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Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill.
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He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes.
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"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
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What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes?
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And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
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I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, But there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it."
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For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
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Woe to those who join house to house; They add field to field, Till there is no place Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
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In my hearing the Lord of hosts said, "Truly, many houses shall be desolate, Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant.
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For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, And a homer of seed shall yield one ephah."
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Woe to those who rise early in the morning, That they may follow intoxicating drink; Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!
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The harp and the strings, The tambourine and flute, And wine are in their feasts; But they do not regard the work of the Lord, Nor consider the operation of His hands.
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Therefore my people have gone into captivity, Because they have no knowledge; Their honorable men are famished, And their multitude dried up with thirst.
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Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself And opened its mouth beyond measure; Their glory and their multitude and their pomp, And he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.
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People shall be brought down, Each man shall be humbled, And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
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But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
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Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture, And in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat.
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Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, And sin as if with a cart rope;
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That say, "Let Him make speed and hasten His work, That we may see it; And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, That we may know it."