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.
Woe to those who, in their greed, buy up
house after house to make one grand estate
until there is no place for anyone else
and only the landowner is left!
This is what YAHWEH, the Commander of Angel Armies,
said in my ears:
“Truly, many of your houses will become devastated
and your large, impressive mansions
will have no one living in them!
Indeed, even a vast vineyard
will produce only a few gallons of wine,
and several bushels of seed
will produce only a bushel of harvest!”
Woe to those who start drinking early in the morning,
lingering late into the night to get drunk with wine.
Their lavish parties are complete with
the music of harps and flutes—and the wine flows!
Yet they have no respect for what YAHWEH has done,
nor do they contemplate the work of his hands!
Therefore, my people go into exile for lack of understanding.
Their leaders are starving,
their multitudes parched with thirst.
The shadowy realm of death grows thirsty for souls
and opens its mouth even wider to drink in the people!
It gulps down the leaders of Jerusalem,
along with their noisy, boasting crowds!
The people will be humiliated, all of humanity humbled,
and the arrogant will be brought low.
With justice the Lord YAHWEH,
Commander of Angel Armies, displays his greatness,
and righteousness sets him apart as the holy God.
Then lambs will graze, as if in their own pastures,
and the refugee will eat in the ruins of the rich.