Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 5:6
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.
6. lay it waste ] or, make an end of it. The word is thought to be connected with that rendered “desolate” in ch. Isa 7:19, better “precipitous,” “cut off,” hence (as here) “made an end of.”
there shall come up thorns ] The Heb. is more forcible: it shall go up in thorns and thistles. “Thorns and thistles,” a phrase peculiar to the book of Isaiah: Isa 7:23-25; Isa 9:18; Isa 10:17; Isa 27:4. The change of rhythm referred to (Introd. Note above) commences with this clause rightly, since the next line reveals the whole drift of the parable: He who can command the clouds must be no other than Jehovah himself.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I will lay it waste … – The description here is continued from Isa 5:5. The image is carried out, and means that the Jews should be left utterly without protection.
I will also command the clouds … – It is evident here, that the parable or figure is partially dropped. A farmer could not command the clouds. It is God alone who could do that; and the figure of the vineyard is dropped, and God is introduced speaking as a sovereign. The meaning is, that he would withhold his divine influences, and would abandon them to desolation. The sense of the whole verse is plain. God would leave the Jews without protection; he would remove the guards, the helps, the influences, with which he had favored them, and leave them to their own course, as a vineyard that was unpruned, uncultivated, unwatered. The Chaldee has well expressed the sense of the passage: I will take away the house of my sanctuary (the temple), and they shall be trodden down. I will regard them as guilty, and there shall be no support or defense for them; they shall be abandoned, and shall become wanderers. I will command the prophets, that they shall not prophesy over them. The lesson taught here is, that when a people become ungrateful, and rebellious, God will withdraw from them, and leave them to desolation; compare Rev 2:3.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. There shall come up briers and thorns – “The thorn shall spring up in it”] One MS. has beshamir. The true reading seems to be bo shamir, which is confirmed by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It shall not be pruned nor digged: vine-dressers use to dig up and open the earth about the roots of the vines, for divers good purposes. The meaning is. I will remove my ministers, who used great care and diligence to make you fruitful.
There shall come briers and thorns; I will give you up to your own wicked lusts.
I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it; I will deprive you of all my blessings, which are oft compared to rain, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. I will . . . commandTheparable is partly dropped and Jehovah, as in Isa5:7, is implied to be the Owner: for He alone, not an ordinaryhusbandman (Mat 21:43; Luk 17:22),could give such a “command.”
no rainantitypically,the heaven-sent teachings of the prophets (Am8:11). Not accomplished in the Babylonish captivity; forJeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah prophesied during orafter it. But in gospel times.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I will lay it waste,…. Or “desolate”, as it was by the Romans: the whole land of Judea, as well as the city and temple
Mt 23:38,
it shall not be pruned nor digged; as vineyards are, to make them more fruitful; but no care shall be taken of it, no means made use of to cultivate it, all being ineffectual:
but there shall come up briers and thorns; sons of Belial, wicked and ungodly men; immoralities, errors, heresies, contentions, quarrels, c. which abounded about the time of Jerusalem’s destruction, and before:
I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon them by “the clouds” are meant the apostles of Christ, who were full of the doctrines of grace, from whom they dropped as rain upon the mown grass; these, when the Jews contradicted and blasphemed the Gospel, and judged themselves unworthy of it, were commanded by Christ to turn from them, and go to the Gentiles, Ac 13:45 agreeably to this sense is the Targum,
“and I will command the prophets, that they do not prophesy upon them prophecy.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This puts an end to the unthankful vineyard, and indeed a hopeless one. ”And I will put an end to it: it shall not be pruned nor digged, and it shall break out in thorns and thistles; and I will command the clouds to rain no rain over it.” “Put an end:” bathah (= battah : Ges. 67, Anm. 11) signifies, according to the primary meaning of bathath ( , , see at Isa 1:29), viz., abscindere , either abscissum = locus abscissus or praeruptus (Isa 7:19), or abscissio = deletio . The latter is the meaning here, where shth bathah is a refined expression for the more usual , both being construed with the accusative of the thing which is brought to an end. Further pruning and hoeing would do it no good, but only lead to further disappointment: it was the will of the Lord, therefore, that the deceitful vineyard should shoot up in thorns and thistles ( alah is applied to the soil, as in Isa 34:13 and Pro 24:31; shaimr vashaith , thorns and thistles, are in the accusative, according to Ges. 138, 1, Anm. 2; and both the words themselves, and also their combination, are exclusively and peculiarly Isaiah’s).
