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Selected Verse: Isaiah 5:1 - Strong Concordance
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Isa 5:1 |
Strong Concordance |
Now will I sing [07891] to my wellbeloved [03039] a song [07892] of my beloved [01730] touching his vineyard [03754]. My wellbeloved [03039] hath a vineyard [03754] in a very fruitful [01121] [08081] hill [07161]: |
|
King James |
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: |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
PARABLE OF JEHOVAH'S VINEYARD. (Isa. 5:1-30)
to--rather, "concerning" [GESENIUS], that is, in the person of My beloved, as His representative [VITRINGA]. Isaiah gives a hint of the distinction and yet unity of the Divine Persons (compare He with I, Isa 5:2-3).
of my beloved--inspired by Him; or else, a tender song [CASTALIO]. By a slight change of reading "a song of His love" [HOUBIGANT]. "The Beloved" is Jehovah, the Second Person, the "Angel" of God the Father, not in His character as incarnate Messiah, but as God of the Jews (Exo 23:20-21; Exo 32:34; Exo 33:14).
vineyard-- (Isa 3:14; Psa 80:8, &c.). The Jewish covenant-people, separated from the nations for His glory, as the object of His peculiar care (Mat 20:1; Mat 21:33). Jesus Christ in the "vineyard" of the New Testament Church is the same as the Old Testament Angel of the Jewish covenant.
fruitful hill--literally, "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 alludes plainly to the Song of Solomon (Sol 6:3; Sol 8:11-12), in the words "His vineyard" and "my Beloved" (compare Isa 26:20; Isa 61:10, with Sol 1:4; Sol 4:10). The transition from "branch" (Isa 4:2) to "vineyard" here is not unnatural. |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
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 - ידיד yedı̂yd - 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 דוד dôd usually denotes 'an uncle,' a father's brother. But it also means one beloved, a friend, a lover; Sol 1:13-14, Sol 1:16; Sol 2:3, Sol 2:8, Sol 2:9; Sol 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. - Shaw's "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.' |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
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 lı̄dı̄dı̄ 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 dōd is determined by yâdid, 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 (izzēk, to hoe; Arab. mi‛zak, mi‛zaka); and as he found it choked up with stones and boulders, he got rid of this rubbish by throwing it out sikkēl, 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 (Châtsēb bo instead of Chătsab bo, with a and the accent drawn back, because a Beth was thereby easily rendered inaudible, so that Châtsēb 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 ‛anâbim 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 bâ'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 ūbshin, the letters being transposed; and in the Mishnah (Ma'aseroth i. 2, Zeb'ith iv 8) הבאישׁ 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 (τὸ ἀγριόκλημα), a writer, describing the useful plants of Greece, says, "Its fruit (τὰ ἀγριοστάφυλα) 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. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
Now - I will record it to he a witness for God, and against you, as Moses did his song, Deu 31:19, Deu 32:1. To - To the Lord of the vineyard. Of my beloved - Not devised by me, but inspired by God. Vineyard - His church. Hill - Hills being places most commodious for vines. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved "Let me sing now a song," etc. - A MS., respectable for its antiquity, adds the word שיר shir, a song, after נא 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" - דודי dodey, for דודים 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 מ mem, of the plural, thus, דודי dodi. שירת דודים shirath dodim is the same with שיר ידידת shir yedidoth, Psa 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" - Hebrew בקרן בן שמן 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, 2:612, of Brundusium, i.e., Βρεντεσιον, 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;" Exo 15:17. "I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land beyond Jordan; that goodly mountain, and Lebanon;" Deu 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. |
2 In that day [03117] shall the branch [06780] of the LORD [03068] be beautiful [06643] and glorious [03519], and the fruit [06529] of the earth [0776] shall be excellent [01347] and comely for [08597] them that are escaped [06413] of Israel [03478].
10 How fair [03302] is thy love [01730], my sister [0269], my spouse [03618]! how much better [02895] is thy love [01730] than wine [03196]! and the smell [07381] of thine ointments [08081] than all spices [01314]!
4 Draw [04900] me, we will run [07323] after [0310] thee: the king [04428] hath brought [0935] me into his chambers [02315]: we will be glad [01523] and rejoice [08055] in thee, we will remember [02142] thy love [01730] more than wine [03196]: the upright [04339] love [0157] thee.
10 I will greatly [07797] rejoice [07797] in the LORD [03068], my soul [05315] shall be joyful [01523] in my God [0430]; for he hath clothed [03847] me with the garments [0899] of salvation [03468], he hath covered [03271] me with the robe [04598] of righteousness [06666], as a bridegroom [02860] decketh [03547] himself with ornaments [06287], and as a bride [03618] adorneth [05710] herself with her jewels [03627].
