Your neck is like a tower of ivory,
your eyes like pools in Heshbon
by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
looking toward Damascus.

Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel,
the hair of your head like purple cloth—
a king could be held captive in your tresses.

Your mouth is like fine wine—

W flowing smoothly for my love,
gliding past my lips and teeth!

Let’s go early to the vineyards;
let’s see if the vine has budded,
if the blossom has opened,
if the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.

If only I could treat you like my brother,
one who nursed at my mother’s breasts,
I would find you in public and kiss you,
and no one would scorn me.

I would lead you, I would take you,
to the house of my mother who taught me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink
from my pomegranate juice.

Y Who is this coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on the one she loves?

W I awakened you under the apricot tree.
There your mother conceived you;
there she conceived and gave you birth.

Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm.
For love is as strong as death;
ardent love is as unrelenting as Sheol.
Love’s flames are fiery flames—
the fiercest of all.

B Our sister is young;
she has no breasts.
What will we do for our sister
on the day she is spoken for?

If she is a wall,
we will build a silver parapet on it.
If she is a door,
we will enclose it with cedar planks.

W I am a wall
and my breasts like towers.
So in his eyes I have become
like one who finds peace.

Solomon owned a vineyard in Baal-hamon.
He leased the vineyard to tenants.
Each was to bring for his fruit
1,000 pieces of silver.

I have my own vineyard.
The 1,000 are for you, Solomon,
but 200 for those who guard its fruits.

M You who dwell in the gardens—
companions are listening for your voice—
let me hear you!

W Hurry to me, my love,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
on the mountains of spices.

Oh sinful nation,
people weighed down with iniquity,
brood of evildoers,
depraved children!
They have abandoned the Lord;
they have despised the Holy One of Israel;
they have turned their backs on Him.

Why do you want more beatings?
Why do you keep on rebelling?
The whole head is hurt,
and the whole heart is sick.

Daughter Zion is abandoned
like a shelter in a vineyard,
like a shack in a cucumber field,
like a besieged city.

When you come to appear before Me,
who requires this from you—
this trampling of My courts?

When you lift up your hands in prayer,
I will refuse to look at you;
even if you offer countless prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are covered with blood.

The faithful city—
what an adulteress she has become!
She was once full of justice.
Righteousness once dwelt in her—
but now, murderers!

Therefore the Lord God of Hosts,
the Mighty One of Israel, declares:
“Ah, I will gain satisfaction from My foes;
I will take revenge against My enemies.

For you will become like an oak
whose leaves are withered,
and like a garden without water.

The strong one will become tinder,
and his work a spark;
both will burn together,
with no one to quench the flames.

In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established
at the top of the mountains
and will be raised above the hills.
All nations will stream to it,

and many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us about His ways
so that we may walk in His paths.”
For instruction will go out of Zion
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

House of Jacob,
come and let us walk in the Lord’s light.

For You have abandoned Your people,
the house of Jacob,
because they are full of divination from the East
and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines.
They are in league with foreigners.

Go into the rocks
and hide in the dust
from the terror of the Lord
and from His majestic splendor.

Human pride will be humbled,
and the loftiness of men will be brought low;
the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.

So human pride will be brought low,
and the loftiness of men will be humbled;
the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.

People will go into caves in the rocks
and holes in the ground,
away from the terror of the Lord
and from His majestic splendor,
when He rises to terrify the earth.

On that day people will throw
their silver and gold idols,
which they made to worship,
to the moles and the bats.

They will go into the caves of the rocks
and the crevices in the cliffs,
away from the terror of the Lord
and from His majestic splendor,
when He rises to terrify the earth.

Put no more trust in man,
who has only the breath in his nostrils.
What is he really worth?

The people will oppress one another,
man against man, neighbor against neighbor;
the youth will act arrogantly toward the elder,
and the worthless toward the honorable.

A man will even seize his brother
in his father’s house, saying:
“You have a cloak—you be our leader!
This heap of rubble will be under your control.”

On that day he will cry out, saying:
“I’m not a healer.
I don’t even have food or clothing in my house.
Don’t make me the leader of the people!”

The look on their faces testifies against them,
and like Sodom, they flaunt their sin.
They do not conceal it.
Woe to them,
for they have brought evil on themselves.

The Lord brings this charge
against the elders and leaders of His people:
“You have devastated the vineyard.
The plunder from the poor is in your houses.

the Lord will put scabs on the heads
of the daughters of Zion,
and the Lord will shave their foreheads bare.

On that day the Lord will strip their finery: ankle bracelets, headbands, crescents,

Your men will fall by the sword,
your warriors in battle.

Then her gates will lament and mourn;
deserted, she will sit on the ground.

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On that day seven women
will seize one man, saying,
“We will eat our own bread
and provide our own clothing.
Just let us be called by your name.
Take away our disgrace.”

