ng of my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard.
My wellbeloved had a vineyard
In a very fruitful hill:
And he made a trench about 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 hewed out a winepress therein:
And he looked that it should bring forth grapes--
And it brought forth wild grapes.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray
you, betwixt me and my vineyard.

What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in
it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes,
brought it forth wild grapes? And now come, I will tell you what I
will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it
shall be eaten up; I will break down the fence thereof, and it shall
be trodden down: and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor
hoed; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command
the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the
Lord of hosts is the {281} house of Israel, and the men of Judah his
pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for
righteousness, but behold a cry.

THE CONDEMNATION UPON UNFRUITFULNESS

Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till
there be no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the
land! In mine ears saith the Lord of hosts, "Of a truth many houses
shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. For ten
acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall
yield but an ephah."

Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow
strong drink; that tarry late into the night, till wine inflame them!
And the harp and the lute, the tabret and the pipe, and wine are in
their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither have
they considered the operation of his hands. Therefore my people are
gone into captivity, for lack of knowledge: and their honourable men
are famished, and their multitude are parched with thirst. Therefore
hell hath enlarged her desire, and opened her mouth without measure:
and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that
rejoiceth among them, descend into it. And the mean man is bowed down
and the great man is humbled, and the eyes of the lofty are humbled:
but the Lord of hosts is exalted in judgment, and God the Holy One