Isaiah 5:1-7

Let me sing a song for the one I love, called “My Lover and His Vineyard”: My beloved planted a vineyard on a very fertile hill. First he dug up its ground and hauled away its stones so he could plant within it the choicest of vines. He built a watchtower in the middle of it and carved a winepress out of its rock. He fully expected it to bear good grapes, but instead it produced only worthless wild grapes. So now, you residents of Jerusalem and people of Judah, you be the judges! What more could I have done for my vineyard? When I expected it to bear luscious grapes, why did it produce only wild, worthless grapes? So let me tell you what I am about to do to my vineyard. I will tear down its fence and it will be plundered. I will break down its wall and it will be destroyed! I will make it a wasteland, and no one will cultivate the land. It will grow only weeds and thorns! I will command the clouds and they will not drop their rain upon it! For Israel is this vineyard of YAHWEH, the Commander of Angel Armies, and the people of Judah are the garden of his delight. When he waited for a crop of justice, he got a harvest of bloodshed! When he waited to reap fairness, he heard only the cries of victims.