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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 5:1

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Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

1. (Four lines.) The first half of the verse contains the preamble, the second is the commencement of the poem.

Now will I sing vineyard ] Translate:

I would sing of my Friend,

My Friend’s song about his vineyard.

The A.V. has the merit, however, of distinguishing the two closely related words used for friend (“wellbeloved” and “beloved”). The difference probably has only a metrical value. Isaiah does not mean as yet to excite curiosity as to who the “Friend” is, only he cannot, even in a parable, divest himself of the consciousness that he represents the interests of Another.

A vineyard had my Friend

On a fertile peak.

a very fruitful hill ] lit. “a horn, the son of fatness.” “Apertos Bacchus amat colles” (Verg. Georg. ii. 113). The land of Palestine is no doubt meant, but it is a mistake to allegorise the details of the imagery. This use of the word “horn” for “hill” is not found elsewhere in the O. T., but has many parallels in-Arabic as well as other languages (cf. “Schreckhorn,” &c.). It is chosen here for the sake of the assonance with the word for “vineyard.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1 7. The Parable of the Vineyard and its Application

One of the finest exhibitions of rhetorical skill and power which the book contains. The prophet appears in the guise of a minstrel before an assemblage of his countrymen, and proceeds to recite the unfortunate experience of a “friend” of his with his vineyard. The simple story, told in light popular verse, disarms the suspicions of the crowd, and the singer, having secured their sympathy, demands a verdict on the course which a man might be expected to pursue with so refractory a vineyard as this ( Isa 5:3). The answer was so obvious that the people, like our Lord’s hearers on a similar occasion (Mat 21:41), had practically assented to their own condemnation before they clearly perceived the drift of the discourse. But from this point onwards the parable becomes more and more transparent, till at last the prophet, with a sudden change of rhythm (see on Isa 5:6), throws off all disguise and drives home the lesson of the whole in the crashing lines of Isa 5:7.

The idea of Israel as the Lord’s vineyard probably originated with Isaiah. (Cf. ch. Isa 3:14, Isa 27:2 ff.; Jer 2:21; Jer 12:10 f.; Psa 80:8 ff.; Mat 20:1 ff; Mat 21:33 ff. and parallels.)

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Now will I sing – This is an indication that what follows is poetic, or is adapted to be sung or chanted.

To my well-beloved – The word used here – y^edyd – is a term of endearment. It properly denotes a friend; a favorite; one greatly beloved. It is applied to saints as being the beloved, or the favorites of God, in Psa 127:2; Deu 33:12. In this place, it is evidently applied to Yahweh, the God of the Jewish people. As there is some reason to believe that the God of the Jews – the manifested Deity who undertook their deliverance from Egypt, and who was revealed as their God under the name of the Angel of the covenant – was the Messiah, so it may be that the prophet here meant to refer to him. It is not, however, to the Messiah to come. It does not refer to the God incarnate – to Jesus of Nazareth; but to the God of the Jews, in his capacity as their lawgiver and protector in the time of Isaiah; not to him in the capacity of an incarnate Saviour.

A Song of my beloved – Lowth, A song of loves, by a slight change in the Hebrew. The word dod usually denotes an uncle, a fathers brother. But it also means one beloved, a friend, a lover; Son 1:13-14, Son 1:16; Son 2:3, Son 2:8, Son 2:9; Son 4:16. Here it refers to Jehovah, and expresses the tender and affectionate attachment which the prophet had for his character and laws.

Touching his vineyard – The Jewish people are often represented under the image of a vineyard, planted and cultivated by God; see Ps. 80; Jer 2:21; Jer 12:10. Our Saviour also used this beautiful figure to denote the care and attention which God had bestowed on his people; Mat 21:33 ff; Mar 12:1, following.

My beloved – God.

Hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill – Hebrew On a horn of the son of oil. The word horn used here in the Hebrew, denotes the brow, apex, or sharp point of a hill. The word is thus used in other languages to denote a hill, as in the Swiss words shreckhorn, buchorn. Thus Cornwall, in England, is called in the old British tongue Kernaw, as lessening by degrees, like a horn, running out into promontories, like so many horns; for the Britons called a horn corn, and in the plural kern. The term horn is not unfrequently applied to hills. Thus, Pococke tells us (vol. ii. p. 67), that there is a low mountain in Galilee which has both its ends raised in such a manner as to look like two mounts, which are called the Horns of Hutin. Harmer, however, supposes that the term is used here to denote the land of Syria, from its resemblance to the shape ofa horn; Obs. iii. 242. But the idea is, evidently, that the land on which God respresents himself as having planted his vineyard, was like an elevated hill that was adapted eminently to such a culture. It may mean either the top of a mountain, or a little mountain, or a peak divided from others. The most favorable places for vineyards were on the sides of hills, where they would be exposed to the sun. – Shaws Travels, p. 338. Thus Virgil says:

– denique apertos

Bacchus amat colles.

Bacchus loves open hills; Georg. ii. 113. The phrase, son of oil, is used in accordance with the Jewish custom, where son means descendant, relative, etc.; see the note at Mat 1:1. Here it means that it was so fertile that it might be called the very son of oil, or fatness, that is, fertility. The image is poetic, and very beautiful; denoting that God had planted his people in circumstances where he had a right to expect great growth in attachment to him. It was not owing to any want of care on his part, that they were not distinguished for piety. The Chaldee renders this verse, The prophet said, I will sing now to Israel, who is compared to a vineyard, the seed of Abraham my beloved: a song of my beloved to his vineyard.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 5:1-7

Now will I sing to my well-beloved

Hopes concerning the vineyard

The Lords hopes and disappointment with His vineyard.

(A. B. Davidson, LL. D.)

Truth to be presented in varied form

Aarons bells must be wisely rung. Sometimes the treble of mercy sounds well, at other times the tenor of judgment, or counter tenor of reproof, sounds better: and it often happens that the mean of exhortation sounds best of all. It is wisdom to observe circumstances, and know how to curse as well as bless, chide as well as comfort, and speak war to a rebel as well as peace to a friend. And herein, indeed, lies the wisdom and faithfulness of a teacher. (N. Rogers.)

Who was the speaker?

It is an interesting question, and one to which the answer is not altogether obvious. And who is the well-beloved to whom these words are addressed? Only two answers seem possible. Either it must be the prophet who speaks, and his God that he is addressing; or else it must be the eternal Father that is addressing His co-eternal Son.

1. If we adopt, as most commentators seem to do, the former explanation, we have to face two very serious difficulties, neither of which can I meet.

(1) The prophet here uses a term of endearment which would be strangely inconsistent with his usual style of addressing God, and such a use of the Hebrew term here employed occurs nowhere else in Scripture. It is a term of endearment of the strongest kind, answering very closely to our English word darling; and it is easy to see that there is something very repugnant to our ideas of seemliness and reverence in the application of such a term to that God with whose majesty Isaiah was himself so profoundly impressed. In every other ease in which this word is used as a term of endearment, it is addressed by the stronger to the weaker, by the superior to the inferior. Thus Benjamin is spoken of as the beloved of the Lord in the blessings of Deuteronomy, the thought suggested being, that as Benjamin himself was Jacobs favourite, the darling of his heart, so the tribe was to be specially dear to the great Father of the race. But obviously, while Benjamin might justly he called the darling of Jacobs heart, it would have been, to say the least, somewhat incongruous to speak of Jacob as Benjamins darling. The term would have been wholly out of place here; and not less, but even more, out of place must it needs be in the lips of an Isaiah addressing his God.

(2) Yet another difficulty has to be faced if we make the prophet the singer; for in that case, his song clearly ends at the close of the second verse, whereas on this hypothesis it must be assumed that there is an abrupt transition from the speech of the prophet to the speech of God. But it seems clear that the whole passage, down to the end of the seventh verse, constitutes the song referred to in the first verse, and it is all spoken of as a song sung to the beloved.

2. Let us adopt the other explanation of the passage, and all at once becomes straightforward and self-consistent, the only difficulty involved being that we have here a marvellously explicit reference to a great theological verity, that was not fully revealed to the world till the Christian epoch–the doctrine of the distinction of Persons (as we are obliged to express it for lack of better terms) in the Divine Unity. This great truth is, however, implied in many other passages of Old Testament Scripture, and therefore its occurrence here need not trouble us. According to this second interpretation, it is the eternal Father that is here addressing His well-beloved Son, the Angel of the Covenant, to whose tutelage the ancient Theocracy was delivered, just as at a subsequent period He became, in the flesh, the Founder and Head of the Christian Church. Here the expression used is just what might be expected, and we are reminded of the voice which fell from heaven in New Testament times: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. In this exegesis the identity of the singer and the unity of the song is preserved throughout, There is no abrupt transition from the utterance of one person to that of another; for He who sings and He to whom the song is sung are one. The Father does Himself that which He does through the Divine Word, and hence the passage from the third person to the first in the third verse ceases to be embarrassing; nay, additional force is added to the Divine expostulation; for the Father is jealous with a holy jealousy for the Person and work of His Son. He knows how well that work has been done, and has all the more reason to complain of its having been denied its proper results and its merited reward. There is something infinitely pathetic in the idea of this song of lamentation, poured forth from the great Fathers heart of love into the sympathetic ear of His well-beloved Son, and in this enumeration of all that He, the well-beloved of the Father, had wrought for favoured Israel. When man was created, he was created as the result of the decree of a Divine council: Let us make man in our own image. And now when, after years of trial, man has proved himself a miserable failure, the Divine Father and the co-eternal Son are represented as conferring over the disastrous issue. (W. HayAitken, M. A.)

The vineyard song

There are plaintive songs, mournful songs, as well as songs expressive of joy and delight.

I. THE APPELLATIVE ADDRESS. My well-beloved. Can you call Jesus so? If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed at the coming of the Lord.

II. THE SONG. Observe, that whilst this vineyard is the choice of my well-beloved, and His own hand plants it, He has a right to the fruits. Take care and do not rob Him. Do not tell me anything about a sandy and barren Christianity. It is not worth twopence an acre, if you go by the measurement. Do not tell me of a tree in the Lords vineyard that brings forth no fruit; tell me rather of the post in the street. I look for the fruits of the Spirit, that He may be glorified in and by you.

III. THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH IS REQUISITE FOR THE SINGERS. (J. Iron.)

Unfruitfulness reproved

1. It is natural to ask, Who is this that says, I will sing a song to my Beloved! I take these words to be spoken, not in the person of Isaiah, but of God the Father to His Son our Lord, who in the evangelical style is called, the beloved Son of God, in whom He is well pleased. But how can the Church of those times be called the vineyard of the Son? I answer, Because as the Father created all things by Him, so by Him He has always governed all things, and more especially His Church.

2. The Church of God is styled a vineyard, which is a very pertinent resemblance of it. For as a vineyard is a plot of ground separated from common field and pasture, in order to be improved with such cultivation as that the vines and grapes it produces may supply the owner with generous wines: so Gods Church consists of a people chosen by Him out of the rest of the world, that they may worship Him by the laws and rules of His own revealing, and so exercise a purer religion, and abound in the fruits of good living, above other men, who have not the light of the same revelation, nor direction of the same laws. This similitude of a vine, or vineyard, for the justness of the resemblance, is several times used to denote the Church. (Psa 80:1-19.)

3. This vineyard is said to be situate in a very fruitful hill, alluding to the land of Canaan, which was a high-raised, and a very fertile soil, agreeable to the character which Moses gives of it (Deu 32:13).

4. God made a fence round about it, i.e., He distinguished His people from all other nations by peculiar laws, statutes, and observances, not only in religion, but even in civil life, in their very diet and conversation, so that it was impossible for them to remain Jews, and to accompany freely with the rest of the world. He also fenced them with a miraculous protection from the invasions of their adversaries, which bordered upon them on every side.

5. God cleared the soil of this vineyard from stones; not indeed in the literal sense, for this country pretty much abounds with rocks and flints, which are so far from being always prejudicial, that they are serviceable, not only for walls and buildings, but even for some parts of agriculture. But this is a proper continuation of the allegory, that as stones should be cast out of a vineyard, so God cast out the ancient inhabitants of Canaan, to make room for the children of Israel. And with them He cast out their idols, made of wood and stone, and demolished the temples dedicated to idolatry, that His own people might have no stumbling blocks left in their way, but might be wholly turned to His service.

6. He planted it with the choicest vine, the true religion, and form of government both ecclesiastical and civil, which He had revealed from heaven. He made excellent provision for the instruction of His people, and the promulgation of His will and pleasure among them.

7. After much cultivation of His vineyard and choice of His vine, He justly expected a plentiful product of the best kind of grapes; but was recompensed for all His pains with no better than the fruits of wild, uncultivated nature; grapes of Sodom and clusters of Gomorrah, as He complains (Deu 32:1-52). And He gives us a sample and taste of them in some of the following words He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. The great increase of their fields and flocks, wherewith He had blessed them, afforded them sufficient means of rendering those dues to religion, and loving kindness to their neighbours, especially to the more indigent sort, which by many sacred laws and serious exhortations He had enjoined. But instead of being led by the Divine beneficence to works of liberality and charity, they only studied how to sacrifice to their insatiable lusts and lewd affections.

8. Therefore with good reason God tells them and appeals to themselves for the justice of it, that He would take away the hedge of His vineyard, and my it open to be wasted and trodden under foot. The proper application of all this to ourselves, is briefly hinted by St. Paul (Rom 11:21). If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee. (W. Reading, M. A.)

Britain highly favoured of God

The natural advantages of Great Britain have been deemed extremely great; an island (says an early historian) whose valleys are as Eshcol, whose forests are as Carmel, whose hills as Lebanon, and whose defence is the ocean. But our country has to enumerate advantages of a still higher order,–both of a civil and of a religious nature. Our civil constitution is a fabric, which, on account of its symmetry and grandeur, has even called forth the admiration of foreigners. Respecting this invaluable constitution, the late Dr. Claudius Buchanan asks, Was it the peculiar wisdom of the Danes which constructed it? or of the Saxons, or of the Normans, or of the natives of the island? What is the name of the great legislator who conceived the mighty plan? Was it created by chance, or by design?. . .We know well by whose counsel and providence our happy government hath been begun and finished. Our constitution is the gift of God, and we have to acknowledge His goodness for this blessing, as we thank Him for life, and breath, and all things. But should we be less grateful for the benefits of a religious description, which have been conferred in past years upon our ancestors, and so copiously upon ourselves? We have reason to believe that the holy light of Christian truth was introduced amongst the Britons in the apostolic age, and during the captivity of Caractacus; and that numerous churches being gradually formed, the sanguinary rites of the Druids, practised in the dark recesses of their forests, were exchanged for the pure worship of the Gospel. In the sixth century, Christianity, though too much tinctured with the superstition of the age, was introduced amongst the idolatrous Saxons. It was a benefit to many of our ancestors that the dawn of a reformation also appeared, when the doctrines of the Waldenses were brought from France; and when the intrepid Wicliffe–whose writings were of no small advantage to the revival of religion, both in his own country and in Bohemia–protested against the reigning errors. This reformation, though soon crushed, was renewed within about a century afterwards, and established under the auspices of a young monarch whose name should be remembered with the warmest gratitude,–the sixth Edward. The protestant Church was in the next reign greatly oppressed, and many were added to the noble army of martyrs; but in the following reign it acquired a stability unknown before; and notwithstanding the various difficulties with which it has struggled has flourished to this day. (T. Sims, M. A.)

Man under the culturing care of Heaven

The Eternal employs fiction, as well as fact, in the revelation of His grit thoughts to man. Hence we have in the Bible, fable, allegory, parable. Fiction, used in the way which the Bible employs it, is a valuable servant of truth. It is always pure, brief, attractive, and strikingly apt. The Divine idea flashes from it at once, as the sunbeam from the diamond. The text is one of the oldest parables, and is run in a poetic mould. It is fiction set to music. I will sing to my beloved a song touching his vineyard. Isaiahs heart, as all hearts should be, is in loving transports with the absolutely Good One, and by the law of strong affections he expresses himself in the language of bold metaphor and the music of lofty verse. Love is evermore the soul of poetry and song. This parabolic song is not only a song of love, but a song of sadness, for it expresses in stirring imagery how the Almighty had wrought in mercy to cultivate the Hebrew people into goodness, how unsuccessful He had been in all His gracious endeavours, and how terrible the judgment that would descend from His throne in consequence of their unfruitfulness. We have man under Divine culture here set before us in three aspects.

I. RECEIVING THE UTMOST ATTENTION. So much had the Eternal done for the Hebrew race in order to make them good, that He appeals to the men of Jerusalem and Judah in these remarkable words: What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? What has the great moral Husbandman done towards our moral culture?

1. Look at nature. There is an intelligence, a goodness, a calm, fatherly tenderness, animating, beautifying, and brightening all nature, which is, in truth, its moral soul, that silently works evermore to fashion the heart of humanity for God.

2. Look at history. There is running through all history, as its very life, an Eternal Spirit of inexorable justice and compassionating mercy, whose grand mission it is to turn the souls of men from the hideousness of crime to the beauties of virtue, from confidence in man, whose breath is in his nostrils, to trust in Him who liveth forever, from the temporary pleasures of earth to the spiritual joys of immortality.

3. What are the events of our individual life? Why is our life, from the cradle to the grave, one perpetual change of scene and state? Why the unceasing alternation of adversity and prosperity, friendship and bereavement, sorrow and joy? Rightly regarded, they are Gods implements of spiritual culture.

4. Look at mediation. Why did God send His only-begotten Son into the world? We are expressly told that it was to redeem men from all iniquity.

5. Look at the Gospel ministry. Why does the great God ordain and qualify men in every age to expound the doctrines, offer the provisions, and enforce the precepts of the Gospel of His Son? Is it not to enlighten, renovate, purify, and morally save the souls of men?

II. BECOMING WORSE THAN FRUITLESS. He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. The idea is that the Jewish people, under the culturing care of God, produced instead of good fruit the foetid, noxious fruit of the wild vine. And truly their history demonstrates this lamentable fact. From age to age they grew more and more corrupt, morally offensive, and pernicious, Thus they went on until the days of Christ. Unfruitfulness is bad enough, but pernicious fruitfulness is worse. The history of the world shows that it is a common thing for men to grow in evil under the culturing care of God. Pharaohs heart was hardened under the ministry of Moses; Saul advanced in depravity under the ministry of Samuel; and Judas became a devil under the ministry of Christ Himself. Man growing in evil under the culturing agency of God indicates two facts in human nature.

1. The spontaneity of mans action. What stronger proof can there be that our Maker has endowed us with a sovereign power of freedom than the fact that we act contrary to His purpose regarding us, and neutralise His culturing efforts?

2. The perversity of mans heart. The disposition to run counter to Heaven, which is coeval with unregenerate souls, is the root of the worlds upas. How came it? It does not belong to human nature as a constitutional element. It is our own creation, and for it eternal justice holds us responsible.

III. SINKING INTO UTTER DESOLATION (verses 5, 6). These words threaten a three-fold curse.

1. The withdrawal of Divine protection. I will take away the hedge thereof, etc. The meaning is, that He will withdraw His guardianship from the Hebrew people. This threat was fulfilled in their experience. Heaven withdrew its aegis, and the Romans entered and wrought their ruin. What thus occurred to the Jew is only a faint symbol of what must inevitably occur in the experience of all who continue to grow in evil under the culturing agency of God.

2. A cessation of culturing effort. It shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns. The idea is that He would put forth no more effort to improve their condition, that He would cease to send them visions and prophets. The time must come in the case of all the unregenerate, when God will cease His endeavours to improve. His Spirit will not always strive with man.

3. The withholding of fertilising elements. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. However protected the vineyard might be, and however enriched the soil, and skilfully pruned the branches, if no rain come, the whole will soon be ruined. What a terrible picture of a soul is this!–here is a soul from which its great Father has withdrawn all protection, ceased all culturing efforts, and withholds all fertilising influences! Here is hell. This subject starts many solemn reflections, and has many practical uses.

(1) It unfolds the mercifulness of God. How infinite His condescending love in taking this little world under His culturing care.

(2) It reveals the morality of life. Man is a moral being, and everything here connected with his life has a moral purpose, and a moral bearing.

(3) It explains all human improvement. God, as the great Husbandman, is here building fences, digging and pruning, and thus helping on the world to moral fruitfulness.

(4) It urges self-scrutiny. In what state is our vineyard?

(5) It suggests the grand finale of the worlds history. There is a harvest marching up the steeps of time. (Homilist.)

Great opportunities

I. AS ABUNDANTLY POSSESSED. The vineyard here is represented–

1. As in a salubrious position. In a very fruitful hill.

2. As subject to culturing care. Canaan was the fruitful hill; the theocratic government was the fence built around it. What rare opportunities has every man amongst us! Bibles in our houses, churches near our dwellings, preachers of every type of mind, class of thought, and oratorio power.

II. AS SHAMEFULLY ABUSED. When I looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes.

III. AS UTTERLY LOST. (Homilist.)

A history of the Jews

We have in this parable a summing up of the history of Gods chosen people.

I. GODS CARE FOR THEM–their privileges.

II. GODS GRIEF OVER THEM–their Sin and unfaithfulness.

III. GODS SENTENCE UPON THEM–their punishment. (C. J. Ridgeway.)

Human life in parable

I. Here is human life PLACED IN A GOOD SITUATION. In a very fruitful hill.

II. Here is human life AS THE SUBJECT OF DETAILED CARE (Isa 5:2). He stood back and waited like a husbandman. The vineyard was upon a hill, and therefore could not be ploughed. How blessed are those vineyards that are cultivated by the hand! There is a magnetism in the hand of love that you cannot have in an iron plough. He gathered out the stones thereof one by one . . . He fenced . . . He built . . . He made a wine press. It is hand made. There is a peculiar delight in rightly accepting the handling of God. We are not cultivated by the great ploughs of the constellations and the laws of nature; we are handled by the Living One, our names are engraven on the palms of His hands: The right hand of the Lord doeth gloriously. Human life, then, is the subject of detailed care; everything, how minute soever, is done as if it were the only thing to be done; every man feels that there is a care directed to him which might belong to an only son.

III. Human life is next regarded AS THE OBJECT OF A JUST EXPECTATION. He looked that it should bring forth grapes. Had, He not a right to do so? Is there not a sequence of events? When men sow certain seed, have they not a right to look for a certain crop? When they pass through certain processes in education, or in commerce, or in statesmanship, have they not a right to expect that the end should correspond with the beginning? Who likes to lose all his care?

IV. Human life AS THE OCCASION OF A BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT. It brought forth wild grapes. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)

Life given for culture

It is not the best at the first; it has to be fenced, and the stones are to be taken out, and the choice vine is to be planted, and the tower is to be set in the midst of it, and the wine press is to be built therein. The child is but the beginning; the man should be the cultivated result. Culture is bestowed for fruit. Culture is not given for mere decoration, ornamentation, or for the purpose of exciting attention, and invoking and securing applause; the meaning of culture, ploughing, digging, sowing is–fruit, good fruit, usable fruit, fruit for the healing of the nations. The fruit for which culture is bestowed is moral. God looked for judgment and for righteousness. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)

Gods expectation of fruit

I. THE MOTIVES OR REASONS INDUCING US TO FRUITFULNESS.

1. Every creature in its kind is fruitful. The poorest creature God hath made is enabled, with some gift, to imitate the goodness and bounty of the Creator, and to yield something from itself to the use and benefit of others Shall not every creature be a witness against man, and rise up in judgment to condemn him, if he be fruitless?

2. The fruitfulness of a Christian is the groundwork of all true prosperity.

3. If we be fruitful, bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, there is no law against us (Gal 5:22-23).

4. The circumstance of time calls upon us to bring forth the fruits of obedience. Forasmuch as the Lord hath year by year, for so long succession of years, sought for fruit of us and found none, it is now high time to bring forth plenty.

5. If all this will not serve to make us fruitful, that which our Saviour saith Joh 15:2; Joh 15:6, should awaken us.

II. SOME PROFITABLE MEANS THAT MUST BE USED TO MAKE US GROW MORE FRUITFUL.

1. See thou be removed out of thy natural soil, and be engrafted into another stock.

2. See thou plant thyself by the running brooks.

3. See thou labour for humility and tenderness of heart. The ground which is hard and strong is unfit for fruit.

4. Beware of overshadowing thy heart by any sinful lust, whereby the warm beams of the Sun of Righteousness are kept from it.

5. A special care must be had to the root that that grow well Faith is the radical grace.

6. We must be earnest with the Lord, that He would make us fruitful.

III. THE NATURE AND QUALITY OF THAT FRUIT WHICH WE MUST BRING FORTH.

1. Proper. It must be thy own.

2. Kindly, resembling the Author, who is the Spirit of grace.

3. Timely and seasonable (Psa 1:3).

4. Ripe.

5. A fifth property of good fruit is universalities. Fruits of the first and second table, of holiness towards God and righteousness towards man. Fruits inward and outward.

6. Constant. (N. Rogers.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER V

This chapter begins with representing, in a beautiful parable,

the tender care of God for his people, and their unworthy

returns for his goodness, 1-7.

The parable or allegory is then dropped; and the prophet, in

plain terms, reproves and threatens them for their wickedness;

particularly for their covetousness, 8-10;

intemperance, 11;

and inattention to the warnings of Providence, 12.

Then follows an enumeration of judgments as the necessary

consequence. Captivity and famine appear with all their

horrors, 13.

Hades, or the grave, like a ravenous monster, opens wide its

jaws, and swallows down its myriads, 14.

Distress lays hold on all ranks, 15;

and God is glorified in the execution of his judgments, 16;

till the whole place is left desolate, a place for the flocks

to range in, 17.

The prophet then pauses; and again resumes his subject,

reproving them for several other sins, and threatening them

with woes and vengeance, 18-24;

after which he sums up the whole of his awful denunciation in a

very lofty and spirited epiphonema or conclusion. The God of

armies, having hitherto corrected to no purpose, is represented

with inimitable majesty, as only giving a hist, and a swarm of

nations hasten to his standard, 25-27.

Upon a guilty race, unpitied by heaven or by earth, they

execute their commission; and leave the land desolate and dark,

without one ray of comfort to cheer the horrid gloom, 28-30.

This chapter likewise stands single and alone, unconnected with the preceding or following. The subject of it is nearly the same with that of the first chapter. It is a general reproof of the Jews for their wickedness; but it exceeds that chapter in force, in severity, in variety, and elegance; and it adds a more express declaration of vengeance by the Babylonian invasion.

NOTES ON CHAP. V

Verse 1. Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved – “Let me sing now a song,” c.] A MS., respectable for its antiquity, adds the word shir, a song, after na which gives so elegant a turn to the sentence by the repetition of it in the next member, and by distinguishing the members so exactly in the style and manner in the Hebrew poetical composition, that I am much inclined to think it genuine.

A song of my beloved – “A song of loves”] dodey, for dodim: status constructus pro absoluto, as the grammarians say, as Mic 6:16; Lam 3:14; Lam 3:66, so Archbishop Secker. Or rather, in all these and the like cases, a mistake of the transcribers, by not observing a small stroke, which in many MSS., is made to supply the mem, of the plural, thus, dodi. shirath dodim is the same with shir yedidoth, Ps 45:1. In this way of understanding it we avoid the great impropriety of making the author of the song, and the person to whom it is addressed, to be the same.

In a very fruitful hill – “On a high and fruitful hill.”] Heb. bekeren ben shamen, “on a horn the son of oil.” The expression is highly descriptive and poetical. “He calls the land of Israel a horn, because it is higher than all lands; as the horn is higher than the whole body; and the son of oil, because it is said to be a land flowing with milk and honey.” – Kimchi on the place. 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. “Dorsum immane mari summo;” Virgil, a back, or ridge of rocks: –

“Hanc latus angustum jam se cogentis in arctum

Hesperiae tenuem producit in aequora linguam,

Adriacas flexis claudit quae cornibus undas.”

Lucan, ii. 612, of Brundusium, i.e., , which, in the ancient language of that country, signifies stag’s head, says Strabo. A horn is a proper and obvious image for a mountain or mountainous country. Solinus, cap. viii., says, “Italiam, ubi longius processerit, in cornua duo scindi;” that is, the high ridge of the Alps, which runs through the whole length of it, divides at last into two ridges, one going through Calabria, the other through the country of the Brutii. “Cornwall is called by the inhabitants in the British tongue Kernaw, as lessening by degrees like a horn, running out into promontories like so many horns. For the Britons call a horn corn, in the plural kern.” – Camden. “And Sammes is of opinion, that the country had this name originally from the Phoenicians, who traded hither for tin; keren, in their language, being a horn.” – Gibson.

Here the precise idea seems to be that of a high mountain standing by itself; “vertex montis, aut pars montis ad aliis divisa;” which signification, says I. H. Michaelis, Bibl. Hallens., Not. in loc., the word has in Arabic.

Judea was in general a mountainous country, whence Moses sometimes calls it The Mountain, “Thou shalt plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance;” Ex 15:17. “I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land beyond Jordan; that goodly mountain, and Lebanon;” De 3:25. And in a political and religious view it was detached and separated from all the nations round it. Whoever has considered the descriptions given of Mount Tabor, (see Reland, Palaestin.; Eugene Roger, Terre Sainte, p. 64,) and the views of it which are to be seen in books of travels, (Maundrell, p. 114; Egmont and Heyman, vol. ii., p. 25; Thevenot, vol. i., p. 429,) its regular conic form rising singly in a plain to a great height, from a base small in proportion, and its beauty and fertility to the very top, will have a good idea of “a horn the son of oil;” and will perhaps be induced to think that the prophet took his image from that mountain.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Now will I sing; I will record it, to be a witness for God, and against you, as Moses did his song, Deu 31:19; 32:1.

To my Well-beloved; to the Lord of the vineyard, as appears by the last clause of the verse; to God or Christ, whom I love and serve, and for whose glory, eclipsed by you, I am greatly concerned.

A song of my Beloved; not devised by me, not the effect of my envy or passion; but inspired by God, which therefore it behoveth you to lay to heart.

His vineyard; his church, oft and very fitly called a vineyard, because of Gods singular respect to it, and care of it, and his delight in it, and expectation of good fruit from it, &c.

In a very fruitful hill; hills being places most commodious for vines: see Psa 80:10. Heb. in a horn (which may signify either,

1. The figure or shape of the land of Canaan, which resembles a horn; or,

2. The height and hilliness of that land, as horns are the highest parts of beasts; or,

3. The goodliness and excellency of it, as a horn, when it is ascribed to a man, signifies his glory and dignity, as Job 16:1,5; Psa 89:17,24, &c.) the son of oil, which, by a vulgar Hebraism, notes an oily or a fat soil.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. torather, “concerning”[GESENIUS], that is, inthe person of My beloved, as His representative [VITRINGA].Isaiah gives a hint of the distinction and yet unity of the DivinePersons (compare He with I, Isa 5:2;Isa 5:3).

of my belovedinspiredby Him; or else, a tender song [CASTALIO].By a slight change of reading “a song of His love”[HOUBIGANT]. “TheBeloved” is Jehovah, the Second Person, the “Angel” ofGod the Father, not in His character as incarnate Messiah, butas God of the Jews (Exo 23:20;Exo 23:21; Exo 32:34;Exo 33:14).

vineyard (Isa 3:14;Psa 80:8, c.). The Jewishcovenant-people, separated from the nations for His glory, as theobject of His peculiar care (Mat 20:1Mat 21:33). Jesus Christ in the”vineyard” of the New Testament Church is the same as theOld Testament Angel of the Jewish covenant.

fruitful hillliterally,”a horn” (“peak,” as the Swiss shreckhorn)of the son of oil; poetically, for very fruitful.Suggestive of isolation, security, and a sunny aspect. Isaiah alludesplainly to the Song of Solomon (Son 6:3;Son 8:11; Son 8:12),in the words “His vineyard” and “myBeloved” (compare Isa 26:20;Isa 61:10; Son 1:4;Son 4:10). The transition from”branch” (Isa 4:2) to”vineyard” here is not unnatural.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Now will I sing to my well beloved,…. These are the words of the Prophet Isaiah, being about to represent the state and condition of the people of Israel by way of parable, which he calls a song, and which he determines to sing to his beloved, and calls upon himself to do it; by whom he means either God the Father, whom he loved with all his heart and soul; or Christ, who is often called the beloved of his people, especially in the book of Solomon’s song; or else the people of Israel, whom the prophet had a great affection for, being his own people; but it seems best to understand it of God or Christ:

a song of my beloved; which was inspired by him, or related to him, and was made for his honour and glory; or “a song of my uncle” q, for another word is used here than what is in the preceding clause, and is rendered “uncle” elsewhere, see Le 25:49 and may design King Amaziah; for, according to tradition, Amoz, the father of Isaiah, was brother to Amaziah king of Judah, and so consequently Amaziah must be uncle to Isaiah; and this might be a song of his composing, or in which he was concerned, being king of Judah, the subject of this song, as follows:

touching his vineyard; not his uncle’s, though it is true of him, but his well beloved’s, God or Christ; the people of Israel, and house of Judah, are meant, comparable to a vineyard, as appears from Isa 5:7 being separated and distinguished from the rest of the nations of the world, for the use, service, and glory of God.

My beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill; or, “in a horn, the son of oil” r; which designs the land of Israel, which was higher than other lands; and was, as some observe, in the form of a horn, longer than it was broad, and a very fruitful country, a land of olive oil, a land flowing with milk and honey, De 8:7. The Targum is,

“the prophet said, I will sing now to Israel, who is like unto a vineyard, the seed of Abraham, my beloved, a song of my beloved, concerning his vineyard. My people, my beloved Israel, I gave to them an inheritance in a high mountain, in a fat land.”

q “canticum patruelis mei”, V. L. r “in cornu, filio olei”, V. L.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The prophet commenced his first address in chapter 1 like another Moses; the second, which covered no less ground, he opened with the text of an earlier prophecy; and now he commences the third like a musician, addressing both himself and his hearers with enticing words. Isa 1:1. “Arise, I will sing of my beloved, a song of my dearest touching his vineyard.” The fugitive rhythm, the musical euphony, the charming assonances in this appeal, it is impossible to reproduce. They are perfectly inimitable. The Lamed in ldd is the Lamed objecti . The person to whom the song referred, to whom it applied, of whom it treated, was the singer’s own beloved. It was a song of his dearest one (not his cousin, patruelis , as Luther renders it in imitation of the Vulgate, for the meaning of dod is determined by yadid , beloved) touching his vineyard. The Lamed in l’carmo is also Lamed objecti . The song of the beloved is really a song concerning the vineyard of the beloved; and this song is a song of the beloved himself, not a song written about him, or attributed to him, but such a song as he himself had sung, and still had to sing. The prophet, by beginning in this manner, was surrounded (either in spirit or in outward reality) by a crowd of people from Jerusalem and Judah. The song is a short one, and runs thus in Isa 1:1, Isa 1:2: “My beloved had a vineyard on a fatly nourished mountain-horn, and dug it up and cleared it of stones, and planted it with noble vines, and built a tower in it, and also hewed out a wine-press therein; and hoped that it would bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.” The vineyard was situated upon a keren , i.e., upon a prominent mountain peak projecting like a horn, and therefore open to the sun on all sides; for, as Virgil says in the Georgics, “ apertos Bacchus amat colles .” This mountain horn was ben – shemen , a child of fatness: the fatness was innate, it belonged to it by nature ( shemen is used, as in Isa 28:1, to denote the fertility of a nutritive loamy soil). And the owner of the vineyard spared no attention or trouble. The plough could not be used, from the steepness of the mountain slope: he therefore dug it up, that is to say, he turned up the soil which was to be made into a vineyard with a hoe ( izzek , to hoe; Arab. mizak , mizaka ); and as he found it choked up with stones and boulders, he got rid of this rubbish by throwing it out sikkel , a privative piel, lapidibus purgare , then operam consumere in lapides , sc. ejiciendos , to stone, or clear of stones: Ges. 52, 2). After the soil had been prepared he planted it with sorek , i.e., the finest kind of eastern vine, bearing small grapes of a bluish-red, with pips hardly perceptible to the tongue. The name is derived from its colour (compare the Arabic zerka , red wine). To protect and adorn the vineyard which had been so richly planted, he built a tower in the midst of it. The expression “and also” calls especial attention to the fact that he hewed out a wine-trough therein ( yekeb , the trough into which the must or juice pressed from the grapes in the wine-press flows, lacus as distinguished from torcular ); that is to say, in order that the trough might be all the more fixed and durable, he constructed it in a rocky portion of the ground ( C hatseb bo instead of Chatsab bo , with a and the accent drawn back, because a Beth was thereby easily rendered inaudible, so that C hatseb is not a participial adjective, as Bttcher supposes). This was a difficult task, as the expression “and also” indicates; and for that very reason it was an evidence of the most confident expectation. But how bitterly was this deceived! The vineyard produced no such fruit, as might have been expected from a sorek plantation; it brought forth no anabim whatever, i.e., no such grapes as a cultivated vine should bear, but only b’ushim , or wild grapes. Luther first of all adopted the rendering wild grapes, and then altered it to harsh or sour grapes. But it comes to the same thing. The difference between a wild vine and a good vine is only qualitative. The vitis vinifera , like all cultivated plants, is assigned to the care of man, under which it improves; whereas in its wild state it remains behind its true intention (see Genesis, 622). Consequently the word b’ushim (from ba’ash , to be bad, or smell bad) denotes not only the grapes of the wild vine, which are naturally small and harsh (Rashi, lambruches , i.e., grapes of the labrusca , which is used now, however, as the botanical name of a vine that is American in its origin), but also grapes of a good stock, which have either been spoiled or have failed to ripen.

(Note: In the Jerusalem Talmud such grapes are called ubshin , the letters being transposed; and in the Mishnah ( Ma’aseroth i. 2, Zeb’ith iv 8) is the standing word applied to grapes that are only half ripe (see Lwy’s Leshon Chachamim, or Wrterbuch des talmudischen Hebrisch, Prag 1845). With reference to the wild grape ( ), a writer, describing the useful plants of Greece, says, “Its fruit ( ) consists of very small berries, not much larger than bilberries, with a harsh flavour.”)

These were the grapes which the vineyard produced, such as you might indeed have expected from a wild vine, but not from carefully cultivated vines of the very choicest kind.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Israel Compared to a Vineyard.

B. C. 758.

1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild 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 hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up 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 his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

See what variety of methods the great God takes to awaken sinners to repentance by convincing them of sin, and showing them their misery and danger by reason of it. To this purport he speaks sometimes in plain terms and sometimes in parables, sometimes in prose and sometimes in verse, as here. “We have tried to reason with you (ch. i. 18); now let us put your case into a poem, inscribed to the honour of my well beloved.” God the Father dictates it to the honour of Christ his well beloved Son, whom he has constituted Lord of the vineyard. The prophet sings it to the honour of Christ too, for he is his well beloved. The Old-Testament prophets were friends of the bridegroom. Christ is God’s beloved Son and our beloved Saviour. Whatever is said or sung of the church must be intended to his praise, even that which (like this) tends to our shame. This parable was put into a song that it might be the more moving and affecting, might be the more easily learned and exactly remembered, and the better transmitted to posterity; and it is an exposition of he song of Moses (Deut. xxxii.), showing that what he then foretold was now fulfilled. Jerome says, Christ the well-beloved did in effect sing this mournful song when he beheld Jerusalem and wept over it (Luke xix. 41), and had reference to it in the parable of the vineyard (Matt. xxi. 33, c.), only here the fault was in the vines, there in the husbandmen. Here we have,

I. The great things which God had done for the Jewish church and nation. When all the rest of the world lay in common, not cultivated by divine revelation, that was his vineyard, they were his peculiar people. He acknowledged them as his own, set them apart for himself. The soil they were planted in was extraordinary it was a very fruitful hill, the horn of the son of oil; so it is in the margin. There was plenty, a cornucopia; and there was dainty: they did there eat the fat and drink the sweet, and so were furnished with abundance of good things to honour God with in sacrifices and free-will offerings. The advantages of our situation will be brought into the account another day. Observe further what God did for this vineyard. 1. He fenced it, took it under his special protection, kept it night and day under his own eye, lest any should hurt it, Isa 27:2; Isa 27:3. If they had not themselves thrown down their fence, no inroad could have been made upon them, Psa 125:2; Psa 131:4. 2. He gathered the stones out of it, that, as nothing from without might damage it, so nothing within might obstruct its fruitfulness. He proffered his grace to take away the stony heart. 3. He planted it with the choicest vine, set up a pure religion among them, gave them a most excellent law, instituted ordinances very proper for the keeping up of their acquaintance with God, Jer. ii. 21. 4. He built a tower in the midst of it, either for defence against violence or for the dressers of the vineyard to lodge in; or rather it was for the owner of the vineyard to sit in, to take a view of the vines (Cant. vii. 12)– a summer-house. The temple was this tower, about which the priests lodged, and where God promised to meet his people, and gave them the tokens of his presence among them and pleasure in them. 5. He made a wine-press therein, set up his altar, to which the sacrifices, as the fruits of the vineyard, should be brought.

II. The disappointment of his just expectations from them: He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and a great deal of reason he had for that expectation. Note, God expects vineyard-fruit from those that enjoy vineyard-privileges, not leaves only, as Mark xi. 12. A bare profession, though ever so green, will not serve: there must be more than buds and blossoms. Good purposes and good beginnings are good things, but not enough; there must be fruit, a good heart and a good life, vineyard fruit, thoughts and affections, words and actions, agreeable to the Spirit, which is the fatness of the vineyard (Gal 5:22; Gal 5:23), answerable to the ordinances, which are the dressings of the vineyard, acceptable to God, the Lord of the vineyard, and fruit according to the season. Such fruit as this God expects from us, grapes, the fruit of the vine, with which they honour God and man (Judg. ix. 13); and his expectations are neither high nor hard, but righteous and very reasonable. Yet see how his expectations are frustrated: It brought forth wild grapes; not only no fruit at all, but bad fruit, worse than none, grapes of Sodom, Deut. xxxii. 32. 1. Wild grapes are the fruits of the corrupt nature, fruit according to the crabstock, not according to the engrafted branch, from the root of bitterness, Heb. xii. 15. Where grace does not work corruption will. 2. Wild grapes are hypocritical performances in religion, that look like grapes, but are sour or bitter, and are so far from being pleasing to God that they are provoking, as theirs mentioned in ch. i. 11. Counterfeit graces are wild grapes.

III. An appeal to themselves whether upon the whole matter God must not be justified and they condemned, Isa 5:3; Isa 5:4. And now the case is plainly stated: O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah! judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. This implies that God was blamed about them. There was a controversy between them and him; but the equity was so plain on his side that he could venture to put the decision of the controversy to their own consciences. “Let any inhabitant of Jerusalem, any man of Judah, that has but the use of his reason and a common sense of equity and justice, speak his mind impartially in this matter.” Here is a challenge to any man to show, 1. Any instance wherein God had been wanting to them: What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? He speaks of the external means of fruitfulness, and such as might be expected from the dresser of a vineyard, from whom it is not required that he should change the nature of the vine. What ought to have been done more? so it may be read. They had everything requisite for instruction and direction in their duty, for quickening them to it and putting them in mind of it. No inducements were wanting to persuade them to it, but all arguments were used that were proper to work either upon hope or fear; and they had all the opportunities they could desire for the performance of their duty, the new moons, and the sabbaths, and solemn feasts; They had the scriptures, the lively oracles, a standing ministry in the priests and Levites, besides what was extraordinary in the prophets. No nation had statutes and judgments so righteous. 2. Nor could any tolerable excuse be offered for their walking thus contrary to God. “Wherefore, what reason can be given why it should bring forth wild grapes, when I looked for grapes?” Note, The wickedness of those that profess religion, and enjoy the means of grace, is the most unreasonable unaccountable thing in the world, and the whole blame of it must lie upon the sinners themselves. “If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it, and shalt not have a word to say for thyself in the judgment of the great day.” God will prove his own ways equal and the sinner’s ways unequal.

IV. Their doom read, and a righteous sentence passed upon them for their bad conduct towards God (Isa 5:5; Isa 5:6): “And now go to, since nothing can be offered in excuse of the crime or arrest of the judgement, I will tell you what I am now determined to do to my vineyard. I will be vexed and troubled with it no more; since it will be good for nothing, it shall be good for nothing; in short, it shall cease to be a vineyard, and be turned into a wilderness: the church of the Jews shall be unchurched; their charter shall be taken away, and they shall become lo-ammi–not my people.” 1. “They shall no longer be distinguished as a peculiar people, but be laid in common: I will take away the hedge thereof, and then it will soon be eaten up and become as bare as other ground.” They mingled with the nations and therefore were justly scattered among them. 2. “They shall no longer be protected as God’s people, but left exposed. God will not only suffer the wall to go to decay, but he will break it down, will remove all their defences from them, and then they will become an easy prey to their enemies, who have long waited for an opportunity to do them a mischief, and will now tread them down and trample upon them.” 3. “They shall no longer have the face of a vineyard, and the form and shape of a church and commonwealth, but shall be levelled and laid waste.” This was fulfilled when Jerusalem for their sakes was ploughed as a field, Mic. iii. 12. 4. “No more pains shall be taken with them by magistrates or ministers, the dressers and keepers of their vineyard; it shall not be pruned nor digged, but every thing shall run wild, and nothing shall come up but briers and thorns, the products of sin and the curse,” Gen. iii. 18. When errors and corruptions, vice and immorality, go without check or control, no testimony borne against them, no rebuke given them or restraint put upon them, the vineyard is unpruned, is not dressed, or ridded; and then it will soon be like the vineyard of the man void of understanding, all grown over with thorns. 5. “That which completes its woe is that the dews of heaven shall be withheld; he that has the key of the clouds will command them that they rain no rain upon it, and that alone is sufficient to run it into a desert.” Note, God in a way of righteous judgment, denies his grace to those that have long received it in vain. The sum of all is that those who would not bring forth good fruit should bring forth none. The curse of barrenness is the punishment of the sin of barrenness, as Mark xi. 14. This had its partial accomplishment in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, its full accomplishment in the final rejection of the Jews, and has its frequent accomplishment in the departure of God’s Spirit from those persons who have long resisted him and striven against him, and the removal of his gospel from those places that have been long a reproach to it, while it has been an honour to them. It is no loss to God to lay his vineyard waste; for he can, when he please, turn a wilderness into a fruitful field; and when he does thus dismantle a vineyard, it is but as he did by the garden of Eden, which, when man had by sin forfeited his place in it, was soon levelled with common soil.

V. The explanation of this parable, or a key to it (v. 7), where we are told, 1. What is meant by the vineyard (it is the house of Israel, the body of the people, incorporated in one church and commonwealth), and what by the vines, the pleasant plants, the plants of God’s pleasure, which he had been pleased in and delighted in doing good to; they are the men of Judah; these he had dealt graciously with, and from them he expected suitable returns. 2. What is meant by the grapes that were expected and the wild grapes that were produces: He looked for judgment and righteousness, that the people should be honest in all their dealings and the magistrates should strictly administer justice. This might reasonably be expected among a people that had such excellent laws and rules of justice given them (Deut. iv. 8); but the fact was quite otherwise; instead of judgment there was the cruelty of the oppressors, and instead of righteousness the cry of the oppressed. Every thing was carried by clamour and noise, and not by equity and according to the merits of the cause. It is sad with a people when wickedness has usurped the place of judgment, Eccl. iii. 16. It is very sad with a soul when instead of the grapes of humility, meekness, patience, love, and contempt of the world, which God looks for, there are the wild grapes of pride, passion, discontent, malice, and contempt of God–instead of the grapes of praying and praising, the wild grapes of cursing and swearing, which are a great offence to God. Some of the ancients apply this to the Jews in Christ’s time, among whom God looked for righteousness (that is, that they should receive and embrace Christ), but behold a cry, that cry, Crucify him, crucify him.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

