The parable of ISAIAH. CHAPTER V. the vineyard. This chapter, containing the prophet's third discourse, appears to stand single and alone, unconnected with the preceding and following. Its subject is nearly the same with that of the first chapter, namely, a general reproof of the Jews for their wickedness; “but it exceeds that chapter," says Bishop Lowth, "in force, in severity, in variety, and elegance; and it adds a more express declaration of vengeance, by the Babylonian invasion. It naturally divides itself into two principal parts, being partly parabolical and partly proper. The first contains the parable, setting forth, under the allegory of a vineyard, God's mercies to Israel, and Israel's unfruitfulness, 1-6. The other, the explanation and application of the parable, manifesting some of the more notorious sins of the Jewish people, and foretelling the judgments which God was about to bring upon them, as the punishment of those sins, 7–30. NOTES ON CHAPTER V. Verse 1. Now will I sing, &c.—Bishop Lowth translates this clause, "Let me sing now a song to my beloved; a song of loves concerning his vineyard." This is the exordium, a kind of title placed before the song; which song he records, as Moses did his, that it might be a witness for God, and against Israel. The beloved, to whom the prophet addresses the song, is the Lord of the vineyard, as appears by the latter clause of the verse, namely, God, or his Messiah, whom the prophet loved and served, and for whose glory, eclipsed by the barrenness of the vineyard, he was greatly concerned: a song of my beloved-Not devised by me, but inspired by God, which, therefore, it behooveth you to lay deeply to heart: touching his vineyard-The house of Israel, (verse 7,) or his church among the Israelites, often, and very properly, called a vineyard, because of God's singular regard to it, and care and cultivation of it; his delight in it, and expectation of good fruit from it. My beloved hath, &c.-Hebrew, 77, my beloved hath had a vineyard, namely, for many ages, with which he hath long taken great || pains, and on which he hath bestowed much culture; in a very fruitful hill-Hebrew, on a horn, the son of oil," an expression," says Bishop Lowth, "highly descriptive and poetical." According to Kimchi the prophet gives the land of Israel this appellation because of its height and fertility. Accordingly, the bishop renders the phrase, on a high and fruitful hill, observing, that "the parts of animals are, by an easy metaphor, applied to parts of the earth, both in common and poetical language. A promontory is called a cape, or head; the Turks call it a nose; a ridge of rocks, a back, ('dorsum immane mari summo, a huge back in the deep sea;' Virg.) Thus a horn is a proper and obvious image for a mountain, or mountainous country." Hills are places most commodious for vines, and the hills of Canaan being very fertile, the phrase, son of oil, is added to express that circumstance, both because oil includes the idea of fatness, and because oil-olive was one of the most valued productions of that land. Indeed the word horn also is frequently used in Scripture as an emblem of plenty, their wealth consisting very much in their herds, as well as flocks. || Verse 2. And he fenced it-In this verse the prophet, carrying on the allegory, proceeds to express, in parabolical language, the singular favours which God had bestowed on the Jewish nation, and the peculiar care which he had taken of them. He separated them from other nations, took them into covenant with himself, gave them a variety of laws and ordinances respecting his worship and service, and became, in an especial manner, their protector and governor. Thus he fenced his vineyard; Hebrew, py, circumsepsit eam, hedged it round on all sides. In removing the heathen nations, and destroying all the forms of their idolatrous worship, forbidding all idolatry, and all intimate friendship and intermarriages with idolaters, and by giving them plain and ample directions for their whole conduct, lest they should fall by error or mistake, he gathered out the stones thereof-Which otherwise might have marred the land, (2 Kings iii. 19,) and injured the vines. In other words, he removed all the hinderances of fruitfulness. In that he formed his church of the posterity of those wise, holy, and faithful men, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and purged and reformed the nation in the wilderness before he established them in Canaan, he might truly be said to plant his vineyard with the choicest vine-Or, as the Hebrew is, the vine of Sorek, alluding to a valley between Ascalon and Gaza, running up eastward into the tribe of Judah, and famous for the best vines, and the richest vineyards. And he built a tower in the midst of it-As edifices, termed towers by the Jews, were erected in vineyards, containing, as Bishop Lowth supposes, "all the offices and implements, and the whole apparatus necessary for the culture of them, and the making of wine;" and, doubtless, also serving for the accommodation and defence of the labourers; and as places of pleasure for the owners of the vineyards; so God provided his church with a most commodious and magnificent temple, furnished with all conveniences for every part of that worship and service which he required his people to perform to him, and affording every requisite accommodation for the residence, support, and comfort of the priests and Levites, while ministering in holy things, and employed in cultivating God's mystical vineyard; and where he, the Lord Explanation of the CHAPTER V. parable of the vineyard. A. M. 3244. and he looked that it should bring || hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten A. M. 3244. forth grapes, and it brought forth wild up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be 4 trodden down: B. C. 760. grapes. