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:
Ver. 1. Now will I sing.] Now, or, Now I pray, as stirring up his hearers to attention; for here beginneth his third sermon. He had endeavoured, but with little good effect, to convince them of their detestable unthankfulness, apostasy, and other enormities, in prose. Now he resolves to try another course, and to be unto them as a poet rather than a prophet, if haply they might be taken by the sweetness of his verse, and loveliness of his voice. Eze 33:32
“ Metra parant animos, comprendunt plurima paucis:
Aures delectant, pristina commemorant. ”
True it is that poets, for the most part, are dulcissime vani, most sweetly vain, as Augustine said of Homer. And some have noted well concerning St Paul, that citing his countryman, Aratus (for he was a Cilician), he nameth him not, but only saith, "Certain of your own poets," Act 17:28 notwithstanding the piety of his beginning, ‘ Eκ Dιος αρχωμεθα, or the divineness of his subject, the heavens - more sublime and pure matter than useth to be in the wanton pages of other poets. But our divine poet is of another alloy, and his holy song is of the same strain with that of Moses, of Deborah and Barak, of Hannah, of David, - qui noster Orpheus est, saith Euthymius, the "sweet singer of Israel," 2Sa 23:1 - of Solomon with his Song of Songs; saving that this is lugubre carmen, saith Oecolampadius, et tragediae quam comediae similius, a lamentable ditty, and more like a tragedy than a comedy; for, though the prophet beginneth merrily, yet he endeth heavily; it is of "mercy and judgment" that he singeth.
To my well beloved,] i.e., To Christ, the Church's bridegroom, cuius amicus et administer sum, whose paranymph advocate I am and well wisher; John 3:29 2Co 11:2-3 some render it for my beloved, or in his defence.
A song.] Or, Poem, whereto this first verse is the proem or preface. A spiritual song it is, most artificially composed, and set out with the most exquisite skill that might be.
Of my beloved.] Of him whom my soul loveth; as Son 1:7 Jonathan loved David (1.) With a love of union; 1Sa 18:1 (2.) With a love of complacence; Isa 5:19 (3.) With a love of benevolence. Isa 20:4 So doth a gracious heart love Jesus Christ. My Love was crucified, said Ignatius, a whose heart was even a lump of love.
Touching his vineyard.] That degenerate plant of a strange vine unto him, Jer 2:21 the plantation and supplantation whereof is here, first, Parabolically propounded; secondly, More plainly expounded. Some read it, "to his vineyard"; others, "for his vineyard." See Mat 21:33-34 Mar 12:1-2 Luke 20:9; Luke 20:16 .
My beloved.] See how oft he harps upon this sweet string, and cannot come off. What a man loveth he will be talking of, as the huntsman of his hounds, the drunkard of his cups, the worldling of his wealth, &c. Ten times in eight verses together doth St Paul mention the name of Jesus, 1 Corinthians 1:1,4 ; 1Co 1:7-10 showing thereby that it was to him mel in ore, melos in aure, iubilum in corde, the sweetest music.
Hath a vineyard.] So the Church is here Isa 5:7 and elsewhere frequently and fitly styled: Confert autem vineae, saith Oecolampadius. To a vineyard is the Church compared for sundry reasons; as the great care men take about it, b the great delight they take in it, the sweet fruits they expect from it, the great worth of its fruit, the little worth of its stem Eze 15:3 if it prove fruitless, the lowly and feeble condition thereof, the continual need it hath to be dressed, supported, sheltered, pruned. αιρει, καθαιρει, Joh 15:2 amputat, putat.
In a very fruitful hill.] Heb., In a horn the son of oil, that is, a horny hill, bowing like a halfmoon, and so exposed to the sunbeams all the day long. c Some say that Judea lieth in the form of a horn, like as the low countries do in the form of a lion, unde Leo Belgicus. The "son of oil," or "fatness," that is, exceeding fat; Judea is called Sumen totius orbis, the friutful mother of all the earth, a land "flowing with milk and honey," Eze 20:6 a very cornucopia of all comforts. Basil telleth us that it was a tradition of great antiquity, that Adam, when he was thrust out of paradise, ut dolorem leniret, for a mitigation of his grief, chose Judea, that most fruitful country, for a place to dwell in; whence it is that Sodom and her sisters, which were a part of that country, are said to be "pleasant as the garden of God." Gen 13:10
a Rom. xii.
b Nulla possessio maiorem operam requirit. - Cato. Itali dicunt, Vinea est tinea.
c Soli antemeridiano, meridiano atque postmeridiano expositus. - Pisc.