Isaiah 5:1

Hebrew Bible

1 I will sing to my love—a song to my lover about his vineyard. My love had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 He built a hedge around it, removed its stones, and planted a vine. He built a tower in the middle of it and constructed a winepress. He waited for it to produce edible grapes, but it produced sour ones instead. 3 So now, residents of Jerusalem, people of Judah, you decide between me and my vineyard! 4 What more can I do for my vineyard beyond what I have already done? When I waited for it to produce edible grapes, why did it produce sour ones instead?

Matthew 21:33

New Testament

33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went on a journey. 34 When the harvest time was near, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his portion of the crop. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

 Notes and References

"... The Hebrew text of Isaiah 5:1-7 forms the starting point of a long and intensive interpretation process. Within that process the version of the LXX and the Targum represent two relatively independent moments. In both cases elements from the Hebrew text are copied but a number of other elements are fundamentally changed. Here we encounter the fascinating phenomenon that a text from the Hebrew bible is again and again at the basis of new texts. From 4Q500 we can gather that the interpretation offered by the targumist was current in Jesus' and Matthew's time ... The similarities between Mark 12:1-12 and Isaiah 5:1-7 have been borrowed by Matthew with some minor changes. Moreover, he was further strengthened the connection between the parable and Isaiah 5:1-7. This means that the song from Isaiah not only played a productive role in the genesis of Mark's version of the parable, but Matthew, too ..."

Weren, W. J. C. The Use of Isaiah 5,1-7 in the Parable of the Tenants (Mark 12,1-12; Matthew 21,33-46) (pp. 1-26) Biblica, Vol. 79, No. 1, 1998

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