Isaiah 5:1

(Chapter 5, Verse 1.) I will sing now to my beloved the song of my cousin, of his vineyard.

152. I will sing to my beloved. Here he denounces the third sin of the two tribes, which they committed in abuse of things, under a certain metaphor; and this is divided into two parts: in the first, the metaphor is set out; in the …

Now will I sing to my well beloved,....

By an enumeration of the sins that did abound among them, with a threatening of punishments that should answer to the sins. Covetousness, and greediness of worldly wealth, which shall be punished with famine,

WE recognize at once that Jesus is here. Who but He can be meant by, "My Well-Beloved"? Here is a word of possession and a word of affection—He is mine, and my Well-Beloved. He is loveliness, itself, the most loving and lovable of beings—and we personally love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength—He is ours, our Beloved, our Well-Beloved! We can say no less.

The Jewish covenant-people, separated from the nations for His glory, as the object of His peculiar care (Mt 20:1; Jesus Christ in the "vineyard" of the New Testament Church is the same as the Old Testament Angel of the Jewish covenant. fruitful hill--literally, "a horn" ("peak," as the Swiss shreckhorn) of the son of oil; poetically, for very fruitful.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

WE recognize at once that Jesus is here. Who but He can be meant by, "My Well-Beloved"? Here is a word of possession and a word of affection—He is mine, and my Well-Beloved. He is loveliness, itself, the most loving and lovable of beings—and we personally love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength—He is ours, our Beloved, our Well-Beloved! We can say no less. The delightful relationship of our Lord to us is accompanied by words which remind us of our relationship to Him, "My Well-Beloved has a vineyard," and what vineyard is that but our heart, our nature, our life? We are His and we are His for the same reason that any other vineyard belongs to its owner. He made us a vineyard. Thorns and briars were all our growth, naturally, but He bought us with a price, He hedged us about and set us apart for Him—and then He planted and cultivated us. All within us that can bring forth good fruit is of His creating, His tending and His preserving, so that if we are vineyards at all, we must be His vineyards! We gladly agree that it shall be so. I pray that I may not have a hair on my head that does not belong to Christ—and you all pray that your every pulse and breath may be the Lord's. This happy afternoon I want you to note that this vineyard is said to be upon "a very fruitful hill." I have been thinking of the advantages of my own position towards the Lord and lamenting with great shame that I am not bringing forth such fruit to Him as my position demands. Considering our privileges, advantages and opportunities, I fear that many of us have need to feel great searching of heart. Perhaps to such, the text may be helpful. And it will not be without profit to any one of us if the Lord will bless our meditation upon it. I.

IT was a Prophet who wrote this, a Prophet inspired of God. An ordinary Believer might suffice to sing, but he counts it no stoop for a Prophet, and no waste of his important time, to occupy himself with song. There is no engagement under Heaven that is more exalting than praising God—and however great may be the work which is committed to the charge of any of us, we shall always do well if we pause awhile to spend a time in sacred praise. I would not wish to prefer one spiritual exercise before another, else I think I would endorse the saying of an old Divine who said that a line of praise was better than even a leaf of prayer—that praise was the highest, noblest, best, most satisfying and most healthful occupation in which a Christian could be found! If these may be regarded as the words of the Church, the Church of old did well to turn all her thoughts in the direction of praising her God. Though the winning of souls is a great thing, though the edifying of Believers is an important matter, though the reclamation of backsliders calls for earnest attention, yet never, never, never may we cease from praising and magnifying the name of the Well-Beloved! This is to be our occupation in Heaven—let us begin the music here and make a Heaven of the Church! The words of the text are, "Now will I sing," and that seems to give us a starting word. I. THE STRAINS OF THE SOUL'S SONG. "Now will I sing." Does not that imply that there were times when he who spoke these words could not sing? "Now," he said, "will I sing to my Well-Beloved." There were times, then, when his voice, his heart and his circumstances were not in such order that he could praise God. My Brothers and Sisters, a little while ago we could not sing to our Well-Beloved, for we did not love Him—we did not know Him—we were dead in trespasses and sins! Perhaps we joined in sacred song, but we mocked the Lord.

IT was a Prophet who wrote this, a Prophet inspired of God. An ordinary Believer might suffice to sing, but he counts it no stoop for a Prophet, and no waste of his important time, to occupy himself with song. There is no engagement under Heaven that is more exalting than praising God—and however great may be the work which is committed to the charge of any of us, we shall always do well if we pause awhile to spend a time in sacred praise.

Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved “Let me sing now a song,” etc. - A MS., respectable for its antiquity, adds the word שיר shir, a song, after נא na; which gives so elegant a turn to the sentence by the repetition of it in the next member, and by distinguishing the members so exactly in the style and manner in the Hebrew poetical composition, that I am much inclined to think it genuine. A song of my beloved “A song of loves” - דודי dodey, for דודים dodim: status constructus pro absoluto, as the grammarians say, as Mic 6:16; Lam 3:14, Lam 3:66, so Archbishop Secker. Or rather, in all these and the like cases, a mistake of the transcribers, by not observing a small stroke, which in many MSS., is made to supply the מ mem, of the plural, thus, דודי dodi. שירת דודים shirath dodim is the same with שיר ידידת shir yedidoth, Psa 45:1. In this way of understanding it we avoid the great impropriety of making the author of the song, and the person to whom it is addressed, to be the same. In a very fruitful hill “On a high and fruitful hill” - Hebrew בקרן בן שמן bekeren ben shamen, “on a horn the son of oil.” The expression is highly descriptive and poetical. “He calls the land of Israel a horn, because it is higher than all lands; as the horn is higher than the whole body; and the son of oil, because it is said to be a land flowing with milk and honey.” - Kimchi on the place. The parts of animals are, by an easy metaphor, applied to parts of the earth, both in common and poetical language. A promontory is called a cape or head; the Turks call it a nose. […]