5 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

² And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

³ And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.

⁴ What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

⁵ And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:

⁶ And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon 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 judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

²³ Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?

²⁴ Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.

²⁵ I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

²⁶ How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

²⁷ Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

²⁸ The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.

²⁹ Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

80 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.

² Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us.

⁸ Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.

⁹ Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.

¹⁰ The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.

¹¹ She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.

¹² Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?

¹³ The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.

¹⁴ Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;

¹⁵ And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.

¹⁶ It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.

¹⁷ Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.

¹⁸ So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.

¹⁹ Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

82 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.

² How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.

³ Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.

⁴ Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.

⁵ They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

⁶ I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

⁷ But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

⁸ Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.

²⁹ By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.

³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.

³¹ By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.

³² And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:

³³ Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.

³⁴ Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

³⁵ Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

³⁶ And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

³⁸ (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

³⁹ And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

⁴⁰ God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

12 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

⁴⁹ I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

⁵⁰ But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

⁵¹ Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

⁵² For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

⁵³ The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

⁵⁴ And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is.

⁵⁵ And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.

⁵⁶ Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?