Chú giải Kinh Thánh

Isaiah 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, (Isaiah 5:7,) or his church among the Israelites, often, and very properly, called a vineyard, because of God’s singular regard to it, and care and cultivation of it; his delight in it, and expectation of good fruit from it. My beloved hath, &c. — Hebrew, לידידי היה כרם, 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, Song of Solomon 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.

Isaiah 5:2. And he fenced it — In this verse the prophet, carrying on the allegory, proceeds to express, in parabolical language, the singular favours which God had bestowed on the Jewish nation, and the peculiar care which he had taken of them. He separated them from other nations, took them into covenant with himself, gave them a variety of laws and ordinances respecting his worship and service, and became, in an especial manner, their protector and governor. Thus he fenced his vineyard; Hebrew, יעזקהו, circumsepsit eam, hedged it round on all sides. In removing the heathen nations, and destroying all the forms of their idolatrous worship, forbidding all idolatry, and all intimate friendship and intermarriages with idolaters, and by giving them plain and ample directions for their whole conduct, lest they should fall by error or mistake, he gathered out the stones thereof — Which otherwise might have marred the land, (2 Kings 3:19,) and injured the vines. In other words, he removed all the hinderances of fruitfulness. In that he formed his church of the posterity of those wise, holy, and faithful men, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and purged and reformed the nation in the wilderness before he established them in Canaan, he might truly be said to plant his vineyard with the choicest vine — Or, as the Hebrew is, the vine of Sorek, alluding to a valley between Ascalon and Gaza, running up eastward into the tribe of Judah, and famous for the best vines, and the richest vineyards. And he built a tower in the midst of it — As edifices, termed towers by the Jews, were erected in vineyards, containing, as Bishop Lowth supposes, “all the offices and implements, and the whole apparatus necessary for the culture of them, and the making of wine;” and, doubtless, also serving for the accommodation and defence of the labourers; and as places of pleasure for the owners of the vineyards; so God provided his church with a most commodious and magnificent temple, furnished with all conveniences for every part of that worship and service which he required his people to perform to him, and affording every requisite accommodation for the residence, support, and comfort of the priests and Levites, while ministering in holy things, and employed in cultivating God’s mystical vineyard; and where he, the Lord of the vineyard, might be peculiarly present, as the protector and consolation of his people, their refuge and strength, and very present help in times of trouble or danger. Thus the Chaldee paraphrast: “I have constituted them the plant of a choice vine, and built my sanctuary in the midst of them.” So also Jerome interprets the clause. He also made a wine-press therein — Hebrew, וגם יקב חצב, which Bishop Lowth properly translates, “And he hewed out also a lake therein;” observing that the word יקבmeans, not the wine-press itself, or calcatorium, (the vessel or place where the grapes were stamped, or trod for the wine, which is expressed by another word,) but “what the Romans called lacus, the lake; the large open place or vessel, which, by a conduit, or spout, received the must (or new wine) from the wine-press.” This place, he thinks, in very hot countries, it was necessary, or very convenient, to have under ground, or in a cave hewed out of the side of a rock, “for coolness; that the heat might not cause too great a fermentation, and sour the must.” Now this lake, made to contain the new wine, may here signify the great altar, made to receive the sacrifices and oblations, as the fruits of the spiritual vineyard. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes — Real, genuine fruit, true, substantial piety and virtue, or godliness and righteousness; and it brought forth wild grapes — Or, rather, poisonous berries, as Bishop Lowth translates באשׁים, the word here used, which does not signify “merely useless, unprofitable grapes, such as wild grapes; but grapes offensive to the smell, noxious, poisonous;” such as those mentioned 2 Kings 4:39-41. For, according to the force and intent of the allegory, “To good grapes ought to be opposed fruit of a dangerous and pernicious quality; as, in the explication of it, to judgment is opposed tyranny, and to righteousness oppression.” See an elegant paraphrase of this part of the parable, Jeremiah 2:21.

Isaiah 5:3-4. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, &c. — God is here introduced as calling upon the guilty themselves to pass sentence, or judgment, in the case, and leaving it to them; because, without downright madness, they could do no other than condemn themselves; who, when they had received so many benefits from God, had been so ungrateful to him. What could have been done, &c. — What work is there belonging to the office of an owner or keeper of a vineyard, which I have neglected? Wherefore — brought it forth wild grapes — How unworthy a conduct and inexcusable a crime is it, that you not only have been unfruitful in good works, but have brought forth, in abundance, the fruits of wickedness!

Who can read these words without being moved at the justness as well as the tenderness of the reproach; which is equally applicable now to professing Christians in general, as it was to the Jews at that time? What is it that God has not done for us? What good thing has he withheld from us? How many invaluable blessings has he bestowed upon us in our creation and preservation! And how many still more inestimable in our redemption!

What more could have been done for us than he has done? Wherefore then, when he looketh for grapes, does he only find wild grapes, or rather poisonous berries? When he looketh for a tribute of grateful praise, does he find ingratitude, forgetfulness of his mercies, and disobedience to his commands?

Isaiah 5:5-6. And now I will tell you, &c. — He graciously warns them beforehand, that they may have space and encouragement to repent, and so to prevent the threatened miseries. I will take away the hedge thereof, &c. — I will withdraw my presence and protection from you, and give you up into the hands of your enemies. I will lay it waste — It shall be overrun by heathen and infidels, and shall no longer bear the form of a vineyard. It shall not be pruned nor digged — Vine-dressers used to dig up and open the earth about the roots of the vines. The meaning is, I will remove my ministers, who have used great care and diligence to make you fruitful: but there shall come up briers and thorns — I will give you up to your own wicked lusts. I will also command the clouds — I will deprive you of all my blessings.

