There will be no joy and happiness in the orchard. I will end the happy singing and shouting in the vineyard. The grapes are ready to make wine, but they will all be ruined.
Joy and happiness are gone from the large vineyards of Moab. I stopped the flow of wine from the winepresses. There is no singing and dancing from people walking on the grapes to make wine. There are no shouts of joy.
You take unfair taxes from the poor. You take loads of wheat from them. You build fancy houses with cut stone, but you will not live in them. You plant beautiful vineyards, but you will not drink the wine from them.
One day the people of Shechem went out to the vineyards to pick grapes. They squeezed the grapes to make wine. And then they had a party at the temple of their god. The people ate and drank and cursed Abimelech.
Then others will take their wealth and destroy their houses. Those who built houses will not live in them, and those who planted vineyards will not drink the wine from the grapes.”
The vines have become dry, and the fig tree is dying. All the trees in the field— the pomegranate, the palm, and the apple—have withered. And happiness among the people has died.
The Lord says, “A time of great blessing is coming. Workers will still be harvesting when it is time to plow the fields again. They will still be trampling the grapes when it is time for a new crop. Sweet wine will drip from the mountains and pour from the hills.