The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 101

loves the open sunny hills (Virgil,' Georg.,' ii.113). The description ie of fruitful Canean, flowing with milk, honey, and wine. We may think of the beautiful elopes of the Rhine. 2. TM care ea:pended on tM 'Vineyard. It had been fenced, the atones had been cleared from it, and it had been planted with the choicest vines. Some take the word rendered "fenced" in the sense of digged about, thoroughly digged. The watch• tower had also been set up in the midst of the field, a post of observation and of guard against the jnckals and the foxes in the ripening time. • 3, The thankless soil. The vine-dresser's hope iB deceived; for, instead of the true grapes wild ones only appear, or, as the LXX. reD<ler akanthas, thorns. Gcsenius and others think the plant meant is the monk's-hood or nightshade, which produces berries like the grapes in appearance, but P"isonous. If we comparn the story io 2 Kings iv. 39-41, also Deut. xxxii. ;32, 33 (" vine of Sodom, grapes of ga11, bitter clusters"), this will seem probable. 'l'he Arabs call them wolf-grapes. The idea is caught by one of our poets when he sings of " Dead Sea fruits that tempt the taste, .And turn to ashes on the lips." III. .APPLICATION. 1. JehovahJs appeal. It is an appeal to memory and to con- science. What more could God have done ? Israel had been selected for special servi~ and fruitfulness-had been fixed in a fertile land, her life and worship centred in the holy city. What was that city now? .A scene •Of order, morality, good government? Alas! a "den of thieves," a scene of misery and ·anarchy. Instead of·the genuine grapos of a national life strong and pure, the poisonous berries o.f luxury and vice. Such must be the result where man grafts bis own pride or folly upon the stock of conscience. 2. Jehovah's de'llunciation. '.rhe thick thorn fence shalL be removed, .and the vineyard shall become a prey to every trampling beast and invader.. The hand of the pruner and the digger shall be stayed, the clouds shall suspend their gift of rain. Every protection and every blessing shall be withdrawn, and the thankless nation shall earn its appropriate wages. Having deserted God, God will now desert her. So must it ever be with the nation and the inuividual. Unless there. is. a constant disposition to redress discovered wrong, to reform manifest evil, the ·doom must be felt. "Thy vineyard shall be wasted, thy candlestick taken from its place" (Rev. ii. 5). 3. The rea,.,on of the/udgment. In poignant language, by the use of.paronumasia, or play,on words, the prophet announces the ground of the Divin1:1 decision. He waited for Mish- path, i.e. Right, and behold Mispath, i.e. Might ; for Zedakah, i.e. Ea:actness, and lo Zea'f.ach, i.e. Exaction! A bitter intensity suggests this form of speech. • . . IV. PERSONAL APPLICATION. In our sinful miseries God is calling. us to account. Our life-failure, whose fault is it? Does not Nature pour her beauty around us, instruct us from childhood, fill our sense and fancy with wonder and joy ? Docs not the world of men afford us a daily school of experience? Is not every sufforing a pruning-knife, every change of life like a cleaning of the ground from weeus and stones? If our live; turn out eel.fish and vicious, where does the responsibility lie? Where, except in the secret fa.ult that may poison all God's good? "Lord, with wbat care hast thou begirt us round! .• Parents first beason us. Then schoolmasters Deliver us to laws. They send us bound To rules of re.a.son. Holy messengers ; Pulpits and Sundays; sorrow dogging sin: A fflk-tions sorted ; anguish of all sizes ; Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in I Bibles laid open; millions of surprises; Blessings beforeh:.ind; ties of gratefulness: . The sounds of glory ringing in our ears ; Without, our shame; within, our consciences; Angels aud grace ; eternal hopes and fears I Yet all these fences, and their whole il.rray, One cunning bosom-sin blows quite away.•~ J. Vera. 8-10.-Woe to the eovetous. To understand this passage we should bear in mind the truths eonnected with real property as a con.dition of national well-being. •  !)H, V,.l-3Q,] 'rHE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAI.A:H, 87