ISAIAH – CHAPTER 5
DIVINE EXPECTATION, FRUSTRATION AND CONDEMNATION
1. Isaiah sings of his beloved Friend (Jehovah) whose vineyard is located on a fertile hill, (Verse 1-2).
a. With tender care the divine husbandman has prepared the soil and planted His vineyard with the choicest of vines, (Jer 2:21).
b. Every necessary preparation has been made, in expectation of a fruitful harvest; but the grapes are wild – unfit for the intended purpose, (comp. Mat 22:19; Luk 13:6-9).
c. The Lord always expects fruit from His planting-even in this century, (Mat 3:8; Col 1:10; Gal 5:22-23; Joh 12:24; Joh 15:2; Joh 15:5; Joh 15:16).
2. Then the Lord Himself speaks through the prophet -commanding the men of Judah to judge between him and themselves, (Verse 3-4; Rom 3:4; Jer 2:5; 2Ch 36:15-16).
a. Surely His loving provision for the vineyard has been adequate! What more could He have done? (Psa 80:8-11).
b. Here is a genuine lamentation; an expression of deep sorrow, (Jer 7:25-26; Mic 6:3-4).
c. There must be an accounting for the unsatisfactory return on this divine investment! (Mar 12:1-12; Mat 21:33-44; Mat 23:37-39).
3. Dissatisfied with the produce of His vineyard, the Lord will remove the hedge of divine protection from it (Psa 89:40), so that it will be “eaten up”, (Is 6:13; Hos 2:12).
4. Furthermore, He will break down its wall, so that it may be trodden down and laid waste, (Psa 80:12-13; Psa 80:16; Isa 10:6; Isa 28:18; Jer 25:11; La 1:5; Mic 7:10; 2Ch 36:17-21; Rev 11:2).
5. No longer will the vineyard be pruned and cultivated, but left to be over-run by briars and thorns; nor will the Lord permit it to enjoy refreshing showers from on high, (1Ki 8:35; Psa 80:8-13; Jer 12:10; Jer 14:1-22).
6. Israel is the Lord’s vineyard; the men of Judah His pleasant plant, (Psa 80:8-11).
7. Since they have exchanged justice for oppression, and righteousness for cruelty, they must face the consequence of divine judgment – as all must who transgress God’s law and holy purpose, (Rom 14:12; 2Co 5:10; comp. Gal 6:7-8).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. Now will I sing to my beloved. The subject of this chapter is different from that of the former. It was the design of the Prophet to describe the condition of the people of Israel, as it then was, in order that all might perceive their faults, and might thus be led by shame and self-loathing to sincere repentance. Here, as in a mirror, the people might behold the misery of their condition. But for this, they would have flattered themselves too much in their crimes, and would not have patiently listened to any instructions. It was therefore necessary to present a striking and lively picture of their wickedness; and in order that it might have the greater weight, he made use of this preface; for great and memorable events were usually described in verse, that they might be repeated by every one, and that a lasting record of them might be preserved. In like manner, we see that Moses wrote a song, and many other compositions, (Exo 15:1; Deu 32:1,) in order that all the events might be proclaimed in this manner, both in public and in private. The instruction becomes more widely diffused than if it had been delivered in plainer language. For the same reason Isaiah composed this song, that he might present to the people a clearer view of their wickedness; and, undoubtedly, he handled this subject with magnificent and harmonious language, for the highest skill is commonly exercised in the composition of poems.
To my beloved. There can be no doubt that he means God; as if he had said that he would compose a poem in behalf of God, that he might expostulate with the people about their ingratitude; for it gave additional weight to his language to represent God as speaking. But a question arises, Why does Isaiah call God his friend? Some reply that he was a kinsman of Christ, and I acknowledge that he was a descendant of David; but this appears to be a forced interpretation. A more natural and appropriate one would be, to adopt the statement of John, that the Church is committed to the friends of the bridegroom, (Joh 3:29,) and to reckon prophets as belonging to that class. To them, unquestionably, this designation applies; for the ancient people were placed under their charge, that they might be kept under their leader. We need not wonder, therefore, that they were jealous and were greatly offended when the people bestowed their attachment on any other. Isaiah therefore assumes the character of the bridegroom, and, being deeply anxious about the bride entrusted to him, complains that she has broken conjugal fidelity, and deplores her treachery and ingratitude.
Hence we learn that not only Paul, but all those prophets and teachers who faithfully served God, were jealous of God’s spouse. (2Co 11:2.) And all the servants of God ought to be greatly moved and aroused by this appellation; for what does a man reckon more valuable than his wife? A well-disposed husband will value her more highly than all his treasures, and will more readily commit to any person the charge of his wealth than of his wife. He to whom one will entrust his dearly-beloved wife must be reckoned very faithful. Now to pastors and ministers the Lord commits his Church as his beloved wife. How great will be our wickedness if we betray her by sloth and negligence! Whosoever does not labor earnestly to preserve her can on no pretense be excused.
A song of my beloved. By using the word דודי, dodi, he changes the first syllable, but the meaning is the same as in the former clause. Though some render it uncle, and others cousin, I rather agree with those who consider it to contain an allusion; for greater liberties are allowed to poets than to other writers. By his arrangement of those words, and by his allusions to them, he intended that the sound and rhythm should aid the memory, and impress the minds, of his readers.
My beloved had a vineyard. The metaphor of a vineyard is frequently employed by the prophets, and it would be impossible to find a more appropriate comparison. (Psa 80:8; Jer 2:21.) There are two ways in which it points out how highly the Lord values his Church; for no possession is dearer to a man than a vineyard, and there is none that demands more constant and persevering toil. Not only, therefore, does the Lord declare that we are his beloved inheritance, but at the same time points out his care and anxiety about us.
In this song the Prophet mentions, first, the benefits which the Lord had bestowed on the Jewish people; secondly, he explains how great was the ingratitude of the people; thirdly, the punishment which must follow; fourthly, he enumerates the vices of the people; for men never acknowledge their vices till they are compelled to do so.
On a hill. He begins by saying that God had placed his people in a favorable situation, as when a person plants a vine on a pleasant and fertile hill. By the word horn or hill I understand a lofty place rising above a plain, or what we commonly call a rising-ground, ( un coustau .) It is supposed by some to refer to the situation of Jerusalem, but I consider this to be unnatural and forced. It rather belongs to the construction of the Prophet’s allegory; and as God was pleased to take this people under his care and protection, he compares this favor to the planting of a vineyard; for it is better to plant vines on hills and lofty places than on a plain. In like manner the poet says, The vine loves the open hills; the yews prefer the north wind and the cold (75) The Prophet, therefore, having alluded to the ordinary method of planting the vine, next follows out the comparison, that this place occupied no ordinary situation. When he calls it the son of oil or of fatness, (76) he means a rich and exceedingly fertile spot. This is limited by some commentators to the fertility of Judea, but that does not accord with my views, for the Prophet intended to describe metaphorically the prosperous condition of the people.
(75) Denique apertos Bacchus amat colles: Aquilonem et frigora taxi. Virg, Georg. II. 112.
(76) In a very fruitful hill. — Eng. Ver.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD
Isa. 5:1-7. Now will I sing, &c.
I. The Privileges conferred on the Jewish nation (Isa. 5:2-3). It would be vain and useless to attempt, as some have done, to find in the privileges of the Jews an exact counterpart to the various items here specified concerning this vineyard. For example, Jerome regards the fencing of the vineyard as symbolical of the protection of the Jews by the angels; the gathering out of the stones, the removal of the idols; the tower, the temple erected in Jerusalem; the wine-press, the altar [583] To seek thus for minute analogies is at once to destroy the oratorical force and the simplicity of the parable. Rather let us lay hold of its leading truths. The prophet desired to remind the Jews that they had received extraordinary privileges from God; consequently he employed figures calculated to impress his hearers with that truth; and he does not fail to specify every particular which those acquainted with a vineyard would expect, if it were one from which a copious supply of choice fruit might be reasonably expected.
1. The choice which God made of the Jews as a nation was the first and fundamental privilege which He conferred upon them.
2. Having chosen them, God revealed Himself to them as clearly as was then possible through the symbolism of the Mosaic Law. Through its statutes and ceremonies were shadowed forth the great truths of His holiness, His mercy, His sanctifying grace, and the Sacrifice which in the fulness of time was to be offered for the sin of the world (Rom. 3:1-2).
3. In addition to the Law, God gave to His people the inestimable help of Prophetical Teaching, to assist them to understand its meaning, and to stimulate them to keep it with full purpose of heart.
[583] The house of Israel (beth Yisrel) was the whole nation, which is also represented in other passages under the same figure of a vineyard (Isa. 27:2, sqq.; Psalms 80, &c). But as Isaiah was prophet in Judah, he applies the figure more particularly to Judah, which was called Jehovahs favourite plantation, inasmuch as it was the seat of the Divine sanctuary and of the Davidic kingdom. This makes it easy enough to interpret the different parts of the simile employed. The fat mountain horn was Canaan, flowing with milk and honey (Exo. 15:17); the digging of the vineyard, and clearing it of stones, was the clearing of Canaan from its former heathen inhabitants (Psa. 44:3); the sorek-vines were the holy priests and prophets and kings of Israel of the earlier and better times (Jer. 2:21); the defensive and ornamental tower in the midst of the vineyard was Jerusalem as the royal city, with Zion the royal fortress (Mic. 4:8); the winepress-trough was the temple, where, according to Psa. 36:8, the wine of heavenly pleasures flowed in streams, and from which, according to Psalms 42 and many other passages, the thirst of the soul might all be quenched. The grazing and treading down are explained in Jer. 5:10; Jer. 12:10.Delitsch.
I believe that in a poetical allegory there is always more or less of allusion to the details of that which is allegorised; but it is only allusion,to be realised by the imagination, rather than by the understanding, of the reader, as well as the poet. The several images are parts of a picture, which must be contemplated as a picture, and its meaning is to enter into the mind through the imagination. Still, a matter-of-fact commentator, like Vitringa, deeply imbued with the spirit of his author, will sometimes greatly help his readers imagination by his minute analysis; and I think this is the case in his explanation of the details of this description of the vineyard. A vineyard consists of vines planted for the sake of their fruit: the Hebrew nation with its tribes, its families, and its persons, was such a vineyard, appointed to bring forth the fruits of personal and social religion and virtue,holiness, righteousness, and love to God and man: this nation was established in a land flowing with milk and honey, endowed with all natural advantages, all circumstances which could favour inward life by outward prosperity; and the grace and favour of Jehovah, and the influences of His Spirit, always symbolised by oil, were continually causing it to be fruitful. And He fenced it,the arm of the LORD of hosts, employing kings and heroes, was its defence against all enemies; its institutions were fitted to preserve internal order, and to prevent the admixture of evil from without, with the chosen and separated nation; and its territory was marked out and protected by natural boundaries in a noticeable manner. Gathered out the stones,the heathen nations, and the stocks and stones they worshipped. And planted it with the choicest vine,a nation of the noble stock of the patriarchs, and chosen and cultivated by the Lord of the vineyard, with especial care, for His own use. And built a tower in it,namely, Jerusalemfor the protection and superintendence of the vineyard, as well as to be its farmhouse, so to speak. And also made a wine-press therein,where the wine-press seems to point to the same idea as the sending the servants to receive the fruit, in our Lords modification of this parable: lawgivers, kings, and judges, the temple with its priesthood and ordinances, and the schools of the prophets, were the appointed means for pressing out and receiving the winethe spiritual virtues and graces of the vineyard. And the end is, that He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.Strachey, pp. 62, 63.
II. The consequent obligations under which the Jews were laid. From the vineyard, for which the great Husbandman had done so much, He naturally looked for fruit. The fruits which the prophet specifies as being required by God from the Jews correspond precisely with their privileges (Isa. 5:7). He had given them a code of laws by which their actions were to be guided, and had impressed upon them the duty of doing to others as they would be done to. Now He looked for the fruits of justice and righteousness. It was a reasonable demand, the lowest that could have been made. Yet even this demand was not met.
III. The Judgment which God designed to bring upon them (Isa. 5:6-7). As we objected to the attempt to find exact counterparts between the various privileges of the Jews and the labours which had been bestowed upon the vineyard, so we set aside as needless all attempts to discover parallels between the various items of the threatening against the vineyard and the judgments by which the Jews were visited. All that the prophet means to say is this, that the privileges which the Jews enjoyed pre-eminently above all the other nations God would take from them, and they should be reduced to the level of their neighbours. The removal of those privileges was itself the heaviest judgment that could have befallen them.
PRACTICAL LESSON.Where there is privilege there is obligation.
1. You who are Christians are responsible for your privileges. Consider how great they are: a knowledge of the will of God; the example of Christ; a throne of grace ever accessible; the counsel and help of the Holy Spirit. If God looked for the fruits of justice and righteousness from the Jews, what manner of fruit may He reasonably expect from you?
2. Even those of you who are not Christians, but are still living in sin, have privileges: a preached Gospel; the offer of a free, full, and present salvation; the strivings with you of the Holy Ghost. Despise them not, or you will perish.Thomas Neave.
THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD
Isa. 5:1-7. Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song, &c.
The points of moral instruction made prominent in this parable areI. That Gods gifts of truth, light as to duty, moral culture, and opportunities for doing good, create peculiar obligations to be morally fruitful, to do justice, and love mercy. II. That men so blessed with privileges will be held to a stern accountability. III. That failing to meet this, they must expect that God will take away their privileges and give them to others who will render the fruits in their season (Mat. 21:43). IV. That there is a line beyond which God does not deem it wise to waste His moral efforts upon self-hardened sinners. V. That in His view the exigencies of His moral kingdom demand of Him rather that He make sinners, beyond that line, an example of His righteous displeasure against their awful wickedness, and a warning to other sinners lest they venture too far in abusing His compassionate and long-suffering efforts to reclaim and save them. It is a terrible thing to withstand God in His labours to save the soul.Henry Cowles, D.D., Commentary on Isaiah, p. 30.
GREAT PRIVILEGES
Isa. 5:1-7. Now will I sing to my well-beloved, &c.
I. Great privileges are bestowed by God according to the good pleasure of His will.
1. Obviously this is true of the great privileges accorded to the Jewish nation. They were not granted because of anything in them (Deu. 7:7; Deu. 9:4-6, &c.). There were other hills that would have been just as suitable for a vineyard, and just as fruitful, had the great Husbandman been pleased to deal with them in the same manner.
2. If we consider our own religious privileges, we must acknowledge the same great principle: other nations still heathen deserve them just as much as we do; and our heathen forefathers to whom they were first granted were in no sense superior to the heathen of to-day. We owe our superiority to our privileges, not our privileges to our superiority.
3. The same principle is as true of temporal as of spiritual privileges. Why are some born clever, and others stupid? some strong and others weak? some rich, and others poor? We can return no other answer than that such is the will of God.This principle seems to be surrounded by a cloud of mystery; but there are rays of light that relieve it,to some of them we shall presently refer; and we must be careful not to darken it by our own folly. We must not imagine, because God acts according to the good pleasure of His will, that therefore He acts arbitrarily, capriciously, out of mere whim and fancy. Though He may not disclose to us the reasons for many of His procedures, we may be sure that He has good reasons. In withholding them from uspossibly because we are as yet incapable of understanding them,and thus making demands upon our faith, He deals with us just as we frequently deal with our children.
II. Great privileges involve great responsibilities. From the vineyard so carefully cultivated choice grapes are justly expected. This is a truth so familiar that it is apt to become to us a mere truism. But we shall do well to look at it steadily,
1. As a guide to us in our duty. It is well to pause and consider what privileges God has conferred upon us, that we may be aroused to a perception of the nature and extent of the demands which He is certain to make upon us. In view of our privileges, what ought our life to be? (Luk. 12:48).
2. As a help to us in our perplexities. In view of such providential arrangements as have been referred to, these are sometimes very painful. But we must remember that the great principle before us admits of being very variously stated. It is just as true that small privileges involve small responsibilities. We shall adopt the slander of the wicked and slothful servant, if we think of God as a hard master who seeks to reap where He has not sown. If God has entrusted to any man only one talent,and He entrusts to every man at least as much as that,He will not demand from Him the usury upon ten talents, nor upon two.
III. Great privileges do not necessarily result in great happiness. They ought to do so; they often do so; but as frequently they fail to do so. Even in temporal things, the happiest men are not always those whose possessions are most various and ample. The most learned men are not always those who own the largest libraries. And the holiest men are not always those whose religious opportunities are most numerous and great. Why is it, that great privileges and great happiness are not always associated? Because man is a voluntary agent, and God will not force happiness upon any man. He may offer us eternal life, but we must lay hold of it. He may shed upon our path great light, but we must walk in it (Isa. 2:5).
PRACTICAL LESSON.Instead of repining because our privileges are not more numerous and great, let us diligently use those which have been granted to us, and so make them what they were intended to besources of blessing to us. Enclosed within Gods vineyard, and carefully cultured by Him, let us see to it that the grapes we bring forth are not wild grapes.
IV. Great privileges neglected or misused bring on great condemnations (Isa. 5:5-6). Compare also Luk. 13:6-9. Had that fig-tree been growing on some open common, notwithstanding its barrenness, it might have stood till it decayed, but because it was barren in a vineyard the righteous order is given, Cut it down! This principle, also, we may turn to practical account. Like a former one, we may use it
1. To help us in our perplexities. Sometimes we are in trouble to know what will become of the heathen in the day of judgment. Well, even if they are condemned, they will be condemned less severely than those who have misused greater privileges (Mat. 11:22; Luk. 12:48).
2. To stimulate us to a faithful discharge of duty. Fear is not the highest motive, but it is a very useful one, and no truly wise man will leave it out of account. We need every kind of help to fortify us against temptation, and it is good to remember what will be the result if we yield to it, and so remain barren and unfruitful, or even bring forth wild grapes (Heb. 4:1; 1Pe. 1:7; Php. 2:12).
Fear is useful as a motive, but hope is still more helpful; and in the matter of our salvation we may employ both fear and hope as allies. Reverse the last principle, and read it thus, Great privileges well used secure corresponding rewards. Compare Luk. 19:17. If the choice vine planted in the fruitful vineyard bring forth good grapes, the Husbandman will pronounce over it rejoicing benedictions (Heb. 6:7).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER FIVE
C. THE IMPRECATION OF ABANDONMENT Isa. 5:1-30
1.
THE WORDS OF ACCUSATION
TEXT: Isa. 5:1-7
1
Let me sing for my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2
and he digged it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild 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 I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
6
and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor hoed; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7
For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry.
QUERIES
a.
Did Isaiah actually put this in the form of a song?
b.
What are the wild grapes brought forth?
c.
Why use the figure of a vineyard?
PARAPHRASE
Now I shall sing indeed of my Beloved a song of my Beloved about His vineyard. My Beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He plowed it carefully and took out all the rocks and planted His vineyard with the choicest vines. He built a sturdy watchtower in the middle of it to aid in its protection and cut a permanent wine-press out of the solid rock. Then He patiently waited anticipating a bountiful harvest of sweet grapes. But the grapes that grew were wild and putrid. Now, men of Jerusalem and Judah, you have heard the case! You be the judges! What more could I have done? Why did My vineyard give Me wild grapes instead of sweet? Now I would indeed have you to know what I am about to do to My vineyard; I shall remove the fence of hedge and the vineyard shall be consumed by predators and I shall break down its wall of stone and it shall be trampled down by wild beasts. I will not prune it or cultivate it any more. Briers and thorns will grow up and strangle the vines; I will command the clouds not to rain on it any more. I have been giving you the case of Gods chosen people. They are the vineyard I have been speaking about. Israel and Judah were His pleasant plantings. He expected justice, but they produced bloodshed instead. He expected righteousness, but the cries of deep oppression came to Him.
COMMENTS
Isa. 5:1 POSSESSOR OF THE VINEYARD: The vineyard belongs to The Beloved, God. Even the song about the vineyard is of the Belovedthat is, originates with the Beloved. The prophet sings the song on behalf of the Beloved. This seems to be a song composed rather like some of our contemporary folk-songsby on-the-spot improvisation. Whether sung to the accompaniment of an instrument or not is immaterial. This song was intended for teaching, not entertainment! The vineyard was a favorite subject for parabolic instruction, both in the O.T. and the N.T. (Cf. Psa. 80:8 ff; Hos. 10:1; Jer. 2:21; Eze. 15:6; Eze. 17:1 ff; Eze. 19:10 ff; Mat. 20:1-16; Mat. 21:33-43; Joh. 15:1-11).
Isa. 5:2 PROVISION FOR THE VINEYARD: It is Gods vineyard by absolute right. He planted it upon land which was His. He planted it in a very productive, conspicuous place in the midst of civilization (on a fertile hill); He cleared it of all hindrances of foreigners (gathered out the stones); He built protective fortresses within it (watchtower); He made provisions to use the fruits of the nation (built a winepress). Then with Divine patience and long-suffering He cultivated this nation with great blessings of deliverance and chastening. He sent His servants the leaders and prophets to tend it. He had every right to anticipate an abundant harvest of sweetness; instead it produced wildness, putridness and rottenness.
Isa. 5:3-4 PETITION AGAINST THE VINEYARD: It is the very essence of the righteous dealings of God with man that such dealings, when perverted, bring inevitable self-condemnation upon the perverters. Here, the guilty are petitioned to make a judgment as to where justice lies between the Owner and His vineyard. It reminds one of Jesus asking the Jews to make such judgments upon themselves (Cf. Mat. 21:28-43, etc.). There comes a point in Gods dealing with man beyond which God can do no more to produce good fruit in mans life. There is a point where God is forced, by the very nature of the moral being of man, to give up. Man, left to his own devices, falls into complete ruin.
Isa. 5:5-6 PUNISHMENT OF THE VINEYARD: Really all that God has to do is withdraw Divine protection and sustenance and leave men to their own selfish, evil devices, and that would be punishment enough (Cf. Rom. 1:18-32). When God withdrew His protection from Judah, the wild bull of Assyria (Isa. 10:13) and the lion, bear, leopard and iron beast of the book of Daniel all trampled the vineyard down. When God withdrew His sustenance from Judah, she suffered famine and hunger (both spiritual and physical) in her captivities. Often times the prophets use rain to symbolize the refreshing presence of the Spirit of God. Ezekiel represents the Spirit of God leaving the temple of God in Jerusalem near the end of the national existence of Judah (Cf. Eze. 11:23).
Isa. 5:7 PRONOUNCEMENT OF THE VINEYARDS IDENTITY: If the audience of the prophet has not already surmised who was being evaluated, the prophet would not leave it to doubt. The vineyard is JudahGods covenant people (Israel does not here necessarily refer to the northern kingdom, but is synonymous with covenant-people). This is like Nathans statement to David, thou art the man! God looked for His people, with all their advantages of having His word and being sustained by His power and seeing His love, mercy, justice and goodness exhibited, to produce the same kind of characterjustice and righteousness. Having all this and appropriating it are two different things! This people appropriated the nature of the pagan gods they were so enamored of (Cf. Hos. 9:10). Where a mans treasure is, there will his heart be also!
QUIZ
1.
What kind of song was sung by the prophet?
2.
Why use the figure of a vineyard?
3.
Why did God have a right to expect the vineyard to produce a certain kind of harvest?
4.
Why does God not do more to bring about the right kind of fruit in this vineyard?
5.
How is God going to punish this vineyard?
6.
Who will the beasts likely be that will trample down the vineyard?
7.
What kind of character did the covenant people produce?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

V.
(1) Now will I sing to my wellbeloved.Literally, Now let me sing. The chapter bears every mark of being a distinct composition, perhaps the most elaborately finished in the whole of Isaiah. The parable with which it opens has for us the interest of having obviously supplied a starting-point for a later prophet (Jer. 2:21), and for our Lords teaching in the like parable of Mat. 21:33-41. Here, however, there is the distinctive touch of the irony of the opening verse. The prophet presents himself, as it were, in the character of a minstrel, ready to sing to his hearers one of the love-songs in which their culture delighted (Amo. 6:5.) In its language and rhythm it reminds us of the Song of Solomon. The very word beloved recalls Son. 5:1-2; the description of the vineyards, that of Son. 8:11-13. The probability that the parallelism was intentional is increased by the coincidence of Isa. 7:23, and Son. 8:11, which will meet us further on. On this assumption Isaiahs words have a special interest as showing how early that poem lent itself to a mystical interpretation. One might almost conjecture that the prophet allured the people to listen by music as well as words, and appeared, as Elisha and other prophets had done, with harp or pipe in hand (2Ki. 3:15; 1Sa. 10:5; 1Sa. 16:23; Isa. 30:29). The frequency of such hymns (Isaiah 12, 25, Isa. 26:1-4) shows, at any rate, that the prophet had received the training of a psalmist. (See Introduction.)
A song of my beloved.A slightly different reading adopted by some critics gives A song of love. The beloved is purposely not named, but appears afterwards as none other than Jehovah. The word, closely connected with the ideal name Jedediah (the beloved of Jehovah; 2Sa. 12:25), occurs in twenty-six passages of Song of Sol., and not elsewhere.
A very fruitful hill.Literally, a horn, the son of oil. The combination horn of oil in 1Sa. 16:1; 1Sa. 16:13, and 1Ki. 1:39, suggests the thought that the phrase is equivalent to the horn of the anointed (Kay). The term horn was a natural synonym for a hill. So we have Matterhorn, Aarhorn, &c., in the Alps. Oil was naturally symbolic of fertility. In Psa. 80:8-16, we have a striking parallel. The fruitful hill was Canaan as a whole, with a special reference to Judah and Jerusalem. The choicest vineliterally, vine of Sorek (Gen. 49:11; Jer. 2:21), bearing a small dark purple grapepointed back to the fathers of the nation, who, idealised in the retrospect, were as the heroes of faith compared with the then present generation. The picture which forms the parable might almost take its place among the Georgics of Palestine. The vineyard on the hillside could not be ploughed, and therefore the stones had to be taken out by hand. It was fenced against the beasts of the field. There was a tower for a watchman to guard it against the attacks of robbers. (Comp. Virg. Georg. ii. 399-419.) Each part has its own interpretation.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

1, 2. Now will I sing Rather, Let me sing. The singing was in the form of chanting. Such was probably the mode of the delivery of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning this “vineyard” the Jewish Church.
To my beloved In honour of my beloved, Jehovah, Israel’s manifested deity.
Vineyard The vineyard symbolizes Jehovah’s people the tribes of Israel.
Fruitful hill Literally, on the horn of the son of oil; that is, a high and very fat and fragile ridge.
He fenced it Girded the holy land with isolating limits, and separated Israel from the nations with isolating institutions and laws.
Gathered out the stones A necessary work in preparing for a “vineyard.” The expression symbolizes the casting out the idolatrous tribes that encumbered the land.
Planted choicest vine The noble stock of Abraham.
Tower in midst Vineyards and gardens required to be watched, and towers and booths, the former especially, in established vineyards were erected. These terms signify watchful protection: they may also denote the moral influence of the temple and its worship in Jerusalem.
Winepress A press was a necessary equipment to a rich vineyard. The expressed juice of the grape is here symbolical of the refreshing spiritual strength derived from the worship of Jehovah.
He looked He expected, awaited, a good crop; symbolic of a fruitful religious character. But wild grapes only appeared; a bad fruitage, emblematic of bad men, bad principles, base idolatry.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

God’s Fruitless Vineyard ( Isa 5:1-7 ).

In the first few verses we find a song, which was possibly sung by Isaiah at the celebration of the vintage harvest, as he gathered with men who were singing vintage songs at a wine festival, and sang a song of his own compilation. As Isaiah began his song it would at first appear to them to be an innocuous general love song, listened to appreciatively by all, and especially as it became sad, until it finally delivered to them a devastating message. We can imagine the hearers first going along with the song, then sympathising with the young man described, and finally to their horror being brought face to face with the fact that it is spoken against themselves. For the whole compare Jer 2:21.
We can analyse the song and its interpretation as follows:
a Let me sing concerning my well-beloved a song for my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved had a vineyard, in a very fruitful hill (Isa 5:1).
b And he dug it and cleared it of its stones, and he planted it with the choicest vine, and he built a tower in the middle of it, and he also hewed out a winevat in it (Isa 5:2 a).
c And he looked that it should produce grapes, and it produced wild grapes (Isa 5:2 b).
d And now O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, Judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard (Isa 5:3).
d What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? (Isa 5:4 a).
c Why when I looked for it to produce grapes, did it produce wild grapes (literally ‘stinking fruit’)? (Isa 5:4 b).
b And now, go to. I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be devoured, I will break down its fence, and it will be trodden down, and I will lay it waste, it shall not be pruned nor hoed, but there will come up briars and thorns. I will also command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it (Isa 5:5-6).
a For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah the planting of his delight, and he looked for justice but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry (Isa 5:7).
In ‘a’ we have the picture of the wellbeloved’s vineyard, and in the parallel we are told that Yahweh is the wellbeloved, and that the vineyard is the house of Israel and the men of Judah. In ‘b’ we have the careful preparations put in motion by the wellbeloved, and in the parallel the reversal of them. In ‘c’ we see his hopes for it, and in the parallel the failure of those hopes. And in ‘d’ and parallel comes the call to consider the rightness of the situation.
The Song of the Vineyard.
Isa 5:1-2

