כֶּרֶם

From the study of Isaiah 5:1

Range of meaning

Vineyard: a planted, walled or hedged plot of vines, usually with a watchtower and a winepress cut into the rock (see v. 2). It took years of work before the first good harvest. Metaphorically it stood for (a) a beloved woman in love poetry (Song 1:6, 'my own vineyard I have not kept'; 8:12), and (b) Israel as God's planting (Ps 80:8–16; Jer 2:21; 12:10; Hos 10:1, using the related word 'vine').

Against the English

'Vineyard' is accurate. But the modern image of a winery estate or a leisure property misses the ancient picture: a family's long-term, labour-heavy investment of hope, and a stock poetic image for a bride.

How it drifted

Modern readers know vineyards as commercial wine country. The love-poetry symbolism belongs to an ancient genre most readers have never been taught.

Used elsewhere in the period

Song of Songs 1:6; 2:15; 8:11–12; Ps 80; Jer 2:21; 12:10. Isaiah returns to the image in a second, hopeful vineyard song (Isa 27:2–6). The Septuagint uses ampelōn; Jesus' parable of the tenants (Mark 12:1; Matt 21:33) quotes the Greek wording of Isa 5:1–2.

From the study of Isaiah 5:4

Range of meaning

A vineyard: cultivated vines with their walls, terraces, tower and press. In poetry it is also an image for a beloved woman (Song 1:6; 8:12) and for Israel as God's planting.

Against the English

"Vineyard" is accurate. What English readers may miss is the double layer of the image: love-song language and the covenant people at once.

Used elsewhere in the period

Israel as God's vine or vineyard appears in Ps 80:8-16, Jer 2:21 (a choice vine turned degenerate), Jer 12:10, Hos 10:1 and Isa 27:2-6 (the restored vineyard). The Song of Songs uses the vineyard for the woman. Later Jewish interpretation (the Targum of Isaiah; the Qumran fragment 4Q500) reads the tower and winepress of this song as the sanctuary and altar.

From the study of Isaiah 27:2

Range of meaning

A vineyard: a planted, walled or hedged plot of vines, often with a watchtower and a winepress cut into the rock. Used as a picture of (1) Israel as God's planting (Isa 5:1–7; Ps 80:8–16; Jer 2:21; 12:10), and (2) a loved woman or one's own body and sexuality (Song 1:6; 8:11–12).

Against the English

English "vineyard" is accurate. What a modern reader misses is how much a vineyard meant: years of work before the first harvest, constant guarding, and a ready-made image of both the nation and the beloved.

Used elsewhere in the period

Common across the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint uses ampelōn. Ugaritic krm means vineyard. Israel as God's vine or vineyard carries on into Second Temple writings and the New Testament (Mark 12:1–12; John 15).