Isaiah 5

— I saw—the Lord] The Lord, whom Isaiah saw, was the Jehovah, and Lord of hosts, ver. 3. 5; and St. John testifies, in the passage given in the margin, that it was Christ, and Christ’s glory, that Isaiah saw; it follows, that, in St. John’s account, Christ is Jehovah. Dr. Waterland.

— sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.] The ideas are taken from Eastern royalty; the Prophet could not represent the ineffable presence of God by any other than sensible and earthly images. The particular scenery of it is taken from the temple. God is represented as seated on his throne above the ark in the most holy place, where the glory appeared above the cherubim, surrounded by his attendant ministers. See Jer. xvii. 12; Ezek. xliii. 7. Bp. Lowth.

Isaiah 5:2

2. — built a tower in the midst of it, &c.] To contain all the implements necessary to the culture of the vineyard, and making of the wine. To this image in the allegory, the situation, the manner of building, the use, and the whole service of the temple, exactly answered. Our Saviour in his parable, Matt. xxi. 33; Mark xii. 1, has inserted the “tower,” and the “winepress,” or vat, as the word should perhaps be translated here, and as St. Mark has it. It means the large open place, or vessel, which by a conduit or spout, received the must from the winepress. In very hot countries it was very convenient to have this place under ground, or in a cave “hewed” out of the side of the rock for coolness, (see the margin,) that the heat might not cause too great a fermentation, and sour the must. Bp. Lowth. — wild grapes.] Not merely unprofitable grapes, but noxious; as, in the explication, (ver. 7,) to judgment is opposed tyranny, and to righteousness oppression. Some of these were of a poisonous quality, as appears from 2 Kings iv. 39—41. Bp. Lowth. The Prophet may here mean the hoary nightshade, which is common in Egypt, Palestine, and the East; the Arabs call it “wolf’s grapes;” it grows much in the vineyards, and is very pernicious to them; it likewise resembles a vine by its shrubby stalk. Hasselquist. 3. Here the style of the parable is altered from the God’s judgments upon covetousness, lasciviousness, impiety,

salem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.

2. — he covered his feet.] By the “feet” the Hebrews mean all the lower parts of the body. Bp. Lowth.

3. — one cried unto another. The one singing responsively to the other. Bp. Lowth. After some such manner was the Divine anthem of Moses sung, Exod. xv. 1. 20, 21. So we read, Ezra iii. 11, at the building of the second temple did the priests and Levites sing together by course, in praising and giving thanks to the Lord: and this hath been the practice of the Christian church all along, and is still continued among us, as being the most easy and proper way for all sorts of people to join together in setting forth the praises of God, and the best means of keeping our minds intent upon the great work we are about, and to excite one another in the performance of it. Bp. Beveridge.

— Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.] The Christian church hath always thought that the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity is implied in this repetition; it is intimated in several other parts of the Old Testament, particularly in the form of blessing, which God commanded the priests to use, Numb. vi. 24—26. W. Lowth. See the notes on that passage.

“They are not content,” says Origen, “to say it once or twice, but take the perfect number of the Trinity, thereby to declare the manifold holiness of God; which is a repeated intercommunion of a threefold holiness; the holiness of the Father, the holiness of the only begotten Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” And that the Seraphim did really celebrate all the three Persons of the Godhead upon this occasion, is no conjecture; but a point capable of the clearest demonstration. The Prophet tells us, ver. 1, he “saw the Lord sitting upon

Isaiah 5:3

3, 4. — judge, I pray you, &c.] The case was so plain, that God might refer it to themselves, although they were parties concerned. W. Louth.

Let every sinner thoroughly examine his own state and condition, what his natural powers and faculties are, what they are originally capable of, what additional means and opportunities he has had put into his hands to employ and improve them; and then let him shew where the fault lay, and who is to be charged with the evil of sin, and with the consequences of it. Dr. John Clarke.

Isaiah 5:8

8. Woe unto them &c.] From hence to the twenty-fifth verse, sundry vices are enumerated, which, as they brought temporal judgments upon the Jews, so at the bar of Christ shall exclude from happiness, and consign all that are found guilty of them to the woes and punishments here denounced: namely, the covetous and unjust; the drunkard and voluptuary; all that wilfully neglect, or impiously despise, the knowledge of God, as well the slothful ignorant, as the proudly wise; all that perversely confound the distinctions of moral good and evil. Wogan.

