These things are in my ears, saith the Lord of hosts: unless many great and fair houses shall become desolate, without an inhabitant.

“I will sing to my beloved. Here he charges, thirdly, the sin of the two tribes, which they committed in the abuse of things, under a certain metaphor; and it is divided into two parts. In the first the metaphor is set down; in the second it is explained: for the vineyard. Concerning the first he does two things. First he sets down the title, saying, I will sing, that is, I will pronounce it loudly and openly: below, 40: lift up your voice with strength: to my beloved, that is, to the people of the Jews, a song of my cousin, that is, of the son of my paternal uncle, of his vineyard, that is, of what he did concerning his vineyard. For sometimes the prophets take likenesses for their prophecies from the very deeds that occurred, as is clear in Jer. 32, concerning the sale of a field. Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum your cousin comes to you saying: buy for yourself my field which is in Anathoth, for it belongs to you, etc. Thus it could also happen, according to the letter, that some cousin of his composed a similar song about his own vineyard. Or otherwise: I will sing a song to my beloved, namely to God, that is, in his own person, to his vineyard. Or otherwise: to my beloved, namely God, a song of my cousin, that is, concerning my cousin, namely the people of the Jews, because we descend from the same parents, of his vineyard, that is, the cousin who is the vineyard of the beloved God. Or mystically, my cousin, of Christ, who is of the same people as I, of his vineyard, that is, of him who complains concerning his vineyard, the synagogue, which brought him bitter fruits in the passion. And note, that a song properly belongs to exultation. Hence here it is improperly called a song, since it is one of grief. Such a song David sang concerning the death of Saul. 2 Kings 1: your renowned ones, O Israel, are slain upon your mountains. How are the mighty of Israel fallen? (...). Mountains of Gilboa, let neither dew nor rain come. Ezek. 32: sing a mournful song. Second, at, the vineyard was made, he sets down the song itself, which contains the metaphor: in which three things are set down. First, the recitation of the cause; second, the interrogation for judgment, at, now therefore, inhabitants; third, the pronouncing of the sentence, at, now I will show. Concerning the first he sets down two things. First, on the part of the complainant, the diligence of cultivation; second, on the part of the vineyard, the wickedness of the fruit, at, and I waited that it should make grapes. Now the diligence of cultivation is shown from three things: in the preparation of the place, in the choice of the branches, and in the costly building. The preparation of the place is first described in three ways. First, as to the fatness of the place: hence he says: a vineyard, concerning which Ps. 79: you transferred a vineyard out of Egypt, you cast out the nations, and planted it: was made for my beloved, that is, for God by way of acquisition, or by God, on a horn, that is, in a high place, in which is noted the mountainous character of the land for the establishing of a good vineyard, on account of this: that it is looked upon by the sun, a son of oil, that is, so fat that it would suffice for an abundance of oil. For it is a property of Hebrew speech that anyone is said to be the son of that thing in which he abounds, just as it is said in 1 Kings 26: as the Lord lives, that you are sons of death. And in this is designated the goodness of the land which was given to the Jews; concerning which Ezek. 20: I lifted up my hand for them, that I might lead them out of the land of Egypt into a land which I had provided for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is excellent among all lands. Second, the diligence of preparation is set down as to the fortification of the place: hence he says, he hedged it about. Hosea 2: I will hedge your way with thorns: in which is signified the guardianship of angels and of good men. Third, as to the clearing: he gathered out the stones from it, that is, he diligently collected them out of it. Ps. 79: you cast out the nations, and planted it. As to the choice of the branches it is said: and he planted it a chosen vine, that is, from chosen branches: hence another translation has, the vine Soreth, which is the noblest kind of vine, in which is signified the goodness of the fathers. Jer. 2: I planted you a chosen vine, wholly a true seed. As to the cost of the building, which pertains to defense, he says: he built a tower in the midst of it; in which royal dignity is shown. Ezek. 16: you became exceedingly beautiful, and you advanced to a kingdom. Song of Songs 4: the tower of David is built with bulwarks. Or the temple, according to others. The use of the tower is for the preservation of the fruit, and for looking out to keep watch. As to the gathering of the fruit he says: a wine-press. Prov. 3: your barns shall be filled with abundance, and your presses shall overflow with wine; in which is noted the altar of holocausts, on account of the shedding of blood. And I waited that it should make. Here is set down the wickedness of the fruit: hence he says: and I waited, according to the order of benefits, that it should make grapes, the fruit of good works, and it made labruscae, that is, wild grapes, so called from this, because they grow on the edges of the roads, namely the hedges: in which the bitterness of vices is noted. Jer. 2: how have you turned for me into a corrupt foreign vine? Micah 