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the Deut. xxxii. 6; Chap. i. 2, 3. Rom. iii. 4.- Psa. lxxx. 12. B. C. 760. 6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come be briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah 5 his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. 4 Heb. for a treading.- - Heb. plant of his pleasures. 6 Heb. a scab. What could have been done, &c.—What work is there belonging to the office of an owner or keeper of a vineyard, which I have neglected? Wherefore-brought it forth wild grapes-How unworthy a conduct and inexcusable a crime is it, that you not only have been unfruitful in good works, but have brought forth, in abundance, the fruits of wickedness! Who can read these words without being moved at the justness as well as the tenderness of the reproach; which is equally applicable now to professing Christians in general, as it was to the Jews at that time? What is it that God has not done for us? What good thing has he withheld from us? How many invaluable blessings has he bestowed upon us in our creation and preservation! And how many still more inestimable in our redemption! What more could have been done for us than he has done? Wherefore then, when he looketh for grapes, does he only find wild grapes, or rather poisonous berries? When he looketh for a tribute of grateful praise, does he find ingratitude, forgetfulness of his mercies, and disobedience to his commands? of the vineyard, might be peculiarly present, as the to him. protector and consolation of his people, their refuge|| and strength, and very present help in times of trouble or danger. Thus the Chaldee paraphrast: "I have constituted them the plant of a choice vine, and built my sanctuary in the midst of them." So also Jerome interprets the clause. He also made a wine-press therein-Hebrew, 23 ap', which Bishop Lowth properly translates, "And he hewed out also a lake therein;" observing that the word ap' means, not the wine-press itself, or calcatorium, (the vessel or place where the grapes were stamped, or trod for the wine, which is expressed by another word,) but "what the Romans called lacus, the lake; the large open place or vessel, which, by a conduit, or spout, received the must (or new wine) from the wine-press." This place, he thinks, in very hot countries, it was necessary, or very convenient, to have under ground, or in a cave hewed out of the side of a rock, "for coolness; that the heat might not cause too great a fermentation, and sour the must." Now this lake, made to contain the new wine, may here signify the great altar, made to receive the sacrifices and oblations, as the fruits of the spiritual vineyard. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes-Real, genuine fruit, true, substantial piety and virtue, or godliness and righteousness; and it brought forth wild grapes-Or, rather, poisonous berries, as Bishop Lowth translates DNI, the word here used, which does not signify "merely useless, unprofitable grapes, such as wild grapes; but grapes offensive to the smell, noxious, poisonous;" such as those mentioned 2 Kings iv. 39-41. || be pruned nor digged-Vine-dressers used to dig up For, according to the force and intent of the allegory, "To good grapes ought to be opposed fruit of a dangerous and pernicious quality; as, in the explication of it, to judgment is opposed tyranny, and to righteousness oppression." See an elegant paraphrase of this part of the parable, Jer. ii. 21. Verses 5, 6. And now I will tell you, &c.—He graciously warns them beforehand, that they may have space and encouragement to repent, and so to prevent the threatened miseries. I will take away the hedge thereof, &c.-I will withdraw my presence and protection from you, and give you up into the hands of your enemies. I will lay it waste--It shall be overrun by heathen and infidels, and shall no longer bear the form of a vineyard. It shall not and open the earth about the roots of the vines. The meaning is, I will remove my ministers, who have used great care and diligence to make you fruitful: but there shall come up briers and thorns |--I will give you up to your own wicked lusts. I will also command the clouds-I will deprive you of all my blessings. Verses 3, 4. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, &c.