Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

5:1 Let me sing for my beloved my love song. To Isaiah, God is both the Holy One and his beloved. Vineyard is explained in v. 7 as a reference to Israel and Judah (cf. Jer. 12:10 and possibly Matt. 21:33; see also Ex. 15:17, where God plants them; and for Israel as a vine, Ps. 80:8-16; Jer. 2:21; Hos. 10:1; John 15:1).

5:2 God made every provision for his people to be a blessing to the world, as he had promised (cf. Gen. 12:1-3). wild grapes. Another possible translation is "stinking" or "sour" grapes, conveying the bad taste of wild grapes in contrast to the sweetness of the cultivated kind.

5:4 What more . . . ? leaves no room for excuses.

5:5-6 These verses use imagery to describe foreign invasion and national destruction.

5:7 God's high expectations of his people were fair. he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry! As the ESV footnotes on "bloodshed" and "outcry" explain, Isaiah uses wordplay here; he aims to show that sin does not simply fail to reach a standard; it distorts good into evil.

5:8-30 This section translates the metaphorical "wild grapes" of vv. 2 and 4 into literal realities. Six "woes" lament the bitter fruits of Israel's character (vv. 8, 11, 18, 20, 21, 22), and four "therefores" anticipate the harvest of inescapable consequences (vv. 13, 14, 24, 25).

5:8-10 Leviticus 25 taught Israel to return purchased lands in the Year of Jubilee. "The land is mine," God said (Lev. 25:23), and he parceled it out to families as their permanent inheritance from him (Num. 26:55; 33:54; 1 Kings 21:1-3). Restoring property to the original owner ensured a fresh start for whomever had fallen on hard times. Therefore, those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room do business without regard for God's instructions for his land (see note on Amos 3:15). By accumulating more and more land, the powerful are driving the weaker members off the land that God allotted to them, and all for greed. But God sees to it that these landowners who force others out do not receive the profits they expect (cf. Isa. 5:10).

5:11-12 wine inflames them. The ungodly in Judah are marked by a visceral refusal to think.

5:13-14 The drunkenness of vv. 11-12 is answered here with thirst. The greed of vv. 8-10 is answered with the appetite of Sheol swallowing up the dead (see Ps. 88:3-6; 141:7; Prov. 9:18; Isa. 14:15; 38:18).

5:16 What sets Judah's God apart is his exalted moral character. He is not merely a provider who is useful to humans; he is holy in himself, and he proves it by enforcing his moral order.

5:17 This suggests the devastation of Jerusalem, as sheep graze and scavengers eat where the mighty once strolled.

5:18-23 Isaiah issues four laments over the cynicism of God's people. Those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood (v. 18) eagerly pull sin their way, denying its heavy cost and daring God to punish them (v. 19). Cf. 2 Pet. 3:3-4.

5:20 those who call evil good and good evil. Evildoers can be so blinded in their moral judgment that their evaluations of good and evil are the exact opposite of God's true perspective (cf. Matt. 12:24; John 8:44; 2 Thess. 2:11).

5:24-30 Two more outcomes, each marked by therefore, doom Isaiah's generation.

5:24 they have rejected . . . and have despised. God delighted in his people ("his pleasant planting," v. 7), but they have rejected and despised him (cf. 53:3).

5:26 Nations, including Assyria, are summoned by the sovereign God with a mere whistle. Quickly, speedily they come, to serve his purpose by humbling the arrogant taunt of v. 19.

5:27-30 With frightening realism Isaiah describes the approach of invading military forces--a far cry from the nations approaching Zion to learn the ways of God and cease from war (2:2-4).

5:30 darkness and distress . . . light is darkened. Having rejected the light of the Lord that was offered to them (2:5), Judah and Jerusalem find that the light they chose turns to darkness. Because they have refused God's grace (5:4), his wrath engulfs them. The rest of the book reveals that God's purpose of grace is still greater than his disciplinary wrath.