properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
Jerusalem
יְרוּשָׁלִַ֖םye.ru.sha.Lim
H3389
Jerushalaim or Jerushalem · proper noun, a place name
men
וְאִ֣ישׁve.'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
Judah
יְהוּדָ֑הye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
judge
שִׁפְטוּshif.tu-
H8199
to judge · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
vineyard
כַּרְמִֽיkar.Mi
H3754
a garden or vineyard · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 1st person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 50:4-6 He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.
Psalms 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear wh…
Jeremiah 2:4-5 Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:
Micah 6:2-3 Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’s controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and h…
Matthew 21:40-41 When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
Mark 12:9-12 What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.
Luke 20:15-16 So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?
Romans 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgme…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 5:1-7
See what variety of methods the great God takes to awaken sinners to repentance by convincing them of sin, and showing them their misery and danger by reason of it. To this purport he speaks sometimes in plain terms and sometimes in parables, sometimes in prose and sometimes in verse, as here. "We have tried to reason with you (Isa 1:18); now let us put your case into a poem, inscribed to the honour of my well beloved." God the Father dictates it to the honour of Christ his well beloved Son, whom he has constituted Lord of the vineyard. The prophet sings it to the honour of Christ too, for he is his well beloved. The Old Testament prophets were friends of the bridegroom. Christ is God's belo…
And now, &c.--appeal of God to themselves, as in Isa 1:18; Mic 6:3. So Jesus Christ, in Mat 21:40-41, alluding in the very form of expression to this, makes them pass sentence on themselves. God condemns sinners "out of their own mouth" (Deu 32:6; Job 15:6; Luk 19:22; Rom 3:4).
John Gill on Isaiah 5:3
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah,.... All and everyone of them, who were parties concerned in this matter, and are designed by the vineyard, for whom so much had been done, and so little fruit brought forth by them, or rather so much bad fruit:
judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard; between God and themselves; they are made judges in their own cause; the case was so clear and evident, that God is as it were willing the affair should be decided by their own judgment and verdict: so the Targum,
"judge now judgment between me and my people.''
John Calvin on Isaiah 5:3
Now, therefore, O inhabitant of Jerusalem! Those persons with whom he contends are made judges in their own cause, as is usually done in cases so plain and undoubted that the opposite party has no means of evasion. It is, therefore, a proof of the strongest confidence in his cause, when he bids the guilty persons themselves declare if this be not the true state of the fact; for immediately afterwards we shall find him declaring that the accusation is decided against those persons to whom he now commits the decision.
The Church Fathers
(Verse 3, 4.) Now therefore, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? I have done everything I could for it; I planted it in the best soil, built a protective wall around it, carefully selected stones, and raised its branches with sturdy poles and supports. The vine itself was not just any vine, but a chosen and fruitful one. I built a very strong tower, in which I could store grain, and from which I could observe the wild animals that lurk around the grain. I also constructed a wine press, so that grapes could be pressed and wine could be poured in the same place. Therefore, I ask the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah to respond to me: indeed, let them judge between me and my vineyard, what I should have done and have not done? And with them remaining silent, he responds to himself: unless, of course, I made a mistake in waiting for grapes to be produced from my work, and not wild grapes, which the uncultivated and deserted vineyard is accustomed to produce. This is what the Prophet Nathan sent to David, as recorded in II Samuel 12, and he questions him through a parable, so that while he judges about someone else, he reveals his own judgment. Therefore, even here, the people are questioned as if about a vineyard, so that they themselves answer against themselves. This passage is further fulfilled by the Savior in the Gospel of Matthew 21, and what is skipped here, he questions the scribes and Pharisees. For in Isaiah, nothing is said about the farmers, nor is it indicated what they will suffer; but it is only about the vineyard: but there, as if there were another vineyard and other farmers, he speaks about the people and the teachers, so that he may destroy the wicked ones and place the vineyard with other farmers; signifying the apostles and those who will succeed the apostles. And indeed, it is not a tautology, as many believe, in what he says: An quod exspectavi, ut faceret uvas, et fecit labruscas? For above, he speaks silently within himself, but here he asks others what he had thought.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ingratitude To God · Illustrated — Illustrated
Judgment · ACCORDING TO OPPORTUNITY AND WORKS — ACCORDING TO OPPORTUNITY AND WORKS
Parables · Of the vineyard — Of the vineyard
Prophets · Frequently spoke in parables and riddles — Frequently spoke in parables and riddles
Reasoning · God rea — God rea
Unfaithfulness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Vineyard · Parables of — Parables of
War · 28:25-68;32:30; — 28:25-68;32:30;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 5:3-4
The song of the beloved who was so sorely deceived terminates here. The prophet recited it, not his beloved himself; but as they were both of one heart and one soul, the prophet proceeds thus in Isa 5:3 and Isa 5:4 : "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard! What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore did I hope that it would bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes?" The fact that the prophet speaks as if he were the beloved himself, shows at once who the beloved must be. The beloved of the prophet and the lover of the prophet (yâdid and dōd) were Jehovah, with whom he was so un…
Clearly, the Lord had graciously done everything possible for the vineyard. He was not to blame for the bitter grapes. • you judge: Isaiah wanted the audience to condemn the vineyard before he revealed that in fact they were the vineyard (5:7). This rhetorical tactic is similar to the one Nathan used to confront David (2 Sam 12:1-5).
Rashi on Isaiah 5:2
And he fenced it in Heb. וַיְעַזְּקֵהוּ. He fenced it and walled it around, surrounded like a sort of ring, translated into Aramaic as עִיזְקָא.
and he cleared it of stones Heb. וַיְסַקְלֵהוּ. He cleared it of the stones that are detrimental to the vines, comp. (infra 62:10) “Clear of stones (סַקְּלוֹ מֵאֶבֶן).”
and he planted it with the choicest vines They are the best of all branches for planting.
and he built a tower in its midst A press in which to press the grapes.
and also a vat he hewed therein Heb. יֶקֶב, the pit that is before the press, to receive the wine. Likewise, every יֶקֶב in Scripture is an expression denoting a pit. Likewise (Zechariah 14:4), עַד יִקְבֵי הַמֶלֶךְ, whic…
