Add parallel Print Page Options

Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard.
    My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
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 in it.
He looked for it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded wild grapes.

“Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
    please judge between me and my vineyard.
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?
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.
I will lay it a wasteland.
    It won’t be pruned or hoed,
    but it will grow briers and thorns.
    I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies 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.

Read full chapter

A Song about the Lord’s Vineyard

Now I will sing for the one I love
    a song about his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a rich and fertile hill.
He plowed the land, cleared its stones,
    and planted it with the best vines.
In the middle he built a watchtower
    and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks.
Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes,
    but the grapes that grew were bitter.

Now, you people of Jerusalem and Judah,
    you judge between me and my vineyard.
What more could I have done for my vineyard
    that I have not already done?
When I expected sweet grapes,
    why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes?

Now let me tell you
    what I will do to my vineyard:
I will tear down its hedges
    and let it be destroyed.
I will break down its walls
    and let the animals trample it.
I will make it a wild place
    where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed,
    a place overgrown with briers and thorns.
I will command the clouds
    to drop no rain on it.

The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
    The people of Judah are his pleasant garden.
He expected a crop of justice,
    but instead he found oppression.
He expected to find righteousness,
    but instead he heard cries of violence.

Read full chapter