[1] "The house of Israel" (beth Yisrâel) was the whole nation,
which is also represented in other passages under the same
figure of a vineyard (ch. xxvii. 2, _sqq._; Ps. lxxx., &c).
But as Isaiah was prophet in Judah, he applies the figure
more particularly to Judah, which was called Jehovah's
favourite plantation, inasmuch as it was the seat of the
Divine sanctuary and of the Davidic kingdom. This makes it
easy enough to interpret the different parts of the simile
employed. The fat mountain horn was Canaan, flowing with
milk and honey (Exod. xv. 17); the digging of the vineyard,
and clearing it of stones, was the clearing of Canaan from
its former heathen inhabitants (Ps. xliv. 3); the
sorek-vines were the holy priests and prophets and kings of
Israel of the earlier and better times (Jer. ii. 21); the
defensive and ornamental tower in the midst of the vineyard
was Jerusalem as the royal city, with Zion the royal
fortress (Micah iv. 8); the winepress-trough was the
temple, where, according to Ps. xxxvi. 8, the wine of
heavenly pleasures flowed in streams, and from which,
according to Ps. xlii. and many other passages, the thirst
of the soul might all be quenched. The grazing and treading
down are explained in Jer. v. 10 and xii. 10.--_Delitsch._
I believe that in a poetical allegory there is always more
or less an allusion to the details of that which is
allegorised; but it is only allusion,--to be realised by
the imagination, rather than by the understanding, of the
reader, as well as the poet. The several images are parts
of a picture, which must be contemplated as a picture, and
its meaning is to enter into the mind through the
imagination. Still, a matter-of-fact commentator, like
Vitrings, deeply imbued with the spirit of his author, will
sometimes greatly help his reader's imagination by his
minute analysis; and I think this is the case in his
explanation of the details of this description of the
vineyard. _"A vineyard"_ consists of vines planted for the
sake of their fruit: the Hebrew nation with its tribes, its
families, and its persons, was such a vineyard, appointed
to bring forth the fruits of personal and social religion
and virtue,--holiness, righteousness, and love to God and
man: this nation was established in a land flowing with
milk and honey, endowed with all natural advantages, all
circumstances which could favour inward life by outward
prosperity; and the grace and favour of Jehovah, and the
influence of His Spirit, always symbolised by oil, were
continually causing it to be fruitful. _"And He fenced
it,"_--the arm of the LORD of hosts, employing kings and
heroes, was its defence against all enemies; its
institutions were fitted to preserve internal order, and to
prevent the admixture of evil from without, with the chosen
and separated nation; and its territory was marked out and
protected by natural boundaries in a noticeable manner.
_"Gathered out the stones,"_--the heathen nations, and the
stocks and stones they worshipped. _"And planted it with
the choicest vine,"_--a nation of the noble stock of the
patriarchs, and chosen and cultivated by the Lord of the
vineyard, with especial care, for His own use. _"And built
a tower in it,"_--namely, Jerusalem--for the protection and
superintendence of the vineyard, as well as to be its
farmhouse, so to speak. _"And also made a wine-press
therein,"_--where the wine-press seems to point to the same
idea as the sending the servants to receive the fruit, in
our Lord's modification of this parable: lawgivers, kings,
and judges, the temple with its priesthood and ordinances,
and the schools of the prophets, were the appointed means
for pressing out and receiving the wine--the spiritual
virtues and graces of the vineyard. And the end is, that
_"He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it
brought forth wild grapes."_--_Strachy,_ pp. 62, 63.