Isaias 5:3

11. And what they who belonged to the God of Abraham? “For the mighty gods of the earth are greatly lifted up.” They who were gods, the people of God, the vineyard of God, whereof it is said, “Judge betwixt Me and My vineyard,” shall go into outer darkness, shall not sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, are not gathered unto the God of Abraham. Wherefore? “For the mighty gods of the earth;” they who were mighty gods of the earth, presuming upon earth. What earth? Themselves; for every man is earth. For to man was it said, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” But man ought to presume upon God, and thence to hope for help, not from himself. For the earth raineth not upon itself, nor shineth for itself; but as the earth from heaven expecteth rain and light, so man from God ought to expect mercy and truth. …

“Hear, O My people, and I will speak, and will bear witness unto thee”( ver. 8 ). For it is not to a strange people, not to a people that belongs not to the press: “Judge ye,” He saith, “between Me and My vineyard.”

As long as we are in the hand of God, “no one is able to pluck us out” ( John x. 28 .), for that hand is strong; but when we fall away from that hand and that help, then are we lost, then are we exposed, ready to be snatched away, as a “bowing wall, and a tottering fence” ( Ps. lxii. 3 .); when the wall is weak, it will be easy for all to surmount. Think not this which I am about to say refers to Jerusalem alone, but to all men. And what was spoken of Jerusalem? “Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and I made a fence about it, and surrounded it with a dike, and planted it with the vine of Sorech, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also dug a wine press in it, and I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns. …

22. For Isaiah first set men of Judah as judges over them, and there was planted amongst them a new and beloved planting. But these are those judges who shall sit on twelve thrones and judge their twelve tribes . And thus He said to the judges: Judge between Me and My vineyard, what further, O ye judges, should I have done to My vineyard, that I did not do? For lo! I planted it with vine scions , and they became strange vines. I surrounded it with a fence of heavenly Watchers and I built its tower , the holy Temple. And I dug out its winepress , the baptism of the priests. And I brought down rain upon it, the words of My Prophets. And I pruned it and trimmed it, from the works of the Amorites. I looked that it should produce grapes of righteousness, and it produced wild grapes of iniquity and sin. I looked for judgment and behold oppression, and for righteousness and there was a cry. …