Mark 12:1

¹Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. ²He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. ³“Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. ⁴What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?

³⁴“It is like a man traveling to another country, having left his house and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and also commanded the doorkeeper to keep watch.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon. He leased out the vineyard to keepers. Each was to bring a thousand shekels^[+] of silver for its fruit. ¹²My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon, two hundred for those who tend its fruit.

²He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching,

¹⁷But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the root and of the richness of the olive tree, ¹⁸don’t boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹You will say then, “Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.” ²⁰True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don’t be conceited, but fear; ²¹for if God didn’t spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. ²²See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off. ²³They also, if they don’t continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

¹⁴“For it is like a man going into another country, who called his own servants and entrusted his goods to them.

³³With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. ³⁴Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

⁸You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it. ⁹You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root, and filled the land. ¹⁰The mountains were covered with its shadow. Its boughs were like God’s cedars. ¹¹It sent out its branches to the sea, its shoots to the River. ¹²Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it? ¹³The boar out of the wood ravages it. The wild animals of the field feed on it. ¹⁴Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine, ¹⁵the stock which your right hand planted, the branch that you made strong for yourself. ¹⁶It’s burned with fire. It’s cut down. They perish at your rebuke.

⁴⁶who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. ⁴⁷But Solomon built him a house.

⁴who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; ⁵of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.