Old/New Testament
The Song of the Vineyard
5 Let me sing for my beloved
a song of my love concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard[a] on a fertile hill.[b]
2 And he dug it and cleared it of stones,
and he planted it with choice vines,[c]
and he built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and he even hewed out a wine vat in it,
and he waited for it to yield grapes—
but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men[d] of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why did I hope for it to yield grapes, and it yielded wild grapes?
5 And now let me tell you what I myself am about to do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge, and it shall become a devastation.
I will break down its wall, and it shall become a trampling.
6 And I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned and hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers[e] and thornbushes.[f]
And concerning the clouds, I will command them not to send[g] rain down upon it.
7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the man[h] of Judah is the plantation of his delight.
And he waited for justice,[i]
but look! Bloodshed![j]
For righteousness,[k]
but look! A cry of distress![l]
Woes on the Wicked
8 Ah! Those who join[m] house with house,
they join field together with field
until there is no place[n]
and you are caused to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
9 Yahweh of hosts said in my ears:
Surely[o] many houses shall become a desolation,
large and beautiful ones without inhabitant.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,[p]
and the seed of a homer will yield an ephah.[q]
11 Ah! Those who rise early in the morning,
they pursue strong drink.
Those who linger in the evening,
wine inflames them.
12 And there will be lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute,
and wine at their feasts,
but they do not look at the deeds[r] of Yahweh,
and they do not see the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people will go into exile without knowledge,
and their[s] nobles[t] will be men of hunger,
and their[u] multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat,
and it has opened wide its mouth without limit,
and her[v] nobles[w] will go down, and her multitude,
her tumult and those who revel in her.
15 And humankind is bowed down,
and man is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humiliated.
16 But Yahweh of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.
17 And then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
and fatlings, kids[x] will eat among the sites of ruins.[y]
18 Ah! Those who drag iniquity along with the cords of falsehood
and sin as with rope of the cart,
19 those who say,
“Let him make haste;
let him hurry his work
so that we may see it
and let it draw near
and let the plan of the holy one of Israel come
so that we may know it!”
20 Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil,
those who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Ah! Those who are wise in their own eyes
and have understanding in their view![z]
22 Ah! Heroes at drinking wine,
and men of capability at mixing strong drink!
23 Those who acquit the guilty because of a bribe
and remove the justice of the innocent from him.
24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become like the stench,
and their blossom will go up like the dust.
For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts,
and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.
25 Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was kindled[aa] against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them[ab] and struck them,[ac]
and the mountains quaked,
and their corpses[ad] were like refuse in the middle of the streets.
Yahweh’s Outstretched Hand
In all of this his anger has not turned back,
and still his hand is stretched out.
26 And he will raise a signal for a nation[ae] from afar,
and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth.
And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!
27 None is weary,
and none among him stumbles;
none slumbers and none sleeps.
And no loincloth on his waist is opened,
and no thong of his sandals is drawn away.
28 Whose arrows are sharp,
and all of his bows are bent.
The hoofs of his horses are reckoned like flint,
and his wheels like the storm wind.
29 His roaring is like the lion,
and he roars like young lions.
And he growls and seizes his prey,
and he carries it off,
and not one can rescue it.
30 And he will roar over him on that day
like the roaring of the sea,
and if one looks to the land, look! Darkness! Distress!
And the light grows dark with its[af] clouds.
Isaiah’s Commission
6 In the year of the death of Uzziah the king, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and raised throne, and the hem of his robe was filling the temple. 2 Seraphs were standing above him. Each had six wings:[ag] with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3 And the one called to the other and said,
“Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts!
The whole earth is full of his glory.”[ah]
4 And the pivots of the thresholds shook from the sound of those who called, and the house[ai] was filled with smoke.
5 And I said, “Woe to me! For I am destroyed![aj] For I am a man of unclean lips,[ak] and I am living among[al] a people of unclean lips,[am] for my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts!”
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
7 And he touched my mouth, and he said,
“Look! This has touched your lips
and has removed your guilt,
and your sin is annulled.”
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?”
And I said,
“I am here!
Send me!”
9 And he said, “Go and say to this people,
‘Keep on listening and do not comprehend!
And keep on looking and do not understand!’
10 Make the heart of this people insensitive,
and make its ears unresponsive,
and shut its eyes
so that it may not look with its eyes
and listen with its ears
and comprehend with its mind
and turn back, and it may be healed for him.”
11 Then I said, “Until when, Lord?”
And he said,
“Until the cities lie wasted without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is ruined and a waste,
12 and Yahweh sends the people far away,
and the abandonment is great in the midst of the land.
13 And even if only a tenth part remain,[an] again she will be destroyed[ao]
like a terebinth or like an oak,
which although felled, a tree stump remains in them.
The seed of holiness will be her tree stump.”
Greeting
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus[a] and faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise to God for Spiritual Blessings
3 Blessed is[b] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love,[c] 5 having predestined us to adoption through Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of the glory of his grace that he bestowed on us in the beloved, 7 in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, 8 that he caused to abound to us in all wisdom and insight, 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in him, 10 for the administration of the fullness of times, to bring together all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him 11 in whom also we were chosen, having been predestined according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 that we who hoped beforehand in Christ should be for the praise of his glory, 13 in whom also you, when you heard[d] the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also when you believed you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom
15 Because of this I also, hearing of your faith[e] in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father[f],[g] may give you a spirit of wisdom[h] and revelation in the knowledge of him 18 (the eyes of your hearts having been enlightened), so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty strength 20 which he has worked[i] in Christ, raising[j] him from the dead and seating him[k] at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name named, not only in this age but also in the coming one, 22 and he subjected all things under his feet[l] and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
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