Texts in Conversation
In Isaiah, God's vineyard yields rotten grapes, prompting him to ask what more could be done, and in Hosea, Israel's failure provokes God to ask how he could give them up. Both describe God moved by others to rhetorically question himself.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 5:4
Hebrew Bible
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? 5 Now I will inform you what I am about to do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge and turn it into pasture, I will break its wall and allow animals to graze there.
Hosea 11:8
Hebrew Bible
5 They will return to Egypt! Assyria will rule over them because they refuse to repent! 6 A sword will flash in their cities; it will destroy the bars of their city gates, and will devour them in their fortresses. 7 My people are obsessed with turning away from me; they call to Baal, but he will never exalt them! 8 “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? I have had a change of heart. All my tender compassions are aroused.
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Notes and References
... The depth of the grief as well as the extent of feeling of disappointment could be perceived from the way that these feelings and intense emotions are expressed — through self-questioning within the divine life. By posing the question, 'What could be done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?' this literary rhetoric has the power to move the first audience to self-indictment as well as to evoke contemporary readers/audience, inviting us to go into the inner life of God and experience God's grief and sorrow. ...
Leung Lai, Barbara M.
Through the 'I'-Window: The Inner Life of Characters in the Hebrew Bible
(pp. 158-159) Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2011
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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