Chapter 5.1-7 The Song of the Vineyard
1 I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.
3 “Now you dwellers in
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
5 Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it.”
7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the nation of
and the people of
are the vines he delighted in.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
Verses 1-7 are Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard. That’s about the grace of God
What more could God have done? (5:1-7) There is obviously a lot of frustration of Gd.
Verses 8-30 are about the tragedy of receiving his grace in vain – the consequences of rejecting God Isaiah 5 helps us by identifying six ways we resist God’s grace, so we can turn those obstacles into avenues.
For the fourth time in the Vision, judgment on
On the first and eighth day of the feast, the congregation gathered in the temple. Through the week of the feast they lived in huts of branches, which according to Neh.8.i4ff were erected upon roofs, in the courts of houses, in the courts of the temple, and in public places. The effectiveness of the song presupposes a period of undisturbed outward peace and consequently belongs to that period of Isaiah’s activity which preceded the war with
Planting of a vineyard – Verses describe how it is done
1. first deep breaking of the hard ground that is necessary to prepare it to receive the young and tender plants.
2. The next step in rocky
3. With the ground prepared, the first stage is complete with the planting of the choice vines
4. The owner went on to build first-class installations. He installed a watchtower Some kind of shelter for the necessary watchman was needed, usually an elevated shelter covered with palm branches like that mentioned/ A tower is built of stone, stands higher, and is, of course, much better.
5. Then, as the final touch, he dug out a wine-press The upper part can be insulated with plaster or wood and is the place for trampling the grapes. A lower container collects the juice
The setting is like that of a court of justice dealing with family matters.
I. The Song of the Bridegroom’s Friend vv 1–2, containing an accusation against the bride
II. The Demand for Judgment by the Husband (owner) vv 3–4 – complaint
III. The Announcement of Divorce by Yahweh vv 5–6 –
IV. The Explanation by the Prophet, identifying Yahweh as the owner-husband, the House of
Israel/Man of
You need to make sure you know how is speaking in these verses
[1] The prophet appears in the midst of the turmoil of the feast, and is apparently seized by the general rejoicing and boisterousness. On this day, as one man among others, he does not seem to have the intention of uttering divine oracles loaded with doom, but of adding to the general merriment. As the best friend of a bridegroom, who after the strict custom of ancient times had the task, as a messenger, of maintaining communication between the bridal pair and then of leading the bride home (cf. John 3.29), he begins the words of a love song.
Being on the peak of a hill it lay isolated, and received the sun unhindered from every side.
[2] In order to prevent the ground from cracking and caking in the baking heat of summer it was thoroughly hoed and loosened. The stones were cleared. Then, in the ground which had been worked in exemplary fashion, vines were set.
In the middle of the vineyard the friend built a tower in order to keep watch against thieves and birds, and as a place to keep tools.
He also dug out a vat in which to press the grapes, a simple tub press hewed into the stone, from which the raw juice ran down into troughs set on a lower level, in order to settle.
Everything was prepared in the best way possible, so that the owner could rightly expect a good harvest of fine purple grapes. But at harvest time came bitter disappointment: the vines bore only wild grapes, small bitter fruit, unpleasant and unusable. The hearers would have accompanied this lament over a faithless lover with unrestrained and perhaps even malicious observations.
He is contrasting God’s lavish bestowments of grace with the disappointing outcomes on our end. In the prophet’s imaginative scenario, a man is cultivating a vineyard with every appropriate provision. He has a right to expect a good crop. But what comes of his efforts? “Wild grapes. Actually, the Hebrew word suggests stinking grapes. They are not merely wild, they are rancid.
[3-4] Change of speaker – not prophet but bridegroom. He turns directly to the assembled congregation, to the men of
If the bride had been unfaithful, then she would have had to be punished by stoning to death (Deut.22.23f.). So this was no taunt sung about a deceived bridegroom to amuse them.
And then it is revealed who the friend is: if he has the power to command the clouds, then he is God himself. With great artistic power, the prophet leads his reader step by step to an understanding of the meaning of his parable.
The result of this rejection of God is that God promised to remove the hedge of protection from around His people
[7] Thus the conclusion would hardly be a surprise to an attentive hearer: the house of
God has been busy on our behalf! The question is, what have we done with his outpouring of grace? Are we parlaying his blessing into fruitful outcomes? Are we a good investment?
But God himself is telling us to face our weaknesses. So let’s stop thinking how successful we are and figure out what it’s going to take to go to the next level of productivity. And when by grace we get there, then let’s ask how to go to the next level above that, and so forth. We must take full advantage of the opportunity God has given us, or we will lose it (vv. 5, 6).
