<p class="poetry">Indeed<n id="1" /> Israel<n id="2" /> is the vineyard of the <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies,p> <p class="poetry">the people<n id="3" /> of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight.p> <p class="poetry">He waited for justice, but look what he got &#8211; disobedience!<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">He waited for fairness, but look what he got &#8211; cries for help!<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">He will become a sanctuary,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">but a stone that makes a person trip,p> <p class="poetry">and a rock that makes one stumble &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">to the two houses of Israel.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He will become<n id="3" /> a trap and a snarep> <p class="poetry">to the residents of Jerusalem.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">Look, I and the sons whom the <sc>Lordsc> has given me<n id="1" /> are reminders and object lessons<n id="2" /> in Israel, sent from the <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies, who lives on Mount Zion.p>

<p class="poetry">Syria from the east,p> <p class="poetry">and the Philistines from the west,p> <p class="poetry">they gobbled up Israelite territory.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Despite all this, his anger does not subside,p> <p class="poetry">and his hand is ready to strike again.<n id="2" />p>

For though your people, Israel, are as numerous as<n id="1" /> the sand on the seashore, only a remnant will come back.<n id="2" /> Destruction has been decreed;<n id="3" /> just punishment<n id="4" /> is about to engulf you.<n id="5" />

<p class="poetry">There will be a highway leading out of Assyriap> <p class="poetry">for the remnant of his people,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">just as there was for Israel,p> <p class="poetry">when<n id="2" /> they went up from the land of Egypt.p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> will certainly have compassion on Jacob;<n id="1" /> he will again choose Israel as his special people<n id="2" /> and restore<n id="3" /> them to their land. Resident foreigners will join them and unite with the family<n id="4" /> of Jacob.

Nations will take them and bring them back to their own place. Then the family of Jacob will make foreigners their servants as they settle in the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s land.<n id="1" /> They will make their captors captives and rule over the ones who oppressed them.

<p class="poetry">Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim,p> <p class="poetry">and Damascus will lose its kingdom.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">The survivors in Syriap> <p class="poetry">will end up like the splendor of the Israelites,&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies.p>

<p class="poetry">There will be some left behind,p> <p class="poetry">like when an olive tree is beaten &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top,p> <p class="poetry">four or five on its fruitful branches,&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel.p>

<p class="poetry">At that time<n id="1" /> their fortified cities will bep> <p class="poetry">like the abandoned summits of the Amorites,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">which they abandoned because of the Israelites;p> <p class="poetry">there will be desolation.p>

The <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies will pronounce a blessing over the earth, saying,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Blessed be my people, Egypt, and the work of my hands, Assyria, and my special possession,<n id="2" /> Israel!&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">At that time<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> will shake the tree,<n id="2" /> from the Euphrates River<n id="3" /> to the Stream of Egypt. Then you will be gathered up one by one, O Israelites.<n id="4" />

<p class="poetry">For when they see their children,p> <p class="poetry">whom I will produce among them,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">they will honor<n id="2" /> my name.p> <p class="poetry">They will honor the Holy One of Jacob;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">they will respect<n id="4" /> the God of Israel.p>

<p class="poetry">For this reason this is what the Holy One of Israel says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;You have rejected this message;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">you trust instead in your ability to oppress and trick,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and rely on that kind of behavior.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">For this is what the master, the <sc>Lordsc>, the Holy One of Israel says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;If you repented and patiently waited for me, you would be delivered;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">if you calmly trusted in me you would find strength,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">but you are unwilling.p>

<p class="poetry">You will singp> <p class="poetry">as you do in the evening when you are celebrating a festival.p> <p class="poetry">You will be happy like one who plays a flutep> <p class="poetry">as he goes to the mountain of the <sc>Lordsc>, the Rock who shelters Israel.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?p> <p class="poetry">At whom have you shoutedp> <p class="poetry">and looked so arrogantly?<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">At the Holy One of Israel!<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">The oppressed and the poor look for water, but there is none;p> <p class="poetry">their tongues are parched from thirst.p> <p class="poetry">I, the <sc>Lordsc>, will respond to their prayers;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.p>

<p class="poetry">I will do this so<n id="1" /> people<n id="2" /> will observe and recognize,p> <p class="poetry">so they will pay attention and understandp> <p class="poetry">that the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s power<n id="3" /> has accomplished this,p> <p class="poetry">and that the Holy One of Israel has brought it into being.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>