Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

63 ⁽⁰⁾ A psalm of David, when he was in the desert of Y’hudah:

^2 (1) O God, you are my God;
I will seek you eagerly.
My heart thirsts for you,
my body longs for you
in a land parched and exhausted,
where no water can be found.
^3 (2) I used to contemplate you in the sanctuary,
seeing your power and glory;
^4 (3) for your grace is better than life.
My lips will worship you.
^5 (4) Yes, I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
^6 (5) I am as satisfied as with rich food;
my mouth praises you with joy on my lips
^7 (6) when I remember you on my bed
and meditate on you in the night watches.

^8 (7) For you have been my help;
in the shadow of your wings I rejoice;

5 I want to sing a song for someone I love,
a song about my loved one and his vineyard.
My loved one had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
² He dug up its stones and cleared them away,
planted it with the choicest vines,
built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and carved out in its rock a winepress.
He expected it to produce good grapes,
but it produced only sour, wild grapes.

³ Now, citizens of Yerushalayim and people of Y’hudah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴ What more could I have done for my vineyard
that I haven’t already done in it?
So why, when I expected good grapes,
did it produce sour, wild grapes?

⁵ Now come, I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard:
I will remove its hedge,
and [its grapes] will be eaten up;
I will break through its fence,
and [its vines] will be trampled down.
⁶ I will let it go to waste:
it will be neither pruned nor hoed,
but overgrown with briars and thorns.
I will also order the clouds
not to let rain fall on it.

⁷ Now the vineyard of Adonai-Tzva’ot
is the house of Isra’el,
and the men of Y’hudah
are the plant he delighted in.
So he expected justice,
but look — bloodshed! —
and righteousness, but listen —
cries of distress!