4. Luke 13:6-9).
Chapters 5.8-24 and 10.1-4 The Sevenfold Woes
and join field to field
till no space is left
and you live alone in the land.
9 The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing:
“Surely the great houses will become desolate,
the fine mansions left without occupants.
10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath[a] of wine;
a homer[b] of seed will yield only an ephah[c] of grain.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning
to run after their drinks,
who stay up late at night
till they are inflamed with wine.
12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
pipes and timbrels and wine,
but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD,
no respect for the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people will go into exile
for lack of understanding;
those of high rank will die of hunger
and the common people will be parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Death expands its jaws,
opening wide its mouth;
into it will descend their nobles and masses
with all their brawlers and revelers.
15 So people will be brought low
and everyone humbled,
the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice,
and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.
17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;
lambs will feed[d] among the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
and wickedness as with cart ropes,
19 to those who say, “Let God hurry;
let him hasten his work
so we may see it.
The plan of the Holy One of Israel—
let it approach, let it come into view,
so we may know it.”
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
and champions at mixing drinks,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice to the innocent.
24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so their roots will decay
and their flowers blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty
and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
1 Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
2 to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.
3 What will you do on the day of reckoning,
when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches?
4 Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives
or fall among the slain.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.
Chapter 5
25 Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people;
his hand is raised and he strikes them down.
The mountains shake,
and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.
26 He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.
Here they come,
swiftly and speedily!
27 Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,
not one slumbers or sleeps;
not a belt is loosened at the waist,
not a sandal strap is broken.
28 Their arrows are sharp,
all their bows are strung;
their horses’ hooves seem like flint,
their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roar is like that of the lion,
they roar like young lions;
they growl as they seize their prey
and carry it off with no one to rescue.
30 In that day they will roar over it
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks at the land,
there is only darkness and distress;
even the sun will be darkened by clouds.
- Drunkenness, revelry and wild partying (Vv. 11-12)
- Calling good things evil and evil things good (V. 20). There are so many ways our culture does that I cannot begin to list them here.
- The perversion of justice (V. 23)
The final section of the chapter (Verses. 24-30) outlines what the consequences are going to be for the people’s rejection of God and His word. The Lord is going to summon a host of pagan nations to destroy
The word “woe” itself, appearing six times in the passage, does not just denounce our sins, it laments our sins.
The same word is translated “Ah!” in Isaiah 1:4 and “Alas!” in 1 Kings 13:30. Remember that “woe” is the opposite of the word “blessed” (cf. Luke 6:20-26).
This is again from the early period – 735BC. A period of peace and material prosperity before the invasion from the Assyrians.
The generation who died and were exiled consisted of those “stinking grapes” (vv 2 and 4) who are identified by the mourners as the unscrupulous exploiters of the land (v 8); the drunkards (vv 11–12); the deceivers and scornful (vv 18–19); those who deliberately confuse the issues (v 20); the conceited (v 21); those whose heroics are only found in alcohol and who have no honor (v 22). They are for material well-being obtained at the expense of the people as a whole and in defiance of the law
Also the wealthy were living as if God were worthless and as if they were not their brother’s keeper. It was more than social injustice; it was practical atheism. As these people enlarged their estates, they ended up isolating themselves: And the much they have grabbed comes to a little they cannot increase (Isaiah 5:10). Isaiah is saying that greed disempowers grace and dissolves into emptiness.
The position seems to him so threatening that he sees the time coming when all ownership will be accumulated in the hands of a few. The result of this development was bound to be that the inner coherence and legal security of the people of the covenant would collapse. A deep gulf would be opened between poor and rich, into which the poor were in danger of sinking.*
Here the issue is not merely injustice, but access to the land that was God’s gift to
[9-10]
This breach of the covenant cannot go unpunished: Isaiah hears Yahweh’s proclamation of judgment ringing in his ears (w.9-10). Everything that is now being built up through the transgression of the sacred ordinance of the people of God is condemned to destruction. The numerous magnificent new houses will one day become deserted ruins.