-God is here introduced as calling upon the guilty themselves to pass sentence, or judgment, in the case, and leaving it to them; because, without downright madness, they could do no other than condemn themselves; who, when they had received so many benefits from God, had been so ungrateful || Verse 7. For the vineyard, &c.--Or rather, Now the vineyard, as Dr. Waterland renders it: here we have the interpretation of the preceding parable in general. In the subsequent verses the prophet enters into particulars. This general interpretation is fully verified by the history of the Jewish people, The prophet reproves the A. M. 3244. e B. C. 760. 8 Wo unto them that join house || that continue until night, till wine A. M. 3244 to house, that lay field to field, till 10 inflame them! there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! 12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands. k 13 Therefore my people are gone into captibecause they have no knowledge: and • bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an" their honourable men are famished, and their especially in the time of our Lord and his apostles: Lowth. Thus it is predicted that a fruitful land and the men of Judah his pleasant plant-In whom should be made barren for their wickedness, accordGod formerly delighted; and he looked for judging to God's threatening, (Psa. cvii. 34,) and they ment-Both the administration of justice by magis- would have as little comfort in their lands as in their trates, and justice in the dealings of the people with houses. one another: but behold oppression-From the powerful upon their inferiors; and for righteousnessFor equity, mercy, and benevolence; but behold a cry-From the oppressed, crying to men for help, and to God for vengeance. 66 The paronomasia, or play on the words, in the Hebrew, in this place, is very remarkable; mispat, mispach; zedakah, zeakah. There are many examples of it in the other prophets; but Isaiah seems peculiarly fond of it. The rabbins esteem it a great beauty: their term for it is, elegance of language."-Bishop Lowth. Verses 11, 12. Wo unto them that rise up early, &c.-Here we find another vice reproved, namely, that of luxury, or intemperance; whose companion and daughter is Inattention to the works of God, whose child, also, is Ignorance; see verse 13; that || rise up early to follow strong drink-As husbandmen and tradesmen rise early to follow their employments; as if they were afraid of losing time from that which is the greatest misspending of time and the most sinful abuse of it. That continue until night-Spending the whole day at their cups; till Verses 8-10. Wo unto them, &c.-The unfolding wine inflame them-Inflame their lusts and pasof the parable, after the general key in the preceding sions: for chambering and wantonness, on the one verse, comprehends two things, according to the ar- hand, and contentions and wounds without cause, on gument of the parable; the crimes of this ungrateful || the other, generally follow upon rioting and drunkpeople, and the punishment decreed to their crimes. enness, Rom. xiii. 13; Prov. xxiii. 29. And the harp, That join house to house-That add new purchases and the viol, &c., are in their feasts-Musical inof houses and lands to their former possessions. struments of all sorts must accompany their wine, Not that this was in itself absolutely unlawful, but that every sense may be gratified to the utmost, and because they did it from an inordinate desire of their pleasures rendered more exquisite. But they riches, and with the injury of their brethren. That regard not the work of the Lord-What God hath they may be placed alone―That they alone may be lately done, and is yet doing, and about to do, among the lords and owners, and all others only their tenants them; his grievous judgments, partly inflicted, and and servants. Thus, "the first crime condemned is partly threatened, which require another course of avarice and rapacity; which is strongly described in life, even to give themselves to fasting and prayer, this verse, and which prevailed remarkably among and to reform their manners, that so they might rethe Jews. Its punishment, even the desolation of move the calamities which now afflicted them, and those houses which they coveted, and the devasta- prevent those which were approaching. tion of those fields which they obtained so rapacious- Verses 13, 14. Therefore the people are gone into ly, is set forth in the two following verses." See captivity-The prophet may refer to those carried Vitringa. In mine ears, said the Lord-That is, It captive in the time of Ahaz: see on chap. ii. 20. Or was revealed in mine ears: or, I heard God speak his words may be rendered, the people go into, &c. ; what I am now about to utter. Of a truth many that is, shall certainly and shortly go, speaking of houses shall be desolate-“In vain are ye so intent the approaching judgments as if they were already upon joining house to house, and field to field; your come. Because they have no knowledge-No serihouses shall be left uninhabited, and your fields shall ous consideration of God's works, and of their own become desolate and barren: so that a vineyard of duty and danger. And their honourable men are ten acres shall produce but one bath (not eight gal-|| famished-Who thought themselves quite out of lons) of wine, and the husbandman shall reap but a the reach of famine. Therefore hell hath enlarged tenth part of the seed which he has sown."