Why is light given ¹  to a man ²  whose way is hidden, ³  and whom God has hedged in? ⁴ 

The best of them is like a thorn; the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ¹  The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²  and then you will experience confusion. ³ 

The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, ¹  but the path of the upright is like ²  a highway. ³ 

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 

Therefore, I will soon ¹  fence her in ²  with thorns; I will wall her in ³  so that ⁴  she cannot find her way. ⁵ 

So ¹  the master said to his ²  slave, ‘Go out to the highways ³  and country roads ⁴  and urge ⁵  people ⁶  to come in, so that my house will be filled. ⁷ 

Have you ¹  not made a hedge ²  around him and his household and all that he has on every side? You have blessed ³  the work of his hands, and his livestock ⁴  have increased ⁵  in the land.

You have broken down all his ¹  walls; you have made his strongholds a heap of ruins.

Why did you break down its walls, ¹  so that all who pass by pluck its fruit? ² 

They were the potters who lived in Netaim and Gederah; they lived there and worked for the king. ¹ 

Your courtiers ¹  are like locusts, your officials ²  are like a swarm of locusts! They encamp in the walls on a cold day, yet when the sun rises, they ³  fly away; ⁴  and no one knows where they ⁵  are. ⁶ 

You have not gone up in the breaks in the wall, nor repaired a wall for the house of Israel that it would stand strong in the battle on the day of the Lord.

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner ¹  who planted a vineyard. ²  He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then ³  he leased it to tenant farmers ⁴  and went on a journey.

Then ¹  he began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. ²  He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then ³  he leased it to tenant farmers ⁴  and went on a journey.

ג (Gimel) He has walled me in ¹  so that I cannot get out; he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains. ² 

Wail, you people in Heshbon, because Ai in Ammon is destroyed. Cry out in anguish, you people in the villages surrounding ¹  Rabbah. Put on sackcloth and cry out in mourning. Run about covered with gashes. ²  For your god Milcom will go into exile along with his priests and officials. ³ 

You clothed ¹  me with skin and flesh and knit me together ²  with bones and sinews.

Many bulls ¹  surround me; powerful bulls of Bashan ²  hem me in.

You squeeze me in from behind and in front; you place your hand on me.

One who digs a pit may ¹  fall into it, and one who breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. ²