A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 5: The Vineyard of Yahweh

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 5: The Vineyard of Yahweh

Here we shall continue our discussion of this second vision which had been recorded in the words of the prophet Isaiah, which runs through four chapters of the book, and now upon our coming to chapter 5 we are nearing its end. This chapter contains a rather brief song of a vineyard, and it is within this context that we should also consider the parable of the vineyard, as well as the parable of the vineyard workers, which are found in the Gospel of Christ. This song is a song of lamentation, accompanied with a message of a coming punishment. In the words of the later prophet Jeremiah, Yahweh further laments His vineyard, and then even later, Yahshua Christ makes an example of a portion of its history, however in His Gospel it is also evident that the lamentation shall ultimately turn to wrath, and that wrath is expressed in even stronger terms in His Revelation. In these messages it is fully evident that the vineyard is an allegory for the society of His people, in which the grapes are metaphors for the people themselves.

As we had discussed in Isaiah chapter 3, where the punishment of the people of Judah for their sins was first announced by the prophet, it is evident that the Patterns of Societal Collapse which had been described there are aspects of that punishment, and they had evidently already come upon Judah even before Isaiah had begun writing. They are the inevitable result of sin which would lead to the breakdown of society and its ultimate punishment. So in the course of the execution of that punishment, the great, wise and mighty men of the society would be neutralized, in one way or another. Then while the youth are magnified and the women caught up in feminism, they would all be humbled by the violence of their enemies. The men would end up dead, and the women, scarred with their own excess of debauchery, would be laid bare in the face of their enemies.

In Romans chapter 15, speaking of the writings of Old Testament Scripture, Paul of Tarsus had attested “4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” The justice and righteousness which is of Yahweh God is evident in the terms of this punishment described here in Isaiah. It reveals the will of Yahweh for a sinful society in the rewards which Judah would reap for such sins. So, as it is described in chapter 4, that the men who had sinned would end up dying in failure and ridicule, with women, children and mockers ruling over them. This is a just judgment for men who would worship gods that are not, gods that are only idols created in other men’s fantasies, that they are ruled over by rulers that are not, by women and children and mockers.

Then as for the women, in the punishment for their feminism and their whoredoms they would end up being raped, their nakedness exposed to their enemies, and left destitute and desperate for husbands who would be willing to shelter them. If Yahweh pronounced this against Judah, and if He does not change, then this is what such sinners must deserve, and this is what such sinners should expect even today. However it is disgraceful, that pastors no longer teach these basic truths to their flocks, and instead, today they teach them to sin even more. Yahweh God has seen to it that men are punished in the results of their sins, after the manner in which they had sinned.

For that, we read in the Wisdom of Solomon, in chapter 11 where he was describing the pagan wanderings of the Egyptians, that “15 … in return for the incomprehensible reasonings of their unrighteousness, in which wandering they were worshipping brute animals and worthless beasts, You sent upon them a multitude of brute creatures in vindication, 16 in order that they may know that by the things of which one sins, by those things he is punished.” Likewise, in their own wandering from the truth of Yahweh, the men of Judah and Jerusalem had worshipped youth, and the form of women, and pagan idols, which were a mockery of God. So here in Isaiah chapter 3 it was announced to them that they would be ruled by children, women and mockers, a situation which would ultimately lead them to destruction. Looking at the world today, we ignorantly wonder why there are no true leaders in a society which is awash in sin, and the Scriptures have already explained it to us, but no man with a voice in this same corrupt society can understand its lessons. That shall be explained further in Isaiah chapter 6, and by Yahweh Himself.

In the Revelation, Yahshua Christ had expressed agreement with the just punishments for sinners that are evident here in Isaiah, in chapter 2 where He had used a woman whom He had called Jezebel as an example, and professed that because she “calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. 21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. 22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. 23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.” Nearly all pastors today are also examples of this Jezebel, and therefore they and their flocks shall all suffer her same fate. They preach only that “Jesus loves”, and they ignore everything which Jesus truly hates, as well as the very fact that He does hate.

