(Chapter IV, Verse 1) And in that day, seven women will take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach. When the most beautiful of the city of Jerusalem fall by the sword and the strong ones perish in battle, and its gates mourn and lament; and it becomes desolate due to the scarcity of people, with the warriors being killed, seven women will take hold of one man, desiring to have offspring in Zion and descendants in Jerusalem. They say that they have food and clothing, only so that they will not appear without a husband and be subject to the curse that is written: Cursed is the barren woman, who does not bear children in Israel (Deuteronomy 7). Zacharias also agrees with this interpretation: In those days, ten men from all the languages of the nations will seize the hem of a Jewish man, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you (Zech. VIII, 23). The number seven and ten are familiar to the Jews due to the Sabbath and the Ten Commandments of the law, and therefore they often use them; although according to the ambiguity of the Hebrew language, which interprets the word Saba () as both seven and several or an oath, it may not mean seven in this passage, but rather several. This according to the letter. However, in the coming of the Lord and Savior, the seven women, that is, the seven graces of the Holy Spirit, of whom the same Prophet will speak in the following words: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:1-2) They will lay hold of Jesus, whom they have long desired, for they could find no other in whom they could find eternal rest. And John the Baptist confirms in the Gospel: And he who sent me said to me: Upon whom you see the Holy Spirit descending and remaining upon him, he is the one (John 1:33). In Zachariah, we also read about a stone with seven eyes, and in a golden candlestick, seven lamps and seven tubes, and two olive trees on either side of the lampstand, firmly rooted (Zechariah 3). However, the grace of the Holy Spirit, possessing all things, does not need explanation. But because he always suffered reproach among men, while no one living was seeking the gifts of the Holy Spirit, therefore they desire to invoke the name of Jesus, so that what was imperfect in the Law may be fulfilled in the Gospel.
4:2-3
(Verse 2, 3) On that day, the Lord's shoot will be in splendor and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be exalted, and those who have been saved from Israel will rejoice. And it will be, everyone who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who is recorded in life in Jerusalem. When the daughters of Zion have lost all their pride and all their adornment, and her gates have mourned and she herself is desolate, and all her warriors have perished in battle, to the point that many women can hardly find one man: then the shoot of the Christian name will arise, and the land will yield its fruit. And there will be rejoicing for those who have been saved from Israel, of whom it has been said before: Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom, and similar to Gomorrah (Isa. 1:9). And note that not all Israel will be saved, but the remnant of the people of Zion and the remainder in Jerusalem; all who are enrolled in life in Jerusalem, to whom the Lord also spoke: Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). It signifies the Apostles and those who believed through the Apostles.
4:4
(Verse 4.) When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the blood of Jerusalem from its midst with the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, then the remnant of Israel shall be saved when their sins are forgiven in the baptism of the Savior and that blood is cleansed, the blood that the wandering people invoked upon themselves saying: His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matthew 27:25). Hence, we read above: When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood (Isaiah 1:15-16). And afterwards, provoking them to repentance, he brings forth this: Be washed, be made clean. And take note that the filth of the daughters of Zion will be washed away by the spirit of judgment, but the blood of Jerusalem will be washed away by the spirit of burning. For what is light is washed away, but what is heavier is burned up. Concerning this spirit of judgment and spirit of burning, John the Baptist spoke in the Gospel: I baptize you with water, but he who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11). From this we learn that while man gives only water, God gives the Holy Spirit, by which both filth is washed away and the sins of blood are cleansed.
4:5
(Verse 5) And the Lord will create (or created) over every place of Mount Zion, and where he is invoked, a cloud by day, and smoke and the brightness of a flaming fire at night. For in Christ there is a new creation, of which we read elsewhere: The old things have passed away: behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). Regarding this, the Septuagint translated: And he will come, and there will be every place of Mount Zion, and all the things that are around it, a cloud will cover during the day, and the light of a flaming fire at night. But who will come except him, of whom it is written: He will come from Zion to free them (Isaiah 59:20, according to the Septuagint). And of whom another prophet mentions: Yet a little while, and he who is to come will come, and will not delay (Habakkuk 2:3). When he comes, the people will be restored to their former happiness, which they once had in the desert; the Lord will lead them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and during the night with a pillar of fire (Exodus 13): so that they may not be disturbed either in prosperity or in adversity. And in the psalm it is said: By day the sun shall not scorch you, nor the moon by night (Ps. CXX, 6). But in this place smoke signifies not error and ignorance, but glory, according to what we shall read in the same prophet, according to the opinion of some: And the house was filled with smoke (Isaiah 6). And in Joel, concerning the grace of the Holy Spirit which descends upon the apostles, it is said: I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy (Joel II). And I will show wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and clouds of smoke (Acts 2:17). I think this signifies that which is said in the Psalms: He touches the mountains, and they smoke (Psalm 104:32).
