Let me sing for my beloved
        my love song concerning his vineyard:
    My beloved had a vineyard
        on a very fertile hill.
    He dug it and cleared it of stones,
        and planted it with choice vines;
    he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
        and hewed out a wine vat in it;
    and he looked for it to yield grapes,
        but it yielded wild grapes.
    
    
    And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
        and men of Judah,
    judge between me and my vineyard.
    What more was there to do for my vineyard,
        that I have not done in it?
    When I looked for it to yield grapes,
        why did it yield wild grapes?
    
    
    And now I will tell you
        what I will do to my vineyard.
    I will remove its hedge,
        and it shall be devoured;
    I will break down its wall,
        and it shall be trampled down.
    I will make it a waste;
        it shall not be pruned or hoed,
        and briers and thorns shall grow up;
    I will also command the clouds
        that they rain no rain upon it.
    
    
    For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
        is the house of Israel,
    and the men of Judah
        are his pleasant planting;
    and he looked for justice,
        but behold, bloodshed;
    for righteousness,
        but behold, an outcry!
    
    
        Woe to those who join house to house,
        who add field to field,
    until there is no more room,
        and you are made to dwell alone
        in the midst of the land.
    The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
    “Surely many houses shall be desolate,
        large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
    For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
        and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”
    
    
    Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
        that they may run after strong drink,
    who tarry late into the evening
        as wine inflames them!
    They have lyre and harp,
        tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,
    but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD,
        or see the work of his hands.
    
    
    Therefore my people go into exile
        for lack of knowledge;
    their honored men go hungry,
        and their multitude is parched with thirst.
    Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
        and opened its mouth beyond measure,
    and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down,
        her revelers and he who exults in her.
    Man is humbled, and each one is brought low,
        and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
    But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice,
        and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
    Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture,
        and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.
    
    
    Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,
        who draw sin as with cart ropes,
    who say: “Let him be quick,
        let him speed his work
        that we may see it;
    let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
        and let it come, that we may know it!”
    Woe to those who call evil good
        and good evil,
    who put darkness for light
        and light for darkness,
    who put bitter for sweet
        and sweet for bitter!
    Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
        and shrewd in their own sight!
    Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
        and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
    who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
        and deprive the innocent of his right!
    
    
    Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
        and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
    so their root will be as rottenness,
        and their blossom go up like dust;
    for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts,
        and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
    Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people,
        and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,
        and the mountains quaked;
    and their corpses were as refuse
        in the midst of the streets.
    For all this his anger has not turned away,
        and his hand is stretched out still.
    
    
    He will raise a signal for nations far away,
        and whistle for them from the ends of the earth;
    and behold, quickly, speedily they come!
    None is weary, none stumbles,
        none slumbers or sleeps,
    not a waistband is loose,
        not a sandal strap broken;
    their arrows are sharp,
        all their bows bent,
    their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
        and their wheels like the whirlwind.
    Their roaring is like a lion,
        like young lions they roar;
    they growl and seize their prey;
        they carry it off, and none can rescue.
    They will growl over it on that day,
        like the growling of the sea.
    And if one looks to the land,
        behold, darkness and distress;
    and the light is darkened by its clouds.
    
    
      In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

    “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
    the whole earth is full of his glory!”
    
    
      And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

  Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

  And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

    “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
    keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
    Make the heart of this people dull,
        and their ears heavy,
        and blind their eyes;
    lest they see with their eyes,
        and hear with their ears,
    and understand with their hearts,
        and turn and be healed.”
    Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
    And he said:
    “Until cities lie waste
        without inhabitant,
    and houses without people,
        and the land is a desolate waste,
    and the LORD removes people far away,
        and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
    And though a tenth remain in it,
        it will be burned again,
    like a terebinth or an oak,
        whose stump remains
        when it is felled.”
    The holy seed is its stump. (ESV)

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

  When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

  But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” And he drove them from the tribunal. And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

  After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

  When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

  Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. (ESV)