There in Revelation chapter 2, in the person of Jezebel, there is also a reflection of a feminist society, as a sinful woman is portrayed as having become a teacher in a Christian assembly. With this, perhaps it is apparent that the last stage of a sinful society is feminism. It is feminist on the part of the men, who would tolerate being ruled over by children, women and mockers, and it is feminist on the part of the women, who would vaunt themselves and seek to rule over the men. Men who would worship youth, as well as the youthful form and beauty of women, and defer to them or give preference to them in the hope of gaining their favor, are the worst sort of feminists. In contrast, the ultimate masculinity is found in keeping the laws of Yahweh, giving God preference over any woman, or over any other man.

Returning to Isaiah, after announcing the punishments which would come upon Judah and Jerusalem in chapter 3, there was a message of hope in chapter 4. Likewise now, in the song of the vineyard, there are further warnings of punishment, and there will also be further messages of hope. It shall become evident throughout Isaiah, that practically every warning of punishment for Israel is accompanied with a message of hope. By that alone should men realize that Yahweh, chastising Israel for their sins, seeks to reform and to redeem Israel to Himself, and no other race or nation of men can ever insert themselves into this relationship in either the Old or New Testaments.

With that we shall commence with Isaiah chapter 5:

5:1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2 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.

The choice vine, in the eyes of Yahweh, represents the children of Israel. This is evident in Hosea chapter 9, where the Word of Yahweh had professed that “10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time…” However there, as it is here, where Hosea continues it is described in a different way that the people had turned to sin: “…but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.” From the beginning, as it is recorded in Numbers chapter 25, fornication was paramount among the sins of Baalpeor. By this we may understand what Yahweh had meant by “wild grapes”, as they were grapes which had departed from Him to commit fornication, and for this reason was their punishment so severe. So a little further on in that chapter of Hosea there is a warning of punishment for Ephraim that is very much like the punishment which Christ had announced for the Jezebel of the Revelation and those who commit fornication with her: “16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.”

The Hebrew word translated as wild grapes here is a plural form of באשׁ or bash (# 891), which actually describes something which stinks or which is abhorred or odious. In those senses the word appears in twenty verses in the Old Testament, but in this particular form it is found only here in Isaiah chapter 5, in verses 2 and 4. So Strong’s Concordance defines this form of the word as poison-berries, and Gesenius agrees, stating that it appears “only in plural Isaiah 5:2, 4, bad grapes, sour and unripe…” [1] With that, the Brown, Driver Briggs lexicon agrees, having “stinking or worthless things, wild grapes” [2]. The translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible also have wild grapes. So while it is evident that this word could be used to describe anything else which might stink, it is also apparent that the wild grapes definition is only derived from the context here, however that is also appropriate in spite of the fact that the Septuagint has thorns in both places.

So now, on account of the sin of the wild grapes, using the grapes as an allegory for the people, Yahweh issues to them a challenge:

3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

If Yahweh were describing an actual vineyard, which is the literal meaning of this song, then the people would have to admit that His anger is just, because He reaped no benefit from His labors. Therefore, understanding that the vineyard is an allegory for themselves, they would have to accept that their coming punishment is also just. Because the children of Israel had wandered from the law, they are described as “wild grapes”, or as grapes that stink and are good for nothing. The sin of fornication is expressed in similar terms in Jeremiah chapter 2, where the first part of verse 20 is a reference to their deliverance from the captivity of Egypt: “20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. 21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? 22 For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.”

Returning to this passage of Isaiah, there is no answer provided to the prophet in response to the hypothetical questions which had been asked by Yahweh in concern for His vineyard. Of course, the people themselves would not have been able to answer. So because the vineyard had grown only wild grapes, now Yahweh attests that He would destroy it:

5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 6 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.

Here in verse 6, the Septuagint Greek has the same word for thorns, ἄκανθα, which it had in place of the word translated as wild grapes in the King James Version in verses 2 and 4, so it may be evident that where the Septuagint has ἄκανθα in those places, it could have interpreted the Hebrew term in a better manner. While the Septuagint is certainly authoritative in many respects, and especially on account of its great antiquity and its frequent use by the apostles of Christ, like any other translation it is nevertheless an interpretation of men and it has some faults.

