(Isa. 5:2)
He obviously anticipates a plentiful harvest because he also “hews” a winepress or vat in the middle of the vineyard. Such a wine vat consists of two basins or pits carved out of the rocks. The upper pit, where the grapes are trodden out, is shallow and large enough to accommodate the workers. A trench carries the pressed-out juices to a lower, deeper pit, where the wine accumulates until it is stored in clay jars or skin bags. The construction of this type of press is usually undertaken by wealthy landowners or by those who press grapes for many farmers. Thus, the fact that the master of this vineyard builds a vat in the middle of his own field indicates that he expects his harvest alone to justify its construction. To his disappointment, however, his vines yield only wild, sour grapes.
(Victor L. Ludlow, Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1982], 114.)
He likens the Lord to a “wellbeloved” husbandman who plants a vineyard in an exceptionally choice location and does everything requisite for producing a wonderful harvest of grapes… . He built a tower in the vineyard to protect it, and in anticipation of the abundant harvest, he hewed out a winepress within the vineyard itself. Imagine the husbandman’s disappointment when, in spite of all his efforts, the vineyard refused to produce good grapes. Rather it brought forth “wild grapes,” or in the Hebrew, be’ushim, literally meaning stinking, worthless things. When the house of Israel should have thrived in righteousness, it floundered in sin. Such failure to thrive was destroying the covenant people.
(Terry B. Ball, Voices of Old Testament Prophets: The 26th Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1997], 51–52.)