October 4th : First Reading Against the Lord’s vineyard.A Reading from the Book of Isaiah 5:1-7

October 4th :  First Reading 

Against the Lord’s vineyard.

A Reading from the Book of Isaiah 5:1-7 

Let me sing to my friend

the song of his love for his vineyard.

My friend had a vineyard

on a fertile hillside.

He dug the soil, cleared it of stones

and planted choice vines in it.

In the middle he built a tower,

he dug a press there too.

He expected it to yield grapes,

but sour grapes were all that it gave.

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem

and men of Judah,

I ask you to judge

between my vineyard and me.

What could I have done for my vineyard

that I have not done?

I expected it to yield grapes.

Why did it yield sour grapes instead?

Very well, I will tell you

what I am going to do to my vineyard:

I will take away its hedge for it to be grazed on,

and knock down its wall for it to be trampled on.

I will lay it waste, unpruned, undug;

overgrown by the briar and the thorn.

I will command the clouds

to rain no rain on it.

Yes, the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts

is the House of Israel,

and the men of Judah

that chosen plant.

He expected justice, but found bloodshed,

integrity, but only a cry of distress.

The Word of the Lord.