Matthew 21:33

Matthew 21:33. Hear another parable— Not satisfied with shewing the rulers the heinousness of their sin, in rejecting the Baptist, Jesus judged it proper likewise publicly to represent the crime of the nation, in rejecting all the messengers of God, from first to last; and among the rest his only-begotten Son: at the same time he warned them plainly of their danger, byreason of the punishment which they incurred onaccountofsuch a continued course of rebellion. The outward oeconomy of religion in which they gloried, was to be taken from them; their relation to God, as his people, cancelled; and their national constitution destroyed: but, because these were topics extremelydisagreeable, he couched them under the veil of a parable, which he formed upon one made use of long before by the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 5:1, &c. where see the notes. This vineyard, with its appurtenances, represents the Mosaical dispensation, a dispensation attended with great present advantages, and many promises of future blessings: the other circumstances of the parable are extremely clear. St. Matthew uses the word ληνον for a wine-press, and St. Mark, υποληνον ; the former signifies the wine-press, the other the cavity under it, wherein the vessel was fixed which received the liquor pressed from the grapes. The one of these naturally implies the other; but our Lord chose to mention both.