‘Let me sing concerning my well-beloved a song for my beloved touching his vineyard.
My wellbeloved had a vineyard, in a very fruitful hill,
And he dug it and cleared it of its stones,
And he planted it with the choicest vine,
And he built a tower in the middle of it,
And he also hewed out a winevat in it,
And he looked that it should produce grapes,
And it produced wild grapes.’
We see here Isaiah singing to the people in a way that draws their attention. It is often wise in witnessing to draw men’s attention and win their sympathy in a general way concerning things that they are interested in, before presenting our message, and that was what Isaiah was doing here. This may well have occurred at the vintage festival, and Isaiah begins seemingly innocuously with what appears to be a general love ballad, until it suddenly produces a sting in its tail. In the ballad the young woman is speaking of her wellbeloved and intends to sing him a song about his vineyard.
The song is about the work and labour involved in establishing the vineyard. First a fruitful hill was sought out, then it had to be dug and cleared of stones, then he planted in it the choicest vine, built a watchtower, made a vat ready for receiving the produce, and then waited for the harvest. All the hearers would be listening and smiling. They had most of them done it themselves. And then comes the crunch line. It produced nothing but wild, evil-smelling grapes! The whole effort had been fruitless. The final result was devastating.
‘A very fruitful hill.’ Literally ‘a horn, son of oil’. The horn here represents ‘a peak’. ‘Son of oil’ represents one which will produce much olive oil and is thus fruitful.
Isa 5:3-4
‘And now O inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Judgment On The Vineyard.
And men of Judah,
Judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.
What could have been done more to my vineyard,
That I have not done to it?
Why when I looked for it to produce grapes,
did it produce wild grapes (literally ‘stinking fruit’)?’
The song is now applied, and sympathy sought for the young man. What a shame that after all his hard work he had nothing to show for it! All his listeners would be nodding sympathetically. But then suddenly in Isa 5:7 he reveals that it is Yahweh Himself Who is the beloved, it is He Who is speaking through Isaiah. The song was a parable. The vineyard was Israel (Isa 5:7), and the One Who laboured on it Yahweh Himself. And He asks them to judge for themselves whether He could have done any more for His vineyard than He had done, knowing that the answer could only be ‘No’. Then He challenges them as to why it has produced useless grapes. Let them pass judgment on themselves.
We may consider that the fruitful hill was Canaan, the gathering out of the stones referred to the defeating of the inhabitants of the land with the help of Yahweh, the choicest vine was Israel itself, the watchtower was Yahweh’s watch over His people, the winevat His expectations of them (compare Psa 80:8-18). On the other hand it may only be intended to be a picture of God’s total care and expenditure of effort on behalf of His people. Either way the vineyard, Israel, should have produced choice fruit, but all that had resulted was ‘stinking fruit’, inedible, useless grapes, depicting the present unacceptable condition of the people of Judah. No wonder that He was dissatisfied.
‘What could have been done more?’ Literally, ‘what more to do?’ There was nothing more. All had to admit that all that was divinely possible had been done.
‘I looked.’ That is, waited confidently and expectantly, and inspected it often in the expectation of choice fruit.
The picture is intended to be dramatic. All would recognise that the difference between a vine that produced choice grapes and one that produced useless fruit was the direct result of the care heaped on it, and yet here was a vine that had been totally and lovingly cared for, and yet had produced bad fruit as though no care had been lavished on it. It was an incredible anomaly. As with the example in Isa 1:3 it was unnatural.
Then follows the prophetic judgment.
Isa 5:5-6
‘And now, go to.
I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard,
I will take away its hedge, and it will be devoured,
I will break down its fence, and it will be trodden down,
And I will lay it waste, it shall not be pruned nor hoed,
But there will come up briars and thorns.
I will also command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it.’
The total desolation of the vineyard is now promised. Because it only produced wild stinking grapes it will be returned to its wilderness state as would be suitable for ground that only bore wild grapes. A place that can only produce wild grapes deserves to be a wilderness. All that has been put into it will be destroyed or removed. All its protection will be torn away. It will be desolated and receive no further attention. It will become a place of briars and thorns, a wild place. It will enjoy no life-giving rain. It will be returned to what it was. God will return His people to bondage and to captivity, to poverty and to spiritual barrenness. There will be no more blessings of the Spirit (Isa 32:15).
Isa 5:7
‘For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah the planting of his delight,
And he looked for justice but behold oppression,
For righteousness, but behold a cry.’
The application of the parable is confirmed. Note that Israel and Judah are still seen together as His people, they are all part of total Israel. They all still came within the ambit of God’s covenant, and were His vineyard and His choice planting in which He had once delighted. They would have been welcomed by Him if they had responded to the covenant, but they had rebelled against it. That was why the northern kingdom languished and would soon be under foreign rulers. That was why Judah was now under sentence. For God looked on and sought to find justice being applied by His people according to His covenant, but instead He found oppression everywhere. He looked to find a state of righteousness, of covenant fulfilment, of right relations, but all He heard was the cry of the oppressed and the needy. He had no alternative but judgment.
There is a play on words here. Justice is mishpat, oppression (bloodshed) is mishpach, righteousness is tsethaqa, a cry is tsa‘aqa. The words sound very similar, but the difference spelled tragedy. The good fruit God looked for was justice (‘mishpat’ – the righting of wrongs) but all He found was oppression (‘mishpach’ – the inflicting of wrongs), He sought righteousness (‘tsethaqa’ – right relationships and behaviour – compare Isa 60:21; Isa 61:3) but all He found was a cry resulting from their violence (‘tsa‘aqa a cry resulting from wrong relationships and behaviour).
We should note in the presentation of the song the tender way in which Yahweh is thought of as ‘the Beloved’. This can be compared with the approach of Hosea (e.g. Isa 2:14). God wanted His people to love Him as well as being in awe of Him (Deu 6:5). But they had spurned His love by their behaviour.
Finally there is a thought for ourselves. What kind of fruit are we producing in our own lives. Are we truly fruitful, or are we just producing wild grapes? We cannot justifiably call Him ‘our Beloved’ if our lives do not produce the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Isa 5:5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
Isa 5:5 “I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down” Comments – God has placed a wall of protection around His people Israel. We find a reference to a hedge of protection that God had place around Job.
Job 1:10, “Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.”
I believe that Job’s hedge was God’s host of angels or even just one angel, encamping about Job and all of his household, as in Psa 34:7, Psa 91:11-12, and 2Ki 6:17.
Psa 34:7, “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.”
Psa 91:1-16, “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
2Ki 6:17, “And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”
Isaiah spoke of a hedge of protection that had been place around the people of Israel.
Isa 5:5, “And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:”
The angels of the Lord are sent forth by God for our protection today. Note:
Mat 18:10, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”
Heb 1:14, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”
Isa 5:10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
Isa 5:10 “Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath” – Comments The phrase “ten acres of vineyard” literally means, “ten yokes of vineyard” ( TWOT) The area of land that one pair of oxen could plow in a day was considered one yoke, which John Watts says is about 2,000 square meters, so that ten yokes (of oxen) would refer to about 6 acres. John Watts says a bath ( ) is a liquid measurement equal to about 21-23 liters or 5 gallons. [19] Thus, the Lord is saying about six acres of land would only yield about five gallons of wine or grape juice, a poor harvest because God’s blessings are no longer upon the people nor the land.
[19] John D. W. Watts, Isaiah 1-33, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 24, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004, comments on Isaiah 5:9-10.
“and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah” – Comments The TWOT says that if the homer ( ) was equal to 10 ephahs, and if the ephah ( ) is equal to 22 liters of dry measurement, or 3/8’s to 2/3’s of a bushel, then the homer held 6 bushels. Thus, the Lord is saying that the planting of six bushels of seed would only yield 2/3’s of a bushel.
Isa 5:18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
Isa 5:18 Word Study on “draw” – Strong says the Hebrew word “draw” ( ) (H4900) means, “to draw (along, out),” and “to sow, sound, prolong, develop, march, remove, delay, be tall.”
Isa 5:18 Word Study on “cords” Strong says the Hebrew word “cords” ( ) (H2256) means, “a rope (as twisted), a measuring line.”
Isa 5:18 Word Study on “cart” – Strong says the Hebrew “cart” ( ) (H5699) means, “something revolving, i.e., a wheeled vehicle.”
Isa 5:18 Word Study on “rope” – Strong says the Hebrew word “rope” ( ) (H5688) means, “something intwined, a string, wreath, foliage, band, cord, rope.”
Isa 5:18 Comments – A man has sin in his life due to the vanity that he lives with. So, picture a man pulling a rope behind him attached to a large object. The rope is the vanities of life. The object is the sins in a man’s life.
Isa 5:19 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 it!
Isa 5:19 “see….know” Comments – A carnal mind wants to experience the five senses, rather than to trust God’s Word by faith.
Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Isa 5:21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
Isa 5:21 Comments – Isa 5:21 is quoted in the Epistle of Barnabas when it warns believers not to separate themselves from other believers.
“Do not, by retiring apart, live a solitary life, as if you were already [fully] justified; but coming together in one place, make common inquiry concerning what tends to your general welfare. For the Scripture saith, ‘Woe to them who are wise to themselves, and prudent in their own sight!’” ( Epistle of Barnabas 4) [20]
[20] The Epistle of Barnabas, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), 139.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Prophecies Against Israel Isa 1:2 to Isa 12:6 contains a collection of prophecies against the nation of Israel. The phrase, “for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still,” is repeated five times within this passage of Scripture (Isa 5:25; Isa 9:12; Isa 9:17; Isa 9:21; Isa 10:4).
Also found within this first major section of Isaiah are three prophecies of the Messiah’s birth. These prophecies reflect three characteristics of the Messiah. He will be born of a virgin as the Son of God dwelling with mankind (Isa 7:14-15). He will rule over Israel in the Davidic lineage (Isa 9:6-7). He will come from the seed of David and be anointed as was David (Isa 11:1-5).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Disappointment of the Vineyard
v. 1. Now will I sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved, the prophet singing to Jehovah, concerning the Lord, hut at the same time expressing the thoughts of the Lord, touching His vineyard, that of His Church at the time of the prophet. My Well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, literally, “on the horn, or summit, of a son of oil,” the vineyard being situated on a hill and having most fertile soil;
v. 2. and He fenced it, rather, spaded or hoed it thoroughly, and gathered out the stones thereof, which hindered the proper cultivation of the ground, and planted it with the choicest vine, a very fine Oriental variety of grape, called sorek, and built a tower in the midst of it, this being the usual watch-tower, and also made a wine-press therein, the lower trough into which the grape-juice flowed from the wine-press proper; and He looked that it should bring forth grapes, the fruit of the excellent vine which He had planted there, and it brought forth wild grapes, the sour product of the wild vine or of a similar plant.
v. 3. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, to whom the prophet is specifically addressing himself, appealing to them as to judges in this difficult situation, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard, making their decision on the basis of the facts presented to them, which were visible to even the casual onlooker.
v. 4. What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it? The Lord had shown His people mercy, goodness, and truth in so many ways that He had, as it were, exhausted His love in their behalf. He had not reached the limit of His grace in dealing with them, but matters had certainly reached a stage where they could expect no more at His hand. Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? Surely if the Lord now abandoned this vineyard, the people themselves must admit that they bad fully deserved such treatment, that they had but themselves to blame for their destruction, as the Lord now states.
v. 5. And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard, the Judge Himself announcing the punishment which He had decided upon: I will take away the hedge thereof, one of thorns and briers being the usual protection of vineyards in the Orient, and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof, as a second means of keeping out marauders, and it shall be trodden down, the emphatic statement of the original being “for a treading down”;
v. 6. and I will lay it waste, for a complete ruin; it shall not be pruned, to remove the superfluous shoots, nor digged, to loosen the ground for the admission of air to the roots; but there shall come up briers and thorns, making the growth of vines of the right and welcome kind impossible; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
v. 7. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah His pleasant plant, literally, “the plant of His pleasure”; and He looked for judgment, that the people would do what is right and good, but behold oppression, the infringement of rights by graft and other forms of wickedness; for righteousness, that is, an outward dealing according to the demands of a righteous conduct, but behold a cry, namely, that of the people who suffer wrong. The explanation of the parable is here briefly indicated. Israel was the vineyard of the Lord, separated by Him from all nations, placed into a rich and fruitful land and endowed with unsurpassed blessings in every respect, among them the nobles of the people, the patriarchs, the kings, the priests, the prophets. The watch-tower of God in the midst of His people was the government of David and of His house. But this vineyard had bitterly disappointed the Lord in His expectations, so that He finally sent His punishment in full measure, not only the Babylonian captivity, but the ultimate overthrow of the Jewish nation and Church in the year 70 A. D. Cf Psalms 80; Mat 21:33-46. Let the Christian Church and all those who profess to be members of the Church take warning, for the Lord searches the reins and hearts and at all times expects true fruits of righteousness from all those who are called after His name.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION
Isa 5:1-7
ISRAEL REBUKED BY THE PARABLE OF A VINEYARD. This chapter stands in a certain sense alone, neither closely connected with what precedes nor with what follows, excepting that it breathes throughout a tone of denunciation. There is also a want of connection between its parts, the allegory of the first section being succeeded by a series of rebukes for sins, expressed in the plainest language, and the rebukes being followed by a threat of punishment, also expressed with plainness. The resemblance of the parable with which the chapter opens to one of those delivered by our Lord, and recorded in the three synoptic Gospels, has been frequently noticed.
Isa 5:1
Now will I sing to my Well-beloved. The prophet sings to Jehovah a song concerning his vineyard. The song consists of eight lines, beginning with “My Well-beloved,” and ending with “wild grapes.” It is in a lively, dancing measure, very unlike the general style of Isaiah’s poetry. The name “Well-beloved” seems to be taken by the prophet from the Song of Songs, where it occurs above twenty times. It well expresses the feeling of a loving soul towards its Creator and Redeemer. A song of my Well-beloved. Bishop Lowth translates “A song of loves,” and Mr. Cheyne “A love-song;” but this requires an alteration of the text, and is unsatisfactory from the fact that the song which follows is not a “love-song.” May we not understand the words to mean “a song concerning my Well-beloved in respect of his vineyard?” Touching his vineyard. Israel is compared to a “vine” in the Psalms (Psa 80:8-16), and the Church of God to a “garden” in Canticles (So Son 4:12; Son 5:1); perhaps also to a “vineyard” in the same book (So Son 8:12). Isaiah may have had this last passage in his mind. My Beloved hath a vineyard; rather, had a vineyard ( , LXX.). In a very fruitful hill. So the passage is generally understood, since keren, horn, is used for a height by the Arabs (as also by the Germans, e.g. Matterhorn, Wetterhorn, Aarhorn, etc.), and “son of oil” is a not unlikely Orientalism for “rich” or “fruitful.” With the “hill” of this passage compare the “mountain” of Isa 2:2, both passages indicating that the Church of God is set on aft eminence, and “cannot be hid” (Mat 5:14).
Isa 5:2
He fenced it. So the LXX; the Vulgate, Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Rosenmller, Lowth, Kay. Gesenius, Knobel, and Mr. Cheyne prefer to translate, “he dug it over;” while the Revisers of 1885 have suggested, “he made a trench about it.” The word occurs only in this place, and has no cognates in Hebrew. And gathered out the stones (comp. Isa 62:10). In the stony soil of Palestine, to collect the surface stones into heaps, or build them into walls, is of primary necessity for the improvement of the land. Conversely the stones were put back, and scattered over the land, by those who wished to “mar” it (2Ki 3:19, 2Ki 3:25). Planted it with the choicest vine (comp. Gen 49:11; Jer 2:21). The sorek seems to have been a particular kind of vine, reckoned superior to others. The etymology of the word indicates that it was of a deep red color. Built a tower (comp. Mat 21:33). Towers had to be built in gardens, orchards, and vineyards, that watch might be kept from them against thieves and marauders (see 1Ki 17:9; 1Ki 18:8; 2Ch 26:10; 2Ch 27:4, etc.). Made a wine-press; literally, dug a winepress. The excavation was made to contain a vat, above which was the “press,” worked by men, who wrung the liquor out of a great bag containing the grapes. (See the Egyptian rock-paintings, passim, where the operation is represented repeatedly.) It brought forth wild grapes. The natural, not the cultivated fruit, a worthless product.
Isa 5:3
The prophet’s “song” here ends, and Jehovah himself takes the word. As if the story told in the parable had been a fact, he calls on the men of Judah and Jerusalem to “judge between him and his vineyard.” Compare Nathan’s appeal to David by the parable of the ewe lamb (2Sa 12:1-4).
Isa 5:4
What could have been done more? Comp. 2Ki 17:13 and 2Ch 36:15, where God is shown to have done all that was possible to reclaim his people: “Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to the Law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets;” “And the Lord God of their fathers sent unto them by his messengers, rising up early, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, until there was no remedy.”
Isa 5:5
And now go to; I will tell you; rather, and now, I pray you, let me tell yon. The address is still smooth and persuasive up to the word “vineyard.” Then there is a sudden change; the style becomes abrupt, the tone fierce and menacing. “Let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard: break down its hedge, that it be grazed on; destroy its wall, that it be trampled underfoot,” etc. The hedge the wall. Vine-yards were usually protected either by a hedge of thorns, commonly of the prickly pear, or else by a wall; but the rabbis say that in some cases, for additional security, they were surrounded by both. God had given his vineyard all the protection possible.
Isa 5:6
I will lay it waste; literally, I will make it a desolation (comp. Isa 7:19, where a cognate term occurs). Active ravage is not so much pointed at, as the desolation which comes from neglect. There shall come up briers and thorns. The natural produce of neglected ground in Palestine (see Pro 24:31). The “thorns and briers” symbolize vices of various kinds, the natural produce of the human soul, if God leaves it to itself. The words are scarcely to be taken literally, though it is probably true that “no country in the world has such variety and abundance of thorny plants as Palestine in its present desolation”. I will also command the clouds. Here at last disguise is thrown off, and the speaker manifestly appears as Jehovah, who can alone “command the clouds.” The “rain” intended is probably that of his gracious influences.
Isa 5:7
For the vineyard, etc. The full explanation of the parable follows immediately on the disclosure in Isa 5:6. The vineyard is “Israel,” or rather “Judah;” the fruit expected from it, “judgment and righteousness;” the wild grapes which alone it had produced, “oppression” and the “cry” of the distressed. His pleasant plan;: literally, the plant of his delights; i.e. the plantation in which he had so long taken delight. He looked for judgment, etc. Gesenius has attempted to give the verbal antithesis of the Hebrew, which is quite lost in our version
“Er harrete auf Recht, und siehe da Unrecht,
Auf Gerechtigkeit, und siehe da Schlechtigkeit.”
Isa 5:8-24
THE SIX WOES. After the general warning conveyed to Israel by the parable of the vineyard, six sins are particularized as those which have especially provoked God to give the warning. On each of these woe is denounced. Two have special punishments assigned to them (Isa 5:8-17); the remainder are joined in one general threat of retribution (Isa 5:18-24).
Isa 5:8
Woe unto them that join house to house. This is the first woe. It is pronounced on the greed which leads men to continually enlarge their estates, without regard to their neighbors’ convenience. Nothing is said of any use of unfair means, much less of violence in dispossessing the former proprietors. What is denounced is the selfishness of vast accumulations of land in single bands, to the detriment of the rest of the community. The Jewish law was peculiarly inimical to this practice (Num 27:1-11; Num 33:54; 1Ki 21:4); but perhaps it is not without reason that many writers of our own time object to it on general grounds. Till there be no place; literally, till want of place; i.e. till there is no room for others. A hyperbole, doubtless, but marking a real national inconvenience. That they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth; rather, that ye may dwell by yourselves in the midst of the land. The great landlords wished to isolate themselves; they disliked neighbors; they would fain “dwell by themselves,” without neighbors to trouble them. Uzziah seems, by what is said of his possessions (2Ch 26:10), to have been one of the greatest sinners in respect of the accumulation of land.
Isa 5:9
Either something has fallen out in the first clause of this verse, or there is a most unusual ellipse of the verb “said“ which our translators have supplied, very properly. There seems to be nothing emphatic in the words, “on mine ears” (see Isa 22:14; Eze 9:1, Eze 9:5; Eze 10:13). Many houses shall be desolate. The greed of adding house to house will be punished by the death of those who have so sinned, and the extinction of their families, either through war, or through a more direct divine judgment.
Isa 5:10
Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath. The greed of adding field to field will he punished by the curse of barrenness, which God will send upon the laud. Dr. Kay-calculates that ten acres (Roman) of vineyard ought to yield upon the average five hundred baths (or four thousand gallons) instead of one bath (eight gallons). An homer an ephah. The “ephah” was the tenth-part of a “homer” (Eze 45:11). Corn lands should return only one-tenth part of the seed sown in them.
Isa 5:11
Woe unto them that follow strong drink. We have here the second woe. It is pronounced on drunkenness and revelry. Drunkenness is an infrequent Oriental vice; but it seems to have been one whereto many among the Jews were at all times prone (see Pro 20:1; Pro 23:29-32; Ecc 10:17; Hos 4:11; Isa 28:7, etc.). Even the priests and the soi-disant prophets erred through strong drink and were swallowed up of wine” (Isa 28:7). That rise up early in the morning. Great banquets were held by the “princes” and “nobles,” beginning at an early hour (Ecc 10:10), and accompanied by music of an exciting kind (Amo 6:5, Amo 6:6), which were “continued until night,” or rather, “into the night” (Revised Version), and terminated in general drunkenness, perhaps in general licentiousness. (See Pro 23:27-30 and Hos 4:11 for the connection of inebriety with whoredom.) Two kinds of intoxicating liquor seem to have been consumed at these banquets, viz. ordinary grape wine, and a much stronger drink, which is said to have been “made of dates, pomegranates, apples, honey, barley, and other ingredients,” which was known as shekar (Greek, ), and is called “strong drink” in the Authorized Version. Till wine inflame them; or, the wine inflaming them.
Isa 5:12
The harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe. It is difficult to identify the Hebrew instruments of music with modern names; but there seems to be no doubt that the kinnor was a sort of harp, and the khalib a sort of pipe. The nebel, generally rendered by “psaltery,” but hero and in Isa 14:11 by “viol,” was a stringed instrument played with the fingers (Josephus); perhaps a lyre, perhaps a sort of dulcimer. The toph, here translated “tabret,” and elsewhere often “timbrel,” was most likely a tambourine. All four instruments had in the earlier times been dedicated to the worship of Jehovah (1Sa 10:5); now they were employed to inflame men’s passions at feasts. They regard not the work of the Lord. The “work of Jehovah” is his manifestation of himself in history, more especially in the history of his chosen people (Deu 32:4; Psa 92:4; Psa 111:3, etc.). A pious Israelite was ever marveling at all that God had done for his nation (Deu 32:7-14; Jos 24:2-13; 1Ch 16:12-22; Ezr 9:7-9; Neh 9:7-31; Psa 68:7-28; Psa 78:10-72; Psa 105:5-45; Psa 106:7-46; Psa 136:5-24, etc.). The men of Isaiah’s generation had ceased to care for things of the past, and devoted themselves to enjoying the present. Neither consider, etc. (comp. Isa 1:3, “My people doth not consider”). The verb used is not, however, the same in the Hebrew.
Isa 5:13
Therefore my people are gone into captivity. “Are gone” or “have gone” is “the perfect of prophetic certainty” (Cheyne). The prophet sees the captivity as a thing that had already taken place. It as an appropriate punishment for drunkenness and revelry to be carried off into servitude, and in that condition to suffer, as slaves so often did, hunger and thirst. Because they have no knowledge; or, unawares, without foreseeing it (so Rosenmller, Gesenius, Ewald, Delitzsch, Cheyne). Their honorable men; literally, their glory, for “their glorious ones”the abstract for the concrete. Are famished; literally, sons of famine; i.e. “starvelings.” Their multitude; or, their noisy crowd (Kay)the “throng of voluptuaries” who frequented the great banquets of Isa 5:11, Isa 5:12.
Isa 5:14
Therefore hell hath enlarged herself; rather, hath enlarged her desire (comp. Hab 2:5). “Hell” here represents the underworld, into which souls descended at death, not yet perhaps recognized as comprehending two divisions, but regarded much as the Greeks regarded their Hadesas a general receptacle of the dead, dark and silent. Hades (Sheol), not viewed as a person, but personified by poetical license, “enlarges her desire” and “opens her mouth” to receive the crowd that is approaching the crowd of those who in captivity succumb to the hardships of their lot. Their glory; literally, her glorythe glory, i.e; of Jerusalem, which is especially in the prophet’s thoughts. “Her glory, and her crowd, and her pomp, and he that is joyful in her, shall go down” into the sheol that gapes for them.
Isa 5:15
And the mean man, hall be brought down; rather, so the mean man is brought down; i.e. in this way, by the Captivity and the consequent sufferings and deaths, both high and low are brought down and humbled, while God is exalted in man’s sight. The future is throughout spoken of as present (comp. Isa 2:9, Isa 2:11, Isa 2:17).
Isa 5:16
God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness; rather, the holy God shows himself holy by righteousness; i.e. by executing this righteous judgment on Jerusalem the holy God shows his holiness.
Isa 5:17
Then shall the lambs feed. Dr. Kay takes the “lambs” to be the remnant of Israel that survived the judgment, who will feed freely, cared for by the good Shepherd; but the parallelism so generally affected by Isaiah seems to require a meaning more consonant with the later clause of the verse. Most commentators, therefore, expound the passage literally, “Then shall lambs feed [on the desolated estates of the covetous]” (see verses 8-10). After their manner; or, after their own guidance; i.e. at their pleasure, as they list (so Lowth and Rosenmller). And the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. Goim, i.e. nomad tribes, shall consume the produce of the wasted fields once possessed by the Hebrew grandees. Ewald proposes to make the verse immediately follow verse 10; but this is not necessary. The occupation of their lands by wandering tribes, Arabs and others, was a part of the punishment that fell on all the nobles, not on those only who accumulated large estates.
Isa 5:18
Woe unto them, etc. We come here to the third woe, which is pronounced against those who openly pile up sin upon sin, and scoff at God. These men are represented as “drawing iniquity with cords of vanity,” i.e. dragging after them a load of sin by cords that seem too weak; and then as “sinning with a cart-rope,” which is a mere variant expression of the same idea. Mr. Cheyne quotes from the Rig-Veda, as a parallel metaphor, the phrase, “Undo the rope of sin.”
Isa 5:19
That say, Let him make speed, etc. Instead of trembling at the coming judgment of God, which Isaiah has announced, they pretend to desire its immediate arrival; they want to “see it.” They walk, not by faith, but by sight. At the bottom of this pretended desire there lies a complete incredulity. The counsel; or, purpose, as in Isa 14:26. Of the Holy One of Israel. They use one of Isaiah’s favorite titles of God (see note on Isa 1:4), not from any belief in him, but rather in a mocking spirit.
Isa 5:20
Woe unto them that call evil good. This is the fourth woe. There are persons who gloss over evil deeds and evil habits by fair-sounding names, who call cowardice caution, and rashness courage, niggardliness thrift, and wasteful profusion generosity. The same men are apt also to call good evil; they brand prudence with the name of cunning, call meekness want of proper spirit, sincerity rudeness, and firmness obstinacy. This deadness to moral distinctions is the sign of deep moral corruption, and fully deserves to have a special “woe” pronounced against it. That put darkness for light. “Light” and “darkness” symbolize good and evil throughout Scripture (1Sa 2:9; 2Sa 22:29; Job 29:3; Psa 112:4; Pro 2:13; Ecc 2:13; Isa 9:2; Mat 6:22; Joh 1:19; Act 26:18; Rom 13:12; 1Co 4:5, etc.). They are sometimes mere synonyms, as here; but sometimes they express rather the intellectual side of morality. Bitter for sweet. More symbolism, but of a rarer kind. Jeremiah calls wickedness “bitter” (Jer 2:9; Jer 4:18), and the psalmist calls the judgments of God” sweet” (Psa 109:1-31 :103). But the terms are not often used with any moral bearing.
Isa 5:21
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes. The fifth woe. Self-conceit is the antithesis of humility; and as humility is, in a certain sense, the crowning virtue, so self-conceit is a sort of finishing touch put to vice. While a man thinks humbly of himself, there is a chance that he may repent and amend. When he is “wise in his own eyes,” he does not see why he should change.
Isa 5:22
Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine. The sixth woe seems at first sight a repetition of the second. But there is this difference, that the drinkers in the present verse do not succumb to their liquor, or remain at the banquet all day, but proceed to the business of their lives, attend courts and judge causes, but with brain obfuscated and moral vision bedimmed, so that they are easily induced to pervert justice on receipt of a bribe. The sixth woe may be considered to be pronounced rather upon their corruption than upon their drinking, and so to be really quite distinct from the second (comp. Pro 31:4, Pro 31:5).
Isa 5:23
Justify the wicked; i.e. “decide his cause in his favor,” declare him to be right, and his adversary wrong. For reward; or, for a bribe. Take away the righteousness of the righteous; i.e. “declare him to be in the wrong by deciding his cause against him.”
Isa 5:24
Therefore, etc. A general judgment is now pronounced against all the forms of wickedness enumerateda judgment of ruin or destruction. It is expressed by a mixed metaphor, or “combination of two figures,” the former taken from the burning of stubble and withered grass by the farmer when he is cleaning his fields, the latter from the natural decay of a blossoming plant or tree. In either case the destruction is complete, but in the one it arises from an external force, fire; in the other from an internal failure of vitality. The ruin of Israel would include both; it would be brought about by an internal cause, their corruption, and an external one, God’s anger. As the fire devoureth the stubble; literally, as a tongue of fire eats up stubble. “Tongue of fire” is an unusual phrase, occurring in all Scripture only here and in Act 2:3. But it well depicts the power of fire to lick up clean all that comes in its way. Isaiah elsewhere notes the analogy, making it the foundation of simile (Isa 30:27). And the flame consumeth the chaff; rather, and as dry grass sinks down inflame. The withered grass of pastures was burnt by farmers to improve the after-growth (Lucan, ‘Pharsal.,’ 9.182). Their root shall be as rottenness (comp. Hos 9:16). The root is the last thing to decay. When that fails, the case is desperate. Judah’s “root” did not utterly fail (see Isa 11:1); but the present warning is to individuals and classes (verses 8, 11, 18, 20-23), not to the nation. Their blossom shall go up as dust; i.e. their external glory shall crumble and waste away. Because they have cast away the Law. All the sins of Israel had this one thing in commonthey were transgressions of the Law of God as delivered to them by Moses, and enforced upon them by the prophetical order. Despised the word; or, the speech. Imrah is rarely used by Isaiah. It does not refer to the written “Word,” but to the declarations of God by the mouth of his prophets (see Isa 28:23; Isa 32:9).
Isa 5:25-30
THE NATURE OF THE COMING JUDGMENT EXPLAINED. Hints have been already given that the judgment which is to fall on the nation is a foreign war, or a series of foreign wars (see Isa 3:25; Isa 5:13). But now for the first time a terrible invasion, in which many nations will participate, is clearly announced. At first the imagery is obscure (Isa 5:25), but it soon grows more distinct. “Nations” are summoned to the attack; a vast army comes, and comes” with speed swiftly” (Isa 5:26); then their array is described (Isa 5:27, Isa 5:28); and finally their ravin is compared to that of lions, and their success in catching and carrying off their prey is prophesied (Isa 5:29). In the last verse of the chapter the prophet falls back into vaguer imagery, comparing the roar of the invaders to the roaring of the sea, and the desolated land to one seen under the gloom of a preternatural darkness (Isa 5:30).
Isa 5:25
The threats of this verse are all vague and general, for there is no reason to suppose that the phrase,” the hills did tremble, “refers to an actual earthquake. That there was an earthquake in the reign of Uzziah is, indeed, clear from Amo 1:1; but it was probably a thing of the past when Isaiah wrote this chapter, and he is spiking of the future. A “trembling of the hills” is, in prophetic language, a commotion among the chief men of the land. He hath stretched forth his hand. Again the “perfect of prophetic certitude.” Their carcasses were torn; rather, were as refuse (comp. Lam 3:45). There would be many slain, and lying unburied, in the streets of Jerusalem. For all this, etc. (comp. Isa 9:12, Isa 9:17, Isa 9:21, and Isa 10:4, where the same words are used as a refrain). The words imply that God’s judgment upon Judah will not be a single stroke, but a continuous smiting, covering some considerable space of time.
Isa 5:26
And he will lift up an ensign. Mr. Cheyne translates, “a signal,” and would so render the Hebrew word in Isa 11:10, Isa 11:12; Isa 13:2; Isa 18:3; Isa 49:22; Isa 62:10. But “ensigns” or “standards” were in use both among the Egyptians and among the Assyrians before the time of Isaiah, and are, therefore, likely to have been in use among the Hebrews. The standards, however, of this early period were not flags, as Jarchi supposes, but solid constructions of wood or metal, exhibiting some emblem or other. God lifts up his standard to draw the nations together, indicating thereby that they are to fight his battles. And will hiss. “Hissing” is said to have been practiced by bee-keepers to draw their bees out of the hives in the morning, and bring them home again from the fields at nightfall (Cyril, ad loc.). God will collect an army against Israel, as such persons collect their bees (comp. Isa 7:18). From the end of the earth; i.e. “to bring them from the end of the earth.” The nations are, or at least many of them are, extremely distant, as Elamites from the Persian Gulf (Isa 22:6), and perhaps Medes from beyond Zagros. They shall come; literally, he cometh; showing that, though the nations are many, they are united under one head, which here is probably the Assyrian power. With speed swiftly (comp. Joe 3:4). The reference is not so much to the speed with which the Assyrians marched, as to the immediate response which they would make to God’s call,
Isa 5:27
None shall be weary nor stumble. None shall lag behind on the march, none fall and be disabled. None shall slumber. They shall scarcely give themselves time for necessary repose.
Isa 5:28
Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. The special weapon of the Assyrian soldiers is the bow. From the king in his chariot to the light-armed recruit just pressed into the service, all fight mainly with this weapon, more particularly in the earlier times. Swords and spears are also known, but comparatively little used. Their horses’ hoofs like flint. Hard, strong, and solid, as was most necessary when shoeing was unknown. Their wheels like a whirlwind. Sennacherib (Isa 37:24) is represented as boasting of the “multitude of his chariots;” and both the sculptures and the inscriptions of Assyria show that the chariot throe was numerous, and was regarded as more important than any other. The king always went to battle in a chariot. For the comparison of the rush of chariot-wheels to a whirlwind, see below, Isa 66:15; and comp. Jer 4:13).
Isa 5:29
Their roaring shall be like a lion; rather, like a lioness, which the Hebrews appear to have regarded as fiercer than a lion (see Gen 44:9; Num 24:9; Hab 2:11). The Assyrian armies probably advanced to the combat with loud shouts and yells (see Jer 2:15). Yea, they shall roar; rather, growl. The word is different from the one used previously, and may express the “deep growl” with which the lion springs upon his prey (see Dr. Kay’s note, ad loc.). Shall carry it away safe. Sennacherib says in one of his inscriptions, that he carried off to Nineveh 200, 150 captives on his first expedition against Jerusalem.
Isa 5:30
Like the roaring of the sea. Not content with one simile, the prophet has recourse to a second. “The noise of the Assyrian army shall be like that of a raging sea;” or, perhaps, “After he has carried off his prey, the Assyrian shall still continue to growl and threaten, like a stormy sea.” If one look unto the land, etc. If Israel turn its gaze from Assyria to its own land, it sees nothing but a dark prospectdarkness and distress, all light shrouded amid clouds and deep obscurity. The text and the construction are, both of them, uncertain; but the general meaning can scarcely be other than this.
HOMILETICS
Isa 5:1-7
God’s care for man, and man’s ingratitude.
Three times has God made himself a vineyard upon earth, planted a plantation of choice vines, endued by him with the capacity of bringing forth excellent fruit, fenced his vineyard round with care, cleared its soil of stones, pruned its superfluous shoots, hoed out the weeds from between the vine-stocks, bestowed on it all possible tendance, and looked to see a suitable result; and three times has the result, for which he had every right to look, not followed.
I. THE FIRST VINEYARDTHE WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD. Man was placed in a world which God saw to be “very good” (Gen 1:31); he was endued with excellent powers; he was given dominion over the beasts; he was bidden to “increase and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” (Gen 1:28); he was guarded from a thousand dangers; he was fenced round by the Almighty arms; God’s Spirit “strove with him” (Gen 6:3), chastened him, warned him, spoke through his conscience, and showed him the right path to walk in. What more could he have done to his first vineyard, that he did not do to it? Yet the time came when he “looked upon the earth” (Gen 6:12); looked for the fruits of what he had done; looked for “judgment and righteousness.” And what did he find when he looked? “The wickedness of man was great in the earth; every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5). “The earth was corrupt before God; all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth . the earth was full of violence” (Gen 6:11, Gen 6:12). The vineyard that should have brought forth grapes had brought forth wild grapes. God’s care for man had been met by man with ingratitude towards God; and it only remained that God should take vengeance, and lay his vineyard waste, and so vindicate his justice.
II. THE SECOND VINEYARDTHE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. This is the vineyard whereof Isaiah especially speaks. God planted his second vineyard, Israel, on the “very fruitful” upland of Palestine”a land of corn and wine, of bread and vineyards, of oil olive and of honey’ (2Ki 18:32); “a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein they might eat bread without scarceness, and needed not to lack anything; a land whose stones were iron, and out of whose hills they might dig brass” (Deu 8:7-9). He fenced his vineyard round with laws and ordinances morally, as with mountains and deserts topographically; he cleared out from it the stones that marred its soil, the wicked nations”stones of offense”that once dwelt amid his people; he planted it with choice vine-stocks, the children of “faithful Abraham;” he built a towerJerusalemin the midst of it, and made therein a wine-pressthe templewhere he would have the gifts and offerings of the people, their good works, laid up in store; and he then “looked that his vineyard should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.” Oppression, wrong, robbery, murder, the form of religion without the power, covetousness, drunkenness, vanity, impurity,these were what his eyes beheld when he cast them on his chosen people, who were “a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that were corrupters” (Isa 1:4). Greater benefits than those bestowed on the first vineyard had been met by a deeper ingratitude; and now the time was coming when the second vineyard would be laid waste, withered up, and utterly “ruined” (Isa 3:8).
III. THE THIRD VINEYARDTHE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. God has yet planted a third vineyard, which he calls “his Church” (Mat 16:18), the assembly of his “selected ones.” He has not fixed it in any particular land, but has given it the whole fruitful earth for its habitation. Yet has he fenced it round, and separated it off from the rest of mankind by laws and rites and ordinances, which are peculiar, and made it a world within a world, a society within a society. He has gathered out from it the stones of many heresies; he has planted it with choice vines, the “chosen vessels” whom his grace has from time to time converted from unbelief to the true faith; he has given it for its “tower” of strength himself, and for its “wine-press” the book of life, in which he records its good deeds. And now, what is the result? Has his constant, tender care awakened the gratitude which it ought to have awakened? Has his Church brought forth such fruit as might have been anticipated? Is it not to be feared that even now his eye, resting on his third vineyard with its searching gaze, looks for something which it does not finddemands “grapes,” and sees little but “wild grapes?”
Isa 5:8-17
The appropriateness of God’s punishments.
Many of the punishments of sin follow in the way of natural consequence, and these are generally acknowledged to be fitting and appropriate; e.g.
I. IDLENESS IS PUNISHED BY WANT. “If a man will not work, neither shall he eat” (2Th 3:10). Labor naturally produces wealth, or at any rate value of some kind; and those who work the hardest naturally acquire the most. The idle cannot complain if they have few of this world’s goods, since they have made no efforts to obtain them. They are fitly punished for their waste of time in sloth by the want of those good things which they might have procured by diligence in toil. The wise man will not give indiscriminate relief to the poor and needy. There is much poverty which is the simple natural result and suitable punishment of idle “loafing” habits.
II. DRUNKENNESS IS PUNISHED BY LOSS OF MENTAL POWER, AND IN SOME CASES BY A TERRIBLE MALADY. The drunkard voluntarily confuses his mental faculties, and suspends their healthy operation, each time that he indulges in the sin whereto he is addicted. What can be more appropriate than that he should be punished by a permanent diminution of his intellectual vigor, a loss of nerve, promptitude, and decision? He also deranges his bodily functions by causing an undue flow of blood to the brain, and an undue excitement of the nerves whose connection is so close with the cerebral tissues. It is most natural and most fitting that such ill treatment of these delicate tissues should result in permanent injury to them, and cause the dreadful malady known to medical science as delirium tremens. The drunkard “receives within himself” a most appropriate “recompense of his error” (Rom 1:27).
III. LUST IS PUNISHED BY A LOATHSOME DISEASE. The nature of the subject here is such as to preclude much illustration. But what can be more appropriate than the punishment of the most foul and filthy of sins by a disease which is foul and filthy and loathsome, alike to others and to the object of it? The body marred and scarred, the blood infected, the whole constitution undermined, form not only a just, but a most fitting, punishment of one, the peculiarity of whose sin is that he “sins against his own body” (1Co 6:18).
In the case of Israel special national sins were punished by special judgments, also peculiarly appropriate; e.g.
I. THE GREED WHICH JOINED HOUSE TO HOUSE AND FIELD TO FIELD was punished by an invasion which caused the destruction and ruin of the annexed houses (Isa 5:9), and the desolation of the annexed estates. The ruin of the vineyards was such that it was scarcely worth while to gather the produce, the continued devastation of the corn lands such that the harvest did not nearly equal the seed corn. Nomad tribes pastured their flocks on the over-large estates, and the so-called owners derived little or no benefit from their acquisitions (Isa 5:10, Isa 5:17).
II. DRUNKEN REVELRY was punished by the captivity of the revelers, who were carried off as slaves into a strange land, and there experienced the usual fate of slaves, which included bitter experience of hunger and thirst (Isa 5:13). The dole allowed the slave was seldom more than sufficient to keep body and soul together. His drink was water. Kept to hard labor on imperial palaces and other “great works,” he lost all cheerfulness, all lightness of heart, all love of song or music. Asked by his taskmasters to “sing them one of the songs of Zion,” he declined sadly; the harp of his revels was “hung upon the willows” of Babylon (Psa 137:2-4). God’s judgments upon other nations have often had the same character of appropriateness. Egypt, whose great sin had been pride (Eze 29:4), was condemned to be “the basest of the kingdoms” (Isa 5:15); never destroyed, but always subject to one people or anotherAssyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks. Rome, the most cruel and bloody of conquering states, was made a prey, first to bloody tyrants of her own race, and then to a succession of fierce and savage northern hordesGoths, Huns, Vandals, Burgundians, Heruli, Lombardswho spared neither age nor sex, and delighted in carnage and massacre. Macedonia, raised to greatness by her military system, and using it unsparingly to crush all her rivals, is ruined by being brought into contact with a military system superior to her own. Spain, elevated to the first position in Europe by her colonial greatness, is corrupted by her colonial wealth, and sinks faster than she had risen. States formed by conquest usually perish by conquest; governments founded on revolution are, for the most part, destroyed by revolution. The retributive justice which shows itself in the world’s history does not consist in the mere fact that sin is punished, but rather in the remarkable adaptation of the punishment which is dealt out to the sin that has provoked it.
Isa 5:25-29
Wicked men used by God as instruments for working out his purposes.
The psalmist declares the wicked to be “God’s sword” (Psa 17:13). In a later chapter Isaiah calls Assyria “the rod of God’s anger” (Isa 10:5). Nothing is more clearly set forth in the prophetical writings than the fact that
I. CONQUERING NATIONS ARE RAISED UP BY GOD TO CHASTISE THE NATIONS THAT ARE HIS ENEMIES.
1. Assyria was “the axe” with which God hewed down offending peoples (Isa 10:14), “the rod’ wherewith he smote them. God exalted her, in order that she might “lay waste defensed cities into ruinous heaps” (Isa 37:26). This was her raison d‘etre, the purpose of her existence (Isa 37:26). She was sent against one openly wicked or “hypocritical nation’ after another, and given a charge “to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire in the streets” (Isa 10:6).
2. Babylon was raised up for the castigation of Tyre (Eze 26:7), of Egypt (Eze 29:19, Eze 29:20; Eze 30:10-26), and of Judah (Jer 25:9).
3. Media and Persia were raised up to work the will of God upon Assyria and Babylon (Isa 13:17; Isa 21:2; Jer 51:11, etc.).
4. Greece and Macedon were raised up to punish Persia and Media (Dan 8:5-8); and so on. Each of these nations was ungodlyfull of impurity, pride, selfishness, greed, cruelty. Yet God made use of them for his purposes, and does not scruple to call their rulers “his servants,” “his shepherds,” “those who performed all his pleasure” (Isa 44:28; Jer 25:11; Jer 27:6, etc.).
II. BAD MEN ARE EXALTED TO POWER TO CHASTISE BOTH NATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS. Samson, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar seem to have been rather instruments for punishing nations and states. But such men as Joab, Jehu, Hazael, effected God’s purposes mainly with respect to individuals. God made use of them, and of their sinful tempers, to execute vengeance upon certain special offenders. Jehu was anointed king by God’s prophet to punish Jezebel and the house of Ahab (2Ki 9:2-26; 2Ki 10:1-11). Fired by ambition, he rushed into crime, and “the blood of Jezreel” was afterwards avenged upon his house (Hos 1:4). But for Joab the crimes of Abner and of Absalom would probably have gone unpunished. He may be viewed as God’s instrument to requite their ill deeds; but as he punished the one treacherously and the other against his king’s commands, their blood, or at any rate that of Abner, “returned upon the head of Joab” (1Ki 2:33). Hazael’s case is like that of Jehu, only not set before us with such distinctness. He was “God’s sword” to the wicked Benhadad; but not thereby excused. God turns the wickedness of men into particular channels, making it effect his ends; but it is wickedness none the less.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 5:1-7
The parable of the vineyard.
I. NOTICE THE ART OF THE PARABLE. It has been remarked, “A proverb finds him who a sermon flies.” Pictures from nature are acceptable to all, especially of that nature which is familiar to the imagination of the listener. Through the imagination we may glide into our listener’s heart and conscience. The truth comes with much more power when it is made to glance from an object intermediate between the mind and its naked reality. A great secret of teaching is to leave the learner much of the work to do. Here, as he looks upon the bright picture drawn by the prophet, the wrappings of the parable gradually fall aside, and the truth itself stands out.
II. THE PICTURE OF THE VINEYARD. The close touch of accuracy suits the parable. Then follows a short song.
1. Situation of the vineyard. It lay on “the horn of Ben-Shamen,” i.e. son of fatness; on a fertile height. The Roman poet sung that the vine loves the open sunny hills (Virgil,’ Georg.,’ 2:113). The description is of fruitful Canaan, flowing with milk, honey, and wine. We may think of the beautiful slopes of the Rhine.
2. The care expended on the vineyard. It had been fenced, the stones had been cleared from it, and it had been planted with the choicest vines. Some take the word rendered “fenced” in the sense of digged about, thoroughly digged. The watchtower had also been set up in the midst of the field, a post of observation and of guard against the jackals and the foxes in the ripening time.
3. The thankless soil. The vine-dresser’s hope is deceived; for, instead of the true grapes wild ones only appear, or, as the LXX. render , thorns. Gesenius and others think the plant meant is the monk’s-hood or nightshade, which produces berries like the grapes in appearance, but poisonous. If we compare the story in 2Ki 4:39-41, also Deu 32:32, Deu 32:33 (“vine of Sodom, grapes of gall, bitter clusters”), this will seem probable. The Arabs call them wolf-grapes. The idea is caught by one of our poets when he sings of
“Dead Sea fruits that tempt the taste,
And turn to ashes on the lips.”
III. APPLICATION.
1. Jehovah‘s appeal. It is an appeal to memory and to conscience. What more could God have done? Israel had been selected for special service and fruitfulnesshad been fixed in a fertile land, her life and worship centered in the holy city. What was that city now? A scene of order, morality, good government? Alas! a “den of thieves,” a scene of misery and anarchy. Instead of the genuine grapes of a national life strong and pure, the poisonous berries of luxury and vice. Such must be the result where man grafts his own pride or folly upon the stock of conscience.
2. Jehovah‘s denunciation. The thick thorn fence shall be removed, and the vineyard shall, become a prey to every trampling beast and invader. The hand of the pruner and the digger shall be stayed, the clouds shall suspend their gift of rain. Every protection and every blessing shall be withdrawn, and the thankless nation shall earn its appropriate wages. Having deserted God, God will now desert her. So must it ever be with the nation and the individual. Unless there is a constant disposition to redress discovered wrong, to reform manifest evil, the doom must be felt. “Thy vineyard shall be wasted, thy candlestick taken from its place” (Rev 2:5).
3. The reason of the judgment. In poignant language, by the use of paronomasia, or play on words, the prophet announces the ground of the Divine decision. He waited for Mish-path, i.e. Might, and behold Mispath, i.e. Might; for Zedakah, i.e. Exactness, and lo Zeaqach, i.e. Exaction. A bitter intensity suggests this form of speech.
IV. PERSONAL APPLICATION. In our sinful miseries God is calling us to account. Our life-failure, whose fault is it? Does not Nature pour her beauty around us, instruct us from childhood, fill our sense and fancy with wonder and joy? Does not the world of men afford us a daily school of experience? Is not every suffering a pruning-knife, every change of life like a cleaning of the ground from weeds and stones? If our lives turn out selfish and vicious, where does the responsibility lie? Where, except in the secret fault that may poison all God’s good?
“Lord, with what care hast thou begirt us round Parents first season us. Then schoolmasters Deliver us to laws. They send us bound To rules of reason. Holy messengers; Pulpits and Sundays; sorrow dogging sin; Afflictions sorted; anguish of all sizes; Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in! Bibles laid open; millions of surprises; Blessings beforehand; ties of gratefulness; The sounds of glory ringing in our ears; Without, our shame; within, our consciences Angels and grace; eternal hopes and fears 1 Yet all these fences, and their whole array, One cunning bosom-sin blows quite away.” J.
Isa 5:8-10
Woe to the covetous.
To understand this passage we should bear in mind the truths connected with real property as a condition of national well-being.
I. THE INSTITUTION OF LANDED PROPERTY IN ISRAEL. According to the Law, each of the twelve tribes was to have its landed possessions, and each particular household was to have its definite portion of the land belonging to the tribe; and this was to be an inalienable heritage. Among an agricultural people it is most necessary that each family should thus have a fixed foothold on the land, a home, a center of toil and acquisition; and that thus its members should be firmly bound to their native land and to their fellow-countrymen. In a conquered land, again, it was equitable that the fields should be divided among those who took part in the burdens of war, and who desired to cultivate the conquered land in peace. In many passages of the Law we find the impress of this institution of real property. In the year of jubilee every man was to be restored to his patrimony (Le 25:13). The land was never to be sold, because in fact it belonged to Jehovah (Isa 5:23), and the people were but his stewards. In the interesting case of the daughters of Zelophehad (Num 27:1-11), who had died in the desert, we find it laid down that the children, or nearest relatives of one who had died without coming into his portion, were to possess it in his stead. Again, the men of Reuben and of Gad refused to go to war until every man of them had received his inheritance (Num 32:16, sqq.). And Moses agreed to their conditions. In the same book we read the direction, “Ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance” (Num 33:54). The land, it will be seen, was considered as in tenure from Jehovah himself, the only landlord. And how attached an Israelite would become to his ancestral estate, is seen from the story of Naboth, who will not give up his even for a better one, and at the king’s request (1Ki 21:3, sqq.; 2Ki 9:10, 2Ki 9:25, sqq.). The virtues of patriotism struck deep root in this relation to the soil of Palestine. These facts help us to understand the moral and national evils springing from selfish greed, which threatened this institution of property, of which the prophet here complains.
II. THE VICE OF COVETOUSNESS. The root of the vice is a thorough-going selfishness. The rich men use the means at their command unjustly to absorb the land into their own possession. The result must be the hopeless misery and degradation of the mass of the people. An instructive parallel to the state of things described by the prophet is to be found in the history of Sparta, at the time of the great lawgiver, Lycurgus. Plutarch tells us that the disorders which he found existing in the state arose in great measure from the gross inequality of property, and from the long avarice and rapacity of the rich, who had thus added house to house and field to field. The lawgiver, therefore, redistributed the whole territory of Sparta. In Roman letters we-read allusions to the habit of forming latifundia, or “broad farms,” with its unsocial consequences. “How far,” indignantly exclaims Seneca, “will ye extend the bounds of your possessions; not content to circumscribe the area of your estates by the sowing of provinces? The broad acres own one lord; the people crowd into a narrow field. The courses of bright streams flow through private estates; great rivers, bounds of great nations, from the source to the mouth, all are yours. And this is nothing unless you have girdled your broad farms with seas; unless across the Hadriatic, the Ionian, and the AEgean your bailiff reigns; unless islands, domiciles of great dukes, are reckoned amongst the commonest of things. Shall there be no lake over which the roofs of your villas hang not? no stream whose banks are not covered by your buildings?”. In his beautiful ‘Deserted Village,’ Goldsmith says
“Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.”
Too well we know what inappeasable discontent and seeming incurable misery has been begotten in Ireland of past selfishness and injustice of the few. Surely it is the part of every patriotic Christian man to forward all legislation which throws open God’s land to tillage, and breaks up selfish monopolies.
III. THE PUNISHMENT OF COVETOUSNESS.
1. Its folly is exposed. One would think, from their conduct, that these grasping men desired to dwell alone amidst a waste! But, as the old agricultural poet of Greece says, “The man who frames ills against another frames them against himself, and ill counsel turns out worst for him who devised it. The all-seeing eye of Zeus looks upon these things, and they escape him not”. Judgment gets the better of injustice when it comes to the final issue, and the fool who suffers from his avarice knows it to his cost. Like a wronged woman, she passes through the city, bewailing the manners of the people, clothed in mist; for men see not her approach, and know not that she is the cause of their calamities, who have driven her forth by her unjust deeds. Those, continues the poet, who do right by the strangers and the natives of the landtheir city flourishes, the people blossom therein; and peace, the nourisher of youths, prevails through the land. To them far-seeing Zeus appoints no bitter war; famine and curse are unknown. The earth produces abundance, the trees drop fruit and honey, the fleeces are heavy on the sheep; and mothers bear a noble offspring. But often a whole city suffers from an evil man, who is a sinner and devises haughty plans. Pestilence and famine come from the hands of the Supreme upon men; the houses are thinned and the people perish. These are close analogies to the great thoughts of our prophet.
2. The appropriate punishment. Those who have grasped at more than their right will find the coveted good dwindling in their hands, or, like a Dead Sea fruit, turning to ashes on their lips. One bucket only will be obtained from the “yoke” of vineyard; one bushel of corn from a quarter’s seed. Thus may we find in nature a profound Scripture, a record and a testimony of Divine law not to be gainsaid. In this day of science perhaps we fix our thought too exclusively on the dependence of man on Nature. There is another side of truth equally importantthe dependence of Nature on man. In moral energy, in compliance with the laws of right, we become more and more the masters of Nature, and she smiles back upon us with an aspect of recognition and blessing. In the sloth of our spirit and its corruption from truth we can no longer win the sympathy of the earth; and her groaning aspect reflects and represents a guilty decline of the soul These troths are general; only experience can teach where and how they must be modified in their application.J.
Isa 5:11-16
Mirth and mourning.
I. THOUGHTLESS PLEASURE–SEEKING. A scene of habitual dissipation is depicted by the prophet.
1. Wine and music are used, not legitimately, to relax the tension of the overwrought mind, but to dispel thought altogether. Sensuous pleasure is made an end and object, though it can never be healthy except in succession to work. “They rise early in the morning to follow the wassail; late into the night are heated by wine.” “Guitar, and harp, and tambourine, and flute, and wine is their revel.” How wise were the teachings of Plato on the use of music as a means of influence over the mind! He would not permit the employment of “effeminate and convivial’ airs in his ideal state, the lax Ionian and Lydian. He would have only two kinds of tunes; those which represented the tones and accents of the brave man engaged in action, and those which chimed with the devotional and peaceful mood; in short, the tones which reflect the temper of brave men in prosperity and adversity. Makers of harps and dulcimers, and other more elaborate instruments, were not to be maintained in the city. These hints are perhaps too little attended to in our day. Yet there is modern music, e.g. that of the Italian opera in general, which tends to enervate the soul. Rather should we choose to listen to the strains of the great German masters, Beethoven, Handel, Mendelssohn. These men inspire us with lofty moods and religious thoughts. Avoid mean and brainless music, whether so-called secular or sacred.
2. Blindness to the thought and work of God. The most glorious privilege we can enjoy is that of intellectual vision of Divine work in nature and in mankind, the loftiest pleasure that of intellectual sympathy with the Divine mind. But the sensuous pleasure excludes the spiritual. Do men consider what they lose by dimming their perceptions and confusing their intelligence in these lower indulgences? Not on wine and soft music is that “vision and faculty Divine” nourished, by which the prophet and the worshipper enter into the scene of holiest enjoyments, of enrapturing revelations. The operation of the Eternal in the soul and the world goes on silently and secretly, and we need the “purged ear” that we may listen to his voice, the unclouded eye that we may note events which flow from his causation.
II. THE PUNISHMENT OF FRIVOLITY.
1. Captivity comes suddenly upon these revelers, and they wander forth “unawares,” like those who rub their blear eyes after a night’s debauch. They cannot understand what has happened to them. They talk of “strange misfortunes,” of inexplicable calamities. But they have an explanation. The decay of a family, or of a class, or of a nation, is as much the result of Divine law as any other form of decay. In exile and suffering men pay the long-due debt for their voluptuous indulgences. The “nobility is spent with hunger, its revel-rout dried up with thirst.” The music has to stop. The voice of Jehovah may be heard saying, “Take thou away from me the voice of thy songs; for I will not listen to the melody of thy viols? (Amo 5:23). Those that have put far from them the evil day, lying on ivory couches, luxuriously feasting, singing to the viol, drinking from the flowing bowl, anointed and perfumed, reckless of human suffering around them, shall pass into exile, and darkness and desolation shall reign in the once bright and crowded hall of banqueting (see Amo 6:1-14.).
2. With equal suddenness death shall come upon them, Hades opening its jaws to swallow the uproarious rout of revelers, as in old days the rebellious crew of Korah (Num 16:32). There is meaning in the phrase, “The unexpected always happens.” To the thoughtless and unprepared it does. But to the thoughtful watchers of the ways of God, and those that meditate on his truth, it may be said that the expected happens, even as the harvest season in nature.
III. THE ABASEMENT OF MAN AND THE EXALTATION OF GOD. Deep in the prophetic conscience lies this thoughthuman pride means contempt of God, and human pride needs lowering that God may receive his proper place in men’s thoughts. The Gentile poets in their way reflected this teaching. The man whose thoughts aimed at rivalry with the gods, the man who gave way to hybris, or insolence, was certain to be a mark of Divine displeasure. Cast down to his proper level of weakness, the power of the Eternal makes itself known, in an “awful rose of dawn,” upon the conscience of mankind. It is suffering alone that awakens the conscience, and brings sharply to light that dualism of good and evil in the will which we contrive to confuse in thoughtless hours. And only by this internal revelation do we learn to think of One who is sanctity itself, and whose sanctity we, through life’s purging fires, must be brought to share, or perish in the sins we have chosen, the lives we have lived in.J.
Isa 5:18-24
Analysis of sin.
I. THE VAIN AND WANTON MIND. A singular image is used. Men are described as drawing down upon themselves, as with stout and strong ropes, the burden of sin and guilt. Such is the effect of their mocking jests and speeches. Dramatically, the hearers of the prophet are represented as exclaiming defiantly, “Let his wrath hasten, let it speed, let us see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it I” Amos alludes to the same spirit of the time, of scoffing contempt of the signs and omens of a dread future. “Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah to what end is it for you? the day of Jehovah will be darkness, and not light” (Amo 5:18). Idly do they dream that thus they put far away the evil day which is close at hand (Amo 6:3). “The evil day shall not overtake nor prevent us!” they persist in saying (Amo 9:10). In idle and willful minds superstitions about words are deeply lodged. By insisting that a wished event must take place, they think to bring it about; by repeating of something dreaded, “It shall not happen,” to avert it. But mere words have no magic in them. As the incoming tide had no respect for the commands of King Knut’s followers, so neither can the tidal march of moral forces be stayed by defiance or incantations. But our words and wishes have a powerful reflex effect upon our own moods. And this denial in words of God’s truth must in time quite harden the conscience and blind the inner eye for them. We may shake our fist at the growing thunder-cloud, but it will not disappear. We may try to quell a demand for reform by obstinate clamors of, “It shall not be!” but only the more surely will it proceed to accomplishment.
II. CONFUSION OF MORAL DISTINCTIONS. This is a further step in the climax and progress of evil. It is indeed a serious reflectionhow far we may succeed, by acts of depraved will, in shutting out the light that would stream in upon the mind, or in quenching the light within. Both are at once involved in the sin against intelligence. This is, indeed, the sin against the Holy Ghostthe sin that cannot be forgiven. How solemn are the words of the prophet elsewhere: “It was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged away from you till ye die” (Isa 22:14)! Another serious question is, how far words may influence thought, and the habit of saying false things disable the mind from seeing the true. South has some powerful sermons from this text, entitled “The fatal force and imposture of words.” Though an absolute falsehood cannot live, adulterations of the truth may and do obtain a wide currency, just as adulterations of meat and drink in the half-dishonesties of trade. Every truth comes to us in a certain guise of falsehood; no form of language or other expression is adequate to clothe it. By insisting on the form as if it were the content, the outside as if it were identical with the inside, the part as if it were the whole, we commit ourselves to falsehood rather than to truth. The essence of social falsehoods seems to be in maxims which make the spiritual subordinate to the material. In times of physical comfort and prosperity this is always our danger. We mistake the means of living for the ends. We rest in pleasure, comfort, wealth, instead of making these the temporary standing ground of the spirit, whence it may proceed to higher levels and nobler ends.
III. SELF–CONCEITED FOLLY. We never see the full effect of sin, of heart-untruth, until it works itself out in the imagination, filling the mind with a fatuous self-complacency in its own weakness and blindness. The man thinks himself “wise,” “intelligent,” who, to the piercing gaze of the prophet, is clearly a fool. He thinks himself’ a hero, whose best exploit is to shine at a drinking-bout, and a mighty man because he can play his part at the wassail, says the prophet with keen irony. Meanwhile they are deep in bribery. They would rob the poor of his honesty, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from them. There are towns and villages where we may now see on a small scale all those evils which the prophet exposed in Jerusalem. Evil examples, old and bad custom have so long had their way that a true standard of living seems no longer to be visible. Yet the moral tone may be restored, if there be but one man who will live like the prophet, like a Christian, salting the community by a quiet and continuous witness for rectitude, for the truth of God, and the soul.
IV. THE END OF THE UNGODLY AND THE SINNER. In a powerful picture the end is depicted as the end to which all that is empty and worthless refuse must come. They are like stubble before the devouring tongue of fire, like blazing hay sinking down in light ashes, like a root struck with decay and rottenness, like flying powdery blossom. Evil is naught, and ends in naught. Those whose “honor has been rooted in dishonor” must perish with the perishing of their root. The decline of once great nations and cities historically proves the prophetic truth. A “name and a shade” is left of Assyria, Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome. But one thing cannot perish: it is the “doctrine of Jehovah, the Word of the Holy One of Israel.” And in some “remnant” that Word ever does live, to breed new life in other scenes and ages. The truth, while it slays the rebels, gives immortality to the faithful; “born again, not of corruptible, but of incorruptible seed.”J.
Isa 5:25
The unappeasable wrath of Jehovah.
I. “OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE.” Whether to burn and destroy the moral refuse of a people, to chasten and refine its remnant and elect, he is revealed as the pure Flame. The Gentiles had a deep sense of the national significance of fire, as the pure element not to be united with aught foreign to itself. In their simple way, the hymns of the Veda to Agni, the god of fire, betray this feeling; and, again, the idea, in Greek and Roman religion, of Hestia or Vesta, on whose altar the fire was kept ever burning, who “refused to wed,” whose priestesses must be virgins.
II. WAR THE SCOURGE OF GOD. Deep has been the sense also of this truth. There is an obscure perception in the minds of men that war, with its attendant horrors, comes as a retribution. Attila the Hun was spoken of as the “scourge of God.” To have seen a fair city black with smoking ruins, and corpses lying in its streets, is to have read with ineffaceable impressions the lesson that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” There are moments when the solid base of things seems trembling beneath our feet, the “eternal hills” as floors trembling beneath the awful tread of the Eternal as he “cometh to judge the earth.”
III. THE DURATION OF PUNISHMENT. It seems as if it could not be exhausted, so vast is the mass of guilt to be purged away. A protracted war, a dragging famine, a prolonged season of ruin, seem, as we say in common speech, “interminable.” The broad blue heaven, that seemed in sunny days as a benignant hand outspread above mankind, wears the expression of a stern and relentless frown. Long scores must be followed by long payment. The guilt of centuries cannot be wiped out in a day. Divine judgment may require even the obliteration of a whole people. But the individual may be saved. At no time are Jehovah’s “mercies clean forgotten.” In the saddest times, the repentant heart pierces through the gloom to the sanctuary and heart of him who slays to make alive, who by means of war reconciles to himself in Christ Jesus.J.
Isa 5:26-30
Foreign invasion.
This powerful picture points to the threatened Assyrian invasion.
I. THE IMAGE OF A WARLIKE ADVANCE. It is wrought out with singular boldness. Jehovah of hosts is conceived as lifting up a signal visible to the far-off nations, and sounding at the same time a whistle-cry, so that they swiftly gather together and come in troops from the horizon. Then rapid and unbroken is their march. Not a foot tires, not a warrior drowses or sleeps, or stays to rest. Not one looses his girdle, or the thong of his sandal, as the eager host presses on. The arrows are all sharpened, the bows all spanned. The sound of the horses’ hoofs strike and flash like flint-stones, and the chariot-wheels roll on like the rush of a whirlwind. The air is full of a horrible roar, as of lions hastening to their unescaping prey. Such a picture is the faithful representation of the mood of the soul in its guilt and alarm. For nature reflects all our moods. Her sounds and sights are ever full of foreboding and terror to the self-condemned conscience. But the conscience at peace will throw forth its light upon all external gloom, and convert, what seem to others the sounds of hell broke loose, into the celestial times of eternal love.
II. THE IMAGE OF THE EARTHQUAKE. The rage in the heavens will be like a tempest at sea. And when the stricken ones turn to the firm land, there is a darkness which only reflects the anguish of their soulsthick darkness, and the light is hidden. No gloom we can conceive in nature, no sounds of overwhelming violence, nor sights that strike horror to every breast, can rival the terrors which the guilty soul may know. The soul is the real theatre of all these Divine dramas. So far as we can read the faces of men or look into their breasts, some stand for fear and some for hope; some the scenes of great quaking and terrors, some still conscious where the soft, still voice of the God of mercy is ever heard. As the vex humana stop may be used to sound the accents of prayer amidst a storm, so in trouble the psalms of the believer make a music of comfort. “God is our Refuge and Strength . Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and the mountains be cast into the midst of the sea . The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge.” “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 5:20
Giving false names.
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Light is here cast upon the secret of Israel’s defection. The “woe” has come from many causes, but here is one too often forgotten root of evilpublic estimate as expressed in public speech.
I. THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE. We are all deceived at times by a fair speech that covers foul things. There is no tendency more dangerous than to call the vicious unfortunate, or the wicked gay. By this means the evil is concealed from the conscience. The prophet speaks of the tendency when it has gone so far as to exchange to opposite poles. The good is called “evil,” and the evil “good.” Even so “a good fellow” is often the synonym for “a bad fellow;” for revelry and selfish enjoyment, and neglect of home, often characterize the good fellow. The young are often led astray by evil, in the angel-dress of beautiful speech.
II. THE MORAL DECEIT OF SIN. We are promised brightness, good cheer, and freedom from gloom; whilst evil brings darkness instead of lighta darkness which shuts out God, and a gloom which takes away all the brightness of innocent joy. We are promised a “sweet” bread; and lo! how “bitter” it is to the taste; what a flavor it leaves behind! Afterwards! Men should think of that, Like the red wine-cup, pleasant and luscious at first, afterwards “it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” We can never make a philosophy of life out of “first“ experiences. We have only to wait and we shall find that “the way of transgressors is hard.”
III. THE MORAL JUDGMENT OF GOD. “Woe unto them l” Who? Why, special woe to those who “put” it. False counselors, like Ahithophel to Absalom; false teachers, like those who corrupt the truth. There is leadership everywhere-at school and college, in the Church and in the world! Let no man despise the warnings of God.W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 5:1-7
Privilege and penalty.
We have a striking picture of
I. THE FULNESS OF THE DIVINE PROVISION. (Isa 5:1 4.) The second verse describes in detail the processes by which the vineyard is prepared for fruitfulness, and in the fourth verse the question is asked, “What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” The idea is that of the fullness of the Divine provision for the Jewish nation. God had provided:
1. Illustrious menMoses, Aaron, Joshua, Samuel, David, etc.
2. A perfect Law; perfect inasmuch as it
(1) reflected his own holiness, and at the same time
(2) was accommodated to their immaturity.
3. A helpful ritual, a series of ceremonies adapted to the age and to their nature.
4. Providential discipline; all the attractive and inviting influences of prosperity together with the solemnizing and cleansing influences of adversity.
We have now a corresponding fullness of provision for mankind in the gospel of Christ. We have:
1. The knowledge of God and of his will revealed in Christian truth.
2. The way to himself and to his pardoning love opened by the mediation and atonement of his Son, our Savior.
3. The influences of the Holy Spirit, which are the purchase of his work and the promise of his Word.
4. The leadership of him who lived a perfect life, and offers himself as the Exemplar as well as the Friend of man.
5. The hope of eternal glory. The Author of the salvation in Jesus Christ may well address us and say, “What more could have been done?” We may almost say that the ingenuity of Divine love is spent and exhausted on the provision which is made in the gospel for the return, for the acceptance, for the renewal, for the elevation, of the children of men.
II. THE SORENESS OF THE DIVINE DISSATISFACTION. (Verses 4, 7.) Centuries of bondage in idolatrous Egypt might well account for, if they could not excuse, a large measure of moral feebleness, of religious error, of spiritual declension. But centuries of Divine teaching and Divine discipline should have wrought much of restoration. The sovereign Ruler of Israel had a right to expect rich fruit in his well-cultivated vineyard. But he was utterly disappointed. Instead of the good grapes he looked for, it brought forth” wild grapes;” instead of judgment was oppression; instead of righteousness, the cry of him that was wronged. In us, from us, who have been the recipients of his manifold mercies and of multiplied privileges in Christ Jesus, God looks for great things; he looks for penitence, faith, purity, spiritual worth, holy usefulness. Only too often he finds the miserable and guilty opposites of these-impenitence, unbelief, continuance in sin, moral unsightliness, injuriousness of life. And the heart of the Holy One is grieved. He who would have looked with delight on his “pleasant plant” looks with pain and sorrow on the fruitless tree, on the bush that bears poisonous berries. He who would have regarded with pleasure those “in whose heart are paths” observes with indignation and regret those whose hearts are as a tangled wilderness, uncultivated and useless. For these he has only the language of severe reproach and of stem and solemn warning.
III. THE WEIGHT OF THE DIVINE PENALTY. (Verses 5, 6.) The doom is destruction. The vineyard should, as a vineyard, entirely disappear. The defenses should be removed; the useful plant should give place to the useless thorn; the elements should work for its withering, and leave nothing that was desirable or valuable. God’s message to the guilty nation, Church, family, individual soul, is this solemn onethe abuse of privilege will be visited by terrible tokens of Divine displeasure; all that was promising will be removed; the signs and the sources of life will be taken away; from him that hath not (that does not use what is in his power) will be taken his present privilege (Mat 25:29). He who (that which) is exalted to heaven in opportunity will be cast down to hell in condemnation and in ruin (Mat 11:23).C.
Isa 5:8-10
The character and the doom of covetousness.
The judgment denounced against those that joined house to house and field to field bring into view the nature of the sin of covetousness, and the desolation in which it ends.
I. THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF THE SIN. It is an immoderate ambition. To secure a house or a piece of land, or to extend that which has been acquired, may be not only lawful but positively commendable; it may, indeed, be highly honorable. But there are bounds beyond which this ambition may not pass, the transgression of which is wrong and soon becomes perilously evil. In the case of the Jews this limitation was defined by their statutesby that Law which they had received direct from God himself, and to which they owed a strict and cheerful obedience. In our case ambition becomes covetousness when it is indulged either at our own expense or at the expense of our brother. If we are indulging a purpose which cannot be executed without moral or spiritual injury to ourselves, or without doing injustice or rendering unkindness to our neighbor, we are guilty of the sin of covetousness. To some men the transgression assumes the one form, to others the other. To some, covetousness is the craving for property or money which becomes engrossing, absorbing, positively devouring all the higher and purer aspirations; to others it is the desire and determination to secure the neighbor’s good, however serious the loss they may thereby inflict. Solomon coveted many wives, greatly to his own injury; Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard, shamefully disregarding his neighbor’s rights.
II. ITS INSATIABLENESS. The prophet uses the language of hyperbole when he says, “Till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth” (Isa 5:8); but his words clearly point to the fact that when men allow their ambition to pass beyond moderate and reasonable bounds they permit it to carry everything before it, so that their earth-hunger, or house-hunger, or their thirst for money is never satisfied. However much they gain, they still crave and strive for more; it is not only gold itself but that which it will bring which is
“Hugged by the old
To the very verge of the churchyard mould.”
In nothing but death can the greedy eye be closed, and the grasping hand relaxed.
III. ITS HEEDLESSNESS. The concluding clause of the eighth verse not only intimates the extent to which covetousness urges its victim to go in search of a satisfaction which it does not find, but it suggests the heartlessness to which it leads. No matter who or how many are disturbed and displaced, it goes on its devouring way, even though it finds itself “alone in the midst of the land (earth).” Every vice tends to hardness of heart, to pitilessness of spirit; and covetousness not the least. Self is magnified in importance more and more, and the rights and feelings of others become of less and less consideration until they are made of no account whatever.
IV. ITS DOOM. The end of the covetous man was to be desolation (Isa 5:9) and poverty (Isa 5:10). Sin perpetually overreaches itself; and, of all particular sins, ambition “o’ervaults itself and comes down on th’ other side.” So far is covetousness from happiness that there is probably no more miserable man to be found in any spiritual region than is the victim of this vice.
1. He is desolate, friendless; hated by those whom he has injured; unloved, disregarded, or even despised, by those who watch his course.
2. He is destitute. Often, very often, avarice blinds the judgment, and the false move is made that ends in overthrow and ruin; always, covetousness shuts out those true treasures which make the heart rich and the life wealthythose possessions which death cannot touch, which immortality secures forever.C.
Isa 5:11, Isa 5:12, Isa 5:22
The evil and the end of intemperance.
When other evils have entered and other calamities have overtaken a state, intemperance is sure to make its black and hateful mark. These verses suggest
I. ITS TYRANNY. Such is its strength that it makes its devotees, t rise up early in the morning” (Isa 5:11) in order to worship at its shrine. It is an unnatural and detestable action; the earliness of the hour of the day might well be pleaded as a proof of innocency (Act 2:15). But when the passion for “strong drink” is at its height, it compels its helpless victims to break through all decencies and proprieties, and get up early in order to indulge. This is only one instance of its despotism; it leads those who “follow “it along many a path and into many a dark pit, from which they would fain turn away but cannot. At first a small silken cord, it becomes at last an adamantine chain.
II. ITS POWER OF PERVERSION. It compels good things to minister to evil (Isa 5:12). “The harp and the viol,” etc; are excellent things in their way and in their place; but, used for the purpose of enlivening and protracting immoderate indulgence, they are perverted to an evil and guilty end. Music is meant to cheer, to attract toward that which is good, to gladden the heart and to brighten the life of man; it reaches its highest function when, in the worship of God, it conducts the thought and utters the feeling of man toward the Supreme. Made the minister of vice, it sinks to its lowest level. The love of strong drink can thus pervert the good gifts of God to unworthy uses.
III. ITS DEGRADING TOUCH. It leads “men of strength to mingle strong drink” (Isa 5:22) in order that they may glory in their power of drinking. In many lands and ages men have boasted of their power to withstand the influence of the intoxicating cup. What a miserable degradation of human strength! That men who are capable of performing noblest deeds, of rendering highest service, of engaging in Divine worship, should prostitute their powers by trying to drink much wine without becoming inebriated, this is a shocking degradation of human faculty.
IV. ITS BLINDING INFLUENCE. “They regard not the work of the Lord,” etc. (Isa 5:12). Certainly, at the table of unrestrained reveling, God would be forgotten and his works be disregarded; but not there alone is the influence of intoxication felt. The man who gives way to this indulgence finds his mental powers becoming clouded, his spiritual sensibilities benumbed, his appreciation of the sacred and the Divine lessened if not lost. Strong drink dulls and deadens the higher faculties of the soul, and the nobler functions of our manhood are undischarged, its purer joys abandoned.
V. THE WOE IT WORKS. “Woe unto them,” etc. (Isa 5:11)! Beyond the evils which we have been tracing to the intoxicating cupevils which are of themselves woe enough for any one sin to workthere are:
1. The loss of physical strength and beauty.
2. The loss of reputation and of friendship.
3. The loss of self-respect and, with this, the sinking of the moral character; the upgrowth of attendant moral evils.
4. Death and condemnation.C.
Isa 5:13-17
The calamities of spiritual ignorance.
The miseries which are unfolded in this passage are ascribed, in the thirteenth verse, to ignorance. “My people are gone, ere because they have no knowledge.” But it is necessary to distinguish here. We must consider
I. THE IGNORANCE WHICH IS SPIRITUAL AND THEREFORE GUILTY. There is ignorance which is entirely mental and which is wholly guiltless; e.g. that of the little child who cannot understand some of the obligations into which we grow, or that of the heathen who cannot possibly acquire a knowledge of Christ and his salvation. There is a mental ignorance which is not guiltless, but culpable; viz. that of the man who has not acquired the information he had the opportunity of gaining in earlier days, and that of the man who goes down through iniquity and immorality into intellectual feebleness and impotence. But the ignorance of which our text treats (Isa 5:13) is not mental, but spiritual; it is that of the whole spiritual nature rather than of the understanding; it is that of men who had a formal knowledge of God and duty, but who did not lay it to heart and did not act upon it. It is the ignorance of the nation, which might, if it would, understand what the will of God is in the matter of Divine worship, or in regard to its poor and uninstructed members, or to its uncivilized and helpless neighbors; but which will not take the trouble to ascertain it, or even blinds its eyes so that it shall not see it. It is the ignorance of the individual man, who has indeed an undefined knowledge of his obligations to his Father and his Savior, but who studiously keeps it out of view; who will not present it to the eyes of his soul, lest he should be constrained to reproach himself and to change his course. These are they who “have no knowledge,” in the sense of the prophet.
II. THE CALAMITIES WHICH IT ENTAILS. These are manifold, as the passage intimates. They include:
1. Exile“going into captivity” (Isa 5:13); dwelling in a “far country;” being, spiritually, where all is strange and alien and hostile, a long way from God and from the privileges of his house and the enjoyment of his service.
2. A void and aching heart. “The honorable men are famished, and the multitude dried up with thirst” (Isa 5:13). Not knowing God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, depriving themselves of the deep and lasting satisfactions of his favor and friendship, men find all material sources of joy utterly unsatisfying; they eat, and hunger still; they drink, but” thirst again.”
3. Impoverishment. (Isa 5:4.) The nation that does not act up to the height of its knowledge and its opportunity, that is not governed by its sense of right and duty, but by its inclination to pride and pleasure, is a nation that will decline; it will soon be stripped of its power. “Hades will open its mouth without measure,” and “swallow up” its glory, its eminence, its joy; it will be bereft of all of which it boasts, for the hand of the Lord will be against it, and his righteous judgments will overtake it (Isa 5:16).
4. Humiliation. (Isa 5:15.)
5. Mortification. How unspeakably mortified would those Jewish captives be to find themselves pining in a foreign land when their own fields at home were unoccupied, the spoil of the roving flock, the prey of the marauding stranger! (Isa 5:17) And how bitter must be the mortification and self-reproach which they must feel who have to realize the results of their guilty spiritual ignorance; who have to see that, afar off and beyond their reach, are joys which they might have shared, honors which they might have won, spheres which they might have filled, a large heritage which was their own but which will never be theirs again!C.
Isa 5:18, Isa 5:19
Sin in its strength.
We have here some thoughts about sin.
I. ITS EVIL GROWTH. Whatever the precise thought of the prophet, his words (Isa 5:18) are strongly suggestive of the fact that sin gradually attains a terrible power. Its “pull” may at first be that of a silken thread; presently it becomes that of a strong string; then it is found to be that of a hard wire; finally it reaches that of a “cart–rope.” And this, whether we regard the sinner as
(1) the man no whom iniquity acts, or as
(2) the agent through whom its force is exerted on others.
In the one case he is moved only with great difficulty, and often the bond which is thrown about him snaps in twain; but, in time, sin gains strength, and it pulls him as with a rope that cannot be broken. In the other caseprobably the one here intendedhe himself hardly succeeds, sometimes fails, in leading men astray; but in course of time he draws his neighbors along the road of wrong-doing with ease; the tie by which he holds and by which he constrains them is stout and strong. He draws sin “as it were with a cart-rope.”
1. Shun the first overtures of the ungodly; have nothing to do, in the way of friendship, with the enemies of truth and righteousness.
2. If men have acquired a fascinating power over you, there is no deliverance from their evil grasp save by genuine penitence and an earnest appeal to the Almighty Friend; his hand can cut the strongest cords of sin.
II. ITS FEARFUL CULMINATION. Sin reaches its summit when it stands on the height of impious defiance of the living God (Isa 5:19). Reverence shrinks with a holy reluctance from taking such words into its lips, even when it simply quotes the utterance of impiety. Yet men are found in the path of sin who will employ such language without remorse! In the earlier stages of ungodliness men would be shocked at the idea of doing and being that to which a continuance in irreligion naturally leads up. That puny man should positively defy his Maker seems antecedently unlikely, if not impossible. Yet glaring facts too plainly prove that an evil course does not stop short of even this extreme. What awful possibilities of evil reside within a human soul! How unmeasurably wise it is to place ourselves under the guidance of the great Teacher, to have our hearts the residence of the Holy Spirit! Then, but only then, are we safe from moral enormities which are a thousand times more to be dreaded than the extinction of our being.
III. ITS RIGHTEOUS DOOM. “Woe unto them!” And they shall have woe! They may say in their shameless arrogance, “Let us break their bands asunder,” etc.; but “the Lord shall have them in derision he shall vex them in his sore displeasure” (Psa 2:3-5). They may “set their mouth against the heavens,” and may say, “How doth God know?” but “how are they brought into desolation, as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors” (Psa 73:9, Psa 73:11, Psa 73:19). God will overturn their purposes; he will scatter their friendships and leave them in helpless loneliness; he will bring them into an intolerable humiliation; he will condemn them at his judgment bar; he will sentence them to eternal exile.C.
Isa 5:20
Spiritual perversity.
Antecedently we should hardly have expected that a being created in the image of God, a rational spiritual agent, would so far depart from all that is reasonable and right as to put evil for good, and good for evil, etc. Yet such is the case. We have to consider
I. THE FACT OF SPIRITUAL PERVERSITY. Human perversity is not found in the higher region only. We find it in things physical, notably in our treatment of the body. Men take noxious drugs, thinking that they “do them good,” while they shrink from plain and wholesome food, as unpalatable and undesirable. In things economical. They shut their markets against the commodities of other nations, supposing that they are thereby benefiting their own citizens, when they are only injuring their neighbors and impoverishing themselves thereby. And so in other spheres of activity. In things spiritual the fact is most painfully apparent.
1. In our direct relation to God. Some men are found who condemn all worship as superstition, all earnestness as fanaticism, all piety as hypocrisy; the same men speak of atheism under the euphemism of free-thought; with them godlessness is emancipation from spiritual bondage!
2. In our relation to our fellow-men. There are those who call clemency weakness, and oppression vigor; who denounce considerateness as mawkish sentimentality, and honor a brutal selfishness as cleverness and spiritedness; who sneer at conscientiousness as being “priggish,” and talk of roguery as if it reflected honor on its agents.
3. In our relation to ourselves. There are too many, especially among the young, who consider dissipation to be another thing for “life,” and who decry purity and self-restraint as dullness and poverty of spirit; they have honorable terms for the vilest and foulest sins, and terms of discredit for the cause of virtue and self-respect. Thus is everything misnamed, and not only misnamed but mistaken. These words are more than mere labels; they represent the thought which is beneath; they stand for false conceptions. All things, human and Divine, are seen in false lights, are regarded as other than they are, indeed as the very opposites of what they are; the evil and shameful thing is positively admired as well as praised; the holy and the beautiful thing is actually hated as well as cursed! These are the sad facts which are before our eyes.
II. ITS EXPLANATION. How can we account for such perversity as this, such a sad and disastrous revolution in the mind? It is surely due to the deteriorating influence of sin upon the soul. He that sinneth against God wrongs his own spiritual nature. Sin blinds, distorts, discolors; not, indeed, suddenly and altogether, but gradually and constantly. A man who falls under the power of any temptation is something the worse in mind as well as in heart for his sin; his mental conception as well as his moral habit is injuredimperceptibly, perhaps, but not unimportantly. And by slow degrees the mind is affected and the view is changed, until everything is reversed in thought and in language (see Mat 6:22, Mat 6:23).
III. ITS END. “Woe unto them!” But what worse penalty can be inflicted than this? Surely they have their reward, in the overthrow of their reason, in the darkening of their mind, in the deterioration of their soul. Truly; yet are there not other evils which must be endured? Will not the light of eternity flash into these guilty souls, showing them whereto they have fallen and wherein they have erred, awakening the sensibilities which they have sent to slumber, stirring up in them the remorse which is due to those who have so wronged themselves, so ill-treated their fellows, so sinned against the Lord?C.
Isa 5:21
The pitiful estate of the proud.
We may well commiserate those who are “wise in their own eyes,” inasmuch as
I. THEY HAVE A FALSE CONCEPTION AS TO THEIR OWN CAPACITY. They think themselves able to determine what is true and beautiful and good, when they are painfully and pitifully in need of guidance from without; their estimate of themselves is essentially wrong. They “live in a fool’s paradise.”
II. THEY ARE SHUTTING OUT FROM THEIR MINDS THE TRUTH WHICH WOULD REDEEM AND ENNOBLE THEM. The blessing of the Lord is promised to the humble-hearted, to those who have the docility of the little child. It is they, and they only, who are willing to empty themselves of their own fancies and follies that they may receive the eternal truth of God. The men who think themselves wise can find no room in their minds for those Divine teachings which save, which purify, which enlarge, which transform the heart and life (see 1Co 3:18).
III. THEY ARE IS A SPIRITUAL CONDITION WHICH IS POSITIVELY AND EVEN PECULIARLY OFFENSIVE TO GOD. The Word of God, Old Testament and New, is studded with texts in which the displeasure of Almighty God is revealed against the haughty of heart. God “resists“ the proud, and causes them to fall. It is the appoint Pharisee who is not justified in the great Teacher’s parable, who is continually rebuked by the Lord of truth, who is repeatedly condemned by the Searcher of souls. We may therefore conclude, concerning those who are prudent in their own sight, that
IV. THEY ARE ALL UNREADY FOR THE GREAT DAY OF TRIAL. They will then find themselves rejected instead of being accepted and commended, and to the gloom of condemnation will be added the bitter mortification of being utterly and miserably disappointed.C.
Isa 5:24-30
The judgments of the Lord.
These verses are obviously pictorial and figurative; they must be treated as highly hyperbolical or they will be misconceived. Though their primary reference is to the judgments which impended over the guilty nation, we may discover in them some principles which not only extend to every age, but apply to every individual soul.
I. THAT THE INDIVIDUAL AS WELL AS THE NATION MAY BE THE OBJECT OF THE AWFUL ANGER OF ALMIGHTY GOD. “The anger of the Lord is kindled against his people” (Isa 5:25). Without attributing to the Divine Spirit the very same sentiment as that which fills our human minds, we may and should feel that the burning indignation of which we are conscious when we witness wrong-doing is the reflection of the “anger of the Lord” against all unrighteousness; and we do well to think that what we now feel in regard to others God may feel toward us, if, like his ancient people, we fall into disobedience and condemnation. Well may we, “who are his offspring,” shrink from the high displeasure of the holy Father of souls.
II. THAT GOD‘S ANGER IS EXCITED BY OUR INATTENTION AND DISOBEDIENCE. “Because they have cast away the Law and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel” (Isa 5:24). The evil thing which God hates takes many forms, the later and darker ones being shocking even in the sight of good men. But they all spring from a disregard of his will as revealed in his Word. Despising the Word in the mind leads to a casting out of the Law from the rule of life, and thus shows itself in all kinds of iniquity. He who is neglecting the will of God, as that will is stated in his Word, is at the source of the stream of sin, and is in danger of being carried down to the rapids of destruction.
III. THAT THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD ARE SOMETIMES SWIFT IN THEIR APPROACH. “They shall come with speed swiftly.” Sometimes they are “leaden-footed but heavy-handed;” yet at other times they speedily overtake the transgressor. At all times, indeed, a violation of righteousness is instantly attended with some spiritual injury and. loss; but, beyond this, the more apparent punishment often comes with rapid march to confront and confound the transgressor.
IV. THAT THESE DIVINE JUDGMENTS ARE SOMETIMES UNEXPECTEDLY PROLONGED. “For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still” (Isa 5:25). Men are apt to think, when they have suffered some great adversity, that God has poured out his anger, and that they may thenceforth expect continuous prosperity. But they overlook the two facts:
(1) that at any time in each man’s life there is a vast amount of unpaid penalty for which God may righteously punish him, and
(2) that God is seeking a remedial as well as a punitive end in his inflictions, and that impenitence has always reason to fearperhaps we should more properly say hopethat the hand of the Lord will still be stretched out in the attitude and act of correction.
V. THAT THEY ARE IRRESISTIBLY STRONG. “Their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust,” etc. (Isa 5:24; see Isa 5:27-30). God’s judgments cannot be evaded; there is no escape from them by human strength or cunning: They move up with steady, unflinching step (Isa 5:27); they strike with unerring aim and piercing newer; they leave no way of escape openseaward, heavenward, landward (Isa 5:30). “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God . Who may stand in his sight, when once he is angry?” Therefore:
1. Hearken diligently to his Word and hasten to obey, that the anger of the Lord be not kindled, but that his good pleasure may abide and abound unto you.
2. If any one of his judgments fall, turn unto him with unhesitating penitence, and his anger will be “turned away” (see Joe 2:12-14).C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 5:4
The ingratitude of an unfruitful life.
The passage connected with this verse is conceived quite in the spirit of our Lord’s parables. In a picture taken from familiar scenes of nature, the relations between God and his people are shown. As in the parable spoken by Nathan, a definite judgment is asked. That judgment, whether given audibly or only felt, is made an earnest appeal of God to their own conscience and their own hearts. Three things are set forth prominently in this parable.
I. THE GRACIOUS ATTENTIONS. The picture of a vineyard was especially interesting to Isaiah’s audience, because Canaan was a land of vines, which grew freely along the terraced hillsides. The prophet observes that the vineyard of which he speaks had every advantage of situation and soil; it was properly protected, well cleared, planted with vines of the choicest quality, and fitted with everything necessary to the securing of abundant fruitage. Everything was done, according to the description, that good judgment, large ability, and careful consideration could suggest. It was not a nacre vineyard planted for gain; it was a garden of delights; the pleasure as well as the interest of the owner were bound up in it. Such was the land of Canaan, as prepared by God for his people; and such was Israel, as God’s vine planted in it. What nation ever was like Israel, in the special choice, and call, and settling, and tending, and pruning, and nourishing, and loving interest of God? The deep feelings of God towards them find very tender expression in the books of the prophets (see Jer 2:2, Jer 2:21; Hos 2:1-23.; Hos 6:4; Hos 11:1-12; etc.). We may well think that no other nation except England has ever been so favored of God. He has chosen her, fenced her round, “encompassed her with the inviolate sea,” enriched her with food growing out of her soil, and with wealth stored in almost inexhaustible heaps beneath it. He has lit, even in her martyrs’ fires, a candle of truth which neither the dogmatism of science nor the extravagances of priests, will ever blow out. He has planted her with noble elements of character, given fruitful soil for their growth, watched against evil influences, scat forth right, wise, faithful husbandmen in every age to prune and tend and clear out the stones of obstruction. Surely God rightly looks for fruitfor full, rich, ripe clusters of the “vine of Sorek” hanging on the branches of England. But we may take the description home to ourselves. What gracious attentions have we received! Sometimes, looking over oar lives, it seems to us that if we had been his sole favorites in the world, he could not have been more kind, more constant, more gracious, more unsparing in his dealings with us. We think of the godly families into which we entered as members; of our saintly “forbears;” of the trust of health, and mental power; of the place where we are set, and the successes we have won. Surely we are just a vineyard of delights to our God, and we ought to respond to hint with abundant fruitfulness.
II. THE REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS. “I looked that it should bring forth grapes.” He who plants and tends flowers does so expecting to gain beautiful blossoms; and he is cheered all through the long waiting time by the pleasant expectation. He who casts corn-seeds into the ploughed earth buries them with visions of the waving harvest and the loaded barns. He has long patience because of right and reasonable expectations, tie who prepares a vineyard waits while the rough branches cover with leaves, and the clusters hang down, growing bigger every day. He too expects the riches and the joy of the ingathering. And God planted those Jews in fertile Canaan, expecting from them the fruitage of a clear witness for him to all the nations around. He looked for fruits of judgment. He looked for righteousness. He expected that they would be a “holy people, zealous of good works.” What, then, does God now expect of his English vineyard? What does he expect of us? We may remind of some of the good fruit God expects to find on our tree.
1. He expects us to reach a very high standard of Christian intelligence. Not merely believing what we are told, but finding out for ourselves what, upon reasonable grounds, seems to be true. Able to give good reasons for the hope that is in us, with meekness and fear.
2. He expects an unmistakable witness for himself, and for his truth. There should be no hiding our light under a bushel, life hesitating to confess whose we are, and whom we serve. No acting inconsistently with the Christ-name which we bear.
3. He expects abundant fruit of charitable deeds and devoted labors. The branches on the vine which will most glorify God are those that hang down low enough for men to pick. His law is, “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me.”
4. He looks for holy and beautiful character. These are the grapes that ought to grow on Christian trees: “Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” “If these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ;” “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.”
III. THE PAINFUL DISAPPOINTMENT. Nothing but hedgerow dog-roses blossoming on the budded tree. Nothing but sour, useless, wild grapes hanging on the grafted stock. Grapes like crab-apples, or apples of Sodom, good-looking, but tasteless. The Hebrew word, indeed, is a very vigorous one, and expresses even the offensive putrefaction of these grapes. All the loving care, the laboring, and the tending seem to have been in vain. Brought out from idolatry, the Jews sought and served idols. Separated from temptations to moral evils, they became utterly depraved. Fenced in to righteousness, over the wall they went, in the dreadful license of iniquity. Sometimes there was a fair show of leaf, but it was “nothing but leaves.” Sometimes there seemed a show of fruit. The heavenly husbandman tried it, and it crushed into foul ashes in the mouth. We may well sympathize with God in his sore disappointment at the result of all his care of his ancient people. Illustrate by the scene of our Lord’s weeping over Jerusalem. Does England disappoint God, too? At first it seems as if we could saySurely not! Think of her spires and lowers dotting every landscape; her hospitals in every town; her thousands of godly homes. But what shall we say of the awful procession of her drunkards; the vision of her drunkards’ homes; her outcast children; her overcrowded dwellings, where decency cannot find a place; her gin-palaces; her gaols; her madhouses; her workhouses; her soldiers’ barracks, and sailors’ tempters; her “city snares and town traps?” Do we disappoint our gracious God? What is the fruitage of our characters, our homes, our places of prayer, our business, our Church life and relations? Must he say, “Wild grapes, only wild grapes; cut it down?”R.T.
Isa 5:5, Isa 5:6
Divine judgments on ingratitude.
The picture presented is one of complete desolation. A miserable sight is the untended vineyard. No desolation is so complete as that which comes to lands which man has once tilled and then left neglected. Hugh Macmillan remarks that this judgment has even been literally fulfilled. “No country in the world has such variety and abundance of thorny plants as Palestine in its present desolation; there are giant thistles, growing to the height of a man on horseback, impenetrable thickets of buckthorn, and bare hillsides studded with paliurus and tribulus.” “The absence of the pruning and digging answers to the withdrawal of the means of moral and spiritual culture. The command given to the clouds implies the cessation of all gracious spiritual influences.”
I. THE UNGRATEFUL MUST LOSE THEIR PRIVILEGE. The grace of God, and the provisions, defenses, and guidings of grace, are the glory of a life and of a nation. No nation has ever been so favored as Israel was. Compare Jehovah’s pleadings and reproaches in Hos 2:1-23.; and also our Lord’s parable of the “cumberer of the ground” (Luk 13:6, Luk 13:9). “God, in a way of righteous judgment, denies his grace to those that have long received it in vain. The sum of all is that those who would not bring forth good fruit should bring forth none. The curse of barrenness is the punishment of the sin of barrenness (Mar 11:14). This has its frequent accomplishment in the departure of God’s Spirit from those persons who have long resisted him, and striven against him” (Matthew Henry).
II. THE UNGRATEFUL MUST BE LEFT TO THEMSELVES AWHILE. Compare the figure of the unfaithful wife in Hos 2:1-23; who must be left alone to her willfulness and its bitter consequences. Illustrate from the garden let alone. The grass grows rank, the weeds flourish and seed themselves, the paths are full of green; the place looks neglected and miserable. So is the man, so is the nation, from which God withdraws his gracious hand, his special care. Illustrate the misery of David in those months when, because of his sin, God’s grace was withheld. His “bones waxed old through his roaring all the day long;” and presently he comes to pray, with a great intensity of feeling, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” There is a sense in which, like Jerusalem, our “day of grace may be passed,” and we maybe left to ourselves, to the woe of being ourselves only.R.T.
Isa 5:7
The difference between what God asks and what God gets.
The original terms of this verse contain a very striking play upon words, which can but imperfectly be rendered into English. “He looked for judgment (mishpat), and behold oppression (mishpach); for righteousness (tsedakah), and behold a cry (tseakah) of the oppressed for help.” Dr. C. Geikie translates the verse thus: “And he hoped for deeds of good, but, behold, there are only deeds of blood; for righteousness, and, lo! there is only the cry of the oppressed.” The appeal of God is applicable to all the ages, and, taken in a large sense, may be also applied to us. It should be our exceeding distress that so often we give to God quite other things than he asks of us.
I. GOD ALWAYS ASKS FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. The reference in the text is to public justice; right dealing between man and man; due considerateness for others; and the faithful administration of laws, both social and ecclesiastical. The people ought to be honest in all their dealings, and the magistrates just in all their decisions. But God asks for “righteousness” in a much higher sense than this. The creatures he has made in his imago he wants to he like himself. “Be ye holy, for I am holy;” “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” The righteousness that he asks from us he has shown us in the person and the life of his dear Son. It is for us no vague thing, gathered up into a great and somewhat mysterious word; it is, plainly and practically, our being changed into Christ’s image, and bringing forth fruits of goodness like his. This may be fully worked out and illustrated along three lines. The righteousness God asks of us is
(1) loyalty to his revealed truth;
(2) obedience to his declared will; and
(3) manifestation, in practical life, of the spirit of heavenly, Divine charity.
II. GOD OFTEN GETS “OPPRESSION” AND A “CRY.” Here, too, the first suggestion is of social and national evil; injustice of magistrates, and masterfulness of the strong and wealthy over the poor. Everything was carried by clamor and noise; wickedness had usurped the place of judgment. But here, too, the response made to God may be dealt with in a larger way. The essence of all “oppression“ and “cry“ is somebody’s self-seeking spirit and self-seeking ways. In this we grieve God. He asks life for him, and for others in service to him; and we give him life full of self, that can even trample over his poor in accomplishing our own self-ends. So we, too, come under the Divine reproaches and judgments.R.T.
Isa 5:8
The covetous spirit, and its judgment.
The picture presented in this verse can be matched by the conduct of our English king, who destroyed the villages to make the New Forest; or by the makers of deer-forests in North Britain, who have driven away the natives. In Isaiah’s time the wealthy men were buying up the houses and estates, and destroying the old village life of Palestine. “In the place of the small freeholders, there rose up a class of large proprietors, while the original holders sank into slavery, or tenants-at-will, paying exorbitant rents in kind or money, and liable at any moment to be evicted” (Dean Plump, re). Bishop Latimer, in the sixteenth century, makes a bold protest against the enclosure of commons. Grasping after property is almost always connected with a neglect of charitable duties and a willingness to sacrifice the good of others. Such accumulation of landed property was fundamentally opposed to the Mosaic regulations. Illustrate by the law of jubilee, which made all land in Palestine purchaseable only on lease (comp. Num 27:1-11; Num 33:54; 1Ki 21:4; Le 25:8-17).
I. LIVING TO GET. There are three ways of looking at life; three things which we may supremely aim at in life.
1. We may live to get. South says, “The covetous person lives as if the world were made altogether for him, and not he for the world; to take in everything and part. with nothing.” Austin defines covetousness as a dishonest and insatiable desire of gain.” The Prophet Micah describes such persons,” They covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.” The tenth commandment wholly forbids our making any personal gain the end and aim of life. Show under what self-deceiving forms this covetous desire to get ensnares men nowadays.
2. We may live to be. That is, to culture ourselves, and win the worship of men for what we are, in talent, skill, and virtue. This is nobler; and this is, in measure, right and good; yet it has this exceeding moral peril, that it keeps us in the self-spheres. It may easily pass into the degrading thingcovetousness for fame.
3. We may live to serve. This is the Divine idea of life for us. This is the Christ-like pattern of life for us. This is the kind of life that suffering, sinning humanity asks for from us. They who can live to serve are, with Christ, after Christ, and in his strength, the world’s saviors, and the God-glorifiers.
II. GOD‘S JUDGMENTS ON HIM WHO LIVES TO GET. Those judgments will come as natural agencies, as fixed results of ever-working law, and as circumstances for which men may think to find easy explanation; but they are none the less direct Divine judgments. Such judgments on the covetous take two forms.
1. Character is debased by the constant getting and grasping. This may be effectively illustrated in the case of the apostate Judas. No moral deterioration is so serious or so certain as that of the covetous man. Hardening against his fellow-men, he is hardening against God. Crushing out all considerateness and all charity, he loses men’s love and God’s smile, and is wretched indeed when he has got all, and is “placed alone in the midst of the land.” If any poor creature of our humanity calls for our supremest pity, it is surely the man who tins lived to get, and made his immortal soul grovel among mere possessions. “Take heed, and beware of covetousness; for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth.”
2. The calamities of life will prove utterly ruinous to the covetous. Because they will touch them at their tenderest point, destroying their gains. The picture presented in the verses is a most affecting one. By the insecurity of the land the fine mansions are uninhabited, and the fields are neglected. Travelers tells us of the humiliating sight of decayed mansions in the East. War and civil commotion, often the natural result of the masterful ruling of covetous men, make property valueless, and so the evil brings round its own judgment. The law works universally, sometimes quickly, at other times slowly, so that men presume on its delaying, that “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Apply by inquiring what is the end and aim of life to the hearers. Jacob would get, and he got years of homelessness, hard toil, and care. Achan would get, and he got an early and dreadful death. Gehazi would get, and he got the leprosy. Ananias and Sapphira would get, and they got a sudden destruction. Woeearth cries for it, and heaven sends itwoe, sooner or later, for very one who liveth that he may get, and is utterly unworthy of him who, showing God to us, went about among his fellows as “One that serveth.”R.T.
Isa 5:11, Isa 5:12
The sin of dissipation.
That which is here reproved is not mere drinking habits; it is the riotous feasting and wasting which characterizes the sensualist. Early drinking was considered by the Jews, as it was by the Romans, a mark of the most degraded sensuality. “In the time of Isaiah, the sensual Jews appear to have employed musicians, and all kinds of merry-makers, as dancers, mimics, buffoons, etc; such as are still common all over the East.” “They shocked public feeling by morning banquets” (Ecc 10:16, Ecc 10:17; Act 2:14). Morier says, “The Persians, when they commit a debauch, arise betimes, and esteem the morning as the best time for beginning to drink wine, by which means they carry on their excess till night.” Dissipation, in its comprehensive sense, is the temptation and the sin of our young men, especially of those belonging to the wealthier classes. The excitement and rioting of it may be illustrated by the following true incident. When inflamed with wine, a young man was challenged to eat a five-pound note. Placing it between slices of bread, in wild foolishness and wickedness, he actually destroyed the note in this way. We fix attention on the wastefulness of dissipation, and point out that it is a grievous sin before God, as abusing his sacred trusts. Illustrate from
(1) the trust of time;
(2) the trust of property;
(3) the trust of the body;
(4) the trust of the mind;
(5) the trust of the power to serve others.
Show how mischievous is the influence exerted by the familiar saying, “Young men must sow their wild oats.” They should have no wild oats to sow; and if they have any, the very last thing they should do with them is sow them, for they will surely spring up, and bear, for their reaping, a harvest of woe unspeakable. F. W. Robertson says, “There are men who make provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” They whet the appetites by indulgence. They whip the jaded senses to their work. Whatever the constitutional bias may beanger, intemperance, epicurism, indolence, desiresthere are societies, conversations, scenes, which supply fuel for the flame, as well as opposite ones which cut off the nutriment. Such a man is looking forward to a harvest wherein he may reap the fruit of his present anticipations. And he shall reap it. He has sown to the flesh, and of the flesh he shall reap corruption. This is in his case the ruin of the soul. He shall reap the harvest of disappointmentthe harvest of bitter, useless remorse. “His harvest is a soul in flames, and the tongue that no drop can cool.”R.T.
Isa 5:18, Isa 5:20, Isa 5:21, Isa 5:23
Four grievous sins.
The ungodly spirit finds very various modes of expression in willful and self-pleasing actions. Men’s sins are repeated over and over again in every age, sometimes taking more open and defiant forms, and sometimes hiding behind a pleasant outward show of delicacy and refinement, but always the “abominable things which God hates.” The coarse sins of Eastern peoples seem offensive to our sensitive Western nations; but the sins are here amongst us, only in a disguise which deceives us. Isaiah reproves
I. THE SIN OF PRESUMPTION. (Verses 18, 19.) Evil-doers are thought of as harnessing themselves to the chariot of sin; as bold enough even to scoff at God’s threatened judgments, and taunt him with his merciful delayings, saying, “Let Jehovah hasten; let him hurry on his work, that we may see it.” Wordsworth paraphrases verse 18 thus: “Woe to them that harness themselves as brute beasts to iniquity, with cords of falsehood, and drag on the weight of sin, as a waggon, with the ropes of vicious habits.” Illustrate by the scoffing thief on the cross; and by the ramble of the man who presumed upon his abundant harvest, and found he was suddenly called away from all his wealth. Presumption is the evil into which men are led through temporary successes. See the effect of prosperity on Nebuchadnezzar. It is a constant effect of luxury and self-indulgence and immorality. It is the brink of utter and irretrievable ruin. For the presumptuous man there is little hope. He must fall, and be bruised and crushed, ere he will learn lessons of humility and trust. David knew human nature well, and he taught us to pray, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.”
II. THE SIN OF CONFUSING MORAL DISTINCTIONS. (Verse 20.) “Those do a great deal of wrong to God and religion and conscienceto their own souls, and to the souls of others who misrepresent [‘evil and good’], and put false colors upon them; who call drunkenness good fellowship, and covetousness good husbandry, and, when they persecute the people of God, think they do him good service; and on the other hand, call seriousness ill nature, and sober singularity ill breeding, and say all manner of evil falsely concerning the ways of godliness “(Matthew Henry). The text well describes the spirit of our age. In our over-refinements we are losing the sternness of the truth, carefully polishing off every edge and point and corner that might prick conscience into activity. We are toning down moral distinctions until they are becoming quite confused and indistinct; we can hardly tell for certain what is right and what is wrong, what is evil and what is good. One of the most thoughtful of American divines, Dr. J. A. Alexander, writes thus: “Do not we with one breath assert the inviolable sanctity of the truth, but with the next breath make provision for benevolent, business, jocose, or thoughtless falsehood? Do we not, in the abstract, assert the claims of justice, and the obligation to give every man his own, but, in application to specific cases, think it lawful to enrich ourselves at other men’s expense, or take advantage of another’s weakness, ignorance, or error? Do we not admit the paramount importance of religious duties in general, but in detail dissect away the vital parts as superstition, sanctimony, or fanaticism? Do we not approve the requisitions of the Law, and the provisions of the gospel, in so far as they apply to other people, but repudiate or pass them by as applying to ourselves? What is all this but saying of evil, it is good, and of good, it is evil?”
III. THESIS OF SELF–CONCEIT. (Verse 21.) The first reference is to counselors, “whose ideal of statesmanship was a series of shifts and expedients, based on no principle of righteousness.” This form of sin is too familiar to need much suggestion as to its treatment. God resisteth those who are conceited of their own wisdom and lean to their own understanding. “Seest thou a man wise in his own eyes? there is more hope of a fool than of him.”
IV. THE SIN OF CORRUPTING JUSTICE. (Verse 23.) “Who cleat the guilty for a bribe, and take the rights of worthy men from them.” The idea is that justice is sacrificed to meet the demands of an expensive luxuriousness. So men now grind the faces of those who work for them to support their own extravagances. No greater evil can come upon a land than the poisoning of the fountains of justice; and there is no more certain source of national discontent hastening to rebellion. The prophet was himself deeply moved by the picture of the evils of his time which rose up before him. Nowhere could he look and gain the relief of a hope. Such an utterly wicked people must suffer. Seaward he looked, but there was not one gleam of light. Landward he looked, but not one gleam of light. Such is the end of wickedness. Bold though it may seem, defiant as it may sound, long as it may appear to hold out, this is the issue of itdark, all dark. The very “light is darkened in the heavens thereof.”R.T.
Isa 5:20
The importance of adequate impressions of sin.
We seldom hear sin spoken about now as the old prophets spoke about it. We do not think about sin as the defiance of God, the attempted overthrow of his authority, the expression of the soul’s hatred of God, and therefore calling for terrible vindications of the Divine power and claims. In reading biographies of very holy and devoted Christians, we have observed that they had deep and overwhelming impressions of the evil of sinimpressions quite beyond the reach of our sympathy. Perhaps we have inclined to call them morbid, and to think such views were the result of diseased imaginations. The truth, however, is that these holy men and women had visions of the infinite holiness of God. They saw the “sapphire throne,” and they trembled and veiled their faces before the exceeding majesty of the Divine purity. They saw themselves and sin truly and worthily, because they saw these things in the full clear light of God. We do not so see them, because we do not live near enough to God. Take as a specimen the following sentences of John Bunyansurely as honest and sincere a man before God and his fellows as ever lived: “My original and inward pollutionthat was my plague and affliction. That I saw at a dreadful rate, always putting forth itself within me. That I had the guilt of to amazement. By reason of that I was loathsome in my own eyes, and I thought I was in God’s eyes too. Sin and corruption, I said, would as naturally bubble out of my heart as water out of a fountain. I thought that every one had a better heart than I had; I could have changed hearts with anybody. I thought none but the devil himself could equalize me for inward wickedness and pollution of mind. I fell, therefore, at the sight of my own vileness, deeply into despair.” Making all allowance for the quaintness of this language, and for the spirit of the age in which Bunyan lived, do we not feel that his Christian life became so noble because his foundations had been laid so low? And we need more worthy apprehensions of the essential hatefulness and evil of sin to lie as the foundation-stones on which we may rear our godly life.
1. All the great truths and doctrines of Divine revelation rest upon the fact of human sin. Repentance, justification, atonement, redemption, sanctification, all assume the fact of our sin. It is too much the habit to discuss these doctrines as if they were merely questions of science, having a general intellectual interest; but with the smitings of guilt on our hearts, and the avenger of blood at our heels, they become intensely real; they are no less than the conditions of the soul’s safety in the city of refuge. We should understand them so much better if we had more soul-moving impressions of the evil and the guilt of our state before God.
2. All the Christian graces depend on deep views of sin. That possesses our souls with pity and charity and long-suffering towards others. That makes and keeps us bumble. The believing man is he who, in his self-helplessness, has learned to lean wholly. The hopeful man is he who has cried “out of the depths unto the Lord. The man who feels for others is he who “knows the plague of his own heart.”
3. All the earnestness and zeal of Christian work depend on worthy views of sin. Are men perishing in sin? then we must rescue and save them. John Howe says, “Shall-our Redeemer be left to weep alone over perishing souls? Have we no tears to spend upon this doleful subject? Oh that our heads were waters, and our eyes fountains! Is it nothing to us that multitudes are sinking, going down to perdition, under the name of Christian, from under the means of life and salvationperishingand we can do nothing to prevent it? We know they must perish that do not repent and turn to God, and love him above all; that do not believe in his Son, and pay him homage as their rightful Lord.” We are guilty before God in neglecting to keep vivid in our hearts humbling convictions of sin; and we may trace to this neglect our imperfect impressions of the holiness of God, of the majesty of his Law, and of the necessity for atonement by blood-shedding. We may also trace to this neglect our easy subjection to the pleasures and vanities of the world; our indifference in the pursuit of Christian virtues, and our coldness and deadness to the claims of Christian work. To see sin rightly we must see it
I. IN THE CONSEQUENCES TO WHICH IT LEADS. We wonder why these stern writings of the old prophets are preserved, and make up so large a portion of God’s Word. They are needed to keep before us the connection between sin and suffering, to show the wickedness of sin by the bitterness of its consequences. We do not need either old prophets or new ones to convince us of the fact of sin. Conscience and observation suffice for that. Nor do we need old prophets or new ones to convince us of the fact of suffering. But we do need them to convince us of the connection between the two. And that was just the mission of the old prophets. In vigorous language they describe dreadful famines, devouring pestilences, the march of myriad locusts, frightful scenes of battle-fields and siege, the desolation of fair countries, the exile and captivity of nations. But they never leave us to imagine for a moment that such things are mere calamities. They are consequences of sin; the whirlwind which those reap who sow the wind. They try to make us see behind the apparent order of cause and effect, and they say, “Ye have provoked the Lord your God to anger, therefore hath all this evil come upon you.” Sin is invisible. Sin is pleasing to our corrupt nature, and we will not see its true character. So God writes it up before our eyes in bodily, social, national, hereditary woes. Illustrate from the end of the avaricious man, the drunkard, the presumptuous, etc; as given in this chapter.
II. IS THE CONTRAST OF GOD‘S MERCIFUL DEALINGS WITH US. It is mostly in this way that God is accustomed to present sin to us. See the opening parable of this chapter. Sins and vices look hateful indeed, as staining and debasing poor Africans. Drunkenness is hideous, corrupting the poor islanders of the Southern Seas. But what do such things look like, putting to utter shame the enlightened islanders of Christian Britain? Are not lust, and passion, and greed, and drunkenness, and down-treading the poor, and neglecting the offered salvation, aggravated immensely by God’s abounding mercy to us? God pleads his mercy (see Joh 11:3, Joh 11:4). We plead thus: Do you think, if you had lived in Christ’s days, you could have gone on sinning on the very knoll of Calvary, under the very shadow of the cross on which your Savior died? Could you have cast lots for his raiment with those rough gamesters, danced a merry round about his cross, and done the deeds beneath his very agony which now stain your life? It may be that very thing which you are, in spirit, doing now. The shadow of the cross has never passed away; it lies right across Christian England today. We live through our daily lives beneath it. It is not really a dark shadow; it is transformed; it is the Lord’s rainbow of love shining through tears. It arches our whole sky. Its presence glorifies all goodness; but its presence also aggravates all sin, all self-indulgence, all neglect of God. The issue, the final issue, for all who sin under the very shadow of the crossthat no human lips can describe, as no human imagination can conceive. That must be the woe unspeakable, the dreadful day of God.R.T.
Isa 5:24, Isa 5:25
God’s judgments through natural agencies.
The Prophet Isaiah lived in anxious times. He was keenly observant of the social and moral features of his agea discerner of the “signs of the times.” He was sent by God to show the people how national wrong-doing bore its sure fruitage in bad harvests and in national calamities, and to help them to see in such fruitage the operation of Divine judgments. In the text the prophet clearly sees trouble coming on apace, and taking form as scant and withered harvests, either through unkindly seasons or the visitation of locusts. “Their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust.” Ewald well describes the social conditions which Isaiah observed in their more serious aspects in relation to the Divine will and Law. “The constant increase of the power and security of the realm, and the profusion of an age rendered prosperous by the development of arts and distant commerce, were accompanied by an equally vigorous growth of other things; the craving for enjoyment and luxury among the people, and especially among the women of the capital; the foolish predilection for foreign manners and foreign superstitions of every kind, and a wantonness of life, from which many, even of the judges, were not altogether free, and under which the defenseless inhabitants had to suffer with increasing severity; all of which Isaiah, the great prophet of his age, who lived in Jerusalem, recognized and depicted in the sharpest outlines.” Dean Stanley gives a yet more striking picture of that luxurious age. “The luxury and insolence of the nobles was in a high degree oppressive and scandalous. Bribery was practiced in the seats of judgment, and enormous landed property was accumulated against the whole spirit of the Israelite commonwealth. With the determination and, we may add, the avarice of their race, they laid their deep schemes at night, and carried them out with their first waking. They “did evil with both hands;” they skinned the poor to the very quick; they picked their bones and ground them to powder. The great ladies of Zion were haughty, and paced along the streets tossing their necks, and leering with their eyes, walking and mincing as they went, covered with tinkling ornaments, chains, bracelets, mantles, veils, of all fashions and sizes.” Isaiah declares that Jehovah observed all these moral and social evils, and that he used the agencies of nature to execute his judgments on such sinners. They would find, when the harvest came round, that “ten acres of land would only yield one bath, and the seed of a homer would only yield an ephah.” God would smite them through the fields. Is Isaiah’s teaching obsolete? Does God speak to the men of this age by the voice of nature? Having found out that the world is ruled by law, have we gained the right to banish the Lawgiver? Whether men call us superstitious or not, we unhesitatingly say that God is in the harvest still, and its limitation is the voice of God calling on us to humble ourselves concerning our social and national iniquities. That this is a right and reasonable view to take will appear if we consider
I. MAN IS SENSITIVE TO NATURE, AND NATURE TO MAN. If we are still thus sensitive, God can use nature still as a medium by which to communicate his will to us. Nature has not yet become one of the dead languages; God can speak to us in it. We are affected by the nature-moods of each passing day. Crisp frost braces us to exertion; glowing sunshine and clear skies are reflected in bright and cheerful feelings; cloudy, dull days make our work drag heavily. Storm-times fill us with fear. Everybody anxiously observes the character of the seasons. The nation alternates between hope and fear as reports come of rains, or late frosts, or blight, or flood. Nature is ever bringing to us messages from God, gracious testimonies of his acceptance or of his reproof. And no voices are so loud or so clear as those of the harvest, which is God’s yearly replenishing of our exhausted stores, and so the intimation of Divine regard or Divine disfavor. And nature is sensitive to man, and responsive to man’s conditions and doings. Go into some parts of our land, some metal and mining districts, and notice how nature, in response to man, has changed her aspect. Her trees cannot live. Her atmosphere has become damp and chill. See her fields responding to man’s draining. She now runs off her moisture in sudden and desolating floods. See the thick smoke-cloud hanging over great towns. Nature responds by breeding fatal diseases beneath it. God is ever fitting issues to actions, and in the issues revealing the character of the action. “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Visit the Holy Land, now desolate and barren, once fruitful and cultivated. It has but responded to the destruction of its timber, by the invading armies that have tramped over it again and again. The prophets seem to have, as one great part of their mission, to show that changes in seasons, loss of fruitage, bad harvests, fearful storms, locusts and caterpillars, are really the judgment-responses of nature to the doings, the wrong-doings, of men. Close up our Scriptures if it is no longer true that God speaks to men through nature; for St. Paul says, “God gave them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness.” Surely the invisible things of God may be clearly understood by the things that are made.
II. NATURE CAN STILL BE USED AS AN AGENT OF DIVINE JUDGMENT ON MAN. If God is, then he cannot pass by sin. If God visits the sins of cities and of nations as such, then he must find some instruments of chastisement which will directly affect cities and nations. His instruments may be the destructive forces of naturefamine, pestilence, fear, and warwhich directly reach corporate and national feeling. Herein is a curious thing. Men are ready enough to hear the voice of God when he sends a bountiful harvest. The whole land rings with the harvest-song, and men do not mind our saying that God sent the harvest. Bat how blind and deaf men become when harvest fails! Our blessings come from God; but how we try to make out that our disasters are only consequences of some unwisdom, or some neglect of social or agricultural laws! We need not see God’s hand in them. Let us not, however, be afraid of either side of the great truth. If God would recognize our faithfulness to him, he can find rich golden corn, and sunny autumn for its ripening and its ingathering. If he needs to chastise, and awaken in us the sense of sin, then he can make withered ears stand in the fields, summer floods damage the shocks, and sunless autumn hinder the ripening. Can it ever take away from the judgment-aspect of national calamity that we are able to explain how the earth, in its movements through space, has come rote a damp region, or rote a cold region; how certain atmospheric conditions have developed the blight; and how the current of certain winds has brought the locusts; and how a disturbance of nature’s limiting agencies has developed unduly the caterpillar? But if God speaks to us in judgment, let us never forget that he really speaks to us in mercy. He ever blends mercy with judgment; and the response he asks from our hearts will go into the old words: “Come, let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” “To the Lord our God belongeth mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him.”R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Isa 5:1. Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song The third prophetic discourse is contained in this chapter; which, being partly parabolical, and partly proper, naturally divides itself into two principal parts. The first contains the parable, Isa 5:1-6 the other the explanation of the parable, Isa 5:7-30. In the former part we have, first, the exordium, placed as a kind of title before the song, in part of the first verse; then the parable itself, Isa 5:1-6 in which the chosen nation, Israel, is compared to a vine: and this also is threefold. The state and attributes of this mystical vine is first described, Isa 5:1-2 then the consequence of that state is set forth, its unfruitfulness; thirdly, the divine judgment concerning it, after the preceding conviction, Isa 5:3-6. The exposition of the parable contains, 1st, its interpretation, Isa 5:7. 2nd, a twofold declaration, in which six grievous crimes of the Jewish people are enumerated, with a woe prefixed to them, Isa 5:8-23 and the sentence of God is declared concerning the punishment to be inflicted on these ungrateful covenant-breakers, Isa 5:24-30. If the destruction of the Jewish polity by the Chaldeans be primarily meant, the total destruction of that polity under the Romans seems secondarily and more emphatically foretold. It is supposed that Isaiah delivered this prophesy at the end of the reign of Uzziah. See Mic 3:12. Mat 21:41. Luk 20:16.
My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill The author of the Observations remarks, that the land of Israel is here called by the prophet, (as we have it in the margin of our Bibles) a vineyard in the horn of the son of oil. Vitringa seems to suppose, that it is so represented on account of its height; and such seems to have been the opinion of our translators in rendering it, a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. Hills are undoubtedly the most proper places for planting vineyards; and God might justly upbraid Israel with the goodness of the country in which he had placed them, its mountains themselves being very fertile: but, if that was the sole intention, is it not somewhat strange that the prophet should on this occasion use an expression so extremely figurative? especially as the same prophet elsewhere often speaks of the hills with simplicity. I will not deny, that it is agreeable enough to the eastern style to express a hill by the term horn; for the supposition of Bishop Pococke seems to be by no means unnatural, who tells us, that there is a low mountain in Galilee, which has both its ends raised up in such a manner as to look like two mounts, which are called the horn of Hutin, and, as he thinks, from this circumstance, the village of Hutin being underneath it. But then it is to be remembered, that the term horn may equally at least be understood in a different sense. So Sir John Chardin informs us, that a long strip of land, which runs out into the Caspian sea, is called the middle-sized horn; and D’Herbelot tells us, that the place where one of the branches of the Euphrates falls into the Tygris is called the horn. By the horn then of the son of oil, the prophet might mean Syria, which is bordered on one side by the sea, and on the other by the most barren desart, and stretches out from its base to the south like a horn; and so these words will be a geographical description of Judaea of the poetic kind; representing it as seated in particular in the fertile country of Syria, rather than in a general and indeterminate way, as situated in a fertile hill. The propriety of describing Syria as a country of oil, no one will, I suppose, contest, as we find that oil was wont anciently to be carried from thence to Egypt; (Hos 12:1.) and as we find the celebrated croisade historian, William of Tyre, describing Syria Sobal, as all thickly set with olive trees, so as to make prodigious woods, which covered the whole country, affording its inhabitants in those times, as they did their predecessors, a livelihood, and the destruction of which must have been their ruin.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

