“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.”
My Notes
What Does Isaiah 5:2 Mean?
Isaiah sings the parable of the vineyard: God fenced it. Cleared the stones. Planted the choicest vine. Built a watchtower. Made a winepress. Every possible investment was made. And then He looked for grapes — and it produced wild grapes. The choicest vine, with the best care, produced the worst fruit.
The five investments — fencing (protecting), stone-clearing (preparing), planting with choice vine (providing the best start), building a tower (supervising), and making a winepress (anticipating harvest) — represent God's complete investment in Israel. Nothing was withheld. Nothing was neglected. The vineyard had every advantage.
"Wild grapes" (be'ushim — stinking, worthless berries) are the opposite of what was planted. The choicest vine didn't just underperform. It produced something rotten. The output was the antithesis of the input. God put in the best and got back the worst.
Reflection Questions
- 1.If God inspected the 'vineyard' of your life today — what fruit would He find?
- 2.Does the comprehensiveness of God's investment (every possible advantage) make the rotten fruit more condemning?
- 3.Where has God's investment in you produced 'wild grapes' — the opposite of what was planted?
- 4.Does 'He looked' (God's expectation, God's inspection) motivate you to produce better fruit?
Devotional
God did everything right. Fenced it. Cleared it. Planted the best vine. Built a tower. Made a winepress. And it grew rotten fruit.
Isaiah's vineyard parable is God's indictment of Israel — told as a love song that turns into a lawsuit. Every investment was made: protection (the fence), preparation (the stone-clearing), quality starting material (the choicest vine), oversight (the tower), and anticipation of harvest (the winepress). God left nothing undone. The vineyard had every advantage a vineyard could have.
"He looked that it should bring forth grapes" — the expectation was reasonable. Given the investment, the care, the quality of the vine — good grapes were the natural outcome. God didn't expect miracles. He expected fruit proportional to the investment. And what grew instead: wild grapes. Stinking berries. Rotten, worthless, inedible fruit from a vine that received the best of everything.
The parable is personal: God is the vinedresser. Israel is the vineyard. Every act of God in Israel's history — the Exodus, the Law, the land, the temple, the prophets — is an investment in the vineyard. And the expected return? Justice and righteousness (verse 7). What grew instead? Bloodshed and oppression.
The heartbreak is in the looking: "He looked." God expected good fruit. He anticipated the harvest. He built the winepress in advance because He was certain the grapes would come. And when He looked — when He came to inspect what His investment had produced — the fruit was rotten.
God has invested in you. Fenced you. Cleared your stones. Planted the choicest vine. Built the tower. Prepared the winepress. And He's looking for grapes.
What's He finding?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And he fenced it,.... With good and wholesome laws, which distinguished them, and kept them separate from other nations;…
And he fenced it - Margin, ‘Made a wall about it.’ The word used here is supposed rather to mean “to dig about, to…
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Cross References
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