7: he who is best among them is like a briar; and he who is upright, like a thorn from a hedge. Now therefore, inhabitants. Here is set down the interrogation of judgment: and concerning this he does two things. First he calls upon the judges, saying: therefore, because I have done what I ought, now, my case having been heard, judge between me and my vineyard. Hosea 2: judge your mother, judge her: for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. A similar judgment was sought from David concerning himself as if concerning another, 2 Kings 12, over the sin committed by him, namely concerning adultery and the murder of Uriah the Hittite. Second he seeks judgment; and he seeks two things. First, whether he sinned out of negligence; hence he says: what more, beyond what has been said above, ought I to have done? Micah 6: my people, what have I done to you, or in what have I troubled you? Answer me. Second, whether he sinned in the cultivation of the vineyard out of excessive care: hence he says: or perhaps I seem to have done more than was due, in that I expected, by cultivating it well, that it should make grapes, and it made labruscae? As if to say: in this I seem rather to have been excessive, in that I applied so much cultivation to my vineyard. Below, 26: Lord, you have been indulgent to the nation, you have been indulgent to the nation. Have you been glorified? And 48: I called you a transgressor from the womb, for my name's sake. Jer. 11: at the sound of speech, a great fire was kindled in her, and her thickets were burned. The vineyard of carnal concupiscence, Deut. 32: of the vineyard of the Sodomites, etc.; the wine of wrath, Deut. 32: the gall of dragons, an incurable poison; of lust, Apoc. 18: of the wine of her fornication, etc.; of foolish gladness, 3 Esdras 3: it turns every mind to security; of the faithful soul, Song of Songs 2: our vineyard has flourished; the wine of penitence, Luke 10: pouring in oil and wine; of bodily cleanness, Zech. 9: and wine bringing forth virgins; of spiritual gladness, Ps.: wine gladdens the heart of man; of the Church militant, Song of Songs, last chapter: which has peoples; the wine of sacred washing, Num. 15: and wine for the drink-offerings; of fruitful preaching, Ps.: from the fruit of the grain; of devout confession, Song of Songs 7: your throat; of the heavenly homeland, 3 Kings 21, concerning Naboth; the wine of divine enjoyment, Song of Songs 8: I have eaten the honeycomb with the honey; of interior fullness, Esther 1: wine also, as befits royal magnificence; of the congratulation of the saints, Song of Songs, last chapter: I will give you a cup of spiced wine. And now I will show you. Here the sentence is pronounced: and first he arouses attention or a hearing, saying: now, since you do not wish to pronounce the sentence, I will show you what I will do to my vineyard. Below, 48: I foretold it to you from then, before they came I declared it to you; lest perhaps you should say: my idols have done this, and my graven and molten images have commanded these things which you have heard. Second he pronounces the just sentence, that he may take away from the ungrateful the benefit bestowed, when he says, I will take away its hedge. And first he takes away the benefit which pertains to guardianship, which is twofold. That of the angels: and as to this he says, I will take away its hedge, that is, the aid of the angels, by which it was protected against enemies, and it shall be for a spoil, to the nations. Ecclus. 36: where there is no hedge, the possession shall be plundered. There is also the guardianship of prelates; and as to this he says, I will break down its wall, that is, the defenses of the kingdom, concerning which above, 2: and every loftiness of man shall be bowed down: and it shall be for a treading down, that is, made vile. Ps. 79: you have destroyed its wall. Second he takes away the benefit which pertains to the diligence of cultivation: hence he says: and I will make it a wasteland; that is, I will leave it untilled like a desert. It shall not be pruned, by admonition or by the lash of correction when it sins, and it shall not be dug, so that the occasions of evil might be taken away from them, like weeds; and briars and thorns shall grow up over it, that is, greater and lesser sins: or briars of sins, thorns of tribulations. Below, 7: for briars and thorns shall be in the whole land. Third he takes away the benefit of fertility, against which he sets the failure of rain: hence he says: and I will command the clouds that they rain not: according to the letter, or the clouds are the preachers. Below, 60: who are these that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows? Jer. 3: wherefore the drops of rain have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts. Here he explains the metaphor: and first as to the vineyard; second as to the cause of the vineyard, at, I waited that it should do judgment. Concerning the first he explains the vineyard, saying, for the vineyard, first, is the house of Israel; either the whole, or as to the ten tribes, which were called Israel after the separation of the kingdom, on account of their multitude. Second, as to the shoot or the branches, the men of Judah, that is, the two tribes in which the worship of God was still observed. Hosea 4: though you play the harlot, Israel, do not at least forsake Judah. Or because from it come the princes. 1 Chron. 