Oh my. Just keeps coming. Fortunately, sweet youngest is napping and my other boy and man are out finding cap gun thingys. Hold onto your seats.
“Come now, let us reason together,”
says the LORD,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the best from the land;
but if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword.”
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
See how the faithful city
has become a harlot!
She once was full of justice;
righteousness used to dwell in her –
but now murderers!
Your silver has become dross
your choice wine is diluted with water.
Your rulers are rebels,
companions of thieves,
they all love bribes
and chase after gifts.
They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;
the widow’s case does not
come before them.
Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty,
the Mighty One of Israel,
declares:
“Ah, I will get relief from my foes
and avenge myself on my enemies.
I will turn my hand against you;
I will thoroughly purge away
your dross
and remove all your impurities.
I will restore your judges as in
the days of old,
your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you will be called
the City of Righteousness,
the Faithful City…
I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.
Now you dwellers in Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
Now I will tell you
what I am going to do about my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it.”
The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden of his delight.
And he looked for justice, but
saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard
cries of distress.
Isaiah 1:18-20; 5:1-7