Isaiah 5:6
in Isaiah 5I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor hoed; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
KJV
And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
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This verse in Isaiah 5
Commentary
15 notes on this verseSee then how very bad sinning is, that they may be delivered to Satan, who holds captive the souls of those forsaken by God—though God does not forsake without cause or judgment those whom he has abandoned. For when he sends the rain for the vineyard and the vineyard bears thorns instead of grapes, what else will God do except order the clouds not to sprinkle rain on the vineyard?
This site's exposition
Now I will tell you
on Isaiah 5:5-7
The sentence follows the trial: the hedge taken away. Verse 7 gives the song its own interpretation, "the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel." The closing line turns on Hebrew words that nearly rhyme with opposite meanings, a wordplay Delitzsch and Barnes both set out.
This site's exposition
I will command the clouds
Here the parable slips. No farmer can command the clouds that rain shall fall, so Barnes takes the Owner of the vineyard to be the LORD of Hosts. Jerome took the clouds as the prophets, whose word Israel would lose.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
The noise of the waters is great when sweet psalmody is offered, when guilt is removed by groans and tears, when thanks are rendered for a gift received. The different prayers of people resound in sacred churches like the crashing of the sea. He beautifully …
Just as clouds when they rumble and clash (so the physicists tell us) send forth darts of lightning, so the words of the prophets shone out as signs of truth. In fact you often find the prophets in the divine Scriptures compared with clouds; for …
It is obvious enough that the prophet is referring to the apostles and to the saints; that they are not to rain his rain upon the Jews but upon the Gentiles.
The clouds are the prophets; the Lord commanded them to rain no rain upon Israel. The word of prophecy has turned to us.
(V. 5, 6.) And now I will show you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be for destruction; I will break down its wall, and it will be for trampling. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church1 voice
167. Second, he takes away the benefit which pertains to diligence of cultivation; hence he says: and I will make it desolate, that is, I will leave it uncultivated like a desert; it shall not be pruned, by the lash of admonition or correction when …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
"That which completes its woe is that the dews of heaven shall be withheld; he that has the key of the clouds will command them that they rain no rain upon it, and that alone is sufficient to run it into a desert." Note, God in a way of righteous judgment, denies his grace to those that have long received it in vain.
And I will lay it waste,....
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 Century3 voices
There shall come up briers and thorns “The thorn shall spring up in it” - One MS. has בשמיר beshamir. The true reading seems to be בו שמור bo shamir, which is confirmed by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
I will . . . command--The parable is partly dropped and Jehovah, as in Isa 5:7, is implied to be the Owner: for He alone, not an ordinary husbandman (Mt 21:43; Lu 17:22), could give such a "command." no rain--antitypically, the heaven-sent teachings of the prophets (Am 8:11).
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I will lay it waste ... - The description here is continued from Isa 5:5. The image is carried out, and means that the Jews should be left utterly without protection. I will also command the clouds ... - It is evident here, that the parable or figure is partially dropped. A farmer could not command the clouds. It is God alone who could do that; and the figure of the vineyard is dropped, and God is introduced speaking as a sovereign. The meaning is, that he would withhold his divine influences, and would abandon them to desolation. The sense of the whole verse is plain. God would leave the Jews without protection; he would remove the guards, the helps, the influences, with which he had favored them, and leave them to their own course, as a vineyard that was unpruned, uncultivated, unwatered. The Chaldee has well expressed the sense of the passage: ‘I will take away the house of my sanctuary (the temple), and they shall be trodden down. I will regard them as guilty, and there shall be no support or defense for them; they shall be abandoned, and shall become wanderers. I will command the prophets, that they shall not prophesy over them.’ The lesson taught here is, that when a people become ungrateful, and rebellious, God will withdraw from them, and leave them to desolation; compare Rev 2:3.
The words behind it
15 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַאֲשִׁיתֵ֣הוּ | vaashitehu | and I will make it | H7896 → | 83 times |
| בָתָ֗ה | vatah | a desolation | H1326 → | |
| לֹ֤א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יִזָּמֵר֙ | yizamer | it will be pruned | H2168 → | |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יֵעָדֵ֔ר | yeader | it will be hoed | H5737 → | 11 times |
| וְעָלָ֥ה | vealah | and it will grow up | H5927 → | 890 times |
| שָׁמִ֖יר | shamir | thorn[s] | H8068 → | 11 times |
| וָשָׁ֑יִת | vashayit | and bush[es] | H7898 → | 7 times |
| וְעַ֤ל | veal | and to | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| הֶעָבִים֙ | heavim | the clouds | H5645 → | 31 times |
| אֲצַוֶּ֔ה | ʾatzaveh | I will command | H6680 → | 494 times |
| מֵהַמְטִ֥יר | mehamtir | from raining | H4305 → | |
| עָלָ֖יו | ʾalav | on it | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| מָטָֽר׃ | matar | rain | H4306 → | 38 times |
וַאֲשִׁיתֵ֣הוּand I will make it
vaashitehuH7896 →83 times
בָתָ֗הa desolation
vatahH1326 →
לֹ֤אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
יִזָּמֵר֙it will be pruned
yizamerH2168 →
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
יֵעָדֵ֔רit will be hoed
yeaderH5737 →11 times
וְעָלָ֥הand it will grow up
vealahH5927 →890 times
שָׁמִ֖ירthorn[s]
shamirH8068 →11 times
וָשָׁ֑יִתand bush[es]
vashayitH7898 →7 times
וְעַ֤לand to
vealH5921 →5755 times
הֶעָבִים֙the clouds
heavimH5645 →31 times
אֲצַוֶּ֔הI will command
ʾatzavehH6680 →494 times
מֵהַמְטִ֥ירfrom raining
mehamtirH4305 →
עָלָ֖יוon it
ʾalavH5921 →5755 times
מָטָֽר׃rain
matarH4306 →38 times
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 25:11And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
it leads to
- Daniel 9:2
in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
- Zechariah 1:12
Then the angel of the LORD said, “How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?”
- Jeremiah 25:12
But when seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, declares the LORD, and I will make it an everlasting…
- 2 Chronicles 36:21–22
So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD through Jeremiah.
- Zechariah 7:5
“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
- Daniel 9:2
Through
Isaiah 24:12The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 9:11
“And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
- Lamentations 1:4
The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.
- Lamentations 1:1
How lonely lies the city, once so full of people! She who was great among the nations has become a widow. The princess of the provinces has become a slave.
- Jeremiah 9:11
Where this verse is studied
About Isaiah
This page draws on 14 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Cassiodorus, EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 76:18; Cassiodorus, EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 96:4; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 56 (PSALM 146); Jerome, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 34 (PSALM 107); Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1:4 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.