Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

¹ ¶ O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee; my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh longs for thee in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water;

² in this manner I beheld thee in holiness when I beheld thy power and thy glory.

³ ¶ Because thy mercy is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

⁴ Thus will I bless thee in my life; in thy name shall I lift up my hands.

⁵ My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips

⁶ When I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches.

⁷ ¶ Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

⁸ My soul has followed hard after thee; thy right hand has upheld me.

5 ¶ Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard in the horn of the sons of oil;

² and he had 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 winepress therein; and he looked that it should 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, that I have not done in it? Therefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?

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

⁶ And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned, nor hoed; but briers and thorns shall come up there; I will even command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

⁷ For the vineyard of the LORD of the hosts is the house of Israel and every man of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

⁴³ For a good tree does not bring forth corrupt fruit; neither does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

⁴⁴ For every tree is known by its own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush do they gather grapes.

⁴⁵ The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil, for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.