5: moreover Judah, who was the strongest among his brothers, from his stock princes sprang. I waited that it should do judgment. Here he explains the cause of the vineyard, which consists in the fault, and the punishment which follows the fault: hence it is divided into three parts. In the first the fault is set down in general; in the second, fault and punishment together in particular, at, woe to you who join house; in the third, punishment in general, at, in all these things. He charges the fault in general as to the prelates, whose task it is to do judgment, in this that he says: I waited, according to the order of benefits, that it should do judgment, judging justly; and behold iniquity, as it were an inequality of judgment. Eccles. 3: I saw under the sun, in the place of judgment, impiety, and in the place of judgment, iniquity. Second, as to the subjects, whose task it is to hold to the justice prescribed for them by the prelates: and justice, which is by comparison to the precepts of the law; and behold a cry, the tumult of those quarreling, or the complaint of the poor. Below, 22: what ails you too, that you also have gone up onto the rooftops, full of clamor, a crowded city, an exultant city. Woe to you who join house to house. Here he sets down their fault in the abuse of things in particular, pursuing it part by part. And it is divided into two parts. In the first he charges them as to the fault itself; in the second as to their persistence in sinning, at, woe to you who draw. Concerning the first he does two things. First he charges them as to the abuse of possessions, which comes about through avarice; in the second as to the abuse of foods, which comes about through gluttony, at, woe to you who rise up. Concerning the first, three things are set down. First the excessive multiplication of possessions is charged: hence he says: woe to you who join house to house, and couple field to field, even to the limit of the place; as far as to the public road. Hosea 5: the princes of Judah have become like those who remove the boundary upon them. Jer. 22: woe to him who builds his house in injustice, and his upper rooms not in judgment. He will oppress his friend without cause, and will not repay him his wages. Who says: I will build myself a wide house, and spacious upper rooms. Micah 2: and they coveted fields, and took them violently, and seized houses, and oppressed a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Second is set down the appeal of the judge: shall you dwell in the midst of the land? Which is wide and spacious, and given to many for a possession. Gen. 1: increase, and multiply, and fill the earth. Third the threat of punishment is set down: and concerning this two things are set down. First the authority or power of the one who punishes: hence he says: these words are in my ears, of the Lord of hosts, who is able to punish: which I shall tell you, are still sounding in my ears, my inward ears; in which the certainty of the words is noted. Below, 50: he wakens my ear in the morning, that I may hear as a master. The Lord God has opened my ear: and I do not contradict. Second the severity of the punishment is set down, at, unless the houses. And first, as to the solitude of the houses, he says, unless the houses shall be deserted, as to guardianship, and without an inhabitant, as to the solitude of the houses; as if to say: my wrath shall not rest. And it is an aposiopesis, which is a breaking-off of speech. And he sets down those things in which the riches of houses consist: namely in number: and as to this he says, many: in beauty: and as to this he says, beautiful: in size, great. Zeph. 1: and their strength shall be for a spoil, and their houses for a desert. Second, as to the barrenness of the vineyards, he says: ten jugera of vineyard (a jugerum has 120 feet in length) shall make one small flask. Another text has: a bath, which is of the same capacity in liquids, as an ephah in dry things. Third, as to the loss of seed: and thirty modii shall make three, because you shall gather less than you sowed. Haggai 2: when you came to a heap of twenty modii, and there were ten. Others have a cor, or an ephah, which is a tenth part of a cor. Ezek. 45: the ephah and the bath shall be equal, and shall be of one measure, so that the bath may hold the tenth part of a cor, and the ephah the tenth part of a cor.”

“In mine ears, said the Lord of hosts,.... This may be understood either of the ears of the Lord of hosts, into which came the cry of the sins of covetousness and ambition before mentioned; these were taken notice of by the Lord, and he was determined to punish them; or of the ears of the prophet, in whose hearing the Lord said what follows: so the Targum, "the prophet said, with mine ears I have heard, when this was decreed from before the Lord of hosts:'' of a truth many houses shall be desolate; or "great" ones (z); such as the houses of the king, of the princes, and nobles, judges, counsellors, and great men of the earth; not only the house of God, the temple, but a multitude of houses in Jerusalem and elsewhere; which was true not only at the taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, but at the destruction of it by the Romans, to which this prophecy belongs, Mat 23:38 the words are a strong asseveration, and in the form of an oath, as Jarchi and Kimchi observe; , "if not"; if many houses are not left desolate, let it be so or so, I swear they shall: even great and fair, without inhabitants: houses of large and beautiful building shall be laid in such a ruinous condition, that they will not be fit for any to dwell in, nor shall any dwell in them: and this is the judgment upon them for joining house to house; that for laying field to field follows. (z) "domus magnificae, sive sumptuosae", Vatablus.”

