Lenten Lectionary Á-? The Second Week of Great Lent - Page of 24
shadow from the heat, and as a shelter and a hiding place
from inclemency of weather and from rain.
1.
Now I will
sing to my beloved a song of my beloved concerning my
vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a high hill in a
fertile place.
2.
And I made a hedge round it, and dug a
trench, and planted a choice vine, and built a tower in the
midst of it and dug a place for the wine vat in it: and I
waited for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth
thorns.
3.
And now, ye dwellers in Jerusalem, and every
man of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard.
4.
What
shall I do any more to my vineyard, that I have not done
to it? Whereas I expected it to bring forth grapes, but it
has brought forth thorns.
5.
And now I will tell you what I
will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it
shall be for a spoil; and I will pull down its walls, and it
shall be left to be trodden down.
6.
And I will forsake my
vineyard; and it shall not be pruned, nor dug, and thorns
shall come up upon it as on barren land; and I will
command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.
7.
For the
vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and
the men of Juda his beloved plant: I expected it to bring
forth judgment, and it brought forth iniquity; and not
righteousness, but a cry.
Reader:
The Prokeimenon, Psalm 22, in the 6th Tone:
Thy
rod and Thy staff, they have comforted me.
Stichos:
The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want.