-Bishop herself-The grave, or the place of torment, to The desolations B. C. 760. B. C. 760. A. M. 3244. glory, and their multitude, and their || ner, and the waste places of the fat A. M. 3244. pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall de- one shall strangers eat. scend into it. 18 Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cartrope: 15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled; 16 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and 12 God 13 that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. ว 19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know 17 Then shall the lambs feed after their man- it! which certainly the souls of such persons must de- harmless people, who shall be left in the land, when the scend; and opened her mouth without measure—|| rich are carried into captivity, as it happened 2 Kings To receive those vast numbers which die by this fa- || xxv. 12; shall feed after their manner—Or, without mine, or otherwise, as is here implied. The pro- restraint, as Bishop Lowth renders it. And the waste phet is thought to allude "to the form of the ancient places of the fat ones--The lands left by their ownsepulchres, which were subterraneous caverns hol- ers, the rich and great men, who were either slain lowed out of a rock, the mouth of which was or carried into captivity; shall strangers eat—The generally closed by a great stone. The prosopo- poor Israelites who were left in the land to be vinepaia is extremely fine and expressive, and the dressers and husbandmen, who are called strangers, image is fraught with the most tremendous horror." because they were so in reference to that land, not And their glory, &c.—Their nobles, or honourable being the proper owners of it, nor related to them. men, as they are called, verse 13, being distinguish- Vitringa is of opinion that this verse "refers to the ed, both here and there, from the multitude; and first disciples of Jesus Christ, who, seeing and detheir pomp-Which shall die with them; and he ploring the destruction of the Jews, should rest that rejoiceth-That spendeth all his days in mirth safely under the protection of God; while, accordand jollity, and casteth away all cares and fears; ing to the next clause, the Gentiles should be shall descend into it-Not only into the grave, but|| brought into the communion of the church, and reinto hell. Bishop Lowth's translation of this verse joice in those benefits, prerogatives, and privileges, is peculiarly striking: whereof the carnal, rich, and luxurious Jews were deprived." See John 16. X. Verses 18, 19. Wo unto them that draw iniquity -That are not only drawn to sin by the allurements of the world, or by the persuasions of wicked men, but are active and industrious in drawing sin to themselves, or themselves to sin: with cords of vanity— Or, of lying, as the word & frequently signifies; that is, with vain and deceitful arguments and pretences, whereby sinners generally draw themselves to sin, such as, That God does not regard human affairs; that many of the greatest sinners often go unpunished; that we see no proofs of the divine interpo "Therefore Hades hath enlarged his appetite; And hath stretched open his mouth without measure: And down go her nobility, and her populace, And her busy throng, and all that exult in her." "These verses," (13 and 14,) he justly observes, "have a reference to the two preceding. They that|| indulged in feasting and drinking, shall perish with hunger and thirst: and Hades" (the invisible world, hell prepared to receive these sinners that live and die in sin) "shall indulge his appetite as much as they had done, and devour them all. The image is strong and expressive in the highest degree. Habak-sition, &c. See 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4. And sin with a kuk uses the same image with great force, chap. ii. 5. But in Isaiah, Hades is introduced, to much greater advantage, in person; and placed before our eyes as a ravenous monster, opening wide his unmeasurable jaws, and swallowing them all together." Verses 15-17. And the mean man, &c.-All of them, both high and low, shall be brought to destruction. But the Lord shall be exalted in judgment-By the execution of his just judgment upon his incorrigible enemies. And God that is holy shall be sanctified-Shall appear to be a holy God; in righteousness-That is, by displaying his righteousness, or executing his righteous judgments. Then, &c.