4:6
(Verse 6) But protection is above all glory. And it will be a tabernacle for shade from the heat during the day, and for security and hiding from the whirlwind and rain. The Jews interpret this place as referring to Antichrist, whom they believe will be defended by the Lord from a mighty adversary represented by the whirlwind and storm. However, we refer everything to the first coming of Christ, of whom we also read in the Psalms: He protected me in the hiding place of His tabernacle; on a rock He exalted me (Psalm 27:9-10). On this rock, the Church is founded and is not shaken by any storm or overturned by any wind. The majority of the Jews understand both these things and all the things which are associated with them, concerning the captivity in Babylon and the return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
5:1
(Chapter 5, Verse 1.) I will sing now to my beloved the song of my cousin, of his vineyard. The prophet sings a lamentable song to the people of Israel, which he composed, about whom it is written in the Gospel: But when he saw it (no doubt Jerusalem), he wept over it, and said: If you also knew what is for your peace, for the days shall come upon you, and your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and compass you round, and straiten you, and cast you down to the ground, and your children with you (Luke 19:41 et seq.). And again: How often I have wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling? Behold, your house will be left to you desolate (Matthew 23:37, 38): to whom this which is now said in this song is similar: I will leave my vineyard. And that Christ is called beloved and most dear, which Aquila has interpreted as πατράδελφον, paternal uncle, or paternal cousin, the inscription of the forty-fourth psalm teaches us: A Song for the Beloved. And the voice of God the Father in the Gospel: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). And in the sixty-seventh psalm we read: The Lord will give the word to those who preach with great power. The king of hosts, the beloved (Psalm 67:12, 13). Therefore, this beloved one composed a mournful song for his vineyard, which I will sing to my beloved and pitiable people. Or certainly it should be understood thus: I will sing to the Almighty God the Father a song of Christ, who is my cousin, that is, born from the same people as me. But when the vineyard of God is called the people of Israel, and at the end of this canticle we read: The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is his pleasant plant. And in the seventy-ninth psalm (ver. 9): Thou hast brought a vineyard out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the Gentiles, and planted it. In the Gospel also, almost in the same words in which the Prophet now speaks, the Lord related a parable: There was a certain householder who planted a vineyard, and surrounded it with a hedge, and digged in it a press, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, etc. (Matth. XXXI, 33) . And in Jeremiah we read: I have planted you a fruitful vineyard, all true: how then have you turned into bitterness, a foreign vineyard (Jerem. II, 21)? Therefore Jerusalem, as we have said, laments: and in the prophetic speech, its ruin is sung. Moreover, a different song has been composed for the Church and the once-gentile people, of which we read in the Psalms: Sing to the Lord, all the earth, proclaim day after day his salvation. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. He has shown his salvation, and revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.
A vineyard has been made for my beloved in the horn of the son of oil. This is translated by Theodotion and Aquila according to the Hebrew: but Symmachus, in his own way, more explicitly: A vineyard has been made for my beloved in the horn, in the midst of the olive trees. Moreover, the Seventy interpreted the meaning more than the word: A vineyard has been made for my beloved in the horn, in a fertile or rich place, for πίων signifies both. And truly, there is nothing more fertile than the Promised Land, if you consider all its width, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates, against the east: and towards the northern region up to Mount Taurus and the Zephyrium of Cilicia, which overlooks the sea. But we often read that horn signifies kingdom and power, as it is written in the Gospel: He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (Luke 1:69). And, In you we will scatter our enemies like chaff with a horn (Psalm 44:6). And in Zechariah, four horns represent four powerful kingdoms (Zechariah 1:18). The Hebrews explain this passage as follows: The vineyard planted in the horn is Christ, that is, in a strong and lofty place, which is called the son of oil, either because it needs God's mercy and is sustained by his help, or because it has shed the light of God's knowledge to all nations.
5:2
(Verse 2.) And he fenced it, and picked stones from it, and planted the vineyard of Sorec, and built a tower in its midst, and constructed a winepress in it. In metaphor, as we said before, the vineyard represents the Jewish people, whom God protected with the help of angels. And he picked stones from it, meaning idols or anything that could hinder the worship of God. And he planted the vineyard of Sorec, which Symmachus alone interpreted as chosen, not expressing the word for word, as it seems to me, but the meaning that is held in the word. For the Hebrews say that the Sorek vine is of the best kind, because it produces abundant and perpetual fruit. Indeed, Sorek is interpreted by some as 'beautifully fruitful', a phrase that we can translate as 'the most beautiful fruits'. He also built a tower in the middle of it, namely a temple in the center of the city, and he constructed a winepress in it, which some people think signifies an altar. Just as all grapes are gathered and trampled in the winepress to extract the wine from them, so the altar receives all the fruits of the people and devours the sacrificed victims, according to what we read about Benjamin, in whose tribe the temple and altar were: Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning he devours the prey, and in the evening he distributes food (Gen. XLIX, 27). All that is said about the vineyard can also be referred to the state of the human soul, which, though planted by God for good, has not produced grapes but wild grapes; and afterwards is handed over to be trampled by beasts, and has not received the divine rain of teachings, because it has despised past gifts.