2. The bad fruits of the present in the light of the glorious divine fruit of the last time. Isa 5:1-30
a. THE BAD FRUITS OF THE PRESENT SHOWN IN THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD
Isa 5:1-7
1Now will I sing 1to my well-beloved
A song of my beloved touching his vineyard.
My well beloved hath a vineyard
In 2 3a very fruitful hill:
2And he 4 5fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof,
And planted it with the choicest vine,
And built a tower in the midst of it,
And also 6made a winepress therein:
And he looked that it should bring forth grapes,
And it brought forth wild grapes.
3And now, O, inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah,
Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
4What 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?
5And now go to; I will tell you
What I will do to my vineyard:
I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up;
And break down the wall thereof, and it shall be 7trodden down:
6And I will lay it waste:
It shall not be pruned, nor digged;
But there shall come up briers and thorns:
I will also command the clouds
That they rain no rain upon it,
7For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah 8his pleasant plant:
And he looked for 9judgment, but behold 10oppression;
For righteousness, but behold a cry.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 5:1. Attention has often been called to the artistic, rythmical structure of Isa 5:1 : to corresponds ; to corresponds . The first clause of the verse concludes with ; the second begins with , and the third word is again . rhymes to , and the last three words of the verse end with . Moreover the rythm continues into the 2d
Ver.; for the three verbs that begin it, resemble one another in formation and ending.
The verb joined with the noun occurs of joyful song in Isaiah in two other places, Isa 26:1; Isa 42:10. always has the pronoun after it (Exo 15:1; Num 21:17; Deu 31:19; Deu 31:21-22; Deu 31:30; Deu 32:44; 2Sa 22:1; Psa 18:1); only in Isaiah, who beside here uses it Isa 23:15, is it determined by only a noun following in the genitive. (the closely bound, beloved, friend) used by Isaiah only here. Comp. Deu 33:12; Jer 11:15; coll. Isa 7:7; Psa 60:7; Psa 127:2 , kindred to , is originally an abstract noun = amor, caritas (comp. Son 5:9) especially in the plural (love deeds, fondling, Son 1:2; Son 4:4, etc.; Eze 16:8; Pro 7:18, etc.). Then stands for the person beloved (compare the words Liebschaft, Bekanntschaft, acquaintance, Rth 3:2) and signifies both the beloved generally (Son 2:3, etc.), and a beloved and near relation (Lev 10:4; 1Sa 10:16, etc.). That it here means the beloved generally appears from its connection with . This word, too, does not again occur in Isaiah. indicates the object after verbis decendi: Gen 20:13; Lev 14:54; Psa 3:3; Psa 22:31; Isa 27:2, etc. is used only here in the Old Testament of a horn shaped hill. In Ovid mountain spurs are called cornua terr. In Greek too is so used. Compare the German Schreckhorn, Wetterhorn, etc.The expression occurs only here. Yet comp. Isa 28:1, and the kindred expressions used of the fruitfulness of the soil. (Isa 30:23; Eze 34:14), (Gen 27:28; Gen 27:39) (Isa 59:10).
Isa 5:2. is . ., but its meaning is definitely derived from the dialects. in this sense only here and Isa 62:10. with double accusative comp. Jer 2:21; where, beside, the word is borrowed from our passage. only here and Jer 2:21; Gen 49:11, ; Isa 16:8, : etymology doubtful, some taking the underlying idea, to be without seeds, others the shooting up, others purple color [Zec 1:8]: comp. Leyrer in Herzogs R. Encycl. XVII. p. 612.
Isa 5:3. On Jerusalem and Judah comp. at Isa 2:1. The expression occurs beside in Isa 8:14; Isa 22:21; Isa 10:24 occurs. Except these only Zec 12:7-8; Zec 12:10, uses . The more usual expression is ; 2Ki 23:2, especially in Jer. (Isa 8:1; Isa 11:2; Isa 13:13, etc.), and in 2 Chron. (2Ch 20:15; 2Ch 21:11; 2Ch 21:13; 2Ch 32:26; 2Ch 32:33, etc.).
Isa 5:4. On Gesenius 132, Rem. 1. . Comp. 1. 2.
Isa 5:5. , which some of the MSS. write with Dag. forte, is = (Lam 2:6) and (Mic 7:4; Pro 15:19). The word occurs only here in Isaiah. The meaning is: a hedge, a thorn hurdle, from sepire (Hos 2:6 (8); Job 1:10). et erit ad depascendum, comp. Isa 3:14; Isa 4:4; Isa 6:13. The expression occurs also with the meaning ad comburendum; Isa 44:15, comp. Isa 40:16; Isa 50:11. in the sense to tear down only here. Beside this in Isa 54:3, in the sense to break out, extend oneself abroad. may signify the low wall of a vineyard as well as the high wall of a city: comp. Jer 49:3; Num 22:24. In Isaiah the word does not again occur. Hedge and wall might be combined in such a way that the hedge surrounded the foot of the wall so as also to protect it. Yet perhaps the double enclosure is not to be pressed literally, but, may be construed rhetorically, since no actual vineyard is meant. conculcatio: Isa 7:25; Isaiah 10, 6; Isa 28:18.Giving up His vineyard, the Lord abandons it to desolation.
Isa 5:6. appears to correspond to the expression often used, by Jer. especially, but which does not occur in Isaiah. is . . According to its meaning and derivation it is one with Isa 7:19. The verb does not occur in Hebrew. Yet the meaning abscindere is established from the dialects. From that develops = the close-cut-off, exactly measured out, as the name of a fluid measure, (comp. Isa 5:10), and vastatio and abscissum, prruptum.The vineyard abandoned to desolation will, of course, no more be pruned ( in this sense only here in Isa., otherwise Isa 12:5) and no more digged ( in the sense of to dig only again Isa 7:25). Consequently it springs up with thorns and thistles (the construction of with the accusative like Isa 34:13; Pro 24:31. The two words and , excepting Isa 32:13, are always joined together by Isa 7:23-25; Isa 9:17; Isa 10:17; Isa 27:4. Both words, as one may see from the passages cited, signify combustible vegetation of the desert, although nothing as yet has been established concerning the etymology and meaning of either. But comp. Dietrich, Abhandl. fur semit. Wortforschung, p. 73, and the Denkschrift der Erfurter Akademie von S. Cassel, 1854, p. 74 sqq., cited by Delitzsch.
Isa 5:7. occurs again in Isa 17:10-11. Isaiah uses only here. occurs only here. The verb occurs in Hebrew only in the Piel form Isa 3:17. It is identical with (Hab 2:15) according to a frequent exchange of sound. Not only the Arabic saphacha proves that means effundere, but also passages like Job 30:7; then the substantive that means effusio, inundatio (Job 14:19) and effusum, i.e., especially the grain that falls out (Lev 25:5; Lev 25:11). Of course then means first of all effusio. But for the sake of a play on words, an author may indulge in such an incomplete expression. The reader at once thinks of passages like Isa 4:4; Isa 1:15, and fills out the conception sanguinis of himself. The word cry, is not repeated in Isaiah, he also chooses it for the sake of the play on words. For my own part I have allowed myself to waive a literal translation in favor of a likeness of sound and to use a word that at least corresponds to the proper intention of the Prophet.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. When we read the introduction of this piece it sounds like a lovely musical prelude. All sounds like singing. It is as if the Prophet tried every harmonious sound of speech in order to turn the hearts of his hearers to joy. But it happens to us as he says, Isa 5:7, it happened to God in reference to Israel. Instead of a joyful report we receive a mournful one; instead of happiness, a gloomy prospect of evil is presented. The piece therefore bears the character of bitter irony. This is especially in the beginning carried out even to minuteness. The Prophet makes as if he would sing a joyous song, a song of the vineyard, thus perhaps of wine, a drinking song! It shall be of the vineyard of a boon companion. And then the Prophet describes the situation. It is a good site. For there is no better than on a sunny knoll with a good, fat soil (Isa 5:1 a). But the owner aided nature as much as possible by art (Isa 5:2 a.). He had a right therefore to expect a good yield. His hopes were disappointed. Instead of good grapes the vines bore wild grapes (Isa 5:2). Thus far the Prophet speaks. From this point he lets the owner of the vine speak. One looked to hear of a real vineyard. But what sort of a vineyard is that whose owner accuses it and charges it with guilt! Now, therefore, when the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah are summoned to judge between the vineyard and its lord (Isa 5:3), in as much as he has faithfully done his best, yet instead of grapes has gathered only wild grapes (Isa 5:4), it is noticed at once that behind this is concealed something else than the story of a real, natural vineyard. And step by step this becomes plainer. For the lord of the vineyard declares that he will tear away hedge and wall, and give the vineyard up to be browsed upon and trampled down (Isa 5:5), yea, that he will make a ruin of it, he will no more hoe and prune it, but let it grow rank with thorns and thistles, and will forbid the heavens to rain on it (Isa 5:6). This last word lifts the mask entirely. It is now seen who is the owner and who the vineyard. And this is now (Isa 5:7) openly declared: Jehovah is the lord; Israel, summoned to judge between the lord and his vineyard, is itself the vineyard. The Lord had expected of Israel the fruits of righteousness, but only gathered the fruits of unrighteousness. What a contrast between this fruit of the land and that which, according to Isa 4:2, the land shall one time bear!
2. I will singwild grapes. Isa 5:1-2. Everything in this passage tends to express the idea of disappointment, the contrast between incipient hope and the final, mournful event. Hence the joyous, one may say the lark-like trilling commencement. Every harvest is preceded by a season of hope. Israel too awakened such. How joyous this was, Isa 5:1 portrays. One must not, therefore, be misled by the peculiar joyous tone of Isa 5:1, to think that here begins an essentially new and independent piece. For this sound-coloring of Isa 5:1, is intentional, is art.
The address begins with , I will sing. One, therefore, expects a , a jovial song: but a . (Amo 8:10), a lament follows. What a contrast, therefore, between the sixfold woe of Isa 5:8 sqq., and this joy bespeaking beginning! seems, at first sight, to be an ordinary dative, and to say that the prophet would sing to his friend a song, thus likely a song of right hearty and enlivening contents. But suggests that that may be an incorrect meaning: for this must mean in regard to his vineyard. Thus must here be of the object. Then it seems likely that in the preceding case it has the same force. This conjecture becomes a certainty when we read further my friend () had a vineyard. From this it becomes plain: 1) that the friend in each case is the same, for the owner of the vineyard is called both and ; 2) that we must translate in Isa 5:1 of my friend, for the song shall treat of the vineyard of his friend; 3) what the Prophet would sing is not a song of his own composing, but one that his friend has made of his vineyard, so that I will sing is qualified by the following, a song of my friend, &c.; 4) from the words my friend had a vineyard, &c, we know that the song of the friend does not yet begin. For to the end of Isa 5:2 we have still the words of the Prophet, by which, as it were, he preludes the song of the friend, in order to acquaint the hearer with the facts that the song presupposes. Thus the Prophet gives us one disappointment after the other. Though they are only of a formal kind, still they prepare us for the more earnest and material disappointments that follow.
We have already remarked that with my friend had, &c., the song of the friend by no means begins, as one would expect, and that what the Prophet himself says is by no means a song, but a very earnest presentation of gloomy facts. This is a further disappointment. That , as commentators remark, signifies the natural fruitfulness in opposition to what is artificial appears to me to lie less in the expression itself than in its relation to Isa 5:2. The usus loquendi in itself is well known: Umbreits translation on the prominence of a fat spot is incorrect. For in itself is not a fat spot but a real son, a man, whom the notion oil characterizes (comp. Zec 4:14). It can only become predicate of a place by connection with an idea of place. Such is with which stands in apposition. If they were taken as standing in a genitive relation the meaning would be: horn of a man of oil, of one oiled, of an anointed man. However, to this naturally fruitful spot, the owner had done everything that the art of wine culture could suggest. He had hoed it, gathered out the stones, and planted it with a choice vine. But not only did the owner undertake such labor as was important for the flourishing of the vines themselves, but also such as were for the protection of the fruit and putting it to use. Such are the watch tower (vid. Mat 21:33) and the wine press ( the lower wine-press trough, comp. Isa 16:10, Num 18:27, &c), both of them costly, &c.,especially the latter, hence and alsodemanding hard labor, because the wine-press trough, as (Isa 10:15; Isa 22:16; Isa 51:1; Isa 51:9) indicates, was hewn out of the rock. See HerzogsR. Encycl. VII., p. 508, Art. Wine-press, by Leyrer. Butdisappointed hope! Instead of (in Isa. only here, and Isa 5:2; Isa 5:4) good grapes, the vineyard bore only sour grapes. This last word occurs only here and Isa 5:4. It comes from to be bad, stink, and means the fruit of the wild vine, the labrusca. It has, therefore, happened to the choice vine according to the word of Jer. (Isa 2:21), which may be regarded as a commentary on our passage: thou art turned into a degenerate plant of a strange vine. The noble vine is degenerated and become wild, so that it produces wild grapes instead of grapes.Comp. Job 31:40.
3. And now, O inhabitantsno rain upon it.
Isa 5:3-6. The song of the friend begins first at Isa 5:3. It is, however, no gladsome song, but a lament and a complaint. And the friend is not some good friend or boon companion of the Prophet, but the Lord Himself, which comes out clearly at the end of Isa 5:6. This one, now, summons the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah to judge between him and his vineyard.
Judge between me, etc.Comp. Isa 2:4; Exo 18:16; Eze 34:17; Eze 34:20; Eze 34:22. The summons of Isa 5:3 to judge between the vineyard and its owner, must of itself awaken the thought that no actual, physical vineyard is meant here. For where is the owner that would ever think of laying a complaint against his vineyard? One sees from this, and other obvious traits of the description, that the subject here is not an ordinary vineyard and its owner; and Isa 5:6 b. one is made aware that the owner is God Himself. For only He has the power to cause it to rain, and to shut up the rain. Notice, moreover, how Isa 5:1-2 the Prophet himself has spoken, although announcing a song of the friend, and only at Isa 5:3 the friend begins to speak, in that with and now he takes up the discourse of the Prophet and continues it. One may say: quite unnoticed the Prophet glides over into the part played by him whom properly he has to produce to view. And to the first and now corresponds a second in Isa 5:5, that introduced the judgment, so that the extraordinary judgment begins in precisely the same way that the extraordinary complaint does.
The Lord will command the clouds to let no rain fall on the vineyard. With these words the vail falls completely. It is plain now that the beginning of Isa 5:1 was irony. A fearful disappointment comes on those that had disappointed the Lord Himself, and, by the art of the Prophet, the reader, too, must share this disappointment, in that he is conducted from the charming pictures of Isa 5:1, to the dreadful ones that are now to follow.
For the vineyarda cry.
Isa 5:7. Like the prophet Nathan, 2Sa 12:5, first provoked King David to a stern judgment of a wicked man by means of a fictitious story, and then exclaimed: thou art the man, so here Isaiah explains to the men of Jerusalem and Judah, after they had at least silently given their assent to the judgment on the bad vineyard: The vineyard of Jehovah is the house of Israel. But this statement is connected by for, with what precedes, because a consequence of this fact was already indicated at the end of Isa 5:6. For this not letting it rain explains itself from the fact that the Lord Himself is the owner, and the vineyard is the house of Israel. For, though one must admit that Isa 5:7 refers to all that precedes, yet still that trait in Isa 5:1-6 which especially receives its light from the identity of the owner with Jehovah, is precisely that which we read in Isa 5:6 b.
But why does the prophet vary from the designation Judah and Jerusalem hitherto employed by him? Why does he here make house of Israel and men of Judah parallel? Caspari attempts in his Beitrgen, p. 164, an extended proof that here, as Isa 4:2 and Isa 1:2, Israel is Judah as Israel, and as Israel in Judah. But one naturally asks: why, if Isaiah meant only Judah, does he not name Judah exclusively? Why does he suddenly drop the designation used hitherto? But if with the name house of Israel he designates Judah (to be) as Israel, is it not therewith admitted that the conception Israel extends over Judah, and is not then this more comprehensive Israel in its totality, the vineyard of Jehovah? It is true that the figure of the vineyard is nowhere in older writings applied either to Judah or Israel. But the Lord calls Israel His people (Isa 3:12, &c), His flock (Psa 95:7, &c), His peculiar treasure (Exo 19:5; Deu 6:6), His inheritance (Jer 2:7; Jer 16:18, &c), and all these expressions refer to Israel entire. Thus it cannot be contested that Israel in the narrower sense belongs also to the vineyard of Jehovah. If now, too, in general, as can not be denied, Judah and Jerusalem form the principal object of the discourse (Isa 2:1), yet the prophet may here and there cast a glance aside at the kingdom of Israel. Prophets of Jehovah can never forget that Israel, which hastens faster to the abyss of destruction than Judah, as Jer. expressly says: Jer 31:20; comp. Jer 11:11 sqq. I therefore share the view of Vitringa, Drechsler, Delitzsch, that house of Israel of course means all Israel. This view is not refuted but rather confirmed by the fact that the men of Judah are presently called the plant of his pleasure. For this expression that accords to Judah a certain precedence, suits better when house of Israel does not signify Judah over again, but the Israel of the Ten Tribes.
The Lord had planted with pleasure. But He was outrageously deceived in His just expectations. He had expected a fruit of the earth Isa 4:2, that would do Him honor. But behold! instead of mishpot, He gathers mispahh: instead of tzedhaka, he gathers tzeaka. The poet here choicely depicts by the word-likeness, which yet conceals a total difference of meaning, the deceptive appearance in the conduct of the Israelites, which at first looked like good vines and then developed a wild wine.
Footnotes:
[1]of my friend.
[2]Heb. the horn of the son of oil.
[3]a hill of fat soil.
[4]Or, made a wall about it.
[5]hoed it.
[6]Heb. hewed.
[7]Heb. for a treading.
[8]Heb. plant of his pleasure.
[9]auf Gutthat und siehe da: Blutthat! Und auf Gerechtigkeit, und siehe da: Schlechtigkeit. [The commentator’s license in translating with reference to the sound and sense combined may be imitated in English thus: He waited for equity, and lo, iniquity: For right and lo, riot.Tr.]
[10]Heb. a scab.
b. THE BAD FRUITS AND THEIR EFFECTS MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED IN A SIXFOLD WOEAT THE SAME TIME A TWOFOLD CONCLUSIONS OF THE WHOLE DISCOURSE
Isa 5:8-30
8Woe unto them that join house to house,
That lay field to field,
Till there be no place,
That11 they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
912 In mine ears said the Lord of hosts,
13 Of a truth many houses shall be desolate,
Even great and fair, without inhabitant.
10Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,
And the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
11Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink;
That continue until night, till wine14 inflame them!
1215 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe,
16 And wine, are in their feasts:
But they regard not the work of the Lord,
Neither consider the operation of his hands.
13Therefore my people are gone into captivity,17 because they have no knowledge:
And18 their honorable men are19 famished,
And their multitude dried up with thirst.
14Therefore hell hath enlarged 20herself,
And opened her mouth without measure:
And their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp,
And he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
15And 21the mean man shall be brought down,
Andf the mighty man shall be humbled,
And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
16But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment,
And22 23God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
17Then shall the lambs feed 24after their manner,
And the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
18Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity,
And sin as it were with a cart rope:
19That 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 it.
20Woe unto them 25that call evil good, and good evil;
That put darkness for light, and light for darkness:
21Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent 26in their own sight!
22Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine,
And men of strength to mingle strong drink:
23Which justify the wicked for reward,
And take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
24Therefore as 27the fire devoureth the stubble,
And the flame consumeth the 28chaff,
So their root shall be as rottenness,
Because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts,
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25Therefore 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 were29 30torn in the midst of the streets.
But his hand is stretched out still,
26And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far,
And will hiss unto them from the end of the earth:
And, behold, 31they shall come with speed swiftly:
27None shall be weary nor stumble among them;
None shall slumber nor sleep;
Neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed,
Nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
28Whose arrows are sharp,
Their horses hoofs shall be counted like flint,
And their wheels like a whirlwind:
29Their roaring shall be like a32 lion,
They shall 33roar like young lions:
Yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey,
And shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.
30And in that day 34they shall roar against m them like the roaring of the sea:
And if one look unto the land, behold darkness and 35sorrow,
36 And the light is darkened37 in the heavens thereof.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 5:8. is often construed with : Gen 26:11; 32:33; Lev 11:36; 1Ki 19:5; 1Ki 19:7, etc. Comp. especially Hos 4:2. Hiphil occurs beside only Isa 6:7; Isa 8:8; Isa 25:12; Isa 26:5; Isa 30:4. is generally not construed with . But when Drechsler says that this construction never occurs, it is asserting too much. For Psa 91:10 it is said No plague . Comp. Jdg 19:13. In our passage the construction of the first clause has doubtless influenced that of the second. Hiph. only again Isa 26:17. (defectus, non-existent) occurs oftener in the second part than in the first: Isa 40:17; Isa 41:12; Isa 41:29; Isa 44:6; Isa 44:14; Isa 44:22; Isa 46:9, Isa 52:4; Isa 52:10; Isa 54:15. In the first part it occurs again only Isa 34:12.The Hophal (Isa 44:26) indicates that their dwelling alone in the land was not a natural thing, but something contrived. Compare complaints of like import Isa 3:14 sq.; Mic 2:2; Mic 3:2, sq.
Isa 5:9. In mine ears, etc. In Isa 22:14 an address of Jehovah begins with the words and it was revealed in mine ears. etc. In our passage and, it was revealed is omitted. It does not follow from this that this or some similar word has fallen out of the text. For the Prophet may very well have had in thought the bare notion of existence as predicate of his sentence; In mine ears is Jehovah Sabaoth. It must not however be construed in a pregnant sense: Jehovah keeps ever saying to me (liegt mir in den Ohren). For there is not a thought of any resistance on the part of the Prophet that had provoked a persistence on the Lords side. Neither may the expression mean: Jehovah whispers in my ear; as if the secrecy of the address were meant by it; for there exists no reason for such secrecy. But the Prophet will only say, that what follows he has clearly heard by the inward ear as the word of Jehovah. There lies thus in the expression a distinguishing of actual from merely imaginary hearing. Comp. Psa 44:2; Job 28:22; Job 33:8.
The pointing of the word as a pausel from appears to have for its object to separate it from what follows and to signify thereby that in this word alone is contained the predicate of the sentence. again Isa 13:9, comp. Deu 28:37; Mic 6:16. comp. Isa 6:11; Jer 2:15; Jer 4:7, etc.; Zep 2:5; Zep 3:6.
Isa 5:11. A likeness of structure is to be noticed in the two halves of the verse. The verb. fin. in the phrase relates to the foregoing participle, not simply like Isa 5:8, as the dominant form, but at the same time as assigning thepurpose; and so is it too with The Pi. of again in Isa 46:13. from to breathe, to blow, the time of day when cooler air stirs, the morning and evening twilight: comp. Isa 21:4; Isa 59:10. The verb (comp. Eze 24:10) is found only here in Isaiah.
Isa 5:12. If (sing. comp. Gesenius, 93, 9) were subject, it must follow , for this position is constantly maintained, after a verb with Vav consec. But if it were predicate, it would say nothing; for what else would music and wine be but a feast. For that would be superfluous. We construe therefore, not as mere copula, but in the sense of being on hand; and there is on hand.The combination of with in a manfold sense is quite current with Isa 2:8; Isa 17:8; Isa 19:25; Isa 29:23; Isa 37:19; Isa 60:21; Isa 64:7; Isa 65:22.
Isa 5:13. in the sense of making bare, i.e., clearing out the land occurs in Isaiah only again Isa 24:11, which passage generally resembles this one. has without reason been discredited, and instead some would read according to Deu 32:24, for is wont to be used in a contemptuous sense, comp. Isa 3:25. (comp. Greens Gram. 187,1 b.) is adjectivum ad f. , , etc., and only occurs here.
Isa 5:14. aperire, that always stands with (Job 16:10; Job 29:23; Psa 119:131) occurs in Isaiah only here. The same with (comp. Job 38:41; Job 41:25). again only Isa 24:5 .The suffixes of the nouns are to be referred to the notion Jerusalem, although immediately before Isa 5:13, the masculine is used. But it is plain that the Prophet in Isa 5:14 b., aims at a mimicry of sound. For this purpose he employs the clear a sound as often as possible. Delitzsch calls attention to the omission to draw the tone back on the penult of the word , so that one may hear the object that is falling down as it rolls and at last strikes bottom. comp. Isa 2:10; Isa 2:19; Isa 2:21; Isa 35:2; Isa 53:2.
Isa 5:15. The aorists , , are to be construed as Prterita prophetica. Also , with the Vav preceding and separate, is, as Drechsler has remarked = .
Isa 5:17. is to be taken absolutely, without object. What is understood suggests itself from what precedes. The pronoun of the third person is, as object of the phrase, very often omitted; Gen 2:19; Gen 3:21; Gen 6:19-21, etc. It is not necessary, with Gesenius to take for : for very often stands with the accusative of the place that is pastured: Isa 30:23; Mic 7:14; Jer 6:3; Jer 1:19, etc. As their pasture shall the sheep graze over the ruins of Jerusalem, in so far as the inhabited city becomes a sheep walk. When Delitzsch thinks that no accusative object is to be supplied to , but that the determination of the locality results from the context, it is seen that still there is a supplying of the object. One may as well supply the definite locality as object according to frequent usus loquendi, as imagine it from the context. The sense, in any case remains the same. found again only Isa 1:11; Isa 11:6, = the place whither flocks are driven, found again only Mic 2:12. found beside only Ps. 65:6, 15. are not the strangers that are constant dwellers in the land, but as participle from , those en passant. The LXX translate . They may have read perhaps (). This word, moreover, Schleussner, Hitzig, Ewald and others would restore. But we have shown above that an emphasis rests on the idea of a transitory stopping. in Isaiah again Isa 11:6; Isa 54:15. The plural occurs only here in the first part of Isaiah; but six times in the second part: Isa 44:26; Isa 49:19; Isa 51:3; Isa 52:9; Isa 58:12; Isa 61:4. The singular is found only Isa 64:10.
Isa 5:18. I take in its usual meaning in which it often occurs with the accusative (in Isaiah again only Isa 66:19, coll. Isa 13:22; Isa 18:2). are ropes of lies, for what binds them to sin, is the illusion that sin makes one happy. Hence every sin is a fraud (Heb 3:13). The expression further calls to mind Jon 2:9; Psa 31:7; and also Pro 5:22, and Hos 11:4. Regarding the use of in Isaiah, comp. Isa 1:13 (). Isa 30:28 ( ), Isa 59:4, (). The word occurs only in these places in Isaiah. In the prefix is wanting according to the familiar rule; comp. Gesenius. 118, Rem. (from to twist, the twisting, twisted work, rope) Isaiah uses only here. Comp. Hos 11:4. , a freight wagon. found too Isa 28:27-28.
Isa 5:19. and may be taken transitively and intransitively. I decide for the latter construction, 1) because is used by Isaiah only intransitively (Isa 32:4; Isa 49:17; Isa 51:14; Isa 59:7), , that occurs twice beside here (Isa 28:16; Isa 60:22), is one of these times (Isa 28:16) used intransitively; 2) because in the parallel phrase not Jehovah but is subject. The sense is any way in both instances the same. The forms and belong to the few instances of the voluntative appended to the third person, (comp. Psa 20:4, and the more doubtful cases Lev 21:5; Deu 33:16; Job 11:17; Job 22:21; Eze 23:20; Olshausen, 228 b. Anm. [Green, 97, 7). Let it be noticed moreover that this He so stands in two pairs of verbs, that each time it is only appended to the last word. It seems that each time it should avail as well for the first word. Comp. Isa 1:24 b. is a current word with Isaiah that occurs thirteen times in the first part and five times in the second. On the Holy One of Israel see Isa 1:4.
Isa 5:20. with following in the sense to make into something; Isa 13:9; Isa 23:13; Isa 25:2; Isa 41:15; Isa 42:15; Isa 49:11, etc.
Isa 5:21. On comp. Hos 7:2; Lam 3:35; the expression does not again occur in Isaiah. part. Isa 3:3; Isa 29:14.
Isa 5:22. in Isaiah again Isa 19:14. Isa 65:11. Hiph. found again Isa 50:8; Isa 53:11. . only here. again Isa 1:23; Isa 33:15; Isa 45:13. Hiph. frequent in the first part (Isa 1:16; Isa 1:25; Isa 3:1; Isa 3:18; Isa 5:5; Isa 5:23; Isa 10:13, etc), in the second part only in Isa 58:9. The singular suffix in must be construed distributively. The righteousness of the righteous they let disappear from him, i.e., from the righteous man in question. Comp., at Isa 2:8 and Isa 1:23.
Isa 5:24. As regards the construction; is a predicate infinitive dependent on a preposition, which is followed immediately, not as usually by the subject, but by the object, because the order offends against euphony; also in Isa 20:1, the object precedes, because it is a pronoun (). Commentators call attention to the multiplication of sibilants in the sentence. One hears the crackling sparks, the sputtering flames says Delitzsch. occurs only once again in the Old Testament, Isa 33:11. is to become lax, withered, weary, fall away (especially of the hands Isa 13:7). is accus. loci.The suffixes in and refer back to those whom the preceding four woes concern. To these then their punishment is announced. only occurs again Isa 3:24. (only Isa 18:5 again) is the blossom. dust, only occurs again Isa 29:5.The second clause of the verse calls to mind Isa 1:4. They were therefore the opposite of the branch of Jehovah Isa 4:2, and much rather comparable to the bad grape-vine, Isa 5:1 sqq. occurs again Isa 28:23; Isa 29:4; Isa 32:9.
Isa 5:25. The expression does not occur again in Isaiah, and, excepting the part, Niph. Isa 41:11; Isa 45:24, no other form of the verb occurs in Isaiah. Our expression, however, calls to mind, Num 11:33, And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His. people, and the Loan smote the people, as all those numerous places in the Pentateuch, especially Num. where the expression and the anger of the Lord kindled, etc., occurs (Exo 4:14; Num 11:1; Num 11:10; Num 12:9, etc.) is also a reminiscence of the Pentateuch from Exo 8:2; Exo 8:13; Exo 10:22; Exo 14:21; Exo 14:27, where the expression is used of Aaron and Moses as they stretched out the hand to the performance of their miracles. In Isaiah, this expression is repeated in the same manner in Isa 23:11; Isa 31:3, coll. Isa 14:26-27. (Kal., in Isa 14:9; Isa 32:10-11; Isa 28:21; Isa 64:1), used of the trembling of the earth (Joe 2:10) or of the foundation of the mountains (Psa 18:8, coll. 2Sa 22:8). The expression that the carcass ( occurs Isa 26:19) shall be as the sweepings ( from Eze 26:4, everrere, detergere = Lam 3:45, leavings, sweepings out; …), occurs only here. Elsewhere it is, that the shall be as dung in the field (Jer 9:21), shall be cast as a prey (Deu 28:26; Jer 7:33; Jer 16:4; Jer 19:7, etc.), to the wild beasts. The reading (the London Polyglot has ) is both etymologically incorrect, and also in conflict with every other place in which the word occurs in Isaiah (Isa 10:6; Isa 15:3; Isa 24:11; Isa 51:20.
Isa 5:26. does not belong to , but it has become an adjective conception and takes the place of an adjective, as may be seen from passages like Jer 23:23; Jer 31:10. The same is true of that has the same meaning. The former word occurs in Isaiah twelve times; five times in the first and seven times in the second part (Isa 22:3; Isa 22:11; Isa 23:7; Isa 25:1; Isa 43:6; Isa 49:1; Isa 49:12; Isa 57:9; Isa 59:14; Isa 60:4; Isa 60:9). a signal set up on a high point; Isa 11:12; Isa 13:2; Isa 18:3; Isa 33:23; Isa 62:10. Only in the last named passage does the verb occur. to hiss, whistle, is taken from the practice of bee keepers, as may be seen in Isa 7:18, where the same figure recurs. recurs Isa 13:5; Isa 13:10; Isa 43:6, thus equally in both parts. In each place, Isa 13:5 excepted, follows it. properly substantiveceleritas: recurs Isa 58:8; combined with according to Joel 4:4. recurs, in Isa 19:1; Isa 30:16; Isa 18:2. On the change of number in , comp., at Isa 5:23. The singular here apparently indicates that though the signal is given at various times and to different nations, still always, it shall be only one at a time, that they shall be summoned.
Isa 5:27. Drechsler justly calls attention to the perfect equilibrium in the structure of this Isa 5:27; in the first hemistich two clauses, each with two members of like arrangement; in the second hemistich two clauses, each with one member, the corresponding words in which rhyme together: , . recurs in Isa 28:12; Isa 29:8; Isa 32:2; Isa 46:1. On see at Isa 3:8. The Participle (Jer 46:16; Psa 105:37; 2Ch 28:15), occurs only here in Isaiah. recurs only Isa 56:10, only here in Isaiah. Niph. Isa 24:18; Isa 35:5; Isa 51:14.
Isa 5:28. in the sense of stone, flint occurs only here and Isa 5:30, if this interpretation is allowable in the second case; it has then the same meaning as Eze 3:9; Exo 4:25; ????Exo 2:10; Exo 8:14, etc. Niph. like Isa 2:22; Isa 29:16-17; Isa 40:15.
Isa 5:29. (again in Isa 30:6) is by most held to mean lioness. Comp. Gesenius, Thes. p. 738 On the construction of see at Isa 5:18. is according to Kthibh , according to Kri . The reading of Kri is the correct one, for there is no reason for the perfect with the Vav consec., whereas the imperfect stands here, according to rule, to describe permanent qualities. only here in Isaiah, see Pro 28:15; Pro 19:12; Pro 20:2). Of the form found here is the only one used by Isaiah, and that only here. The formula occurs again Isa 42:22, and Isa 43:13, in which latter place it sounds the same as the original passage Deu 32:39.
Isa 5:30. The subject of , he shall roar, is the same that it has in the preceding verse. But we translate it roars dull, only to give prominence to the collective more than to the individual as indicated in as the roaring of the sea. The suffix, in can refer only to the one seized, i.e., Judah. occurs only again Psa 38:9.Drechsler, has justly called attention to the sound painting produced by accumulating the buzzing and rumbling sound of m, and n, too, in the first hemistich of this verse. Both sounds are in ; to this word rhymes; in we find m. and n. again, and the syllable am twice.To this hemistich, which I may say has itself a low rumble, the second is opposed, which portrays the conquered by its many, i. e, and a sounds, thus by thinner sounds, that in a measure paint weakness.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The meaning of this section is twofold. First of all it contains a specification of the sour grapes, and a corresponding announcement of punishment. In this matter the Prophet begins with a certain selection. For he does not censure all sins, but only the sins of the eminent, and eminent sins. Thus six evil fruits are enumerated, and what the Prophet has to say with reference to each begins with a woe. But a detailed announcement of punishment follows on each of the first two woes only, after the description of the sinful condition with which they are concerned. For the following woes there follows an announcement of punishment common to all from Isa 5:24 on. This difference observed by the Prophet in regard to the order of his topics is connected with the second meaning of the passage: that is to say it contains at the same time the twofold conclusion of the second portal, i.e. of the whole discourse from chap. 25. For the announcement of punishment after the second woe, which is in proportion long extended through five verses (Isa 5:13-17), manifestly contains a relative ending: the wicked city sinks into the lower world, and the grass grows over its grave. These are manifestly, I may say, final chords. But in as much as the Prophet, Isa 5:15-16, reiterates verbatim the fundamental thought of his first illumination of the present, he gives us to understand that he would have this first (relative) conclusion refer to the first half of his discourse (chap. 2 and 3). And as he handles the following twice-two woes differently from the first two, he intimates that they have another purpose. They are not interrupted in their sequence by announcements of punishment coming between, but these follow after as common to all, Precisely by this concentration the Prophet gains a highly effective conclusion of the whole discourse, but which at the same time undeniably refers to the second lamp (chap. 4 and 5), just as we have seen that the first (relative) conclusion refers to the first lamp. One recognizes this from the comparison of Isa 5:24, drawn from vegetation, especially from the notions root and scion, in which the reference back to the branch, chap. 4, as also to the vineyard and its fruit cannot be mistaken.
Thus this most artistically composed, ending is at the same time an image of the whole discourse, whose unity, comprising chaps, 25, here becomes most evident. As the twofold division forms the ground-work of the whole discourse, so it does of this conclusion. And this twofold division appears in the conclusion in a double form: first the simple two for the first (relative) conclusion; then the potent, doubled two for the great principal conclusion. From this we know, at the same time, why there must be six woes, and not seven, as one inclines to expect.
The first woe concerns the rich and mighty, that swallow up the property of inferior people, so that at last they possess the land alone (Isa 5:8). These are threatened that their houses shall be destroyed (Isa 5:9), and their ground shall become so sterile that ten acres shall yield only a bucketful of must, and a bushel of seed a peck [i.e. 116 of a German bushel.Tr.] of fruits (Isa 5:10). The second woe pertains to high livers and gluttons, that begin early and leave off late (Isa 5:11), and who, amid the noise of music and the banquet, never come to regard Jehovahs work (Isa 5:12). For this the people must wander into exile, and high rank and low rank shall perish of hunger and thirst (Isa 5:13), and be used only to be cast into the jaws of the insatiably greedy underworld (Isa 5:14). Then shall human pride be humbled (Isa 5:15), and the Lord, the righteous judge shall appear then as alone high in His righteousness and holiness (Isa 5:16), the waste places of the fallen grandees shall become the pastures of the flocks of alien tribes (Isa 5:17). The third woe is proclaimed against the insolent mockers that do evil with a very rage for it (Isa 5:18), and with blasphemous contempt, challenge the Lord, in whom they do not believe, to oppose His work to their own (Isa 5:19). The fourth woe strikes those who perversely call exactly that good which is bad, and that bad which is good (Isa 5:20). The fifth woe concerns the conceited that think they alone are wise (Isa 5:21). The sixth woe, finally, is proclaimed against the oppressors and unjust, who in order to live high, turn aside justice for a vile reward (Isa 5:22-23). The threatening, that those who have despised the law of Jehovah, shall be destroyed root and branch, corresponds to the last four woes in common (Isa 5:24). For this the people shall be smitten and their dead bodies be cast into the streets like sweepings. But that is not enough even (Isa 5:25). Foreign nations shall be brought from a distance against Israel (26). They shall vigorously and zealously accomplish the work to which they are called (2729). Then like the roaring surges of the sea the enemy shall break over Israel. Israel shall see nothing on the earth but dark night: instead of a protection against rain and storm (Isa 4:6), a dark storm-cloud shall envelop the earth that shall turn aside the vivifying and warming light (Isa 5:30).
This is the result of the contemplation that the Prophet sets forth in regard to the (relative) present. Sad and gloomy as this result is, the realization of that glorious future which he holds in prospect (Isa 4:2-6) is not thereby hindered: on the contrary it postulates and prepares the way for that future. The words in that day point away to that.
2. Woe unto themyield an epha.
Isa 5:8-16. On comp. remarks at Isa 1:4. The Prophet first proclaims a woe against the rich and mighty, who with insatiable greed annex the houses and fields of their poor neighbors, so that these are crowded out of the land, and the country becomes the exclusive domain of these oppressors.
This accumulation of property violates both the statutes concerning the inheritance of real estate, and the year of Jubilee (Lev 25:10-13; Leviticus 25 sqq.). What the Prophet has heard is this; not merely some, but many houses, i.e. the houses, all that there are of them (Isa 2:3), shall be desolated, and the great and beautiful ones shall be without dwellers. This desolation of the houses is ascribed to the sterility that comes on the land as a punishment from God. For the Pentateuch threatens the disobedience of Israel with this punishment, and that in not a few passages: Lev 26:18-20; Deu 11:17; Deu 28:17 sq., 23 sq., 38 sqq. How great the barrenness shall be may be determined from the fact, that ten acres of vine land will only yield a bucket of wine, and a bushel of seed only the tenth part as much fruit. is a pair of beasts of burden bound by a yoke (Jdg 19:10; 1Sa 11:7; Isa 21:7; Isa 21:9), then a piece of ground as great as such a could plow up in a day. If a vineyard is not plowed it might still be measured by the acre. How large a surface a might be according to our measures, has never yet been made out. Comp. Unterss. ber die Lngen-Feld-und Wege Masse, insbesondere der Greich en und der luden von L. Fenner v. Fenneberg,Berlin, 1859, p. 96.
a bath (comp. at Isa 5:6) is the principal measure for fluids, like the ephah for dry measure. Both are the tenth part of a homer or , cor. (Eze 45:11; Eze 45:14), occurs only here in Isa. homer, (probably the burden of a , an ass., whence Jdg 15:16; 1Sa 16:2 stands directly for ) does not again occur in Isa. in this sense. Also an ephah is only here in Isa. There is still great uncertainty regarding the relation of these measures to those used by us. If Thenius (The ancient Hebrew long and hollow measures, Studien und Krit., 1846, Heft. 1 and 2) is correct, who sets the contents of the homer at 10143.9 Paris cubic inches, then this would about correspond to the burden an ass can bear.
3. Woe unto them that rise up earlyshall strangers eat.
Isa 5:11-17. The second woe, the longest and most detailed, is directed against the high livers and gluttons. They rise early so as to go soon to drinking; they remain long sitting of evenings so as to inflame themselves with wine. Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is a noble, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength and not for drunkenness! Ecc 10:16-17; Comp. Isa 22:13; Isa 56:12; Amo 6:3 sqq. The Romans called feasts that began before the usual time (i. e. in the ninth hour) tempestiva convivia., seasonable feasts (Cic. de Senect. 14, &c.). Ab octava hora bibere was accounted debauchery (Juven. 1, 49, comp. Gesenius on our ver.). is the artificial wine, and the natural. The first was prepared partly from dates, apples, pomegranates (Son 8:2), honey, barley, (, , Her. 2, 77), partly by mixture (like our punch, hence to mingle drink Isa 5:22); Comp. HerzogsR. Encycl. XVII. p. 615. In general comp. Isa 24:9; Isa 28:7; Isa 29:9; Isa 56:12.
The inflaming caused by wine is physical and psychical; (the former was by the ancients referred to the hepar and oculi, the liver and the eyes); comp. Pro 23:29 sq.
But to a jovial banquet belongs music. There does not fail (the harp, i. e. a stringed instrument, with strings resting free and plumb on the sounding board, comp. Isa 16:11; Isa 23:16; Isa 24:8; Isa 30:32), (i.e., every stringed instrument, whose strings are stretched over a bag-shaped sounding board by means of a bridge, for is properly the bag.comp. Isa 14:11; Isa 22:24), (the hand drum, the tambourine, Isa 24:8; Isa 30:32), and (the flute, literally bored out, hollow, Isa 30:29). Comp. HerzogsR. Encycl. X. p. 126 sqq. If now it is added, and wine is their drink, it is to prevent one from thinking that Isa 5:12 a indicates a different situation from that of Isa 5:11; rather the identity of both is expressly made prominent.
While nothing is wanting to the scene as regards worldly pleasure and joy, there is the most serious poverty in regard to spiritual life. In this respect they are as if blind and dead; the revelations of God that are written both in the book of nature and in history, they do not in any way regard. The greatest misery ever known to antiquity was destined to follow this luxury, and debauchery that wickedly forgot the one thing needful; the wandering into exile. One may see from Lamentations 5, how distressingly it went with such a herd of humanity, driven away as they were like cattle. Because the nation had not regarded what would promote its peace, it must go out unawares, . In this is signified both: without insight, and unawares. The word designates the subjective state that was portrayed Isa 5:12 b, and at the same time the manner in which the objective divine judgment should break over them. is only found here. But in Hos 4:6, which comp. is found in a connection similar to this. Every where beside it reads (Deu 4:42; Deu 19:4; Jos 20:3; Job 36:12). here is not causative, but negative = without. [Lowth, Barnes and J. A. Alexander retain the meaning of the Eng. Vers.: for want of knowledge.Tr.]
The honored, the nobility of the people (abstr. pro concr. comp. Isa 4:5; Isa 16:14; Isa 17:3; Isa 60:13; Isa 66:12😉 shall become starvelings, and the great crowd (noise, then what makes noise, the great crowd Isa 17:12; Isa 29:5-8,) shall pant with thirst. Many, like Gesenius, would take to mean the rich, because the word occurs in the sense of riches, treasures (Isa 60:5; Jer 3:23). But the Prophet announces the judgment to the entire people (comp. in the beginning of the verse): according to which it is quite suitable for him to divide the totality into nobility and common people. When death has rich harvest on the earth, then the underworld must open its gates wide to receive the sacrifice. According to that then therefore, Isa 5:14 stands to the Isa 5:13, not in a co-ordinate but in a subordinate relation. A soul is ascribed to Sheol (the word is with few exceptions, e. g.Job 26:6, feminine). It is therefore personified. The notion soul is at the same time used in the meaning of desire, greed, a usage that is not infrequent in the O. Test., as is well known. Thus it is used, e. g., Deu 23:25, When thou comest into thy neighbors vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes Comp. Pro 23:2 a greedy person; Isa 56:11, dogs strong in greediness; comp. Psa 27:12. The same expression as in our passage is found in Hab 2:5. The insatiable nature of the underworld is declared also Pro 27:20; Pro 30:16.
Sheol (in Isa. again Isa 14:9; Isa 14:11; Isa 14:15; Isa 28:15; Isa 28:18; Isa 38:10; Isa 38:18; Isa 57:9), according to the O. Test. representation, is the resting-place of departed souls, corresponding to the Hades of the Greeks, which is conceived of as in the inward part of the earth (hence the lowest hell, Deu 32:22; Psa 86:13, coll.Psa 88:7; Lam 3:55; Isa 44:23; Eze 26:20; Eze 32:18; Eze 32:24), because, naturally, the kingdom of death must be conceived of as in the opposite direction from the kingdom of life. When, therefore, God, the Lord of light, has His seat in light which envelops us from above, then must the kingdom of death be sought under us in the dark depths of the earth.
There are three views regarding the derivation of the word : 1) the older, according to which the word should be derived from , to demand. The underworld was called the demanding, the summons, in accordance with its insatiableness (comp. the passages cited above); and because it will only receive and never gives; 2) Gesenius, and at the same time with him, though quite independently, Bttcher, Ewald, Maurer (comp. Thesaur. p. 1348) maintain that is softened from . But , which never occurs, must, according to the hollow hand, the excavator, inhabitant of caves, the fox, (Num 22:24) the hollow way, have the meaning of being hollow. Sheol would, then, be the cavern. 3) Hupfeld, hler, Delitzsch, refer the word back to the root , , which is the root of itself, and has the meaning of hanging down loose, sinking down, so that Sheol would be the sinking, going down deep. The matter is still undetermined. If it is opposed to the first explanation that, according to it, a poetic epithet is made the chief name of the kingdom of the dead (comp. hler in HerzogsR. Encycl. XXI. p. 412); so, too, both the other views must make it comprehensible how an comes to take the place of the middle radical.
All the glory of Jerusalem descends into the wide gaping throat of hell, means the crowd here too (as in Isa 5:13), but as there is here no contrast with the honored ones as there, but only the notion of superabundance, of multitude, of tumult is added to that of glory, I allow myself with Drechsler to translate riot and revel. strepitus, noise, is used of the roar of water (Isa 17:12-13), and of a multitude of men (Isa 13:4; Isa 24:8; Isa 25:5; Isa 66:6). The three substantives designate everything that is splendid and makes a noise, be it person or thing. (. .), too, before which is to be supplied, does not seem to exclude reference to things. For why should not the music and all that pertains to a banquet (Isa 5:12) be called jovial? Comp. Psa 96:12.
In as much as the Prophet in Isa 5:15-16 partly repeats verbatim the fundamental thoughts of the first half of this discourse, that we have called the first prophetic lamp (comp. Isa 2:9; Isa 2:11; Isa 2:17), he intimates that the two parts belong to one another. Those false eminences illumined by the first lamp, and the false fruits of which the second treats, lead to the same end: to the humiliation of the wickedly insolent men, and to the proof that the holy and just God is alone high. But why the Prophet just at this point casts back this connecting look, is explained in the fact that here we stand at a point of relative conclusion. This we recognize, as was shown above, partly from the contents of this second woe, which sounds like a finale, partly from the form, for the following woes have a very different structure from this first. But notice with what art the Prophet leads over to the theme of the first lamp, and thus unites the fundamental thought of both lamps. By the description of the destruction of the wicked multitude by hunger and thirst, he comes quite naturally on the idea of their sinking down into the underworld. Therewith he has touched the deepest point of antagonism which human enmity against God can attain. For it goes no deeper down than the jaws of Sheol. This mention of the deepest deep reminds him that therewith, what he had said above on the abasement of human pride, appears in a new light. That is to say it appears, by what is threatened in Isa 5:14, to be absolute. Precisely thereby the highness of the Lord appears in its fullest light. For He that is able to cast down into the lowest deep must for His own part necessarily be the highest. But He is so as the holy one that judges righteously. Now if the highness of God calls to mind the first lamp, His holiness calls to mind the second (comp. the sacred and sanctifying Branch of God, Isa 4:2-3). And thus the fundamental thoughts of the first and second lamp combine most beautifully.
The first half of Isa 5:15 is repeated verbatim from Isa 2:9 a. The second half of Isa 5:15 is, with some abbreviation, taken from Isa 2:11 coll. Isa 5:17. is the judicial act (comp. Isa 1:21); in so far as it is a realization of the idea of righteousness, God at the same time proves Himself to be holy (comp. Eze 20:41; Eze 28:22; Eze 28:25; Eze 36:23; Eze 38:16; Eze 38:23). For holiness and righteousness belong together like lamps and burning (Isa 5:17). The Prophet concludes his mournful picture of the future in a highly poetic manner, in that on the site of the once glorious and joyous city, now sunk into the ground (Isa 5:11-12), he presents a pasture in which wandering nomads are feeding their flocks. Comp. the quite similar pictures of future change of fortune, Isa 7:21-25; Isa 17:2; Isa 32:13 sq.; Zep 2:14 sq. Commentators have justly pointed out that the present condition of Jerusalem and Palestine may be regarded as a part of the fulfilment of this prophecy. For the ancient city is as if sunk into the ground. A depth of rubbish covers the old streets and open places, and above them new ones are laid out in totally different directions. Only laborious excavations can give a correct picture of the topography of ancient Jerusalem. The land, however, is almost every where become pastures for nomadic Arabian tribes. And when, moreover, one reflects that a foreign people, of another faith and inimical to the Jews, has for a long time reigned in Palestine, it must be confessed that the present time corresponds very exactly to this announcement of the Prophet. Yet it must not be overlooked that the circumstances mentioned only touch the outward side of the fulfilment. It cannot be doubted that Isa 5:14 has been fulfilled also in a deeper, more inward, and, I may say, transcendental way. For what has become of the land we know. But had not the Prophet also a thought of the immortal souls of men?
The are the ruins that once belonged to the fat and rich, and were then the opposite of mournful, waste wrecks, that is to say, places of splendor and prosperity. Strangers shall devour the products of these wastes, i. e. the grass growing there, that is use it for their cattle. By this is implied that the places shall lie unnoticed and without owners. Only stranger, nomadic shepherds, in passing along, will stop there with their flocks.
4. Woe unto themmay know it.
Isa 5:18-19. The third woe is directed against audacious sinners who make unbelief in Gods punitive justice the foundation of their wicked doings. The fact that the Prophet represents these people as impiously bringing down the divine judgment on themselves, has caused many commentators to construe in the sense of attrahere, draw toward, and in the sense of guilt (Ewald, Umbreit), or punishment of sin (Gesenius, Knobel, and others). But if the Prophet meant to say this, and to express that those had drawn on themselves by deeds what they had invoked by words, i. e. the judgments of God, he would certainly have employed expressions that would more exactly correspond to the notions and , thus words that mean directly punishment, judgment, destruction, ruin. I do not deny that under some circumstances the words and may be taken in a sense bordering very nearly on guilt of sin, and punishment of sin (comp. the passages cited by Knobel,Gen 4:13; Gen 19:15; Psa 31:11; Zec 14:19; Pro 21:4; to which, also, I would add Isa 27:9, where these words in the parallelism correspond to one another. See at the place). But, in the present instance, precisely the choice of these words proves to me that the Prophet did not think of the identity of the fruits of those doings with the display of the divine justice, but only of a causal relation between those doings and the divine justice. They sin away so boldly, precisely because they believe there is no danger of a day of vengeance. The idea of boldly sinning away the Prophet expresses in his vigorous style, in that he compares those wicked men to draught horses, that drag a heavy wagon by means of stout ropes. Like these beasts lay themselves to the traces with all their might in order to start the load, so these lay themselves out to sin with all their might. They pull with might and main, they surrender themselves to sin with a diligence and expenditure of power worthy of a better cause.
That say,etc.
Isa 5:19. What chains them so fast to sin, and makes them so zealous in its service, is just that they do not believe in the divine announcement of a day of retribution. They express their unbelief in a contemptuous challenge to Jehovah to expedite His work, i. e. His work of judgment and punishment, to fulfil His purpose of retribution. They wish for an early coming of this manifestation of judgment. For they would like to experience it. They dare so much. They are not afraid of it, though it were true; but they do not believe it is true. With impious irony they even call Him, in whose display of justice they do not believe, by His title; the Holy One of Israel. They would have it understood thereby, that He is so called, it is true, but He is not this. Comp. Isa 28:15; Jer 5:12 sq.; Jer 17:15; Eze 12:22.
5. Woe unto themthe righteous from him.
Isa 5:20-23. That Isa 5:20 does not speak merely of perversion of justice, as some would have it, appears from the generality of its expressions, and from Isa 5:23. This perversion of the world whereby exactly bad is good, and good bad, is Satanic. For if the devil became God, as he attempts to become (2Th 2:4), it would happen thus. But evil has in the physical domain, its correlate in darkness and bitterness, as good has in light and sweetness. For what darkness and bitterness are for the body, such is evil for the spirit, and what light and sweetness are for the body, such is good for the spirit. Thus, Psa 19:9, the commandment of the Lord is clear as light, and Isa 5:11, sweeter than honey and the honey comb. But bitter appears in many places as the symbol of evil: Num 5:18 sq.; Deu 32:32 sq.; Jer 2:19; Act 8:23; Heb 12:15. That to the bad it is just bad that tastes good, we read Job 20:12; Pro 5:3-4.
Isa 5:21. The Prophet pronounces the fifth woe against the proud self-deification, to which divine wisdom counts for nothing, but its own for everything. Comp. Pro 3:7; Jer 8:8 sq.; Jer 9:22 sq. The sixth woe, finally, Isa 5:22-23, strikes the unjust and oppressors, who sell justice in order to obtain the means for enjoying a dissolute life. , mixing of drink, comp. on Isa 5:11. It is debatable whether the Hebrews were acquainted with wines prepared with spices. Hitzig, Hendewerk, Delitzsch, maintain that proof that they did is wanting, and take = temperare aqua, to mix with water, in which sense the later Jews use . According to Buxtorf, this word means: miscuit, temperavit vinum affusa aqua whence it is used directly for infundere, to pour into. Comp. Son 7:3. On the other hand Gesenius (with whom under the word Hitzig had agreed) see word , Winer (R. W. s. v. Wein, Drechsler, Knobel, Leyrer (in R. Encyl. xvii. p. 616) maintain most decidedly that the Hebrews were acquainted with spiced wines. Winer and Leyer dispute even that the use of vinum aqua temperare among the Jews can be certainly proved. These scholars named cite Pro 9:2; Pro 9:5 in proof of the existence among the ancients of spiced wine (which is to be distinguished from that prepared from fruit, honey, barley), in which passage the that is simultaneous with the killing, must point to another mixing, than that with water, which latter must be coincident with the pouring out. They further cite a passage in Mischna Maaser scheni 2, 1 (non condiunt oleum sed condiunt vinum; si inciderit in id mel et condimenta, unde melius reddatur, illa in melius confectio fit juxta computum;) and also Plin. Hist. nat. 14:13, 14, 15 19 where he speaks of vinum aromatites, myrrhinum, absynthites, etc.; and further to the New Testament expressions Mar 15:23, Rev 14:10; and to a passage in Dioscor. 5, 64 sq. According to these evidences I do not see how it can be doubted that the Hebrews were acquainted with spiced wines.
6. Therefore asstretched out still.
Isa 5:24-25. On the fourfold woe of Isa 5:18-23, now follows the announcement of the punishment to be shared in common. It is joined on by like Isa 5:13. The people are compared to stubble and hay, who, according to Isa 4:2, ought to be a flourishing divine branch. And quick as stubble is devoured by fire or hay disappears in the flames, shall their root decay and their bloom pass away like dust. Thus here too Israel is again represented as a plant, a figure that reminds us strongly of Isa 4:2 sqq., consequently of the second prophetic lamp. Hay and stubble are very inflammable stuff. But those roots and blossoms, that ought, properly to be fresh and full of sap, shall fly away, dissolved as they are in dust and decay, as easily as hay and stubble are devoured by the flames.
The threatening of Isa 5:24, as appears from the suffixes, concerns immediately those against whom the preceding four woes were proclaimed. But as Isa 5:13, the banishment of the entire nation is represented as the consequence of the sins of those greedy and riotous men, so here it is shown how the waves of destruction shall roll on to the utmost periphery, and thus seize the whole people. I refer therefore, not merely to the second clause, but to the whole of Isa 5:24. Although all the verbal forms in 25a, point to the past, the things themselves that they declare fall in the future. This is evident from (Isa 5:24) the relation of the announcement of punishment to the sin, which is indicated as present (Isa 5:18 sqq.), and from the parallel between the threatenings of Isa 5:9 sq, and Isa 5:13 sq.Comp. Drechsler,in loc.But it were not impossible that Isaiah employs here the past forms, because facts of the past float before his mind, that were to be regarded, too, as proofs of the wrath portrayed in Isa 5:25, without, however, representing the entire fulfilment of the threatening. If, then, as to its chief import Isa 5:25 has respect to the future, and, in contrast with the blows to be expected from a distant people (Isa 5:26 sqq.), indicates the blows to be expected out of the midst of Judah herself, or from the immediate neighborhood, then there might be a reference in the hills did tremble to the earthquake in Uzziahs time (Amo 1:1; Zec 14:5), and in their carcases, etc., a reference to those 120,000 men of Judah, that Pekah, the king of Israel slew in one day; 2Ch 28:6. The formula, for all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still, (Isa 9:11; Isa 9:16; Isa 9:20; Isa 10:4), expresses the thought that something still greater is coming. Thus then this formula introduces the chief conclusion of the discourse which corresponds to that relative conclusion, Isa 5:13-17. For if foreign nations from a great distance are called to accomplish a judgment, it is to be expected in advance that this judgment shall be decisive, and of mighty consequence. In fact, too, it was ever nations from a distance that destroyed the respublica Israelitarum. Call to mind the Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans. And those that came the farthest, did the work of destruction the most effectually.
7. And He will lift up,deliver it.
Isa 5:26-29. The whole description is general, and not special. That is, it is not a single, particular nation, but only the genus of foreign, distant nations in general that is described. The prophecy, therefore, finds its fulfilment in all the catastrophes that brought foreign powers against Israel, from the Assyrians to the Romans. Evidently Isaiah has in mind the fundamental prophecy Deu 28:49 sqq., from which the expression , nations from afar, is taken verbatim, and of which also the , and He shall lift up, reminds one. It is remarkable that after the arrival of those Babylonian ambassadors, 2Ki 20:14, Hezekiah should himself apply our passage, and so give testimony to its fulfilment, in that, when asked by the Prophet, whence these people came, he replied, They are come from a far country ( ), from Babylon. The description that now follows in Isa 5:27-29, of the enemy that is summoned, is not of any individual enemy, in fact is not at all historical, but generic and ideal in character. For, in reality, there is no army, where no one grows tired nor stumbles, in which no one sleeps nor slumbers, etc. The Prophet would only express in poetic form, the greatest activity, unweariedness, and readiness for conflict. There is a similar description Jer 5:15 sqq. Their eagerness for battle, and their zeal for the cause is so great that they neither slumber, nor sleep. The girdle (Isa 11:5; Jer 13:11), that binds the garment about the hips (Isa 11:5; Isa 32:11 : coll. Isa 3:22) does not get loose on anyone; no one breaks (Isa 33:20; Isa 58:6, Pi.), the strings (only here in Isaiah, comp. Gen 14:23), by which the sandals (Isa 11:15; Isa 20:2) are fastened to the feet.
Isa 5:28. The equipment of the enemy, too, is admirable. The arrows are sharp; the bows are bent, (an ideal trait, for in reality bows could not be ever bent, that is, trod on with the foot, Isa 21:15). The hoofs (only here in Isaiah), of the steeds are hard as stone. As the ancients did not understand shoeing horses, hard hoofs were an important requisite in a war horse, comp. Mic 4:13, and , . The impetuous, thundering roll of their wheels makes them resemble a tempest. The same figure recurs Isa 66:15. Comp, beside Isa 17:13; Isa 21:1; Isa 29:6.
The 29th verse finally describes the attack and victory of the enemy. The discourse which, to this point, has had almost a regular beat, and progressed, one might say, with a martial step, now becomes irregular and bounding. With mighty impetuosity that reveals itself in a battle cry that is compared to the roaring of a lion, the enemy attacks. It is strange that the Prophet expresses this thought doubly. But this doubled expression has apparently only a rhetorical aim. If we take into account the comparison of deep growling, we receive the impression that the Prophet would indicate that the enemy has at command every modulation of the lions voice. The moment the lion seizes his prey, he ceases to roar, and one hears only deep growling. The seized prey he saves for himself: i.e., he bears it away out of the tumult. (recurs only Isa 11:6), is the young lion no longer sucking but become independent of its dam. is the sucking lion. The plural is used here, probably, on purpose to make prominent the numbers in contrast with .
8. And in that daythe heavens thereof.
Isa 5:30. The Prophet hastens to the conclusion. For this purpose he comprehends all that he has still to say in one figure drawn with a few, yet strong traits. It is also a proof of the great rhetorical art of the Prophet, that he does not name Judah. He rather allows to be guessed what was painful to him to say. For we need not refer the words only to what immediately precedes, as if it were declared that what is described Isa 5:30, happens on the same day as that of which Isa 5:29 speaks. For that is to be understood of course. But this in that day refers back to Isa 2:11; Isa 2:17; Isa 2:20; Isa 3:7; Isa 3:18; Isa 4:1 and to Isa 4:2, so that hereby is intimated that this prophecy too, shall be fulfilled in the last days. And as Isa 4:2 speaks of a day of great happiness, the passage previously named, however, of a day of dreadful judgment, so the Prophet refers back to both, meaning to intimate that when these final dreadful visitations of the last time shall have come upon Israel, then shall come the daybreak of salvation. I see therefore in this phrase in that day a fresh proof of the connection of chap. 5, with the preceding chapters 2, 4. Like surges of the sea, therefore, raging and roaring, shall the enemy fall on Judah in that day? Delitzsch appropriately refers to Sierra-Leone because, those that first landed there, mistook the noise of the surf breaking on the precipitous shore for the roar of lions. The subject of (Niph. . .), is evidently Judah. But the further meaning of these words presents great difficulties. I think two passages shed light on this one. The first is cited by all commentators, viz. 8:42. When we read there: And He looks to the earth and behold trouble and darkness, ( ) we are justified in taking in our passage together; either as adjective (compressed, thick darkness, is masc.), or as apposition (Vitringa, Hendewerk), or as genitive (darkness of anguish). According to that we must separate, then, from , a union for which there is no other authority than the (for us not binding) Masoretic tradition, and then we must read . For this reading, however, we have the support of another passage, which, so far as I know, has never hitherto been adduced by any expositor for the elucidation of our verse, viz.:Job 18:6. There we read the light shall be dark in his tent. That passage speaks of the wicked whose light goes out, and whose fire burns no longer, in whose tent, therefore, it is dark. Can then the coming together of these words be accidental? I am the less inclined to believe this, as the thought, that the light itself becomes dark, and not the lighted room, is a very specific one. Something similar may be found Isa 13:10; Eze 32:8; Joel 4:15. is . . It is derived from to drop down, which occurs only Deu 32:2; Deu 33:28. appears to be kindred to it. As originates from by the addition of the letter like from and from (Chald.,fixit, transfixit) see Green 193, 2 c, and as very often joined to (Deu 4:11; Deu 5:19; Joe 2:2; Zep 1:15; Eze 34:12) undoubtedly means the cloudy obscurity, the thick clouds, so can be nothing else than the rain clouds out of which the rain drops down.
This rain cloud is now regarded as the tent covering of the earth, or at least as belonging to it, like e. g., Isa 40:22 it says: that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, (comp. Job 36:29; Psa 104:2 sqq.). The expression in his tent would not be suitable. For the light that illumines a tent, stands within under the tent cover. But the light that illumines the earth, is above and beyond the heavenly tent cover. If, then, it is to be dark on earth, the light must be hindered from penetrating down from above. Therefore I translate: and the light becomes dark through its clouds. The fem., suffix is therefore to be referred to , earth. It will not do to refer it to . as Gesenius does, referring to Job 36:32 (Thes. p. 1072), because then it must read . If one would, with Hitzig, make dependent on ,. then the expression is surprising. For the opposite of earth is not the light, but the heaven. The explanations distress and light (Delitzsch), and stone and gleam (i. e., hail and lightning, Drechsler) seem to me to pay too little regard to the two parallel passages quoted. I would, moreover, call attention to the fact that in this there lies, too, a significant reference to the doings of the people who, according to Isa 5:20 make darkness light and light darkness. Because they do that, their light shall be darkened wholly and permanently. And at the same time we find here a remarkable antithesis to Isa 4:5. 6. There God creates upon Mount Zion a cloud by day and flaming fire by night, for a shade by day against the heat, and for shelter against rain and storm. Here darkness of anguish shall cover the earth and the rain-clouds shall not only overwhelm the unprotected earth with their showers, but beside these keep back the light, therefore, in a sense, be a shelter before the light. Thus this chapter, which had apparently begun so joyously, ends in deepest night and gloom. One feels that the discourse of the Prophet has exhausted itself. We are at the end. Nothing can follow these mighty, and at the same time vain words butsilence. But the informed know well that the two prophetic lamps that are thrust out before (Isa 2:1-4 and Isa 4:2-6) stretch out beyond this period of misfortune. When, then, Isa 5:30, it reads in that day, we know that this is a hint that refers back out of the midnight gloom of this conclusion to the comforting beginning Isa 4:2. That very day, when the evil fruits of the vineyard sink away in night and horror, begins for the Branch of Jehovah the day of light, and of eternal glory.
Footnotes:
[11]Heb. ye.
[12]Or, This is in mine ears, saith the Lord, etc.
[13]Heb. If not.
[14]Or, pursue them.
[15]And have the harp, etc.
[16]And wine as beverage.
[17]unawares.
[18]Heb. their glory are, men of famine.
[19]starvelings.
[20]her greed.
[21]see at Isa 2:9.
[22]Or, the holy God.
[23]Heb. the God the holy,
[24]as if it were their pasture.
[25]Heb. that say concerning evil, It is good, &c.
[26]Heb. before their own face.
[27]Heb. the tongue of fire.
[28]hay.
[29]Or, as dung.
[30]as sweepings
[31]he comes.
[32]lioness.
[33]deep growl.
[34]he and him.
[35]Or, distress.
[36]Or, When it is light, it shall be dark in the destructions thereof.
[37]through its clouds.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa 2:2. Domus Dei, etc. The house of God is built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, who, themselves, too, are mountains, quasi imitators of Christ. (They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, Psa 125:1) Whence, also, upon one of the mountains Christ founded the Church and said: Thou art Peter, etc., Mat 16:18. Jerome.We can understand Jerusalem by the mountain of God, for we see how the believing run thither, and how those that have accepted the testimony come thither and seize the blessing that proceeds thence. But we may also by the house of God understand the churches spread over land and sea, as we believe St. Paul, who says, we are the house of God, Heb 3:6. And so we may recognize the truth of the prophecy. For the Church of God stands shining forth, and the nations, forsaking wickedness that has long had dominion over them, hasten to her and are enlightened by her. Theodoret.Ecclesia est, etc. The church is a mountain exalted and established above all other mountains, but in spirit. For if you regard the external look of the church from the beginning of the world, then in New Testament times, you will see it oppressed, contemned, and in despair. Yet, notwithstanding, in that contempt it is exalted above all mountains. For all kingdoms and all dominions that have ever been in the world have perished. The church alone endures and triumphs over heresies, tyrants, Satan, sin, death and hell, and that by the word only, by this despised and feeble speech alone. Moreover it is a great comfort that the bodily place, whence first the spiritual kingdom should arise, was so expressly predicted, that consciences are assured of that being the true word, that began first to be preached in that corner of Judea, that it may be for us a mount Zion, or rule for judging of all religions and all doctrines. The Turkish Alcoran did not begin in Ziontherefore it is wicked doctrine. The various Popish rites, laws, traditions began not in Ziontherefore they are wicked, and the very doctrines of devils. So we may hold ourselves upright against all other religions, and comfort our hearts with this being the only true religion which we profess. Therefore, too, in two psalms, Psalms 2, 110, mount Zion is expressly signified: I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion; likewise: The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Luther.
2. On Isa 2:2. Luther makes emphatic, as something pertaining to the wonderful nature of this kingdom, that other kingdoms are established and administered by force and arms. But here, because the mountain is lifted up, the nation shall flow (fluent), i.e., they shall come voluntarily, attracted by the virtues of the church. For what is there sweeter or lovelier than the preaching of the gospel? Whereas Moses frightens weak souls away. Thus the prophet by the word fluent, flow, has inlaid a silent description of the kingdom of Christ, which Christ gives more amply when He says: Mat 11:12, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force, i.e. they are not compelled, but they compel themselves. Morever rivers do not flow up mountains, but down them; but here is such an unheard-of thing in the kingdom of Christ.Starke.
3. Luther remarks on and shall say: come, etc. Here thou seest the worship, works and efforts and sacrifices of Christians. For they do only the one work, that they go to hear and to learn. All the rest of the members must serve their neighbors. These two, ears and heart, must serve God only. For the kingdom rests on the word alone. Sectaries and heretics, when they have heard the gospel once, instantly become masters, and pervert the Prophets word, in that they say: Come let us go up that we may teach him his way and walk in our paths. They despise, therefore, the word as a familiar thing and seek new disputations by which they may display their spirit and commend themselves to the crowd. But Christians know that the words of the Holy Ghost can never be perfectly learned as long as we are in the flesh. For Christianity does not consist in knowing, but in the disposition. This disposition can never perfectly believe the word on account of the weakness of the sinful flesh. Hence they ever remain disciples and ruminate the word, in order that the heart, from time to time, may flame up anew. It is all over with us if we do not continue in the constant use of the word, in order to oppose it to Satan in temptation (Matthew 4). For immediately after sinning ensues an evil conscience, that can be raised up by nothing but the word. Others that forsake the word sink gradually from one sin into another, until they are ruined. Therefore Christianity must be held to consist in hearing the word, and those that are overcome by temptations, whether of the heart or body, may know that their hearts are empty of the word.
4. Vitringa remarks on the words, Out of Zion goes forth the law, Isa 5:3. If strife springs up among the disciples concerning doctrine or discipline, one must return to the pattern of the doctrine and discipline of the school at Jerusalem. For shall go forth, stands here only as in Luk 2:1, There went forth a decree from Csar Augustus. In this sense, too, Paul says, 1Co 14:36, What? came the word of God out from you? The word of God did not go forth from Corinth, Athens, Rome, Ephesus, but from Jerusalem, a fact that bishops assembled in Antioch opposed to Julius I. (Sozom. hist. eccl. III. 8, the orientals acknowledged that the Church of Rome was entitled to universal honoralthough those who first propagated a knowledge of Christian doctrine in that city came from the East). Cyril took in the false sense of , has forsaken Zion. When the Lord opened the understandings of the disciples at Emmaus, to understand the Scriptures and see in the events they had experienced the fulfilment of what was written concerning Him in the law, Prophets and Psalms, He cannot have forgotten the present passage. Of this we may be the more assured since the words: Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Luk 24:46-47, point clearly to Isa 2:2-3 of our passage. Therefore too, Justin Martyr Apol. i. (commonly ii.), 49, says: But where the prophetic spirit predicts the future, he says: from Zion shall go forth the law, etc. And that this finally came to pass in fact, you may credibly assure yourselves. For from Jerusalem have men gone forth into the world, twelve in number, and these were unlearned, that knew not how to speak. But by the might of God they have proclaimed to all mankind that they were sent by Christ in order to teach all the word of God.
Zion is contrasted here with Mount Sinai, whence the law came, which in the Old Testament was the foundation of all true doctrine: But in the New Testament Mount Zion or Jerusalem has the privilege to announce that now a more perfect law would be given and a new Covenant of God with men would be established. Thus Zion and Jerusalem are, so to speak, the nursery and the mother of all churches and congregations of the New Testament.Starke.
5. Frster remarks on the end of Isa 2:3, that the gospel is the sceptre of Jesus Christ, according to Psa 110:2; Psa 45:7 (the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre). For by the word Christ rules His church (Rom 10:14 sqq.).
6. On Isa 2:4. Pax optima rerum. Foerster. The same author finds this prophecy fulfilled by Christ, who is our peace, who has made of both one, and broken down the partition that was between, in that by His flesh He took away the enmity (Eph 2:14). Foerster, moreover, combats the Anabaptists, who would prove from this passage that waging war is not permitted to Christians. For our passage speaks only against the privata Christianorum discordia. But waging war belongs to the publicum magistratus officium. Waging war, therefore, is not forbidden, if only the war is a just one. To be such, however, there must appear according to Thomas, part. 2 th. qust. 40. 1) auctoritatis principis, 2) causa justa, 3) intentio bellantium justa, or ut allii efferunt: 1) jurisdictio indicentis, 2) offensio patientis, 3) intentio finem (?) convenientis.
7. On Isa 2:4. Jerome regarded the time of Augustus, after his victory at Actium, as the fulfilling of this prophecy. Others, as Cocceius, refer the words, they shall turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, to the time of Constantine the Great; and the words nation shall not lift up sword against nation to the period of the restoration of religious peace in Germany,finally the words: they shall no more learn war, to a future time that is to be hoped for. Such interpretations are, however, just as one-sided as those that look only for a spiritual fulfilment of prophecy. For how is an inward fulfilment of this promise of peace to be thought of which would not have the outward effects as its consequence? Or how is an outward fulfilment, especially such as would deserve the name, conceivable without the basis of the inward? Or must this peaceful time be looked for only in heaven? Why then does the promise stand here? It is a matter of course that there is peace in heaven: for where there is no peace there can be no heaven. The promise has sense only if its fulfilment is to be looked for on earth. The fulfilment will take place when the first three petitions of the Lords prayer are fulfilled, i.e. when Gods name shall be held holy by us as it in itself is holy, when the kingdom of God is come to everything, without and within, and rules alone over all, when the will of God is done on earth as in heaven. Christendom makes this prayer quite as much with the consciousness that it cannot remain unfulfilled, as with the consciousness that it must find its fulfilment on earth. For, if referred to heaven, these petitions are without meaning. Therefore there is a time of universal inward and outward peace to be looked for on earth. It is not every days evening, i.e. one must await the event, and our earth, without the least saltus in cogitando, can yet experience a state of things that shall be related to the present, as the present to the period of trilobites and saurians. If one could only keep himself free from the tyranny of the present moment! But our entire, great public, that has made itself at home in Philistia, lives in the sweet confidence that there is no world beside that of which we take notice on the surface of the earth, nor ever was one, nor ever will be.
8. On Isa 2:4. Poets reverse the figure to portray the transition from peaceful to warlike conditions. Thus Virgil, Georg. I. 2:506 sq.:
Non ullus aratro
Dignus honos, squalent abductis arva colonis.
Et curv rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.
Aeneide VII. 2:635 sq.:
Vomeris huc et falcis honos, huc omnis aratri
Cessit amor; recoquunt patrios fornacibus enses.
Ovid, Fast. I. 2:697 sqq.:
Bella diu tenuere viros. Erat aptior ensis
Vomere, cedebat taurus arator equo.
Sarcula cessabant, versique in pila ligones.
Factaque de rastri pondere cassia erat.
9. On Isa 2:5. As Isaiah puts the glorious prophecy of his fellow prophet Micah at the head, he illuminates the future with a splendid, shining, comforting light. Once this light is set up, it of itself suggests comparisons. The questions arise: how does the present stand related to that shining future? What difference obtains? What must happen for that condition of holiness and glory to be brought about? The Christian Church, too, and even each individual Christian must put himself in the light of that prophetic statement. On the one hand that will humiliate us, for we must confess with the motto of Charles V.: nondum! And long still will we need to cry: Watchman what of the night (Isa 21:11)? On the other hand the Prophets word will also spur us up and cheer us. For what stronger impulse can be imagined than the certainty that one does not contend in vain, but may hope for a reward more glorious than all that ever came into a mans heart? (Isa 64:4; 1Co 2:9).
In the time of the second temple, in the evenings of the first days of the feast of Tabernacles, great candelabras were lighted in the forecourt of the temple, each having four golden branches, and their light was so strong that it was nearly as light as day in Jerusalem. That might be for Jerusalem a symbol of that let us walk in the light of the Lord. But Jerusalem rejoiced in this light, and carried on all sorts of pastime, yet it was not able to learn to know itself in this light, and by this self-knowledge to come to true repentance and conversion.
10. On Isa 2:8, their land is full of idols. Not only images and pictures are idols, but every notion concerning God that the godless heart forms out of itself without the authority of the Scripture. The notion that the Mass is effective ex opere operato, is an idol. The notion that works are demanded for justification with God, is an idol. The notion that God takes delight in fasts, peculiar clothes, a special order of life, is an idol. God wills not that we should set up out of our own thoughts a fashion of worshipping Him; but He says: In all places where I record My name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee, Exo 20:24Luther.
11. On Isa 2:9-21. When men have brought an idol into existence, that is just to their mind, whether it be an idolum manu factum, or an idolum mente excogitatum, there they are all wonder, all worship. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Then the idol has a time of great prosperity and glory. But sooner or later there comes a time when the judgment of God overtakes the idol and its servants. God suffers sin to become ripe like men let a conspiracy, like they let fruit ripen. But when the right time comes then He steps forth in such a fashion that they creep into mouse-holes to hide themselves, if it were possible, from the lightning of His eye and His hand. Where then are the turned-up noses, the big mouths, the impudent tongues? Thus it has often happened since the world began. But this being brought to confession shall happen in the highest degree to the puffed-up world at that day when they shall see that one whom they pierced, and whom they thought they might despise as the crucified One, coming in His glory to judge the world. Then they shall have anguish and sorrow, then shall they lament and faint away with apprehension of the things that draw nigh. But those that believed on the Lord in His holiness, shall then lift up their heads for that their redemption draws nigh. At that time, indeed, shall the Lord alone be high, and before Him shall bow the knees of all in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and all tongues must confess that Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12. On Isa 2:22. Of what do men not make idols! The great industrial expositions of modern times often fill me with dismay, when I have seen how men carry on an actual idolatrous worship with these products of human science and art, as if that all were not, in the end, Gods work, too, but human genius were alone the creator of these wonders of civilization. How wickedly this so-called worship of genius demeans itself ! How loathsome is the still more common cultus of power, mammon and the belly!
13. On Isa 3:1 sqq. Causa , etc. The saving cause of the commonwealth is the possession of men of the sort here mentioned, which Plato also knew, and Cicero from Plato, each of whom judge, commonwealths would be blessed if philosophers, i.e., wise and adept men were to administer them.Foerster. The same writer cites among the causes why the loss of such men is ruinous, the changes that thence ensue. All changes in the commonwealth are hurtful. Xenoph. Hellen. Isaiah 2 : . Aristot. Metaph. Isaiah 2 : .
14. On Isa 3:1. The stay of bread, etc. Vitringa cites Horat. Satir. L. II., 3 5:153 sq.:
Deficient inopem ven te, ni cibus atque
Ingens accedit stomacho fultura ruenti.
And on Isa 3:2 sq. he cites Cicero, who, De Nat. Deorum III., calls these prsidia humana, firmamenta reipublic. On Isa 3:6 sq. the same author cites the following passage from Livy (26 chap. 6): Cum fame ferroque (Capuani) urgerentur, nec ulla spes superesset iis, qui nati in spem honorum erant, honores detrectantibus, Lesius querendo desertam et proditam a primoribus Capuam summum magistratum ultimus omnium Campanorum cepit! On Isa 3:9 he quotes Seneca: De vita beata, chap. xii.: Itaque quod unum habebant in peccatis bonum perdunt peccandi verecundiam. Laudant enim ea, quibus erubescant, et vitio gloriantur.
15. On Isa 3:4; Isa 3:12. Foerster remarks: Pueri, etc. Boys are of two sorts. Some are so in respect to age, others in respect to moral qualifications. So, too, on the contrary there is an old age of two sorts: For honorable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the true gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is the true old age. Wis 4:8-9. Examples of young and therefore foolish kings of Israel are Rehoboam (the young fool gambled away ten whole tribes at one bet 1 Kings 12). Ahaz, who was twenty years of age when he began to reign (2Ki 16:2). Manasseh who was twelve years (2Ki 21:1,) and Amon who was twenty-two years (2Ki 21:19).
16. On Isa 3:7. Foerster remarks: Nemo se, etc. Let no one intrude himself into office, especially when he knows he is not fit for it, and then cites: Seek not of the Lord pre-eminence, neither of the king the seat of honor. Justify not thyself before the Lord; and boast not of thy wisdom before the king. Seek not to be judge, being not able to take away iniquity. Sir 7:4-6.Wen aber Gott schickt, den macht er auch geschickt.
17. On Isa 3:8. Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord. Duplici modo, etc. God may be honored by us in two outward ways: by word and deed, just as in the same way others come short; to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Judges 15.Vitringa.
18. On Isa 3:9. They hide not their sin. Secunda post, etc. The next plank after shipwreck, and solace of miseries is to hide ones impiety.Jerome.
19. On Isa 3:10. Now He comforts the pious as in Psalms 2. His anger will soon kindle, but it shall be well with all that trust in Him. So Abraham, so Lot was delivered; so the apostles and the remnant of Judah when Jerusalem was besieged. For the Lord helps the righteous (Psa 37:17; Psa 37:39).Luther.
20. On Isa 3:13-14.
Judicabit judices judex generalis,
Neque quidquam proderit dignitas papalis,
Sive sit episcopus, sive cardinalis,
Reus condemnabitur, nec dicetur qualis.
Rhythmi vulgo noti, quoted byFoerster.
21. On Isa 3:16 sq. Usus vestium, etc. Clothes have a four-fold use: 1) they are the badge of guilt, or souvenir of the fall (Gen 3:7; Gen 3:10; Gen 3:21); 2) they should be coverings against the weather; 3) they may be ornaments for the body, (Pro 31:22; Pro 31:25); 4) they may serve as a mark of rank (2Sa 13:18).The abuse of clothes is three-fold; 1) in regard to the material, they may be costlier or more splendid than ones wealth or rank admits of; 2) in respect of form, they may betray buffoonery and levity; 3) in respect to their object, they may be worn more for the display of luxury and pride than for protection and modest adornment.Foerster.
22. On Isa 4:2. Germen Jehovae est nomen Messi mysticum, a nemine intellectum, quam qui tenet mysterium Patris et Christi. Idem valet quod filius propago Patris naturalis, in quo patris sui imago et gloria perfectissime splendet, Jessaiae in seqq. (Isa 9:5) ,, filius, Joanni , , processio Patris naturais. Est hic eruditi cujusdam viri elegans observatio, quae eodem tendit, quam non licet intactam praetermittere. Comparat ille inter se nomina Messi (Jer 23:5) et in hoc loco. Cum autem prior appellatio absque dubitatione innuat, Messiam fore filium Davidis, docet posteriorem non posse aliud significare quam filium Jehovae, quod nomen Christi Jesu est , omni alio nomine excellentius. Addit non minus docte, personam, quae hic germen Jehovae dicitur, deinceps a propheta nostro appellari Jehovam (Isa 28:5).Vitringa. This exposition, which is retained by most Christian and orthodox commentators, ignores too much the fundamental meaning of the word , Branch. It is, nevertheless, not incorrect so far as the broader meaning includes the narrower concentrically. If Branch of Jehovah signifies all that is the personal offshoot of God, then, of course, that one must be included who is such in the highest and most perfect sense, and in so far the passage Isa 28:5 does not conflict with exposition given by us above.
[J. A. Alexander joins with Vitringa and Hengstenberg in regarding the fruit of the earth, as referring to the same subject as the branch of the Lord, viz.: the Messiah; and thus, while the latter term signifies the divine nature of the Messiah, the former signifies His human origin and nature; or if we translate land instead of earth, it points to his Jewish human origin. Thus appears an exact correspondence to the two parts of Pauls description, Rom 1:3-4, and to the two titles used in the New Testament in reference to Christs two natures, Son of God and Son of Man.Tr.].
23. On Isa 4:3-4. Great storms and upheavals, therefore, are needful, in order to make the fulfilment of this prophecy possible. There must first come the breath of God from above, and the flame of God from beneath over the earth, and the human race must first be tossed and sifted. The earth and mankind must first be cleansed by great judgments from all the leaven of evil. [J. A. Alexander, with Luther, Calvin, Ewald, maintains concerning the word Spirit in Isa 4:4, that the safest and most satisfactory interpretation is that which understands by it a personal spirit, or as Luther expresses it, the Spirit who shall judge and burn.Tr.]. What survives these judgments is the remnant of which Isaiah speaks. This shall be holy. In it alone shall the Lord live and rule. This remnant is one with the new humanity which in every part, both as respects body and soul, will represent the image of Christ the second Adam. This remnant, at the same time, comprehends those whose names are written in the book of life. What sort of a divine book this may be, with what sort of corporal, heavenly reality, of course we know not. For Himself God needs no book. Yet if we compare the statements of the Revelation of John regarding the way in which the last judgment shall be held, with certain other New Testament passages, I think we obtain some explanation. We read Mat 19:28, that on the day of the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, the twelve apostles, too, shall sit on twelve thrones to judge the generations of Israel. And 1Co 5:2, we read that the saints shall judge the world. But, Rev 20:11, we find again the great white throne, whereon sits the great Judge of the living and the dead, after that, just before (Rev 4:4), it was said: And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. Afterwards it reads (Rev4:12): And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And (Rev 4:15). And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. From this description there seems to me to result that the books necessarily are meant for those who are, by the Supreme Judge charged with the judgment of particular ones. To this end they need, in the first place, many books that contain the works of individuals. God has a book-keeping for the life of every man. This divine record will be produced to every single one at the day of judgment. Is he a Jew? by one of the twelve Apostles. Is he a heathen? by some other saint. No man shall be able to remonstrate against this account for it will carry the evidence of truth in itself, and in the consciences of those to be judged. Should such a protest occur, the arraigned will be referred to the book of life. This is only one. For it contains only names. After this manner will the separation be accomplished, spoken of in Mat 25:32 sq. For those whose names are found in the book of life go to the right side; the rest to the left. Then the great Judge Himself takes up the Word in the manner described in Mat 25:34 sqq., and calls the righteous to Himself, that they may inherit the kingdom that is prepared for them. But the wicked He repulses from Him into everlasting fire, that is prepared for the devil and his angels, in regard to which the account of the judgment in Matthew 25, as far as the end is concerned, harmonizes entirely with Rev 20:15.
24. On Isa 4:5-6. The pillar of fire and cloud belongs to the miraculous graces by which the founding of the Old Testament kingdom of God was glorified just as the New Testament kingdom was by the signs that Jesus did, and by the charismata of the Apostolic time. But that appearance was quite appropriate to the state of developed revelation of that time. This had not reached the New Testament level, and not even the prophetic elevation that was possible under the Old Testament, but only the legal in which the divine stands outwardly opposed to the human. God is present among His people, but still in the most outward way; He does not walk in a human way among men; there is, too, no inward leading of the congregation by the Holy Spirit, but an outward conducting by a visible heavenly appearance. And, for these revelations to the whole people, God makes use entirely of nature, and, when it concerns His personal manifestation, of the elements. He does so, not merely in distinction from the patriarchal theophanies, , but, particularly in contrast with heathenism, in order to accustom the Israelitish consciousness from the first not to deify the visible world, but to penetrate through it to the living, holy God, who has all the elements of nature at command as the medium of His revelation.Auberlen.
As at the close of Johns Revelation (chaps. 21, 22) we see the manifestation of the Godhead to humanity return to its beginning (Genesis 2, 3, 4), in as much as that end restores just that with which the beginning began, i.e. the dwelling of God with men, so, too, we see in Isa 4:5-6, a special manifestation of the (relative) beginning time recur again in the end time; the pillar of fire and cloud. But what in the beginning was an outward and therefore enigmatical and unenduring appearance, shall at last be a necessary and abiding factor of the mutual relation between God and mankind, that shall be established for ever in its full glory. There shall come a time wherein Israel shall expand to humanity and humanity receive power to become Israel, wherein, therefore, the entire humanity shall be Israel. Then is the tabernacle of God with men no more a pitiful tent, made of mats, but the holy congregation is itself the living abode of God; and the gracious presence of Almighty God, whose glory compares with the old pillar of fire and cloud, like the new, eternal house of God, with the old perishable tabernacle, is then itself the light and defence of His house.
25. On Isa 4:5-6. But give diligence to learn this, that the Prophet calls to mind, that Christ alone is destined to be the defence and shade of those that suffer from heat and rain. Fasten your eyes upon Him, hang upon Him as ye are exhorted to do by the divine voice, Him shall ye hear! Whoever hearkens to another, whoever looks to any other flesh than this, it is all over with him. For He alone shelters us from the heat, that comes from contemplating the majesty (i.e. from the terror that Gods holiness and righteousness inspire), He alone covers us from the rain and the power of Satan. This shade affords us a coolness, so that the dread of wrath gives way. For wrath cannot be there where thou seest the Son of God given to death for thee, that thou mightest live. Therefore I commend to you that name of Christ, wherewith the Prophet adorns Him, that He is a tabernacle for shade against the heat, a refuge and place of concealment from rain and tempest.Luther.With some modification, we may apply here the comprehensive turn Foerster gives to our passage: 1) The dwelling of Mount Zion is the church; 2) the heat is the flaming wrath of God, and the heat of temptation (1Pe 4:12; Sir 2:4-5); 3) tempest and rain are the punishments of sins, or rather the inward and outward trials (Psalms 2.; Isa 57:20); 4) the defence or the pillar of cloud and fire is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 10).
26. On Isa 5:1-7. This parable has a brother in the New Testament that looks very much like it. I might say: the head is almost the same. For the beginning of that New Testament parable (Mat 21:33; Mar 12:1), A man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a wine-fat and built a tower, is manifestly imitated after our passage. But here it is the vineyard that is bad, while there, in the New Testament, the husbandmen are good for nothing. Here the Lord appears as at once owner and cultivator of the vineyard; there the owner and cultivators are distinguished. This arises from the fact that the Lord Jesus apparently had in His mind the chiefs of the people, the high-priests and elders (Mat 21:23-24). From this it is manifest that here as there the vineyard is the nation. In Isaiah, however, the vineyard, that is to say the vine itself is accused. The whole people is represented as having equally gone to destruction. In the Synoptists, on the other hand, it is the chiefs and leaders that come between the Lord and His vineyard, and would exclude Him from His property, in order to be able to obtain it wholly for themselves, and divide it amongst them. Therefore there it is more the wicked greed of power and gain in the great that is reproved; here the common falling away of the whole nation.
27. Isa 5:8. Here the Prophet denounces the rich, the aristocracy, and capital. Thus he takes the part of the poor and lowly. That grasping of the rich and noble, which they display sometimes like beasts of prey, at other times gratify in a more crafty and legal fashion, the Prophet rebukes here in the sharpest manner. Gods work is opposed to every sin, and ever stands on the side of those that suffer oppression, no matter what may be their rank. God is no respecter of persons (Deu 10:17 sq.).
28. Isa 5:11-17. The morning hour, the hour when light triumphs over darkness, ought to be consecrated to works of light, as it is said: Aurora Musis amica, , (Hesiod. . . . 540) Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund. It was, says Foerster, a laudable custom among the Persians, that the chamberlains entering in to their kings early in the morning, cried out with a loud voice: Arise, O king, attend to business, as Mesoromastes commands. On the other hand, they that be drunken are drunken in the night, 1Th 5:7 sq. So much the worse, then, when men do the works of night even in the early hour, and dare to abuse the light. Plenus venter despumat in libidines, says Augustine. In vino (Eph 5:18). Corpus, opes, animam luxu Germania perdit. Melancthon. On Isa 5:15 Foerster cites the expression of Augustin: God would not suffer any evil to be done in the world unless some good might thence be elicited.
29. Isa 5:18. Cords of vanity are false prejudices and erroneous conclusions. For example: no one is without sin, not even the holiest; God does not take notice of small sins; he that is among wolves must howl with them; a man cannot get along in the world with a scrupulous, tender conscience; the Lord is merciful, the flesh is weak, etc. By such like a man draws sin to him, binds his conscience fast, and resists the good motions of preventing grace. Thick cart-ropes signify a high degree of wickedness, the coarsest and most revolting prejudices. For example: God has no concern about human affairs; godliness delivers no one from misery and makes no one blessed; the threatenings of the prophets are not to be feared; there is no divine providence, no heaven, no hell (Deu 29:17-19). Out of such a man twists and knots a stout rope, with which he draws to him manifest blasphemy, entangles himself in it, so that often he cannot get loose, but is sold as a servant under sin (Rom 6:16; 1Ki 21:20; 1Ki 21:25). Starke.
30. Isa 5:19. The wicked mock at the patience and long-suffering of God, as if He did not see or care for their godless existence, but forgot them, and cast them out of mind (Psa 10:11), so that the threatened punishment would be omitted. They would say: there has been much threatening, but nothing will come of it; if God is in earnest, let Him, etc.; we dont mind threats; let God come on if He will! Comp. Isa 22:12-13; Isa 28:21-22; Amo 5:18; Jer 5:12; Jer 8:11; Jer 17:15; Eze 12:21 sqq. Starke.
31. Isa 5:20. To make darkness of light, means to smother in oneself the fundamental truths that may be proved from the light of nature, and the correct conclusions inferred from them, but especially revealed truths that concern religion, and to pronounce them in others to be prejudices and errors. Bitter and sweet have reference to constitution, how it is known and experienced. To make sweet of bitter means, to recommend as sweet, pleasant and useful, what is bad and belongs to darkness, and is in fact bitter and distasteful, after one himself believes he possesses in the greatest evil the highest good. Starke.
32. Isa 5:21. Quotquot mortales etc. As many as, taking counsel of flesh, pursue salvation with confidence of any sort of merit of their own or external privilege, a thing to which human nature is much inclined, oppose their own device to the wisdom of God, and, according to the prophet, are called wise in their own eyes (Isa 28:15; Isa 30:1-2; Jer 8:8-9; Jer 9:23 sq.; Jer 18:18). Vitringa.
33. Isa 5:26 sqq. The Prophet here expresses in a general way the thought that the Lord will call distant nations to execute judgment on Jerusalem, without having in mind any particular nation. Vitringa quotes a remarkable passage from the excerpts of John Antiochenus in Valesius (p. 816), where it is said, that immediately after Titus had taken Jerusalem, ambassadors from all the neighboring nations came to him to salute him as victor and present him crowns of honor. Titus refused these crowns, saying that it was not he that had effected these things, but that they were done by God in the display of His wrath, and who had prospered his hands. Comp. also the address of Titus to his soldiers after the taking of Jerusalem in Joseph. B. Jud. VII. 19.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. Isa 2:6-11. Idolatry. 1) What occasions it (alienation from God, Isa 2:6 a); 2) The different kinds: a. a coarse kind (Isa 2:6 b, Isa 2:8), b. a more refined kind (Isa 2:7); 3) Its present appearance (great honor of the idols and of their worshippers, Isa 2:9); 4) Its fate at last (deepest humiliation before the revelation of the majesty of God of all that do not give glory to Him (Isa 2:10; Isa 2:18).
2. Isa 2:12-22. The false and the true eminence. 1) False eminence is that which at first appears high, but at last turns out to be low (to this belongs impersonal as well as supersensuous creatures, which at present appear as the highest in the world, but at last, in the day of the Lord of Hosts, shall turn out to be nothing); 2) The real eminence is that which at first is inconspicuous and inferior, but which at last turns out to be the highest, in fact the only high one.
3. Isa 3:1-9. Sin is the destruction of a people. 1) What is sin? Resisting the Lord: a. with the tongue, b. with deeds, c. with the interior being (Isa 3:8-9); 2) In what does the destruction consist (or the fall according to Isa 3:8 a)? a. in the loss of every thing that constitutes the necessary and sure support of the commonwealth (Isa 3:1-3); b. in insecure and weak props rising up (Isa 3:4); c. in the condition that follows of being without a Master (Isa 3:5); d. in the impossibility of finding any person that will take the governance of such a ruinous state (Isa 3:6-7).
4. Isa 3:4. Insurrection is forbidden by God in express words, who says to Moses that which is altogether just thou shalt follow, Deu 16:20. Why may not God permit an intolerable and often unjust authority to rule a land for the same reason that He suffers children to have bad and unjust parents, and the wife a hard and intolerable husband, whose violence they cannot resist? Is it not expressly said by the Prophet I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them? I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath, Hos 13:11. Tholuck.
5. Isa 3:10-13. Let us learn to distinguish between false and real comfort. 1) False comfort deals in illusion: the real deals in truth; 2) The false produces a present effect; the real a lasting one; 3) The false injures the one comforted; the real is health to him. Harms.
6. Isa 4:2-6. The holiness of Gods Church on earth that is to be looked for in the future. 1) Its preliminary: the judgment of cleansing and purifying (Isa 4:4); 2) What is requisite to becoming a partaker? a. belonging to the remnant (Isa 4:2-3); b. being written in the book of life (Isa 4:3); 3) The surety of its permanence: the gracious presence of the Lord (Isa 4:5-6).
7. Isa 5:21. The ruin of trusting in ones own Wisdom 1) Those that have such confidence set themselves above God, which is: a. the greatest wickedness, b. the greatest folly; 2) They challenge the Divine Majesty to maintain its right (Isa 5:24).
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS
Under the beautiful similitude of a vine, and vineyard, the Lord speaketh of his church. By reproof, and by entreaty, the Lord reasoneth with Israel on the sad subject of the church’s disobedience, and setteth forth the Lord’s patience and long-suffering.
Isa 5:1
Is not this God the Father, speaking to God the Son, as Mediator and Head of the church, upon the subject of his people? Surely it is the Father which hath given to his dear Son the church, and the church to his Son; and therefore it is here very properly called his vineyard. Do not fail, my soul, to remark, in the opening of this chapter, how the Father speaks of Jesus, and to Jesus. He is the only beloved of the Father, full of grace and truth. My soul, will it not prove, what of things thou must wish to have fully proved, that one heart and one soul, in this sense, distinguish God’s affection and thine; if God’s beloved be thy beloved, and God’s dear Son be thy dear Saviour?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Return to Christ’s Love (Good Friday)
Isa 5:3-4