They have been built to receive the expected record harvest. But this will not take place: Yahweh will respond to this self-conscious effort with a total failure of the harvest. There is no blessing upon ownership which is not morally justified. e
A homer of seed shall yield but an epah. A Homer is a donkey-load of seed would normally yield 10 bushels,
[11-17] The second woe. Against the debauched and godless life of the nobility. He is setting forth in a logical way how the grace-diminishing patterns of life in verses 8-12 impact actual experience
A severe picture of the lives of men in the ruling class. It is made perfectly obvious that their principal concern was the satisfaction of their pleasures (v. 11). Eating and drinking had been made to serve their evil purposes; they would therefore face hunger and thirst
But God is not mocked (cf.Gal. 6.7). His hand will fall violently upon them: he will send his people into exile (v. 13). Isaiah foretells a great political and military disaster. Because the people will not hear, and because they will not show any understanding of the position, they are to be made to feel what it is. The rich lords, who are now never satisfied with the extent of their debauchery, will suffer bitter hunger. The people form a unity in the sight of God. Since the men of power and responsibility have sinned, the whole people must suffer as a result. Parched with thirst, the masses will be carried off into exile, together with their former lords. The “Therefore” of verse 13 draws out the irony that their drinking and excesses lead to hunger and thirst.
Those who today are rejoicing throughout the land will disappear tomorrow into the abyss. The divine woe is pronounced over every nation which sets pleasure and profit above the common interest and the law. Isaiah prophesies the total collapse of his country: the sheep will graze over the ruins of cities, villages and estates (v. 17).
[18-19] The third woe: against frivolity and mockery. Isaiah turns against those who frivolously and consciously treat God’s demands with contempt.
[20] The fourth woe: against the perversion of truth. The background of this proclamation of judgment is formed by the attitude of the same persons against whom Isaiah directed the preceding woe, the perversion of moral standards on the principle that whatever is pleasurable is permitted.
This principle has been a permanent destructive element in every society and every individual life. What is wrong becomes right. We find ways to rationalize sin. We redefine it. We change the labels. Then God intervenes as the ultimate guardian and advocate of what is right.
Truth, accuracy, and integrity are moral terms that are necessary ingredients of a society’s health.
[21] The fifth woe: against those who are wise in their own eyes.
True wisdom, the beginning of which is the fear of the Lord (cf. Prov. 1.7; g.io; Job 28.28), is contrasted with the pretended wisdom of the world, at which man’s unfaithfulness masquerades. Whereas the former attempts to base life on the will of God, the latter looks down in contempt upon the fear of God.
[22-24] The sixth woe: against the impotent judges.
Corruption of society’s elite and the breakdown of social justice – “acquit the guilty for a bribe”, “deny justice for the innocent. The poor were not being allowed to commence legal proceedings.
They demonstrate their manliness not in inflexible verdicts, made with regard only to the truth, but in drunken excess. They are experts in drinking wine and mixing strong drink. The drink referred to was not weakened in its effect, for example, by adding water, but was strengthened by the addition of herbs. The mixing itself was carried out in a special vessel (cf. Amos 6.6; S. of Sol.8.2; Prov.23.30).
Driven by the pursuit of pleasure, the judges of
[24]
It may have been a redactor of the book of Isaiah who added v. 24 as a conclusion to the whole of the woes gathered in ch. 5: all who now feel themselves unassailably strong and in need of no advice will be swept away into nothingness by the almighty and holy God, when he comes to punish the transgression of his word and his will.
The figure describes the awesome judgment that was like fire. But it also notes how vulnerable the people had become. They were like stubble, hay. Even their roots were dried like rot and sprouts that should have been green were dry as dust.
the prophets and the tradition taught by the priests) they had cut themselves off from his vitality and strength.
[25-30] Note this starts the second “Therefore”
The second “Therefore” reveals what form the judgment would take in Isaiah’s situation: the army of
[v.25] The fourth stanza: the earthquake. The lines which describe the next stage in the intensification of the people’s sin have not been preserved.
Once again, God sent his stern punishment. Though one might suppose that it consisted of a fresh war, described in terms of a theophany of judgment (cf. Judg.5.4; Ps. 18.8 — II Sam.22.8; Joel 2.10, etc.), the reference to bodies lying untended and in heaps in the streets points to a real earthquake. Because the people of the covenant ultimately regarded all these blows merely as ‘natural’ events, God’s hand remains stretched out over them, ready for new acts of judgment.
[26-30] The fifth stanza: God’s patience is now finally exhausted. The verse pictures a concrete event in terms of God’s direct intervention in the historical process
The Vision contends that God’s strategy controls and directs historical events. His signals start the army’s advance. His movements keep the action moving or bring it to an end. His upraised hand signals his continued displeasure with
He will call up a terrible and irresistible enemy from a distant and unknown country. The prophet lets his audience hear everything from the gathering of the enemy army to the tumult of destruction as it advances.
V29 The picture closes with an analogy to a lion. Lions were still known in
For us – Whenever God’s church allows itself to be led into a careless sense of security, relying upon its election, instead of answering the call to obedience in faith (cf. John 5.24), then like the rest of the world it comes under God’s temporal and eternal judgment.
When the community of the second temple considered the sayings of the great prophet, they were concerned with the question why