Exodus 15:17

15:17 You will bring them in ¹  and plant them in the mountain ²  of your inheritance,

in the place you made ³  for your residence, O Lord,

the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.

Psalms 44:2

44:2 You, by your power, ⁴  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ⁵ 

you crushed ⁶  the people living there ⁷  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ⁸ 

Psalms 80:8

80:8 You uprooted a vine ⁹  from Egypt;

you drove out nations and transplanted it.

Isaiah 5:1-2

A Love Song Gone Sour

5:1 I ¹⁰  will sing to my love –

a song to my lover about his vineyard. ¹¹ 

My love had a vineyard

on a fertile hill. ¹² 

5:2 He built a hedge around it, ¹³  removed its stones,

and planted a vine.

He built a tower in the middle of it,

and constructed a winepress.

He waited for it to produce edible grapes,

but it produced sour ones instead. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 60:21

60:21 All of your people will be godly; ¹⁵ 

they will possess the land permanently.

I will plant them like a shoot;

they will be the product of my labor,

through whom I reveal my splendor. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 61:3

61:3 to strengthen those who mourn in Zion,

by giving them a turban, instead of ashes,

oil symbolizing joy, ¹⁷  instead of mourning,

a garment symbolizing praise, ¹⁸  instead of discouragement. ¹⁹ 

They will be called oaks of righteousness, ²⁰ 

trees planted by the Lord to reveal his splendor. ²¹ 

Matthew 21:33

The Parable of the Tenants

21:33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner ²²  who planted a vineyard. ²³  He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then ²⁴  he leased it to tenant farmers ²⁵  and went on a journey.

Mark 12:1

The Parable of the Tenants

12:1 Then ²⁶  he began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. ²⁷  He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then ²⁸  he leased it to tenant farmers ²⁹  and went on a journey.

Luke 20:9

The Parable of the Tenants

20:9 Then ³⁰  he began to tell the people this parable: “A man ³¹  planted a vineyard, ³²  leased it to tenant farmers, ³³  and went on a journey for a long time.

John 15:1

The Vine and the Branches

15:1 “I am the true vine ³⁴  and my Father is the gardener. ³⁵ 

[15:17]  ¹ tn The verb is imperfect.

[15:17]  ² sn The “mountain” and the “place” would be wherever Yahweh met with his people. It here refers to Canaan, the land promised to the patriarchs.

[15:17]  ³ tn The verb is perfect tense, referring to Yahweh’s previous choice of the holy place.

[44:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.

[44:2]  ⁶ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).

[44:2]  ⁷ tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.

[80:8]  ⁹ sn The vine is here a metaphor for Israel (see Ezek 17:6-10; Hos 10:1).

[5:1]  ¹⁰ tn It is uncertain who is speaking here. Possibly the prophet, taking the role of best man, composes a love song for his friend on the occasion of his wedding. If so, יָדִיד (yadid) should be translated “my friend.” The present translation assumes that Israel is singing to the Lord. The word דוֹד (dod, “lover”) used in the second line is frequently used by the woman in the Song of Solomon to describe her lover.

[5:1]  ¹¹ sn Israel, viewing herself as the Lord’s lover, refers to herself as his vineyard. The metaphor has sexual connotations, for it pictures her capacity to satisfy his appetite and to produce children. See Song 8:12.

[5:1]  ¹² tn Heb “on a horn, a son of oil.” Apparently קֶרֶן (qeren, “horn”) here refers to the horn-shaped peak of a hill (BDB 902 s.v.) or to a mountain spur, i.e., a ridge that extends laterally from a mountain (HALOT 1145 s.v. קֶרֶן; H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:180). The expression “son of oil” pictures this hill as one capable of producing olive trees. Isaiah’s choice of קֶרֶן, a rare word for hill, may have been driven by paronomastic concerns, i.e., because קֶרֶן sounds like כֶּרֶם (kerem, “vineyard”).

[5:2]  ¹³ tn Or, “dug it up” (so NIV); KJV “fenced it.’ See HALOT 810 s.v. עזק.

[5:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “wild grapes,” i.e., sour ones (also in v. 4).

[60:21]  ¹⁵ tn Or “righteous” (NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “just.”

[60:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a shoot of his planting, the work of my hands, to reveal splendor.”

[61:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “oil of joy” (KJV, ASV); NASB, NIV, NRSV “the oil of gladness.”

[61:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “garment of praise.”

