The Song of the Vineyard

¹I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard:My beloved had a vineyardon a very fertile hill.

²He dug it up and cleared the stonesand planted the finest vines.He built a watchtower in the middleand dug out a winepress as well.He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes,but the fruit it produced was sour!

³“And now, O dwellers of Jerusalemand men of Judah,I exhort you to judgebetween Me and My vineyard.

⁴What more could have been done for My vineyardthan I have done for it?Why, when I expected sweet grapes,did it bring forth sour fruit?

⁵Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard:I will take away its hedge,and it will be consumed;I will tear down its wall,and it will be trampled.

⁶I will make it a wasteland,neither pruned nor cultivated,and thorns and briers will grow up.I will command the cloudsthat rain shall not fall on it.”

⁷For the vineyard of the LORD of Hostsis the house of Israel,and the men of Judahare the plant of His delight.He looked for justice,but saw bloodshed;for righteousness,but heard a cry of distress.

Woes to the Wicked

⁸Woe to you who add house to houseand join field to fielduntil no place is leftand you live alone in the land.

⁹I heard the LORD of Hosts declare:“Surely many houses will become desolate,great mansions left unoccupied.

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyardwill yield but a bath of wine,and a homer of seedonly an ephah of grain.”

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morningin pursuit of strong drink,who linger into the evening,to be inflamed by wine.

¹²At their feasts are the lyre and harp,tambourines and flutes and wine.They disregard the actions of the LORDand fail to see the work of His hands.

¹³Therefore My people will go into exilefor their lack of understanding;their dignitaries are starvingand their masses are parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol enlarges its throatand opens wide its enormous jaws,and down go Zion’s nobles and masses,her revelers and carousers!

¹⁵So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled;the arrogant will lower their eyes.

¹⁶But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice,and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

¹⁷Lambs will graze as in their own pastures,and strangerswill feed in the ruins of the wealthy.

¹⁸Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceitand pull sin along with cart ropes,

¹⁹to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His workso that we may see it!Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel comeso that we may know it!”

²⁰Woe to those who call evil goodand good evil,who turn darkness to lightand light to darkness,who replace bitter with sweetand sweet with bitter.

²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own eyesand clever in their own sight.

²²Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wineand champions in mixing strong drink,

²³who acquit the guilty for a bribeand deprive the innocent of justice.

²⁴Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw,and as dry grass shrivels in the flame,so their roots will decayand their blossoms will blow away like dust;for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hostsand despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵Therefore the anger of the LORD burns against His people;His hand is raised against them to strike them down.The mountains quake,and the corpses lie like refuse in the streets.Despite all this, His anger is not turned away;His hand is still upraised.

²⁶He lifts a banner for the distant nationsand whistles for those at the ends of the earth.Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come!

²⁷None of them grows weary or stumbles;no one slumbers or sleeps.No belt is looseand no sandal strap is broken.

²⁸Their arrows are sharpened,and all their bows are strung.The hooves of their horses are like flint;their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.

²⁹Their roaring is like that of a lion;they roar like young lions.They growl and seize their prey;they carry it away, and no one can rescue it.

³⁰In that day they will roar over it,like the roaring of the sea.If one looks over the land,he will see darkness and distress;even the light will be obscured by clouds.

David and Bathsheba

¹In the spring,at the time when kings march out to war, David sent out Joab and his servants with the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.

²One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.

³So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliamand the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

⁴Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned home.

⁵And the woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

⁶At this, David sent orders to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David.

⁷When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing and how the war was going.

⁸Then he said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.”So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him.

⁹But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house.

¹⁰And David was told, “Uriah did not go home.”“Haven’t you just arrived from a journey?” David asked Uriah. “Why didn’t you go home?”

¹¹Uriah answered, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents,and my master Joab and his soldiers are camped in the open field. How can I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing!”

¹²“Stay here one more day,” David said to Uriah, “and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.

¹³Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and he got Uriah drunk. And in the evening Uriah went out to lie down on his cot with his master’s servants, but he did not go home.

David Arranges Uriah’s Death

¹⁴The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.

¹⁵In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.”

¹⁶So as Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the strongest enemy soldiers were.

¹⁷And when the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died.

¹⁸Joab sent to David a full account of the battle

¹⁹and instructed the messenger, “When you have finished giving the king a full account of the battle,

²⁰if the king’s anger flares, he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Did you not realize they would shoot from atop the wall?

²¹Who struck Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’If he asks you this, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”

²²So the messenger set out and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to say.

²³The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.

²⁴Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants were killed. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.”

²⁵Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”

David Marries Bathsheba

²⁶When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.

²⁷And when the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.

Kings of the South and North

¹“And I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, stood up to strengthen and protect him.

²Now then, I will tell you the truth: Three more kings will arise in Persia, and then a fourth, who will be far richer than all the others. By the power of his wealth, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece.

³Then a mighty king will arise, who will rule with great authority and do as he pleases.

⁴But as soon as he is established, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants, nor will it have the authority with which he ruled, because his kingdom will be uprooted and given to others.

⁵The king of the South will grow strong, but one of his commanders will grow even stronger and will rule his own kingdom with great authority.

⁶After some years they will form an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the South will go to the king of the North to seal the agreement. But his daughter will not retain her position of power, nor will his strengthendure. At that time she will be given up, along with her royal escort and her fatherand the one who supported her.

⁷But one from her family linewill rise up in his place, come against the army of the king of the North, and enter his fortress, fighting and prevailing.

⁸He will take even their gods captive to Egypt, with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold. For some years he will stay away from the king of the North,

⁹who will invade the realm of the king of the South and then return to his own land.

