[1] I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. [2] He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. [3] “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. [4] What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? [5] Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. [6] I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” [7] The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