As for Judah and Jerusalem, where Yahweh had said here that “there shall come up briers and thorns” in this place after He destroys His vineyard, that too is prophetic of the later inhabitants of Jerusalem, who at the time of Christ were predominantly Edomites. The Edomites, having been closely related to the Canaanites, could indeed be described as briers and thorns, and that is how Yahshua Christ Himself had described them where He had said to His disciples, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 7: “15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

Likening the Canaanites, and also the Edomites of Jerusalem, to thorns and briers, or thistles, began in Numbers chapter 33 where the children of Israel had been warned: “55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.” When they failed to drive them out, the warning was repeated as a circumstance under which they would suffer, in Joshua chapter 23 (23:13).

Yahweh destroyed this vineyard beginning with the Assyrian captivities of Israel and most of Judah, and the destruction ended in the Babylonian conquest of the balance of Judah and Jerusalem around 586 BC. Later, even in the second temple period, under the Maccabees the children of Israel had once again tried, and failed, to drive out the Edomites and remaining Canaanites. So from about 125 BC they had given up, and instead they had forced them all to convert to the religion of Judaea. That endeavor was quite successful, according to the accounts of Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities of the Judaeans [3], which are corroborated by Strabo of Cappadocia in Book 16 of his Geography [4], as well as by Paul of Tarsus in Romans chapter 9. The opponents of Christ and His apostles were predominantly Edomites, as He had told them in John chapter 10, for one example: “26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.”

Understanding this circumstance, we may better understand the parable of the vineyard as it was presented by Yahshua Christ in the Gospel, which appears in Matthew chapter 21 and in Luke chapter 20, so here we shall repeat the parable as it is in Matthew: “33 Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: 34 And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. 35 And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. 37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. 38 But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. 39 And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. 40 When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?”

The vineyard of Matthew was a vineyard which was built in the period of the second temple. But this vineyard here in Isaiah had been built in the Judges period of Israel, and finished in the time of David. So while it is the same vineyard, it is not organized in quite the same manner. The leaders and rulers of a people are considered the shepherds of the people, a metaphor which dates back to ancient Sumer and which was employed in Mesopotamia throughout the Biblical period, as well as in the Bible itself. So in reference to this vineyard in Isaiah, the prophet Jeremiah would later record, in words attributed to Yahweh in Jeremiah chapter 12: “10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. 11 They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.” But in Matthew, the vineyard is not ruled by shepherds. Rather, it is let out to husbandmen, who are tenants and not the natural rulers of the people. It is evident in many ways in the words of Christ, that those husbandmen were Edomites, and not of Israel. They were from of the briers and thorns, for which reason Christ had warned His apostles that men do not “gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles”.

Returning to the time of Isaiah, as we had discussed in Part 1 of this commentary, the ministry of the prophet had begun in the later years of king Uzziah, whose death Isaiah mentions here at the beginning of chapter 6. So it cannot be long before 743 BC, and that was evidently also the year in which the captivities of Israel by the Assyrians had begun within the lands of the twelve tribes, or within Israel proper.

Uzziah was said to have ruled in Judah for fifty-two years, as it is recorded in 2 Chronicles chapter 26 (26:3), and we read in 2 Kings chapter 15 that: “27 In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years. 28 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.” Pekah is the only king of Israel mentioned in Isaiah, here at the beginning of chapter 7. Therefore Yahweh had begun to tear down His vineyard shortly after Isaiah had begun to announce this prophecy. Now the vineyard is defined explicitly:

7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

The vineyard of Yahweh is the house of Israel. While Jerusalem may have served as a vineyard, or the place of a vineyard, in the eyes of Yahweh, the vineyard is evidently much greater than Jerusalem itself, for which reason the master of the vineyard was off in a far-away place, in the words of Christ in His parable of the vineyard. So this definition of the vineyard of Yahweh here in Isaiah chapter 5 has never changed in any later Scripture. The children of Israel are what He had planted, and they are what He had cultivated with His law. They are his world, as it is written in chapter 18 of the Wisdom of Solomon, “24 For upon the garment reaching to the feet was the whole World [or Society], and the glory of the fathers carved upon the four rows of stones, and Your majesty upon the diadem of his head.” Upon the breastplate of the high priest were four rows of stones, described by Solomon as the world, and they represented nothing more than the twelve tribes of Israel.