¹⁰But his sons will stir up strife and assemble a great army, which will advance forcefully, sweeping through like a flood, and will again carry the battle as far as his fortress.

¹¹In a rage, the king of the South will march out to fight the king of the North, who will raise a large army, but it will be delivered into the hand of his enemy.

¹²When the army is carried off, the king of the South will be proud in heart and will cast down tens of thousands, but he will not triumph.

¹³For the king of the North will raise another army, larger than the first, and after some yearshe will advance with a great army and many supplies.

¹⁴In those times many will rise up against the king of the South. Violent ones among your own people will exalt themselves in fulfillment of the vision, but they will fail.

¹⁵Then the king of the North will come, build up a siege ramp, and capture a fortified city. The forces of the South will not stand; even their best troops will not be able to resist.

¹⁶The invader will do as he pleases, and no one will stand against him. He will establish himself in the Beautiful Land, with destruction in his hand.

¹⁷He will resolve to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and will reach an agreement with the king of the South. He will give him a daughter in marriage in order to overthrow the kingdom, but his plan will not succeed or help him.

¹⁸Then he will turn his face to the coastlands and capture many of them. But a commander will put an end to his reproach and will turn it back upon him.

¹⁹After this, he will turn back toward the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble and fall and be no more.

²⁰In his place one will arise who will send out a tax collector for the glory of the kingdom; but within a few days he will be destroyed, though not in anger or in battle.

²¹In his place a despicable person will arise; royal honors will not be given to him, but he will come in a time of peace and seize the kingdom by intrigue.

²²Then a flood of forces will be swept away before him and destroyed, along with a prince of the covenant.

²³After an alliance is made with him, he will act deceitfully; for he will rise to power with only a few people.

²⁴In a time of peace, he will invade the richest provinces and do what his fathers and forefathers never did. He will lavish plunder, loot, and wealth on his followers, and he will plot against the strongholds—but only for a time.

²⁵And with a large army he will stir up his power and his courage against the king of the South, who will mobilize a very large and powerful army but will not withstand the plots devised against him.

²⁶Those who eat from his provisions will seek to destroy him; his army will be swept away, and many will fall slain.

²⁷And the two kings, with their hearts bent on evil, will speak lies at the same table, but to no avail, for still the end will come at the appointed time.

²⁸The king of the North will return to his land with great wealth, but his heart will be set against the holy covenant; so he will do damage and return to his own land.

²⁹At the appointed time he will invade the South again, but this time will not be like the first.

³⁰Ships of Kittimwill come against him, and he will lose heart. Then he will turn back and rage against the holy covenant and do damage. So he will return and show favor to those who forsake the holy covenant.

³¹His forces will rise up and desecrate the temple fortress. They will abolish the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination of desolation.

³²With flattery he will corrupt those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him.

³³Those with insight will instruct many, though for a time they will fall by sword or flame, or be captured or plundered.

³⁴Now when they fall, they will be granted a little help, but many will join them insincerely.

³⁵Some of the wise will fall so that they may be refined, purified, and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.

The King Who Exalts Himself

³⁶Then the king will do as he pleases and will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and he will speak monstrous things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been decreed must be accomplished.

³⁷He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers, nor for the one desired by women, nor for any other god, because he will magnify himself above them all.

³⁸And in their place, he will honor a god of fortresses—a god his fathers did not know—with gold, silver, precious stones, and riches.

³⁹He will attack the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god and will greatly honor those who acknowledge him, making them rulers over many and distributing the land for a price.

⁴⁰At the time of the end, the king of the South will engage him in battle,but the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots, horsemen, and many ships, invading many countries and sweeping through them like a flood.

⁴¹He will also invade the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall. But these will be delivered from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the leaders of the Ammonites.

⁴²He will extend his power over many countries, and not even the land of Egypt will escape.

⁴³He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and over all the riches of Egypt, and the Libyans and Cushiteswill also submit to him.

⁴⁴But news from the east and the north will alarm him, and he will go out with great fury to destroy many and devote them to destruction.

⁴⁵He will pitch his royal tents between the sea and the beautiful holy mountain, but he will meet his end with no one to help him.

Hear My Righteous Plea

¹Hear, O LORD, my righteous plea;listen to my cry.Give ear to my prayer—it comes from lips free of deceit.

²May my vindication come from Your presence;may Your eyes see what is right.

³You have tried my heart;You have visited me in the night.You have tested me and found no evil;I have resolved not to sin with my mouth.

⁴As for the deeds of men—by the word of Your lipsI have avoided the ways of the violent.

⁵My steps have held to Your paths;my feet have not slipped.

⁶I call on You, O God,for You will answer me.Incline Your ear to me;hear my words.

⁷Show the wonders of Your loving devotion,You who save by Your right handthose who seek refuge from their foes.

⁸Keep me as the apple ofYour eye;hide me in the shadow of Your wings

⁹from the wicked who assail me,from my mortal enemies who surround me.

¹⁰They have closed their callous hearts;their mouths speak with arrogance.

¹¹They have tracked us down, and now surround us;their eyes are set to cast us to the ground,

¹²like a lion greedy for prey,like a young lion lurking in ambush.

¹³Arise, O LORD, confront them!Bring them to their knees;deliver me from the wicked by Your sword,

¹⁴from such men, O LORD, by Your hand—from men of the worldwhose portion is in this life.May You fill the bellies of Your treasured onesand satisfy their sons,so they leave their abundance to their children.

¹⁵As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness;when I awake, I will be satisfied in Your presence.