Isaiah 5 · a question people ask
Who is singing, and who is the "well beloved" (5:1)?
The chapter doesn't name the singer. The last heading before it, at 2:1, says, "This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem" (2:1), and in the chapter someone says, "In my ears, the LORD of Armies says" (5:9); the song itself names no singer. He sings "for my well beloved" about "his vineyard" (5:1). From 5:3 the owner speaks for himself, as I: "please judge between me and my vineyard" (5:3). And 5:7 says whose vineyard it is: "For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel" (5:7). So the vineyard the singer's beloved had (5:1) is the vineyard of the LORD of Armies (5:7). In Hebrew the verse has two words the WEB gives as beloved: yedid, in "my well beloved" and "My beloved had a vineyard", and dod, in "a song of my beloved" (tap well beloved). The chapter says nothing more about the singer, and these notes don't either.
The verses
“This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.”
“Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.”
““Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.”
“For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.”