Isaiah 5

Quite independently of what goes before or after, this chapter opens with a parable, and is thought to have some points of contrast with the preceding prophecy, especially in intensified touches upon vices therein noticed. This would seem to suggest the probable similarity of date, and some similarity of historical facts, in both.

The parable in Isaiah 5:1-7 is marked by great aptness and propriety. And it is instructive to trace present oriental lines in vineyard cultivation. Van Lennep, in his Bible Lands, says: “The process of planting a vineyard and guarding it with a wall or hedge, may be described as follows: The ground having been selected and traced, a ditch is dug along the outside, three or four feet in width and two in depth, the earth being piled upon its inner edge. Into this pile stout poles are set about four feet in height, and branches are twisted and woven in among them, making a thick and solid fence. A vineyard is cultivated for successive centuries, but the vines must be occasionally changed, and at such a time the ground lies fallow for several years. The Hebrews left their vineyards untilled every seventh year, as well as every fiftieth, or jubilee, year. Leviticus 25:4-5; Leviticus 25:11. In process of time, many wild plants, briers, and some few shrubs and trees, spring up and grow within the shadow of the hedge, and, fed by moisture collected in the ditch, make the enclosure more solid and capable of resisting incursions from man or beast. Still the husbandman is obliged, from time to time, to examine all parts of the hedge and close up any gap or breach made by foxes, jackals, hares, badgers, and still more diminutive hedgehogs. It is only when the vineyard proves unproductive, or the grapes become in quality hopelessly bad, that the proprietor neglects the hedge, and allows it to fall to pieces, so that even the wild boar may come and join in its destruction.”