20 Come [03212], my people [05971], enter [0935] thou into thy chambers [02315], and shut [05462] thy doors [01817] about thee: hide [02247] thyself as it were for a little [04592] moment [07281], until the indignation [02195] be overpast [05674].
11 Solomon [08010] had a vineyard [03754] at Baalhamon [01174]; he let out [05414] the vineyard [03754] unto keepers [05201]; every one [0376] for the fruit [06529] thereof was to bring [0935] a thousand [0505] pieces of silver [03701].
12 My vineyard [03754], which is mine, is before [06440] me: thou, O Solomon [08010], must have a thousand [0505], and those that keep [05201] the fruit [06529] thereof two hundred [03967].
3 I am my beloved's [01730], and my beloved [01730] is mine: he feedeth [07462] among the lilies [07799].
33 Hear [191] another [243] parable [3850]: There was [2258] a certain [444] [5100] householder [3617], which [3748] planted [5452] a vineyard [290], and [2532] hedged [5418] it [846] round about [4060], and [2532] digged [3736] a winepress [3025] in [1722] it [846], and [2532] built [3618] a tower [4444], and [2532] let [1554] it [846] out [1554] to husbandmen [1092], and [2532] went into a far country [589]:
1 For [1063] the kingdom [932] of heaven [3772] is [2076] like [3664] unto a man [444] that is an householder [3617], which [3748] went out [1831] early in the morning [260] [4404] to hire [3409] labourers [2040] into [1519] his [846] vineyard [290].
8 Thou hast brought [05265] a vine [01612] out of Egypt [04714]: thou hast cast out [01644] the heathen [01471], and planted [05193] it.
14 The LORD [03068] will enter [0935] into judgment [04941] with the ancients [02205] of his people [05971], and the princes [08269] thereof: for ye have eaten up [01197] the vineyard [03754]; the spoil [01500] of the poor [06041] is in your houses [01004].
14 And he said [0559], My presence [06440] shall go [03212] with thee, and I will give thee rest [05117].
34 Therefore now go [03212], lead [05148] the people [05971] unto the place of which I have spoken [01696] unto thee: behold, mine Angel [04397] shall go [03212] before [06440] thee: nevertheless in the day [03117] when I visit [06485] I will visit [06485] their sin [02403] upon them.
20 Behold, I send [07971] an Angel [04397] before [06440] thee, to keep [08104] thee in the way [01870], and to bring [0935] thee into the place [04725] which I have prepared [03559].
21 Beware [08104] of [06440] him, and obey [08085] his voice [06963], provoke [04843] him not; for he will not pardon [05375] your transgressions [06588]: for my name [08034] is in him [07130].
2 And he fenced [05823] it, and gathered out the stones [05619] thereof, and planted [05193] it with the choicest vine [08321], and built [01129] a tower [04026] in the midst [08432] of it, and also made [02672] a winepress [03342] therein: and he looked [06960] that it should bring forth [06213] grapes [06025], and it brought forth [06213] wild grapes [0891].
3 And now, O inhabitants [03427] of Jerusalem [03389], and men [0376] of Judah [03063], judge [08199], I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard [03754].
1 The book [976] of the generation [1078] of Jesus [2424] Christ [5547], the son [5207] of David [1138], the son [5207] of Abraham [11].
1 And [2532] he began [756] to speak [3004] unto them [846] by [1722] parables [3850]. A certain man [444] planted [5452] a vineyard [290], and [2532] set [4060] an hedge about [5418] it, and [2532] digged [3736] a place for the winefat [5276], and [2532] built [3618] a tower [4444], and [2532] let [1554] it [846] out [1554] to husbandmen [1092], and [2532] went into a far country [589].
33 Hear [191] another [243] parable [3850]: There was [2258] a certain [444] [5100] householder [3617], which [3748] planted [5452] a vineyard [290], and [2532] hedged [5418] it [846] round about [4060], and [2532] digged [3736] a winepress [3025] in [1722] it [846], and [2532] built [3618] a tower [4444], and [2532] let [1554] it [846] out [1554] to husbandmen [1092], and [2532] went into a far country [589]:
10 Many [07227] pastors [07462] have destroyed [07843] my vineyard [03754], they have trodden [0947] my portion [02513] under foot [0947], they have made [05414] my pleasant [02532] portion [02513] a desolate [08077] wilderness [04057].
21 Yet I had planted [05193] thee a noble vine [08321], wholly a right [0571] seed [02233]: how then art thou turned [02015] into the degenerate plant [05494] of a strange [05237] vine [01612] unto me?
