Vee, Neri **
** people, my beloved J/rae/, I gave to them an ‘* inheritance in an high mountain, in a fat land.”
¥. 2. And be fenced it, &c.| With good and wholefome laws, which diftinguifhed them, and kept them feparate from other nations; alfo with his almighty power and. providence, efpecially at the three yearly feftivals, when all their males appeared before God at Ferufalem: and gathered out the Stones thereof, the heathens, the feven nations that inhabited the land of Canaan; compared to ftones for their hardnefs and ftupidity, and for their worfhipping of idols of ftone; fee Pf: Ixxx. 8. and planted it with the choiceft vines the feed of Abraham, Fofoua, and Caleb, who fully followed the Lord, and the people of J/rael with them, who firft entered into the land of Canaan, and inhabited it; fuch having fallen in the wildernefs, who murmured and rebelled againft God, Yer. ii. 21. and built a tower in the midft of it; in which watchmen ftood to keep the vineyard, that nothing entered into it that might hurt it; this may be underftood of the city of Ferufalem, or the fortrefs of Zion, or the temple; fo Aben Ezra, the houfe of God on mount Moriah; and the Targum, “‘ and I built my fanctuary in the “< midft of them:” and alfo made a wine-prefs therein; to tread the grapes in.; this the Targum explains by the altar, paraphrafing the words, ‘* and alfo my ‘ altar I gave to make an atonement for their fins;” fo Aben Ezra; tho’ Kimchi interprets it of the prophets,who taught the people the law, that theirworks might be good, and ftirred them up, and exhorted them to the performance of them. Aud he looked that it foould bring forth grapes, this looking and expeéting, here afcribed to God, is not to be taken properly, but figuratively, after the manner of men; for from fuch a well formed government, from fuch an excellent conftitution, from a people enjoying fuch advantages, it might have been reafonably expeéted, according to an human and rational judgment of things, that the fruits of righteoufnefs and holinefs, at leaft of common juftice and equity, would have been brought forth by them; which are meant by grapes, the fruit of the vine, fee ¥. 7. and it brought forth wild grapes, bad grapes; corrupt, rotten, ftinking ones, as the word * ufed fig-
-nifies; thefe, by a tranfpofition of letters, are in the Mifna* called >9waN, which word fignifies a kind of bad grapes, and a fimall fort: evil works are meant by them, fee y. 7. the Targum is, “ I “* commanded them to do good works before me, ‘© and they have done evil works.”
y. 3. And now, O inhabitants of Ferufalem, and men of Fudah, &c.| All and every one of them, who were parties concerned in this matter, and are: defigned by the vineyard, for whom fo much had been done, and fo little fruit brought forth by them, or rather fo much bad fruit: judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard; between God and themfelves; they are made judges in their own caufe; the cafe was fo clear and evident, that God is as it were willing the affair fhould be decided by their own judgment and verdict: fo the Targum, << judge now judgment between me and my peo- “ce he? ’
y¥. 4. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that Ihave not done init? &c.| Or ought, as the Vulgate Latin: this is generally underftood of good things done to it in time paft; as what better culture could it have had? what greater privileges, bleffings, ‘Oren. Vid, Maimon, & Bartenora in ib, bleffings, and advantages, natural, civil, and religious, could have been beftowed on this people? what greater favour could have been fhown them, or honour done them? or what of this kind remains to be done for them? they have had every thing that could be defired, expected, or enjoyed: tho’ it may be rendered, what is further or hereafter to be done to my vineyard *, and I have not done in it? that is, by way of punifhment; 1 have reproved. and chaftized them, but all in vain; what remains further for me, and which I will do, becanfe of their ingratitude and unfruitfulnefs; Pll utterly deftroy them as a nation and church; F’ll caufe their civil and ecclefiaftical ftate to’ceafe. The fenfe may be gathered from the anfwer to the queftion in the following verfe, wherefore when I looked that it foould bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? that is, why have thefe people acted fo ill a part, when fuch and fo many good things have been beftowed upon them; on account of which it might have been reafonably expected, they would have behaved in another manner? or rather-the words may be rendered, why have I looked or expected that it fhould bring forth grapes, feeing it brought forth wild grapes? why have I been looking for good fruit, when nothing but»bad fruit for fo long a time has been produced?, why have I endured with fo much patience and long fuffering? [ll bear with them no longer, as follows. The Zargum is for the former fenie, ‘* what good have'l faid to do more to my *< people, which I have not done to them? and “¢ what is this I have faid, that they fhould do good “*. works, and they have done evil works?”. ¥. 5. And now go to, Iwill tell you what I will do to my vineyard, &c.| Not by beftowing frefh fayours upon them, but by inflicting punifhment on them, for abufing what they had received; and this he told by Fohn Baptift, Chrift, and his apoftles, what he determined to do; and what he was about to do to the Fews/h nation, in the utter ruin of it, Matt. i. 12. Luke xix. 43, 44. Iwill take away the hedge thereof, and it foall be eaten up; that is, the vineyard fhall be eaten by the wild beafts that will enter into it, when the hedge is taken away; or it fhall be burnt; that is, the hedge being 2 hedge of thorns, as Farchi and Kimchi obferve;
