--- title: "Isaiah 5 - Study King James Bible with ellicotts commentary for english readers" description: "Read Isaiah 5 with ellicotts commentary for english readers commentary. 1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2 And he fenced it" image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg" url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/ellicotts-commentary-for-english-readers/isaiah/5" --- [ Read](/kjv/isaiah/5)[ Commentary](/study/isaiah/5)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/isaiah/5) Audio 1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:* 2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.** 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; *and* break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:* 6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts *is* the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.** 8 ¶ Woe unto them that join house to house, *that* lay field to field, till *there be* no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!* 9 In mine ears *said* the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, *even* great and fair, without inhabitant.** 10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah. 11 ¶ Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, *that* they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, *till* wine inflame them!* 12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands. 13 ¶ Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because *they have* no knowledge: and their honourable men *are* famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.* 14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. 15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: 16 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.* 17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. 18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: 19 That say, Let him make speed, *and* hasten his work, that we may see *it:* and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know *it*! 20 ¶ Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!* 21 Woe unto *them that are* wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!* 22 Woe unto *them that are* mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: 23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! 24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, *so* their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.* 25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases *were* torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand *is* stretched out still.* 26 ¶ And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: 27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: 28 Whose arrows *are* sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: 29 Their roaring *shall be* like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry *it* away safe, and none shall deliver *it*. 30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if *one* look unto the land, behold darkness *and* sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.** [Isaiah 4](/study/isaiah/4) [Isaiah 6](/study/isaiah/6) ## Commentary To verse 1 **V.** (1) **Now will I sing to my wellbeloved.**—Literally, *Now let me sing.*The chapter bears every mark of being a distinct composition, perhaps the most elaborately finished in the whole of Isaiah. The parable with which it opens has for us the interest of having obviously supplied a starting-point for a later prophet ([Jeremiah 2:21](/kjv/jeremiah/2/21)), and for our Lord’s teaching in the like parable of [Matthew 21:33-41](/kjv/matthew/21/33-41). Here, however, there is the distinctive touch of the irony of the opening verse. The prophet presents himself, as it were, in the character of a minstrel, ready to sing to his hearers one of the love-songs in which their culture delighted ([Amos 6:5](/kjv/amos/6/5).) In its language and rhythm it reminds us of the Song of Solomon. The very word “beloved” recalls [Song of Solomon 5:1-2](/kjv/song-of-solomon/5/1-2); the description of the vineyards, that of [Song of Solomon 8:11-13](/kjv/song-of-solomon/8/11-13). The probability that the parallelism was intentional is increased by the coincidence of [Isaiah 7:23](/kjv/isaiah/7/23), and [Song of Solomon 8:11](/kjv/song-of-solomon/8/11), which will meet us further on. On this assumption Isaiah’s words have a special interest as showing how early that poem lent itself to a mystical interpretation. One might almost conjecture that the prophet allured the people to listen by music as well as words, and appeared, as Elisha and other prophets had done, with harp or pipe in hand ([2 Kings 3:15](/kjv/2-kings/3/15); [1 Samuel 10:5](/kjv/1-samuel/10/5); [1 Samuel 16:23](/kjv/1-samuel/16/23); [Isaiah 30:29](/kjv/isaiah/30/29)). The frequency of such hymns (Isaiah 12, 25, [Isaiah 26:1-4](/kjv/isaiah/26/1-4)) shows, at any rate, that the prophet had received the training of a psalmist. (See *Introduction.*) **A song of my beloved.**—A slightly different reading adopted by some critics gives *A song of love.*The “beloved” is purposely not named, but appears afterwards as none other than Jehovah. The word, closely connected with the ideal name Jedediah (the beloved of Jehovah; [2 Samuel 12:25](/kjv/2-samuel/12/25)), occurs in twenty-six passages of Song of Sol., and not elsewhere. **A very fruitful hill.**—Literally, *a horn, the son of oil.*The combination “horn of oil” in [1 Samuel 16:1](/kjv/1-samuel/16/1); [1 Samuel 16:13](/kjv/1-samuel/16/13), and [1 Kings 1:39](/kjv/1-kings/1/39), suggests the thought that the phrase is equivalent to “the horn of the anointed” (Kay). The term “horn” was a natural synonym for a hill. So we have Matterhorn, Aarhorn, &c., in the Alps. Oil was naturally symbolic of fertility. In [Psalms 80:8-16](/kjv/psalms/80/8-16), we have a striking parallel. The “fruitful hill” was Canaan as a whole, with a special reference to Judah and Jerusalem. The “choicest vine”—literally, *vine of Sorek*([Genesis 49:11](/kjv/genesis/49/11); [Jeremiah 2:21](/kjv/jeremiah/2/21)), bearing a small dark purple grape—pointed back to the fathers of the nation, who, idealised in the retrospect, were as the heroes of faith compared with the then present generation. The picture which forms the parable might almost take its place among the *Georgics*of Palestine. The vineyard on the hillside could not be ploughed, and therefore the stones had to be taken out by hand. It was fenced against the beasts of the field. There was a tower for a watchman to guard it against the attacks of robbers. (Comp. Virg. *Georg.*ii. 399-419.) 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