For the vineyard ... - This is the application of the parable. God had treated the Jews as a farmer does a vineyard. This was “his” vineyard - the object of his faithful, unceasing care. This was his “only” vineyard; on this people alone, of all the nations of the earth, had he bestowed his special attention.
His pleasant plant - The plant in which he delighted. As the farmer had been at the pains to plant the “sorek” Isaiah 5:2, so had God selected the ancient stock of the Jews as his own, and made the race the object of his chief attention.
And he looked for judgment - For justice, or righteousness.
But behold oppression - The word rendered “oppression” means properly “shedding of blood.” In the original here, there is a remarkable “paranomasia,” or play upon words, which is not uncommon in the Hebrew Scriptures, and which was deemed a great beauty in composition:
| He looked for “judgment,” | משׁפט mishpâṭ, |
| And lo! “shedding of blood,” | משׂפח mis'pâch; |
| For “rightousness,” | צדקה tsedâqâh, |
| But lo! “a clamor,” | צעקה tse‛âqâh. |
It is impossible, of course, to retain this in a translation.
A cry. A clamor - tumult, disorder; the clamor which attends anarchy, and covetousness, and dissipation Isaiah 5:8, Isaiah 5:11-12, rather than the soberness and steadiness of justice.