fuch there were about vineyards, befides the ftone- wall after mentioned: and break down the wail thereof, and it hall be.trodden down, the vineyard, or the vines in it, fee P/ Ixxx. 12, 13. this is to be underftood of the Lord’s removing his prefence, ’ power, and protection from the Yewis/h nation, and leaving them naked, deftitute, and helplefs, and expofed to their enemies. The Targum is, * and *¢ now I will declare to you, what I will do to my
“ people; I will caufe my /bekinah or majefty to remove from them, and they fhall be for a fpoil;
and J will break down the houfe of their fanctuary, and they fhall be for treading.” ¥. 6. And I will lay it wafte, &c.] Or defolate, as-it was by the Romans; the whole land of ‘fudea, as well as the city and temple, Matt. xxiii. 98: it Jfoall not be pruned nor digged; as vineyards are, to make them more fruitful; but no care fhall be taken’ of it, no means made ufé of to cultivate it, all being ineffectual: dat there foall come up briers and thorns, fons of Belial, wicked and ungodly men;
¥c. which abounded about the time of Ferufalem’s deftruction, and before: I will -alfo command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon them; by clouds are meant the apoftles of Chrift, who full of the doétrines of grace, from whom they dropped as rain upon the mown erafs; thefe, whea the Fews contradicted: and blafphemed ithe ofpel. and judged themfelves unworthy of it, were com: manded by Chrift to turn from them, and go te the Gentiles, ffs xiii 45, 46, 47. fee Zeeb. a] 17, 18. Rev. xi. 6. agreeable to this fenfe is - Targum, ** and I will command the prophets, ‘that ‘s they do not prophefy upon them prophecy.” * ¥.7. For the vineyard of the Lord of Hofts, is the houfe of Irael, &c.| ‘This is the explication of the parable, or the accommodation and application of it to the people of J/rael, by whom are meant the ten tribes; they are fignified by the vin, Which belonged to the Lord of Hofts, who ‘had chofen them to be a peculiar people to him, and ‘had fep rated them from all others: and the men of Fudab, bis pleafant plant, they were fo when firft plant by the Lord; they were plants of delight, in whom he took great delight and pleafure; Dewtyx! 15. thefe defign the two tribes of Fudab and Benjamin; in diftinction from J/rael: and be looked for judg ment; that the poor, and the fatherlefs; and ¢ widow, would have their caufes judged=in a righ= teous manner, and that juftice and judgment would be éxetuted in the land in all refpects; for which fuch provifion was made by the good ighteous laws that were given them: ut behold oppreffion; or a fcab, fach as was in the plague of leprofy; corruption, perverting of juftice, and oppreffing of the’ poor; Farchi interprets it a gathering of fin to fin, a heaping up iniquities: for righteoufne/s, but bebold a cry; of the poor and opprefled, for want of juftice done, and by reafon of their oppreffions. Here ends the fong; what has been parabolically faid, is - literally exprefied in the following part of the chapter. dort De tye ¥. 8. Wo unto them that join boufe ta boufe, 8ct.J
Or O-ye that join, &c. for as Aben Ezra: obferyes, it fignifies calling, as in Jf lv. 2. tho’ Farchi takes it to be expreflive of crying and groaning, on dccount of future punifhments; and he obferves, that’ as there are twenty-two bleffings pronounced in the book of P/alms, on thofe that keep the law, fo there are twenty-two woes, pronounced by J/aiah upon the wicked: that day field to field; the fin of covetouf-— nefs is expofed and condemned in thefe words; not - that it is unlawful in itfelf for a man that has an houfe or field of- his own, to purchafe another that is next unto it; but when he is infatiable, and: content with his houfes and lands, but’is a coveting more, this is his fin, and ‘efpeciall feeks to get them by fraud or force: #i// there "be no place for others to dwell in and poft the Targum, “ and fay, until we poflefs ever or unto the end of the place *, city, or field have got all the houfes in the town o1 all the pieces of ground in the field, ‘in’ th pofiefiion: that they may be placed alone in of the earth, or land; that is, of Fudea: inhabit it themfelves, and have the fole
Ch.v..%.9—-13.) LSA « ¥. 9s Jn mine ears, faid the Lord of Hojts,: &c.] «This maybe underitood either of the ears. of the Lord of Fioits, into which came the cry of the fins.of. covetoufnefs and ambition before mentioned; thefe were taken notice of by the Lord; and he was determined to punifh them; or of the ears of sthe prophet, in whofe hearing the Lord faid what follows; fo the Targum, ‘* the prophet faid, with.*© mine ears I have heard; when this was decreed “* from before the Lord of Hofts:” of a truth, many boufes foall be defolate; or great ones*; fach as the houfes of the»king, of the princes, and nobles, judges, counfellors, and great men of the.
