I, the Lord, protect it; ¹  I water it regularly. ²  I guard it night and day, so no one can harm it. ³ 

They put it on their shoulder and carry it; they put it in its place and it just stands there; it does not ¹  move from its place. Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply; it does not deliver him from his distress.

Night and day it will burn; ¹  its smoke will ascend continually. Generation after generation it will be a wasteland and no one will ever pass through it again.

He built a hedge around it, ¹  removed its stones, and planted a vine. He built a tower in the middle of it, and constructed a winepress. He waited for it to produce edible grapes, but it produced sour ones instead. ² 

A thoroughfare will be there – it will be called the Way of Holiness. ¹  The unclean will not travel on it; it is reserved for those authorized to use it ²  – fools ³  will not stray into it.

Whenever it sweeps by, it will overtake you; indeed, ¹  every morning it will sweep by, it will come through during the day and the night.” ²  When this announcement is understood, it will cause nothing but terror.

Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth and leave it in ruins; he will mar its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

The earth will stagger around ¹  like a drunk; it will sway back and forth like a hut in a windstorm. ²  Its sin will weigh it down, and it will fall and never get up again.

Grain is crushed, though one certainly does not thresh it forever. The wheel of one’s wagon rolls over it, but his horses do not crush it.

They say, “Let’s attack Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it. ¹  Then we’ll set up the son of Tabeel as its king.” ² 

A craftsman casts ¹  an idol; a metalsmith overlays it with gold and forges silver chains for it.

With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships it. He prays to it, saying, ‘Rescue me, for you are my god!’

I will make it a wasteland; no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, ¹  and thorns and briers will grow there. I will order the clouds not to drop any rain on it.

The withering flower, its beautiful splendor, situated at the head of a rich valley, will be like an early fig before harvest – as soon as someone notices it, he grabs it and swallows it. ¹ 

Your plunder ¹  disappears as if locusts were eating it; ²  they swarm over it like locusts! ³ 

For this reason the sovereign master, ¹  the Lord, says: “It will not take place; it will not happen.

An ox recognizes its owner, a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; ¹  but Israel does not recognize me, ²  my people do not understand.”

Now I will inform you what I am about to do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge and turn it into pasture, ¹  I will break its wall and allow animals to graze there. ² 

Now go, write it ¹  down on a tablet in their presence, ²  inscribe it on a scroll, so that it might be preserved for a future time as an enduring witness. ³ 

He says, ¹  “Build it! Build it! Clear a way! Remove all the obstacles out of the way of my people!”