When that time comes, sing about a delightful vineyard!

An honorable man makes honorable plans; his honorable character gives him security.

“Don’t remember these earlier events; don’t recall these former events.

They will sprout up like a tree in the grass, like poplars beside channels of water.

“I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; I appeared to those who did not look for me. I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ to a nation that did not invoke my name.

Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected. They have become as hardheaded as a rock. They refuse to change their ways.

Then I said, “There is no cure for my grief! I am sick at heart!

So the Lord God of Israel has this to say about the leaders who are ruling over his people: “You have caused my people to be dispersed and driven into exile. You have not taken care of them. So I will punish you for the evil that you have done. I, the Lord, affirm it!

‘Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.

The Lord says to Edom, “I will certainly make you small among nations. I will make you despised by all humankind.

The sea has swept over Babylon. She has been covered by a multitude of its waves.

The waters closed over my head; I thought I was about to die.

You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.

Watch them from morning to evening; I am the object of their mocking songs.

Our forefathers sinned and are dead, but we suffer their punishment.

For wild animals are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate.

So I opened my mouth and he fed me the scroll.

Then say to the people of the land, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says about the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the land of Israel: They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in fright, for their land will be stripped bare of all it contains because of the violence of all who live in it.

You must bear your punishment for your obscene conduct and your abominable practices, declares the Lord.

As silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin are gathered in a furnace so that the fire can melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and in my rage. I will deposit you there and melt you.