Isaiah 27:2

27:2 When that time comes, ¹ 

sing about a delightful vineyard! ² 

Isaiah 5:1

A Love Song Gone Sour

5:1 I ³  will sing to my love –

a song to my lover about his vineyard. ⁴ 

My love had a vineyard

on a fertile hill. ⁵ 

Isaiah 5:10

5:10 Indeed, a large vineyard ⁶  will produce just a few gallons, ⁷ 

and enough seed to yield several bushels ⁸  will produce less than a bushel.” ⁹ 

Isaiah 5:7

5:7 Indeed ¹⁰  Israel ¹¹  is the vineyard of the Lord who commands armies,

the people ¹²  of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight.

He waited for justice, but look what he got – disobedience! ¹³ 

He waited for fairness, but look what he got – cries for help! ¹⁴ 

[27:2]  ¹ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).

[27:2]  ² tn Heb “vineyard of delight,” or “vineyard of beauty.” Many medieval mss read כֶּרֶם חֶמֶר (kerem khemer, “vineyard of wine”), i.e., “a productive vineyard.”

[5:1]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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”).

[5:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “a ten-yoke vineyard.” The Hebrew term צֶמֶד (tsemed, “yoke”) is here a unit of square measure. Apparently a ten-yoke vineyard covered the same amount of land it would take ten teams of oxen to plow in a certain period of time. The exact size is unknown.

[5:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “one bath.” A bath was a liquid measure. Estimates of its modern equivalent range from approximately six to twelve gallons.

[5:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “a homer.” A homer was a dry measure, the exact size of which is debated. Cf. NCV “ten bushels”; CEV “five bushels.”

[5:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “an ephah.” An ephah was a dry measure; there were ten ephahs in a homer. So this verse envisions major crop failure, where only one-tenth of the anticipated harvest is realized.

[5:7]  ⁷ tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[5:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “the house of Israel” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[5:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.

[5:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “but, look, disobedience.” The precise meaning of מִשְׂפָּח (mishpakh), which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Some have suggested a meaning “bloodshed.” The term is obviously chosen for its wordplay value; it sounds very much like מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “justice”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[5:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “but, look, a cry for help.” The verb (“he waited”) does double duty in the parallelism. צְעָקָה (tsa’qah) refers to the cries for help made by the oppressed. It sounds very much like צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “fairness”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.