God's Fruitless Vineyard (Isaiah 5:1-7).
In the first few verses we find a song, which was possibly sung by Isaiah at the celebration of the vintage harvest, as he gathered with men who were singing vintage songs at a wine festival, and sang a song of his own compilation. As Isaiah began his song it would at first appear to them to be an innocuous general love song, listened to appreciatively by all, and especially as it became sad, until it finally delivered to them a devastating message. We can imagine the hearers first going along with the song, then sympathising with the young man described, and finally to their horror being brought face to face with the fact that it is spoken against themselves. For the whole compare Jeremiah 2:21.
We can analyse the song and its interpretation as follows:
a Let me sing concerning my well-beloved a song for my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved had a vineyard, in a very fruitful hill (Isaiah 5:1).
b And he dug it and cleared it of its stones, and he planted it with the choicest vine, and he built a tower in the middle of it, and he also hewed out a winevat in it (Isaiah 5:2 a).
c And he looked that it should produce grapes, and it produced wild grapes (Isaiah 5:2 b).
d And now O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, Judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard (Isaiah 5:3).
d What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? (Isaiah 5:4 a).
c Why when I looked for it to produce grapes, did it produce wild grapes (literally ‘stinking fruit')? (Isaiah 5:4 b).
b And now, go to. I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be devoured, I will break down its fence, and it will be trodden down, and I will lay it waste, it shall not be pruned nor hoed, but there will come up briars and thorns. I will also command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it (Isaiah 5:5-6).
a For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah the planting of his delight, and he looked for justice but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry (Isaiah 5:7).
In ‘a' we have the picture of the wellbeloved's vineyard, and in the parallel we are told that Yahweh is the wellbeloved, and that the vineyard is the house of Israel and the men of Judah. In ‘b' we have the careful preparations put in motion by the wellbeloved, and in the parallel the reversal of them. In ‘c' we see his hopes for it, and in the parallel the failure of those hopes. And in ‘d' and parallel comes the call to consider the rightness of the situation.
The Song of the Vineyard.
‘Let me sing concerning my well-beloved a song for my beloved touching his vineyard.
My wellbeloved had a vineyard, in a very fruitful hill,
And he dug it and cleared it of its stones,
And he planted it with the choicest vine,
And he built a tower in the middle of it,
And he also hewed out a winevat in it,
And he looked that it should produce grapes,
And it produced wild grapes.'
We see here Isaiah singing to the people in a way that draws their attention. It is often wise in witnessing to draw men's attention and win their sympathy in a general way concerning things that they are interested in, before presenting our message, and that was what Isaiah was doing here. This may well have occurred at the vintage festival, and Isaiah begins seemingly innocuously with what appears to be a general love ballad, until it suddenly produces a sting in its tail. In the ballad the young woman is speaking of her wellbeloved and intends to sing him a song about his vineyard.
The song is about the work and labour involved in establishing the vineyard. First a fruitful hill was sought out, then it had to be dug and cleared of stones, then he planted in it the choicest vine, built a watchtower, made a vat ready for receiving the produce, and then waited for the harvest. All the hearers would be listening and smiling. They had most of them done it themselves. And then comes the crunch line. It produced nothing but wild, evil-smelling grapes! The whole effort had been fruitless. The final result was devastating.
‘A very fruitful hill.' Literally ‘a horn, son of oil'. The horn here represents ‘a peak'. ‘Son of oil' represents one which will produce much olive oil and is thus fruitful.
‘And now O inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Judgment On The Vineyard.
And men of Judah,
Judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.
What could have been done more to my vineyard,
That I have not done to it?
Why when I looked for it to produce grapes,
did it produce wild grapes (literally ‘stinking fruit')?'
The song is now applied, and sympathy sought for the young man. What a shame that after all his hard work he had nothing to show for it! All his listeners would be nodding sympathetically. But then suddenly in Isaiah 5:7 he reveals that it is Yahweh Himself Who is the beloved, it is He Who is speaking through Isaiah. The song was a parable. The vineyard was Israel (Isaiah 5:7), and the One Who laboured on it Yahweh Himself. And He asks them to judge for themselves whether He could have done any more for His vineyard than He had done, knowing that the answer could only be ‘No'. Then He challenges them as to why it has produced useless grapes. Let them pass judgment on themselves.
