The poem continues with a description of the careful attention the friend gave to his vineyard. That description ends with the climactic last lines that tell how disappointed he was when it failed to produce the right kind of fruit. One literary feature of the Hebrew of this verse is the threefold repetition of the suffix -ehu (meaning “it”), which gives a sound rhythm to its first two lines. This feature makes the poem more memorable.

He digged it and cleared it of stones: The Hebrew verb translated digged is used only here in the Old Testament. It refers to digging up the ground in order to loosen it. For the first clause New International Version has “He dug it up,” and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “He broke the ground.” However, in many languages the natural verb to use here will be a general one meaning “to hoe.” This will be better than a word that refers to plowing by using animals. After a farmer loosened the soil, he had to remove the stones before he could plant. The soil in Israel is full of stones and rocks.

And planted it with choice vines may be rendered “he planted choice vines in it.” The idea of planted is repeated in verse 7 when the explanation of the parable is given. It refers to the act of putting young seedlings or cuttings (not fully grown plants) into the ground, as is done for rice, for example; it does not refer to the act of sowing seeds. Planting choice vines (Hebrew sorek) should produce good quality grapes. The meaning of the Hebrew noun here is uncertain since the only other place it occurs in the Old Testament is Jer 2.21. The noun is actually the name given to the Sorek Valley (see Jdg 16.4), a famous wine-growing area. For this line translators may say “he planted very good vine shoots/cuttings in it.”

He built a watchtower in the midst of it: When the farmer removed the rocks, he used them to build not only a wall around the vineyard but also a small tower in the middle of it. A watchtower is not a simple hut built for a night watchman, but a permanent tall building made of stone. It is a structure that takes much time and effort to build. The farmer sat on the watchtower to protect his crop from birds and thieves. In languages that do not have a word for “tower,” the translator can express the idea correctly by saying “strong tall place/house [for guarding the land].” Another possibility is “lookout.”

Hewed out a wine vat in it: When the farmer made wine, he first squeezed out the juice from the ripe grapes. He did this by trampling on the grapes in a shallow hole cut into rock. From this place the juice flowed through a channel to a lower and bigger hole in the rock. After this he put the juice into storage jars or containers made from animal skins. Then he left it to ferment and turn into wine. The wine vat was the bigger hole in the rock for collecting the grape juice. So the verb hew here means to dig or cut out of rock. Good News Translation‘s rendering “dug a pit for treading the grapes” is not quite correct since the pit was for collecting the grape juice. A better model is “he cut [or, chiseled] a stone pit [or, a pit in the rock] in which to collect the juice from the grapes.”

And he looked for it to yield grapes: After the farmer made all these preparations, he looked forward to a good harvest. We may say “So he hoped for good grapes” or “So he looked forward to it [or, his vineyard] producing good grapes.” This implies that the winegrower waited for the seedlings to mature and bear fruit, which could take several years. So the translation should not imply that the farmer expected fruit to appear on the plants overnight, miraculously. Good News Translation tries to avoid this small pitfall with “He waited for the grapes to ripen.” The word grapes in this context implies “good [or, sweet] grapes.” This contrasts with what the farmer found instead. The Hebrew verb rendered yield (ʿasah), which is a keyword for this section, is used here and in the next line. It has the sense of “produce.”

But it yielded wild grapes: Instead of good grapes, the vineyard only produced wild grapes (Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). This is a misleading translation. The adjective wild suggests fruit growing “in the wild” (naturally anywhere), so it does not really fit with grapes that have been planted. The Hebrew word here refers to bitter (Contemporary English Version) or sour-tasting grapes (Good News Translation). New International Version has “bad fruit,” but this could suggest that it was diseased. The sense is that the grapes were sour, so they were unfit for use in winemaking. We suggest translators use an expression such as “sour grapes” or “poor quality grapes.”

Translation examples for this verse are:

• He dug the soil and removed the stones,
he planted the best vines and built a lookout to keep watch over it [or, the vineyard],
then he dug a pit in the rock for collecting the grape juice.
Thus he looked forward to it giving fine grapes,
but all its fruit was sour.”

• He dug the ground and cleared it of stones, planted the best vines, built a lookout in it [or, the vineyard], and dug a pit in the rock for collecting the grape juice. So he expected it to give good grapes, but all he got was sour grapes.”

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .