Isaiah 5:7 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 5:7
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
a garden or vineyard · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֤הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
hosts
צְבָאוֹת֙tze.va.'Ot
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common feminine plural absolute
house
בֵּ֣יתbeit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · 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
יְהוּדָ֔הye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
pleasant
שַׁעֲשׁוּעָ֑יוsha.'a.shu.'Av
H8191
enjoyment · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
plant
נְטַ֖עne.Ta'
H5194
a plant · noun, common masculine singular construct
looked
וַיְקַ֤וvay.Kav
H6960
to bind together (perhaps by twisting) · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
judgment
לְמִשְׁפָּט֙le.mish.Pat
H4941
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
oppression
מִשְׂפָּ֔חmis.Pach
H4939
slaughter · noun, common masculine singular absolute
righteousness
לִצְדָקָ֖הlitz.da.Kah
H6666
rightness (abstractly) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
cry
צְעָקָֽהtze.'a.Kah
H6818
a shriek · noun, common feminine singular absolute
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 80:8-11 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
Jeremiah 12:10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
Matthew 3:8-10 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
James 5:4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which…
Exodus 3:7 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmaster…
Deuteronomy 15:9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil aga…
Nehemiah 5:1-5 And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.
Job 31:38-39 If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
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…
Isaiah here applies the parable. It is no mere human owner, nor a literal vineyard that is meant.
vineyard of the Lord--His only one (Exo 19:5; Amo 3:2).
pleasant--"the plant of his delight"; just as the husbandman was at pains to select the sorek, or "choicest vine" (Isa 5:2); so God's election of the Jews.
judgment--justice. The play upon words is striking in the Hebrew, He looked for mishpat, but behold mispat ("bloodshed"); for tsedaqua, but behold tseaqua (the cry that attends anarchy, covetousness, and dissipation, Isa 5:8, Isa 5:11-12; compare the cry of the rabble by which justice was overborne in the case of Jesus Christ, Mat 27:23-24).
John Gill on Isaiah 5:7
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,.... This is the explication of the parable, or the accommodation and application of it to the people of Israel, by whom are meant the ten tribes; they are signified by the vineyard, which belonged to the Lord of hosts, who had chosen them to be a peculiar people to him, and had separated them from all others:
and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; they were so when first planted by the Lord; they were plants of delight, in whom he took great delight and pleasure, Deuteronomy 10:15 these design the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, in distinction from Israel:
and he looked for judgment; that the poor, and the fatherless, and th…
(Verse 7.) But the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the men of Judah, his pleasant plant. That is, of God: or as the LXX translated, the beloved new plantation. Israel and Judah differ in this, that the whole people were first called Israel, and afterwards, when David reigned over the tribe of Judah, and Rehoboam the son of Solomon over the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, those who were in Samaria, that is, the ten tribes, were called Israel; and those who reigned from the lineage of David were called Judah. And since the Israelites worshipped calves in Dan and Bethel, Samaria was first captured by the Assyrians; and much later, Judah was taken into Babylon by the Chaldeans, because they had sinned less. Therefore, in Ezekiel, for the purification of the sins of both peoples, Israel is placed on the left side, according to the Seventy, for one hundred and ninety days, or as is more accurately stated in Hebrew, three hundred and ninety days; but Judah (according to the LXX and the Hebrew text) for forty days (Ezek. IV). I say this so that by comparing it to Israel, that is, the ten tribes, I may show the beloved and chosen Judah, in which there were priests and Levites, and the religion of God was practiced at that time when the prophet Isaiah spoke to the people. And beautifully Israel, that is, the whole people, is the house: but Judah, which afterwards sprouted from the separated tribes, is called a delightful new growth. But it should also be noted that according to the prophetic custom, which was first spoken in metaphor or parable, it is later explained more clearly: that the vineyard and new plantation are Israel and Judah. And I waited for judgment, and behold there was iniquity: and for justice, and behold there was a cry, as the LXX translated, I waited for judgment, and he did iniquity, and not justice, but a cry. We want to reveal to Latin ears what we learned from the Hebrews: Judgment, among them, is called Mesphat (): iniquity, or dissipation, as Aquila interpreted, is called Mesphaa (). Again, justice is called Sadaca (): but a cry is called Saaca (). Therefore, either by adding or changing a single letter, he tempered the similarity of the words, so that instead of Mesphat, he wrote Mesphaa: and instead of Sadaca, he put Saaca, and he rendered the elegant structure and sound of the words according to the Hebrew…
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
Jubilee — A joyful shout or clangour of trumpets, the name of the great semi-centennial festival of the Hebrews. It lasted for a year. During this year the land was to be fallow, and the Israelites were only…
Ingratitude To God · Illustrated — Illustrated
Parables · Of the vineyard — Of the vineyard
Prophets · Frequently spoke in parables and riddles — Frequently spoke in parables and riddles
Righteousness · God looks for — God looks for
Sins, National · Aggravated by privileges — Aggravated by privileges
Unfaithfulness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Vine, The · Illustrative: Of Israel — Illustrative: Of Israel
Vineyard · Parables of — Parables of
Vineyards · Illustrative: Of the Jewish Church — Illustrative: Of the Jewish Church
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).
John Calvin on Isaiah 5:7
Truly the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel. Hitherto he spoke figuratively; now he shows what is the design of this song. Formerly he had threatened judgment against the Jews; now he shows that they are not only guilty, but are also held to be convicted persons; for they could not be ignorant of the benefits which they had received from God.
Thou broughtest a vine from Egypt, says the Psalmist, and, having driven out the nations, plantedst it. (Psalm 80:8.)
Their ingratitude was plain and manifest.
Isaiah does not illustrate every part of the metaphor; nor was it necessary; for it was enough to point out what was its object. The whole nation was the vineyard; the indivi…
"For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plantation of His delight: He waited for justice, and behold grasping; for righteousness, and behold a shriek." The meaning is not that the Lord of the vineyard would not let any more rain fall upon it, because this Lord was Jehovah (which is not affirmed in fact in the words commencing with "for," Ci), but a more general one. This was how the case stood with the vineyard; for all Israel, and especially the people of Judah, were this vineyard, which had so bitterly deceived the expectations of its Lord, and indeed "the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts," and therefore of the omnipotent God, whom even the cl…
The identification of Israel as the vineyard is a surprise that resolves the riddle of this passage. • Here, a powerful play on Hebrew words indicted Israel. The Lord expected justice (Hebrew mishpat) but saw only oppression (mispakh) of the needy. Instead of righteousness (tsedaqah), there were cries of violence (tse‘aqah) against the poor (see 1:21-23).
Rashi on Isaiah 5:7
For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the House of Israel To this vineyard are you compared, O House of Israel, for all that He did for this vineyard, He did for Israel. The vineyard represents Adam, for we find in Midrash Aggadah, in many places in Tanhuma, and in Genesis Rabbah [that] these passages are expounded concerning him, e.g., Adam was not expelled from Paradise until he reviled and blasphemed, as it is said: And He hoped to produce grapes,... (Gen. Rabbah 19:12). And in another place we find: He appointed guards over him that he should not eat from the Tree of Life, as it is said (verse 6): “And I will command the clouds...” (ibid. 21:8). And in this manner, [the following vers…
