1. Now I will sing a song for my friend, my love song about his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
2. He dug and cleared the field and planted the best grapevines there. He built a tower in the middle and cut a winepress into the stone. He expected good grapes to grow there, but there were only rotten ones.
3. My friend said, “You people living in Jerusalem and you people of Judah, think about me and my vineyard.
4. What more could I do for my vineyard? I did everything I could. I hoped for good grapes to grow, but there were only rotten ones. Why did that happen?
5. “Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will pull up the thornbushes that protect it, and I will burn them. I will break down the stone wall and use the stones for a walkway.
6. I will turn my vineyard into useless land. No one will care for the plants or work in the field. Weeds and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”
7. The vineyard that belongs to the Lord All-Powerful is the house of Israel. The grapevine, the plant he loves, is the man of Judah. The Lord hoped for justice, but there was only killing. He hoped for fairness, but there were only cries from people being treated badly.
8. Look at you people! You join houses to houses and fields to fields until there is no room for anyone else. But when the punishment comes, you will be forced to live alone. You will be the only people in the whole land.
9. I heard the Lord All-Powerful make this oath: “I swear, all these houses will be destroyed. These big, fancy houses will be empty.
10. A ten-acre vineyard will make only a little wine, and many sacks of seed will grow only a little grain.”
11. How terrible it will be for you people who rise early in the morning and go looking for beer to drink. You stay awake late at night, getting drunk on wine.
12. At your parties with your wine, harps, drums, flutes, and other musical instruments, you don’t see what the Lord has done. You don’t notice what his hands have made.
13. My people don’t really know God. So they will be captured and taken away. Everyone, the respected leaders and the common people as well, will be hungry and thirsty.
14. They will die, and the place of death will open its mouth wide and swallow many of them. Then the noisy crowds and all the beautiful, happy people who are now so comfortable will go down into the grave.
15. Everyone, common people and leaders alike, will be humbled. Those who are now so proud will bow their heads in shame.
16. The Lord All-Powerful will judge fairly, and people will honor him. They will respect the Holy God when he brings justice.
17. Then sheep will be able to go wherever they want and graze on the land that rich people once owned.
18. Look at those people! They pull their guilt and sins behind them like people pulling wagons with ropes.