For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house
of
Israel
This is the explication of the parable, or the accommodation and
application of it to the people of Israel, by whom are meant the
ten tribes; they are signified by the vineyard, which belonged to
the Lord of hosts, who had chosen them to be a peculiar people to
him, and had separated them from all others: and the men of
Judah his pleasant plant;
they were so when first planted by the Lord; they were plants of
delight, in whom he took great delight and pleasure, ( Deuteronomy
10:15 ) these design the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, in
distinction from Israel: and he looked for
judgment;
that the poor, and the fatherless, and the widow, would have
their causes judged in a righteous manner, and that justice and
judgment would be executed in the land in all respects; for which
such provision was made by the good and righteous laws that were
given them: but behold oppression;
or a "scab", such as was in the plague of leprosy; corruption,
perverting of justice, and oppressing of the poor: Jarchi
interprets it a gathering of sin to sin, a heaping up iniquities:
for righteousness, but behold a cry;
of the poor and oppressed, for want of justice done, and by
reason of their oppressions. Here ends the song; what has been
parabolically said is literally expressed in the following part
of the chapter.