I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest [any] hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
Ver. 3. I the Lord do keep it.] And then it cannot but be well kept. The matter is well amended with God's vineyard since Isa 5:5 the Lord is with you while ye are with him. 2Ch 16:7 "The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him." Ezr 8:12 Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, &c. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, &c. Psa 125:4-5
I will water it every moment.] God will be to his vineyard both a wall and a well, a sun and a shield, Psa 84:11 all that heart can wish, or need require. Of all possessions, saith Cato, none requireth more care and pains than that of vineyards. Grain comes up and grows alone, Mar 4:28 but vines must be daily dressed, fenced, supported, watered. Plantas tenellas frequentius adaquare proderit, saith Primasius. a Young vines must be often watered; God's vines shall not want for watering, though once he forbade the clouds to rain upon them. Isa 5:6 He hath not been wanting to England either for watching or for watering it. We may now much better say of it, than once Polydor Virgil did, Regnum Angliae Regnum Dei; the kingdom of England is the kingdom of God, he meant because none seemed to take care of England but God. He grant we may at length walk worthy of such a mercy! Amen. The Vulgate here rendereth it, but not so well, Repente propinabo ei, I will shortly drink to her.
Lest any hurt it.] Heb., Lest he visit on it, lest any profane person should rudely and unmannerly rush upon it, he guardeth it constantly.
a In Philip.