For that same reason, Paul of Tarsus had written in Galatians chapter 4: “1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world [or Society]: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” So Christ had come to redeem and to save only this same vineyard which He had taken away as it is prophesied here in Isaiah. They are the grapes and the figs which the apostles had been instructed to gather.

Only those who had been under the law could have sinned, only they were redeemed, and only they “might receive the adoption of sons”. As the apostle John had defined sin, sin is transgression of the law, in 1 John chapter 3 (3:4). Then Paul of Tarsus, in Romans chapter 5 (5:13), had explained that sin was in the world, but without the law sin was not imputed. Then in the 147th Psalm we read that Yahweh had “19 … sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. 20 He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.” That Psalm was attributed to the prophets Haggai and Zachariah, so long after the captivities they continued to rejoice that only Israel had ever been given the law. Therefore, only Israel had been cultivated by God, and we learn here that Israel is His vineyard.

Now for another digression, Paul had also told the Galatians that they were the children of God. The children of Israel are the sons and daughters of Yahweh God, as well as being His vineyard. This is first seen in the opening verse of Deuteronomy chapter 14 where we read “1 Ye are the children of the LORD your God…” So long after Israel and most of Judah had been taken into Assyrian captivity, in Isaiah chapter 43 we read: “3 For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. 4 Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. 5 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; 7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” While Yahweh had also evidently created Egypt, Ethiopia and Sheba, at least as they had originally existed, they were given up on behalf of the children of Israel, where it becomes manifest that not even all of those whom He had created had been loved by Him, or considered precious to Him, and they will not be gathered to Him, as Hehad said of Israel here. Neither could those to whom he had given these nations up have been loved, or precious, or gathered.

The house of Israel alone, the actual people who had descended from Jacob, are the vineyard of Yahweh, and here Yahweh has promised to “take away the hedge thereof” that it would be devoured, meaning that He would remove the grapes from the vineyard, as He had done by the hand of the Assyrians and the later Babylonians when Israel had gone into captivity. Therefore in the Revelation, where there is another ominous warning of punishment for sinners, once again it is manifest that the ripe grapes are the children of Israel who had been punished for their sin, but among them were parched grapes, where we read in Revelation chapter 14: “14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is [parched]. 16 And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.”

As we had discussed in Part 19 of our Revelation commentary titled The Harvests of God, the King James translators had taken a word which means parched, and had errantly translated it as ripe. Then this harvest of the parched grapes is followed by a harvest of ripe grapes, where we continue with the chapter: “17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. [these grapes represent the children of Israel, as it was professed in Isaiah and Hosea] 19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. [As Peter had said in his first epistle, judgment begins at the house of Yahweh, 1 Peter 4:17.] 20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” As we had explained in that earlier commentary, these are the harvests of the wheat and the tares, the ripe grapes and the parched, among the children of Israel.

Here in Isaiah Yahweh had also lamented that because this was His vineyard, that He had “looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry”, which indicates that the people of Judah were being oppressed by unrighteous judgment. So now there is condemnation to those who engage in one form of such oppression:

8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

This passage has sometimes been misinterpreted as a condemnation of cities, and those who advanced this have claimed that it is therefore evil to dwell in cities. But rather, this passage condemns men who would accumulate an excessive amount of property by the dishonest means which are described in verse 7. As we have already discussed earlier in this commentary, Micah was a prophet contemporary with the later time of Isaiah’s ministry. In chapter 2 of the prophecy of Micah we read: “1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.”

Joining house to house, and field to field, a man seeks to own as much of the land as he can, and if he achieves a monopoly, there is no place for anyone else in Israel to live, so the man may dwell alone in the land, unless he chooses to act as a landlord, and rent it out to the oppressed who had been forced to sell it in the first place. In this manner, the poor are oppressed even further, and once they are put off of their land they may then be exploited as a source of cheap labor. This is the fruit of unbridled capitalism. So there is a further condemnation for the men who would do such things in Jeremiah chapter 22: “13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work”. Much later, Yahshua Christ would accuse the scribes and Pharisees of His Own time of doing this, where we read in Matthew chapter 23: “14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”

The Septuagint has an interesting reading of verse 8, as Brenton had translated it: “8 Woe to them that join house to house, and add field to field, that they may take away something of their neighbor's: will ye dwell alone upon the land?” However the Dead Sea Scrolls supports the reading of the Masoretic Text.

