Isaiah 5:2

5:2 He built a hedge around it, ¹  removed its stones,

and planted a vine.

He built a tower in the middle of it,

and constructed a winepress.

He waited for it to produce edible grapes,

but it produced sour ones instead. ² 

Isaiah 19:19

19:19 At that time there will be an altar for the Lord in the middle of the land of Egypt, as well as a sacred pillar ³  dedicated to the Lord at its border.

Isaiah 25:11

25:11 Moab ⁴  will spread out its hands in the middle of it, ⁵ 

just as a swimmer spreads his hands to swim;

the Lord ⁶  will bring down Moab’s ⁷  pride as it spreads its hands. ⁸ 

Isaiah 41:18

41:18 I will make streams flow down the slopes

and produce springs in the middle of the valleys.

I will turn the desert into a pool of water

and the arid land into springs.

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¹ tn Or, “dug it up” (so NIV); KJV “fenced it.’ See HALOT 810 s.v. עזק.

² tn Heb “wild grapes,” i.e., sour ones (also in v. 4).

sn At this point the love song turns sour as the Lord himself breaks in and completes the story (see vv. 3-6). In the final line of v. 2 the love song presented to the Lord becomes a judgment speech by the Lord.

³ tn This word is sometimes used of a sacred pillar associated with pagan worship, but here it is associated with the worship of the Lord.

⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn The antecedent of the third masculine singular pronominal suffix is probably the masculine noun מַתְבֵּן (matben, “heap of straw”) in v. 10 rather than the feminine noun מַדְמֵנָה (madmenah, “manure pile”), also in v. 10.

⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn The Hebrew text has, “he will bring down his pride along with the [?] of his hands.” The meaning of אָרְבּוֹת (’arbot), which occurs only here in the OT, is unknown. Some (see BDB 70 s.v. אָרְבָּה) translate “artifice, cleverness,” relating the form to the verbal root אָרָב (’arav, “to lie in wait, ambush”), but this requires some convoluted semantic reasoning. HALOT 83 s.v. *אָרְבָּה suggests the meaning “[nimble] movements.” The translation above, which attempts to relate the form to the preceding context, is purely speculative.