2. He dug up the soil and removed its stones. He planted the very best vines in it. He built a lookout tower there. He also cut out a winepress for it. Then he kept looking for a crop of good grapes. But the vineyard produced only bad fruit.
3. So the Lord said, "People of Jerusalem and Judah, you be the judge between me and my vineyard.
4. What more could I have done for my vineyard? I did everything I could. I kept looking for a crop of good grapes. So why did it produce only bad ones?
5. Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard. I will take away its fence. And it will be destroyed. I will break down its wall. And people will walk all over it.
6. I will turn my vineyard into a dry and empty desert. It will not be pruned or taken care of. Thorns and bushes will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it."
7. The vineyard of the Lord who rules over all is the nation of Israel. The people of Judah are the garden he takes delight in. He kept looking for them to do what is fair. But all he saw was blood being spilled. He kept looking for them to do what is right. But all he heard were cries of suffering.
8. How terrible it will be for you who get too many houses! How terrible for you who get too many fields! Finally there won't be any space left in the land. Then you will live all alone.
9. I heard the Lord who rules over all announce a message. He said, "You can be sure that the great houses will become empty. The fine homes will be left with no one living in them.
10. A ten-acre vineyard will produce only six gallons of wine. Six bushels of seeds will produce less than a bushel of grain."
11. How terrible it will be for those who get up early in the morning to start drinking! How terrible for those who stay up late at night until they are drunk with wine!
12. They have harps and lyres at their big dinners. They have tambourines, flutes and wine. But they don't have any concern for the mighty acts of the Lord. They don't have any respect for what his powerful hands have done.
13. So my people will be taken away as prisoners. That's because they don't understand what the Lord has done. Their government leaders will die of hunger. The rest of the people won't have any water to drink.
14. So the grave is hungry to receive them. Its mouth is open wide to swallow them up. Their nobles and the rest of the people will go down into it. They will go there together with all those who have wild parties.
15. So man will be brought low. People will be put to shame. Those who brag will be brought down.