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5 And he digged it, and gathered out the stones thereof,
And planted it with the choicest vine,

And built a tower in the midst of it,

And also hewed out a winepress therein:

And he looked that it should bring forth grapes,

IO And it brought forth wild grapes.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem,

And men of Judah,

Judge, I pray you, between me

And my vineyard.

15 What could have been done more to my vineyard,

That I have not done in it?

Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes,
Brought it forth wild grapes?

And now, I will tell you

20 What I will do to my vineyard:

I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned:

I will break down its wall, and it shall be trodden down:
And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor hoed;
But there shall come up briers and thorns:

25 I will also command the clouds

That they rain no rain upon it.

For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah the plant of his delight:

And he looked for justice, but behold oppression;

30 For righteousness, but behold a cry.

We do not know when Isaiah completed his work. Hezekiah was succeeded by his son Manasseh, a man who made Jerusalem a mere outpost of Assyria. Tradition ascribes to him a persecution of the prophets of Jehovah in an attempt to silence their protesting voices. So influential a man as Isaiah would hardly escape in such a persecution. We can only surmise the end. But was it the end? Can we today realize how the thoughts and ideals of Isaiah have permeated our own civic and religious life? Clean politics, cautious statesmanship, international fidelity, the courage and calmness of profound conviction in political crises, all these are Isaiah's contribution to our national ideals. Clean lips, a pure

heart, and undying faith and hope in the wisdom and strength of Jehovah are the heritage which we as individuals may make our

own.

As for Isaiah the man, he stands as the poet, orator, prophet, statesman, and idealist of his age, without a peer among the prophets of his day, and perhaps we may safely say unsurpassed by those of any land or time.1

1 When a man ever reaching out for more truth has faithfully lived up to all the truth he knows, is it right for later generations to condemn him because he failed to see all the truth which later ages have learned? Parents are sometimes as great as the children who in the light of a later generation have reached a new realm of facts. In other words is it knowledge which makes men great, or qualities of character? Although later history shows Isaiah mistaken in his dream of the inviolability of Jerusalem, the glory of his character and his clearer conception of Jehovah remain undimmed through the barrier of twenty centuries.

CHAPTER X

MICAH OF MORESHETH

The writings of Isaiah give a vivid picture of conditions in Jerusalem under siege. We must not overlook the fact that there were many Hebrew towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem which were not protected by walls and fortifications as was the greater city. Upon these fell the horrors of war in fullest measure. Villages were devastated or burned, crops consumed by soldiers, and agriculture brought to a standstill. Owners of great estates had fled to the city for safety, and the poor were left without means of support or defense. Even in times of peace social conditions outside Jerusalem were very different from those within its walls. Rich landowners preferred to live in the city rather than upon their greater estates. The country people supplied in large measure the food for the city. The agriculturist was at the mercy of his richer neighbor, and there was every opportunity for the gratification of greed and the practice of extortion and tyranny. Thus there was ever a touch of bitterness in the attitude of the countrymen toward the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Micah of Moresheth, a prophet whose home was in the midst of the fertile plain of the Philistines to the southwest of Jerusalem, has left us a few fragments' which reflect this attitude toward the city, as well as a less sanguine view of her fate than that of Isaiah. The details of his eventful life we cannot even conjecture, but the boldness of his words may well have brought to him both friends and enemies. Like Isaiah he saw destruction descending upon Samaria, and interpreted it as a visitation of Jehovah on account of her sins.

Hear, all ye people;

Hearken, O earth, and all that therein is:

And let the Lord Jehovah be witness against you,
The Lord from his holy temple.

1 Selections are here given from chaps. 1 and 3.

5 For behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of his place,

And will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

And the mountains shall be melted under him,

And the valleys shall be cleft,

As wax before the fire,

IO As waters that are poured down a steep place.

For the transgression of Jacob is all this,
And for the sins of the house of Israel.

What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria ?
"Therefore will I make Samaria as a heap of the field,

15 And as places for planting vineyards:

And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley,
And I will uncover the foundations thereof."

Isaiah reared in the very shadow of the Temple courts could only believe that Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, must maintain an inviolable dwelling-place among his people. To Micah, this same city of Jerusalem was synonomous with tyranny and oppression, greed and dishonesty, heaped-up riches, gathered in the fields of his neighbors--a city too corrupt for Jehovah to endure. When therefore Sennacherib came marching down the coast he saw no hope for Jerusalem. He cries:

"I will lament and wail,

I will go stripped and uncovered:2
I will make a wailing like the jackals,
And a lamentation like the ostriches.3

5 For her wound is incurable;

For it is come unto Judah;

It reacheth unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem."

His denunciations have in them a ring of fierceness which is almost personal and we wonder what tragic experiences lie back

I

1 Jehovah is here represented as having a contention with his people, which will bring him to the earth, with great upheavals of nature in his train. In the midst of this terrible visitation Samaria will be destroyed.

2

Stripped and uncovered: That is, without an outer garment. symbolic act in connection with the proposed alliance with Egypt. of hope in Micah's lamentation.

3 Like the ostriches: The allusion is to the shrill cry of these birds.

Recall Isaiah's There is no note

of them. The ruling classes receive no more bitter arraignment than their leaders, the false prophets, who "cry, peace, when there is no peace." Did Micah perhaps include Isaiah in this class of false leaders, because of his promise of the deliverance of Jerusalem?

"Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob,
And rulers of the house of Israel;
Is it not for you to know justice?
Ye who hate the good, and love the evil;
5 Who pluck their skin from off them,

And their flesh from off their bones;
Who also eat the flesh of my people,
And flay their skin from off them,
And break their bones,

IO And chop them in pieces as for the pot,
And as flesh within the cauldron."

Then' shall they cry unto Jehovah, but he will not answer
them:

Yea, he will hide his face from them at that time.

According as they have wrought evil in their doings.

15 Thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that make my people err,

That bite with their teeth and cry, Peace,

And whoso putteth not into their mouths,

They even declare war against him.

"Therefore it shall be night unto you, that ye shall have no vision;

20 And it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; And the sun shall go down upon the prophets,

And the day shall be dark over them.

And the seers shall be put to shame and the diviners confounded.

Yea, they shall all cover their lips;

25 For there is no answer of God.”

But as for me, I am full of power by the spirit of Jehovah,
And of judgment, and of might,

To declare unto Jacob his transgression,

And to Israel his sin.

1 Then: The prophet here looks forward to the day of punishment which he believes to be at hand.

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