The Song of the Vineyard (Luke 13:6–9)
1 UDB Now I will sing a song about Yahweh, my dear friend, and about his vineyard. The vineyard was on a very fertile hillside. BSB BSB: I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
2 UDB My friend plowed the ground and cleared away the stones. Then he planted very good grapevines on that ground. In the middle of the vineyard, he built a watchtower, and he dug a winepress. Then he waited each year to harvest some good grapes, but the vines produced only sour grapes. BSB BSB: He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!
3 UDB Now this is what my friend Yahweh says: "You people of Jerusalem and other places in Judah, You are like my vineyard; so you judge which of us has done what is right. BSB BSB: “And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I exhort you to judge between Me and My vineyard.
4 UDB What more could I have done for you than what I have already done? I expected you to be doing good deeds, so it is disgusting that you were doing only evil deeds like the vineyard that produced only sour grapes! BSB BSB: What more could have been done for My vineyard than I have done for it? Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?
5 UDB So, I will now tell you what I will do to Judah, the place that is like my vineyard. I will cut down the hedges, and my vineyard will become a pasture. I will tear down the walls of the cities and allow wild animals to trample the land. BSB BSB: Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
6 UDB I will cause it to become a wasteland where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed. It will be a place where briers and thorns grow. And I will command that no rain will fall on it." BSB BSB: I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”
7 UDB The nation of Israel is like the vineyard of Yahweh who is commander of the angel armies. The people of Judah are like the garden that was pleasing to him. He expected them to be doing what is just; but instead, what he saw was people murdering others. He expected that they would be doing righteous deeds; but instead, he heard people shouting for someone to help them because others were attacking them. BSB BSB: For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.
Woes to the Wicked 8 UDB Terrible things will happen to those who keep acquiring houses and fields without paying attention to the laws about who owns the land. You use your riches to gain more and more property, and soon there is no more property for others to buy, and you would be the only landowners there are in that place. BSB BSB: Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.
9 UDB But I heard Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, solemnly declare this: "The day will come when many houses will have no one to live in them; even the large and beautiful homes will be empty. BSB BSB: I heard the LORD of Hosts declare: “Surely many houses will become desolate, great mansions left unoccupied.
10 UDB The land that grows vines in this place should require ten pairs of oxen to work them, but this land would not produce enough grapes to make even twenty-two liters of wine. When two hundred and twenty liters of seed are sown on that land, that land will only produce twenty-two liters of grain at harvest time." BSB BSB: For ten acres of vineyard will yield but a bath of wine, and a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.”
11 UDB Terrible things will happen to those who get up early each morning to begin drinking alcoholic drinks and who stay awake until late at night drinking a lot more wine until they are completely drunk. BSB BSB: Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine.
12 UDB They have big parties and provide lots of wine. At their parties, there are people playing harps and lyres and tambourines and flutes, but they never think about what Yahweh does or appreciate what he has created. BSB BSB: At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands.
13 UDB So my people will be exiled far away because they do not know about me. Those who are now very important and honored will starve, and the other people will die from thirst. BSB BSB: Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.
14 UDB It is as though the place where the dead people are is eagerly looking for more Israelite people, opening its mouth to swallow them, and a huge number of people will be thrown into that place, including their leaders as well as a noisy crowd of people who enjoy living in Jerusalem. BSB BSB: Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s nobles and masses, her revelers and carousers!
15 UDB Yahweh will humble everyone; he will humble everyone who is proud. BSB BSB: So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled; the arrogant will lower their eyes.
16 UDB But everyone will honor Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the Holy One, because he has acted justly. God will show that he is holy by doing righteous deeds. BSB BSB: But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
17 UDB Then sheep and lambs will be able to find good grass to eat; they will pass through the ruined places to eat the grass. BSB BSB: Lambs will graze as in their own pastures, and strangers will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.
18 UDB Some people are working hard to sin, working as hard as if they were dragging behind them the wrong and useless things that they are doing. Terrible things will happen to them! BSB BSB: Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,
19 UDB They make fun of God and say to him, "Quickly do something to punish us! We want to see what you will do. You, the Holy One of Israel, should do what you are planning to do because we want to know what it is." BSB BSB: to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His work so that we may see it! Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come so that we may know it!”
20 UDB Terrible things will happen to those who say that evil is good and that good is evil, that darkness is light and that light is darkness, that what is bitter is sweet and what is sweet is bitter. BSB BSB: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness, who replace bitter with sweet and sweet with bitter.
21 UDB Terrible things will happen to those who think that they are wise and that they are very clever. BSB BSB: Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
22 UDB Terrible things will happen to those who think that they are heroes because they are able to drink much wine and who boast about being able to mix good alcoholic drinks. BSB BSB: Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and champions in mixing strong drink,
23 UDB If people offer these corrupt judges money so they will not punish the wicked, they accept that money. These same judges punish innocent people. BSB BSB: who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.
24 UDB Therefore, just like fires burn up stubble and dry grass shrivels up and quickly burns in flames, it will be as though those people have roots that will rot and have flowers that will wither. That will happen because they rejected the laws of Yahweh, commander of the angel armies; they have despised the messages of the Holy One of Israel. BSB BSB: Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 UDB That is why Yahweh is extremely angry with his people; it is as though his hand is raised and he is ready to smash them. When he does that, the mountains will shake, and the corpses of people will be scattered in the streets like manure. But even when that happens, Yahweh will still be very angry; he will be ready to punish his people again. BSB BSB: Therefore the anger of the LORD burns against His people; His hand is raised against them to strike them down. The mountains quake, and the corpses lie like refuse in the streets. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.
26 UDB Yahweh will send a signal to summon armies of nations far away; it is as though he will whistle to those soldiers who are in very remote places on the earth. They will come very swiftly toward Jerusalem. BSB BSB: He lifts a banner for the distant nations and whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come!
27 UDB They will not get tired or stumble. They will not stop to rest or to sleep. None of their belts will be loose, and none of them will have sandals with broken straps, so they will all be ready to fight in battles. BSB BSB: None of them grows weary or stumbles; no one slumbers or sleeps. No belt is loose and no sandal strap is broken.
28 UDB Their arrows will be sharp, and their bows will be ready to shoot those arrows in a battle. Because their horses pull the chariots fast, sparks will shoot out from their hooves, and the wheels of the chariots will spin like whirlwinds. BSB BSB: Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows are strung. The hooves of their horses are like flint; their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.
29 UDB They will roar like fierce lions that growl and then pounce on the animals they want to kill; they will carry them off, and no one will be able to rescue them. BSB BSB: Their roaring is like that of a lion; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize their prey; they carry it away, and no one can rescue it.
30 UDB Similarly, your enemies will roar over the people they are about to kill, like the sea roars. On that day, if someone looks across the land, he will see only people who are in darkness and distress; it will be as though even the sunlight is hidden by dark clouds. BSB BSB: In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.