¹ tn Heb “vineyards.”

³ tn Grk “from the fruit of the vineyard.”

³ tn Grk “from the fruits of the vineyard.”

⁷ tn Or “hills,” where the vineyards were planted.

² tn Heb “vineyard of delight,” or “vineyard of beauty.” Many medieval mss read כֶּרֶם חֶמֶר (kerem khemer, “vineyard of wine”), i.e., “a productive vineyard.”

¹ tn Heb “And you shall not deal severely with your vineyard.”

² tn Or “Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard”; Heb “and Noah, a man of the ground, began and he planted a vineyard.”

² sn Throwing the heir out of the vineyard pictures Jesus’ death outside of Jerusalem.

⁴ sn Throwing the heir’s body out of the vineyard pictures Jesus’ death outside of Jerusalem.

³ sn Throwing the heir out of the vineyard pictures Jesus’ death outside of Jerusalem.

⁴ sn The vineyard is a metaphor for the nation here. See 5:1-7.

¹ sn The protective walls of the metaphorical vineyard are in view here (see Isa 5:5).

⁵ tn The text reads, “he does not turn by the way of the vineyards.” This means that since the land is cursed, he/one does not go there. Bickell emended “the way of the vineyards” to “the treader of the vineyard” (see RSV, NRSV). This would mean that “no wine-presser would turn towards” their vineyards.

² tn Each of the three terms in this line has the first person common singular suffix which is repeated three times for emphasis: כַּרְמִי (karmi, “my vineyard”), שֶׁלִּי (shelli, “which belongs to me”), and לְפָנָי (l^efana, “at my disposal”). In contrast to King Solomon, who owns the vineyard at Baal Hamon and who can buy and sell anything in the vineyard that he wishes, she proclaims that her “vineyard” (= herself or her body) belongs to her alone. In contrast to the vineyard, which can be leased out, and its fruit, which can be bought or sold, her “vineyard” is not for sale. Her love must and is to be freely given.

² tn Heb “my vineyard.” To translate literally would presuppose an unlikely familiarity with this figure on the part of some readers. Some translate as “vineyards,” but that is misleading because it misses the figurative nuance altogether.

¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the worker who tended the vineyard) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ sn The term “vineyard” is also a figure. In 1:6 she used the vineyard motif as a metaphor for her physical appearance, but here it is “our vineyards” which is probably a figure for their romantic relationship. The phrase “in bloom” makes the metaphor more specific, so that the phrase “our vineyards are in bloom” means that their romantic love relationship was in its initial stages, that is, before it had ripened into marriage.

⁷ sn The repetition of the noun כֶּרֶם (kerem, “vineyard”) and the verb נָטַר (natar, “to keep, maintain”) creates a series of eloquent wordplays. The first occurrence of כֶּרֶם (“vineyard”) and נָטַר (“to keep”) is literal, the second occurrence of both is figurative (hypocatastasis). Her brothers forced her to work outside in the sun, taking care of the vineyards; as a result, she was not able to take care of her appearance (“my own vineyard I could not keep”).

² sn The slaves being sent empty-handed suggests that the vineyard was not producing any fruit—and thus neither was the nation of Israel.

⁵ sn The slaves being sent empty-handed suggests that the vineyard was not producing any fruit—and thus neither was the nation of Israel.