⁸ You brought us from Egypt like a grapevine;
    you drove away the pagan nations and transplanted us into your land.
⁹ You cleared the ground for us,
    and we took root and filled the land.

³ Now, you people of Jerusalem and Judah,
    you judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴ 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?

⁵ 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.
⁶ 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.

⁷ 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.

² “In that day,
    sing about the fruitful vineyard.
³ I, the Lord, will watch over it,
    watering it carefully.
Day and night I will watch so no one can harm it.
⁴     My anger will be gone.
If I find briers and thorns growing,
    I will attack them;
I will burn them up—
⁵     unless they turn to me for help.
Let them make peace with me;
    yes, let them make peace with me.”
⁶ The time is coming when Jacob’s descendants will take root.
    Israel will bud and blossom
    and fill the whole earth with fruit!