On that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors.

Whoever remains in Zion and whoever is left in Jerusalem will be called holy—all in Jerusalem who are destined to live—

when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodguilt from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.

I will sing about the one I love,
a song about my loved one’s vineyard:
The one I love had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.

He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones,
and planted it with the finest vines.
He built a tower in the middle of it
and even dug out a winepress there.
He expected it to yield good grapes,
but it yielded worthless grapes.

What more could I have done for My vineyard
than I did?
Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes,
did it yield worthless grapes?

I will make it a wasteland.
It will not be pruned or weeded;
thorns and briers will grow up.
I will also give orders to the clouds
that rain should not fall on it.

For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah,
the plant He delighted in.
He looked for justice
but saw injustice,
for righteousness,
but heard cries of wretchedness.

Woe to those who add house to house
and join field to field
until there is no more room
and you alone are left in the land.

I heard the Lord of Hosts say:

Indeed, many houses will become desolate,
grand and lovely ones without inhabitants.

For a ten-acre vineyard will yield
only six gallons,
and 10 bushels of seed will yield
only one bushel.

Woe to those who rise early in the morning
in pursuit of beer,
who linger into the evening,
inflamed by wine.

At their feasts they have lyre, harp,
tambourine, flute, and wine.
They do not perceive the Lord’s actions,
and they do not see the work of His hands.

Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat
and opens wide its enormous jaws,
and down go Zion’s dignitaries, her masses,
her crowds, and those who carouse in her!

Lambs will graze
as if in their own pastures,
and strangers will eat
among the ruins of the rich.

to those who say:
“Let Him hurry up and do His work quickly
so that we can see it!
Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel take place
so that we can know it!”

Woe to those who are wise in their own opinion
and clever in their own sight.

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
who are fearless at mixing beer,

Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes straw
and as dry grass shrivels in the flame,
so their roots will become like something rotten
and their blossoms will blow away like dust,
for they have rejected
the instruction of the Lord of Hosts,
and they have despised
the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against His people.
He raised His hand against them and struck them;
the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like garbage in the streets.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.

None of them grows weary or stumbles;
no one slumbers or sleeps.
No belt is loose
and no sandal strap broken.

Their roaring is like a lion’s;
they roar like young lions;
they growl and seize their prey
and carry it off,
and no one can rescue it.

On that day they will roar over it,
like the roaring of the sea.
When one looks at the land,
there will be darkness and distress;
light will be obscured by clouds.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and His robe filled the temple.

Seraphim were standing above Him; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

And one called to another:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts;
His glory fills the whole earth.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs.

Then I said, “Until when, Lord?” And He replied:

Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants,
houses are without people,
the land is ruined and desolate,

and the Lord drives the people far away,
leaving great emptiness in the land.

Though a tenth will remain in the land,
it will be burned again.
Like the terebinth or the oak
that leaves a stump when felled,
the holy seed is the stump.

When it became known to the house of David that Aram had occupied Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the hearts of his people trembled like trees of a forest shaking in the wind.

‘Let us go up against Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it for ourselves. Then we can install Tabeel’s son as king in it.’”

the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you do not stand firm in your faith,
then you will not stand at all.

The Lord will bring on you, your people, and the house of your father, such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah—the king of Assyria is coming.”

On that day
the Lord will whistle to the fly
that is at the farthest streams of the Nile
and to the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

All of them will come and settle
in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks,
in all the thornbushes, and in all the water holes.

On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—to shave the head, the hair on the legs, and to remove the beard as well.

On that day
a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,

and from the abundant milk they give
he will eat butter,
for every survivor in the land will eat butter and honey.

And on that day
every place where there were 1,000 vines,
worth 1,000 pieces of silver,
will become thorns and briers.

Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of parchment and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

Do not call everything an alliance
these people say is an alliance.
Do not fear what they fear;
do not be terrified.

You are to regard only the Lord of Hosts as holy.
Only He should be feared;
only He should be held in awe.

Here I am with the children the Lord has given me to be signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.

When they say to you, “Consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,” shouldn’t a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?

They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.

Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future He will bring honor to the Way of the Sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
a light has dawned
on those living in the land of darkness.

You have enlarged the nation
and increased its joy.
The people have rejoiced before You
as they rejoice at harvest time
and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.

For You have shattered their oppressive yoke
and the rod on their shoulders,
the staff of their oppressor,
just as You did on the day of Midian.

For a child will be born for us,
a son will be given to us,
and the government will be on His shoulders.
He will be named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

The dominion will be vast,
and its prosperity will never end.
He will reign on the throne of David
and over his kingdom,
to establish and sustain it
with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.

Aram from the east and Philistia from the west
have consumed Israel with open mouths.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.

So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,
palm branch and reed in a single day.

The head is the elder, the honored one;
the tail is the prophet, the lying teacher.