Isaiah 5:2

And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. HE FENCED IT - digged and trenched the ground to prepare it for planting the vines (Maurer). But Buxtorf as the English version. God with His protection fenced Israel from the inroads of neighbouring states. AND PLANTED IT WITH THE CHOICEST VINE - Hebrew, soreequ. It perhaps takes its name from Sorek, mentioned AND PLANTED IT WITH THE CHOICEST VINE - Hebrew, soreequ. It perhaps takes its name from Sorek, mentioned in Judges 16:4, not far from Eshcol, which was famed for its grapes. The name of The Sorek grape appears still in Morocco, serki. The grapes h...

2._And he fenced it. _The incessant care and watchfulness of God in dressing his vine are asserted by the Prophet, as if he had said, that God has neglected nothing that could be expected from the best and most careful householder. And yet we do not choose to attempt, as some commentators have done, an ingenious exposition of every clause, such as, that the Church is _fenced _by the protection of the Holy Spirit, so that it is safe against the attacks of the devil; that the _wine-press _is doctrine; and that by _the stones _are meant the annoyances of errors. The design of the Prophet, as I have mentioned, was more obvious, namely, that by incessant care and large expenditure God has performed the part of an excellent husbandman. Yet it was the duty of the Jews to consider how numerous and diversified were the blessings which God had conferred on them; and at the present day, when the Ch...

1-7 Christ is God's beloved Son, and our beloved Saviour. The care of the Lord over the church of Israel, is described by the management of a vineyard. The advantages of our situation will be brought into the account another day. He planted it with the choicest vines; gave them a most excellent law, instituted proper ordinances. The temple was a tower, where God gave tokens of his presence. He set up his altar, to which the sacrifices should be brought; all the means of grace are denoted thereby. God expects fruit from those that enjoy privileges. Good purposes and good beginnings are good things, but not enough; there must be vineyard fruit; thoughts and affections, words and actions, agreeable to the Spirit. It brought forth bad fruit. Wild grapes are the fruits of the corrupt nature. Where grace does not work, corruption will. But the wickedness of those that profess religion, and en...

Verse Isaiah 5:2. _AND GATHERED OUT THE STONES_ - "And he cleared it from the stones"] This was agreeable to the husbandry: "Saxa, summa parte terrae, et vites et arbores laeduct; ima parte refrigerant;" _Columell_. de arb. iii. "Saxosum facile est expedire lectione lapidum;" _Id_. ii. 2. "Lapides, qui supersunt, [al. insuper sunt,] hieme rigent, aestate fervescunt; idcirco satis, arbustis, et vitibus nocent;" _Pallad_. i. 6. A piece of ground thus cleared of the stones. _Persius_, in his hard way of metaphor, calls "exossatus ager," _an unboned field_; Sat. vi. 52. _THE CHOICEST VINE_ - "Sorek"] Many of the ancient interpreters, the _Septuagint, Aquila_, and _Theod_., have retained this word as a proper name; I think very rightly. Sorek was a valley lying between Ascalon and Gaza, and running far up eastward in the tribe of J

AND HE FENCED IT - Margin, ‘Made a wall about it.’ The word used here is supposed rather to mean “to dig about, to grub,” as with a pick-axe or spade. - “Gesenius.” It has this signification in Arabic, and in one place in the Jewish Talmud. - “Kimchi.” The Vulgate and the Septuagint understands it of making a hedge or fence, probably the first work in preparing a vineyard. And as ‘a hedge’ is expressly mentioned in Isaiah 5:5, it seems most probable that that is its meaning here. AND GATHERED OUT THE STONES ... - That it might be easily cultivated. This was, of course, a necessary and proper work. AND PLANTED IT WITH THE CHOICEST VINE - Hebrew, ‘With the sorek.’ This was a choice species of vine, the grapes of which, the Jewish commentators say, had very small and scarcely percepti

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 5:1 ISRAEL REBUKED BY THE PARABLE OF A VINEYARD. This chapter stands in a certain sense alone, neither closely connected with what precedes nor with what follows, excepting that it breathes throughout a tone of denunciation. There is also a want of connection between its parts, the allegory of the first section being succeeded by a series of rebukes for sins, expressed in the plainest language, and the rebukes being followed by a threat of punishment, also expressed with plainness. The resemblance of the parable with which the chapter opens to one of those delivered by our Lord, and recorded in the three synoptic Gospels, has been frequently noticed....

AND HE FENCED IT,.... With good and wholesome laws, which distinguished them, and kept them separate from other nations; also with his almighty power and providence; especially at the three yearly festivals, when all their males appeared before God at Jerusalem: AND GATHERED OUT THE STONES THEREOF; the Heathens, the seven nations that inhabited the land of Canaan, compared to stones for their hardness and stupidity, and for their worshipping of idols of stone; see Psalms 80:8 AND PLANTED IT WITH THE CHOICEST VINE; the seed of Abraham, Joshua, and Caleb, who fully followed the Lord, and the people of Israel with them, who first entered into the land of Canaan, and inhabited it; such having fallen in the wilderness, who murmured and rebelled against God, Jeremiah 2:21...

Isaiah 5:1. _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:_ You and I, dear friends, are placed in a position where we have very choice opportunities of glorifying our God, we are like «a vineyard in a very fruitful hill,» most favourably placed for fruitfulness. The Well-beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: Isaiah 5:2. _And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes._ Is that my case? Is it your case, dear friend? Has even our religion been a false thing? Has it been like wild gra

CHAPTER 5 The Song of the Vineyard and the Six Woes 1. _The song of the vineyard and Jehovah's lament (Isaiah 5:1)_ 2. _The judgment upon the vineyard (Isaiah 5:5)_ 3. _The wild grapes (Isaiah 5:8)_ 4. _First woe against covetousness (Isaiah 5:8)_ 5. _Second woe against fleshly lusts (Isaiah 5:11)_ 6. _Third woe against mockers (Isaiah 5:18)_ 7. Fourth woe against moral insensibility ...

THE PARABLE OF THE THANKLESS VINEYARD. Isaiah probably at a vintage festival, when Judæ ans from the country (Isaiah 5:3), as well as the inhabitants of Jerusalem, are present, comes forward as a minstrel. He sings this song of his friend's vineyard in light popular measure, making it attractive with beautiful plays upon words. He skilfully heightens the interest of his hearers, and by concealing the true nature of the vineyard he wins from them a mental self-condemnation. Then he throws off the mask and points the moral in a sentence made unforgettable by a pair of splendid assonances. The date is quite uncertain, but it may belong to the same period as Isaiah 2:6 to Isaiah 4:1 The minstrel sings of his Beloved. He had chosen for his