Isaiah 5:2

And he fenced it,.... With good and wholesome laws, which distinguished them, and kept them separate from other nations; also with his almighty power and providence; especially at the three yearly

And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should

Fenced it, that neither men nor beasts might spoil it. Gathered out the stones thereof; which otherwise would have marred the land; of which see . The sense is, He removed all hinderances, and gave them all the means of fruitfulness. Built a tower, for the residence of the keepers, that they might be obliged and encouraged to watch over it with more diligence.

Isaiah 5:2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. Ver. 2. And he fenced it.] Maceria munivit; he hedged it in, or walled it about, protecting his people from the rage of enemies wherewith that country was begirt. God was "a wall of fire to them," and a wall of water to them, whence their land, though part of the continent, is called "an island," not only because separated from other countries, but because secured and made media insuperabilis unda. And gathered out the stones thereof.] He not only cast out the Canaanites, but flatly forbade idolatry, and all other wickednesses, παντατασκανδαλα, every scandal or rock of offence that might hinder their growth, or turn them out of the way. And planted it with the choicest vine.] Heb., Sorek; the vines of which place may seem to be the best and choicest, like as now in Germany are the vines of Herbipolis. See Jeremiah 2:21. The saints of God are noble plants, and of choice spirits; they are the chiefest personages, and of highest account in heaven. And built a tower in the midst of it.] For both beauty, defence, and convenience. This may be meant of Jerusalem, or the temple therein, that "tower of the flock," and the "stronghold of the daughter of God’ s people." Religion set up in the power and purity of it, is the beauty and bulwark of any place. And also made a winepress therein.] For the pressing of the grapes, and saving of the vine; but, alas! that labour might have been saved for any grapes he got, or wine he made. “ Fallitur augurio spes bona saepe suo. ” Little good is done many times by the most pressing and piercing exhortations and argumeuts used by God’ s faithful prophets. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes,] i.e., Good grapes, as little thinking ut opera perdatur et spes eludatur, to have lost all his care and cost, as he did. For who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock? And it brought forth wild grapes.] Stinking stuff, as the word signifieth, that which was naught and noisome: grapes of Sodom and clusters of Gomorrah. He looked for the "fruit of the Spirit"; but behold the "works of the flesh" No whit answerable to his continual care, culture, and custody, they made him, as one saith, a contumacious and contumelious retribution. Thus the wicked answer Heaven’ s kindness with an ungrateful wickedness. Pro Sepivit alii vertunt Fodit, pastinavit, plantavit.

(2) And he fenced it.—In the “fence” we may recognise the law and institutions of Israel which kept it as a separate people (Eph. Ii. 14); in the “stones” that were gathered out, the removal of the old idolatries that would have hindered the development of the nation’s life; in the “tower” of the vineyard (comp. in a different context Isaiah 1:8), the monarchy and throne of David, or the watch-tower from which the prophets looked forth (Hab. Ii. 1; Isaiah 21:5-8); in the “winepress,” the temple in which the fruits of righteousness were to issue in the wine of joy and adoration (Zechariah 9:17; Ephesians 5:18). It was, we may note, one of the maxims of the Rabbis that the duty of a scribe was “to set a fence around the law” (Pirke Aboth, i. 1). In the last clause of the verse the pleasant song suddenly changes its tone, and the “wild grapes (sour and hard, and not larger than bilberries) are types of deeds of harsh and cruel injustice on which the prophet proceeds to dwell.