It is not explicit here, whether or not these men who had been monopolizing the land were still keeping the law of the jubilee, which prevents someone from permanently losing their estate. However it can be inferred, that since these men had departed from the laws of Yahweh, that they had also neglected the laws of land redemption, or the return of land in the year of the jubilee. So forsaking their God for the worship of idols, the path to unbridled capitalism was opened to the men of Judah, certain of whom had taken advantage of the situation in order to enrich themselves at the expense of their own brethren.

The laws preventing this oppression are found in Leviticus chapter 25: “23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. 24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.” The granting of a redemption is the act of restoring something to its original owner once payment of the original debt, or of some equal value. Then continuing with the law: “25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. 26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; 27 Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.” In other words, the use or possession of the land has value, which would be deducted from the amount for which the land was first sold at a rate divisible by the number of years to the jubilee.

But if a man cannot redeem his land, he must wait for the jubilee, where the law continues and says: “28 But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.” Since there was only one law in the land for both the Israelite and the stranger, even outsiders would have been forced to return land in the year of the jubilee. Therefore a man could not lose his land permanently, and the laws make it difficult for a man to act as a landlord as a permanent vocation, as well as ending permanent investments and endless speculation in land, things which are evil in the eyes of God. The ability to sell land is only a sort of relief valve for a man who would fall into poverty, and after no longer than fifty years, or until the next jubilee, its ownership must revert to him or his heirs. Land speculation and the allowance of the mortgage, which derived from the Jewish Talmud, things have plagued Western society for centuries. But righteous laws governing the ownership of land and protecting the homes of the poor and oppressed have never been observed by Christians, with only a few narrow exceptions.

In Scripture, a good example of this crime of seizing land in order to “lay field to field” is found in the account of Ahab and Jezebel, where we read in the opening verses of 1 Kings chapter 21: “1 And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 2 And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. 3 And Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.”

Then Jezebel, using a typical feminist tactic, had belittled Ahab for not simply taking the vineyard, and said to him “Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel?” So she then plotted to get the land of Naboth for him, and made a plot against Naboth, upon which false witnesses made spurious accusations against him and he was stoned by the elders of his city. Then, after informing her husband of what had happened to Naboth, we read: “16 And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.” It was upon this deed that the prophet Elijah had been sent to Ahab to announce to him his fate, and that of his wife, that “19 … Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine…. 23 And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.” As Solomon had explained, Yahweh punishes men according to their own sins.

Now Yahweh announces the punishment upon Judah, which is also righteous because it is in accordance with these sins which Judah had committed:

9 In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. 10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.

It is Isaiah who said “In mine ears said Yahweh of hosts…”, where he is only underscoring the fact that it was indeed Yahweh who had told him these things, and those are the words he would have used when he presented them verbally to the people of Judah. The Septuagint has the clause to read “For these things have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts…” but once again, the Dead Sea Scrolls support the reading of the Masoretic Text. In any event, because the men of Judah had been adding house to house, and field to field, accumulating land for themselves at the expense of the poor, then Yahweh has promised to take away their houses, and to make their fields impotent.

The Septuagint has the opening clause of verse 10 to read “For where ten yoke of oxen plough the land shall yield one jar-full”. But the Septuagint text found in the Hexapla of Origen apparently reads much like the King James Version does here, except that it has κεράμιον, an Accusative case form of κεράμιος which is simply a ceramic jar, for bath. There it is also noted that “Οἱ λοιποί, βάτον”, which is “the others, a bath”, using a form of the same Hebrew word bath transliterated into Greek which Luke had used in chapter 16 of his Gospel (16:6), which we shall mention again momentarily. So in this passage, the Septuagint copy employed for Origen’s Hexapla was evidently different from the readings of the Septuagint which we have available today, and the Dead Sea Scrolls also support the Masoretic Text here.

