They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
They shall smite upon the breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
For breasts they are lamenting, For fields of desire, for the fruitful vine.
They shall smite on the breasts [in lamentation] for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vineyards.
Isaiah — The gospel prophet — a Judean court-prophet across Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (c. 740–700 BC) who sees past Assyria to Babylon and past Babylon to the Messiah. Sixty-six chapters divided into the Book of Judgment (1–39) and the Book of Comfort (40–66), climaxing in the Servant wounded for our transgressions.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Lamentations 2:11My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of…
leads to
See, O LORD, how distressed I am! I am churning within; my heart is pounding within me, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is death.
For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to revive my soul. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.
My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm…
His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
Through
Ezekiel 20:15Moreover, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory…
leads to
So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”
So He raised His hand and swore to cast them down in the wilderness,
Now we who have believed enter that rest. As for the others, it is just as God has said: “So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’” And…
The whole web at once: see the Arc.
Voices6
(Verse 9 and following) Women of wealth, rise up and listen to my voice: confident daughters, hear my words. After days and years, you will be troubled, O confident ones: for the harvest is complete, and there will be no more gathering. O women of wealth, be astounded, be troubled: strip yourselves and be ashamed. As Symmachus interpreted, expose yourselves: it continues. Gird your loins, beat your breasts, over the desirable region, over the fertile vineyard: over the ground of my people, thorns and thistles will grow: how much more over all the houses of the joyful city?
Jerome· Commentary on Isaiah, 420patristic
And he foretells harm: upon the land, above: briers and thorns shall come up (Isa 5:6) over it.
Thomas Aquinas· Commentary on Isaiah, 1274patristic
They shall lament for the teats,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
They shall lament - for the pleasant fields Mourn ye for the pleasant field - The Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read ספדו siphdu, mourn ye, imperative; twelve MSS., (five ancient), two editions, the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Syriac, and Vulgate, all read שדה sadeh, a field; not שדי shedey, breasts.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832evangelical
Address to the women of Jerusalem who troubled themselves little about the political signs of the times, but lived a life of self-indulgence (Isa 3:16-23); the failure of food through the devastations of the enemy is here foretold, being what was most likely to affect them as mothers of families, heretofore accustomed to every luxury.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
The foregoing prophecy was delivered, not in the time of Ahaz for he sent to the Assyrian, not the Egyptian, for help; it was Hezekiah, who rebelled against the king of Assyria, and was too prone to trust upon the staff of Egypt. But this seems to have been delivered in the time of Ahaz. A king - Hezekiah, a type of Christ, and Christ typified by him.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765evangelical
The verses this one reaches10
So now, do not mock, or your shackles will become heavier. Indeed, I have heard from the Lord GOD of Hosts a decree of destruction against the whole land.
But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven.
Moreover, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands—
Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.
My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills;
It is decreed that the city be exiled and carried away; her maidservants moan like doves, and beat upon their breasts.
On that day I swore to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands.
They will plunder your wealth and pillage your merchandise. They will demolish your walls, tear down your beautiful homes, and throw your stones and timber and soil into the water.
And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.
