SUMMARY
This text draws on the common Isaianic imagery of God as gardener. God protects God’s people, the vineyard, but only insofar as it produces good fruit.
ANALYSIS
IsaiahIsaiah, son of Amoz, who prophesied in Jerusalem, is included among the prophets of the eighth century BCE (along with Amos, Hosea, and Micah)--preachers who boldly proclaimed God's word of judgment against the economic, social, and religious disorders of their time. More 27:2-6 echoes the other vineyard text in Isaiah 5:1-7. Both texts understand that God is a vine keeper who strives to make the vineyard productive and fruitful. But as with all agriculture, there is a potential for the field to fail in its intended purpose.
The text begins with God’s commitments to protect and cultivate the vineyard, tending to its needs day and night (vv. 1-4). But if after all of that the vineyard still produces “thorns and briars” then God will go to war against it, burning it up.
But in the world of vegetation, ashes also carry the potential for new life. After a season of destruction “JacobThe son of Isaac and Rebekah, renamed Israel, became the father of the twelve tribal families. More” and “Israel” will take root, blossom, and bless the whole earth (v. 6).