Consider the return made to that love of our Redeemer; the return made by the multitudes the return made by His enemies the return made by His special and familiar friends, and, lastly, the return made by the world which He has redeemed.
I. What was the Return Made by the Multitudes? the multitudes who had seen His mighty works, who had been for the time so struck and impressed by His words. When they saw Him in the hands of His enemies they changed their minds about Him, and were ready to believe those who told them that He was a false Prophet and an impostor. It was they these foolish, thoughtless, ungrateful multitudes who were made the instruments of His Crucifixion.
II. What was the Return Made by His Enemies for that sincere and unfeigned love that sought to open their eyes, and hold them back from the wickedness on which they were bent that love which, if it could not alarm their consciences by the awful vision of the truth which it had disclosed to them, was yet ready to forgive them, ready to die for them? From these there was only one return to be expected. For the truth which He had told them they paid Him back with a double and intenser hatred. For the way in which He had proved His own innocence, and goodness, and wisdom, against their plausible and ensnaring attempts to find it at fault, they resolved all the more that the holier and more unblameable He appeared, the more obstinately would they refuse to acknowledge Him, the more certainly should He perish.
III. But what Return for His Love was Made by those Friends on whom He had lavished the treasures of a love and tenderness without example? Where were they, and what were they doing, when the hour came to try their faithfulness, their constancy, their promises of standing by Him to the last? ‘Then all the disciples forsook Him, and fled.’ At the first approach of danger all their brave speeches were forgotten. All the great things which they would dare in His company, and for His sake, shrink into selfishness and panic fright. In the Apostles we but see the reflection of our own doings towards our Master.
IV. How has the World Repaid the Love by which it was Redeemed? It has bowed before Him. It has accepted His Gospel. It has made His Cross the most honourable of its emblems and badges, and placed it, sparkling with jewels, on the crowns of kings. But was this outward earthly honour what Christ sought in return for His love to men? What He suffered for was to make men better. And how has the world learnt the lesson? Is the face of it changed since His coming? Have those multitudes, for whom He died, left off their sins? Think of that dreadful truth, the wickedness of the world: think of the hardness and boldness of the bad, the weakness and imperfection of the good. And, according as we are able to take in the vastness and depth of the fact itself, we shall be able to measure the return which mankind has made to that infinite love of Christ, which stooped from heaven as low as to shame and death, to raise up the souls of His creatures from their self-chosen misery and sin.
V. What Return are we, Personally, Making to our Redeemer’s Love? We know the only return He cares for a life which helps, so far as it goes, to make this world really His kingdom a life which follows Him, trying to reproduce in its own course some shadow of His love, His tenderness, His godliness, His humility, His mercy, His hatred of sin, His courage for the truth a life in which He lives again in the souls of His servants and followers a life in which the Cross is set up, for our pride, our unkindness, our selfishness, to be nailed to a life in which we are neither ashamed, nor afraid, to have our portion, to risk our all, with Christ.
R. W. Church, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 122.
Reference. V. 3, 4. R. Waddy Moss, The Discipline of the Soul, p. 105.
Wild Flowers The Thyme and the Daisy
Isa 5:4