And I expected, that he would make grapes, and he made labruscas. Concerning labruscas, which we translate, in Hebrew it is written Busim (): which Aquila interpreted as σαπρίας, that is, the worst fruit: Symmachus as ἀτελῆ, that is, imperfect: LXX and Theodotion as thorns: with which the Jews crowned the Lord. For while he was waiting for them to bring grapes to the winepress at the time of the vintage, for which the 83rd Psalm has titles, they, sinking into the cares and vices of the world, which in the Gospel (Mark 4) are interpreted as thorns, presented the stings of blasphemies. I think, however, that it is better for the grapes to be understood as Busim labruscas rather than thorns, so that the similarity of translation may be preserved. Therefore, the Savior says in the Gospel: Do they gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles (Matthew VII, 16).
5:3-4
(Verse 3, 4.) Now therefore, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? I have done everything I could for it; I planted it in the best soil, built a protective wall around it, carefully selected stones, and raised its branches with sturdy poles and supports. The vine itself was not just any vine, but a chosen and fruitful one. I built a very strong tower, in which I could store grain, and from which I could observe the wild animals that lurk around the grain. I also constructed a wine press, so that grapes could be pressed and wine could be poured in the same place. Therefore, I ask the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah to respond to me: indeed, let them judge between me and my vineyard, what I should have done and have not done? And with them remaining silent, he responds to himself: unless, of course, I made a mistake in waiting for grapes to be produced from my work, and not wild grapes, which the uncultivated and deserted vineyard is accustomed to produce. This is what the Prophet Nathan sent to David, as recorded in II Samuel 12, and he questions him through a parable, so that while he judges about someone else, he reveals his own judgment. Therefore, even here, the people are questioned as if about a vineyard, so that they themselves answer against themselves. This passage is further fulfilled by the Savior in the Gospel of Matthew 21, and what is skipped here, he questions the scribes and Pharisees. For in Isaiah, nothing is said about the farmers, nor is it indicated what they will suffer; but it is only about the vineyard: but there, as if there were another vineyard and other farmers, he speaks about the people and the teachers, so that he may destroy the wicked ones and place the vineyard with other farmers; signifying the apostles and those who will succeed the apostles. And indeed, it is not a tautology, as many believe, in what he says: An quod exspectavi, ut faceret uvas, et fecit labruscas? For above, he speaks silently within himself, but here he asks others what he had thought.
5:5-6
(V. 5, 6.) And now I will show you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be for destruction; I will break down its wall, and it will be for trampling. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry! And because, according to the parable of the Gospel, you do not want to answer what I ask, I will answer for myself on your behalf, indicating what I will do: Since I have done everything I should for my vineyard, and it has produced wild grapes instead of good grapes, I will take away everything that I have given. I will remove the assistance of the angels, about whom it is written in the psalms: The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he will deliver them (Psalm 34:7); and it will be plundered by adversaries. I will destroy the walls, and it will be subject to enemy nations, and it will be deserted and not considered forever, nor will it be dug, so that it may be turned into thorns: and thorns will rise in it. But these things are said under the metaphor of a vineyard, concerning the solitude of Jerusalem and Judaea, which many Jews believe happened under the Babylonians: and we cannot deny that it happened to some extent. But because it follows: And I will command the clouds, that they rain not upon it, this cannot be understood in that captivity. For indeed both Jeremiah prophesied after the city was captured among the people, and Ezekiel, Daniel as well as the three youths, are reported to have either prophesied or performed marvelous signs even in captivity. And afterwards Haggai and Zechariah spoke of future things for the consolation of the servile people. However, the assistance of God is taken away from those who are unworthy, so that since they did not sense God through blessings, they may sense through punishments. Or, for this reason, certain fierceness and harshness are threatened, so that the converted may avoid impending torments through repentance. The Hebrew word 'Saith' () is translated as 'thorns' in all three versions with a similar voice. Therefore, if they translate 'Saith' as 'thorns' in this context, they should explain why in the previous place they translated 'Busim' not as 'wild grapes' but as 'thorns' according to Aquila, Theodotion, and the Septuagint.
