The vineyard is a common analogy used of Israel. The parable of the tenants (Matt 21:33-44) probably alludes to this passage, and in John's gospel Jesus talks about the vine and His father being the gardener. Paul, too, uses the vine analogy in Romans.
"The one I love" is God, and Israel is His vineyard. The Lord cleared the land of its inhabitants when Israel entered the Promised Land. He planted the nation of Israel there, and she had the Law. The land should have produced good fruit. It should have been a light to the nations, indeed it should have been the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him. Instead it produced only bad fruit.
The Lord then calls on Israel to consider the situation, basically whose fault was it? There is nothing else the Lord could have done, so the fault lay with Israel. So the Lord was going to remove the hedge of protection around the land, it would be open to foreign invaders. Natural disasters too would befall the land.
In verse 7 Isaiah makes clear the meaning of the parable. Israel and Judah were the vineyard, justice and righteousness were the good fruit He looked for, instead He found bloodshed and oppression of the poor.
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