nnsntiBfA.rtory from too fact that the eong vinoy1trd." Coropl\re: Ne.thl\n'e appeal to whic!l follows is not a "love-song." M:l.y David by the parable of the owe ll\mb we not. understand the words to mecin (2 Sl\m. xii. 1-4). "a song conc-<'rning my Well-beloved in Ver. 4.-What oould have been don• re,ipert of his vineyard"? Touohing his more 1 Comp. 2 Kings xvii. 13 and ~ vineyard. Isrool is eompa.red to a "vino " Chron. xxxvi. 15, whero God is shown to havl) in the Ps«lms (Ps. lxxx. S-16), and the done all that Wl\S possible to reclaim his Church of God to a "garden" in Cantides people: "Yet the Lord testified agl\inst Ism.cl, (i"f. 12; v. 1); perhaps also to a "viue- and against Judl\h, by all the prophets, and ynr,l" in the same book (viii. 12). ls.'iiah all_ tho seers, saying, '.furti ye from your may haYe had this last passage in his mine!. e\'ll ways, and lrcep my comm1mdmont.s and lty Belovod he.th a vineyard; rather, had a my statutes, l\ccording to the Law which fliflPyard (au,r,~clw ~,.. vf,871 ..-c;; '1,-ya.,,-.,,ulv'I', I commanded your fathers, and which I LXX.). In a very fruitful hill. So the sent to yon by my eervant.s the prophets;•• passage is generally unrlerstood, since Juren, " And the Lord God of their fathers sent horn, is used for a height by the Arabs unto them by hie messengers, rising up (as also b.r the Germans, e.g. Matterhorn, early, and sending; because he .ho.d· com- Wetterhorn, Aarhorn, eto.), and "sou of passion on hie people, and on his dwelling- oil " is a not unlikely Orientalism for placo: but they mocked the messengers-of "rich" or "fruitful." With the "hill'' God, and despised his w.ords, and misused of this passe.g11 compare the " mountain" his prophets, until the wrath of,"the Lord of eh. ii. 2, both passages indicating that arose against his people; u,1_1til tllere was. no'. the Church of God is set on an eminence, remedy." . ·, ' . • '· • and "cannot be hid" (Matt. v. 14). Ver. 5.-And uow go to;· I will tell you; Ver. 2.-Re fenced it. So the LXX.;the rather, and now, I pray you, let me tell you,, Vulga.ta Aben Ezra., Jarchi, Roseumiiller, The address is still smooth and persuasive Lowth, Kay. Gesenius, Knobel, and Mr. up to the word "vineyard.", Then there ie Cheyne prefer to translate, "he dug it a sudden change; the style beromes abrupt, over;" wi1ile the Revisers of 1885 have the tone fierce and menacing. " Let me suggested, "he m'lde a trench a.bout it."' tell you what I will do to my •lineyard: The word occurs only in this place, and has break down its hedge, that. it be grazed on; no cognates in Hebrew. And ga.therei out destroy ite wall, that it be. tramplecl under- the stones ( comp. eh. lxii. 10). In the foot," etc. The hedge ... :the wall. Vine• stony soil of Palestine, to collect the surface yards wete usually proteqted either by a, stones into heaps, or build them into wall.s, hedge of thorns, commonly or the prickly is of primary necessity for the improvement pear, or else by a wall; but the rabbis r.o.y of the land. Conversely the stones were put that in some cases, for additional security; bnck, au,! scatterec!. ornr the land, by those they were surrounded by· both. God had who wished to " mar" it (2 Kings iii. 19, given his vineyard all the protection 25). Planted it with the choicest vine ( comp. possible. : •. . • Gen. :xlix. 11; Jer. ii. 21). The $Orek Ver. 6.-I will lay it waste; literally, I seems to have been a particular kind will make it a desolation (comp. eh. vii. 19, of "fine, reckoned superior to others. The where a cognate term occurs). Active etymology of the word indicates that it ravage is not so much pointed at, as the w..s of a deep , red oolonr. Built a tower desolation which comes from n~gleot. (comp. Matt. :c:i. 33). Towers had 10 be There shall come· np·· 'l>riets and thoma. built in ge.rdeas, orchards, e.nd Tineyards, The 1U1,tnral produce of neglected ground that watch might be kept from them against in Palestine (see Prov. xxiv: 31). Th,i thieves e.nd me.randef!', (see 1 Kings xvii 9; " thorns and briers " symbolize vices· ·of xviii. 8; 2 CJ1ron. xxvi. 10; x.xvii. 4, etc.). various kinds, the natnrnl produce or the. ]l[ade e. wine-pres,; literally, dug a wine- human soul, if God leaves it to itself. 'The press. The exca"ation was made to contain words are scarcdy to he to.ken literally, a vat, above which was !he "pres8," worked though it is probably true that " no by men, who wrnng the liquor out of a conntry in the world has such variety and great bag containing the grapes, (See the abundance of thorny plants e.s Pulestine Egyptian .rock-paintings, paBBim, where in its present desolation" (Macmillan;• l\Iin. the operation is represent('!d repeatedly.) It of Nat.,' p. 103). I will also oollllllli,nd the brought forth wild grapes. The natural. clouds. Here at Inst disguise i.s thrown off, not the cultivated fruit, a worthless product. and the sp13akcr manif()stly appCJ1.rB ~a Ver. 3.-The prop11ct's "song" here ends, Jehovah, who, can alone II command tho and Jehovah himself takes the word. As clouds." 'l'be "rain" intended.ill probably -if the story told in the parable had been ihat of his gr1tCious in'lluonoes. e. fact, ho calls on the men of Judah and Ver. 7.-For the vineyard, etc. The full Jerusalein to •• judge between hilXI ~nd h.il explanation of tho p!lrablo follows ilqm~• THE BOOK Oli' TH"E PROPHET ISAIAH. 79
c11otely on ·:·the disclosure in 'ter. 6. The ph11tic in the words, "on mine ean~ (~ee vineyard is "·Israel/' or rnther "Ju<lnh; 1' eh. uii. 14; Ezek. ix. I, 5: x. 13). Manv the fruit expected ftom it, '' jadgment hC111ses shall be desolate. The ~eed or and riuhtcousnees," 0 the wilrl grapes whfoh adding house to hottse will be puni.•hed by alone H h1Ld .produced, ''oppression" and tho death of those who have a,, sinnecl, the "cry" or the dietressecl. His plea.si!.nt ancl the extinction of their families, either plant; literally, the plant of hiuleliglils ; i.e. through wnr, or through a more clirect the plo.ntntion in which he had , eb long divine judgment. taken delight. Ke looked for judgment, Ver: 1-0~Yea, ten acres of viney~.rd shaH etc. Gosenius 1111s attempted to give the yield one bath. The greed of ad,ling fit'ld verbal nntithe11is of the· Hebrew, ~bich is to field ivill be panished by the curse of quite lost in our version- barrenness, which God will send up0n tho " Er harrete o.tif Recht, und eiehe da land. D~.' Kay calculates that ten acn·s (Roman) of vineyard ought to yiel<I npo,1 Unrecht, . . . . . . •• the average five hundred baths ( or fonr Auf Gerec.htigkeit, und eiehe daScblech- thousand gallons) instead of one h"th tigkeit." (eight irallnns). An homer ... an epbah. Vere. 8-2:1.-THE Sn: Wciis. After thEi The " ephah " was the tenth-part of a general warning conveyed to Israel by the "homer" (Ezek. xiv; 11). Com lauds parable of the vineyard, six sins are par- should return only one tenth part of the 0