And I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it. These are the clouds which the Lord brings forth from the ends of the earth, of which we also read in the psalm: Your truth reaches to the clouds (Ps. 36:6). These clouds, because under Elijah all idolaters were, did not rain upon the land of Israel for three years and six months (3 Kings 18). This indeed we can understand not only of the prophets, but also of the apostles, that after the Passion of the Lord, the Jews did not have prophets or apostles, lest they bring forth grapes for thorns, but pray for their own barrenness and dryness to Him who can provide the rain of virtues. And in Leviticus, he says to them: I will make the sky above you like iron, and the earth beneath you like bronze (Lev. XXVI, 19). And in Deuteronomy: The sky above your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you will be iron (Deut. XXVIII, 23, 24). And again, the Lord will give rain to your land. And, Ashes will descend from the sky upon you, until it uproots you and destroys you; for a land that frequently receives rain upon itself and does not produce crops, but only thorns and thistles, is rejected and is closest to curse, and its end is burning.
5:7
(Verse 7.) But the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the men of Judah, his pleasant plant. That is, of God: or as the LXX translated, the beloved new plantation. Israel and Judah differ in this, that the whole people were first called Israel, and afterwards, when David reigned over the tribe of Judah, and Rehoboam the son of Solomon over the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, those who were in Samaria, that is, the ten tribes, were called Israel; and those who reigned from the lineage of David were called Judah. And since the Israelites worshipped calves in Dan and Bethel, Samaria was first captured by the Assyrians; and much later, Judah was taken into Babylon by the Chaldeans, because they had sinned less. Therefore, in Ezekiel, for the purification of the sins of both peoples, Israel is placed on the left side, according to the Seventy, for one hundred and ninety days, or as is more accurately stated in Hebrew, three hundred and ninety days; but Judah (according to the LXX and the Hebrew text) for forty days (Ezek. IV). I say this so that by comparing it to Israel, that is, the ten tribes, I may show the beloved and chosen Judah, in which there were priests and Levites, and the religion of God was practiced at that time when the prophet Isaiah spoke to the people. And beautifully Israel, that is, the whole people, is the house: but Judah, which afterwards sprouted from the separated tribes, is called a delightful new growth. But it should also be noted that according to the prophetic custom, which was first spoken in metaphor or parable, it is later explained more clearly: that the vineyard and new plantation are Israel and Judah.
And I waited for judgment, and behold there was iniquity: and for justice, and behold there was a cry, as the LXX translated, I waited for judgment, and he did iniquity, and not justice, but a cry. We want to reveal to Latin ears what we learned from the Hebrews: Judgment, among them, is called Mesphat (): iniquity, or dissipation, as Aquila interpreted, is called Mesphaa (). Again, justice is called Sadaca (): but a cry is called Saaca (). Therefore, either by adding or changing a single letter, he tempered the similarity of the words, so that instead of Mesphat, he wrote Mesphaa: and instead of Sadaca, he put Saaca, and he rendered the elegant structure and sound of the words according to the Hebrew language. However, God expected the people of Judea to produce judgment, that is, grapes: but they produced iniquity, that is, wild grapes: and he expected righteousness, that they would receive the generous sender of such great gifts from the Father, but instead they shouted, crying out against the Lord, and they shouted, saying: "Take him away, take him away, crucify him" (John 19:15). And so the Apostle Paul writes: Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice (Ephesians 4:31). Or certainly, because they had shed innocent blood, the blood of the Lord's Passion cried out to the Lord: therefore they made a cry for justice, according to what we read in Genesis, The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me (Genesis 4:10).
5:8
(Verse 8) Woe to those who join house to house and connect field to field, until there is no more room and you are left to dwell alone in the land. In our opinion, they have transferred this phrase, 'until there is no more room,' to 'until you take away your neighbor's property.' Symmachus and Theodotion have done this, until the land fails or there is no place left; so that when the land fails, greed will not be satisfied. I believe that this applies generally to all those who are never satisfied, and specifically to the vineyard of the Lord, which produces wild grapes instead of good grapes, meaning injustice instead of justice, and outcry instead of righteousness. For what madness is it, when houses and fields should be had for driving away the rains and for sowing crops, to desire to have those things in which you cannot dwell and which you are not sufficient to cultivate, and to make your own pleasure the necessity of another? Some consider this saying according to the trope, against the heretics: when they move their feet from the East, they come into the plain of Shinar, which is interpreted as the scattering of teeth; and they build a city of confusion and a tower of pride, and they hear under other words: 'Hear this, rulers of the house of Jacob, and you remnant of the house of Israel, who loathe justice and pervert all that is right, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity' (Micah 3:9-10). They join houses to houses, that is, doctrines to doctrines; about which it is said by Michael, 'Do not build in a scornful house' (Micah 3), nor above the foundation of Christ, which the apostle Paul placed (1 Cor. 3), and in which they should have built gold, silver, precious stones; on the contrary, let them build wood, hay, straw, the end of which is fire. The Savior speaks about these kinds of houses in the Gospel: 'Everyone who hears my words and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.' Rain descended, rivers came, winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell; and great was its fall. (Matthew 7:26, 27). For so long heretics seek to join new things with old, and to change the same things for more recent ones, until human perception and speech fail.