2. He dug it up,gathered out its stones,planted it with the choicest vine,built a tower in the middle of it,and also cut out a wine press therein.He looked for it to yield grapes,but it yielded wild grapes.
3. “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,please judge between me and my vineyard.
4. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
5. Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up.I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
6. I will lay it a wasteland.It won’t be pruned nor hoed,but it will grow briers and thorns.I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
7. For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel,and the men of Judah his pleasant plant:and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression;for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
8. Woe to those who join house to house,who lay field to field, until there is no room,and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!
9. In my ears, the Lord of Hosts says: “Surely many houses will be desolate,even great and beautiful, unoccupied.
10. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,and a homer of seed shall yield an efah.”
11. Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink;who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
12. The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts;but they don’t respect the work of the Lord,neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
13. Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge.Their honorable men are famished,and their multitudes are parched with thirst.