Isaiah 5:10

10. — one bath, — an homer, — an ephah.] A “bath” and “an ephah” are the same measure, about seven gallons and a half; they contain but a tenth of an “homer,” Ezek. xlv. 11. W. Louth.

Isaiah 5:11

11. — strong drink;] See the note on chap. xxiv. 9.

Isaiah 5:12

12. — the harp, and the viol, &c.] Musick universally attends Eastern feasts. Harmer. Wine, and musick, and delicate fare, are such things as God in his goodness hath given to the children of men for their comfort; and they may use them lawfully, and take comfort in them as their portion: but he that uses any of them intemperately, unseasonably, vainly, or wastefully, abuses both them and himself; therefore we often find in Scripture, both the things themselves condemned, and those that use them blamed. Bp. Sanderson.

Isaiah 5:13

13, 14. — their honourable men are famished, &c.] As verses 9, 10, have evidently reference to ver. 8, so have these verses to the two preceding. As the houses of the covetous are to be left uninhabited, and the fields to become desolate, so they that indulged in feasting and drinking are to perish with hunger and thirst. Bp. Louth.

13. — that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, &c.] That are not only drawn to sin by the allurements of the world, but are active and industrious in drawing sin to themselves, or themselves to sin: “with cords of vanity,” that is, with vain and deceitful arguments and pretences, whereby sinners generally draw themselves to sin: “with a cart rope,” that is, with all their might, as beasts commonly do, that draw carts with ropes. Poole, Bp. Hall. The cause is here put for the effect: “iniquity” and “sin” for the punishment which they provoke. The meaning then is, “Woe unto them who foolishly draw upon themselves the reward of iniquity; nay, set their shoulders to pull it forward, as a beast of burden does a cart rope!” Rosenmüller, Bp. Stock.

Isaiah 5:14

14. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, &c.] Habakkuk uses the same image with great force, in a comparison of the ambitious and avaricious conqueror, Hab. ii. 5. But hell, or the grave, is here introduced to much greater advantage in person; and placed before our eyes in the form of a ravenous monster, opening wide his immeasurable jaws, and swallowing his prey altogether. Bp. Louth.

Isaiah 5:17

17. Then shall the lambs &c.] Their luxurious habitations shall become a pasture for flocks. Bp. Louth.

and injustice. The executioners of God’s judgments. Before CHRIST about 760.

Isaiah 5:20

20. Woe unto them that call evil good, &c.] The Prophet compares the difference of moral “good and evil” presented to the human understanding with that of “light and darkness” discerned by the eye, of “bitter and sweet” tasted by the palate; that is, as a plain and undeniable truth which forceth its evidence upon a rational mind: to transgress God’s commandments, his laws and statutes, delivered by his prophets, and confirmed by a series of miracles, was a heinous crime; but to “call evil good, and good evil,” was to advance a step farther in impiety, to lay the profane axe to the root of righteousness, to destroy all religion, natural as well as revealed, and to sink into mere atheism. Dr. Jortin.

Isaiah 5:22

22. — to mingle strong drink:] See notes on chap. i. 22; xxiv. 9.

Isaiah 5:24

24. — so their root shall be as rottenness, &c.] So they shall be utterly destroyed; and shall be as a tree, whose root is rotten, and whose blossom flies away like dust. Bp. Hall.

Isaiah 5:25

25. — the hills did tremble.] The Prophet refers perhaps to the great earthquake in the days of Uzziah, Amos i. 1; Zech. xiv. 5. Bp. Lowth. But the mountains and the earth itself are often said to tremble at God’s judgments; (see Jer. iv. 21; Mic. i. 4; Nah. i. 5; Hab. iii 10; Ps. lxxvii. 18; cxiv. 7;) which expressions

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may allude to the thunder which accompanies them; to the trembling of mount Sinai when God came down upon it, Exod. xix. 18; or, to the last general judgment. See note on chap. ii. 10. He says, “did tremble;” but the representing of a thing future, as if already accomplished, is very common with the Prophets. W. Lowth.

