Isaiah 5:2
in Isaiah 5He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and he digged it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
KJV
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
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This verse in Isaiah 5
Commentary
14 notes on this verse(Verse 2.) And he fenced it, and picked stones from it, and planted the vineyard of Sorec, and built a tower in its midst, and constructed a winepress in it. In metaphor, as we said before, the vineyard represents the Jewish people, whom God protected with the help of angels. And he picked stones from it, meaning idols or anything that could hinder the worship of God. And he planted the vineyard of Sorec, which Symmachus alone interpreted as chosen, not expressing the word for word, as it seems to me, but the meaning that is held in the word.
This site's exposition
I will sing for my beloved
on Isaiah 5:1-2
The vineyard song opens as a love song for a friend. The owner waited for good grapes and the vineyard gave sour fruit, and every act of care named makes that failure worse. The song lays out this care as evidence before verse 3 asks for a verdict.
This site's exposition
planted the finest vines
Clarke notes that clearing the stones was ordinary good husbandry, so each task here is one a real vinedresser did. Jerome's text keeps the Hebrew name of the vine, Sorec. A watchtower and a winepress were built for a harvest, and verse 7 names the sour fruit as bloodshed.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
Let the vine give thanks to our Lord, the true vineyard.
(Chapter 5, Verse 1.) I will sing now to my beloved the song of my cousin, of his vineyard. The prophet sings a lamentable song to the people of Israel, which he composed, about whom it is written in the Gospel: But when he saw it (no doubt Jerusalem), he wept over it, and said: If you also knew what is for your peace, for the days shall come upon you, and your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and compass you round, and straiten you, and cast you down to the ground, and your children with you (Luke 19:41 et seq.). And again: How often I have wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling? Behold, your house will be left to you desolate (Matthew 23:37, 38): to whom this which is now said in this song is similar: I will leave my vineyard. And that Christ is called beloved and most dear, which Aquila has interpreted as πατράδελφον, paternal uncle, or paternal cousin, the inscription of the forty-fourth psalm teaches us: A Song for the Beloved. And the voice of God the Father in the Gospel: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). And in the sixty-seventh psalm we read: The Lord will give the word to those who preach with great power. The king of hosts, the beloved (Psalm 67:12, 13). Therefore, this beloved one composed a mournful song for his vineyard, which I will sing to my beloved and pitiable people. Or certainly it should be understood thus: I will sing to the Almighty God the Father a song of Christ, who is my cousin, that is, born from the same people as me. But when the vineyard of God is called the people of Israel, and at the end of this canticle we read: The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is his pleasant plant. And in the seventy-ninth psalm (ver. […]
He invites us to produce fruits in abundance, for fear lest our sterility should condemn us to the fire. He constantly compares our souls to vines. "My well beloved," says He, "hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill," and elsewhere, I have "planted a vineyard and hedged it round about." Evidently He calls human souls His vine, those souls whom He has surrounded with the authority of His precepts and a guard of angels. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him." And further: He has planted for us, so to say, props, in establishing in His Church apostles, prophets, teachers; and raising our thoughts by the example of the blessed in olden times, He has not allowed them to drag on the earth and be crushed under foot. He wishes that the claspings of love, like the tendrils of the vine, should attach us to our neighbours and make us rest on them, so that, in our continual aspirations towards heaven, we may imitate these vines, which raise themselves to the tops of the tallest trees. He also asks us to allow ourselves to be dug about; and that is what the soul does when it disembarrasses itself from the cares of the world, which are a weight on our hearts. He, then, who is freed from carnal affections and from the love of riches, and, far from being dazzled by them, disdains and despises this miserable vain glory, is, so to say, dug about and at length breathes, free from the useless weight of earthly thoughts.
So let me warn you, holy seedlings, let me warn you, fresh plants in the field of the Lord, not to have it said of you what was said of the vineyard of the house of Israel: "I expected it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns." Let the Lord find good bunches of grapes on you, seeing that he was himself a bunch of grapes trodden in the winepress for you. Produce grapes, live good lives.
And through Isaiah the Lord himself spoke, saying: A vineyard has been made for my beloved in a fertile place. And I have enclosed it with a wall, and have dug around the vineyard of Sorech, and have built a tower in its midst. For it has surrounded her like a wall of celestial precepts, and the guardianship of angels. For the angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear Him. He has placed her in the Church like a tower of the apostles and prophets and teachers, who are accustomed to defend the peace of the Church. He has dug around her, when he has relieved her of the burden of worldly anxieties. For nothing burdens the mind more than the solicitude and desire for wealth or power in this world.
6 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers1 voice
A commentator
Athanasius of Alexandria296–373
Discourses Against the Arians 4.24 · Written before 373.
proposed
And in Isaiah it says, "I will sing to my beloved a song of my beloved touching my vineyard. My beloved has a vineyard." Who is the "Beloved" other than the only-begotten Son?
The Medieval Church1 voice
156. Second, the diligence of his preparation is set out as to the fortification of the location; hence he says, and he fenced it in: I will hedge up your way with thorns (Hos 2:6), in which is signified the guardianship of angels and good …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And he fenced it,....
