1. Listen while I sing you this song,a song of my friend and his vineyard:My friend had a vineyardon a very fertile hill.
2. He dug the soil and cleared it of stones;he planted the finest vines.He built a tower to guard them,dug a pit for treading the grapes.He waited for the grapes to ripen,but every grape was sour.
3. So now my friend says, “You people who live in Jerusalem and Judah, judge between my vineyard and me.
4. Is there anything I failed to do for it? Then why did it produce sour grapes and not the good grapes I expected?
5. “This is what I am going to do to my vineyard; I will take away the hedge round it, break down the wall that protects it, and let wild animals eat it and trample it down.
6. I will let it be overgrown with weeds. I will not prune the vines or hoe the ground; instead I will let briars and thorns cover it. I will even forbid the clouds to let rain fall on it.”
7. Israel is the vineyard of the Lord Almighty;the people of Judah are the vines he planted.He expected them to do what was good,but instead they committed murder.He expected them to do what was right,but their victims cried out for justice.
8. You are doomed! You buy more houses and fields to add to those you already have. Soon there will be nowhere for anyone else to live, and you alone will live in the land.
9. I have heard the Lord Almighty say, “All these big, fine houses will be empty ruins.