^8 (A)but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

¹⁷ Then to Adam He said, ^(A)“Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree ^(B)of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:

God’s Disappointing Vineyard

²⁸ And the Lord ^(A)uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, ^(A)he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

⁷ Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it ^[a]use up the ground?’ ⁸ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. ^9 [b]And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can ^(A)cut it down.’ ”

¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was ^(A)rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

The Great Day of God

²² So the Lord could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, ^(A)as it is this day.