Verse 2. And gathered out the stones - "And he cleared it from the stones"] This was agreeable to the husbandry: "Saxa, summa parte terrae, et vites et arbores laeduct; ima parte refrigerant;" Columell. de arb. iii. "Saxosum facile est expedire lectione lapidum;" Id. ii. 2. "Lapides, qui supersunt, [al. insuper sunt,] hieme rigent, aestate fervescunt; idcirco satis, arbustis, et vitibus nocent;" Pallad. i. 6. A piece of ground thus cleared of the stones. Persius, in his hard way of metaphor, calls "exossatus ager," an unboned field; Sat. vi. 52. The choicest vine - "Sorek"] Many of the ancient interpreters, the Septuagint, Aquila, and Theod., have retained this word as a proper name; I think very rightly. Sorek was a valley lying between Ascalon and Gaza, and running far up eastward in the tribe of Judah. Both Ascalon and Gaza were anciently famous for wine; the former is mentioned as such by Alexander Trallianus; the latter by several authors, quoted by Reland, Palaest., p. 589 and 986. And it seems that the upper part of the valley of Sorek, and that of Eshcol, where the spies gathered the single cluster of grapes, which they were obliged to bear between two upon a staff, being both near to Hebron were in the same neighbourhood, and that all this part of the country abounded with rich vineyards. Compare Numbers 13:22-23; Judges 16:3-4. P. Nau supposes Eshcol and Sorek to be only different names for the same valley. Voyage Noveau de la Terre Sainte, lib. iv., chap. 18. See likewise De Lisle's posthumous map of the Holy Land. Paris, 1763. See Bochart, Hieroz. ii., col. 725. Thevenot, i, p. 406. Michaelis (note on Judges 16:4, German translation) thinks it probable, from some circumstances of the history there given, that Sorek was in the tribe of Judah, not in the country of the Philistines. The vine of Sorek was known to the Israelites, being mentioned by Moses, Genesis 49:11, before their coming out of Egypt. Egypt was not a wine country. "Throughout this country there are no wines;" Sandys, p. 101. At least in very ancient times they had none. Herodotus, ii. 77, says it had no vines and therefore used an artificial wine made of barley. That is not strictly true, for the vines of Egypt are spoken of in Scripture, Psalms 78:47; Psalms 105:33; and see Genesis 40:11, by which it should seem that they drank only the fresh juice pressed from the grape, which was called οινοςαμπελινος; Herodot., ii. 37. But they had no large vineyards, nor was the country proper for them, being little more than one large plain, annually overflowed by the Nile. The Mareotic in later times is, I think, the only celebrated Egyptian wine which we meet with in history. The vine was formerly, as Hasselquist tells us it is now, "cultivated in Egypt for the sake of eating the grapes, not for wine, which is brought from Candia," c. "They were supplied with wine from Greece, and likewise from Phoenicia," Herodot., iii. 6.

2. (Six lines.) The situation was all that could be desired: and labour had not been spared. Note the resemblances in Matthew 21:33 ff.; Mark 12:1 ff. fenced it] digged it (R.V. marg.). The word is not found elsewhere, but the meaning is certain. gathered out the stones thereof] In Heb. a single word: lit “stoned it” (ch. Isaiah 62:10). The phrase “stone a field,” for “clear it of stones,” is said to be common in some parts of England. the choicest vine] A technical name (collective) for the finest sort of grapes grown in Syria. The word occurs again in Jeremiah 2:21; the corresponding noun of unity (fem.) in Genesis 49:11. built a tower] for the watchers; not a mere hut, as in Isaiah 1:8. and also … winepress] yea, and hewed out a winefat (ὑπολήνιον, Mark 12:1). The yeqeb is the receptacle (here cut out of the rock) into which the juice flows from the winepress (gath). (Cf. Joe 3:13; Proverbs 3:10; Nehemiah 13:15, &c.) The emphasis on this clause calls attention to the owner’s confident expectation of a return for his outlay. brought forth wild grapes] Cf. Jeremiah 2:21.

And he fenced it - Margin, ‘Made a wall about it.’ The word used here is supposed rather to mean “to dig about, to grub,” as with a pick-axe or spade.

1, 2. Now will I sing — Rather, Let me sing. The singing was in the form of chanting. Such was probably the mode of the delivery of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning this “vineyard” — the Jewish Church.