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5Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. ²He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. ³And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. ⁴What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? ⁵And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. ⁶I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. ⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!

⁸Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land! ⁹The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing: Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. ¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah. ¹¹Ah, you who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger in the evening to be inflamed by wine, ¹²whose feasts consist of lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine, but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands! ¹³Therefore my people go into exile without knowledge; their nobles are dying of hunger, and their multitude is parched with thirst. ¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure; the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude go down, her throng and all who exult in her. ¹⁵People are bowed down, everyone is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are humbled. ¹⁶But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness. ¹⁷Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture, fatlings and kids shall feed among the ruins.