“And the denunciation of punishment is made by him in very similar terms to those which we find here in Isa 5:9, Isa 5:10 : "Into mine ears Jehovah of hosts: Of a truth many houses shall become a wilderness, great and beautiful ones deserted. For ten yokes of vineyard will yield one pailful, and a quarter of seed-corn will produce a bushel." We may see from Isa 22:14 in what sense the prophet wrote the substantive clause, "Into mine ears," or more literally, "In mine ears is Jehovah Zebaoth," viz., He is here revealing Himself to me. In the pointing, בּאזני is written with tiphchah as a pausal form, to indicate to the reader that the boldness of the expression is to be softened down by the assumption of an ellipsis. In Hebrew, "to say into the ears" did not mean to "speak softly and secretly," as Gen 23:10, Gen 23:16; Job 33:8, and other passages, clearly show; but to speak in a distinct and intelligible manner, which precludes the possibility of any misunderstanding. The prophet, indeed, had not Jehovah standing locally beside him; nevertheless, he had Him objectively over against his own personality, and was well able to distinguish very clearly the thoughts and words of his own personality, from the words of Jehovah which arose audibly within him. These words informed him what would be the fate of the rich and insatiable landowners. "Of a truth:" אם־לא (if not) introduces an oath of an affirmative character (the complete formula is Chai ani 'im-lo', "as I live if not"), just as 'im (if) alone introduces a negative oath (e.g., Num 14:23). The force of the expression 'im-lo' extends not only to rabbim, as the false accentuation with gershayim (double-geresh) would make it appear, but to the whole of the following sentence, as it is correctly accentuated with rebia in the Venetian (1521) and other early editions. A universal desolation would ensue: rabbim (many) does not mean less than all; but the houses (bâttim, as the word should be pronounced, notwithstanding Ewald's objection to Khler's remarks on Zac 14:2; cf., Job 2:1-13 :31) constituted altogether a very large number (compare the use of the word "many" in Isa 2:3; Mat 20:28, etc.). מאין is a double, and therefore an absolute, negation (so that there is not, no inhabitant, i.e., not any inhabitant at all). Isa 5:10, which commences, with Ci, explains how such a desolation of the houses would be brought about: failure of crops produces famine, and this is followed by depopulation. "Ten zimdē (with dagesh lene, Ewald) of vineyard" are either ten pieces of the size that a man could plough in one day with a yoke of oxen, or possibly ten portions of yoke-like espaliers of vines, i.e., of vines trained on cross laths (the vina jugata of Varro), which is the explanation adopted by Biesenthal. But if we compare Sa1 14:14, the former is to be preferred, although the links are wanting which would enable us to prove that the early Israelites had one and the same system of land measure as the Romans; (Note: On the jugerum, see Hultsch, Griechische und rmische Metrologie, 1862. The Greek plethron, which was smaller by two and a half, corresponded to some extent to this; also the Homeric tetraguon, which cannot be more precisely defined (according to Eustathius, it was a piece of land which a skilful labourer could plough in one day). According to Herod. ii. 168, in the Egyptian square-measure an a'roura was equal to 150 cubits square. The Palestinian, according to the tables of Julian the Ashkalonite, was the plethron. "The plethron," he says, "was ten perches, or fifteen fathoms, or thirty paces, sixty cubits, ninety feet" (for the entire text, see L. F. V. Fennersberg's Untersuchungen ber alte Langen-, Feld-, und Wegemaase, 1859). Fennersberg's conclusion is, that the tzemed was a plethron, equal in length to ten perches of nine feet each. But the meaning of the word tzemed is of more importance in helping to determine the measure referred to, than the tables of long measure of the architect of Ashkalon, which have been preserved in the imperial collection of laws of Constantine Harmenopulos, and which probably belong to a much later period.) nevertheless Arab. fddân (in Hauran) is precisely similar, and this word signifies primarily a yoke of oxen, and then a yoke (jugerum) regarded as a measure of land. Ten days' work would only yield a single bath. This liquid measure, which was first introduced in the time of the kings, corresponded to the ephah in dry measure (Eze 45:11). According to Josephus (Ant. viii. 2, 9), it was equal to seventy-two Roman sextarii, i.e., a little more than thirty-three Berlin quarts; but in the time of Isaiah it was probably smaller. The homer, a dry measure, generally called a Cor after the time of the kings, was equal to ten Attic medimnoi; (Note: Or rather 7 1/2 Attic medimnoi = 10 Attic metretoi = 45 Roman modia (see Bckh, Metrologische Untersuchungen, p. 259).) a medimnos being (according to Josephus, Ant. xv 9, 2) about 15-16ths of a Berlin bushel, and therefore a little more than fifteen pecks. Even if this quantity of corn should be sown, they would not reap more than an ephah.The harvest, therefore, would only yield the tenth part of the sowing, since an ephah was the tenth part of a homer, or three seahs, the usual minimum for one baking (vid., Mat 13:33). It is, of course, impossible to give the relative measure exactly in our translation.”