We may consider that the fruitful hill was Canaan, the gathering out of the stones referred to the defeating of the inhabitants of the land with the help of Yahweh, the choicest vine was Israel itself, the watchtower was Yahweh's watch over His people, the winevat His expectations of them (compare Psalms 80:8-18). On the other hand it may only be intended to be a picture of God's total care and expenditure of effort on behalf of His people. Either way the vineyard, Israel, should have produced choice fruit, but all that had resulted was ‘stinking fruit', inedible, useless grapes, depicting the present unacceptable condition of the people of Judah. No wonder that He was dissatisfied.
‘What could have been done more?' Literally, ‘what more to do?' There was nothing more. All had to admit that all that was divinely possible had been done.
‘I looked.' That is, waited confidently and expectantly, and inspected it often in the expectation of choice fruit.
The picture is intended to be dramatic. All would recognise that the difference between a vine that produced choice grapes and one that produced useless fruit was the direct result of the care heaped on it, and yet here was a vine that had been totally and lovingly cared for, and yet had produced bad fruit as though no care had been lavished on it. It was an incredible anomaly. As with the example in Isaiah 1:3 it was unnatural.
Then follows the prophetic judgment.
‘And now, go to.
I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard,
I will take away its hedge, and it will be devoured,
I will break down its fence, and it will be trodden down,
And I will lay it waste, it shall not be pruned nor hoed,
But there will come up briars and thorns.
I will also command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it.'
The total desolation of the vineyard is now promised. Because it only produced wild stinking grapes it will be returned to its wilderness state as would be suitable for ground that only bore wild grapes. A place that can only produce wild grapes deserves to be a wilderness. All that has been put into it will be destroyed or removed. All its protection will be torn away. It will be desolated and receive no further attention. It will become a place of briars and thorns, a wild place. It will enjoy no life-giving rain. It will be returned to what it was. God will return His people to bondage and to captivity, to poverty and to spiritual barrenness. There will be no more blessings of the Spirit (Isaiah 32:15).
‘For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah the planting of his delight,
And he looked for justice but behold oppression,
For righteousness, but behold a cry.'
The application of the parable is confirmed. Note that Israel and Judah are still seen together as His people, they are all part of total Israel. They all still came within the ambit of God's covenant, and were His vineyard and His choice planting in which He had once delighted. They would have been welcomed by Him if they had responded to the covenant, but they had rebelled against it. That was why the northern kingdom languished and would soon be under foreign rulers. That was why Judah was now under sentence. For God looked on and sought to find justice being applied by His people according to His covenant, but instead He found oppression everywhere. He looked to find a state of righteousness, of covenant fulfilment, of right relations, but all He heard was the cry of the oppressed and the needy. He had no alternative but judgment.
There is a play on words here. Justice is mishpat, oppression (bloodshed) is mishpach, righteousness is tsethaqa, a cry is tsa‘aqa. The words sound very similar, but the difference spelled tragedy. The good fruit God looked for was justice (‘mishpat' - the righting of wrongs) but all He found was oppression (‘mishpach' - the inflicting of wrongs), He sought righteousness (‘tsethaqa' - right relationships and behaviour - compare Isaiah 60:21; Isaiah 61:3) but all He found was a cry resulting from their violence (‘tsa‘aqa a cry resulting from wrong relationships and behaviour).
We should note in the presentation of the song the tender way in which Yahweh is thought of as ‘the Beloved'. This can be compared with the approach of Hosea (e.g. Isaiah 2:14). God wanted His people to love Him as well as being in awe of Him (Deuteronomy 6:5). But they had spurned His love by their behaviour.
Finally there is a thought for ourselves. What kind of fruit are we producing in our own lives. Are we truly fruitful, or are we just producing wild grapes? We cannot justifiably call Him ‘our Beloved' if our lives do not produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).