ISAIAH CHAPTER 5 Israel God's vineyard; his mercies, and their unfruitfulness; should be laid waste, Isaiah 5:1-7. Judgments upon covetousness, Isaiah 5:8-10; upon drunkards, and the lascivious, Isaiah 5:11,12. The great misery of the Jews, Isaiah 5:13-17. Judgments on impiety, scoffers at God's threatenings, those who corrupt the notions of good and ill, strong drinkers, and unjust judges, Isaiah 5:18-23. God's anger and the Chaldeans army against them, Isaiah 5:24-30. Now will I sing; I will record it, to be a witness for God, and against you, as Moses did his song, Deuteronomy 31:19, Deuteronomy 32:1. To my Well-beloved; to the Lord of the vineyard, as appears by the last clause of the verse; to God or Christ, whom I love and serve, and for whose glory, eclipsed by you, I am greatly concerned. A song of my Beloved; not devised by me, not the effect of my envy or passion; but inspired by God, which therefore it behoveth you to lay to heart. His vineyard; his church, oft and very fitly called a vineyard, because of God's singular respect to it, and care of it, and his delight in it, and expectation of good fruit from it, &c. In a very fruitful hill; hills being places most commodious for vines: see Psalms 80:10. Heb. in a horn (which may signify either,
1. The figure or shape of the land of Canaan, which resembles a horn; or,
2. The height and hilliness of that land, as horns are the highest parts of beasts; or,
3. The goodliness and excellency of it, as a horn, when it is ascribed to a man, signifies his glory and dignity, as Job 16:1,5 Psa 89:17,24, &c.) the son of oil, which, by a vulgar Hebraism, notes an oily or a fat soil.