The one, scented as with incense medicinal and in all gentle and humble ways, useful. The other, scentless helpless for ministry to the body; infinitely dear as the bringer of light, ruby, white, and gold; the three colours of the Day, with no hue of shade in it…. Now in these two families you have typically Use opposed to Beauty in wildness ; it is their wildness which is their virtue; that the thyme is sweet where it is unthought of, and the daisies red, where the foot despises them; while, in other orders, wildness is their crime, ‘Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?’ But in all of them you must distinguish between the pure wildness of flowers and their distress. It may not be our duty to tame them; but it must be, to relieve.
Ruskin, Proserpina, ch. vii., 1, 3.
References. V. 8. D. Graham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxx. 1906, p. 135. H. R. Heywood, Sermons and Addresses, p. 163. V. 8-24. V. S. S. Coles, Advent Meditations on Isaiah I.-XII. p. 39. V. 8-30. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah I.-XLVIII. p. 13. V. 18. Spur-geon, Sermons, vol. xxxi. No. 1821. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Lessons for Daily Life, p. 12. W. W. Battersball, Interpretations of Life and Religion, p. 155. V. 18, 19. H. Hensley Henson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. 1900, p. 394.
Perversions of Conscience
Isa 5:20

I. We are all liable to call evil good, and good evil. Not intentionally, of course, but from ignorance. A pure and enlightened conscience is indeed a moral instrument of extraordinary delicacy and precision. It is an open window which transmits the very light of God Himself. In the very act of obeying that light we are brought nearer to Him whom conscience reveals to us as the All Holy and the All Pure. But all men’s consciences are not pure and enlightened. In every one of us the moral sense needs to be educated before it can reflect with any accuracy the holy law of God.
Jesus, the Saviour of the world, ‘came to His own, and His own received Him not’. The men among whom He went about doing good, called His good evil, and loved their own darkness better than His God-given light.
II. What, then, is the lesson from it?
The moral of Christ’s rejection by the Jews is not that conscience was dead in them. On the contrary, conscience was alive, it was active, energetic, but its judgments were strangely perverted by prejudice and party spirit. Even though we may demur to the commonly received notion that it was our sin that nailed Christ to the cross, it was certainly the sin of human beings like ourselves a sin of which average human nature is not incapable. The obstinate blindness, the furious animosity of those Jews of old, are among the mainsprings of action which the average man among us recognizes in the world around him, and finds slumbering in the depths of his own heart.
Does not our own experience teach us how hard it is to do even common justice to those who do not adopt our shibboleths, and whose teaching and action we think to be mischievous? So inextricable is the moral confusion that sets in when men once let their passions and their prejudices decide for them, instead of that dry light of conscience which judges men and things according to the eternal standards of heavenly truth. Considerations of this kind should help us to appreciate and to account for the atrocious calumnies that were levelled at our Lord by the Jewish authorities of His day.
III. There is truth of a certain sort in the most malignant caricature. Malice, as a rule, does not invent; it finds it easier to distort and to pervert some recognizable features of the person whom it is desirable to write down. Hence it was that the libels upon Jesus found a certain currency, and they were even adopted by men who ought to have known better, had not the light that was in them been obscured by darkness. For when His enemies taxed Jesus with being a Sabbath-breaker, when they called Him a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, the friend of publicans and sinners; when they accused Him of deceiving the people; when they taunted Him with being a Samaritan, these were not so much malignant lies as slanders, in the sense in which moral caricatures are always slanders.
As taunts those words died eighteen hundred years ago. But as a deep moral lesson, and as a striking illustration of the blinding, perverting power of hatred and prejudice, they are alive, and they speak to us this very day.
J. W. Shepard, Light and Life, p. 38.
References. V. 20. J. Addison Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p. 668. VI. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2304. A. B. Davidson, The Called of God, p. 187.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Human Life In Parable

Isa 5:1-7
This is a parable which by so much brings with it its own literal interpretation. With that literal interpretation we, of course, have next to nothing to do; we must look for the interpretation which involves ourselves, our opportunities, and our destinies.
“Now will I sing” ( Isa 5:1 ). That is often a suggestive expression in Holy Scripture, unless it is found in a purely poetical book, where there is, indeed, nothing but song. The song is a parable. When did Jesus Christ speak a parable that was not full of reproach, rebuke, profound and terrible judgment? Yet who expects this in a song, in a parable, in a picture which is, or ought to be according to our expectations, a thing of beauty? When music is made an instrument of judgment, the lesson is most pathetic and solemn. When the prophet says he will sing, we gather around him with expectant delight, for we love music: we say, In music there is no argument, and there can be no judgment: so let us come near the singing prophet, and hear the music which will elevate our imagination and do us good, without inflicting upon us the sharpness and accusation of personal criticism. The singing of Scripture is critical; the parables of Scripture are phases of judgment Is the parable of the Good Samaritan a very charming picture? To this inquiry there can be but one reply: for what can be more true to life, true to, nature in its deepest moods and finest aspirations? Yet that parable is a judgment upon the Samaritan-despising Jew: only the Son of God could have uttered it, for he had no friends when; he spoke it; he hurled this parable like a thunderbolt into the very camp of the enemy. Is the parable of the Prodigal Son a parable marked by supreme loveliness? Is it the very tenderest and largest interpretation of human nature? We may fairly answer the inquiry in a grateful affirmative. But even the parable of the Prodigal Son is a judgment; it is a judgment upon the elder brother, that pharisaic, self-complacent, self-righteous element in life, which thinks it has only to pray in order to patronise God, and to hold up the shield of its virtue and come back every night from life’s battlefield more than conqueror. Is the parable of the Lost Sheep a parable in which there is no judgment? Verily not: it is a judgment upon all who have hard notions about the lost; it is very pitiful in one of its aspects, but it is a severe and uncompromising judgment upon those who have no room in their hearts for the penitent, the contrite, and those who truly deplore their sin. So with the songs of Scripture. The song of Deborah we have seen to be like a gathering of sabres, spears, battle instruments of every kind; verily she was a mother who judged Israel, and whose song was punctuated with instruments of war. The prophet, then, will not sing a song without words. Oftentimes the pith of the song is in the sentiment. What is mere sound but an appeal to the ear? We must hear the words, and if the words come into our hearts the more readily because of the sweetness of the song, rely upon it they are not expected to pass through the heart without leaving an impression behind; they are meant gracefully to summon the life to self-inquest and self-judgment. Jesus Christ spoke about the vineyard. He has two vineyard parables. The second of them is like the song of the prophet. It was so sung to those who listened that at the last they said: He means that we have wrested the vineyard from the heir; he is intending to judge us and they gnashed their teeth in impotent rage: blessed is that parabolist who can so sing his song that the people will take up the application without any formal appeal from him: blessed is that Nathan who can so unfold his parable in the hearing of his listener that the man shall convict himself, and save Nathan the trouble of a personal appeal: blessed is that prophet who, by argument, by song, by appeal, by rhetoric, by eloquence, by moral feeling, can so work upon the people that at the last they will know to whom the message was delivered, and will silently accept it for further application in the silence of solitude, in the absence of tumult.
Let us see how this parable applies to us. Its whole application can be secured and understood if we look upon it as representing human life as we ourselves know it and embody it. We take away, therefore, “the house of Israel, and the men of Judah,” and we put down human life in the seventh verse as the interpreting word. Now let us know how this singer can sing, and how far his notes tell upon every human nerve with judicial yet gracious effect.
Here is human life placed in a good situation, “In a very fruitful hill” ( Isa 5:1 ). Can any man justly complain that he has been placed where the sun never reaches him, and where the baptism of life is denied? Is it possible to live in a civilised country, even in the obscurest position, without feeling the whole atmosphere of civilisation operating upon the life? The metropolis itself in its great busy streets is a day-school, an academy, a university; the very windows of the great town seem to be doors that open upon temples of knowledge and wisdom; foreign lands are focalised in the great cities of any civilised country, and an intangible and immeasurable something testifies that the whole air is pregnant with educational influences, and we have but to open ourselves to their reception and yield ourselves to their operations to become educated, not in some technical, pedantic, or literary sense, but, still, led out, enlarged, stimulated, and qualified every day to use a broader and keener faculty than yesterday was at our service. Charles Kingsley says a walk along the streets of London is an intellectual tonic. The city-born has an advantage which the pure rustic cannot have, and the pure rustic has his advantages which the city-born cannot enjoy within the limits of the metropolis. All nature sings: the whole heaven is an infinite picture-gallery: all the fields have gospels according to themselves; blessed is the hearing ear, for every bird shall be an evangel, and all nature shall be lighted up so as to illuminate and gladden the soul. We might dwell on the other side of the picture; but would that be wholly just? Have we not had advantages? Some have had grievous disadvantages and burdens too heavy to carry. What men they might have been had their chance been equal with the chance which others have enjoyed! By nature how endowed, how quick of eye, how responsive of heart, how ready of faculty! and yet they have been mewed up, or crushed down, or trodden upon, so that they have had no opportunity equal to their native endowment. But consult them, and they have a grateful answer to the inquiry, Have you not been placed in a favourable situation? They could see where the situation might have been enlarged and improved, where some aspect might have been sunnier, and where some opportunity might have been larger; but they say, Thank God, we have not been left without opportunity and blessing and inspiration, and if we have failed we dare not, in simple justice, blame our Creator and God. Have we been faithful to our advantages?
Here is human life as the subject of detailed care:
“And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein” ( Isa 5:2 ).

Then he stood back and waited like a husbandman. The vineyard was upon a hill, and therefore could not be ploughed. How blessed are those vineyards that are cultivated by the hand! There is a magnetism in the hand of love that you cannot have in an iron plough. He gathered out the stones thereof one by one… he fenced… he built… he made a winepress. It is handmade. Your mechanics and your manufactures have their value, but the aged will tell you that there is a singular charm about the house-goods that were handmade; they take them up so lovingly, and say, These were hand-sewn; these were made at home.
There is a peculiar delight in rightly accepting the handling of God. We are not cultivated by the great ploughs of the constellations and the laws of nature; we are handled by the Living One, our names are engraven on the palms of his hands: “The right hand of the Lord doeth gloriously.” Human life, then, is the subject of detailed care; everything, how minute soever, is done as if it were the only thing to be done; every man feels that there is a care directed to him which might belong to an only son. We speak of One who is God’s only begotten and wellbeloved Son, and he must ever retain that primacy and distinctiveness; yet there is another sense in which every man may say he is treated as if he were God’s only child, and on him is lavished an infinitude of divine grace, and care, and love. So with every flower that blooms: the tiniest of the floral tribe could say, It needed all the solar system to grow me: I am not some little thing flung in without signature or trace of care; it required all that the greatest oak in Bashan needed to bring me to my grade of perfection. What has been left undone of the nature of care that we can point out, and concerning which we can with justice question God? What have we? Reason, feeling, imagination, nurture for the body, care for the soul, alphabets like doors opening upon all languages, and a Book that combines within its limits all libraries, and then promises entrance into the high school, the academy of heaven. Let us reckon up our advantages, make an inventory of them; be careful about each line, omitting nothing, and setting down everything in a clear and visible hand; and add the running figures into a sum-total, and stand amazed before the last astounding result of grace and care. Look at any one joint in your body, and see all God’s power in that easy movement. Point to one thing on which God’s signature is not written as attesting the greatness of his creatorship and the minuteness of his care and love.
Human life is next regarded as the object of a just expectation:
He looked that it should bring forth grapes” ( Isa 5:2 ).

Why not? Had he not a right to do so? Is there not a sequence of events? When men sow certain seed, have they not a right to look for a certain crop? When they pass through certain processes in education, or in commerce, or in statesmanship, have they not a right to expect that the end should correspond with the beginning? Who likes to lose all his care? Whose heart does not break when he thinks that all he has done has ended in nothing? He worked hard, he sacrificed his own indulgence, he pinched himself at many a point to give his child a good schooling; he secretly said, I have no money to leave the boy, but he shall have all the education I can give him, and then, perhaps, he may make a man of himself under the blessing of God; and when if at the last it comes to failure, shame, ruin, whose heart does not break under the awful consequence? There are just expectations in life. Has a minister no such expectations? Having spent his days in study and his nights in prayer, and having planned his life in order to teach, encourage, and comfort his people, if at the last they are broken staves in his hand, which pierce him when in his old age he leans upon them, the bitterness of death is doubled by such painful disappointment and such shameful ingratitude. The principle runs throughout society. From certain beginnings certain endings may be calculated, and the calculation is rational and just.
See, in the next place, human life as the occasion of a bitter disappointment. “It brought forth wild grapes” ( Isa 5:2 ). Then, what have circumstances to do with the development of life? The circumstances in this case were perfect, the environment was divine in its scope and its adaptation. Let us read again the words which describe the vineyard: “My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein.” And having done all that hands could do he waited. This is God’s attitude. Having set up the Cross of his Son in the midst of the ages, and having preached the gospel to every creature, all that even the Almighty could do is to wait. In this instance he waited, and in due season he went for the grapes, and he saw that his vineyard brought forth wild grapes. Have we had no experience of the same kind? Without going into the lives of others, let us hold severest inquest upon our own lives. What has been the issue of all our education and opportunity, all our gracious fellowships, and all the inspiration which has blessed our lives? Are we to-day further on in all goodness and strength than we were, say, ten years ago? Are we as impatient, as fretful, as resentful, as sensitive to all slight, neglect, and injury as we used to be? or are we loftier in mind, larger in thought, fuller in charity, more hopeful regarding the worst, more Christlike? It is for each man to answer these judgment questions for himself and to himself. We may lose great advantage if we make public confession about these things. Sometimes it is well to sit down at our own judgment-seat, receive the sentence, and quietly ponder it in a silence so deep as to be almost religious.
Does God encounter all this with anger? Not until he has uttered himself in surprise and grief:
“What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” ( Isa 5:4 ).

God asks, as it were, whether he can blame himself; whether anything has escaped Omniscience; whether he has failed in blessing that might have resulted in abundance of luscious fruit: then mentally he goes over the whole situation; he remembers the selection of the hill, the fencing, the gathering-out of the stones, the planting of the choicest vine, the building of the tower in the midst of it, and the erection of the winepress; and as he reads the history of his own doings he seems to challenge the vineyard and the universe to suggest one omission. Let me judge myself! Could anything more have been done for me than has been done? I am constrained to answer, There has been nothing lacking on the part of God. It is not for me to compare myself with other men, and to say their advantages have been greater than mine; possibly that may be so; yet I have had advantages enough to have brought forth an abundance of grateful fruit How much have I produced? Are mine lifeless branches? Are my grapes wild grapes? These are the questions that tear the life, these the songs the music of which we forget in the terribleness of their judgment. But this is healthy investigation; this is the kind of heart-searching which, if properly received, ends in edification. We cannot repent sooner than to-day; behold, now is the accepted time for repentance; now is the chosen hour for the real improvement of our innermost life.
Who can read the fifth and sixth verses in the right tone? Is there any teacher of elocution who can tell us how to read these verses? The first suggestion is that they should be read with a rending, strident, judging voice, made keen with reproach; then the second suggestion is whether they may not be so read as to indicate the welling-up of hot tears, the feeling of sobbing grief.
“And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it” ( Isa 5:5-6 ).

Are these merely objurgatory sentences, and have they to be read as with the stormy wind of indignant judgment? Is not every word a tear? There is a judgment that is gracious; there are sentences full of awful suggestion which owe their graciousness to their awfulness. God will not allow the nominal advantage to stand without the spiritual advantage following. The church must be pulled down if the people are not praying in it Do not let stand a lie in stone and plaster. If the church is within itself a falsehood, take down the honest stones, and do not make them parties to high treason! This is just to ill-used nature. Where “Ichabod” is on the door take the portals down; unroof the deconsecrated sanctuary, and by so much restore the honour of the altar as to cast it down, and throw back the stones into the quarry whence they were brought. Life is given for culture. It is not the best at the first; it has to be fenced, and the stones are to be taken out, and the choice vine is to be planted, and the tower is to be set in the midst of it, and the winepress is to be built therein. The child is but the beginning; the man should be the cultivated result. Culture is bestowed for fruit Culture is not given for mere decoration, ornamentation, or for the purpose of exciting attention, and invoking and securing applause; the meaning of culture, ploughing, digging, sowing is fruit, good fruit, usable fruit, fruit for the healing of the nations. The fruit for which culture is bestowed is moral. God looked for judgment and God looked for righteousness. We have not been trained to be intellectual athletes, to be great mental gladiators, vexing one another with emulous skill and energy, each equal to the other, so that the fight keeps in an even balance, and none can tell the end of the rivalry; the meaning of all reading, experience, suffering, prayer, singing, Christian fellowship is fruit, of judgment and of righteousness. The moral appeal of the Scripture proves the inspiration of the Bible. Even a parable is not a creation of fancy ending in a rainbow-like beauty; it is more beautiful than any rainbow, yet it indicates promise, covenant, righteousness, and issue of goodness.
Mark how discriminating is the judgment of God “He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.” They were grapes, but not the right sort; there was no denying that they were the fruit of the vine, but the grapes were wild, they were not the right quality, they were bitter with disappointment, they were small, sapless, savourless, useless; they were unequal to the occasion; they did not correspond with their environment, their conditions, their opportunities: they were an irony which God could not tolerate what if he crushed them in his hand, and threw them from him with anger, disappointment, and bitterest grief? It is not enough that we bear grapes or fruit; we must keep in mind that quality is the end of conduct; that character will be judged not simply as character, but as involving elements of righteousness, truth, justice, love, purity the fruits of the Spirit love, joy, meekness, charity all these. Oh, blessed Husbandman, Vine-dresser of thy creatures, when thou comest may we be in a position to give thee much fruit, for herein is our Father glorified!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XI
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 3
Isa 1:1-5:30

