For before harvest, when the flower is perfect, And the blossom is producing unripe fruit, Then hath one cut the sprigs with pruning hooks, And the branches he hath turned aside, cut down.

For the fenced city is alone, A habitation cast out and forsaken as a wilderness, There doth the calf delight, And there it lieth down, And hath consumed its branches.

Because fields of Heshbon languish, The vine of Sibmah, Lords of nations did beat her choice vines, Unto Jazer they have come, They have wandered in a wilderness, Her plants have spread themselves, They have passed over a sea.

And he fenceth it, and casteth out its stones, And planteth it with a choice vine, And buildeth a tower in its midst, And also a wine press hath hewn out in it, And he waiteth for the yielding of grapes, And it yieldeth bad ones!

Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer, The vine of Sibmah, I water thee with my tear, O Heshbon and Elealeh, For -- for thy summer fruits, and for thy harvest, The shouting hath fallen.

Mourned hath the new wine, languished the vine, Sighed have all the joyful of heart.

For breasts they are lamenting, For fields of desire, for the fruitful vine.

And consumed have been all the host of the heavens, And rolled together as a book have been the heavens, And all their hosts do fade, As the fading of a leaf of a vine, And as the fading one of a fig-tree.

'Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for thus said the king of Asshur, Make ye with me a blessing, and come out unto me, and eat ye each of his vine, and each of his fig-tree, and drink ye each the waters of his own well,

And strangers have stood and fed your flock, Sons of a foreigner are your husbandmen, And your vine-dressers.