shall not stand, neither shall it happen."

⁸For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people;

⁹and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.'"

¹⁰The Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

¹¹"Ask a sign of the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above."

¹²But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord."

¹³He said, "Listen now, house of David: Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also?

¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

¹⁵He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

¹⁶For before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.

¹⁷The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.

¹⁸It will happen in that day that the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹They shall come, and shall all rest in the desolate valleys, in the clefts of the rocks, on all thorn hedges, and on all pastures.

²⁰In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.

²¹It shall happen in that day that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep;

²²and it shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter: for everyone will eat butter and honey that is left in the midst of the land.

²³It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns.

²⁴People will go there with arrows and with bow, because all the land will be briers and thorns.

²⁵All the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep."

¹Give thanks to the Lord! Call on his name! Make his doings known among the peoples.

²Sing to him, sing praises to him! Tell of all his marvelous works.

³Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

⁴Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his face forever more.

⁵Remember his marvelous works that he has done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,

⁶you seed of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

⁷He is the Lord, our God. His judgments are in all the earth.

⁸He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations,

⁹the covenant which he made with Abraham, his oath to Isaac,

¹⁰and confirmed the same to Jacob for a statute; to Israel for an everlasting covenant,

¹¹saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance;"

¹²when they were but a few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it.

¹³They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.

¹⁴He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,

¹⁵"Do not touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!"

¹⁶He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies.

¹⁷He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave.

¹⁸They bruised his feet with shackles. His neck was locked in irons,

¹⁹until the time that his word happened, and the Lord's word proved him true.

²⁰The king sent and freed him; even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free.

²¹He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all of his possessions;

²²to discipline his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom.

²³Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

²⁴He increased his people greatly, and made them stronger than their adversaries.

²⁵He turned their heart to hate his people, to conspire against his servants.

²⁶He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen.

²⁷They performed miracles among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

²⁸He sent darkness, and made it dark. They did not rebel against his words.

²⁹He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish.

³⁰Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings.

³¹He spoke, and swarms of flies came, and lice in all their borders.

³²He gave them hail for rain, with lightning in their land.

³³He struck their vines and also their fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.

³⁴He spoke, and the locusts came, and the grasshoppers, without number,

³⁵ate up every plant in their land; and ate up the fruit of their ground.

³⁶He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their manhood.

³⁷He brought them forth with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes.

³⁸Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen on them.

³⁹He spread a cloud for a covering, fire to give light in the night.

⁴⁰They asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of the sky.

⁴¹He opened the rock, and waters gushed out. They ran as a river in the dry places.

⁴²For he remembered his holy word, and Abraham, his servant.

⁴³He brought forth his people with joy, his chosen with singing.

⁴⁴He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession,

⁴⁵that they might keep his statutes, and observe his laws. Praise the Lord!

¹My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.

²Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.

³Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative,

⁵that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

⁸passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,

⁹in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

¹⁰Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.

¹¹She is loud and defiant. Her feet do not stay in her house.

¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.

¹³So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

¹⁴"Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. This day I have paid my vows.

¹⁵Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving.

¹⁹For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon."

²¹With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.

²²He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.

²³Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn't know that it will cost his life.

²⁴Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn to her ways. Do not go astray in her paths,

²⁶for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.