The Hebrew word for bath is בת or bath (# 1324), describes a unit of measure for which Strong’s Concordance did not specify any volume in its definition. Gesenius says only that “It may be called in Latin amphora” [5]. The Brown, Driver Briggs lexicon states that “”The actual size of bath (= ephah) is apparently circa 40 litres (= Attic metretes)” and to support that they cite a passage from Book 8 of the Antiquities of Flavius Josephus [6], where Josephus as he is translated by Whiston is said to have written “ now the bath is able to contain seventy-two sextaries or nine gallons.” In the relevant passage [7] of Josephus, the word gallon was translated from the Greek word μέτρον, but that is only a generic word for a measure. However in chapter 16 of the Gospel of Luke (16:6) the apostle used a word, βάτος, which is a reference to the Hebrew bath spelled in Greek letters. Then in John chapter 2, describing the jars of wine at a Hebrew wedding feast, the apostle used the word μετρητής, which in Greek was commonly used as a synonym for the ἀμφορεύς or amphora, a jar which typically held about 9 gallons of liquid. The amount found in the definition of Brown, Driver, Briggs, which is forty liters, is somewhat too high since the amphora was more typically about 34 liters. In any event, in modern times an acre of vineyard may typically produce anywhere from a hundred and twenty to as much as six hundred gallons of wine [8]. Here Yahweh attests that an acre in the land of Judah will only be able to produce nine gallons, and that indicates that there would be a great famine accompanying the destruction of the vineyard.

Likewise, the volume of an איפה or ephah (# 374) is not provided in Strong’s definition, but it is apparently a dry measure equal to the volume of a bath, which is a liquid measure. This is found in Ezekiel chapter 45 where we read “10 Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. 11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer.” This is very close to the measure of a bushel, which in Britain is 8 imperial gallons, or 36.4 liters, but in the United States, 64 American pints, which is 35.2 liters. This famine prophesied here in Isaiah, where it is said that “the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah”, certainly would severe, since an ephah is only a tenth part of a homer. So for every ten bushels of seed, the land would only yield one bushel in return, a loss of ninety percent, and the planter would be much better off eating his seed rather than planting it.

Now there is another warning for the men who had committed these sins:

11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! 12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.

The New American Standard Bible has the beginning of verse 12 to read “12 And their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp…”, for which there is support in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible where it has “They have banquets with lyre and harp…” The Septuagint opens verse 12 with the words “For they drink with the harp…”, so the King James Version seems to be wanting somewhat in its interpretation of the clause.

Here men are portrayed who awaken early in the morning not to attend to any vocation, but rather, so that they can feast throughout the day, and satiate themselves with drink from morning to night. These are men of leisure, who in this context must have acquired their means of support for such activities from the lands and houses of which they had deprived others. This life of leisure is very much like that which is lived today by many wealthy capitalists, who are supported by “investments” which are employed in the oppression of others, which is also an act of betrayal on the part of them, and on the part of the rulers of the people who allow them. There may not be anything wrong with renting out a house or a field, or using one’s land to build houses in order to rent them out to those in need. But these men are said to have deprived the poor of their own land in order to make a profit on it for themselves and live in luxury, and that is absolutely contrary to the laws of Yahweh. (When one points out these sins in modern society, one is accused of being a “communist”, which is not at all true since Yahweh God is not a communist, and the Bible does not support communism. The hopeless are forever locked in even more hopeless dichotomies of that sort. )

So now Yahweh laments the inevitable consequences of their sin:

13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

Here the famished and thirsty state of the men seem to be reference to the lack of the Word of Yahweh, the Bread of Life and the waters of truth which we had discussed

14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. 15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:

The word mean in verse 15 is not found in the Hebrew, where the word for man is the term adam. But where it has the phrase mighty man in the clause which follows, a distinction is being made, so it is fair to translate adam in this context as if it referred to a common man, as opposed to a mighty man. The common man shall be brought low, because he shall also either die or go into captivity along with the rest of the nation, along with the sinners. The phrase “eyes of the lofty” may have been translated to read “appearance of the proud”.

