1. Let me sing a lovesong to my beloved about his vineyard:My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2. He dug it up, removed its stones,planted it with the choicest vines,built a watchtower in it,and made a winepress in it.Then he waited for it to produce good grapes,but it produced only sour, wild grapes.
3. Now then, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah,judge between me and my vineyard!
4. What more could have been done for my vineyardthan what I have already done for it?When I waited for it to produce good grapes,why did it produce only sour, wild grapes?
5. Now then, let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard.I will tear away its hedge so that it can be devouredand tear down its wall so that it can be trampled.
6. I will make it a wasteland.It will never be pruned or hoed.Thorns and weeds will grow in it,and I will command the clouds not to rain on it.
7. The vineyard of the Lord of Armies is the nation of Israel,and the people of Judah are the garden of his delight.He hoped for justice but saw only slaughter,for righteousness but heard only cries of distress.
8. How horrible it will be for youwho acquire house after house and buy field after fielduntil there’s nothing leftand you have to live by yourself in the land.
9. With my own ears I heard the Lord of Armies say,“Many houses will become empty.Large, beautiful houses will be without people to live in them.
10. A ten-acre vineyard will produce only six gallons of wine,and two quarts of seed will produce only four quarts of grain.”
11. How horrible it will be for thosewho get up early to look for a drink,who sit up late until they are drunk from wine.
12. At their feasts there are lyres and harps,tambourines and flutes, and wine.Yet, they don’t pay attention to what the Lord is doingor see what his hands have done.
13. “My people will go into exilebecause they don’t understand what I’m doing.Honored men will starve,and common people will be parched with thirst.”
14. That is why the grave’s appetite increases.It opens its mouth very wideso that honored people and common people will go down into it.Those who are noisy and joyous will go down into it.