There are three things suggested by the word, “vision,” in the title, viz:
1. Being a vision, it will frequently speak of events, that are yet future, as if they had already occurred, e.g., Isa 3:8 ; Isa 5:13 .
2. What is seen in vision must be subject to the laws of the perspective. To illustrate: One who views a series of mountains from a distance may see a number of peaks, which are many miles apart, as one object. Thus in the fulfilment of prophecy, there may be a primary fulfilment and a long distance from that, the larger fulfilment. But they appear to the eye of the prophet as one fulfilment because they are in line with each other. A notable instance of this is seen in the case of the anti-Christs. Antiochus Epiphanes, the first one, was followed by the papacy; then after him comes the World Secular Ruler; and last comes the man of sin, who fills out the outline of all the ones who have preceded him.
3. It is, as a whole, one vision. It consists, indeed, of various parts, but from the outset they present the same vision. Though the visions are greatly diversified in size, form, coloring, and other details, they are in essential character only one vision.
This vision was “concerning Judah and Jerusalem” and yet it embraces a vast variety of nations and countries. There is a primary reference here to Judah versus Israel, but in the scriptural sense, all this prophecy is “concerning Judah and Jerusalem,” i.e., the people and city of God. Other nations and countries are spoken of only as they are related to Judah and Jerusalem, or at any rate to the people of God symbolized in those names. The first chapter is the preface to the whole book, whose standpoint is the covenant as set forth in Lev 26 and Deuteronomy 28-32, being especially modeled on Deu 32 , the song of Moses, and consists of “The Great Arraignment,” divided into four well-marked messages, in each of which Jehovah is introduced as himself speaking directly to his people. The divisions are as follows: Isa_1:2-9; 10-17; 18-23; 24-31.
The first message (Isa 1:2-9 ) opens with an invocation to heaven and earth to hear Jehovah’s indictment against his people, and it contains (1) a charge of rebellion against their nourishing father; (2) a charge of brutish ignorance, indifference, and ingratitude, such as the ox and the ass would not have shown their owners; (3) a charge of corruption and estrangement from Jehovah; (4) a charge of unyielding stubbornness which rendered the chastisement of Jehovah ineffective though stroke upon stroke had fallen upon them until there was not place found on the body for another stroke; (5) a penalty of desolation of their land and the captivity of the people; (6) a hope of an elected remnant who would be purified by the coming affliction upon the nation.
In this paragraph we have a picture of severe chastisements, not of the depravity of human nature, though sin in Israel has, of course, led Jehovah to chastise his rebellious son. In Isa 1:9 we have mention of the remnant left by Jehovah. This is the first mention of it and gives us the key to the hope of Israel in this dark hour, a favorite doctrine with Isaiah and Paul.
The second message of the first chapter (Isa 1:10-17 ) contains the charge of formality without spirituality in their religion. They are compared to Sodom and Gomorrah though they abound in their ritualistic service. After showing his utter contempt for this formality without spirituality, Jehovah exhorts them to return to him. The ceremonial is not condemned here, except as it was divorced from the spiritual. The prophet insists that ritual and sacrifice must be subordinated to faith and obedience. This is in harmony with the teaching of Hos 6:5-6 ; Mic 6:6-8 ; and Jer 7:4 ; Jer 7:21 ff., et al. In Isa 1:13 here we have the mingling of wickedness with worship which is an abomination. A real reformation is twofold: (1) cease to do evil; (2) learn to do well. Human activity Isa 1:17 emphasized in Isa 1:16-17 , while divine grace is set forth ia Isa 1:18 .
The third message of this chapter (Isa 1:18-23 ) is a message of” offered mercy and grace, with an appeal to their reason and an assurance of cleansing from the deepest pollution of sin. There is a back reference here to the promises and threatenings of the Mosaic covenant (Lev 26 ; Deu 30 ) in which life and death were set before them with an exhortation to choose. There is also a renewed charge here contained in the sad description of the moral degradation of Zion (Isa 1:21-23 ) in which Jerusalem is called a harlot and her wickedness is described as abominable.
The fourth message in this chapter (Isa 1:24-31 ) is a message of judgment on the ungodly. This judgment is both punitive and corrective. God avenges himself on his enemies and at the same time purifies his people, especially the holy remnant, and restores them to their former condition of love and favor. But the utter destruction of transgressors and sinners is positively affirmed, the sinner and his work being consumed. Sin is a fire that consumes the sinner. Therefore sin is suicidal. Isa 1:9 is quoted by Paul in Rom 9:29 and is there used by him to prove his proposition that, though Israel was in number like the sands of the sea, only a remnant should be saved. The remnant of the election of grace is both an Old Testament and a New Testament doctrine, as applied to the Jews.
Someone has called Isaiah 2-5 “the true and the false glory of Israel.” In chapter I the prominent idea is Justice coming to the help of rejected mercy, and pouring out vengeance on the sinful; in Isaiah 2-5 the idea is one of mercy, by means of justice, triumphing in the restoration of holiness. The characteristic in chapter I is its stern denunciations of the Sinaitic law, while the reference to Psa 72 is subordinate; the characteristic of Isaiah 2-5 is that, though the menaces of the law are still heard in them, it is only after the clearest assurance has been given that the prophecies of 2Sa 7 and Psa 72 shall be realized.
That Isaiah 2-5 belong to the time of Uzziah, is the natural inference from Isa 1:1 and Isa 6:1 . The contents of the chapters are such as to thoroughly confirm this obvious view. They refer to a period of prosperity (Isa 2:6-16 ) and luxury (Isa 3:16-23 ); when there was great attention to military preparations (Isa 2:7 ; Isa 2:15 ; Isa 3:2 ) and commerce (v. 16), and great reliance on human power (v. 22). Above all, it is only by remembering how, “when Uzziah was strong, his heart was lifted up” (2Ch 26:16 ), and he invaded the holy place, that we can fully appreciate the emphatic assertion of God’s incomparable exaltation and inviolable sanctity which prevails throughout this section.
In Isa 2:1 we have the title to Isaiah 2-5 and it shows that the message is for Judah and not for Israel. In this sense it means the same as in 1:1. The main body of Isa 2 (Isa 2:7-22 ) is an expansion of Isa 1:31 , “the strong one shall be as tow.” Isa 2:2-4 are intensely messianic and give an assurance that, amidst the wreck of Solomon’s kingdom and earthly Zion, as herein described, the promise made to David shall stand firm. It is the promise of this scripture that a time shall come when controversies shall not be settled by war; they shall be settled by arbitration, and the arbiter is the glorious One of the prophecy, and the principles of arbitration will be his word, the law that goes forth from his mouth. Cf. Mic 4:1-5 . We may never know whether it is Isaiah or Micah that is borrowing, or whether both alike quote from some earlier prophet. This glorious and far-reaching prediction has not yet been completely fulfilled. This is the first messianic prophecy of Isaiah, the pre-eminently evangelical prophet.
But what is meant here by “the latter days”? I cite only two scriptures, which tell us exactly what is meant. John, in his first letter says, “this is the last day,” or the last time, that is, the times of the gospel are “the latter days.” The prophet, Joel, says, “It shall come to pass in the last days,” or the latter days, “That God will pour out his Spirit,” and we know from the New Testament that this was fulfilled in Jerusalem on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of our Lord. It is settled by these words of God that “the latter days” in the Old Testament prophecies are the gospel days of the New Testament. Let us remember that the gospel days are the last days. There is no age to succeed the gospel age. Whatever of good is to be accomplished in this world is to be accomplished in the gospel days, and by the means of the gospel. All this universal peace arbitration, knowledge of the Lord and his kingdom come by means of this same gospel.
I shall not cite the scriptures to prove it, but it is clearly established by the New Testament that the “mountain of the Lord’s house” here is the visible, not invisible, church of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he established himself, empowered it through the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and it is through the instrumentality of that church that the great things of this prophecy are to be brought about. This passage distinctly says, “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Our Saviour came, established his church, and then said, “Go into all the world, etc.” and “Ye shall preach the gospel to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.” The instrument then, by which these things are to be accomplished is just the gospel which we preach and which people hear and by which they are saved.
It is here prophesied that the nations shall be impressed with the visibility of the Lord’s house, the church, and shall say, “Come, ye, and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.” They shall be enlightened by the light of the church, which being full of the Holy Spirit shall catch the eye of the nations and attract them. Then will they gay, “Come and let us go up to the house of the Lord.” The purpose of all this shall be that he may teach them. The church is God’s school and God himself is the teacher) and they are taught the principles of arbitration.
The arbiter of the nations, as here described, is the Lord Jesus Christ, the daysman betwixt the nations. He and the principles of his gospel alone can bring about such a state of things that “there shall be war no more.” The result of this arbitration will be universal peace (Isa 2:4 ). This shall be a glorious consummation when will be settled by arbitration controversies of every kind whether between nations or individuals, and righteousness shall prevail throughout the whole world. God’s means of preparation of the nation for the great future, as just shown in the messianic prophecy, are his judgments. These only can prepare the nation for this great future (Isa 2:5-4:1 ), the items of which are (1) the sins to be visited and (2) the classes of objects to be visited by these judgments. The sins to be visited by these judgments (Isa 2:5-9 ) are soothsaying, heathen alliances, luxury, militarism, and idolatry.
The objects against which these judgments are to be brought (Isa 2:10-4:1 ) are everything proud and lofty:
1. Inanimate things that minister to pride, such as cedars and oaks, mountains, military defenses, ships and idols (2:1021).
2. Men, especially the ruling classes (Isa 2:22-3:15 ). In Isa 3:4 we have a picture of weak, foolish rulers. Cf. Isa 3:12 . The ruling classes were especially to blame for the growing sin and corruption of Judah. They were “grinding the face of the poor.”
3. Women, for pride and wantonness (Isa 3:16-4:1 ). Here let us recall the indictment of the cruel, carousing women by Amos (Amo 4:1-3 ), and the words of Hosea about the prevalence of social impurity in his day (Hos 4:2 ; Hos 4:13-14 ). Isaiah dumps out the entire wardrobe of the luxurious sinner of the capital city. What a pity that wicked Paris should set the fashions for Christian women!
After this blast of judgments then follow the messianic prosperity, purity, and protection (Isa 4:2-6 ), a beautiful picture on a very dark background. Here we have the first mention of the’ key word, “Branch,” in “the Branch of the Lord.”
The subject of Isa 5 is the vineyard and its lessons, and the three essential things to note are: (1) the disappointing vineyard and its identification; (2) a series of woes announced; and (3) the coming army.
The prophet shows great skill here in securing attention by reciting a bit of a love song and then gliding gradually into his burning message to a sinful people. The description of this vineyard in the text is vivid and lifelike, showing the pains taken by the owner in preparing, tending, and guarding it. The great pains thus taken enhanced the expectation and, therefore, the disappointment. So, in despair and disgust he destroyed the vineyard and made its place desolate.
The prophet identifies the vineyard with Israel and Judah which had their beginnings, as a nation, with Abraham, and from the day of its planting it was under the special care of Jehovah. He always gave it the most desired spot in which to dwell, both in Egypt and in Canaan, but it never did live up to its opportunities and more, it never did yield the fruits of justice and righteousness, but instead, oppression and a cry. These general terms give way to the particular in the woes that follow. There are six distinct woes pronounced (Isa 5:8-23 ) against sinners in this paragraph, as follows:
1. Woe unto the land monopolies. This is a picture of what may be observed in many parts of the world today. Monopolies lead to loneliness and desolation. God is against the land shark. For a description of conditions, similar to Isaiah’s, in England, gee Goldsmith’s Deserted Village, in which are found these lines: Ill fares the land, to hastening his a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 2. Woe unto the drunken revelers. This is a vivid picture of wine with its accompaniments and results. People inflamed with strong drink relish a kind of music which is not very religious. These musical instruments are all right but they were put to the wrong use. Intoxicating drinks not only pervert the instruments of the Lord, but they make their subjects disregard the works and rights of Jehovah. In Isa 5:13 we see the effect of spiritual ignorance, which is captivity, perhaps the Babylonian captivity, or it may refer to Israel’s captivity already begun. Sheol in Isa 5:14 refers to the place of the departed, the underworld in which the “shades” rested. Here the picture is that of the increasing multitudes in the spirit world because of their disobedience here and God’s destruction of them, after which their land becomes the pasture for the flocks of foreign nomads.
3. Woe unto the defiant unbelievers. This is a picture of the harness of sin, and awful effect produced on those who follow its course. They are harnessed by it and rush madly on in their defying of the Holy One of Israel.
4. Woe unto the perverters of moral distinction, calling evil good, and good evil, putting darkness for light, and light for darkness. Their moral sense is so blunted that they cannot make moral distinctions, as Paul says in Hebrews, “not having their senses exercised to distinguish between good and evil.”
5. Woe unto the conceited men, perhaps their politicians. They are often so wise that they cannot be instructed, but they can tell us how to run any kind of business, from the farm to the most intricate machinery of the government. They may have never had any experience in the subject which they teach, yet they can tell those who have spent their lives in such service just how to run every part of the business down to the minutest detail. But they are really “wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.”
6. Woe unto drunken officers, who justify the wicked for a bribe and pervert justice. When one is once allowed to look in upon our courts of justice (?) he can imagine that Isaiah was writing in the age in which we live. He goes on to show the just punishment that they were destined to receive because of their rejection of the law of Jehovah and because they despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
The conditions herein set forth (Isa 5:25-30 ) reach beyond those of the Assyrian invasion and find a larger fulfilment in the carrying away of Judah by the Chaldeans. Here Jehovah is represented as giving the signal and the call to the nations to assemble for the invasion of Judah and Israel, which may apply either to the Assyrians or to the Chaldeans and, perhaps, to both. Then the prophet describes the speed with which they come and do their destructive work, which may apply to the march of the Assyrians against Samaria and the Chaldeans against Jerusalem. (For minute details of description see the text.) The prophet closes his description of this invading army (or armies) and their destructive work, with Israel in the deepest gloom, which was fulfilled in three instances: (1) the capture of Samaria by the Assyrians; (2) the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; (3) the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Perhaps all three of these events are in the perspective of the prophet’s vision, which constitute the dark picture and disappointing gloom with which he closes chapter 5 and section I of his book.
Isa 6 gives us Isaiah’s encouraging vision of Jehovah. The preceding section closed in the deepest gloom; the light of prophecy only made the darkness more fearful. Already the heir of David’s throne, Uzziah, had been “humbled” by God’s stroke, “cut away” as a withered branch, excluded from the house of the Lord, and continued till death “unhealed of his plague.” The prophet had delivered his message faithfully, but being only a man, he was conscious of the failure of his message, and therefore, at such a time he needed the comforting revelation of Jehovah, just such as the vision of Isa 6 affords. Thus Jehovah, as he comforted Abraham, Jacob, Moses Joshua, Elijah, the twelve, Paul, and John, in their darkest hours by a vision of himself, so here he comforts Isaiah in his gloom of despondency.
A brief outline of Isa 6 is as follows:
1. The heavenly vision, a vision of the Lord, his throne, his train, the seraphim with six wings each and saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts.” These creatures are God’s attendants and the six wings represent the speed with which they fly in carrying out his behests, but when in divine presence four of them were used for another purpose. One pair veiled the seraph’s face from the intolerable effulgence of divine glory; another pair veiled his feet, soiled in various ministrations, which were not meet for the all-pure presence.
2. The sense of unworthiness produced by the vision and the symbolic cleansing which encouraged him in his mission. Here the prophet acts very much as Job and John did when they saw his holiness, crying out, “unclean.” This is a most natural result from the contrast between relative and absolute holiness. Job maintained his integrity until he saw the Lord and then he was ready to say, “I abhor myself and repent.” So John fell at the feet of the glorious Son of God as one dead, and Peter said, “Depart; I am a sinful man.” With these examples before us we may conclude that he who boasts of his holiness advertises thereby his guilty distance from God.
3. The offer for service, which naturally follows such a preparation as Isaiah had just received. This, too, is an expression of renewed courage, in the face of such a dark prospect.
4. The message and its effect. He was to preach with the understanding that his message would not be received and that the hearer, because of this message, would pass under the judicial blindness. This passage is quoted by our Lord (Mat 13:14-15 ) to show the same condition in his day and that the responsibility for this condition did not rest upon the prophet or the preacher but that it was the natural result of an inexorable law, viz: that the effect of the message on the hearer of it depends altogether upon the attitude of the hearer toward the message. Them that reject, it hardens and them that accept, it gives life. Thus it has ever been with subjects of gospel address, but the message must be delivered whether it proves a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.
5. The terrible judgments to follow. Here the prophet asks, “How long is to continue this judicial blindness?” and the answer comes back, “Until cities are laid waste, etc.” This includes their captivity in Babylon, their rejection of the Saviour and consequent dispersion, and will continue until the Jews return and embrace the Messiah whom they now reject until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
6. The final hope expressed. This is the hope of the “remnant,” “the holy seed.” This was Isaiah’s hope of Israel in his day; it was Christ’s hope of Israel in his day; it was Paul’s hope of Israel in his day, and is it not our hope of Israel in our day? “The remnant according to the election of grace.”
QUESTIONS

1. What three things are suggested by the word, “vision,” in the title?
2. How do you explain the fact that this vision was “concerning Judah and Jerusalem” and yet it embraces a vast variety of nations and countries?
3. What relation does Isa 1 sustain to the whole book, what it standpoint, after what is it modeled, and of what does it consist?
4. What are the contents of the first message?
5. What expressions in this paragraph are worthy of note and what is their application?
6. What is the second message of Isa 1 (Isa 1:10-17 )?
7. What is the third message of this chapter (Isa 1:18-23 ), what the back reference here and what the renewed charge?
8. What is the fourth message in this chapter (Isa 1:24-31 ) and what in particular, the hope here held out to Judah?
9. What is the New Testament quotation from this chapter and what use is there made of it?
10. What is the nature of the contents of Isaiah 2-5 and what the relation of this section to Isa 1 ?
11. To what period of time does the section (Isaiah 2-5) belong and what the proof?
12. What is the title to this section and what does it include?
13. What is the close relation of Isaiah 1-2?
14. What is the assurance found in the introduction (Isa 1:2-4 ) and how does this passage compare with Micah’s prophecy on the same point?
15. What is meant here by “the latter days”?
16. What is meant by “the mountain of the Lord’s house”?
17. What means shall be used by the church in accomplishing these results?
18. What spirit of inquiry is here awakened?
19. To what purpose shall all this be?
20. Who is to be the arbiter of the nations, as here described?
21. What is the result of this arbitration?
22. What God’s means of preparation of the nation for the great future, as just shown in the messianic prophecy, and what, in general the items of judgment?
23. What are the sins to be visited by these judgments (Isa 2:5-9 )?
24. What are the objects against which these judgments are to be brought (Isa 2:10-4:1 )?
25. What shall follow these judgments on God’s people (Isa 4:2-6 )?
26. What is the subject of Isa 5 and what the three main points in it?
27. Describe the disappointing vineyard.
28. Identify this vineyard and show its parallels in history.
29. Itemize the woes that follow (Isa 5:8-23 ) and note the points of interest in each case.
30. What is the coming army as predicted in Isa 5:25-30 and what the parallels of this prophecy and its fulfilment?
31. What is the subject of Isa 6 and what its relation to the section (Isaiah 2-5) and what its bearing on the condition of Judah at this time?
32. Give a brief outline of Isa 6 and the application of each point.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH

The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS

1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Isa 5:1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
Ver. 1. Now will I sing. ] Now, or, Now I pray, as stirring up his hearers to attention; for here beginneth his third sermon. He had endeavoured, but with little good effect, to convince them of their detestable unthankfulness, apostasy, and other enormities, in prose. Now he resolves to try another course, and to be unto them as a poet rather than a prophet, if haply they might be taken by the sweetness of his verse, and loveliness of his voice. Eze 33:32
“ Metra parant animos, comprendunt plurima paucis:
Aures delectant, pristina commemorant. ”
True it is that poets, for the most part, are dulcissime vani, most sweetly vain, as Augustine said of Homer. And some have noted well concerning St Paul, that citing his countryman, Aratus (for he was a Cilician), he nameth him not, but only saith, “Certain of your own poets,” Act 17:28 notwithstanding the piety of his beginning, ‘ E D , or the divineness of his subject, the heavens – more sublime and pure matter than useth to be in the wanton pages of other poets. But our divine poet is of another alloy, and his holy song is of the same strain with that of Moses, of Deborah and Barak, of Hannah, of David, – qui noster Orpheus est, saith Euthymius, the “sweet singer of Israel,” 2Sa 23:1 – of Solomon with his Song of Songs; saving that this is lugubre carmen, saith Oecolampadius, et tragediae quam comediae similius, a lamentable ditty, and more like a tragedy than a comedy; for, though the prophet beginneth merrily, yet he endeth heavily; it is of “mercy and judgment” that he singeth.

To my well beloved, ] i.e., To Christ, the Church’s bridegroom, cuius amicus et administer sum, whose paranymph advocate I am and well wisher; Joh 3:29 2Co 11:2-3 some render it for my beloved, or in his defence.

A song. ] Or, Poem, whereto this first verse is the proem or preface. A spiritual song it is, most artificially composed, and set out with the most exquisite skill that might be.

Of my beloved. ] Of him whom my soul loveth; as Son 1:7 Jonathan loved David (1.) With a love of union; 1Sa 18:1 (2.) With a love of complacence; Isa 5:19 (3.) With a love of benevolence. Isa 20:4 So doth a gracious heart love Jesus Christ. My Love was crucified, said Ignatius, a whose heart was even a lump of love.

Touching his vineyard. ] That degenerate plant of a strange vine unto him, Jer 2:21 the plantation and supplantation whereof is here, first, Parabolically propounded; secondly, More plainly expounded. Some read it, “to his vineyard”; others, “for his vineyard.” See Mat 21:33-34 Mar 12:1-2 Luk 20:9 ; Luk 20:16 .

My beloved. ] See how oft he harps upon this sweet string, and cannot come off. What a man loveth he will be talking of, as the huntsman of his hounds, the drunkard of his cups, the worldling of his wealth, &c. Ten times in eight verses together doth St Paul mention the name of Jesus, 1Co 1:1-4 ; 1Co 1:7-10 showing thereby that it was to him mel in ore, melos in aure, iubilum in corde, the sweetest music.

Hath a vineyard. ] So the Church is here Isa 5:7 and elsewhere frequently and fitly styled: Confert autem vineae, saith Oecolampadius. To a vineyard is the Church compared for sundry reasons; as the great care men take about it, b the great delight they take in it, the sweet fruits they expect from it, the great worth of its fruit, the little worth of its stem Eze 15:3 if it prove fruitless, the lowly and feeble condition thereof, the continual need it hath to be dressed, supported, sheltered, pruned. , , Joh 15:2 amputat, putat.

In a very fruitful hill. ] Heb., In a horn the son of oil, that is, a horny hill, bowing like a halfmoon, and so exposed to the sunbeams all the day long. c Some say that Judea lieth in the form of a horn, like as the low countries do in the form of a lion, unde Leo Belgicus. The “son of oil,” or “fatness,” that is, exceeding fat; Judea is called Sumen totius orbis, the friutful mother of all the earth, a land “flowing with milk and honey,” Eze 20:6 a very cornucopia of all comforts. Basil telleth us that it was a tradition of great antiquity, that Adam, when he was thrust out of paradise, ut dolorem leniret, for a mitigation of his grief, chose Judea, that most fruitful country, for a place to dwell in; whence it is that Sodom and her sisters, which were a part of that country, are said to be “pleasant as the garden of God.” Gen 13:10
a Rom. xii.
b Nulla possessio maiorem operam requirit. – Cato. Itali dicunt, Vinea est tinea.
c Soli antemeridiano, meridiano atque postmeridiano expositus. – Pisc.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Isaiah Chapter 5

The comparison of Isa 5 with Isa 6 illustrates most strikingly the ways of God in the judgement of His people. They are quite distinct. Indeed Isa 6 . comes in abruptly in outward form, itself distinct from what follows down to Isa 9:7 inclusively. All this intervening portion (Isa 6:1-13 ) forms a strikingly peculiar parenthesis, but a parenthesis of profound interest and instruction; after which the strain of woe, begun in Isa 5 , is resumed in the thickening disasters of Israel and of the land up to their mighty and everlasting deliverance, which yet awaits its accomplishment in the latter day.
But if these chapters were distinct in time as they certainly are in character, the Spirit of God has been pleased to set them in immediate juxtaposition with a view to our better admonition. In fact they are the two-fold principle or standard of judgement which God is wont to apply to His people. In the one He would have us to look back, in the other to look forward; in the former by all He has done for them He measures what they should have been toward Him; in the latter He judges them by His own glory manifested in their midst. The one answers to the law by which is the knowledge of sin; the other to the glory of God, from which every soul comes short (Rom 3:20 , Rom 3:23 )
In Isa 5 the prophet sings a song of Jehovah, his well beloved, about His vineyard. Moses had already (Deu 32 ) spoken in the ears of Israel a song which celebrates in magnificent language the sovereign choice and blessing of God, the sins and punishment of the people, but withal His final mercy to His land and people, with whom the spared nations are to rejoice. Our chapter takes in a narrower field of view.
“I will sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill; and he dug it up, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine; and he built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed a winepress therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes” (vv. 1, 2). There was no failure on God’s part. He had established Israel in the most favourable position, separated them to Himself, removed stumbling-blocks, crowned them with favours, vouchsafed not only protection but every means of blessing. “And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?” was His appeal to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah (vv. 3, 4). Yet was all in vain. The result was only bad fruit. “Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” They, like Adam, transgressed the covenant. It was the old story over again. Human responsibility ends in total ruin. Man departs from God and corrupts his way on the earth. “And now let me tell you what I am about to do to my vineyard; I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste – it shall not be pruned nor hoed; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgement, but behold bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold a cry” (vv. 5-7 Such is His own application of the parable. Thus the nation, as a whole, is weighed in the divine balances, and found wanting. So manifest and grievous is the case, that God challenges the men of Judah to judge between Him and His vineyard, though they themselves are the degenerate trees in question. There was no more doubt of the goodness shown to Israel than of their obligation to yield fruit for God. But obligation produces no fruit meet for Him. What was the consequence on such a ground as this? Nothing but woe after woe. Their doom would be according to their guilt.
The truth is that, on the footing of responsibility, every creature has failed save One, Who was the Creator, whatever might be His lowly condescension in appearing within the ranks of men. And what is the secret of victory for the believer now or of old? We must be above mere humanity in order to walk as saints; yea, in a sense, be above our duty in order rightly to accomplish it. As of old, those only walked blamelessly according to the law, who looked to the Messiah in living faith; so saints now can glorify God in a holy righteous walk, only as they are under grace, not law. The sense of deliverance and perfect favour in the sight of God frees and strengthens the soul where there is the new life; the written word illustrated in Christ is the Christian rule. Therein, not in the law, is the true transcript of God.
It will be observed, accordingly, that there is nothing of Christ here as the means and channel of grace. Consequently all is unrelieved darkness and death; and the prophet presses home the evidence of overwhelming constant evil in the people of God. Not a ray of comfort or even hope breaks through, but only their sins and His judgements chime continually. It is the severity of God, Who did not spare the natural branches, as the apostle says in Rom 11:21 . Detailed sin is retributively dealt with, as under the government of God in His people. A sixfold series of bold and open sins then follows with their punishments from Jehovah.
“Woe unto them that join house to house, [that] lay field to field, till [there be] no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land! In mine ears [saith] Jehovah of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, [even] great and fair, without inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield [but] an ephah. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, [that] they may follow strong drink; that tarry late into the night, [till] wine inflame them! And the harp and the lute, the tabret and the pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of Jehovah, neither have they considered the operation of his hands. Therefore my people are gone into captivity, for lack of knowledge; and their honourable men [are] famished, and their multitude [are] parched with thirst. Therefore Sheol hath enlarged her desire, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their tumult, and he that rejoiceth among them, descend [into it]. And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is humbled, and the eyes of the lofty are humbled: but Jehovah of hosts is exalted in judgement, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed as in their pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones shall wanderers eat. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope; that say, Let him make speed, let him 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 [it]! Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto [them that are] wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto [them that are] mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink; who justify the wicked for a reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Therefore as the tongue of fire devoureth the stubble, and as the dry grass sinketh down in the flame, [so] their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have rejected the law of Jehovah of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (vv. 8-24).
There is a woe to such as joined house to house and field to field, reckless of all but their own aggrandizement: Jehovah shall desolate so that their coveted vineyards and lands shall yield but a tithe of what they put in (vv. 8-10). There is a woe to the luxurious hunters of social pleasure: captivity shall drain them, and Hades itself shall swallow up the mean and the mighty – multitudes without measure (vv. 11-17). And as for the bold sinners who scoffingly invited Jehovah to make speed that they might see His work (vv. 18, 19); and for the moral corrupters, who broke down all moral distinction, and the wise in their own eyes, who could do without God, and the unjust friends of the wicked, whose heroism was in wine and strong drink, being foes of the righteous, there is woe upon woe with utter destruction; “because they have cast away the law of Jehovah of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (vv. 20-24).
“Therefore is the anger of Jehovah 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] as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still. And he will lift up an ensign to the nations afar off, and will hiss for them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: none shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: their arrows [are] sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. Their roaring [shall be] like a lioness, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall growl, and lay hold of the prey, and carry [it] away safe, and there shall be none to deliver. And they shall roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. And if [one] look unto the land, behold darkness [and] distress, and the light is darkened in the clouds thereof” (vv. 25-30).
He had dealt with them already, but the strokes are not exhausted. “For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still.” Such is the sad and recurring burden, as may be seen in chapters 9, 10. The avenging nations may be far away; but He would give the signal to them and the hiss (as for one far off), and “behold, they shall come with speed lightly.” A most graphic picture follows of their vigour and promptness, their equipment and fierce determination from which none can shield or escape. Against Israel shall these foes roar. But they are not yet defined by name. “And if one look unto the land, behold darkness [and] distress, and the light is darkened in the heavens (or clouds) thereof.” Such is the lot of man, or rather here of Israel, where Christ is not. There is no deliverance, only judgement after judgement on the people and the land. Unrelieved darkness rests there. Such is the issue of Israel in their land, of Judah and Jerusalem tried under law, no matter what the favours of Jehovah on His vineyard and the plant of His pleasures. If He waited for judgement, behold bloodshed; if for righteousness, behold a cry. What on this ground could follow but woe upon woe?
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 5:1-2
1Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then He expected it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only worthless ones.
Isa 5:1 Let me sing This introductory VERB (BDB 1010, KB 1479, Qal COHORTATIVE) is also used in Isa 26:1; Isa 42:10. The NOUN also appears in Isa 5:1. Often songs were used to mark events (cf. Exo 15:1; Num 21:17; Jdg 5:1; 1Sa 18:6).
Here the song is used to draw the attention of the passers-by, so that they would stop and listen.
well-beloved. . .beloved These are two different Hebrew words. The first one (BDB 391) is usually used in poetry of a family member. The second one (BDB 187) is used often in Song of Songs for the lover. Here it refers to a special friend for which the owner had special expectations. This would have resonated well with Judah’s agricultural society.
vineyard The grapevine (or vineyard) was a symbol of national Israel (i.e., Exo 15:17; Psa 80:8; Jer 2:21; Jer 12:10) as were the olive tree and the dove. Judah was seen by the prophets as the only true people of God.
fertile hill Hill is literally the word horn (BDB 901) used in the sense of an isolated hill positioned just right to receive the sunlight and sloped just right for the rain to drain. The perfect hill, perfectly prepared to be planted with the best grapevines, for the best harvest!
The ADJECTIVE fertile is literally son of oil or son of fat (BDB 1032), which is a metaphor for fertility and abundance (cf. Isa 28:1; Isa 28:4).
Isa 5:2 There is a play on the VERB (BDB 793, KB 889) in Isa 5:2-5, used seven times. It is translated
1. yield, Isa 5:2 (twice)
2. do, Isa 5:4 (twice), what God will do for His vineyard
3. yield, Isa 5:4 (twice)
4. do, Isa 5:5, what God will do to His rebellious, ungrateful vineyard
He dug it all around, removed its stones This first VERB (BDB 740, KB 810, Piel IMPERFECT) is found only here in the OT. The KJV has fenced. Although I do not believe this is an accurate translation of the Hebrew word, it does fit the context. When stones were dug out of a rocky field in Palestine, they were usually stacked into a fence. Often the vineyards were protected by a ditch (also possible meaning of first VERB) with a stone hedge (LXX, Peshitta, Vulgate). It is surely possible that Isaiah is describing terracing techniques. The stones would be used to level parts of the field.
It is also possible that the stones were put in piles and used to keep the grape clusters off the ground (James Freeman, Manners and Customs of the Bible, pp. 360-363).
the choicest vine This refers to the bright red grapes known as sorek (BDB 977 I, cf. Jer 2:21). These grapes got their name from a valley in Palestine (cf. Jdg 16:4). They are mentioned in Jer 2:21 as being the most expensive and sought after variety of grapes. This grapevine species is even mentioned in a Messianic passage (cf. Gen 49:11).
tower This (BDB 153, watchtower built from stones dug out of the field) was for security purposes and was usually occupied only during the planting time and the harvest time in September (it would serve the same purpose as the word booth mentioned in Isa 1:8). This same word can refer to a military tower (cf. Isa 2:15). Context, context, context!
hewed out a wine vat This would have been a shallow man-made depression in a rock surface which allowed the women to crush the grapes with their feet and then a channel in the rock to a deeper depression where the juice would be stored.
NASBworthless one
NKJV, NRSV,
NJB, REBwild grapes
TEV, JB every grape was sour
LXXthorns
The Hebrew term (BDB 93) can refer to
1. stinking or noxious weeds, SINGULAR, cf. Job 31:40
2. stinking things, worthless things, PLURAL
The basic root refers to the stink of
1. corpses, Isa 34:3 (cf. Isa 5:25); Joe 2:20; Amo 4:10
2. locusts, Joe 2:20 (metaphor for dead army)
The MT in this context refers to wild grapes, which were not sweet and plump, but small and sour, unfit to make wine.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

a song. Eight sentences describe the vineyard, of which seven give the characteristics, and one (Isa 5:7) the result. This “song” sets forth the doom of the Vineyard: the Parable (Luk 20:9-16), the doom of the husbandmen.
hath = had.
a very fruitful = oil’s son. Can it refer to David and his anointing? Compare 1Sa 2:10; 1Sa 16:13; Psa 132:7. Compare Isa 5:7 -, below.
hill = horn. Hebrew. keren, always “horn” (seventy-five times). Only “hill” here.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 5
Now in the fifth chapter the Lord takes up the parable of a vineyard in which He likens Judah or Israel, His people, unto a vineyard.
Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof ( Isa 5:1-2 ),
And you that have been over know what a job it is to gather the stones out of the vineyard and you see how that they gathered the stones and make walls with the stones and terraces with the stones. And you that have been there get a good mental picture of that.
and planted it with the choicest vine, and he built a tower in the midst of it ( Isa 5:2 ),
Some of these watching towers you’ll still discover over there as you go through the land. They have these towers where during the summer season the people move out of the cities and onto the plots of ground that they own in the country. And on these plots of ground they have these towers, and in these towers are the living quarters for the family. And while they are taking care of the crops and harvesting during the summer and autumn period, they live in these towers out in the midst of the fields. And the towers, of course, also serve as watchtowers where they can watch over their land from people who come and try to steal the fruit of the land. So, “He built a tower in the midst of it.”
and also he made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.
Now you determine. You make the judgment.
What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? ( Isa 5:2-4 )
In other words, God said, “What more could I have done for the people? I brought them into the land. I established them there. They built and established their cities. They planted it. And I did everything for them. What more could I have done for them that I haven’t already done? Judge.”
Wherefore [or why is it], that when I looked and it should have brought forth grapes, that it brought forth wild grapes? And now go; I’m going to tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; I’m going to break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; and there shall come upon it briers and thorns: that will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 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 judgment, but behold there was oppression; he looked for righteousness, but there was a cry from those who were being oppressed ( Isa 5:4-7 ).
God was looking for fruit from His vineyard.
Now, Jesus said, “I am the true vine, My Father is the husbandman, and every branch in Me that bringeth forth fruit He purges or cleanses it that it bringeth forth more fruit” ( Joh 15:1-2 ). Again, over there in the land you will notice that as you go through the area of Eshcol, where they grow some of the most delicious grapes in the world… man they’re great! You go over there in October. Ah, fabulous! But you’ll notice these grapevines in Eshcol grow on the ground. Big old main branches that are on the ground, and they prop them up with rocks. They do have some of the grapevines on trellises, but through the valley of Eshcol, most of these big luscious grapes actually grow right on the ground. And you’ll see these big old vines just growing on the ground propped up with rocks. And when the grapes come out on the vines they actually lay right on the ground. So as the grapes are developing they will go through the vineyard and they will take these grapes that are there on the ground and they will pick them up and they will wash them, get the dirt and all off of them, as they are developing, and then will usually prop them on a rock or something in order that it might bring forth better fruit. If they just lie on the ground, then the little bugs and all start eating them, so they prop up the grapes after they’ve washed them in order that they might bring forth better fruit, more fruit. So Jesus is making reference to this.
Now, “My Father is the husbandman and I am the true vine and you’re the branches and every branch in me that is bringing forth fruit, He cleanses it, washes it that it might bring forth more fruit.” Now He said, “You are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you” ( Joh 15:3 ). The washing of the Word in my life, the cleansing. Now what is the purpose of the Word? In order that I might bring forth more fruit for God. What is God interested in my life? Fruit. What was He interested in for the nation of Israel? That they would bring forth fruit. Why did He do so much for them? So they would bring forth fruit. Why is God doing so much for us? That we would bring forth fruit unto Him. “And herein is the Father glorified, that you bear much fruit” ( Joh 15:8 ). That’s what God desires of your life, that you bring forth much fruit. So the Lord comes to His garden and He’s looking for fruit.
Now it is interesting in the same context in which Jesus takes the vine and makes now the application to the church, He then speaks of the new commandment that I give you that you love one another, and He relates this loving with the fruit that God was looking for. So it’s significant that Paul tells us in Galatians, “Now the fruit of the spirit is love” ( Gal 5:22 ).
Now this is really what God is looking for, because out of love proceeds true judgment, fairness. If you really love, you are not gonna be oppressing someone. So where in the Old Testament it was, “Let’s have righteousness, judgment. Let’s not oppress the poor,” and these kind of things, in the New Testament, it is put in a positive sense, “Hey, let’s love one another as we love ourselves. For if we love each other as we love ourselves, we’re not gonna be taking advantage of each other. We’re not gonna be oppressing each other, but we’re gonna be helping one another. We’re gonna be lifting up the one that has fallen. We’re gonna be giving aid to those that are down. We’re going to be concerned with the needs of others.” And that’s exactly what God is… that’s the kind of fruit that God is looking for, for in our lives and in the church today that we really have a genuine love and concern for each other, where we are giving to one another those that are in need, for when one member suffers, they all suffer. We all step in to help the one that is hurting, that is down. That beautiful love within the body where we begin to bear one another’s burdens, and thus, we fulfill the law of Jesus Christ. And that’s the kind of fruit that God wants from our lives.
Now the opposite to this is selfishness. And that is one of the biggest problems that we have to deal with is our own self-centeredness and our own selfishness, where we’re wanting everything for ourselves. We will give as long as it doesn’t take away from me, and as long as it doesn’t hurt me. But God wants the fruit of love to come forth from His vineyard, and so God comes to His garden to collect His fruit. And if He finds nothing but wild grapes, He’ll forsake the garden. He’ll say, “This is what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna break down the hedge. I’m just gonna let go. If it’s going to bear wild grapes, it doesn’t need Me. I’m just gonna forsake the garden.”
Now God pronounces His woes upon Israel. There are six of them.
Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! ( Isa 5:8 )
Sounds like Orange County–all of our subdivisions and condominiums and townhouses; joining house to house; lay field to field so there is no room left.
In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair houses will be without inhabitants ( Isa 5:9 ).
And land that will no longer produce, the land will be worn out.
Ten acres of a vineyard will only yield eight gallons of fruit, and eighty-six gallons, a homer, of the seed will only yield about a bushel ( Isa 5:10 ).
So real famine conditions.
Woe unto them [second woe] that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night ( Isa 5:11 ),
The description of the alcoholic, really.
till wine inflame them! ( Isa 5:11 )
When you really get to the… real alcoholism is when you start drinking the moment you get up in the morning, take your first drink to get your day started. That is a sign of real alcoholism. When you get to that point, you are a full-fledged alcoholic when you need to get your day started with a drink. Woe unto them until the wine inflames them!
And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and the wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands ( Isa 5:12 ).
People are just looking for entertainment and pleasures, but they don’t give God a consideration in their life.
Therefore ( Isa 5:13 )
Because of this, because people have become pleasure mad, because people have not regarded God in their lives, God has given them over to captivity.
because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and the multitude is dried up with thirst. Therefore 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. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat ( Isa 5:13-17 ).
The next woe:
Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of emptiness, and sin as it were with a cart rope ( Isa 5:18 ):
So much sin that it takes a cart rope, a huge rope, to draw it.
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 it! ( Isa 5:19 )
They begin to challenge God and challenge the judgment of God, “If it’s so, let God do something that we might see it, you know. If He’s really there.”
The next woe:
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ( Isa 5:20 );
They call those who believe in creation misfits and fools.
that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ( Isa 5:20 )
Now, of course, we are living, I feel, in an age in which we are really calling evil good and good evil. Men who try to stand up for something that is decent and moral are made to look like fools in the paper. If people who are interested in decency and morality get together and decide to do something about child prostitution, child pornography, and some of these other things, then the papers begin to say, “Oh, a threat of Nazism or something, and here they’re wanting to rule.” And they’ll have a picture of Khomeini and they make them look like a bunch of half-witted idiots, you know, that are trying to force moral standards, their own moral standards, upon everyone. All we’re saying is we’d like to have a decent place to live. We don’t want our children to be exposed to the Playboy cover girls when they have to go to the store to buy a quart of milk. We don’t want them to have to deal with the wicked, vile imaginations of perverted men when we send them out to the playgrounds. We want some laws that will really deal with these perverted men who want to display themselves and shock these precious little daughters of ours who are eight and nine years old. We feel that the sickos ought to be put away and should not be a threat to our children. And so we’re made to look like a bunch of fools and prudes and idiots.
Yet, the gay community gets together and they have a large banquet in Los Angeles to raise funds in order to lobby for certain legislation that will bring a liberalization for their activities and Governor Brown comes to speak, and the papers herald it as a glorious event, a step of progress for these people. And you don’t find a lot of overtones and threats in the papers of all the evil that will take place because the gays have had this big fund-raising dinner and they’re going to have money to lobby against legislation that would restrict and restrain their activities to their own kind. But this is heralded in the paper as a marvelous thing. Woe unto those that call good evil and evil good, the editors of our liberal press today. Boy, it’s right there. I could go on, but I won’t. It’s easy to climb on your little box and really wail.
Woe unto those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! ( Isa 5:21 )
Men who do not look at themselves in the light of God, men who do not judge themselves by God’s standards, but by their own standards.
The sixth woe, and the last:
Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for a reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! ( Isa 5:22-23 )
God is talking here about the legislators and the judges, and it is interesting that the highest alcoholic consumption in the United States is in Washington, DC. The highest consumption per capita is in Washington D.C. I think that’s tragic. All of the lobbying, “which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him,” a lot of these edicts that are coming from these boozed legislators and judges and all, and it’s tragic. You don’t have to go to Washington to find it, you can find it right here in your own local community. It might be a good idea that you examine some of the judges that are sitting on the bench.
Now, I don’t blame them for becoming alcoholics. I wouldn’t want to be a judge. I wouldn’t want to have on my conscience the things that they must have on theirs. And you’ve got to do something to live with yourself and sleep at night, so I don’t blame them for becoming alcoholics. If I weren’t a Christian, I’d probably be an alcoholic too. How else are you gonna cope with this stupid world? But woe unto them.
Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their 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. 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 torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still ( Isa 5:24-25 ).
God has brought his judgment, but He’s not through yet.
For he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly; none shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: Whose arrows are sharp, and whose bows are bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and the wheels like a whirlwind: Their roaring shall be like a lion, and they shall roar like a young lion; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall be able to deliver it ( Isa 5:26-29 ).
And so Judah, Jerusalem was carried away captive unto Babylon.
And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof ( Isa 5:30 ).
So, the opening of Isaiah, the opening judgments of God that are proclaimed, plus always, the glorious light at the end of the tunnel when God has finished with His judgment the glorious kingdom that is coming.
And so we will continue next week with some fabulous prophecies as we get into chapters 6-10. We begin to see the glorious light of the coming Messiah as he begins to make the predictions of that One that God is going to send who will establish a righteous kingdom and bring forth righteous judgment upon the earth.
Shall we stand.
The Bible study tonight can have one of two effects upon you, and it all depends on what you are. Blessings unto the righteous; you’ll eat of the fruit of the land. Woe unto the wicked; you think it’s bad now, it’s gonna get worse. What a hope we have, a blessed hope, of the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who, when He comes, He is gonna change our vile bodies that they might be fashioned just like His own glorious image.
As we get to the twenty-sixth chapter, we find the glorious promise of the Lord taking away His people and hiding them while the time of His indignation and wrath is poured out upon the earth. For a little season, until the judgments are through, then the unfolding of the glory of His new kingdom of which you may all have a part – it’s up to you. “Come now let’s us reason together saith the Lord.” Why should He have to lay more stripes upon you? What’s it gonna take to turn you around? What’s it gonna take to awaken you to God’s love and that which God wants to do for you if you just give Him the chance? Though your sins be as scarlet, they may be as white as snow. God is willing tonight to wash you and cleanse you from every sin, from all iniquity. He’s willing to make you over a new person. He’s willing, but that’s not enough. You must be willing too. If you are, I’d encourage you just go back to the prayer room. Get on your knees before God and say, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” He will. And though your sins be as scarlet, you can walk out of here tonight as white as snow. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Isa 5:1. Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
You and I, dear friends, are placed in a position where we have very choice opportunities of glorifying our God, we are like a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, most favourably placed for fruitfulness. The Well-beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
Isa 5:2. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
Is that my case? Is it your case, dear friend? Has even our religion been a false thing? Has it been like wild grapes or poisonous berries? Have we been at times right only by accident, and have we never carefully and sedulously sought to serve our Lord, or to bring forth fruit to his praise? O Lord, thou knowest!
Isa 5:3-6. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 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? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will lay it waste:
There is no destruction like that which comes when God destroys the fruitless vineyard. When a human enemy or the wild boar out of the wood lays it waste, it may be restored again, but if, in righteous wrath, the Divine Owner of the vineyard himself lays it waste, what hope remains for it? It shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste:
Isa 5:6-7. It shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 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 judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
This passage has a special reference to Gods ancient people, and one cannot read it without noting how literally this terrible threatening has been fulfilled.
This exposition consisted of readings from SOLOMONS Son 8:11-14; Isa 5:1-7; and Luk 13:6-9.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Isa 5:1-2
Isa 5:1-2
Much in the same way that Nathan induced David to pronounce sentence upon himself, Isaiah here gave a little song about one who planted a vineyard, etc.; and, when it produced poisonous berries instead of grapes and after it had become obvious that there was no possible excuse for such a thing, he revealed the true meaning of this little song about the vineyard. Only when we come to Isa 5:7 does it become clear that God is the one who planted the vineyard and that Israel and Judah (collectively) are the vineyard. “This is the first appearance, chronologically, of the vineyard as a symbol of Israel.” Later, the same figure was adopted by Jeremiah (Jer 12:10), and by the Psalmist (Psalms 80). In the New Testament, Jesus utilized the metaphor in the parable of the wicked husbandmen (Mar 12:1-10); and in Joh 15:1 ff, Christ made one of the most significant announcements of his earthly ministry, namely, that he is the “true vine,” and therefore the true Israel, replacing utterly and completely the old Israel which had indeed, in their rejection of Christ, fallen into the status of a corrupt or degenerate vine! Thus, Jesus Christ and his Church, who are united with him as his spiritual body are indeed the New Israel, the chosen people of God, and the only Israel God now has.
Immediately after this first section (Isa 5:1-7), the chapter becomes a catalogue of the characteristics “of a corrupt civilization” (Isa 5:8-23); and the final paragraph (Isa 5:24-30) is a powerful and overwhelming picture of the final judgment. The special attention which Jesus Christ our Lord gave to this chapter and its prophecies should induce all Christians to take a very careful look at it.
Isa 5:1-2
“Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he digged it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.”
“My well beloved …” In the light of what follows in Isa 5:7, we know that Isaiah’s “well beloved” here is no other than the “Lord of Hosts.” The message is that every possible improvement and advantage of the wonderful vineyard were provided by the God who planted it.
“The choicest vine …” These were the great Jewish patriarchs, especially, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who were the beginnings of the Old Israel. They did indeed establish benchmarks of human conduct which were far in advance of their times and infinitely above the sordid behavior of the pagan society in which they lived. This is seen in the truth that God Himself consented to be known as the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
“Wild grapes …” These should not be identified with the grape known by this designation in America. Lowth tells us that, “They were not simply useless, unprofitable grapes such as wild grapes; but they were offensive, noxious, and poisonous. The same scholar cited 2Ki 4:39-41, which records the instance where there was “death in the pot” as a case where the poisonous effect of this variety of “wild grape” was demonstrated. Jamieson pointed out that the particular variety of wild grape intended here was known by several other names, such as, “nightshade, monk’s head, and wolf grapes.
Isa 5:1 POSSESSOR OF THE VINEYARD: The vineyard belongs to The Beloved, God. Even the song about the vineyard is of the Beloved-that is, originates with the Beloved. The prophet sings the song on behalf of the Beloved. This seems to be a song composed rather like some of our contemporary folk-songs-by on-the-spot improvisation. Whether sung to the accompaniment of an instrument or not is immaterial. This song was intended for teaching, not entertainment! The vineyard was a favorite subject for parabolic instruction, both in the O.T. and the N.T. (Cf. Psa 80:8 ff; Hos 10:1; Jer 2:21; Eze 15:6; Eze 17:1 ff; Eze 19:10 ff; Mat 20:1-16; Mat 21:33-43; Joh 15:1-11).
Isa 5:2 PROVISION FOR THE VINEYARD: It is Gods vineyard by absolute right. He planted it upon land which was His. He planted it in a very productive, conspicuous place in the midst of civilization (on a fertile hill); He cleared it of all hindrances of foreigners (gathered out the stones); He built protective fortresses within it (watchtower); He made provisions to use the fruits of the nation (built a winepress). Then with Divine patience and long-suffering He cultivated this nation with great blessings of deliverance and chastening. He sent His servants the leaders and prophets to tend it. He had every right to anticipate an abundant harvest of sweetness; instead it produced wildness, putridness and rottenness.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

With the thought of judgment, and the necessity for it still in mind, the prophet utters his great denunciation. This falls into three parts.
The first is a song of accusation. By the simple and familiar illustration of the rights of the proprietor in his vineyard, the prophet appeals to the listening people. The nature of the parable is such as to compel their assent to the rightness of the judgment indicated. The prophet immediately makes a blunt application of his song as he declares that the “vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant.”
He then proceeds to utter woes against the prevailing sins of the time. The first is against monopoly, and the consequent oppression of the poor; the second, against the life of dissipation which the rulers were living; the third, against that unbelief which persists in iniquity and scoffs at the idea of divine intervention; the fourth, against that moral confusion which is unable to distinguish between good and evil; the fifth, against the false wisdom which acts without reference to God; the sixth, against the perversion of justice by the judges.
He finally describes the instrument of judgment. The inspiration of judgment is the anger of Jehovah, who calls a people from far. These are then described in their perfect equipment, in their terrible fierceness, and in the overwhelming impetuosity of their onslaught.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

