2 Nephi 15:1

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Reference Search: 2 Nephi 15:1

1 And then will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.

Quotes for Discussion

“Song of the Vineyard”

Some of the greatest sermons are preached by the singing of hymns. Hymns move us to repentance and good works, build testimony and faith, comfort the weary, console the mourning, and inspire us to endure to the end.”

Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ix

The Israelites had a yearly festival, at the end of the year, called the feast of ingathering (Ex. 23:16; 34:22), because on that occasion the people were required to give thanks especially for the harvest of fields and vineyards. It has been suggested that this song, or poem, was composed and recited on such an occasion. It contains a parable in which Israel is represented as a vineyard (as in Isa. 3:14), and the consequences of the neglect of unfaithful keepers (Matt. 21:33-41).

George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, ed. Philip C. Reynolds, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Col., 1955-1961], 1:333

This metaphor of the Lord’s vineyard commences as a song, possibly like those sung by the men of Judah during the grape harvest. The husbandman of the vineyard is referred to as the “well-beloved,” who is identified as Jehovah, while the vineyard itself is clearly the house of Israel.

From the very beginning, it is evident that the “well-beloved” invested all the care requisite for an abundant harvest from this vineyard. He planted it in an ideal location, on a keren ben-shemen (Heb., which is translated as a “very fruitful hill” in the KJV). Literally, keren means “a horn” and probably refers to a hornlike mountain peak or hillside. By planting the vineyard on such a keren, the wise husbandman would ensure that his vineyard would not be shadowed from essential sunlight. The phrase ben-shemen means, literally, “a child of fatness” and might refer to a location with exceptionally fertile soil. The husbandman prepared the soil by digging about it carefully and removing the stones. He then planted the vineyard, not with ordinary vines, or gephen, but rather with soreq, which is thought to be a variety of grapevine that produces one of the choicest of bluish-red grapes. To protect the vineyard, he built a watchtower and apparently placed a hedge or wall around it. Both the tower and the protective walls would probably be constructed from the stones gathered out of the fields. In anticipation of an abundant harvest, he even hewed out a winepress in the vineyard.

Surely the well-beloved could have done nothing more to guarantee production from his vineyard. How bitter must his disappointment have been when, rather than bringing forth sweet juicy grapes—a faithful covenant people—the well-tended vineyard brought forth “wild grapes,” or beushim, literally meaning “stinking, worthless things.”

In frustration the husbandman determined to lay waste the vineyard but not by personally destroying the vines. Rather, he decided to cease taking care of the vineyard and withdraw his protection from it. Accordingly, he stopped pruning and cultivating the vineyard and commanded the clouds to rain no longer upon it. He also removed the protective wall from around it, thus allowing the vines to be trampled and ravaged. Eventually the vines were displaced from their choice location by noxious vegetation, including briars and thorns (see Isa. 7:23). Thus, the metaphor gives a powerful warning to Israel. If they do not respond to the nurturing direction and loving kindness of Jehovah, he will abandon them and allow another people to possess their choice land.

Terry Ball, Thy People Shall Be My People and Thy God My God: The 22nd Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium [salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1994], 19-20

The parable of the vineyard has been given or told and enacted three times in history: once by Isaiah prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. (Isa. 5:1-7), once by the Savior prior to the second destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (Matt. 21:33-46), and again by revelation through the prophet Joseph Smith in 1833 after the failure to establish a New Jerusalem in Missouri (D&C 101:43-62). All three parables use the same theme and speak of the same characters. Variations within the parables are appropriate to the time within which each was given. As an example, the first two talk about a “tower” (The Temple) which had been constructed by command of the Lord. The third parable speaks of a tower which the Lord commanded to be built but which the people never completed.

The Book of Mormon parable of the Olive tree in the fifth chapter of Jacob is similar in appearance and style but different in meaning. The story in Jacob is a historical parable of the scattering and the gathering of Israel.

Loren D. Martin, Isaiah: An Ensign to the Nations [salt Lake City: Valiant Publications, 1982], 117