In a picture of great beauty, Isaiah describes a vineyard situated on one of the sunny heights visible from Jerusalem. Every care which an experienced vine-dresser could devise had been expended on it, but in vain. The vine-dresser himself is introduced, demanding if more could have been done. When God selects a nation, a church, or an individual for high and holy work in the world and expends care and pains on the preparation of the instrument, and His plans miscarry through no failure on His part but through the obstinancy or obtuseness of the human soul, the measure of what might have been is the gauge of its doom. The worst weeds grow on the richest soil. This picture is the counterpart of Paul's dread of being a castaway, 1 Corinthians 9:27.
The six woes which follow, arising from drunkenness and avarice remind us of sorrows that menace the selfish heart. How different such a lot to the blessedness of the humblest soul that possesses God and is possessed by Him! "Evil shall slay the wicked; and they that hate the righteous shall be condemned. Jehovah redeemeth the soul of His servants; and none of them that take refuge in Him shall be condemned," Psalms 34:21-22. [source]
Chapter Summary: Isaiah 5
1Under the parable of a vineyard, God excuses his severe judgment 8His judgments upon covetousness 11Upon lasciviousness 13Upon impiety 20And upon injustice 26The executioners of God's judgments
What do the individual words in Isaiah 5:15 mean?
And shall be brought downPeopleand shall be humbledeach manand the eyeshighshall be humbled
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Consecutive imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: שָׁפֵל
Sense: to be or become low, sink, be humbled, be abased.