Now I will sing to my beloved a song of my beloved
concerning my vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard on a [a] high
hill in a fertile place.
And I made a hedge round it, and dug a trench, and planted a
choice vine, and built a tower in the midst of it and dug a place for
the wine-vat in it: and I waited for it to bring forth
grapes, and it brought forth thorns.
And now, ye dwellers in Jerusalem, and every man of Juda,
judge between me and my vineyard.
What shall I do any more to my vineyard, that I have not done to
it? Whereas I expected it to bring forth grapes, but it has brought
forth thorns.
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vinevard: I will take
away its hedge, and it shall be for a spoil; and I will pull down its
walls, and it shall be left to be trodden down.
And I will forsake my vineyard; and it shall not be pruned, nor
dug, and thorns shall come up upon it as on barren land; and I will
command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and
[b] the men of Juda his beloved
plant: I expected it to bring
[a]Gr. horn, so Heb.[b]Gr. a man.
[English translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee
Brenton (1807-1862) originally published by Samuel Bagster & Sons,
Ltd., London, 1851]