16 Awake [05782], O north wind [06828]; and come [0935], thou south [08486]; blow [06315] upon my garden [01588], that the spices [01314] thereof may flow out [05140]. Let my beloved [01730] come [0935] into his garden [01588], and eat [0398] his pleasant [04022] fruits [06529].
9 My beloved [01730] is like [01819] a roe [06643] or a young [06082] hart [0354]: behold, he standeth [05975] behind [0310] our wall [03796], he looketh forth [07688] at the windows [02474], shewing [06692] himself through the lattice [02762].
8 The voice [06963] of my beloved [01730]! behold, he cometh [0935] leaping [01801] upon the mountains [02022], skipping [07092] upon the hills [01389].
3 As the apple tree [08598] among the trees [06086] of the wood [03293], so is my beloved [01730] among the sons [01121]. I sat [03427] down under his shadow [06738] with great delight [02530], and his fruit [06529] was sweet [04966] to my taste [02441].
16 Behold, thou art fair [03303], my beloved [01730], yea, pleasant [05273]: also our bed [06210] is green [07488].
13 A bundle [06872] of myrrh [04753] is my wellbeloved [01730] unto me; he shall lie [03885] all night betwixt my breasts [07699].
14 My beloved [01730] is unto me as a cluster [0811] of camphire [03724] in the vineyards [03754] of Engedi [05872].
12 And of Benjamin [01144] he said [0559], The beloved [03039] of the LORD [03068] shall dwell [07931] in safety [0983] by him; and the LORD shall cover [02653] him all the day [03117] long, and he shall dwell [07931] between his shoulders [03802].
2 It is vain [07723] for you to rise up [06965] early [07925], to sit up [03427] late [0309], to eat [0398] the bread [03899] of sorrows [06089]: for so he giveth [05414] his beloved [03039] sleep [08142].
1 Woe [01945] to the crown [05850] of pride [01348], to the drunkards [07910] of Ephraim [0669], whose glorious [06643] beauty [08597] is a fading [05034] flower [06731], which are on the head [07218] of the fat [08081] valleys [01516] of them that are overcome [01986] with wine [03196]!
2 Hear [08085], O heavens [08064], and give ear [0238], O earth [0776]: for the LORD [03068] hath spoken [01696], I have nourished [01431] and brought up [07311] children [01121], and they have rebelled [06586] against me.
1 The vision [02377] of Isaiah [03470] the son [01121] of Amoz [0531], which he saw [02372] concerning Judah [03063] and Jerusalem [03389] in the days [03117] of Uzziah [05818], Jotham [03147], Ahaz [0271], and Hezekiah [03169], kings [04428] of Judah [03063].
1 The vision [02377] of Isaiah [03470] the son [01121] of Amoz [0531], which he saw [02372] concerning Judah [03063] and Jerusalem [03389] in the days [03117] of Uzziah [05818], Jotham [03147], Ahaz [0271], and Hezekiah [03169], kings [04428] of Judah [03063].
1 Give ear [0238], O ye heavens [08064], and I will speak [01696]; and hear [08085], O earth [0776], the words [0561] of my mouth [06310].
19 Now therefore write [03789] ye this song [07892] for you, and teach [03925] it the children [01121] of Israel [03478]: put [07760] it in their mouths [06310], that this song [07892] may be a witness [05707] for me against the children [01121] of Israel [03478].
25 I pray thee, let me go over [05674], and see [07200] the good [02896] land [0776] that is beyond [05676] Jordan [03383], that goodly [02896] mountain [02022], and Lebanon [03844].
17 Thou shalt bring [0935] them in, and plant [05193] them in the mountain [02022] of thine inheritance [05159], in the place [04349], O LORD [03068], which thou hast made [06466] for thee to dwell in [03427], in the Sanctuary [04720], O Lord [0136], which thy hands [03027] have established [03559].
1 To the chief Musician [05329] upon Shoshannim [07799], for the sons [01121] of Korah [07141], Maschil [04905], A Song [07892] of loves [03039]. My heart [03820] is inditing [07370] a good [02896] matter [01697]: I speak [0559] of the things which I have made [04639] touching the king [04428]: my tongue [03956] is the pen [05842] of a ready [04106] writer [05608].
66 Persecute [07291] and destroy [08045] them in anger [0639] from under the heavens [08064] of the LORD [03068].
14 I was a derision [07814] to all my people [05971]; and their song [05058] all the day [03117].
16 For the statutes [02708] of Omri [06018] are kept [08104], and all the works [04639] of the house [01004] of Ahab [0256], and ye walk [03212] in their counsels [04156]; that I should make [05414] thee a desolation [08047], and the inhabitants [03427] thereof an hissing [08322]: therefore ye shall bear [05375] the reproach [02781] of my people [05971].