10 Israel was a spreading vine;(A)
    he brought forth fruit for himself.
As his fruit increased,
    he built more altars;(B)
as his land prospered,(C)
    he adorned his sacred stones.(D)

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11 “Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,
    these have become altars for sinning.(A)

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11 Is Gilead wicked?(A)
    Its people are worthless!
Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?(B)
    Their altars will be like piles of stones
    on a plowed field.(C)

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The Song of the Vineyard

I will sing for the one I love
    a song about his vineyard:(A)
My loved one had a vineyard
    on a fertile hillside.
He dug it up and cleared it of stones
    and planted it with the choicest vines.(B)
He built a watchtower(C) in it
    and cut out a winepress(D) as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
    but it yielded only bad fruit.(E)

“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
    judge between me and my vineyard.(F)
What more could have been done for my vineyard
    than I have done for it?(G)
When I looked for good grapes,
    why did it yield only bad?(H)
Now I will tell you
    what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
    and it will be destroyed;(I)
I will break down its wall,(J)
    and it will be trampled.(K)
I will make it a wasteland,(L)
    neither pruned nor cultivated,
    and briers and thorns(M) will grow there.
I will command the clouds
    not to rain(N) on it.”

The vineyard(O) of the Lord Almighty
    is the nation of Israel,
and the people of Judah
    are the vines he delighted in.
And he looked for justice,(P) but saw bloodshed;
    for righteousness,(Q) but heard cries of distress.(R)

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28 Where then are the gods(A) you made for yourselves?
    Let them come if they can save you
    when you are in trouble!(B)
For you, Judah, have as many gods
    as you have towns.(C)

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Reward for Obedience

26 “‘Do not make idols(A) or set up an image(B) or a sacred stone(C) for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone(D) in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God.

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For none of us lives for ourselves alone,(A) and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.(B)

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Jerusalem as a Useless Vine

15 The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, how is the wood of a vine(A) different from that of a branch from any of the trees in the forest? Is wood ever taken from it to make anything useful?(B) Do they make pegs(C) from it to hang things on? And after it is thrown on the fire as fuel and the fire burns both ends and chars the middle, is it then useful for anything?(D) If it was not useful for anything when it was whole, how much less can it be made into something useful when the fire has burned it and it is charred?

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23 They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones(A) and Asherah poles(B) on every high hill and under every spreading tree.(C)

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21 For everyone looks out for their own interests,(A) not those of Jesus Christ.

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16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly(A) point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

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The Vine and the Branches

15 “I am(A) the true vine,(B) and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,(C) while every branch that does bear fruit(D) he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.(E) Remain in me, as I also remain in you.(F) No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;(G) apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. John 15:2 The Greek for he prunes also means he cleans.

“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted(A) and mourned in the fifth and seventh(B) months for the past seventy years,(C) was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?(D)

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The Lord will restore(A) the splendor(B) of Jacob
    like the splendor of Israel,
though destroyers have laid them waste
    and have ruined their vines.

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When I fed them, they were satisfied;
    when they were satisfied, they became proud;(A)
    then they forgot(B) me.(C)

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Now they sin more and more;
    they make(A) idols for themselves from their silver,(B)
cleverly fashioned images,
    all of them the work of craftsmen.(C)
It is said of these people,
    “They offer human sacrifices!
    They kiss[a](D) calf-idols!(E)

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 13:2 Or “Men who sacrifice / kiss

Ephraim boasts,(A)
    “I am very rich; I have become wealthy.(B)
With all my wealth they will not find in me
    any iniquity or sin.”

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They set up kings without my consent;
    they choose princes without my approval.(A)
With their silver and gold
    they make idols(B) for themselves
    to their own destruction.

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She has not acknowledged(A) that I was the one
    who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,(B)
who lavished on her the silver and gold(C)
    which they used for Baal.(D)

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