(Note: Cassel associates shamir as the name of a plant ( saxifraga ) with , and shaith with sentis , ; but the name shamir is not at all applicable to those small delicate plants, which are called saxifraga (stone-breakers) on account of their growing out of clefts in the rock, and so appearing to have split the rock itself. Both shamir vashaith and kots v’dardar , in Gen 3:18, seem rather to point to certain kinds of rhamnus , together with different kinds of thistles. The more arid and waste the ground is, the more does it abound, where not altogether without vegetation, in thorny, prickly, stunted productions.)
In order that it might remain a wilderness, the clouds would also receive commandment from the Lord not to rain upon it. There can be no longer any doubt who the Lord of the vineyard is. He is Lord of the clouds, and therefore the Lord of heaven and earth. It is He who is the prophet’s beloved and dearest one. The song which opened in so minstrel-like and harmless a tone, has now become painfully severe and terribly repulsive. The husk of the parable, which has already been broken through, now falls completely off (cf., Mat 22:13; Mat 25:30). What it sets forth in symbol is really true. This truth the prophet establishes by an open declaration.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
6. I will lay it waste. God will not take pains to dig and prune it, and consequently it will become barren for want of dressing; briars and thorns will spring up to choke its branches; and, what is more, by withholding rain, God will dry up its roots. Hence it is evident how manifold are the weapons with which God is supplied for punishing our ingratitude, when he sees that we despise his kindness. Isaiah is still, no doubt, proceeding with his metaphor, and, in order to obtain more eager attention, adorns his style by figures of speech. But we ought simply to conclude, that as God continually bestows on us innumerable benefits, so we ought to be earnestly on our guard lest, by withdrawing first one and then another, he punish us for despising them.
So far as relates to the government of the Church, the more numerous the kinds of assistance which she needs, the more numerous are the punishments to which she will be liable, if she wickedly corrupt what was appointed by God for her salvation. Nor ought we to wonder, if at the present day so many distresses threaten ruin and desolation; for whatever calamity befalls us, whether it be that there is a deficiency of instruction, or that the wicked abound, or that foxes and wolves creep into the Church, all this must be ascribed to our ingratitude, because we have not yielded such fruit as we ought, and have been indolent and sluggish. Whenever, therefore, we are justly deprived of those great favors which he freely bestowed on us, let us acknowledge the anger of the Lord.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) There shall come up briers and thorns.The picture of desolation is still part of a parable. The briers and thorns (both the words are peculiar to Isaiah) are the base and unworthy who take the place of the true leaders of the people (Jdg. 9:7-15). The absence of the pruning and the digging answers to the withdrawal of the means of moral and spiritual culture (Joh. 15:2; Luk. 13:8). The command given to the clouds (comp. 2Sa. 1:21, for the outward form of the thought) implies the cessation of all gracious spiritual influences.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 5:6 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.
Ver. 6. And I will lay it waste. ] Heb., Wasteness; I will utterly root it up and ruin it. Lege et lute; by law and dirt, wrath is come upon Jewry to the utmost. Lukewarm Laodicea was swallowed up by an earthquake, as Eutropius testifieth. The rest of these seven famous churches are overrun by the Turk. And our utter ruin, unless we repent, may be as plainly foreseen as if letters had been sent us from heaven to such a purpose.
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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I will, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 28:23, Deu 28:24. Lev 26:19).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will lay: Isa 5:9, Isa 5:10, Isa 6:11, Isa 6:12, Isa 24:1-3, Isa 24:12, Isa 32:13, Isa 32:14, Lev 26:33-35, Deu 29:23, 2Ch 36:19-21, Jer 25:11, Jer 45:4, Luk 21:24
it shall: Isa 7:23-25, Hos 3:4
also: Isa 30:23, Deu 28:23, Deu 28:24, Amo 4:7, Zec 14:16, Zec 14:17, Heb 6:6-8, Rev 11:6
Reciprocal: Gen 3:18 – Thorns Lev 26:4 – Then I Lev 26:32 – And I 2Sa 1:21 – no dew 1Ki 18:1 – I will send rain 2Ch 6:26 – there is no rain Neh 9:30 – therefore Job 26:8 – and the cloud Job 36:27 – he Psa 69:27 – Add Psa 72:6 – like Psa 78:23 – Though Psa 89:40 – broken Psa 147:8 – covereth Ecc 3:3 – a time to break Isa 1:7 – country Isa 1:30 – ye shall be Isa 27:3 – water Isa 29:17 – the fruitful Isa 55:10 – as the rain Jer 3:3 – the showers Eze 19:12 – she was Hos 6:3 – as the rain Hos 9:6 – nettles Hos 10:12 – rain Joe 1:7 – laid Amo 8:11 – but Zec 10:1 – rain in Mar 11:14 – No Luk 13:35 – your Act 14:17 – and gave