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5. Song of the Vineyard

¹ I will sing for the one I love
   a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
   on a fertile hillside.
² 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.

    ³ “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
   judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴ 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?
⁵ Now I will tell you
   what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
   and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
   and it will be trampled.
⁶ 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.”

    ⁷ The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
   is the nation of Israel,
and the people of Judah
   are the vines he delighted in.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
   for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Woes and Judgments

    ⁸ Woe to you who add house to house
   and join field to field
till no space is left
   and you live alone in the land.

⁹ The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing:

   “Surely the great houses will become desolate,
   the fine mansions left without occupants.
¹⁰ A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath That is, about 6 gallons or about 22 liters of wine;
   a homer That is, probably about 360 pounds or about 160 kilograms of seed will yield only an ephah That is, probably about 36 pounds or about 16 kilograms of grain.”

    ¹¹ Woe to those who rise early in the morning
   to run after their drinks,
who stay up late at night
   till they are inflamed with wine.
¹² They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
   pipes and timbrels and wine,
but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD,
   no respect for the work of his hands.
¹³ Therefore my people will go into exile
   for lack of understanding;
those of high rank will die of hunger
   and the common people will be parched with thirst.
¹⁴ Therefore Death expands its jaws,
   opening wide its mouth;
into it will descend their nobles and masses
   with all their brawlers and revelers.
¹⁵ So people will be brought low
   and everyone humbled,
   the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
¹⁶ But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice,
   and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.
¹⁷ Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;
   lambs will feed Septuagint; Hebrew / strangers will eat among the ruins of the rich.

    ¹⁸ Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
   and wickedness as with cart ropes,
¹⁹ to those who say, “Let God hurry;
   let him hasten his work
   so we may see it.
The plan of the Holy One of Israel—
   let it approach, let it come into view,
   so we may know it.”

    ²⁰ 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.

²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.

    ²² Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
   and champions at mixing drinks,
²³ who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
   but deny justice to the innocent.
²⁴ Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
   and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so their roots will decay
   and their flowers blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty
   and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
²⁵ Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people;
   his hand is raised and he strikes them down.
The mountains shake,
   and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.

    ²⁶ He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
   he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.
Here they come,
   swiftly and speedily!
²⁷ Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,
   not one slumbers or sleeps;
not a belt is loosened at the waist,
   not a sandal strap is broken.
²⁸ Their arrows are sharp,
   all their bows are strung;
their horses’ hooves seem like flint,
   their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
²⁹ Their roar is like that of the lion,
   they roar like young lions;
they growl as they seize their prey
   and carry it off with no one to rescue.
³⁰ In that day they will roar over it
   like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks at the land,
   there is only darkness and distress;
   even the sun will be darkened by clouds.

7. Truly the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel. Hitherto he spoke figuratively; now he shows what is the design of this song. Formerly he had threatened judgment against the Jews; now he shows that they are not only guilty, but are also held to be convicted persons; for they could not be ignorant of the benefits which they had received from God.

Thou broughtest a vine from Egypt, says the Psalmist, and, having driven out the nations, plantedst it. (Psalm 80:8.)

Their ingratitude was plain and manifest.

Isaiah does not illustrate every part of the metaphor; nor was it necessary; for it was enough to point out what was its object. The whole nation was the vineyard; the individual men were the plants. Thus he accuses the whole body of the nation, and then every individual; so that no man could escape the universal condemnation, as if no part of the expostulation had been addressed to himself. Why the nation is called a vineyard is plain enough; for the Lord chose it, and admitted it to the covenant of grace and of eternal salvation, and bestowed on it innumerable blessings. The planting is the commencement, and the dressing of it follows. That nation was adopted, and in various respects was the object of Divine care; for the adoption would have been of no avail, if the Lord had not continually adorned and enriched it by his blessings.

The same doctrine ought to be inculcated on us at the present day. Christ affirms that he is the vine, (John 15:1,) and that, having been ingrafted into this vine, we are placed under the care of the Father; for God is pleased to perform towards us the office of a husbandman, and continually bestows those favors which he reproachfully asserts that he had granted to his ancient people. We need not wonder, therefore, if he is greatly enraged when he bestows his labor uselessly and to no purpose. Hence that threatening,

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he will cut off,
and cast into the fire. (John 15:2,6.) ⁷⁸⁷⁸ In our Author’s quotation the 2d and 6^th verses are inaccurately blended. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he will take away. (John 15:2.) If a man abide not in me, he shall be cast out, and wither as a branch; and men shall gather it, and cast it into the fire, and it shall be burned. (John 15:6.) We follow the Author’s version. — Ed.

He looked for judgment. He begins without a metaphor to relate how wickedly the Jews had degenerated, among whom equity and justice was despised, and every kind of injustice and violence abounded. The words contain an elegant play of language, (paronomasia,) for those which have nearly the same sound have an opposite meaning. משפט (mishpat) denotes judgment; משפח (mishpach) denotes conspiracy or oppression; צדקה (tzedakah) denotes righteousness; צעקה (tzeakah) denotes the cry and complaint of those who are oppressed by violence and injustice; sounds which are not wont to be heard where every man receives what is his own. He mentions two things which the Lord chiefly demands from his people as the genuine fruits of the fear of God; for although piety comes first in order, yet there is no inconsistency in taking the description of it from the duties of the second table. They are justly charged with having despised God, on the ground of having acted cruelly towards men; for where cruelty reigns, religion is extinguished.

Let us now understand that the same things are addressed to us; for as that nation was planted, so were we. We should call to remembrance what Paul says, that we were like wild olive-plants, but that they were the true and natural olive-tree. (Romans 11:24. ⁷⁹⁷⁹ In the original text the reference reads: (Rom. xi. 25.) which I assume was a typographical error. — fj. ) since we who were strangers have been ingrafted into the true olive-tree, the Lord has cultivated and adorned us with unceasing care. But what kind of fruits do we bring forth? Assuredly they are not only useless, but even bitter. So much the greater is the ingratitude for which we ought to be condemned, for the blessings which he has bestowed and heaped on us are far more abundant. And justly does this expostulation apply to us, for violence and injustice abound everywhere. But since the general doctrine did not strike their minds so powerfully, the Prophet described chiefly these two kinds of wickedness; that he might point out with the finger, as it were, how far that nation was from the fruit which a good vineyard ought to have yielded.