-earth; not only the houfe of God, the temple,’ but ‘a. multitude of houfes in Feru/alem and elfewhere, which was true not only at the taking of Ferufalem by the Chaldeans, but at the deftruction of it by the Romans, to which this prophecy belongs, Mart. Xxiil.. 38. the words are a {trong affeveration; and an.the form of an oath, as archi and Kimchi obferve; re DK, if not; if many houfes are not deft defolate, Jet it be fo or fo, I fwéar they fhall: even great and fair, without inbabitants, houfes of large and beautiful building fhall be laid in fuch a ruinous condition, that they won’t be fit for any to dwell in, nor fhall any dwell in them: and this is the judgment upon them for joining houfe to houfe; that for laying field to field follows.
y. 10. Yea, ten acres of vineyard fhall yield one bath, &c.|. They thall get nothing by laying field to field, for their fields fhall be barren and unfruitful; tho’ Farchi and Kimchi take this to be a reafon why their houfes fhould be defolate, and without inhabitants, becaufe there would be a fa-
- mine, rendering the words, for ¢en acres, &c.. The Targum makes this barrennefs to be the punifhment of their fin, in not paying tithes; paraphrafing the words thus, ‘* for becaufe of the fin of not giving ** tithes, the place of ten acres of vineyard fhall *¢ produce one bath.” The word *m¥, fignifies yokes, and is ufed of yokes of oxen; hence the Septuagint and. Arabic verfions render the words thus, for where ten yoke of oxen work or plow, it foall make one flaggon, and fo Kimchi explains them, the place in a vineyard which ten yoke of oxen low in one day, fhall yield no more wine than one ath. A bath is a meafure for liquids; according to Godwin+, it held four gallons and a half; a {mall quantity indeed, to be produced out of ten acres of ground; an acre, according to our Engli/h meafure, being a quantity of land containing four
_ {quare roods, or 160 fquare poles or perches: and the feed of an homer fhall yield an ephab that is, as much feed as an homer would hold, which was a dry meafure, and which, according to the above writer, contained five bufhels and five gallons, fhould yield only an ephah, which was the tenth part of an homer, Ezek. xlv. 11. fo that it would only produce a tenth part of the feed fown.
¥. 11. Wo unto them that rife up early in the morning, &c.] To rife up early in the morning is healthful, and to rife to do bufinefs is commendable; but to fpend the day in drunkennefs and intemperance is
- very criminal, which is here meant: that ¢hey may follow ftrong drink; not only drink it, but follow on to drink; diligently feek after it, where the beft
_ is to be had; go from houfe to houfe till they. have found it; clofely follow the drinking of it, till inebriated with it: tbat continue until night, at their a pots, with their drinking companions, even all the day till night comes, the twilight either of the evening or of the morning: till wixe inflame ray their bodies with heat, and their fouls with uft. |.
¥.12. And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, &c.| Inftruments of mufic; fome {truck with a bow or quill, or touched with the-fingers; and others blown with the mouth: and wine are in their feats; fo that they lived jovially and merrily, like fons of Bacchus, more than like the people of God): but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither confider the operation of bis bands; meaning not the law, as the Targum and Kimchi, which was the work of the Lord, and the writing: of his hands; rather, as 4ben Ezra, the punifhment inflicted on the ten tribes being carried into captivity; or elfe the works of creationand providence, and the daily mercies of life; or beft of all, the great work of redemption by Chrift; and the converfion of finners, both among Fews and Gentiles, by the preaching of his gofpel; for this refers to the ews in the times of Chrift and his’ apoftles, which immediately préceded their utter deftruction; and thofe fins here mentioned, were the caufe of it. See Pf. xxviii: 5.
y¥. 13. Therefore my people are gone into captivity, &e.]’ Or rather, as Kimchi explains it, /hall go inte captivity, the paft for the future; for this cannot be underftood even of the captivity of the ten tribes, for they were not carried. captive until the fixth year of Hexekiah’s reign, 2 Kings xvii. 6. and
Xvili. 1. whereas this prophecy was delivered out.
