Now I will sing to my Beloved a song of my Beloved concerning His vineyard. My Beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, please judge between Me and My vineyard.

And now I will 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;

For the vineyard of Jehovah of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold an outcry!

And the Word of Jehovah came unto me, saying:

Is wood taken from it to make any object? Or can men make a peg from it on which to hang any vessel?

Indeed, when it was whole, no object could be made from it. How much less will it be useful for any work when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned.

For Jehovah has restored the excellence of Jacob as the excellence of Israel. For the emptiers have emptied them and have destroyed their vine branches.

I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.

You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you.

I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me there is not a thing you are able to do.

Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months, even those seventy years, did you truly fast to Me, even to Me?

And when you ate, and when you drank, did you not eat and drink for yourselves?

For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.

For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus.

For she did not know that I gave her grain and wine and oil, and I multiplied her silver and the gold which they prepared for Baal.

They have set up kings, but not by Me. They have made rulers, but I did not acknowledge it. They made idols for themselves with their silver and their gold, so that they may be cut off.

Because Ephraim has made many altars to sin, they are altars to him to sin.

And Ephraim said, I am rich; I have found much wealth for myself. In all my labors they shall find no iniquity in me that is sin.

Is Gilead evil? Surely they are vanity. They sacrificed bulls in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the field.

And now they sin more and more, and they have made themselves molten images of their silver, idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves.

When they had pasture, they were filled. They were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten Me.

But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your distress; for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah.

You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an image of stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am Jehovah your God.

For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and groves on every high hill and under every green tree.