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,
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
And gathered out the stones “And he cleared it from the stones” - This was agreeable to the husbandry: “Saxa, summa parte terrae, et vites et arbores laeduct; ima parte refrigerant;” Columell. de arb. 3: “Saxosum facile est expedire lectione lapidum;” Id. 2:2. “Lapides, qui supersunt, [al. insuper sunt], hieme rigent, aestate fervescunt; idcirco satis, arbustis, et vitibus nocent;” Pallad. 1:6. A piece of ground thus cleared of the stones Persius, in his hard way of metaphor, calls “exossatus ager,” an unboned field; Sat. 6:
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
And he fenced it - Margin, ‘Made a wall about it.’ The word used here is supposed rather to mean “to dig about, to grub,” as with a pick-axe or spade. - “Gesenius.” It has this signification in Arabic, and in one place in the Jewish Talmud. - “Kimchi.” The Vulgate and the Septuagint understands it of making a hedge or fence, probably the first work in preparing a vineyard. And as ‘a hedge’ is expressly mentioned in Isa 5:5, it seems most probable that that is its meaning here. And gathered out the stones ... - That it might be easily cultivated. This was, of course, a necessary and proper work. And planted it with the choicest vine - Hebrew, ‘With the sorek.’ This was a choice species of vine, the grapes of which, the Jewish commentators say, had very small and scarcely perceptible stones, and which, at this day, is called “serki” in Morocco; in Persia, “kishmis.” - “Gesenius.” And built a tower - For the sake of watching and defending it. These towers were probably placed so as to overlook the whole vineyard, and were thus posts of observation; compare the note at Isa 1:8; see also the note at Mat 21:33. And also made a wine-press - A place in which to put the grapes for the purpose of expressing the juice; see the note at Mat 21:33. And he looked - He waited in expectation; as a farmer waits patiently for the vines to grow, and to bear grapes. Wild grapes - The word used here is derived from the verb באשׁ bâ'ash, “to be offensive, to corrupt, to putrify;” and is supposed by Gesenius to mean “monk’s-hood,” a poisonous herb, offensive in smell, which produces berries like grapes. Such a meaning suits the connection better than the supposition of grapes that were wild or uncultivated. The Vulgate understands it of the weed called “wild vine - labruscas.” The Septuagint translates it by “thorns,” ἄκανθας akanthas. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
I will now sing for my beloved The prophet says: “I will now sing for my beloved and in his place and as his messenger.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
The prophet said, Now I will sing unto Israel, who is like unto a vineyard, the seed of Abraham, my beloved, a song of my beloved, concerning his vineyard. My people, my beloved Israel, I gave to them an inheritance in a high mountain, in a fat land.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
16 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַֽיְעַזְּקֵ֣הוּ | vayazekehu | and he dug it | H5823 → | |
| וַֽיְסַקְּלֵ֗הוּ | vaysakelehu | and he cleared of stones it | H5619 → | |
| וַיִּטָּעֵ֙הוּ֙ | vaiyitaehu | and he planted it | H5193 → | 58 times |
| שֹׂרֵ֔ק | sorek | a choice vine | H8321 → | |
| וַיִּ֤בֶן | vaiyiven | and he built | H1129 → | 376 times |
| מִגְדָּל֙ | migdal | a tower | H4026 → | 48 times |
| בְּתוֹכ֔וֹ | betokho | in [the] middle of it | H8432 → | 418 times |
| וְגַם־ | vegam- | and also | H1571 → | 769 times |
| יֶ֖קֶב | yekev | a wine-vat | H3342 → | |
| חָצֵ֣ב | chatzev | he dug out | H2672 → | 25 times |
| בּ֑וֹ | bo | in it | ||
| וַיְקַ֛ו | vaykav | and he waited | H6960 → | 49 times |
| לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת | laasot | to produce | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| עֲנָבִ֖ים | ʾanavim | grapes | H6025 → | |
| וַיַּ֥עַשׂ | vaiyaas | and it produced | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| בְּאֻשִֽׁים׃ | beushim | wild grapes | H891 → |
וַֽיְעַזְּקֵ֣הוּand he dug it
vayazekehuH5823 →
וַֽיְסַקְּלֵ֗הוּand he cleared of stones it
vaysakelehuH5619 →
וַיִּטָּעֵ֙הוּ֙and he planted it
vaiyitaehuH5193 →58 times
שֹׂרֵ֔קa choice vine
sorekH8321 →
וַיִּ֤בֶןand he built
vaiyivenH1129 →376 times
מִגְדָּל֙a tower
migdalH4026 →48 times
בְּתוֹכ֔וֹin [the] middle of it
betokhoH8432 →418 times
וְגַם־and also
vegam-H1571 →769 times
יֶ֖קֶבa wine-vat
yekevH3342 →
חָצֵ֣בhe dug out
chatzevH2672 →25 times
בּ֑וֹin it
bo
וַיְקַ֛וand he waited
vaykavH6960 →49 times
לַעֲשׂ֥וֹתto produce
laasotH6213 →2628 times
עֲנָבִ֖יםgrapes
ʾanavimH6025 →
וַיַּ֥עַשׂand it produced
vaiyaasH6213 →2628 times
בְּאֻשִֽׁים׃wild grapes
beushimH891 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 2:21I had planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. How could you turn yourself before Me into a rotten, wild vine?
it leads to
- Isaiah 5:4
What more could I have done for My vineyard than I already did for it? Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?
- Exodus 15:17
You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance—the place, O LORD, You have prepared for Your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, Your hands have established.
- John 15:1
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard.
- Psalms 80:8
You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and transplanted it.
- Psalms 44:2
With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our fathers there; You crushed the peoples and cast them out.
- Isaiah 5:4
Through
Mark 11:13Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if there was any fruit on it. But when He reached it, He found nothing on it except leaves, since it…
it leads to
- Matthew 21:19
Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. “May you never bear fruit again!” He said. And immediately the tree withered.
- Luke 13:6–9
Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any.
- Isaiah 5:7
For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but…
- Matthew 21:19
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this verse
About Isaiah
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, The Six Days of Creation, 3.50; Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourses Against the Arians 4.24; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 376A.2; Basil of Caesarea, Homilies on the Hexaemeron 5.6; Ephrem the Syrian, HYMNS ON THE NATIVITY 18:21-22; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.