Isaiah 5

Let me sing for my well beloved a love song concerning his vineyard: a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. Wesley: a witness for God and against you, as Moses’ song; vineyard—his church; hill—places most commodious for vines.

Judah as the beloved’s plot. A hill, a love. The singer is jealous for the bride entrusted to him.

Calvin: a poem in behalf of God, that he might expostulate about ingratitude. Beloved: God; Isaiah assumes the character of one jealous for the bride. Vineyard: no dearer possession, and none that demands more constant toil. Hill, son of oil: a fertile situation in the allegory, the people’s prosperous condition under care.

The care is His peculiar regard, not common rain on just and unjust. Either reading: beloved, vineyard, fertile hill.

He dug it, cleared stones, planted choice vines, built a watchtower, hewed a wine vat; he looked for grapes, and it yielded wild grapes. Wesley: he removed all hindrances and gave them all the means of fruitfulness; a tower for the keepers.

Means actually given. Choice vines were planted; wild grapes still came. The looking is not a fake warning. All the ordinary care of a husbandman was there; the yield was theirs.

Calvin: incessant care; he has neglected nothing expected of the best householder. Do not force every clause (Spirit as fence, doctrine as vat). Planted, then everything else necessary. He hoped it would bring forth grapes: God is not deceived like a mortal (Heb 4:13); Isaiah describes how the people ought to have acted. The gospel is proclaimed for the obedience of faith, not because He expects all to be obedient, but that unbelievers are rendered inexcusable by the hearing.

The looking names their duty, not a gap in His knowledge. Stones, choice vines, tower, vat, wild grapes.

Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. Hearers are made the jury.

“Judge”—an appeal to historical men of Judah. They can still weigh the case. The vineyard is theirs to recognize.

Calvin: the guilty are made judges in a cause so plain they have no evasion. Proof of the strongest confidence: bid them declare if this be not the fact. Immediately the accusation is decided against those to whom he now commits the decision.

Their own mouth will close the plea. Jerusalem, Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for grapes, why wild grapes? Wesley’s “all the means of fruitfulness” stands here: nothing ordinary was withheld.

“What more could have been done?” Arminian readers find in God’s question a sincere lament: every means of fruitfulness was given, and the wild grapes were still the vineyard’s own yield.

Calvin: what could have been expected from the best husbandman which he has not done? They have no excuse. If it be objected that God had the remedy in his hands, if he had turned their hearts, this is an idle evasion; conscience holds them. Though God do not pierce hearts by His Spirit so as to render them obedient, they cannot complain that this was wanting; the outward call takes away ignorance. He does not speak here of His power, but declares He was not obligated to do more than He did.

The complaint stops their mouth; it does not teach that effectual turning was omitted as if He lacked it. Both sides agree: what more, looked, wild grapes.

I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down. After the verdict, the sentence.

“Hedge”—walls of Judah coming down—Assyria, then Babylon—not a slogan against borders. Protection withdrawn is still His doing; trampling is still armies’.

Calvin: vengeance for contempt of grace. They will be deprived of the gifts they abused. When His protection is gone they become prey to all that pass by, men or beasts.

He withdraws what He put up. Both traditions see: hedge, devour, wall, trample.

I will lay it a wasteland; not pruned or hoed; briers and thorns; I will command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. Wesley: I will remove my ministers who used care to make you fruitful; thorns—give you up to your own lusts; no rain—deprive you of all my blessings.

Drought and neglect of the plot. Ministers withdrawn, lusts unpruned. The clouds still hear Him.

Calvin: He will not take pains to dig and prune; briars choke; by withholding rain He dries the roots. Weapons for punishing ingratitude. Whenever we are justly deprived of favors freely bestowed, acknowledge His anger.

The same hand that commanded rain now commands none.

The vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant planting; He looked for justice, behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, behold, an outcry. Wesley: pleasant—in whom God formerly delighted; a cry from the oppressed, to men for help and to God for vengeance.

The riddle of the vineyard is now explained. Justice was looked for in the gates (1:23; 3:14). Bloodshed and cry are theirs. The looking of v. 2 is now justice and righteousness.

Calvin: without metaphor now. Whole nation the vineyard, individuals the plants; no man escapes. He looked for judgment, behold oppression; righteousness, behold a cry—paronomasia in the Hebrew. Piety is described from the second table: where cruelty reigns, religion is extinguished. We who were wild olives grafted in (Rom 11) owe the same fruit.

“Vineyard”—Israel and Judah, then the church after them. Lord of hosts, house of Israel, Judah, justice, bloodshed, righteousness, outcry.