Lexical Summary bathah: To trust, to be confident, to feel secure Original Word: בָּתָה Strong's Exhaustive Concordance waste Probably an orthographical variation for battah; desolation -- waste. see HEBREW battah NAS Exhaustive Concordance Word Originfrom the same as bath Definition end, destruction NASB Translation waste (1). Brown-Driver-Briggs בָּתָה noun feminine end, destruction (for בַּתָּה, perhaps on account of difference of meaning, perhaps from analogy of כָּלָה with like sense; compare Di) — וַאֲשִׁיתֵהוּ בָּתָה Isaiah 5:6 and I will make it (the vineyard) a destruction, a waste, or (Che) make an end of it.Topical Lexicon Usage in Scripture בָּתָה occurs only once, in Isaiah 5:6, where it is rendered “wasteland”. The word describes land that has been deliberately stripped of its capacity to sustain life or yield a crop. Literary Context in Isaiah 5 Isaiah 5:1-7 presents “the song of the vineyard,” a poetic lawsuit in which the Lord indicts Judah for failing to produce the fruit of righteousness. After detailing His careful provision for the vineyard (verses 1-2), the Owner announces judgment: “I will make it a wasteland; it will not be pruned or cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow up. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.” (Isaiah 5:6) The shift from a cultivated vineyard to a בָּתָה highlights the severity of divine judgment: the land will be abandoned, overrun, and deprived of sustaining rain. Historical Background Isaiah ministered in the latter half of the eighth century B.C. The northern kingdom soon fell to Assyria (722 B.C.), and Judah faced the same threat. Turning covenant blessing into waste invoked earlier warnings in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, where persistent covenant violation would bring drought, invasion, and desolation. Isaiah’s contemporaries likely heard בָּתָה as an ominous echo of those curses. Theological Themes 1. Covenant Accountability: The transformation of fertile soil into waste dramatizes God’s unwavering commitment to His covenant standards (Deuteronomy 28:23-24). Agricultural Imagery in Prophetic Literature Other prophets employ ruined-land motifs to portray judgment (Jeremiah 4:27; Joel 1:7). Isaiah 5:6 uniquely uses בָּתָה to underscore not natural disaster but an act of purposeful, judicial abandonment: the Gardener steps away. Intertextual Echoes in the New Testament Jesus alludes to Isaiah’s vineyard song in parables such as Matthew 21:33-44 and Luke 13:6-9. The threat of a cultivated plot becoming useless ground anticipates warnings in Hebrews 6:7-8, where land that “produces thorns and thistles” faces burning. Isaiah’s בָּתָה thus informs New Testament calls to bear fruit worthy of repentance. Christological and Eschatological Considerations Where Isaiah’s vineyard fails, Jesus declares, “I am the true vine” (John 15:1). Union with Him reverses the curse of wasteland, producing fruit that remains (John 15:16). Eschatologically, Revelation 22:1-2 portrays a restored garden nourished by perpetual life-giving water—the antithesis of בָּתָה. Lessons for Ministry and Personal Application • Examine Fruitfulness: Isaiah invites congregations to evaluate whether the justice and righteousness God seeks are evident. Conclusion בָּתָה encapsulates the sobering outcome of covenant infidelity: productive soil reduced to sterile wasteland. Its lone appearance in Isaiah 5:6 magnifies the prophet’s call to repentance while setting the stage for the gospel’s restorative hope, where the barren ground of human failure is transformed into a fruitful field through the redemptive work of the Lord. Forms and Transliterations בָתָ֗ה בתה ḇā·ṯāh ḇāṯāh vaTahLinks Interlinear Greek • Interlinear Hebrew • Strong's Numbers • Englishman's Greek Concordance • Englishman's Hebrew Concordance • Parallel TextsEnglishman's Concordance Isaiah 5:6 HEB: וַאֲשִׁיתֵ֣הוּ בָתָ֗ה לֹ֤א יִזָּמֵר֙ NAS: I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned KJV: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, INT: will lay it waste not will not be pruned |
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