Hard and heavy and strong that sword is which the Lord carries; shall he not wreak his vengeance, in due time, upon the monstrous serpent that bars the gate, and the monstrous serpent that coils up yonder;✻ shall he not deal death to the great beast of the sea?

And the praise of his doings shall be sung by his own vineyard, a vineyard rich in wine.

I, the Lord, am the keeper of this vineyard; I come soon to water it. Day by day I watch over it, to shield it from attack,

nor any grudge my hearts bears it. Would I were an enemy as relentless as thorns and briars are!✻ Then I would trample it down and make a bonfire of it.

But now, see how it clings to my protection! Ay, it shall have peace, it shall make its peace with me.

Israel shall flourish and put forth shoots, multitudes that shall be added to the number of Jacob; with its offspring the wide face of earth shall be peopled.

What, should the Lord smite Israel as he smote his enemies? Destroy it, like those others he doomed to overthrow?

Nay, cast her away he might, but there should be due measure in her punishment; not for nothing did he expose her to cruel wind and burning heat;✻

so should the race of Jacob find pardon for its sins. Cleansed now from guilt, to bear fruit in full abundance; ground fine as chalk the altar-stones, pillar and shrine raised up no more!

Meanwhile, the city that once was fortified must lie desolate, forsaken, that fair dwelling-place, abandoned, part of the wilderness; cattle will browse and lie down, and crop the tall bushes on it;

nothing that grows there but will wither and be snapped off. Women shall be their teachers,✻ so foolish has this nation grown, too foolish for its own maker to pity, for its own creator to spare.

But a time is coming, when the Lord will beat the fruit from his trees,✻ as far away as the bed of Euphrates and the river of Egypt, and you, sons of Israel, shall be gathered in one by one.

That day, a call will be sounded on a great trumpet, and men long lost will come from Assyria, and exiles from Egypt, to worship the Lord on his holy mountain, in Jerusalem.