[61:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a faint spirit” (so NRSV); KJV, ASV “the spirit of heaviness”; NASB “a spirit of fainting.”

[61:3]  ²⁰ tn Rather than referring to the character of the people, צֶדֶק (tsedeq) may carry the nuance “vindication” here, suggesting that God’s restored people are a testimony to his justice. See v. 2, which alludes to the fact that God will take vengeance against the enemies of his people. Cf. NAB “oaks of justice.”

[61:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “a planting of the Lord to reveal splendor.”

[21:33]  ²² tn The term here refers to the owner and manager of a household.

[21:33]  ²³ sn The vineyard is a figure for Israel in the OT (Isa 5:1-7). The nation and its leaders are the tenants, so the vineyard here may well refer to the promise that resides within the nation. The imagery is like that in Rom 11:11-24.

[21:33]  ²⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[21:33]  ²⁵ sn The leasing of land to tenant farmers was common in this period.

[12:1]  ²⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[12:1]  ²⁷ sn The vineyard is a figure for Israel in the OT (Isa 5:1-7). The nation and its leaders are the tenants, so the vineyard here may well refer to the promise that resides within the nation. The imagery is like that in Rom 11:11-24.

[12:1]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[12:1]  ²⁹ sn The leasing of land to tenant farmers was common in this period.

[20:9]  ³⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative. The parable Jesus tells here actually addresses the question put to him by the leaders.

[20:9]  ³¹ tc ‡ There are several variants here, most of which involve variations in word order that do not affect translation. However, the presence or absence of τις (ti") after ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), which would be translated “a certain man,” does affect translation. The witnesses that have τις include A W Θ Ë¹³ 1241 2542 al sy. Those that lack it include א B C D L Ψ Ë¹ 33 Ï it. Externally, the evidence is significantly stronger for the omission. Internally, however, there is some pause. A feature unique to Luke-Acts in the NT is to use the construction ἄνθρωπος τις (cf. 10:30; 12:16; 14:2, 16; 15:11; 16:1; 19:12; Acts 9:33). However, scribes who were familiar with this idiom may have inserted it here. In light of the overwhelming external support for the omission of τις, the shorter reading is preferred. NA²⁷ places τις in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity.

[20:9]  ³² sn The vineyard is a figure for Israel in the OT (Isa 5:1-7). The nation and its leaders are the tenants, so the vineyard here may well refer to the promise that resides within the nation. The imagery is like that in Rom 11:11-24.

[20:9]  ³³ sn The leasing of land to tenant farmers was common in this period.

[15:1]  ³⁴ sn I am the true vine. There are numerous OT passages which refer to Israel as a vine: Ps 80:8-16, Isa 5:1-7, Jer 2:21, Ezek 15:1-8, 17:5-10, 19:10-14, and Hos 10:1. The vine became symbolic of Israel, and even appeared on some coins issued by the Maccabees. The OT passages which use this symbol appear to regard Israel as faithless to Yahweh (typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT) and/or the object of severe punishment. Ezek 15:1-8 in particular talks about the worthlessness of wood from a vine (in relation to disobedient Judah). A branch cut from a vine is worthless except to be burned as fuel. This fits more with the statements about the disciples (John 15:6) than with Jesus’ description of himself as the vine. Ezek 17:5-10 contains vine imagery which refers to a king of the house of David, Zedekiah, who was set up as king in Judah by Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah allied himself to Egypt and broke his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar (and therefore also with God), which would ultimately result in his downfall (17:20-21). Ezek 17:22-24 then describes the planting of a cedar sprig which grows into a lofty tree, a figurative description of Messiah. But it is significant that Messiah himself is not described in Ezek 17 as a vine, but as a cedar tree. The vine imagery here applies to Zedekiah’s disobedience. Jesus’ description of himself as the true vine in John 15:1 ff. is to be seen against this background, but it differs significantly from the imagery surveyed above. It represents new imagery which differs significantly from OT concepts; it appears to be original with Jesus. The imagery of the vine underscores the importance of fruitfulness in the Christian life and the truth that this results not from human achievement, but from one’s position in Christ. Jesus is not just giving some comforting advice, but portraying to the disciples the difficult path of faithful service. To some degree the figure is similar to the head-body metaphor used by Paul, with Christ as head and believers as members of the body. Both metaphors bring out the vital and necessary connection which exists between Christ and believers.

[15:1]  ³⁵ tn Or “the farmer.”