3. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, And he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, Even every one that is written 1among the living in Jerusalem: 4. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, And shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, By the 2 spirit of judgement, and by the 2 spirit of burn beyond all doubt, and that which Jehovah causes to sprout (as the words literally mean) will be the wild vegetation, for which man does nothing (Ps. 104: 14), as opposed to the cultivated fruits of the land (Deut. 8: 8). There will be supernatural fertility in the latter days for them that are escaped of Israel, that is, for those who escape the final judgment (Joel 2: 32). 3. Those who are left in Jerusalem shall be called (because they shall be; the name is a real index to the thing) holy-probably in the technical sacerdotal sense as well as in the moral. To later hope and imagination, the people of Jerusalem appeared as Jehovah's priests for the whole world (61: 6). They are his "holy people "(62: 12) not indeed all of them, but every one who is registered unto life. The idea of the " book of life" (Ps. 69: 28, cf. Exod. 32: 32 f.; Mal. 3: 16; Dan. 12: 1), in which were recorded the names of all who would "live," that is, survive the final judgment, was suggested by the register in which the names of citizens were recorded (cf. Neh. 7:64). In Ps. 87: 6, the civic and spiritual ideas are suggestively blended. 4. This verse goes with vs. 3. The golden age will come, when the Lord shall have washed away the impurity, etc. Men and women were guilty alike the men of " bloody crimes (Ezek. 7:23), especially against the poor (Jer. 2:34). They are to be cleansed by the mighty blast (or spirit- the spirit being conceived as the medium or agent) of judgment, which is a blast of extermination (rather than burning); that is, it is a judgment which puts away" (Deut. 13: 5, same word as here) the evil from the midst of the congregation. 1 5. And the LORD will 1 create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, And over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, For over all the glory shall be spread a canopy. 6. And there shall be a pavilion for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, 5. And for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from THE VINEYARD WITH THE WILD GRAPES (5:1-30) I Gr. come. my a Or of. 5. Instead of create we should probably read, with the Greek, come, by the omission of a single letter. And Jehovah will come and his presence will rest upon the whole site of Mount Zion and upon her holy convocations as (or in) a cloud by day, and as smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. The sublimest feature of those future golden days would be the visible presence of Jehovah himself with his people, and that in a form which recalled the high privilege of the Mosaic age (Exod. 13: 21, 22). That presence would be to the people at once protection and glory. 6. With this verse should be taken perhaps the last clause of vs. 5, for over all the holy city and mountain the glory of Jehovah (that is, the cloud and the flame of fire) will be canopy and covering (lit. pavilion), —a shade from the heat, a refuge and shelter from storm and rain. The storm and rain typify floods of disaster or oppression (cf. 25:4). Probably, with the Greek, in the daytime should be omitted. There is much that is attractive in this vision of the future. True, it embraces the fertility of the land - a certain healthy materialism is seldom absent from the Old Testament conception of blessedness - but its inhabitants are a people whose sins have been washed away, and whose life is overshadowed by the presence of their God. 5: 1-30. The prophecies of which Chap. 5 is composed, having 2. And he made a trench about it, and gathered out And planted it with the choicest vine, And built a tower in the midst of it, no connection either with Chap. 4 or Chap. 6, appear to form an independent group, and probably belong, like Chaps. 2 and 3, to Isaiah's earlier period; but, early as they are, they already show literary power and moral insight of the most splendid kind. In Isaiah the poet was no less great than the prophet. 51-7. We are to suppose the prophet appearing probably in the temple on the occasion of some festival before a great gathering drawn from the capital and the country towns of Judah (vs. 3). He skilfully attracts their attention by proposing to sing a song whose theme is the vineyard of a friend of his. As the song advances, the bitter truth gradually discloses itself. The friend is Jehovah, the vineyard is Judah, which, because of the miserable fruit she has produced, will be laid utterly waste. I, 2. These verses have been admirably rendered by Professor Cheyne : A song will I sing of my friend, A love-song touching his vineyard. On a hill that is fruitful and sunny; He digged it, and cleared it of stones, And planted there vines that are choice; A tower he built in the midst, And hewed also therein a wine-vat; A translation like this, with rhythm and real poetic flavor, helps us to feel how little justice is done the poetry of the great prophets by the average prose translation. The vineyard was on a very fruitful hill (lit. a horn, the son of oil). Everything was therefore in its favor from the beginning; in addition, the most affectionate effort had been spent upon it. A substantial tower (and not merely a hut, cf. 1 : 8) had been built for the watchmen, and a wine-vat had been hewn out in the rock, into which the juice flowed from the wine-press above. The friend had naturally set high hopes upon a vineyard so carefully tended, but the grapes it produced were poor (lit. evil-smelling). Mat. 21:33 Mk. 12:2 Lk. 20:9 3. 4. 5. 6. 1 And also hewed out a 1 winepress therein : And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, Judge, I pray you, betwixt me And my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring Brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you I will break down the fence thereof, And it shall be trodden down: 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. 1 m. SV winevat. 3, 4. The prophet, now in the rôle of the friend, appeals to the crowd. Had he not a right to expect the best of his vineyard? Had he not done for it all that could be done? He leaves it to their sense of justice to declare what such a vineyard deserves. 5, 6. As in the very similar parable of our Lord, the men appealed to are silent (Luke 20: 15 f.); and the owner himself goes on to describe its fate, using impersonal verbs which render the Hebrew words very vivid, calling attention, as they do, simply to 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 judgement, but behold oppression; Woe! (5:8-24) 8. Woe unto them that join house to house, That lay field to field, the awful fact: the removal of the protecting hedge, the demolition of the encircling wall, so that the once lovely height is now exposed to the trampling of beasts. And now it will be as deliberately neglected as formerly it was cared for, and for the future, its desolation will be guaranteed, for no rain will fall upon it. Now Jehovah is clearly the friend, as he alone is lord of the rain. 7. The grim meaning of the song which began so tenderly is now obvious enough, but Isaiah states it in plain terms in a climax of great power. The men before him are the vineyard, and their God is the disappointed Friend. His disappointment is expressed in a play upon words which it is impossible to reproduce in English - G. H. Box suggests for the last pair right and riot; but the two words of each group, sounding almost exactly alike, and differing only by a single Hebrew letter (e.g. mishpat and mispach), must have written themselves indelibly upon the memories of those who heard them. He looked for good grapes, and he found wild ones; how like, yet how unlike. He looked for justice (mishpat) and behold! something that differed little (mispach) yet differed infinitely perhaps bloodshed; for righteousness, and behold! (a very similar word) a cry, the cry of those unrighteously oppressed. The effect of this skilful parable must have been startling, and was no doubt irritating. "God forbid!" (Luke 20: 16). 5:8-24. What the wild grapes of the parable really mean is illustrated in the group of woes which follows, seven perhaps originally, though, judging by the brevity of some of them, longer or shorter fragments appear to have been occasionally lost. This artistic and powerful section gives us a vivid glimpse of contemporary society in Judah, and of the vices which corrupted it. First woe (5: 8-10) upon the wealthy land-owners. 8. The tenacity with which the Hebrew peasant clung to his possessions is admirably illustrated by the story of Naboth (1 Kings 21). But the exigencies of poverty, due sometimes to war, |