The Precious in the Midst of the Abominable (Isa. 1:8 - part 2)

So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, As a hut in a garden of cucumbers, As a besieged city.

The beginning of Isaiah 1:8 says that the daughter of Zion was “left”.  We talked about that last time and concluded that she was left, but not completely, but that a remnant was left to her.  We noted that the introduction of the term “daughter” into the text suggested a much more personal note to the conversation that was somewhat in contrast with foregoing verses.

Nevertheless, she was left.  We pick up here with a picture of a desperate city under siege.

A Desperate City Under Siege

As a cottage - literally, “a shade,” or “shelter”, a temporary habitation erected in vineyards to give shelter to the grape gatherers, and to those who were appointed to watch the vineyard to guard it from depredations; compare the note at Matt. 21:33.

“Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.

The “tower” that the landowner built was for those who would attend the vineyard to take shelter in while they watched the vineyard in case there was a storm. It was not meant to be a permanent shelter, but only a temporary, emergency one. In Matthew, the intention was likely different than the intention here. There, the intention of the landowner was more of a fortress kind of an idea, a defense of the vineyard against those who would steal from him. Here, it was the shelter of the attendants from storm.

The word is translated variously as booth, hut, even tent. It can refer to everything from an open sided tent that barely provides any cover at all, just from sun, to a small, makeshift cottage designed for occasional and seasonal habitation, shelter from the weather and the like.

As such it is a powerful image of desolation: a rude hut used in late summer by watchmen who kept the birds away from the crops, but abandoned in every other season. This, as opposed to the land of milk and honey that was promised and entered into by the people of God as they emerged from bondage in Egypt. The contrast between plenty, abundance and ease is startling.