Today’s Scripture:

Now I will sing for the one I love    a song about his vineyard:My beloved had a vineyard    on a rich and fertile hill.2 He plowed the land, cleared its stones,    and planted it with the best vines.In the middle he built a watchtower    and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks.Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes,    but the grapes that grew were bitter.

3 Now, you people of Jerusalem and Judah,    you judge between me and my vineyard.4 What more could I have done for my vineyard    that I have not already done?When I expected sweet grapes,    why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes?

5 Now let me tell you    what I will do to my vineyard:I will tear down its hedges    and let it be destroyed.I will break down its walls    and let the animals trample it.6 I will make it a wild place    where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed,    a place overgrown with briers and thorns.I will command the clouds    to drop no rain on it.

7 The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.    The people of Judah are his pleasant garden.He expected a crop of justice,    but instead he found oppression.He expected to find righteousness,    but instead he heard cries of violence.

8 What sorrow for you who buy up house after house and field after field,    until everyone is evicted and you live alone in the land.9 But I have heard the Lord of Heaven’s Armies    swear a solemn oath:“Many houses will stand deserted;    even beautiful mansions will be empty.10 Ten acres[a] of vineyard will not produce even six gallons[b] of wine.    Ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket[c] of grain.”

11 What sorrow for those who get up early in the morning    looking for a drink of alcoholand spend long evenings drinking wine    to make themselves flaming drunk.12 They furnish wine and lovely music at their grand parties—    lyre and harp, tambourine and flute—but they never think about the Lord    or notice what he is doing.

13 So my people will go into exile far away    because they do not know me.Those who are great and honored will starve,    and the common people will die of thirst.14 The grave[d] is licking its lips in anticipation,    opening its mouth wide.The great and the lowly    and all the drunken mob will be swallowed up.15 Humanity will be destroyed, and people brought down;    even the arrogant will lower their eyes in humiliation.16 But the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will be exalted by his justice.    The holiness of God will be displayed by his righteousness.17 In that day lambs will find good pastures,    and fattened sheep and young goats[