Isaiah 5:7. For the vineyard, &c. — Or rather, Now the vineyard, as Dr. Waterland renders it: here we have the interpretation of the preceding parable in general. In the subsequent verses the prophet enters into particulars. This general interpretation is fully verified by the history of the Jewish people, especially in the time of our Lord and his apostles: and the men of Judah his pleasant plant — In whom God formerly delighted; and he looked for judgment — Both the administration of justice by magistrates, and justice in the dealings of the people with one another: but behold oppression — From the powerful upon their inferiors; and for righteousness — For equity, mercy, and benevolence; but behold a cry — From the oppressed, crying to men for help, and to God for vengeance. “The paronomasia, or play on the words, in the Hebrew, in this place, is very remarkable; mispat, mispach; zedakah, zeakah. There are many examples of it in the other prophets; but Isaiah seems peculiarly fond of it. The rabbins esteem it a great beauty: their term for it is, elegance of language.” — Bishop Lowth.

Isaiah 5:8-10. Wo unto them, &c. — The unfolding of the parable, after the general key in the preceding verse, comprehends two things, according to the argument of the parable; the crimes of this ungrateful people, and the punishment decreed to their crimes. That join house to house — That add new purchases of houses and lands to their former possessions. Not that this was in itself absolutely unlawful, but because they did it from an inordinate desire of riches, and with the injury of their brethren. That they may be placed alone — That they alone may be the lords and owners, and all others only their tenants and servants. Thus, “the first crime condemned is avarice and rapacity; which is strongly described in this verse, and which prevailed remarkably among the Jews. Its punishment, even the desolation of those houses which they coveted, and the devastation of those fields which they obtained so rapaciously, is set forth in the two following verses.” See Vitringa. In mine ears, said the Lord — That is, It was revealed in mine ears: or, I heard God speak what I am now about to utter. Of a truth many houses shall be desolate — “In vain are ye so intent upon joining house to house, and field to field; your houses shall be left uninhabited, and your fields shall become desolate and barren: so that a vineyard of ten acres shall produce but one bath (not eight gallons) of wine, and the husbandman shall reap but a tenth part of the seed which he has sown.” — Bishop Lowth. Thus it is predicted that a fruitful land should be made barren for their wickedness, according to God’s threatening, (Psalm 107:34,) and they would have as little comfort in their lands as in their houses.

Isaiah 5:11-12. Wo unto them, that rise up early, &c. — Here we find another vice reproved, namely, that of luxury, or intemperance; whose companion and daughter is Inattention to the works of God, whose child, also, is Ignorance; see Isaiah 5:13; that rise up early to follow strong drink — As husbandmen and tradesmen rise early to follow their employments; as if they were afraid of losing time from that which is the greatest misspending of time and the most sinful abuse of it. That continue until night — Spending the whole day at their cups; till wine inflame them — Inflame their lusts and passions: for chambering and wantonness, on the one hand, and contentions and wounds without cause, on the other, generally follow upon rioting, and drunkenness, Romans 13:13; Proverbs 23:29. And the harp, and the viol, &c., are in their feasts — Musical instruments of all sorts must accompany their wine, that every sense may be gratified to the utmost, and their pleasures rendered more exquisite. But they regard not the work of the Lord — What God hath lately done, and is yet doing, and about to do, among them; his grievous judgments, partly inflicted, and partly threatened, which require another course of life, even to give themselves to fasting and prayer, and to reform their manners, that so they might remove the calamities which, now afflicted them, and prevent those which were approaching.

Isaiah 5:13-14. Therefore the people are gone into captivity — The prophet may refer to those carried captive in the time of Ahaz: see on Isaiah 2:20. Or his words may be rendered, the people go into, &c.; that is, shall certainly and shortly go, speaking of the approaching judgments as if they were already come. Because they have no knowledge — No serious consideration of God’s works, and of their own duty and danger. And their honourable men are famished — Who thought themselves quite out of the reach of famine. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself — The grave, or the place of torment to which certainly the souls of such persons must descend; and opened her mouth without measure —

To receive those vast numbers which die by this famine, or otherwise, as is here implied. The prophet is thought to allude “to the form of the ancient sepulchres, which were subterraneous caverns hollowed out of a rock, the mouth of which was generally closed by a great stone. The prosopopœia is extremely fine and expressive, and the image is fraught with the most tremendous horror.” And their glory, &c. — Their nobles, or honourable men, as they are called, Isaiah 5:13, being distinguished, both here and there, from the multitude; and their pomp — Which shall die with them; and he that rejoiceth — That spendeth all his days in mirth and jollity, and casteth away all cares and fears; shall descend into it — Not only into the grave, but into hell. Bishop Lowth’s translation of this verse is peculiarly striking:

“Therefore Hades hath enlarged his appetite; And hath stretched open his mouth without measure: And down go her nobility, and her populace, And her busy throng, and all that exult in her.”

“These verses,” (13 and 14,) he justly observes, “have a reference to the two preceding. They that indulged in feasting and drinking, shall perish with hunger and thirst: and Hades” (the invisible world, hell prepared to receive these sinners that live and die in sin) “shall indulge his appetite as much as they had done, and devour them all. The image is strong and expressive in the highest degree. Habakkuk uses the same image with great force, chap. 2:5. But in Isaiah, Hades is introduced, to much greater advantage, in person; and placed before our eyes as a ravenous monster, opening wide his unmeasurable jaws, and swallowing them all together.”