Isaiah 5:26

26. And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, &c.] The Prophets call distant countries in the popular language, as here, “the end of the earth;” the Babylonians may be primarily meant here, as chap. xxxix. 3; Jer. v. 15; and as the Medes, with respect to Babylon, are said (chap. xiii. 5,) “to come from a far country, from the end of heaven;” but the Prophet may also look farther, and the threat is probably to be extended to the desolation of Judea by the Romans; to whom the phrases used here will apply better than to the Chaldees. Vitrings.

Though the Babylonians lived at no great distance from Judea, yet many that composed their army did: indeed all foreigners were looked upon as living a great way off by the Jews, because they maintained but little commerce with their neighbours. W. Lowth.

— and will hiss unto them.] “The metaphor is taken from the practice of those who keep bees; who draw them out of their hives into the fields, and lead them back again, by a hiss or whistle;” say Cyril and Theodoret. At chap. vii. 18, the metaphor is more apparent by being carried farther; there the hostile armies are expressed by “the fly,” and “the bee.” Bp. Lowth.

Isaiah 5:27

27. — neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed.] The Eastern people, wearing long and loose garments, were unfit for action, or business of any kind, without girding their clothes about them: when their business was finished, they took off their girdles. A girdle therefore denotes strength and activity: to unloose the girdle, to deprive of strength, to render unfit for action: it was of course an essential part of a soldier’s accoutrement. See 1 Kings xx. 11; Isa. xlv. 1. 5. Bp. Lowth. See the note on Job xii. 21.

Q The executioners of God’s judgments. Isaiah’s vision of God’s glory.

their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:

Isaiah 5:28

28. — their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint.] The shoring of horses with iron plates nailed to the hoof is quite a modern practice, unknown to the ancients, as appears from the silence of Greek and Roman writers, especially those who treat of horse medicine: for this reason, the strength, firmness, and solidity of a horse’s hoof was of much greater importance with them than with us, and was esteemed one of the first praises of a fine horse. Xenophon, in his treatise on horsemanship, gives particular directions for hardening a horse’s hoofs. For want of the artificial defence, which we use, Anno (chap. vi. 12,) speaks of it as a thing as impracticable to make horses run upon a hard rock, as to plough up the same rock with oxen. Bp. Lowth.

Isaiah 5:30

30. — they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: &c.] What speak I of the roaring of a lion? yea, these Chaldeans, which I will bring upon them, shall come roaring in like a mighty sea in a tempest, with such terror, that all shall be filled with confusion; the earth shall be darkened with sorrow; and the heavens shall yield no glimpse of comfort to the distressed. Bp. Hall. See notes on chap. xiii. 10. 13.

From this chapter we perceive in what a special manner God blessed his people Israel; how they abused his gifts, and turned his grace into wantonness; and how He threatened to visit their sins with his judgments: the issue and execution of his threatenings we well know. The proper application of all this to ourselves is briefly hinted by St. Paul, “If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee,” Rom. xi. 21. We, who succeed them in the spiritual vineyard, the Church of the true God, have no reason to flatter ourselves that our bad fruits shall be more indulged than theirs. But rather the judgments, which have befallen them, will make our disobedience the more inexcusable, if we commit the same sins, and are not afraid of the same punishments. Reading.

Chap. VI. ver. 1. In the year that king Uzziah died I saw &c.] As this vision seems to contain a solemn designation of Isaiah to the prophetic office, it is by most interpreters thought to be the first in order of his prophecies. But Isaiah is said (chap. i. 1,) to have prophesied in the time of Uzziah, and the phrase, in the year when Uzziah died, probably means after the death of Uzziah; as the same phrase (chap. xiv. 28,) means after the death of Ahaz. This might be a new designation, to introduce more solemnly a general declaration of the whole course of God’s dispensations, in regard to his people, and the fates of the nation; which are even

sage. 9 He sheweth the obstinacy of the people unto their desolation. 13 A remnant shall be saved.

IN the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and || his train filled the temple.

a John 12. 41.