THREE VINEYARD PARABLES: ISAIAH 5; PSALM 89; EZEKIEL 19

The Unproductive Vineyard (Isaiah 5:1-7)

The next group of OT parables I would like to discuss all involve the image of a vine or vineyard representing the nation of Israel, beginning with this story in Isaiah, which has been called the second closest parable to Jesus' parables after Nathan's parable. Derek Kidner calls this “a little masterpiece.”

The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery and Commentary on the NT Use of the OT list a number of the other places in the OT where Israel was compared to a vine or vineyard. These include Genesis 49:11-12,22; Isaiah 27:1-6; 16:8; Jeremiah 2:21; 5:10,17; 12:10; Ezekiel 15:1-8;17:5-6; Hosea 2:12; 10:1 and Amos 4:10. I have a coin in my possession which was minted in Israel during the first revolt of 66-70 AD. It pictures a vine branch and leaf and is inscribed “For the freedom of Zion.”

At the start of this parable, we are tricked into thinking it will be a standard love song, and it does have similarities to the Song of Songs (especially 3:9). The fact that the vineyard has a watchtower indicates the great care the owner has taken to protect it since in real life vineyards would have only had huts. In verses 3-4, the audience (Israel originally) like King David is asked to to make a judgment on the situation and that will condemn them since the following verses in Isaiah present a whole catalog of Israel's sins. There is a double pun in Hebrew in the last verse, which Kidner translates as this: “Did he find right? Nothing but riot! Did he find decency? Only despair!”

Regarding the judgment at the end, It has been pointed out that an early rabbinic tradition regarded this parable as a prophecy of the temple's destruction in 586 BC with the watchtower standing for the sanctuary of the temple and the wine press as the altar. This interpretation would have been known by Jesus' time and we will see later that he used the same imagery, this time referring to the coming destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Israel as a Vine (Psalm 80:8-16)

Two additional OT passages with vine imagery have been classified as parables. One actually appears in the Psalms. Both parables use the imagery of transplanting, and together they tell a unified story.

The story in Psalm 80 is called an allegory by M'Caw and Motyer, a corporate lament by C. C. Broyles  and a poetic history lesson by Beth Tanner. Psalm 80 starts out in the first verses by using the shepherd image for God. But as Leslie Allen says, “If God was His people's shepherd, He was also their gardener.”

M'Caw and Motyer note that in the conclusion in vv. 15-16, “the outcome is fire instead of fruit.”

There is an interesting progression in the psalmist's final plea:

    v. 14: Turn again, O God of hosts...watch over this vine (Israel).

    v. 15a: the root your right hand has planted (Israel)

    v. 15b: the son you have raised for yourself (Messiah)

    v. 17a: Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand (Son of Man of Daniel 7)

    the son of man you have raised up for yourself (Jesus)

            Raymond Brown (Death of the Messiah, p. 508)

“I am the true vine and my Father is the vinegrower.” (John 15:1)

“What Israel had only begun to be, He wholly was and is.” (Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150)

As an aside, the ancient scribes who preserved the OT over the centuries determined that v. 14 contains the middle letter of the whole Psalms, so the scribes raised that letter up above the line when writing it. Subsequent scribes would then count letters before and after it to make sure they came out the same and no mistakes had been made in copying it. (Ernst Wurthwein, The Text of the Old Testament, p. 20)

Transplanted Vine (Ezekiel 19:10-14)

Ezekiel 19 begins and ends by calling it a lamentation. Greenberg (Ezekiel 1-20) calls it an allegory, and Daniel Block (The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 1-24) prefers the description as a riddle, the parody of a dirge, or a fable.

The previous parable told about a vine that was taken from Egypt and transplanted in a vineyard. But this parable actually continues the story by saying that it was next taken from the vineyard and transplanted by the water where it could grow even better. Verse 11 has the vine growing to impossibly large proportions, which may indicate Israel's arrogance, her inflated sense of self-worth which would next be punished by God who uproots the vine again and plants it in the wilderness where it will die. This is, of course, the history of the nation of Israel, which was saved from Egyptian slavery and moved to Canaan where it flourished for a while, but then in stages it was conquered and the people sent into exile. This last stage is pictured by Ezekiel where the branch refers to King Zedekiah, who refused to submit to the Babylonians, and thus Jerusalem was destroyed by them. In v. 11 Nebuchadressar is called the east wind that withers the vine. And as in the previous parable, instead of fruit coming out of the vine, fire comes out instead.