1   I wil sing to my beloued ^note the canticle of my cosin concerning his vinyard. A vineyard was made to my beloued in horne the sonne of oile.

2   And he hedged it, and chose stones out of it, and planted it elect, and built a towre in the middes thereof, and set vp a presse therein: and looked that it should yeld grapes, and it yelded wilde grapes.

3   Now therfore ye inhabitants of Ierusalem, and men of Iuda, iudge betwen me and my vineyard.

4   What is there that I ought to doe more to my vineyard, and haue not done to it? Whether that I looked, it should yeld grapes, and it hath yelded wilde grapes?

5   And now I wil shew you what I wil doe to my vineyard. ^noteI wil take away the hedge therof, and it shal be into spoile: I wil throw downe the wal thereof, and it shal be to be troden vpon.

6   And I wil lay it waist: it shal not be pruned, and it shal not be digged: and bryers and thornes shal ouergrowe it: and I wil command the cloudes that they rayne no shower vpon it.

7   For the vineyarde of the Lord of hostes, is the house of Israel: and the man of Iuda, his delectable bud: & I looked that it should doe iudgement, and behold iniquitie: and iustice, and behold clamour.

8   Woe to you that ioyne house to house, and lay filde to filde, euen to the end of the place: why shal you alone dwel in the middes of the earth?

9   These thinges are in my eares, sayth the Lord

of hostes: vnles manie great and fayre houses become desolate, without an inhabiter.

10   For ten acres of the vineyards shal yeld one litle flagon, and thirtie busheles of seede shal yeld three busheles.

11   Woe to you that rise vp earely to folow drunkennes, and to drinke euen vntil euening, that you may be inflamed with wine.

12   Harpe, and viole, & timbrel, and shalme, and wine in your feastes: and ^note the worke of our Lord you regard not, nor consider the workes of his handes.

13   Therfore is my people led away captiue, because they had not knowlege, and their nobles died with famine, and the multitude thereof dried away with thirst.

14   Therfore hath hel dilated his soule, and opened his mouth without anie limite, and their strong ones, and their people, and their high and glorious ones shal descend into it.

15   And man shal be bowed, and man shal be humbled, and the eies of the loftie shal be brought law.

16   And the Lord of hostes shal be exalted in iudgement, and the holie God shal be sanctified in iustice.

17   And the lambes shal feede according to their order, and strangers shal eate the deserts turned into frutefulnes.

18   Woe to you that draw iniquitie in cordes of vanitie, & sinne as the linke of a wayne.

19   Which say: let him make hast, & let his worke come quickly, that we may see it: & let the counsel of the holie one of Israel come, and we shal know it.

20   Woe vnto you that cal euil good, and good euil: putting darknes light, and light darknes: putting bitter for swete, & swete for bitter.

21   Woe to you that are wise in your owne eies, and prudent before yourselues.

22   Woe to you that are mightie to drinke wine, & stout men in drunkennes.

23   Which iustifie the impious for giftes, and take away the iustice of the iust from them.

24   For this, euen as the tongue of fire deuoureth stuble, and the heate of the flame burneth it vp: so shal their roote be as isles, and their bud shal rise vp as dust, for they haue cast away the law of the Lord of hostes, and haue blasphemed the word of the holie one of Israel.

25   Therfore is the furie of our Lord wrath against his people, and he hath stretched out his hand vpon them, and striken them: and the mountaines were trubled, and their carcasses were made as dung in the middes of the streates. In al these thinges his furie is not turned away, ^note but yet is his hand stretched forth.

26   And he shal lift vp a signe in the nations a farre, and shal whistle to him of the ends of the earth: and behold he shal come in hast spedely.

27   There

is none that faynteth, nor that laboreth in them, he wil not slumber, nor sleepe, neither shal the girdle of his reines be loosed, neither shal the latchet of his shoe be broken.

28   His arrowes sharpe, and al his bowes bent. The hoofes of his horses as the flint, & his wheeles as the violence of a tempest.

29   His roaring as a lions, he shal roare as lions whelpes: and he wil gnash, and hold the praye, and claspe it, and there shal be none to plucke it away.

30   And it shal sound vpon him in that day, as the sound of the sea: we shal looke towards the earth, and behold darkenes of tribulation, and the light is darkened in the mist therof.

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