Isaiah 5:2
New International Version
He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

New Living Translation
He plowed the land, cleared its stones, and planted it with the best vines. In the middle he built a watchtower and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks. Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but the grapes that grew were bitter.

English Standard Version
He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

Berean Standard Bible
He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes.

New American Standard Bible
He dug it all around, cleared it of stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it, And also carved out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.

NASB 1995
He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.

NASB 1977
And He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it, And hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.

Legacy Standard Bible
He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He hoped for it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.

Amplified Bible
He dug it all around and cleared away its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine (the people of Judah). And He built a tower in the center of it; And also hewed out a wine vat in it. Then He expected it to produce [the choicest] grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.

Christian Standard Bible
He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes.

American Standard Version
and he digged 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 hewed out a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And he cultivated it and a hedge enclosed it and he planted it vine shoots and built a tower within it, also he made a winepress in it and expected that it would produce grapes and it produced blasted things”

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And I made a hedge round it, and dug a trench, and planted a choice vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and dug a place for the wine-vat in it: and I waited for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns.

Contemporary English Version
My friend dug the ground, removed the stones, and planted the best vines. He built a watchtower and dug a pit in rocky ground for pressing the grapes. He hoped they would be sweet, but bitter grapes were all it produced.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

English Revised Version
and he made a trench about 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 hewed out a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
He dug it up, removed its stones, planted it with the choicest vines, built a watchtower in it, and made a winepress in it. Then he waited for it to produce good grapes, but it produced only sour, wild grapes.

Good News Translation
He dug the soil and cleared it of stones; he planted the finest vines. He built a tower to guard them, dug a pit for treading the grapes. He waited for the grapes to ripen, but every grape was sour.

International Standard Version
He plowed its land and cleared it of stones. Then he planted it with the choicest vines, built a watchtower in the middle of it, and dug a wine vat in it; He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only wild ones."

JPS Tanakh 1917
And he digged it, and cleared it of stones, And planted it with the choicest vine, And built a tower in the midst of it, And also hewed out a vat therein; And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, And it brought forth wild grapes.

Literal Standard Version
And He fences it, and casts out its stones, | And plants it [with] a choice vine, | And builds a tower in its midst, | And has also hewn out a winepress in it, | And He waits for the yielding of grapes, | And it yields bad ones!

Majority Standard Bible
He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!

New American Bible
He spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines; Within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press. Then he waited for the crop of grapes, but it yielded rotten grapes.

NET Bible
He built a hedge around it, removed its stones, and planted a vine. He built a tower in the middle of it, and constructed a winepress. He waited for it to produce edible grapes, but it produced sour ones instead.

New Revised Standard Version
He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

New Heart English Bible
He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in its midst, and also cut out a winepress in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

Webster's Bible Translation
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones of it, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein: and he expected that it would bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

World English Bible
He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

Young's Literal Translation
And he fenceth it, and casteth out its stones, And planteth it with a choice vine, And buildeth a tower in its midst, And also a wine press hath hewn out in it, And he waiteth for the yielding of grapes, And it yieldeth bad ones!

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Song of the Vineyard
1I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour! 3“And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I exhort you to judge between Me and My vineyard.…

Cross References
Matthew 21:19
Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. "May you never bear fruit again!" He said. And immediately the tree withered.

Matthew 21:33
Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.

Mark 11:13
Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if there was any fruit on it. But when He reached it, He found nothing on it except leaves, since it was not the season for figs.

Mark 12:1
Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.

Luke 13:6
Then Jesus told this parable: "A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any.

2 Samuel 7:10
And I will provide a place for My people Israel and will plant them so that they may dwell in a place of their own and be disturbed no more. No longer will the sons of wickedness oppress them as they did at the beginning

Psalm 80:8
You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and transplanted it.


Treasury of Scripture

And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the middle of it, and also made a wine press therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

fenced it.

Exodus 33:16
For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

Numbers 23:9
For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

Deuteronomy 32:8,9
When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel…

planted

Jeremiah 2:21
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

the choicest vine.

Judges 16:4
And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

and built

Isaiah 1:8
And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

Micah 4:8
And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.

made.

Isaiah 63:2,3
Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? …

Nehemiah 13:15
In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals.

Revelation 14:18-20
And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe…

he looked

Isaiah 5:7
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.

