5 6 Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth 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: betwixt me and my vineyard] The change of person here is the first hint of a deeper meaning under the words of the song. 4. (Four lines.) The case for the owner of the vineyard. What could have been done] lit. What more is there to do (cf. 2 Ki. iv. 13). wherefore, when I looked......wild grapes] Lit. why did I look that it should... and it brought forth wild grapes. The co-ordination of clauses assimilates the ending of the second stanza to that of the first. (For other examples of the same order, see Davidson, Synt. § 126, R. 4.) 5, 6. The hearers are silent, and the prophet proceeds to pass sentence on the vineyard. And now, let me tell you, I pray, What I am about to do to my vineyard. The construction in the second line is the fut. instans; the owner's mind is finally made up. 5. I will take away...and break down] better simply, Remove...Break down-absolute infs. in apposition to "what." The vineyard is provided both with a hedge (of thorns) and a wall (of stone). 6. lay it waste] or, make an end of it. The word is thought to be connected with that rendered "desolate" in ch. vii. 19,-better "precipitous," "cut off," hence (as here) "made an end of." The 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: vii. 23, 24, 25, ix. 18, x. 17, xxvii. 4. 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. 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 7 Israel, And the men of Judah his pleasant plant: And he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; For righteousness, but behold a cry. Woe unto them that join house to house, 7. The formal application of the parable, emphasising two facts: (1) Jehovah's vineyard is the house of Israel, but especially the men of Judah, the plant of his delight (R. V. marg.); (2) "the wild grapes it produces are the frightful oppressions and perversion of justice which are perpetrated in its midst. The underlying thought is that Jehovah's signal care and goodness ought to have resulted in a national life corresponding to His moral character—a fundamental truth of the prophetic theology. He looked for judgment (mishpāt), but behold bloodshed (mispāḥ); For righteousness (çědāqāh), but behold a cry! (çë'āqāh). These powerful assonances, which cannot be reproduced in English, are evidently designed to clinch the moral of the parable in the memories of the hearers. The " cry" is that of the oppressed, cf. Job xix. 7. 8-24. DENUNCIATION OF THE SOCIAL EVILS WHICH The indictment contains six counts, each introduced by the word "Woe," and is addressed exclusively to the upper classes, although the punishment of their sin falls on the nation as a whole. The prophet sets before us a vivid picture of a debased aristocracy, in whom public virtue has been eaten out by avarice and sensuality; and he traces with remarkable insight the effect of these sins in the religious insensibility and perversion of the moral sentiments which characterised the nobles of Judah at this time. 8-10. The first woe, against the absorption of small properties by the wealthy landowners. Cruel evictions, by which the smaller peasant proprietors lost not only their homes but the rights of citizenship, were common in the age of Isaiah, both in Judah and Israel. Cf. Mic. ii. 2, 9; Am. ii. 6 f. "The old Israelite state was so entirely based on the participation of every freeman in the common soil, and so little recognised the mere possession of capital, that men were in danger of losing civil rights along with house and fields, and becoming mere hirelings or even slaves" (Duhm). An instance of the tenacity with which the Hebrew yeoman clung to his land may be seen in 1 Kings xxi. For legal checks to this evil, see Lev. xxv. 8 ff.; Num. xxvii. 1—11, xxxvi.; Deut. xxvii. 17. 8 9 ΤΟ II 12 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, Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that That continue until night, till wine inflame them! But they regard not the work of the LORD, Neither consider the operation of his hands. 8. that they may be...earth] Render with R.V., and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land; i.e. so that only the few have residential rights. 9, 10. The divine judgment on this evil. Cf. Am. v. II. 9. In mine ears said the LORD of hosts] The verb is to be supplied as in xxii. 14: In my ears (hath revealed himself) Jehovah.... It is a prophetic "audition"; the words which follow seem actually to sound in his ears. The great houses shall be uninhabited, because 10. The land shall be smitten with the curse of barrenness; Jehovah's remedy for land-grabbing. ten acres] lit. ten yoke; a yoke of land being "As much as two stout oxen Could plough from morn till night." one bath] (of wine),—about 8 gallons. seed of a homer...ephah] The ephah is a dry measure of the same capacity as the bath; the homer is ten ephahs (Ez. xlv. 11). 11-17. The second woe, against dissipation and the spiritual blindness which accompanies it. Cf. xxviii. 