Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
5 Now will I sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved concerning His vineyard: my Well-beloved hath a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
2 And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine; and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine press therein. And He looked for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between Me and My vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to My vineyard than I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to bring forth good grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
5 “And now, I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.
6 And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, His pleasant plant. And He looked for judgment, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry.
7 Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
9 Thou preparedst room for it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.
11 She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.
12 Why hast Thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they that pass by the way do pluck her?
13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
14 Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and behold and visit this vine,
15 and the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself.
4 though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath grounds to trust in the flesh, I have more:
5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; according to the law, a Pharisee;
6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; as to the righteousness before the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted as loss for Christ.
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but dung, that I may win Christ
9 and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith,
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death,
11 that if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
12 It is not as though I had already attained it, nor were already perfect; but I follow after, that I may apprehend that for which Christ Jesus also apprehended me.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended it, but this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
33 “Hear another parable: There was a certain householder who planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen and went into a far country.
34 And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.
35 And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one and killed another and stoned another.
36 Again, he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did unto them likewise.
37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, ‘They will reverence my son.’
38 But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.’
39 And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him.
40 When therefore the lord of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?”
41 They said unto Him, “He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons.”
42 Jesus said unto them, “Did ye never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 Therefore say I unto you, the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”
45 And when the chief priests and the Pharisees had heard His parables, they perceived that He spoke of them.
46 But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitude, because they took Him for a prophet.
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