-When God shall have finished that work of judgment upon the ungodly, he will extend mercy to the remainder; the lambs-The poor and cart-rope-With all their might, as beasts that draw carts with ropes. That say, Let him make speed— Namely, God, in whose name thou and other prophets are always reproving and threatening us; and hasten his work, that we may see it-He only thinks to affright us, as if we were fools or children, with bugbears, or pretended evils: he either cannot, or will not, do us any harm. This was the plain language of their actions; they lived as if they were of this opinion. And let the counsel of the Holy One draw nigh-What you have declared to be his counsel, with regard to our going into captivity, and which, you say, his holiness obliges him to execute: they scornfully repeat the title of Holy One, usually given by the prophets to God. And come, that we may know it-We cannot believe that it will ever happen unless we see it with our eyes. Thus, "by a long progression in iniquity, and a continued accumulation of sin, men arrive at length to the highest degree of wickedness; bidding open defiance to God, and scoffing at his threatened judg- || ments;" to which they cannot be persuaded to give any credit till they find them executed upon them. Verse 20. Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil--That endeavour to confound both the names and the natures of virtue and vice, of piety and impiety; commend and applaud what is evil, and disparage and discountenance what is good; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, &c.-Ignorance and error, for knowledge and truth: in other words, who subvert, or pervert, all the great principles of truth, wisdom, and of righteousness. A most corrupt condition of a church and state is that indeed, "in which men, accustomed to vices, begin, with the things themselves, to lose also the names of them, and to draw a veil, as it were, over their impieties, by sanctifying their crimes with the names of virtues." This reproof of the prophet supposes, that the difference between good and evil, sin and holiness, is as self-evident as that between the most contrary qualities which we are informed of by the report of our senses: and that the advantage which light hath above darkness does not shine out with a brighter evidence than the pre-eminence || which virtue hath above vice, righteousness above unrighteousness. See Lowth. Verse 21. Wo unto them that are wise in their own eyes-Who, being puffed up with a high opinion of their own wisdom, despise the counsels and instructions of Jehovah by his prophets, and prefer || their own vain imaginations before the decisions of infinite wisdom. Verse 24. Therefore as the fire, &c.-" The latter part of the parabolic song, contained in verse 6, begins here to be more fully explained; and, to the end of the chapter, we have an account of that total destruction of the republic, which was to be brought upon it by a people most skilful in war, and coming from 25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten. them and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were 17 torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. 26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from of fire.- — Job xviii. 16; Hos. xxii. 13, 17.-y Jer. iv. 24.14; Chap. ix. 12, 17, 21 ; x. 4. ix. 16; Amos ii. 9.-2 Kings 17 Or, as dung.-z Lev. xxvi. -a Chap. xi. 12.- b Ch. vii. 18. a very distant country." The greatness and impelling cause of this threatened destruction are explained in this and the following verse: the instruments of it, a fierce and warlike people, are described verses 26-29. And the consequence of it, the trouble and desperation of those that remained from this slaughter, verse 30. See Vitringa. Their root shall be as rottenness-They shall be like a tree, which not only withers in its branches, but dies and rots at the roots, and therefore is past all hopes of recovery. That is, they shall be destroyed, both root and branch, and that as certainly and irresistibly as fire devours the stubble on which it kindles, and the flame consumes the chaff which it touches. Their blossom shall go up as dust-Shall vanish as the dust, which is blown away with every wind, or shall be resolved into dust, and yield no fruit; because they have cast away the law of the Lord, &c.-Have cast off all obedience to it, and treated it with contempt. Verse 25. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled--This implies that, before the time of that final vengeance, concerning which the prophecy principally treats, God had afflicted, or, rather, would afflict and chastise this rebellious people, with the most grievous calamities: that those calamities should consume many, who, being slain in the wars, should be trod upon by their enemies, like the dung in the streets; most certain indications these of the divine justice and wrath, while they, unawakened by these chastisements, would not so much as attempt to appease the divine displeasure, but would provoke it still more by repeated crimes; till, at length, it should come upon them to the uttermost.—— Vitringa. And the hills did tremble-A metaphorical and hyperbolical description of a grievous calamity, familiar to the prophets: see the margin. For all this, his anger is not turned away, &c.— This is not the end, as you vainly imagine, but, if you repent not, only the beginning of your sorrows, and an earnest of further miseries. Verse 26. And he will lift up an ensign to the |