Isaiah 5:1

A Love Song Gone Sour

5:1 I ¹  will sing to my love –

a song to my lover about his vineyard. ² 

My love had a vineyard

on a fertile hill. ³ 

Isaiah 33:16

33:16 This is the person who will live in a secure place; ⁴ 

he will find safety in the rocky, mountain strongholds; ⁵ 

he will have food

and a constant supply of water.

Isaiah 35:9

35:9 No lions will be there,

no ferocious wild animals will be on it ⁶  –

they will not be found there.

Those delivered from bondage will travel on it,

Isaiah 57:17

57:17 I was angry because of their sinful greed;

I attacked them and angrily rejected them, ⁷ 

yet they remained disobedient and stubborn. ⁸ 

Isaiah 58:4

58:4 Look, your fasting is accompanied by ⁹  arguments, brawls,

and fistfights. ¹⁰ 

Do not fast as you do today,

trying to make your voice heard in heaven.

Isaiah 60:10

60:10 Foreigners will rebuild your walls;

their kings will serve you.

Even though I struck you down in my anger,

I will restore my favor and have compassion on you. ¹¹ 

[5:1]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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”).

[33:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “he [in the] exalted places will live.”

[33:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “mountain strongholds, cliffs [will be] his elevated place.”

[35:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “will go up on it”; TEV “will pass that way.”

[57:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and I struck him, hiding, and I was angry.” פָּנַיִם (panayim, “face”) is the implied object of “hiding.”

[57:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he walked [as an] apostate in the way of his heart.”

[58:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “you fast for” (so NASB); NRSV “you fast only to quarrel.”

[58:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and for striking with a sinful fist.”

[60:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in my favor I will have compassion on you.”