At this point in the background history of Scripture, it is not yet evident that any of the people had gone into captivity, unless Isaiah had written this in the very final days of the life of Uzziah, after some of the tribes were taken by the Assyrians in the final year of his rule. That is possible, but it is more likely that the prophet is writing of something which had not yet happened as if it had happened, because it is the Word of God and therefore it is certain to happen just as it has been spoken.

In the Dead Sea Scrolls, verse 13 reads differently, where it has “13 Therefore my people are exiled without knowledge. My nobles die of hunger, and their multitude is parched without thirst.” This seems to be closer in agreement with the Septuagint which reads: “13 Therefore my people have been taken captive, because they know not the Lord: and there has been a multitude of dead bodies, because of hunger and of thirst for water.”

Where the people are described as having descended into hell, the Hebrew word is שאול or sheol (# 7585) which the original Strong’s Concordance defines as “hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat), including its accessories and inmates.” While many more recent commentators would claim that שאול or sheol refers only to the grave, both the Hebrews as well as the ancient Greeks believed in a conscious existence after death. This is apparent where Saul was able to have a necromancer raise Samuel, as it is recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 28, and also where Peter had professed that Christ Himself had preached the Gospel “unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient” in chapter 3 of his first epistle (1 Peter 3:19-20). So the apostles of Christ were in agreement with the ancient Greeks, that hades was indeed the underworld abode of the dead, although it is apparent in Scripture that there they had remained in alienation from God only until they were reconciled to God in Christ. In the Revelation, Christ Himself had proclaimed that He held the keys of “hell and death”, where the word for hell is also hades.

16 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

Yahweh God is exalted in judgment, because His prophecies are true, and He declared His judgment in the mouths of His prophets, having warned the people of their impending doom long before the judgment was executed. He is sanctified in righteousness, because His judgments are just, and those who sin against Him are punished by their own devices. The punishment is always fitting for the sin.

In Deuteronomy chapter 32, in the opening verses of the Song of Moses, we read: “1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: 3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. 4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” The just should exalt God when they see His judgment, as we read in Proverbs chapter 21: “15 It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.” Then in that same place there is a warning to the same people who are condemned in this passage of Isaiah: “16 The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. 17 He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.”

So as for the sinners, we read in the words of the prophet Zephaniah, in chapter 3: “5 The just LORD is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.”

Now Yahweh professes that in all of this, He shall provide for the humble while the wealthy and powerful, who know no shame, shall be punished:

17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

The Septuagint has a very different reading here, where it reads: “17 And they that were spoiled shall be fed as bulls, and lambs shall feed on the waste places of them that are taken away.” This is not supported by the context. The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible also varies somewhat from the King James Version: “17 Then the lambs will feed as in their pasture, and the fatlings and the aliens will feed among the waste places.” It is not clear, with the information which we may access, whether the differences between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the King James Version are on account of variations in the Hebrew, or only as a matter of its interpretation.

So we prefer the reading found in the King James Version, and the New American Standard Bible also agrees, where it has “ 17 Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.” This is consistent with the judgment of God, as it is reflected in Proverbs chapter 29, for example: “23 A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.” Here, the honor of God shall ensure that the humble have their due, and survive the captivity so that the promises made to the fathers would be fulfilled in them. As Yahshua Christ had also said, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 5: “5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

Here, as we are about to enter into a series of woes which Yahweh had pronounced upon these sinners, we shall pause our commentary on Isaiah chapter 5, and Yahweh willing, return to it in the near future. For the time being, next Friday there shall be an Open Forum here at Christogenea.

1 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Baker Books, 1979, p. 101.

2 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, 2021, p. 93.

3 Antiquities of the Judaeans, Flavius Josephus, Book 13, lines 257 and 393-397.

4 Geography, Strabo, Book 16, chapter 2, paragraph 34.

5 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, pp. 148-149.

6 Brown-Driver-Briggs, p. 144.

7 Antiquities of the Judaeans, Flavius Josephus, Book 8, line 57.

8 How many bottles of wine are made from 1 acre of vineyard?, Wine Spectator, https://www.winespectator.com/articles/ how-many-bottles-of-wine-are-made-from-1-acre-of-vineyard-5350, accessed August 30^th, 2024.