² Isaiah’s parable begins: “Let me sing, please, to my beloved one a song of my loved one concerning his vineyard. There was a vineyard that my beloved one came to have on a fruitful hillside.

Isaiah 5:1,

The Care of the Vineyard

3, 4. What loving care is expended on the vineyard?

³ Whether Isaiah literally sings this parable to his listeners or not, it surely captures their attention. Most are probably familiar with the work of planting a vineyard, and Isaiah’s description is vivid and realistic. Like vine growers today, the vineyard owner plants, not grape seeds, but a “choice,” or rich, “red vine”​—a cutting or shoot from another vine. Appropriately, he plants this vineyard “on a fruitful hillside,” a place where a vineyard will thrive.