Isa 5:1
5:1 Now will {a} I sing to my {b} wellbeloved a song of my
    beloved concerning his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a {c}
    vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

    (a) The prophet by this song sets before the people's eyes
        their ingratitude and God's mercy.
    (b) That is, to God.
    (c) Meaning that he had planted his Church in a place most
        plentiful and abundant.

Isa 5:2
5:2 And he dug it, and removed its stones, and planted it with
    the choicest vine, {d} and built a tower in the midst of it,
    and also made a winepress in it: and he expected that it
    should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth {e} wild
    grapes.

    (d) He spared no diligence or cost.
    (e) In Isa 5:7 he declares what they were.

Isa 5:3
5:3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah,
    judge, I pray you, {f} between me and my vineyard.

    (f) He makes them judges in their own cause, for as much as
        it was evident that they were the cause of their own
        ruin.

Isa 5:5
5:5 And now come; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard:
    I {g} will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up;
    [and] break down the wall of it, and it shall be trodden
    down:

    (g) I will take no more care for it: meaning, that he would
        take from them his word and ministers and all other
        comforts, and feed them contrary plagues.

Isa 5:7
5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts [is] the house of
    Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he
    looked for {h} judgment, but behold oppression; for
    righteousness, but behold {i} a cry.

    (h) Judgment and righteousness are true fruit of the fear of
        God and therefore in the cruel oppression there is no
        religion.
    (i) Of them who are oppressed.

Isa 5:8
5:8 Woe to them that join house to house, [that] lay field to
    field, till [there is] no {k} place, that they may be placed
    alone in the midst of the earth!

    (k) That is, for the poor to dwell in.

Isa 5:9
5:9 In my {l} ears [said] the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many
    houses shall be desolate, [even] great and fair, without
    inhabitant.

    (l) I have heard the complaint and cry of the poor.

Isa 5:10
5:10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one {m} bath, and
     the seed of an {n} homer shall yield an {o} ephah.

     (m) Which contains about 5 gallons, so that every acre
         would yield only half a gallon.
     (n) Which contains 50 gallons.
     (o) An ephah contains 5 gallons and is in dry things as
         much as a bath is in liquids.

Isa 5:11
5:11 Woe to them that {p} rise early in the morning, [that] they
     may follow strong drink; that continue until {q} night,
     [till] wine inflames them!

     (p) Who spare no pain nor diligence to follow their lusts.
     (q) Who are never weary of their rioting and excessive
         pleasures but use all means to provoke to the same.

Isa 5:12
5:12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine,
     are in their feasts: but they regard not the {r} work of
     the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.

     (r) They do not regard the provident care of God over them,
         nor for what end he has created them.

Isa 5:13
5:13 Therefore my people {s} have gone into captivity, because
     [they have] {t} no knowledge: and their honourable men
     [are] famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

     (s) That is, will certainly go: for so the prophets use to
         speak as though the thing which will come to pass were
         done already.
     (t) Because they would not obey the word of God.

Isa 5:14
5:14 Therefore {u} hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her
     mouth without measure: and their glory, and their
     multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall
     descend into it.

     (u) Meaning, the grave will swallow up them who will die
         for hunger and thirst, and yet for all this great
         destruction it will never be satisfied.

Isa 5:17
5:17 Then shall {x} the lambs feed after their manner, and the
     waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

     (x) God comforts the poor lambs of his Church, who had been
         strangers in other countries, promising that they would
         dwell in these places again, of which they had been
         deprived by the fat and cruel tyrants.

Isa 5:18
5:18 Woe to them that draw iniquity with {y} cords of vanity,
     and sin as it were with a cart rope:

     (y) Who use all allurements, opportunities and excuses to
         harden their conscience in sin.

Isa 5:19
5:19 That say, {z} Let him make speed, [and] hasten his work,
     that we may see [it]: and let the counsel of the Holy One
     of Israel draw near and come, that we may know [it]!

     (z) He shows what are the words of the wicked, when they
         are menaced by God's judgments, 2Pe 3:4.

Isa 5:20
5:20 Woe to them that call evil good, {a} and good evil; that
     put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put
     bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

     (a) Who are not ashamed of sin, nor care for honesty but
         are grown to a desperate impiety.

Isa 5:21
5:21 Woe to [them that are] {b} wise in their own eyes, and
     prudent in their own sight!

     (b) Who contemn all doctrine and admonition.

Isa 5:22
5:22 Woe to [them that are] {c} mighty to drink wine, and men of
     strength to mix strong drink:

     (c) Who are never weary, but show their strength, and brag
         in gluttony and drunkenness.

Isa 5:24
5:24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame
     consumeth the chaff, [so] their {d} root shall be as
     rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because
     they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and
     despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

     (d) Both they and their posterity so that nothing will be
         left.

Isa 5:25
5:25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his
     people, and he hath stretched forth his {e} hand against
     them, and hath smitten them: and the hills trembled, and
     their carcases [were] torn in the midst of the streets. For
     all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is]
     stretched out still.

     (e) He shows that God had so sore punished this people,
         that the dumb creatures if they had been so plagued
         would have been more sensible, and therefore his
         plagues must continue, till they begin to seal them.

Isa 5:26
5:26 And he will lift up an ensign {f} to the nations from afar,
     and will hiss to them from the end of the earth: and,
     behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:

     (f) He will make the Babylonians come against them at his
         beck, and to fight under his standard.

Isa 5:27
5:27 None shall {g} be weary nor stumble among them; none shall
     slumber nor sleep; neither shall the belt of their loins be
     loosed, nor {h} the latchet of their shoes be broken:

     (g) They will be prompt and lusty to execute God's
         vengeance.
     (h) The enemy will have no impediment.

Isa 5:29
5:29 Their roaring [shall be] like a lion, they shall roar like
     young lions: yea, they shall {i} roar, and lay hold of the
     prey, and shall carry [it] away safe, and none shall
     deliver [it].

     (i) By which is declared the cruelty of the enemy.

Isa 5:30
5:30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the
     roaring of the sea: and if {k} [one] looketh to the land,
     behold darkness [and] sorrow, and the light is darkened in
     its {l} heavens.

     (k) The Jews will find no comfort.
     (l) In the land of Judah.