The Vineyard of the Lord Destroyed
1 Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had va vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with wchoice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and xhe looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 yWhat more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
xWhen I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove zits hedge,
and it shall be devoured;1
aI will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and bbriers and thorns shall grow up;
cI will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
7 dFor the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;2
for righteousness,
but behold, an outcry!3
17 And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
lof which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
mcursed is the ground because of you;
nin pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
22 And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, ywill say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick— 23 the whole land burned out with brimstone and zsalt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, aan overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, bAdmah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath—
22 wThe Lord could no longer bear your evil deeds and xthe abominations that you committed. yTherefore your land has become za desolation and a waste and a curse, awithout inhabitant, as it is this day.
The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree
6 And he told this parable: “A man had ta fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. uCut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