Isaiah 1:2-4,21-23
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me…

Deuteronomy 32:6
Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?

wild grapes

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Built Choicest Cleared Cut Digged Dug Expected Fenced Forth Gathered Grapes Middle Midst Planted Removed Stones Therein Thereof Tower Vine Wild Wine Winepress Wine-Press Yield Yielded
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Built Choicest Cleared Cut Digged Dug Expected Fenced Forth Gathered Grapes Middle Midst Planted Removed Stones Therein Thereof Tower Vine Wild Wine Winepress Wine-Press Yield Yielded
Isaiah 5
1. Under the parable of a vineyard, God excuses his severe judgment
8. His judgments upon covetousness
11. Upon lasciviousness
13. Upon impiety
20. And upon injustice
26. The executioners of God's judgments














(2) And he fenced it.--In the "fence" we may recognise the law and institutions of Israel which kept it as a separate people (Eph. Ii. 14); in the "stones" that were gathered out, the removal of the old idolatries that would have hindered the development of the nation's life; in the "tower" of the vineyard (comp. in a different context Isaiah 1:8), the monarchy and throne of David, or the watch-tower from which the prophets looked forth (Hab. Ii. 1; Isaiah 21:5-8); in the "winepress," the temple in which the fruits of righteousness were to issue in the wine of joy and adoration (Zechariah 9:17; Ephesians 5:18). It was, we may note, one of the maxims of the Rabbis that the duty of a scribe was "to set a fence around the law" (Pirke Aboth, i. 1). In the last clause of the verse the pleasant song suddenly changes its tone, and the "wild grapes (sour and hard, and not larger than bilberries) are types of deeds of harsh and cruel injustice on which the prophet proceeds to dwell.

Verse 2. - He fenced it. So the LXX., the Vulgate, Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Rosenmüller, Lowth, Kay. Gesenius, Knobel, and Mr. Cheyne prefer to translate, "he dug it over;" while the Revisers of 1885 have suggested, "he made a trench about it." The word occurs only in this place, and has no cognates in Hebrew. And gathered out the stones (comp. Isaiah 62:10). In the stony soil of Palestine, to collect the surface stones into heaps, or build them into walls, is of primary necessity for the improvement of the land. Conversely the stones were put back, and scattered over the land, by those who wished to "mar" it (2 Kings 3:19, 25). Planted it with the choicest vine (comp. Genesis 49:11; Jeremiah 2:21). The sorek seems to have been a particular kind of vine, reckoned superior to others. The etymology of the word indicates that it was of a deep red color. Built a tower (comp. Matthew 21:33). Towers had to be built in gardens, orchards, and vineyards, that watch might be kept from them against thieves and marauders (see 1 Kings 17:9; 1 Kings 18:8; 2 Chronicles 26:10; 2 Chronicles 27:4, etc.). Made a wine-press; literally, dug a winepress. The excavation was made to contain a vat, above which was the "press," worked by men, who wrung the liquor out of a great bag containing the grapes. (See the Egyptian rock-paintings, passim, where the operation is represented repeatedly.) It brought forth wild grapes. The natural, not the cultivated fruit, a worthless product.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
He dug it up
וַֽיְעַזְּקֵ֣הוּ (way·‘az·zə·qê·hū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular | third person masculine singular
Strong's 5823: To grub over

and cleared the stones
וַֽיְסַקְּלֵ֗הוּ (way·saq·qə·lê·hū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular | third person masculine singular
Strong's 5619: To stone, put to death by stoning

and planted
וַיִּטָּעֵ֙הוּ֙ (way·yiṭ·ṭā·‘ê·hū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular | third person masculine singular
Strong's 5193: To strike in, fix, to plant

the finest vines.
שֹׂרֵ֔ק (śō·rêq)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 8321: (choice species of) the vine

He built
וַיִּ֤בֶן (way·yi·ḇen)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1129: To build

a watchtower
מִגְדָּל֙ (miḡ·dāl)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4026: A tower, a rostrum, a, bed of flowers

in the middle
בְּתוֹכ֔וֹ (bə·ṯō·w·ḵōw)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 8432: A bisection, the centre

and
וְגַם־ (wə·ḡam-)
Conjunctive waw | Conjunction
Strong's 1571: Assemblage, also, even, yea, though, both, and

dug out
חָצֵ֣ב (ḥā·ṣêḇ)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 2672: To cut, carve, to hew, split, square, quarry, engrave

a winepress {as well}.
יֶ֖קֶב (ye·qeḇ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3342: A trough, a wine-vat

He waited for [the vineyard]
וַיְקַ֛ו (way·qaw)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6960: To bind together, collect, to expect

to yield
לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת (la·‘ă·śō·wṯ)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 6213: To do, make

good grapes,
עֲנָבִ֖ים (‘ă·nā·ḇîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 6025: A grape

but the fruit it produced
וַיַּ֥עַשׂ (way·ya·‘aś)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6213: To do, make

was sour!
בְּאֻשִֽׁים׃ (bə·’u·šîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 891: Stinking or worthless (things), wild grapes


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OT Prophets: Isaiah 5:2 He dug it up gathered out its (Isa Isi Is)
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