1Let me sing now for my well-beloved
            A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
            My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
      2He dug it all around, removed its stones,
            And planted it with the choicest vine.
            And He built a tower in the middle of it
            And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
            Then He expected it to produce good grapes,
            But it produced only worthless ones.
      3“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
            Judge between Me and My vineyard.
      4“What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
            Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
      5“So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
            I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed;
            I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.
      6“I will lay it waste;
            It will not be pruned or hoed,
            But briars and thorns will come up.
            I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.
      7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel
            And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
            Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
            For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
      8Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field,
            Until there is no more room,
            So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!
      9In my ears the LORD of hosts has sworn, “Surely, many houses shall become desolate,
            Even great and fine ones, without occupants.
      10“For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine,
            And a homer of seed will yield but an ephah of grain.”
      11Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,
            Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!
      12Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;
            But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD,
            Nor do they consider the work of His hands.
      13Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
            And their honorable men are famished,
            And their multitude is parched with thirst.
      14Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure;
            And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
      15So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,
            The eyes of the proud also will be abased.
      16But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment,
            And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
      17Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
            And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.
      18Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood,
            And sin as if with cart ropes;
      19Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;
            And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near
            And come to pass, that we may know it!”
      20Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
            Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
            Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
      21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
            And clever in their own sight!
      22Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
            And valiant men in mixing strong drink,
      23Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
            And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!
      24Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble
            And dry grass collapses into the flame,
            So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;
            For they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts
            And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

      33“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. 34“When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. 35“The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. 36“Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. 37“But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38“But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39“They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40“Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” 41They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”
      42Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,
            ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED,
            THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone;
            THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD,
            AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?
      43“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. 44“And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”