Bible Study on Isaiah 5, verses 5 to 7, nothing but oppression and a cry for justice

 

Isaiah 5:5  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.

 

Here is a direct threat against Judah and the house of Israel. The metaphor of Israel being a vineyard, God’s vineyard, is confirmed. God also explains why in this passage, because He, God, looked for judgment and only saw oppression and for righteousness but only heard a cry of distress. God’s poor, the common man, commentators attest, were struggling under the yoke of oppression and robbery from above them. Repeatedly in the scriptures the cry of the poor reach God.

 

Now see a similar metaphor of judgment made about Jesus’ second advent by John the Baptist.

 

Matthew 3:11  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12  Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

 

Also see Jesus talking about the coming destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

 

Luke 19:41 ¶  And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 42  Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. 43  For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 44  And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

 

Notice, as well, how the Psalms refers to judgment on Israel.

 

Psalm 80:8 ¶  Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. 9  Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. 10  The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. 11  She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her  branches unto the river. 12  Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? 13  The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. 14  Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; 15  And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. 16  It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.