1, 7 ff. 11. rise up early] Drinking in the morning was considered disreputable by the Jews (Eccl. x. 16 f.; Acts ii. 15) and Romans; but not, apparently, by the Arabs (Gesenius). The word for strong drink seems to be a general name for various kinds of alcoholic liquors obtained from dates, honey, raisins, barley, &c. that continue...inflame them] rather, that sit late into the night, wine inflaming them. 12. Cf. Am. vi. 5, 6. And the harp...feasts] better, And guitar and harp, tambourine and flute, and wine constitute their banquet; as if to drown the voice of conscience and destroy the sense of Jehovah's presence and working in their midst. the work of the LORD...the operation of his hands] i.e. the crowning Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because 13 they have no knowledge: And their honourable men are famished, And their multitude dried up with thirst. And opened her mouth without measure: And their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, work of judgment which he is about to execute, and of which there were many ominous warnings for those who could discern the signs of the times: "opus aliquod illustre futurum...quod Deus hoc ipso tempore iam moliebatur" (Vitr.). Cf. v. 19, ch. x. 12, xxviii. 21; Ps. xxviii. 5. A similar thought is expressed in Am. vi. 6, where the luxurious nobles are charged with insensibility to the "ruin of Joseph.' 13. Therefore (because its leaders are so blind) my people goeth into captivity (proph. perf.). This is the only explicit mention of exile in Isaiah. Cf. again Am. vi. 7. The next words may be rendered either from lack of knowledge (R.V.) or without knowing it—"unawares" (Cheyne). The former gives the better sense (cf. Hos. iv. 6). their honourable men...their multitude] lit. "its glory' "its tumult." The contrast, however, is rightly indicated by A.V.—the noblesse over against the populace. famished] Hebr. "men of hunger." But the word for "men" is poetic (iii. 25) and never found in such phrases as this. The ancient versions, with a different vocalisation, read "dead with hunger," which is obviously too strong. Most commentators now follow Ewald and Hitzig, and alter the text in accordance with Deut. xxxii. 24 (R.V. "wasted"), reading "sucked out (exhausted) with hunger." This involves the change of a single letter, and yields a suitable parallelism to "dried up with thirst." 14-17. A second threatening, in a sublime image, of the sudden destruction of Jerusalem. The transition to the fate of the capital is somewhat abrupt. 14. hell hath enlarged herself] better, Sheol hath enlarged her appetite (Hab. ii. 5). Sheol, the Underworld, the realm of the dead (like the Greek Hades), is here, as elsewhere, conceived as a devouring insatiable monster; cf. Hos. xiii. 14; Jon. ii. 2; Cant. viii. 6; Prov. i. 12, xxx. 16. and their glory...descend into it] Render (nearly as Cheyne) and down goes her (Jerusalem's) pomp, and her tumult and her uproar and (all) that is (so) jubilant in her. 15, 16. A reminiscence of the refrain in ch. ii. 9, 11, 17; but with significant modifications. These verses seem to interrupt the connexion of v. 17 with v. 14, and are either parenthetical or interpolated. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 And God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteous ness. 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, That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw That we may know it. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; 16. God that is holy...] the Holy God sanctifies Himself through righteousness. God "sanctifies Himself," i.e. compels the recognition of His divinity, by the righteous judgments in which He reveals His true nature as the Holy One of Israel (cf. xxix. 23). 17. The obverse of the picture in v. 14. The city, with all its tumult and gaiety, has vanished into the underworld, and now flocks are seen grazing amidst the ruins,—an image of awful desolation rather than of "idyllic peace." Then shall the lambs...manner] And lambs shall graze as in their pasture (R.V.). strangers] sojourners-perhaps "nomadic shepherds." But the reading of the LXX. (apves lambs) can be explained by a slight change in the text and is on some grounds to be preferred. 18, 19. The third woe, against the mocking scepticism which leads men to harden themselves in sin. The men addressed do not believe in the prophet's threats of a day of retribution, yet all the while they are unconsciously doing their utmost to bring about their fulfil ment. 18. The figure seems to express two ideas: (1) the determination with which these men set themselves to work iniquity, and (2) the inevitable connexion between sin and judgment. The idea of punishment is included in the words iniquity (or "guilt ") and sin. 19. An impious challenge to Jehovah to make good His words spoken through the prophet. This defiant unbelief seems to have been the reigning spirit in the political circles of Isaiah's time; xxviii. 14 f., 22; cf. Jer. v. 12, xvii. 15. 20. The fourth woe, against those who confuse moral distinctions. |