Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

5 I will sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard: My well-beloved had a vineyard upon a fruitful hill.

² And he dug it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine; and he built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a winepress therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.

³ And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.

⁴ What was there yet to do to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?—

⁵ And now, let me tell you what I am about to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trodden under foot;

⁶ and I will make it a waste—it shall not be pruned nor cultivated, but there shall come up briars and thorns; and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

⁷ For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah the plant of his delight: and he looked for justice, and behold, blood-shedding; for righteousness, and behold, a cry.

⁷ Restore us, O God of hosts; and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

⁸ Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt; thou didst cast out the nations, and plant it:

⁹ Thou preparedst space before it, and it took deep root, and filled the land;

¹⁰ The mountains were covered with its shadow, and the branches thereof were [like] cedars of God;

¹¹ It sent out its boughs unto the sea, and its shoots unto the river.

¹² Why hast thou broken down its fences, so that all who pass by the way do pluck it?

¹³ The boar out of the forest doth waste it, and the beast of the field doth feed off it.

¹⁴ O God of hosts, return, we beseech thee; look down from the heavens, and behold, and visit this vine;

¹⁵ Even the stock which thy right hand hath planted, and the young plant thou madest strong for thyself.

⁴ Though *I* have [my] trust even in flesh; if any other think to trust in flesh, *I* rather:

⁵ as to circumcision, [I received it] the eighth day; of [the] race of Israel, of [the] tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews; as to [the] law, a Pharisee;

⁶ as to zeal, persecuting the assembly; as to righteousness which [is] in [the] law, found blameless;

⁷ but what things were gain to me these I counted, on account of Christ, loss.

⁸ But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ;

⁹ and that I may be found in him, not having my righteousness, which [would be] on the principle of law, but that which is by faith of Christ, the righteousness which [is] of God through faith,

¹⁰ to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,

¹¹ if any way I arrive at the resurrection from among [the] dead.

¹² Not that I have already obtained [the prize], or am already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may get possession [of it], seeing that also I have been taken possession of by Christ [Jesus].

¹³ Brethren, *I* do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing—forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before,

¹⁴ I pursue, [looking] towards [the] goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.

³³ Hear another parable: There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and made a fence round it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and left the country.

³⁴ But when the time of fruit drew near, he sent his bondmen to the husbandmen to receive his fruits.

³⁵ And the husbandmen took his bondmen, and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.

³⁶ Again he sent other bondmen more than the first, and they did to them in like manner.

³⁷ And at last he sent to them his son, saying, They will have respect for my son.

³⁸ But the husbandmen, seeing the son, said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him and possess his inheritance.

³⁹ And they took him, and cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him.

⁴⁰ When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what shall he do to those husbandmen?

⁴¹ They say to him, He will miserably destroy those evil [men], and let out the vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

⁴² Jesus says to them, Have ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which they that builded rejected, this has become the corner-stone: this is of [the] Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes?

⁴³ Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation producing the fruits of it.

⁴⁴ And he that falls on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.

⁴⁵ And the chief priests and the Pharisees, having heard his parables, knew that he spoke about them.

⁴⁶ And seeking to lay hold of him, they were afraid of the crowds, because they held him for a prophet.