The first woe oracle (vv. 8ff.) is directed against the abuse of power
by the wealthy who exploit the poor by driving them off their land. From the
chilling story of Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings 21) one learns how deep was the
tradition of the land as a sacred inheritance. Because the rich of Judah act as
if they now own the land for their pleasure—“It is you who has ravished the
vineyard” (3:14)—God now threatens to destroy it literally, both houses and
crops.
The second oracle (vv. 11ff.) is directed against the self-indulgence
of a wealthy class whose members waste their time in carousing and frivolity
and have no regard for God’s activity in the world, not perceiving his work as
creator. This lack of knowledge, which introduced the book in v. 13 (cf. Hos.
4:1), has been greatly expanded, first in v. 3 by the threat of exile and dying
of hunger and thirst, and second in v. 14 against the wealthy of Jerusalem, who
are portrayed as sliding down into Sheol. Verses 15–16 pick up a refrain from
2:9 to strike again the note that God alone will be exalted and the proud
brought low. The God of righteousness looked for justice, but found only
iniquity within his vineyard, thus the fury with which his anger burns. Verse
17 concludes the original woe oracle with the theme of the strangers feeding
among the ruins, which resonates with 1:7. The reading of the LXX—kids grazing
among the rubble—is also a familiar image in Isaiah (e.g., 7:25). (Brevard
S. Childs, Isaiah: A Commentary [The Old Testament Library; Louisville,
Ky.: Westminister John Knox Press, 2001], 47)
Commenting on
Isaiah 22:12-14:
The idea of enjoying life to the full because death is coming for
certain is common to all mankind. The following verse of Alcaeus had been
preserved:
It is ill yielding the heart to mischance, for we shall make no
advance if we weary of thee, O Bacchus, and the best medicine is to call for
wine and drink deep.
But Isaiah is of a different opinion. For him the attitude of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem is iniquitous, because it does not take account of God
as the lord of history, who is seeking to guide men by the blows which strike
them to repent and to remember him and his demands. If they do not remember
him, and fail to hear the call of God which comes to them in the disaster, he
will strike them once again for the last time. Thus the words of Yahweh, the
lord of reality, ring in Isaiah’s ears (cf. 5:9) and he hears the solemn oath
that the wickedness of their unwillingness to repent, and the guilt that
results, will only be atoned for by death; that is, it will be objectively
wiped out. In other words, for Isaiah the events of the year 701 are no more
than a preliminary to the final catastrophe which is to fall upon the southern
kingdom, because its people have not seized their last chance of turning to him
who has smitten them (cf. 9:12). (Otto Kaiser, Isaiah 13-39: A
Commentary [trans. R. A. Wilson; The Old Testament Library; Philadelphia,
Pa.: The Westminster Press, 1974], 143)
Commenting on Isa
6:11:
11. Lord, how long—will this wretched condition of the
nation being hardened to its destruction continue? Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant (ch. 5:9)—fulfilled
primarily at the Babylonish captivity, and more fully at the dispersion under
the Roman Titus. (A.
R. Fausset, A Commentary, Critical,
Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols. [London: William Collins,
Sons, & Company, Limited, n.d.], 3:583)