many years before, even in the time of Uzziah, as is manifeft from the following chapter, y. 1. and much lefs it cannot defign the captivity of Fudah, but refpects the captivity by the Romans, in future time. Becauje they have no knowledge; of the work of the Lord, and the operations of his hands, the
Septuagint and Arabic verfions render it, becaufe they knew not the Lord, the Lord Jefus Chrift, the Lord of glory, the true Meffiah; they knew not his perfon, office, grace, and gofpel 5. they did not own and acknowledge him, but defpifed and rejected him; their ignorance was affected and voluntary; they had the means of knowledge, but did not make ufe of them; they would not know him, they would not attend to the ftrong and clear evidence of his being the Meffiah, which prophecies; miracles, and his doétrines gave of him; the things belonging to their peace they knew not, thefe were righteoufly hid from them, and hence deftruction came upon them, Lwke xix. 42, 43, 44. the words may be rendered in connexion with the former, therefore my people foal go into captivity without knowledge», unawares, unthought of, and unexpected; and the Yews, to the laft, did not think their city would be taken, but that in fome way or other falvation and deliverance would be wrought for them: and their honourable men are famifbed, and their multitude dried up with thirft; or Jhall be; this is ex~ preflive of a famine of bread and water, which all, both high and low, prince and people, fhould be affected with; fee ch. iii. r. and was true not only when Yerufalem was befieged by the Chaldeans, Fer.
lii. 6. Lam. iv. 4, 5, 8, 9, 10. and v. ro. but when it was. befieged by the Romans, in which the rich fuffered'as well as the poor; and was fo great, that even wornen eat their own’ children, as Sefephns® y. 14, Therefore bell hath enlarged her elf, &c.] That is, the grave, to receive the dead which die with famine and thirft, fignifying that the number of the dead would be fo great, that the common burying places would not be fufficient to hold them; but additions muft be made to them; or fome vaft prodigious pit muft be dug, capable of receiving them;, like Topher, deep and large: or bath enlarged her foul*; her defire after the dead, fee Hab. ii. 5. being infatiable, and one of thofe things which are never fatisfied, or have enough, Prov. xxx. 15, 16. wherefore it follows: and opened her mouth without meafure; immenfely wide; there being no boundary to its defires, nor any end of its cravings, or of filling it..And fo the Targum renders it, without end. Moreover, by: ell may be meant the miferable eftate and condition of the Fews, upon the deftruction of Ferufalem, when they were in the utmoft diftrefs and mifery, fee Luke xvi. 23. and the note there. And their glory; their glorious ones, their nobles, as the Septuagint, Syriat, and Arabic verfions; and the Zargum, their princes, rulers, civil and ecclefiaftical; which were the glory of the nation: and their multitude; meaning the common people; or rather, their great and honourable ones, as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic verfions render the word; and in which fenfe it may be ufed in the preceding verfe: fince not of the poor, but of the rich, the context fpeaks; even of fuch who indulged themfelves in luxury and pleafure: and their pomp, the Septuagint verfion, their rich ones; fuch who live in pomp and fplendor: but the word « fignifies, noife and tumult; and fo the Targum renders it; and it defigns noify and tumultuous ones, who fing and roar, halloo and make a noife at feafts; and who may be ‘called Nw %39 fons of tumult, or tumultuous ones, Fer. xviii. 45. fee If. xxiv. 6—g. wherefore it follows: and he that rejoiceth, that is, at their feafts, /hall defcend into it; into hell, or the grave: or, he that rejoiceth in it, that is, in the land or city; fo the Targum, * he “‘ that is ftrong among them;” fo archi and Kimchi interpret it.
¥. 15. And the mean man fhall be brought down, &c.] To hell, or the grave, as well as the rich and noble: and the mighty man fhall be humbled; laid low in the duft, and be equal to the poor; for in the grave, princes and peafants are alike; or they fhall be all alike in the fame low and miferable condition: and the eyes of the lofty fbail be humbled; when ‘famine and diftrefs, ruin and mifery come upon them, then fhall the pride of thofe be abafed, as it was; who boafted of their riches and honour, of their defcent and parentage, as the children of Abrabem, and as being free men, and never in bondage; of their righteoufnefs and good works; not fubmitting to the righteoufnefs of Chrift,. but defpifing it, and looking with difdain upon, and treating with contempt, fuch as they thought lefs holy thar themfelves. The Scribes and Pharifees, the members of the Sanhedrin, and rulers of the people, together with the whole body of the nation, are meant; who were all of the fame caft and complexion, being conceited of themfelves, and proud boaters.
¥.16. But the Lord of Hofts fhall be exalted in judgment, &c.] By the Lord of Hots is meant Chrift, the Lord of the armies, and of the inha-