a Disappointing Harvest
Isa 5:1-17
In a picture of great beauty, Isaiah describes a vineyard situated on one of the sunny heights visible from Jerusalem. Every care which an experienced vine-dresser could devise had been expended on it, but in vain. The vine-dresser himself is introduced, demanding if more could have been done. When God selects a nation, a church, or an individual for high and holy work in the world and expends care and pains on the preparation of the instrument, and His plans miscarry through no failure on His part but through the obstinancy or obtuseness of the human soul, the measure of what might have been is the gauge of its doom. The worst weeds grow on the richest soil. This picture is the counterpart of Pauls dread of being a castaway, 1Co 9:27.
The six woes which follow, arising from drunkenness and avarice remind us of sorrows that menace the selfish heart. How different such a lot to the blessedness of the humblest soul that possesses God and is possessed by Him! Evil shall slay the wicked; and they that hate the righteous shall be condemned. Jehovah redeemeth the soul of His servants; and none of them that take refuge in Him shall be condemned, Psa 34:21-22.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTER FIVE
THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD
“Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 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? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 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 judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry” (verses 1-7)
CHAPTER FIVE completes the prophet’s address. In the parable of the vineyard, GOD rehearses His ways with Israel and emphasizes their lack of response to His love and patience. This “Song of the Vineyard” links intimately with our Lord’s parable concerning the same subject, which He put before the scribes and Pharisees shortly before His arrest and crucifixion.
We might well speak of verses 1-7 of this chapter as the vineyard-poem as we hear in what graphic and touching terms the prophet sings a song of the vineyard. GOD Himself, of course, is the real Speaker, and when He says, “My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill,” we cannot but realize that He has His own blessed Son before Him, for He is the Messiah of Israel as well as the Saviour of the world.
This vineyard represents Israel as GOD viewed them at the beginning of their Palestinian history. Having brought them out of Egypt, He planted them in the land of promise, and there cared for and protected them from the ravages of their enemies.
He fenced His vineyard about, gathered out the stones and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in the midst of it, we are told, and also made a winepress therein, only to find that there was no fruit suitable to His holy desires. “He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.” That is, instead of bearing fruit for GOD, Israel brought forth that which only grieved His heart and dishonored His holy Name.
And so, addressing Himself directly to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah, He asks, “Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 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?” After all the care He had lavished upon Israel, His loving provision for their needs, His gracious forgiveness extended to them over and over again when they failed, how could it be possible that there would be no suitable fruit for Him? Why should they produce only that which was worthless and useless? Alas, it was but the manifestation of a heart that had departed from the living GOD.
And so, after giving them one opportunity after another to repent and judge themselves in His sight, He finally decided to give them up, saying, “I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up ; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; hut there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”
That we are not mistaken in the application made of the parable is clear from verse 7, where we are told definitely, “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.” This is confirmed in Psalms 80, 81; and also in Hos 10:1.
“Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! In mine ears said the Lord of hosts, Of a truth many. houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! 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. Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
Therefore 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. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: but the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
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 it! Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous for him! Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their 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. 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 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” (verses 8-25).
Here we have the six woes to which reference has been made already. In verse 8 He pronounces a woe upon them “that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth.” In other words, the judgment is pronounced on those who selfishly seek to accumulate houses and lands for themselves, showing no consideration for the poor and the needy. Such shall eventually be desolate and their holdings destroyed; their fields will fail to bear, and their hope of gain will be disappointed.
Then in verse 11 He pronounces a woe upon those who give themselves over to voluptuousness and sensual pleasure, who “rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!” They seek to delight themselves with beautiful music and other worldly pleasures, but regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands.
Because of this they shall go into captivity. They have acted as those who are without knowledge; and the leaders among them, who should have been honorable men, have proven themselves but fools. So “hell hath enlarged herself.” That is, the unseen world has opened her mouth without measure, and they and all they have delighted in, go down into the pit. The mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled also. But the Lord of hosts whom they have despised, shall be exalted in judgment, and GOD, the infinitely Holy One, shall be sanctified in righteousness when He visits with judgment those who have grievously offended.
The third woe, in verse 18, is upon those who “draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope.” They openly defy the GOD of Israel and brazenly insist on taking their own way in opposition to His Holy Word, ridiculing the message of His prophet and spurning His commands.
The fourth woe, verse 20, is upon those who fail to distinguish between good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness. They put darkness for light and light for darkness; they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. In other words, they make no distinction between that which honors GOD and that which dishonors Him. Like Laodicea in a later day, they are neither cold nor hot but utterly indifferent to divine truth.
The fifth woe, verse 21, is upon those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight; and “pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” Pride, so natural to the human heart, is hateful to GOD, and if persisted in it will eventually bring destruction.
The sixth woe is for those who, inflamed by wine, lose all sense of righteousness in judgment, that “justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” Therefore the Lord declares that, “As the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their 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.”
Because of these things the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people, and His hand stretched out against them. He had smitten them so that the very hills would tremble. But they, themselves, persisted in their iniquity, their hearts unmoved by all His dealings with them; therefore, greater judgments are yet to come, as we shall see as we go on in the study of this book.
“And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: none shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof” (verses 26.30).
The Lord Himself had summoned the nations of the East to overrun the land of Israel. Already the kingdom of the North had felt the power of Assyria and had been carried away. Soon the kingdom of the South will be destroyed by the might of Babylon.
No effort on Judah’s part would enable them to turn back the power of the enemy when the appointed hour had come for the destruction so long predicted. Like a roaring lioness with a litter of young lions, would the eastern nations rush upon their prey and carry it away triumphantly; and in that hour of distress, they should cry to the Lord in vain, for darkness and sorrow were destined to be their portion and the light should be darkened in the heavens above them.
~ end of chapter 5 ~
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Isa 5:1-2
I. “He looked that it should bring forth grapes.” This is surely not unreasonable. It is exactly what you and I should do. It will not be denied by anybody that we are receiving the highest advantages that ever fell to the lot of the world. God might challenge us to say what He has left undone. We live (1) in the day of full revelation, (2) under the highest civilisation. “It brought forth wild grapes,” and yet everything was done for it that could be done. The possibility of a man going down to darkness through the very light of the sanctuary, the possibility of taking the rain and dew and light of heaven and transforming them into poison, and offering a bitter disappointment to the heart of God, is a fearful thought.
II. Notice what becomes of the vineyard. “I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.” And if God do so with the vineyard which He planted in the ancient time, what shall He say to the clouds, what shall he say to the earth, what shall He say to all the influences of our life, when we have taken counsel together and slain His Son, and steeped the vineyard in the blood of His well-beloved?
Parker, Penny Pulpit, No. 384.
References: Isa 5:1-7.-Homilist, Excelsior Series, vol. v., p. 107. Isa 5:1-30.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. v., p. 276.
Isa 5:2
To us God says, as to Israel of old, “What more could I do to My vineyard that I have not done? Why, then, when I looked for grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?”
Is not this indictment true? No true patriot, much less Christian, can look without grave anxiety on the tastes and tendencies of the times in which we live. Wild grapes, offensive to God, mischievous to others, and ruinous to us, are being produced on every hand. The husbandman describes some of them.
I. The excessive greed of gain-the oppressive selfishness that tramples under foot the claims of brotherhood and the rights of men.
II. The crying sin of intemperance.
III. The headstrong rush after pleasure; the follies and frivolities of the tens of thousands whose whole time and tastes and talents are wickedly laid at the shrine of sensual delights.
IV. Sensuality in its grosser and fouler shapes.
V. Infidelity. “Woe unto them that regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operations of His hands.”
VI. Fraud, falsehood, and dishonesty. “Woe to them that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter,” etc.
Such are some of the elements of moral mischief which threaten the ruin of our beloved land. If England lives on, and grows in lustre as she lives, it must be because the King Immanuel is undisputed monarch of the national heart, uncontrolled director of the national policy and the national will.
J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 241.
I. Consider the distinguishing features which, in God’s allegory, separate the grape from the wild grape. (1) The good grape is not in a state of nature; the wild grape is. Either it has had no culture, or it has not responded to its culture. Therefore it is wild. The secret of its state lies in that one word “wild.” (2) The wild grape does not grow or ripen into use. It springs, it hangs on the bough, and it falls, for itself. No man is the better for it. None gather strength or refreshment or delight there. (3) The wild grape has not the sweetness of the true. It is harsh and sour, because (4) the wild grape has never been grafted.
II. The first thing of all, without which everything else in religion is only a blank, is, and must be, a real living union with the Lord Jesus Christ. By that union, the life which was unchanged, selfish, tasteless or bitter, and without Christ, becomes a new, expansive, loving, Christlike life, and the wild grape in the desert is turned into the true grape of paradise.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 95.
Isa 5:4
I. The first way of putting, or rather of vindicating, the question of our text is when we contend that Atheism has a far better apology for resisting the evidences of a God which are spread over creation, than worldly-mindedness for manifesting insensibility to redemption through Christ. Atheism may ask for a wider sphere of expatiation and for a more glowing stamp of divinity, for it falls within our power to conceive a richer manifestation of the Invisible Godhead. But the worldly-minded cannot ask for a more touching proof of the love of the Almighty, or for a more bounteous provision for human necessities, or for more moving motives to repentance and obedience. What has been done for the vineyard, regard being had to the augustness of the Being who did it, proclaims us ruined if we bring not forth such fruits as God requires at our hands.
II. We may affirm that as much has been done as could have been done for the vineyard, regard being had to the completeness and fulness of the work, as well as the greatness of its Author. Has not much been done for the vineyard, since redemption thus meets the every necessity of the guilty, the helpless, and the wretched-for creatures whom it found in the lowest degradation, and leaves them not till it elevates them to the noblest exaltation?
III. Much of what has been done for the vineyard consists in the greatness of the reward which the Gospel proposes to righteousness, and the greatness of the punishment which it denounces on impenitence. It was not redemption from mere temporary evil that Jesus Christ effected. The consequences of transgression spread themselves through eternity; and the Saviour, when He bowed His head and said, “It is finished,” had provided for the removal of these consequences in all the immenseness, whether of their magnitude or their duration. Much, exceeding much, has been done by God for the vineyard, seeing that He has opened before us prospects for eternity, than which imagination can conceive none more brilliant if we close with the proffers, and none more appalling if we refuse.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1796.
References: Isa 5:4.-C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons Chiefly Practical p. 219. Isa 5:6.-Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 219. Isa 5:9.-W. V. Robinson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 148. Isa 5:18, Isa 5:19.-R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 82.
Isa 5:20
I. The sin against which I would warn you is the sin of disregarding, and even of in the least degree underrating, the eternal distinctions of right and wrong; it is, in one word, the sin of viewing things in their wrong aspects, or of calling things by their wrong names. To talk otherwise than sadly and seriously of sin is sin.
II. The cause of the sin is a faint appreciation of moral evil; a tampering with it, a destruction of that healthy instinct which revolts at it. It is the very nature of sin, that the more we know of it the less we know it; the more we are familiar with it the less do we understand its vileness.
III. The punishment of this sin is nothing less than the failure of all life-the waste, the loss, the shipwreck of the human soul-the sapping of every moral force and every vital instinct. And this is death. This is the worst woe that can befall finally those who have learnt to call things by their wrong names-to call evil good, and good evil.
F. W. Farrar, In the Days of thy Youth, p. 129.
References: Isa 5:20.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 36; F. W. Farrar, Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 178.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 5
The Song of the Vineyard and the Six Woes
1. The song of the vineyard and Jehovahs lament (Isa 5:1-4) 2. The judgment upon the vineyard (Isa 5:5-7) 3. The wild grapes (Isa 5:8-23) 4. First woe against covetousness (Isa 5:8-10) 5. Second woe against fleshly lusts (Isa 5:11-17) 6. Third woe against mockers (Isa 5:18-19) 7. Fourth woe against moral insensibility (Isa 5:20) 8. Fifth woe against conceit (Isa 5:21) 9. Sixth woe against lawlessness (Isa 5:22-23) 10. Jehovahs anger and the invader announced (Isa 5:24-30)Compare the song of the vineyard with Mat 21:33-44. The wild grapes of Israel fully correspond to the wild grapes of nominal Christendom. If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee Rom 11:21.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Now: Deu 31:19-22, Jdg 5:1-31, Psa 45:1, Psa 101:1
wellbeloved: Son 2:16, Son 5:2, Son 5:16, Son 6:3
touching: Isa 27:2, Isa 27:3, Psa 80:8, Son 8:11, Son 8:12, Jer 2:21, Mat 21:33, Mar 12:1, Luk 20:9, Joh 15:1
a very fruitful hill: Heb. the horn of the son of oil
Reciprocal: Exo 15:17 – plant Exo 15:21 – Sing ye 2Sa 12:1 – There were Psa 69:25 – habitation Psa 80:15 – vineyard Psa 147:20 – not dealt so Ecc 2:4 – I planted Son 1:1 – song Son 1:7 – O thou Isa 1:2 – I have Isa 26:1 – this song Jer 12:10 – my vineyard Jer 28:8 – prophesied Lam 1:7 – all her Eze 15:2 – What Eze 15:6 – General Eze 19:10 – like Hos 10:1 – General Hos 12:10 – used Zec 4:14 – anointed ones Mat 13:3 – in Mat 20:1 – a man Luk 13:6 – fig tree 1Co 3:9 – ye are God’s 1Co 16:22 – love Col 3:16 – and spiritual Heb 6:8 – beareth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Isa 5:1-30 begins with what we may call, The Song of Isaiah. If we turn back to Deu 32:1-52, we may read the song of Moses, which is partly retrospective and partly prophetic. Moses uttered his song at the start of Israel’s national history; Isaiah uttered his towards its close. The testimony of both is the same. The failure of the people was complete.
Israel had been Jehovah’s vineyard, and He had ordered everything in their favour. A very fruitful spot had been their location with all necessary equipment. The law, given through Moses, had fenced them about, so as to protect them from contamination from outside, if they had observed it. Moreover they were a “choicest vine,” for they had descended from Abraham, one of God’s choicest saints. Thus everything had been in their favour. What had been the result?
Result there was, but of a wholly worthless and evil sort. Where judgment should have been oppression was found: where righteousness, only a cry of distress. Once again we have to notice that the charge against them concerns moral depravity rather than lack of ceremonial observances.
When the Lord Jesus spoke of Himself as “the true Vine,” (Joh 15:1), the minds of His disciples may well have turned back to this scripture, as ours also may do. Israel was the picked sample of humanity in which the trial of the whole race took place. The condemnation of Israel is the condemnation of all of us; but it was in the cross of Christ that the condemnation was formally and finally pronounced. The first man and his race condemned and rejected. The Second Man, and those who are of Him and in Him, accepted and established for ever.
The song of Isaiah ended, the prophet dropped figurative language for the hard, plain facts of Israel’s sin. Six times over does he utter a “Woe” upon them in verses Isa 5:8-25, and again we notice that it was their moral evils that stirred the Divine wrath. The first woe is flung at the men of grasping covetousness, who aimed at monopolizing houses and lands for themselves. Judgment in the form of desolation for both houses and lands would fall upon them.
The second woe is against the drunkard and pleasure-seeker. The judgment awaiting them is described down to verse Isa 5:17. We may observe that similar catastrophe ever follows a people given over to pleasure and debauchery. The great Roman Empire did it in her later years, and then crashed. If Britain and other nations of today do it – what then?
The third woe (verse Isa 5:18) is uttered against those who sin openly, violently, in defiance of God. The fourth is against men of a subtler type, who overturn all the foundations of right and wrong. Accepting their ideas and teachings the multitude become confused and perverted, condemning what is good and applauding what is evil; truly a terrible state of things.
This leads, no doubt, to what is denounced in the fifth woe. The men who do thus pervert the mental outlook of their fellows, pose as being the wise and prudent leaders of others. At least they consider themselves to be such. And the effect of their teachings – new and progressive, as they would call them – upon those who imbibe them, leads to the denunciation of the sixth woe. They go back to their drink and debauchery, and pervert everything that is right in their dealings with others. If they accept the teaching, indicated in verse Isa 5:20, that is what they will do.
After the second woe no details of what would be involved are given till we reach verse Isa 5:24. Then the pent-up wrath, merited by the last four woes, is made plain. And in verses Isa 5:26-30, there is revealed how all six woes would bring upon them chastisement from without. The nations that soon would descend upon them like a roaring lion, and were doubtless headed up in the mighty Assyrian of those days, whom the Lord called, “The rod of Mine anger” (Isa 10:5).
Having been used to pronounce this six-fold woe, Isaiah was given a vision of the glory of Jehovah on His throne, attended by the angelic seraphim. Of their six wings only two were used for flight. First came the covering of the face in the presence of inscrutable glory; then the covering of their own way from their eyes; lastly their activity in the service of their God; a suitable lesson for ourselves. A Spirit of worship and self-forgetfulness precedes service. The very door of the temple was moved at the Divine presence and this was followed by a spiritual movement in Isaiah. It wrought deep conviction of sin and uncleanness, so that having just pronounced in the name of the Lord six woes upon others, he now called for a woe upon himself.
Here we see exemplified the statement, “Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity” (Psa 39:5). This happened to Isaiah in the year that King Uzziah died, who was one of the better kings, but ended his days a leper because he dared to push his way into the temple of God. Here Isaiah found himself before God in His temple, and he instinctively used the language of a leper (see, Lev 13:45) realising that sin is leprosy of a spiritual sort. No sooner had his confession been made than the way of cleansing was revealed. Live coal, that had been in contact with the sacrifice was applied to his lips and the sin and uncleanness removed. Only sacrifice can cleanse sin; a foreshadowing of the death of Christ.
Then came the challenge as to service, and Isaiah’s response; and as a result he was specially sent as the messenger to Israel. As often pointed out, the unvarying order is:- first, conviction; second, cleansing; third, commission in the service of God. Isaiah said, “Here am I; send me.” When God was about to commission Moses, He had the response, in effect, “Here am I; send somebody else,” as we see in Exo 4:13; though He overruled it and Moses was sent. Let us all – especially the young Christian – give Isaiah’s response and not that of Moses, lest the Lord pass us by, to our loss at the judgment seat of Christ.
It is instructive to note New Testament references to this scene. In Joh 12:4, the blind rejection of Jesus is the theme, and we discover that Isaiah “saw His glory, and spake of Him.” Then in Act 28:26, Paul refers to our chapter and says, “Well spake the Holy Ghost…” So here is one of those allusions to the Trinity, which are embedded in the Old Testament. In verse Isa 5:3 we have “Holy,” repeated, not twice nor four times but three; and Jehovah of hosts is before us. In verse Isa 5:5, “the King, the Lord of hosts,” whom we find to be the Lord Jesus. In verse Isa 5:8, “the voice of the Lord,” which is claimed as the voice of the Holy Ghost. God is One and yet Three: Three and yet One. Hence, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for US?”
Verses Isa 5:9-15, give us the message that Isaiah was commissioned to give. It was indeed of great solemnity. Things had reached such a state that hardening and blindness was to fall on the people, so that conversion and healing would not be theirs, and they would be driven out of their land. The only gleam of hope as to themselves would be found in the fact that God would have His tenth in a holy seed: in other words, He would preserve for Himself a godly remnant. The position was the same among the Jews in Paul’s day, as Rom 11:1-36 shows, and it is exactly the same today. The national blindness still persists and there is still a believing remnant, but now incorporated in the church.
With Isa 7:1-25 we pass into some historical details of the reign of Ahaz, which are recorded in 2Ki 15:1-38; 2Ki 16:1-20. He wrought much evil and was now threatened by an alliance against him of Pekah, the usurper on the throne of the ten tribes, and Rezin of Syria. If they had slain or removed Ahaz, they would have broken the line of descent, by which, according to the flesh, Christ came, as indicated in Mat 1:9. This God was not going to allow, so Isaiah was instructed to take his young son, Shear-Jashub, which means, “The remnant shall return,” and intercept Ahaz, telling him their scheme should not succeed, and that within 65 years the northern kingdom should be destroyed.
Invited to ask for a sign that should confirm this prophecy, Ahaz declined, not because he had implicit faith in the word of the Lord but because swayed by his idols he was indifferent. Nevertheless the great sign was given – Immanuel, born of a virgin – which was indeed valid, both “in the depth,” and “in the height above.” Notice the order of these two expressions, and then read Eph 4:9, where it is emphasized that the descent comes before the ascent on high.
After this prophecy had been fulfilled in the coming of Christ the Jews made great efforts to avoid giving the Hebrew word the force of virgin, treating it as meaning merely a young woman; and to this day unbelievers have followed in their train. The Septuagint version, made by Jews long before the prejudice arose, translated the word by the Greek word which without any question means virgin. This one fact effectively destroys the effort to destroy the prophecy.
Verse Isa 5:15 is admittedly obscure, but we believe it signifies that the coming One, though “GOD with us,” is yet, as born of the virgin, to grow up both physically and mentally according to the laws governing human life. This we see to be the case in Luk 2:40-52.
Verse Isa 5:16 appears to allude to Shear-jashub, who was with Isaiah, for the word translated “child” is not the one so translated in chapter Isa 9:6, but one meaning “lad” or “youth.” The prediction of that verse came to pass through the power and rapacity of the Assyrian kings, as the closing verses of this chapter state. The desolations that would follow are then described.
In all this there is only one hope for Israel, or indeed for any of us, and that is, God himself stepping into the scene by way of the virgin birth. Thus was fulfilled the earliest prophecy of all, that “the Seed of the woman” should be He, who would bruise the head of the serpent, the originator of all the sin and sorrow. The virgin birth of Christ is not just a mere detail, an insignificant side issue in the Divine plan. It is fundamental and essential. By it the entail of sin and death, inherent in the race of Adam, was broken. Christ was not “of the earth, earthy,” but “the Second Man… the Lord from heaven” (1Co 15:47). In Him, risen from the dead, a new race of man is begun.
A second child of Isaiah is mentioned in chapter 8. His long name was significant of the approaching conquest by Assyria of the two powers that were at that moment threatening Judah. Like a flood from the river the king of Assyria would overflow even through Judah, though he was not allowed to take Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s time. Assyria did not know then, and the nations have not known since, that the land belongs primarily to Immanuel and only secondarily to the Jew.
Verses Isa 5:9-10 doubtless had an application to the day when Isaiah wrote, but their force abides. Palestine holds a very central position and it is becoming more and more evident that its potential riches are great. The peoples may associate themselves in contending leagues in order to lay hands on it but they will be broken in pieces, “for God is with us;” literally “for Immanuel.” Christ is God and when He is manifested in His glory, the nations will be as nothing before Him – only “as a drop of a bucket,” as presently Isaiah tells us. Among the nations today the idea of a confederacy is strong but this will be the end of it.
Isaiah, however, was warned against the idea of a confederacy for himself and his people. It would be doubly wrong in their case, inasmuch as they had been given the knowledge of God, and He was to be their trust. This we see in verses Isa 5:11-18. Ahaz in his day was keen on a confederacy, and in the last days there will be strong confederacy between the man, who will become the wilful king and false prophet in Jerusalem, and the predicted head of the revived Roman empire; and this instead of the fear of the Lord.
The reason of this is revealed in verse Isa 5:15. Immanuel is truly the sanctuary of His people but He would become “a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence,” by the fact of His rejection. This is made quite plain in 1Pe 2:8. This He is to “both the houses of Israel,” though He was rejected mainly at the hands of the house of Judah.
In these striking verses the godly are owned as Immanuel’s “disciples.” Though the mass of the people fall and are broken, as the Lord said in Mat 21:44, the testimony and the law will not fail, but will be bound up among those who really fear the Lord. Such will wait upon the Lord instead of turning to confederacies with men, and they will look for the appearing of Immanuel. When He appears in His glory those given to Him, and carried through the time of tribulation, will be for a sign and a wonder. This applies also today, as we see by the quotation in Heb 2:13. The saints given to Him today will be manifested with Him in glory. And what a sign and wonder it will be when He thus displays the “exceeding riches of His grace,” (Eph 2:7).
Verse Isa 5:19 returns to what was then taking place in Israel. They were turning to the spiritist practices of the heathen with necromancers and soothsayers, trying to get guidance for the living from those who were dead, when the law and testimony was available for them, in which light from God was shining. If they did not speak according to that, there would be “no light in them;” or, “for them there is no daybreak.” The principle of all this is more abundantly true for us today, inasmuch as the coming of Christ has so greatly amplified the word and testimony of God, enshrined in the New Testament Scriptures. If men turn from that to the illusive sparks, generated by man’s wisdom and achievements, there will be no light in them, and no daybreak for them when Christ returns.
Instead of daybreak there will be darkness and gloom, so graphically described in the two verses that close this chapter and the opening verse of Isa 9:1-21. There was this darkness in the days of Ahaz. It existed in the day when Christ came, and it will doubtless be very pronounced at the end of the age. The way in which this prophecy is applied to the Lord Jesus and His early ministry, when we turn to Mat 4:13-16, is very striking. What wonderful spiritual light streamed forth from Him, both in His words and His miracles, for the blessing of those who had been sitting in darkness, whether they had eyes to see it or not.
The opening verses of Isa 9:1-21 follow one another in a very instructive and delightful sequence. Verse Isa 5:1 continues the picture of great darkness and affliction that closed chapter 8. Verse Isa 5:2 tells of the great light that burst in upon the darkness. Verse Isa 5:3, of the great joy that follows; for translation authorities tell us that the word, “not,” should be deleted. Verse Isa 5:4 speaks of the great deliverance that will be granted: verse Isa 5:5, of the removal by burning of all that speaks of warfare, so that great peace is established.
Referring this to the first advent of the Lord Jesus, as Matthew does, we recognize that these great things have been the result in a spiritual way. They are just what the Gospel brings, whether to Jew or Gentile. They will be achieved for Israel, and indeed for the saved nations, in the coming day when the Lord appears in His glory. Then every oppressor will be completely destroyed and peace will descend upon the earth.
Verse Isa 5:6 begins with, “For;” that is, it supplies the basic reason or ground on which the prophecy rests. The meaning and implications of the great name, Immanuel, are unfolded to us. He is truly the “Child” born to the virgin but He is also the “Son” given. In the fuller light of the New Testament we can see how fitting is the word “given” here rather than “born.” He who was “Son” became “seed of David according to the flesh” (Rom 1:3); that is, by His birth of the virgin. Hence His Sonship preceded His birth, and, as the fruit of inspiration, the prophecy was so worded as to be in harmony with the truth later to be revealed.
The government is to rest on the shoulder of Immanuel, and the full import of the name is now given to us under five headings. The first is “Wonderful;” that is, Singular and beyond all powers of human scrutiny. Then He is “Counsellor;” One involved in the counselling which precedes Divine acts, as for instance, “Let Us make man…” (Gen 1:26). This must be so inasmuch as He is “Mighty God.” Again, being so, when He takes flesh and blood, His name of course must be, “God with us.” Moreover, He is “Father of eternity,” as more literally the words read. Eternity has its origin in Him. The ascription of Deity to the Child born could not be more distinct.
Lastly, being all this, He is “Prince of peace,” the only One who, in this rebellious world, can establish it upon a permanent basis. This He will do by the warrior judgments, predicted in verses Isa 5:4-5. Becoming “Seed of David,” as we have seen, He will sit upon the throne of David, and having crushed man’s rebellion and evil, He will govern with judgment and justice to the glory of God and the blessing of men. The Second Advent of our Lord will see these great predictions fulfilled to the letter.
The epoch in which we live is not the day of God’s government upon the earth but the day of His grace, when government is still in the hands of the Gentiles and God is gathering out of the nations a people for His name. The time of grace may soon end, and then God will arise to deal with the world problems created by the sin of man. To bring the whole earth into subjection will indeed be a colossal task, but as our scripture says, “The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.” We may well rejoice that so it will be.
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary

Isa 5:1. 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, (Isa 5:7,) or his church among the Israelites, often, and very properly, called a vineyard, because of Gods 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, , 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.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 5:1. My well-beloved; the Messiah, who certainly was Lord of the Vineyard, and the men of Judah were his pleasant plants. Psa 80:14-15. Eze 17:6. Hos 10:1. Mat 20:1-16. They were a people whom he cultivated, and with whom he delighted as a garden. To understand this vineyard of a fruitful horn is diverting enough; for a horn, like a mountain, is elevated. So Dr. Lowth, for two pages; and so Erasmus makes us merry in his battle of grammarians.
Isa 5:2. The choicest vine; literally, the vine of Sorek, a valley not far distant from Eshcol, from which the spies brought the large clusters and branches of the vine.A wine-press. Mystically understood of the atoning altar, as the pleasant hill and the tower are understood of the temple.
Isa 5:10. A homer shall yield an ephah; just one tenth of what was sown.
Isa 5:11. Strong drink. The LXX, , wine made from the nuts of the date, or palmtree. See Exo 15:27. We have this passage more at large in Amo 6:3-6. Dr. Lowth here quotes Pliny, who says that strong drink means palm wine.
Isa 5:14. Hellopened her mouth, as a wide cavern. See on Psa 9:17; Psa 16:10.
Isa 5:18. That draw sin as with a cart rope. This simile is so unnatural that we suspect a mistake. The LXX, a long rope. This idea indicates a long continuance in wine, and long continuance in vice, which bears away and overpowers the whole force of public morals. Others say, the punishment of sin as a load on their conscience.
Isa 5:25. Their carcases torn in the streets, with dogs, it might seem: but the LXX more naturally say, as dung in the streets. This was fulfilled when the Chaldeans filled the streets with the slain. Eze 11:6.
Isa 5:26. He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far; as is repeated, chap. 10:5. Ho to the Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, the staff of my indignation, &c.
REFLECTIONS.
From this elegiac song of the vineyard, which our Saviour seemed to utter over Jerusalem, we learn that God took great delight in Israel. The temple was his palace, the people were his family, and the whole land his favourite garden. He fenced it round with a wall; yea, his cloud which awed the Egyptians, was a wall of fire which no invader could pass, unless he first gave him a commission to punish apostasy. The heavenly owner digged out the stones, removed both the Canaanites and their idols, and planted it with a choice vine. His church, his statutes and ordinances, were in the midst of them. Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Samuel, and others were flourishing branches of this church. His winepress or sacred altar was in the midst of it, and thence flowed all the reviving ministry of the holy prophets.
We have the disappointment of the divine expectation, if we may speak after the manner of men. When God looked for rich clusters, he found nothing but wild, bad, or putrid grapes, such as resembled Jeremiahs naughty figs: Isa 24:2. Instead of love, there were bitterness and wrath; instead of piety, there was a contempt of his easy yoke; instead of holiness, sin of every kind abounded in the land.
As Nathan made David the judge in the case of the ewe lamb, so the Lord now makes the men of Judah judges in the case of his vineyard. How terrible then is the state of apostate and wicked men, when their own conscience shall be the first to give sentence against them. How silent, how speechless will they be at the bar of God.
This silence of the wicked farther appears from the grand question, What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done? Could purer statutes, could better prophets, and a happier diversity of mercies and judgments have been extended towards it? The Lord might have put the same question, before the Romans finally destroyed Jerusalem. God may put the same question to every sinner; and perhaps the day is not distant when God shall put the same question to Britain. And alas, if he take away our hedge, being revolted at our bitter fruits of sin; where will the despisers of his gospel find a refuge!
Isaiah improves the vision by calling every class of sinners to repentance. The covetous who live to augment estates, the drunkards who waste their substance, and the circles of pleasure who draw iniquity with long ropes of vanity and lies. He pressed repentance the more, for he saw hell enlarging her jaws to swallow the wicked; and he beheld the Lord beckoning to nations from afar, to come and avenge his quarrel with the sword.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 5:1-7. The Parable of the Thankless Vineyard.Isaiah probably at a vintage festival, when Judans from the country (Isa 5:3), as well as the inhabitants of Jerusalem, are present, comes forward as a minstrel. He sings this song of his friends vineyard in light popular measure, making it attractive with beautiful plays upon words. He skilfully heightens the interest of his hearers, and by concealing the true nature of the vineyard he wins from them a mental self-condemnation. Then he throws off the mask and points the moral in a sentence made unforgettable by a pair of splendid assonances. The date is quite uncertain, but it may belong to the same period as Isa 2:6 to Isa 4:1
The minstrel sings of his Beloved. He had chosen for his vineyard the most suitable situation. It was on a hill for the sake of the sunny exposure, and as the soil was very fertile, it had the best position that nature could offer. He lavished also every care on its culture. He dug it up, for ploughing was impossible on the steep hillside, and cleared the ground of stones. Then he planted the soil thus prepared with choice vines. In anticipation of an abundant vintage he built a tower, not a mere watchmans hut (Isa 1:8), and hewed a vat (mg.) out of the solid limestone, into which the juice might run from the wine-press. He also planted a hedge and built a wall (Isa 5:5) round the vineyard. But when he came to gather the grapes he found only wild grapes. The poet now speaks in the person of his friend, and invites the judgment of the hearers on his own conduct and that of the vineyard. The people are silent: only one answer is possible to the question, Where does the blame lie? But they wait to see what fate is reserved for such ingratitude. The rhythm becomes heavier to reflect the darkening mood of the speaker as the doom is pronounced. The hedge is removed, the wall broken, and the wild beasts and cattle, no longer kept at bay, press in and ravage the vineyard. And the owner abandons it, untilled, unpruned, to thorns and brambles nay more, he promotes its ruin by bidding the clouds pour no rain upon it. Does the poet then disclose in these words the identity of the owner, since it is Yahweh alone who can command the clouds to withhold their rain? Not necessarily, for David could in his elegy lay a similar ban on the mountains of Gilboa (2Sa 1:21). Only in the closing verse is the well-kept secret revealed, that Yahweh is the Beloved and Judah His thankless vineyard. It comes with a crash that reminds us of Nathans Thou art the man! And it is expressed in words which his hearers cannot forget. The assonances cannot be tolerably reproduced in English: He looked for mishpat and behold mispah, for tsedaqah and behold tseaqah. The meaning of the word rendered oppression is uncertain; it is generally translated bloodshed. The cry is the cry of the oppressed.
Isa 5:1. The text is uncertain, but has not been satisfactorily emended.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

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.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

1. The song of the vineyard 5:1-7
Isaiah, like a folk singer, sang a parable about a vineyard that compared Israel to a vineyard that Yahweh had planted and from which He legitimately expected to receive fruit. One cannot help but wonder if this passage lay behind Jesus’ teaching on the vine and the branches in Joh 15:1-6. The prophet’s original audience did not realize what this song was about at first. It started out sounding like a happy wedding song, but it turned out to be a funeral dirge announcing Israel’s death. This chiastic "song" is only the first part of Isaiah’s unified message in this chapter. His song flowed into a sermon. This is the first of several songs in Isaiah (cf. chs. 12, 35; Isa 54:1-10; et al.).
"In a way similar to Nathan’s, when he used a story to get King David to condemn his own action (2Sa 12:1-7), so Isaiah sets his hearers up to judge themselves . . ." [Note: Oswalt, p. 151.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Isaiah offered to sing a song for his good friend about his friend’s "vineyard," a figure for one’s bride (cf. Son 1:6; Son 8:12). Actually, this song contains a harsh message about another person and His "vineyard," namely: Yahweh and Israel. Isaiah painted a picture of a man cultivating his relationship with his wife, only to have her turn out to be disappointing. But, as would shortly become clear, he was really describing God’s careful preparation of Israel to bring forth spiritual fruit. The man double-fenced his vineyard and built a watchtower and a wine vat (storage tank) in it, indicating that He intended it to satisfy Him for a long time. Yet all His work was for naught; His finest vines (Heb. sorek) disappointed Him. Ezekiel observed that if a vine does not produce fruit, it is good for nothing (Eze 15:2-5; cf. Joh 15:6).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER III
THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD,
OR TRUE PATRIOTISM THE CONSCIENCE OF OUR COUNTRYS SINS
735 B.C.
Isa 5:1-30; Isa 9:8 – Isa 10:4
THE prophecy contained in these chapters belongs, as we have seen, to the same early period of Isaiahs career as chapters 2-4, about the time when Ahaz ascended the throne after the long and successful reigns of his father and grandfather, when the kingdom of Judah seemed girt with strength and filled with wealth, but the men were corrupt and the women careless, and the earnest of approaching judgment was already given in the incapacity of the weak and woman-ridden king. Yet although this new prophecy issues from the same circumstances as its predecessors, it implies these circumstances a little more developed. The same social evils are treated, but by a hand with a firmer grasp of them. The same principles are emphasised-the righteousness of Jehovah and His activity in judgment – but the form of judgment of which Isaiah had spoken before in general terms looms nearer, and before the end of the prophecy we get a view at close quarters of the Assyrian ranks.
Besides, opposition has arisen to the prophets teaching. We saw that the obscurities and inconsistencies of chapters 2-4 are due to the fact that that prophecy represents several stages of experience through which Isaiah passed before he gained his final convictions. But his countrymen, it appears, have now had time to turn on these convictions and call them in question: it is necessary for Isaiah to vindicate them. The difference, then, between these two sets of prophecies, dealing with the same things, is that in the former (chapters 2-4), we have the obscure and tortuous path of a conviction struggling to light in the prophets own experience; here, in chapter 5, we have its careful array in the light and before the people.
The point of Isaiahs teaching against which opposition was directed was of course its main point, that God was about to abandon Judah. This must have appeared to the popular religion of the day as the rankest heresy. To the Jews the honour of Jehovah was bound up with the inviolability of Jerusalem and the prosperity of Judah. But Isaiah knew Jehovah to be infinitely more concerned for the purity of His people than for their prosperity. He had seen the Lord “exalted in righteousness” above those national and earthly interests, with which vulgar men exclusively identified His will. Did the people appeal to the long time Jehovah had graciously led them for proof that He would not abandon them now? To Isaiah that gracious leading was but for righteousness sake, and that God might make His own a holy people. Their history, so full of the favours of the Almighty, did not teach Isaiah, as it did the common prophets of his time, the lesson of Israels political security, but the far different one of their religious responsibility. To him it only meant what Amos had already put in those startling words, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities.” Now Isaiah delivered this doctrine at a time when it brought him the hostility of mens passions as well as of their opinions. Judah was arming for war. Syria and Ephraim were marching upon her. To threaten his country with ruin in such an hour was to run the risk of suffering from popular fury as a traitor as well as from priestly prejudice as a heretic. The strain of the moment is felt in the strenuousness of the prophecy. Chapter 5, with its appendix, exhibits more grasp and method than its predecessors. Its literary form is finished, its feeling clear. There is a tenderness in the beginning of it, an inexorableness in the end, and an eagerness all through which stamp the chapter as Isaiahs final appeal to his countrymen at this period of his career.
The chapter is a noble piece of patriotism-one of the noblest of a race who, although for the greater part of their history without a fatherland, have contributed more brilliantly than perhaps any other to the literature of patriotism, and that simply because, as Isaiah here illustrates, patriotism was to their prophets identical with religious privilege and responsibility. Isaiah carries this to its bitter end. Other patriots have wept to sing their countrys woes; Isaiahs burden is his peoples guilt. To others an invasion of their fatherland by its enemies has been the motive to rouse by song or speech their countrymen to repel it. Isaiah also hears the tramp of the invader; but to him is permitted no ardour of defence, and his message to his countrymen is that they must succumb, for the invasion is irresistible and of the very judgment of God. How much it cost the prophet to deliver such a message we may see from those few verses of it in which his heart is not altogether silenced by his conscience. The sweet description of Judah as a vineyard, and the touching accents that break through the roll of denunciation with such phrases as “My people are gone away into captivity unawares,” tell us how the prophets love of country is struggling with his duty to a righteous God. The course of feeling throughout the prophecy is very striking. The tenderness of the opening lyric seems ready to flow into gentle pleading with the whole people. But as the prophet turns to particular classes and their sins his mood changes to indignation, the voice settles down to judgment; till when it issues upon that clear statement of the coming of the Northern hosts every trace of emotion has left it, and the sentences ring out as unfaltering as the tramp of the armies they describe.
I. THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD
{Isa 5:1-7}
Isaiah adopts the resource of every misunderstood and unpopular teacher, and seeks to turn the flank of his peoples prejudices by an attack in parable on their sympathies. Did they stubbornly believe it impossible for God to abandon a State He had so long and so carefully fostered? Let them judge from an analogous case in which they were all experts. In a picture of great beauty Isaiah describes a vineyard upon one of the sunny promontories visible from Jerusalem. Every care had been given it of which an experienced vinedresser could think, but it brought forth only wild grapes. The vinedresser himself is introduced, and appeals to the men of Judah and Jerusalem to judge between him and his vineyard. He gets their assent that all had been done which could be done, and fortified with that resolves to abandon the vineyard. “I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briers and thorns.” Then the stratagem comes out, the speaker drops the tones of a human cultivator, and in the omnipotence of the Lord of heaven he is heard to say, “I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” This diversion upon their sympathies having succeeded, the prophet scarcely needs to charge the peoples prejudices in face. His point has been evidently carried. “For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant; and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry.”
The lesson enforced by Isaiah is just this, that in a peoples civilisation there lie the deepest responsibilities, for that is neither more nor less than their cultivation by God; and the question for a people is not how secure does this render them, nor what does it count for glory, but how far is it rising towards the intentions of its Author? Does it produce those fruits of righteousness for which alone God cares to set apart and cultivate the peoples? On this depends the question whether the civilisation is secure, as well as the right of the people to enjoy and feel proud of it. There cannot be true patriotism without sensitiveness to this, for however rich be the elements that compose the patriots temper, as piety towards the past, ardour of service for the present, love of liberty, delight in natural beauty, and gratitude for Divine favour, so rich a temper will grow rancid without the salt of conscience; and the richer the temper is, the greater must be the proportion of that salt. All prophets and poets of patriotism have been moralists and satirists as well. From Demosthenes to Tourgenieff. from Dante to Mazzini, from Milton to Russell Lowell, from Burns to Heine, one cannot recall any great patriot who has not known how to use the scourge as well as the trumpet. Many opportunities will present themselves to us of illustrating Isaiahs orations by the letters and speeches of Cromwell, who of moderns most resembles the statesman-prophet of Judah; but nowhere does the resemblance become so close as when we lay a prophecy like this of Jehovahs vineyard by the side of the speeches in which the Lord Protector exhorted the Commons of England, although it was the hour of his and. their triumph, to address themselves to their sins.
So, then, the patriotism of all great men has carried a conscience for their countrys sins. But while this is always more or less a burden to the true patriot, there are certain periods in which his care for his country ought to be this predominantly, and need be little else. In a period like our own, for instance, of political security and fashionable religion, what need is there in patriotic displays of any other kind? but how much for patriotism of this kind-of men who will uncover the secret sins, however loathsome, and declare the hypocrisies, however powerful, of the social life of the people! These are the patriots we need in times of peace; and as it is more difficult to rouse a torpid people to their sins than to lead a roused one against their enemies, and harder to face a whole people with the support only of conscience than to defy many nations if you but have your own at your back, so these patriots of peace are more to be honoured than those of war. But there is one kind of patriotism more arduous and honourable still. It is that which Isaiah displays here, who cannot add to his conscience hope or even pity, who must hail his countrys enemies for his countrys good, and recite the long roll of Gods favours to his nation only to emphasise the justice of His abandonment of them.
II. THE WILD GRAPES OF JUDAH
{Isa 5:8-24}
The wild grapes which Isaiah saw in the vineyard of the Lord he catalogues in a series of Woes (Isa 5:8-24), fruits all of them of love of money and love of wine. They are abuse of the soil (Isa 5:8-10, Isa 5:17), a giddy luxury which has taken to drink (Isa 5:11-16), a moral blindness and headlong audacity of sin which habitual avarice and drunkenness soon develop (Isa 5:18-21), and, again, a greed of drink and money-mens perversion of their strength to wine, and of their opportunities of justice to the taking of bribes (Isa 5:22-24). These are the features of corrupt civilisation not only in Judah, and the voice that deplores them cannot speak without rousing others very clamant to the modern conscience. It is with remarkable persistence that in every civilisation the two main passions of the human heart, love of wealth and love of pleasure, the instinct to gather and the instinct to squander, have sought precisely these two forms denounced by Isaiah in which to work their social havoc-appropriation of the soil and indulgence in strong drink. Every civilised community develops sooner or later its land-question and its liquor-question. “Questions” they are called by the superficial opinion that all difficulties may be overcome by the cleverness of men; yet problems through which there cries for remedy so vast a proportion of our poverty, crime, and madness, are something worse than “questions.” They are huge sins, and require not merely the statesmans wit, but all the patience and zeal of which a nations conscience is capable. It is in this that the force of Isaiahs treatment lies. We feel he is not facing questions of State, but sins of men. He has nothing to tell us of what he considers the best system of land tenure, but he enforces the principle that in the ease with which land may be absorbed by one person the natural covetousness of the human heart has a terrible opportunity for working ruin upon society. “Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.” We know from Micah that the actual process which Isaiah condemns was carried out with the most cruel evictions and disinheritances. Isaiah does not touch on its methods, but exposes its effects on the country-depopulation and barrenness, -and emphasises its religious significance. “Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without an inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah Then shall lambs. feed as in their pasture, and strangers shall devour the ruins of the fat ones”-i.e., of the luxurious landowners (Isa 5:9, Isa 5:10, Isa 5:17). And in one of those elliptic statements by which he often startles us with the sudden sense that God Himself is acquainted with all our affairs, and takes His own interest in them, Isaiah adds, “All this was whispered to me by Jehovah: In mine ears-the Lord of hosts” (Isa 5:9).
During recent agitations in our own country one has often seen the “land laws of the Bible” held forth by some thoughtless demagogue as models for land tenure among ourselves; as if a system which worked well with a small tribe in a land they had all entered on equal footing, and where there was no opportunity for the industry of the people except in pasture and in tillage, could possibly be applicable to a vastly larger and more complex population, with different traditions and very different social circumstances. Isaiah says nothing about the peculiar land laws of his people. He lays down principles, and these are principles valid in every civilisation. God has made the land, not to feed the pride of the few, but the natural hunger of the many, and it is His will that the most be got out of a countrys soil for the people of the country. Whatever be the system of land-tenure-and while all are more or less liable to abuse, it is the duty of a people to agitate for that which will be least liable-if it is taken advantage of by individuals to satisfy their own cupidity, then God will take account of them. There is a responsibility which the State cannot enforce, and the neglect of which cannot be punished by any earthly law, but all the more will God see to it. A nations treatment of their land is not always prominent as a question which demands the attention of public reformers; but it ceaselessly has interest for God, who ever holds individuals to answer for it. The land-question is ultimately a religious question. For the management of their land the whole nation is responsible to God, but especially those who own or manage estates. This is a sacred office. When one not only remembers the nature of land-how it is an element of life, so that if a man abuse the soil it is as if he poisoned the air or darkened the heavens-but appreciates also the multitude of personal relations which the landowner or factor holds in his hand-the peace of homes, the continuity of local traditions, the physical health, the social fearlessness and frankness, and the thousand delicate associations which their habitations entwine about the hearts of men-one feels that to all who possess or manage land is granted an opportunity of patriotism and piety open to few, a ministry less honourable and sacred than none other committed by God to man for his fellow-men.
After the land-sin Isaiah hurls his second Woe upon the drink-sin, and it is a heavier woe than the first. With fatal persistence the luxury of every civilisation has taken to drink; and of all the indictments brought by moralists against nations, that which they reserve for drunkenness is, as here, the most heavily weighted. The crusade against drink is not the novel thing that many imagine who observe only its late revival among ourselves. In ancient times there was scarcely a State in which prohibitive legislation of the most stringent kind was not attempted, and generally carried out with a thoroughness more possible under despots than where, as with us, the slow consent of public opinion is necessary. A horror of strong drink has in every age possessed those who from their position as magistrates or prophets have been able to follow for any distance the drifts of social life. Isaiah exposes as powerfully as ever any of them did in what the peculiar fatality of drinking lies. Wine is a mocker by nothing more than by the moral incredulity which it produces, enabling men to hide from themselves the spiritual and material effects of over-indulgence in it. No one who has had to do with persons slowly falling from moderate to immoderate drinking can mistake Isaiahs meaning when he says, “They regard not the work of the Lord; neither have they considered the operation of His hands.” Nothing kills the conscience like steady drinking to a little excess; and religion, even while the conscience is alive, acts on it only as an opiate. It is not, however, with the symptoms of drink in individuals so much as with its aggregate effects on the nation that Isaiah is concerned. So prevalent is excessive drinking, so entwined with the social customs of the country and many powerful interests, that it is extremely difficult to rouse public opinion to its effects. And “so they go into captivity for lack of knowledge.” Temperance reformers are often blamed for the strength of their language, but they may shelter themselves behind Isaiah. As he pictures it, the national destruction caused by drink is complete. It is nothing less than the peoples captivity, and we know what that meant to an Israelite. It affects all classes: “Their honourable men are famished, and their multitude parched with thirst. The mean man is bowed down, and the great man is humbled.” But the want and ruin of this earth are not enough to describe it. The appetite of hell itself has to be enlarged to suffice for the consumption of the spoils of strong drink. “Therefore hell hath enlarged her desire and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth among them, descend into it.” The very appetite of hell has to be enlarged! Does it not truly seem as if the wild and wanton waste of drink were preventable, as if it were not, as many are ready to sneer, the inevitable evil of mens hearts choosing this form of issue, but a superfluous audacity of sin, which the devil himself did not desire or tempt men to? It is this feeling of the infernal gratuitousness of most of the drink-evil-the conviction that here hell would be quiet if only she were not stirred up by the extraordinarily wanton provocatives that society and the State offer to excessive drinking- which compels temperance reformers at the present day to isolate drunkenness and make it the object of a special crusade. Isaiahs strong figure has lost none of its strength today. When our judges tell us from the bench that nine-tenths of pauperism and crime are caused by drink, and our physicians that if only irregular tippling were abolished half the current sickness of the land would cease, and our statesmen that the ravages of strong drink are equal to those of the historical scourges of war, famine, and pestilence combined, surely to swallow such a glut of spoil the appetite of hell must have been still more enlarged, and the mouth of hell made yet wider.
The next three Woes are upon different aggravations of that moral perversity which the prophet has already traced to strong drink. In the first of these it is better to read, draw punishment near with cords of vanity, than draw iniquity. Then we have a striking antithesis-the drunkards mocking Isaiah over their cups with the challenge, as if it would not be taken up, “Let Jehovah make speed, and hasten His work of judgment, that we may see it,” while all the time they themselves were dragging that judgment near, as with cart-ropes, by their persistent diligence in evil. This figure of sinners jeering at the approach of a calamity while they actually wear the harness of its carriage is very striking. But the Jews are not only unconscious of judgment, they are confused as to the very principles of morality: “Who call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
In his fifth Woe the prophet attacks a disposition to which his scorn gives no peace throughout his ministry. If these sensualists had only confined themselves to their sensuality they might have been left alone; but with that intellectual bravado which is equally born with “Dutch courage” of drink, they interferred in the conduct of the State, and prepared arrogant policies of alliance and war that were the distress of the sober-minded prophet all his days. “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.”
In his last Woe Isaiah returns to the drinking habits of the upper classes, from which it would appear that among the judges even of Judah there were “six-bottle men.” They sustained theft extravagance by subsidies, which we trust were unknown to the mighty men of wine who once filled the seats of justice in our own country. “They justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.” All these sinners, dead through their rejection of the law of Jehovah of hosts and the word of the Holy One of Israel, shall be like to the stubble, fit only for burning, and their blossom as the dust of the rotten tree.
III. THE ANGER OF THE LORD
{Isa 5:25; Isa 9:8 – Isa 10:4; Isa 5:26-30}
This indictment of the various sins of the people occupies the whole of the second part of the oration. But a third part is now added, in which the prophet catalogues the judgments of the Lord upon them, each of these closing with the weird refrain, “For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.” The complete catalogue is usually obtained by inserting between the 25th and 26th verses of chapter 5 {Isa 5:25-26}. the long passage from chapter 9, verse 8, to chapter 10, verse 4. It is quite true that as far as chapter 5 itself is concerned it does not need this insertion; Isa 9:8-21; Isa 10:1-4 is decidedly out of place where it now lies. Its paragraphs end with the same refrain as closes Isa 5:25, which forms, besides, a natural introduction to them, while Isa 5:26-30 form as natural a conclusion. The latter verses describe an Assyrian invasion, and it was always in an Assyrian invasion that Isaiah foresaw the final calamity of Judah. We may, then, subject to further light on the exceedingly obscure subject of the arrangement of Isaiahs prophecies, follow some of the leading critics, and place Isa 9:8-21; Isa 10:1-4 between verses 25-26 of chapter 5; and the more we examine them the more we shall be satisfied with our arrangement, for strung together in this order they form one of the most impressive series of scenes which even an Isaiah has given us.
From these scenes Isaiah has spared nothing that is terrible in history or nature, and it is not one of the least of the arguments for putting them together that their intensity increases to a climax. Earthquakes, armed raids, a great battle, and the slaughter of a people; prairie and forest fires, civil strife and the famine fever, that feeds upon itself; another battle-field, with its cringing groups of captives and heaps of slain; the resistless tide of a great invasion; and then, for final prospect, a desolate land by the sound of a hungry sea, and the light is darkened in the clouds thereof. The elements of nature and the elemental passions of man have been let loose together; and we follow the violent floods, remembering that it is sin that has burst the gates of the universe, and given the tides of hell full course through it. Over the storm and battle there comes booming like the storm-bell the awful refrain, “For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.” It is poetry of the highest order, but in him who reads it with a conscience mere literary sensations are sobered by the awe of some of the most profound moral phenomena of life. The persistence of Divine wrath, the long-lingering effects of sin in a nations history, mans abuse of sorrow and his defiance of an angry Providence, are the elements of this great drama. Those who are familiar with “King Lear” will recognise these elements, and observe how similarly the ways of Providence and the conduct of men are represented there and here.
What Isaiah unfolds, then. is a series of calamities that have overtaken the people of Israel. It is impossible for us to identify every one of them with a particular event in Israels history otherwise known to us. Some it is not difficult to recognise; but the prophet passes in a perplexing way from Judah to Ephraim and Ephraim to Judah, and in one case, where he represents Samaria as attacked by Syria and the Philistines, he goes back to a period at some distance from his own. There are also passages, as for instance Isa 10:1-4, in which we are unable to decide whether he describes a present punishment or threatens a future one. But his moral purpose, at least, is plain. He will show how often Jehovah has already spoken to His people by calamity, and because they have remained hardened under these warnings, how there now remains possible only the last, worst blow of an Assyrian invasion. Isaiah is justifying his threat of so unprecedented and extreme a punishment for Gods people as overthrow by this Northern people, who had just appeared upon Judahs political horizon. God, he tells Israel, has tried everything short of this, and it has failed; now only this remains, and this shall not fail. The prophets purpose, therefore, being not an accurate historical recital, but moral impressiveness, he gives us a more or less ideal description of former calamities, mentioning only so much as to allow us to recognise here and there that it is actual facts which he uses for his purpose of condemning Israel to captivity, and vindicating Israels God in bringing that captivity near. The passage thus forms a parallel to that in Amos, with its similar refrain: “Yet ye have not returned unto Me, saith the Lord,” {Amo 4:6-12} and only goes farther than that earlier prophecy in indicating that the instruments of the Lords final judgment are to be the Assyrians.
Five great calamities, says Isaiah, have fallen on Israel and left them hardened:
1st, earthquake; {Isa 5:25}
2d, loss of territory; {Isa 9:8-12}
3d, war and a decisive defeat; {Isa 9:13-17}
4th, internal anarchy; {Isa 9:18-21}
5th, the near prospect of captivity. {Isa 10:1-4}
1. THE EARTHQUAKE.-Amos {Isa 5:25} closes his series withan earthquake; Isaiah begins with one. It may be the same convulsion they describe, or may not. Although the skirts of Palestine both to the east and west frequently tremble to these disturbances, an earthquake in Palestine itself, up on the high central ridge of the land, is very rare. Isaiah vividly describes its awful simplicity and suddenness. “The Lord stretched forth His hand and smote, and the hills shook, and their carcases were like offal in the midst of the streets.” More words are not needed, because there was nothing more to describe. The Lord lifted His hand; the hills seemed for a moment to topple over, and when the living recovered from the shock there lay the dead, flung like refuse about the streets.
2. THE LOSS OF TERRITORY.-So {Isa 9:8-21} awful a calamity, in which the dying did not die out of sight nor-fall huddled together on some far off battle-field, but the whole land was strewn with her slain, ought to have left indelible impression on the people. But it did not. The Lords own word had been in it for Jacob and Israel, {Isa 9:8} “that the people might know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria.” But unhumbled they turned in the stoutness of their hearts, saying, when the earthquake had passed: “The bricks are fallen, but we will build with hewn stones”; the “sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.” Calamity did not make this people thoughtful; they felt God only to endeavour to forget Him. Therefore He visited them the second time. They did not feel the Lord shaking their land, so He sent their enemies to steal it from them: “the Syrians before and the Philistines behind; and they devour Israel with open mouth.” What that had been for appalling suddenness this was for lingering and harassing-guerilla warfare, armed raids, the land eaten away bit by bit. “Yet the people do not return unto Him that smote them, neither seek they the Lord of hosts.”
3. WAR AND DEFEAT.-The {Isa 9:13-17} next consequent calamity passed from the land to the people themselves. A great battle is described, in which the nation is dismembered in one day. War and its horrors are told, and the apparent want of Divine pity and discrimination which they imply is explained. Israel has been led into these disasters by the folly of their leaders, whom Isaiah therefore singles out for blame. “For they that lead these people cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed.” But the real horror of war is that it falls not upon its authors, that its victims are not statesmen, but the beauty of a countrys youth, the helplessness of the widow and orphan. Some question seems to have been stirred by this in Isaiahs heart. He asks, Why does the Lord not rejoice in the young men of His people? Why has He no pity for widow and orphan, that He thus sacrifices them to the sin of the rulers? It is because the whole nation shares the rulers guilt; “every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly.” As ruler so people, is a truth Isaiah frequently asserts, but never with such grimness as here. War brings out, as nothing else does, the solidarity of a people in guilt.
4. INTERNAL ANARCHY.-Even {Isa 9:18-21} yet the people did not repent; their calamities only drove them to further wickedness. The prophets eyes are opened to the awful fact that Gods wrath is but the blast that fans mens hot sins to flame. This is one of those two or three awful scenes in history, in the conflagration of which we cannot tell what is human sin and what Divine judgment. There is a panic wickedness, sin spreading like mania, as if men were possessed by supernatural powers. The physical metaphors of the prophet are evident: a forest or prairie fire, and the consequent famine, whose fevered victims feed upon themselves. And no less evident are the political facts which the prophet employs these metaphors to describe. It is the anarchy which has beset more than one corrupt and unfortunate people, when their mis-leaders have been overthrown: the anarchy in which each faction seeks to slaughter out the rest. Jealousy and distrust awake the lust for blood, rage seizes the people as fire the forest, “and no man spareth his brother.” We have had modern instances of all this; these scenes form a true description of some days of the French Revolution, and are even a truer description of the civil war that broke out in Paris after her late siege.
“If that the heavens do not their visible spirits
Send quickly down to tame these vile offences, I will come,
Humanity must perforce prey on itself
Like monsters of the deep.”
5. THE THREAT OF CAPTIVITY.-Turning {Isa 10:1-4} now from the past, and from the fate of Samaria, with which it would appear he has been more particularly engaged, the prophet addresses his own countrymen in Judah, and paints the future for them. It is not a future in which there is any hope. The day of their visitation also will surely come, and the prophet sees it close in the darkest night of which a Jewish heart could think-the night of captivity. Where, he asks his unjust countrymen-where “will ye then flee for help? and where will you leave your glory?” Cringing among the captives, lying dead beneath heaps of dead-that is to be your fate, who will have turned so, often and then so finally from God. When exactly the prophet thus warned his countrymen of captivity we do not know, but the warning, though so real, produced neither penitence in men nor pity in God. “For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.”
6. THE ASSYRIAN INVASION.-The {Isa 5:26-30} prophet is, therefore, free to explain that cloud which has appeared far away on the northern horizon. Gods hand of judgment is still uplifted over Judah, and it is that hand which summons the cloud. The Assyrians are coming in answer to Gods signal, and they are coming as a flood, to leave nothing but ruin and distress behind them. No description by Isaiah is more majestic than this one, in which Jehovah, who has exhausted every nearer means of converting His people, lifts His undrooping arm with a “flag to the nations that are far off, and hisses” or whistles “for them from the end of the earth. And, behold, they come with speed, swiftly: there is no weary one nor straggler among them; none slumbers nor sleeps; nor loosed is the girdle of his loins, nor broken the latchet of his shoes; whose arrows are sharpened, and all their bows bent; their horses hoofs are like the dint, and their wheels like the whirlwind: a roar have they like the lions, and they roar like young lions; yea, they growl and grasp the prey, and carry it off, and there is none to deliver. And they growl upon him that day like the growling of the sea; and if one looks to the land, behold dark and distress, and the light is darkened in the cloudy heaven.”
Thus Isaiah leaves Judah to await her doom. But the tones of his weird refrain awaken in our hearts some thoughts which will not let his message go from us just yet.
It will ever be a question, whether men abuse more their sorrows or their joys; but no earnest soul can doubt, which of these abuses is the more fatal. To sin in the one case is to yield to a temptation; to sin in the other is to resist a Divine grace. Sorrow is Gods last message to man; it is God speaking in emphasis. He who abuses it shows that he can shut his ears when God speaks loudest. Therefore heartlessness or impenitence after sorrow is more dangerous than intemperance in joy; its results are always more tragic. Now Isaiah points out that mens abuse of sorrow is twofold. Men abuse sorrow by mistaking it, and they abuse sorrow by defying it.
Men abuse sorrow by mistaking it, when they see in it nothing but a penal or expiatory force. To many men sorrow is what his devotions were to Louis XI, which having religiously performed, he felt the more brave to sin. So with the Samaritans, who said in the stoutness of their hearts, “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.” To speak in this way is happy, but heathenish. It is to call sorrow “bad luck”; it is to hear no voice of God in it, saying, “Be pure; be humble; lean upon Me.” This disposition springs from a vulgar conception of God, as of a Being of no permanence in character, easily irritated but relieved by a burst of passion, smartly punishing His people and then leaving them to themselves. It is a temper which says, “God is angry, let us wait a little; God is appeased, let us go ahead again.” Over against such vulgar views of a Deity with a temper Isaiah unveils the awful majesty of God in holy wrath: “For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.” How grim and savage does it appear to our eyes till we understand the thoughts of the sinners to whom it was revealed! God cannot dispel the cowardly thought, that He is anxious only to punish, except by letting His heavy hand abide till it purify also. The permanence of Gods wrath is thus an ennobling, not a stupefying doctrine.
Men also abuse sorrow by defying it, but the end of this is madness. “It forms the greater part of the tragedy of King Lear, that the aged monarch, though he has given his throne away, retains his imperiousness of heart, and continues to exhibit a senseless, if sometimes picturesque, pride and selfishness in face of misfortune. Even when he is overthrown he must still command; he fights against the very elements; he is determined to be at least the master of his own sufferings and destiny. But for this the necessary powers fail him; his life thus disordered terminates in madness. It was only by such an affliction that a character like his could be brought to repentance; to humility, which is the parent of true love, and that love in him could be purified. Hence the melancholy close of that tragedy.” As Shakespeare has dealt with the king, so Isaiah with the people; he also shows us sorrow when it is defied bringing forth madness. On so impious a height mans brain grows dizzy, and he falls into that terrible abyss which is not, as some imagine, hell, but Gods last purgatory. Shakespeare brings shattered Lear out of it, and Isaiah has a remnant of the people to save.
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

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