Sing Me a Parable of Zion: Isaiah’s Vineyard (5:1–7) and Its Relation to the “Daughter Zion” Tradition

The figure of Daughter Zion and her relationship to the larger Zion tradition have emerged as important areas of inquiry in recent decades. This essay argues that the parabolic “Song of the Vineyard” in Isa 5:1–7 falls within this tradition of Jerusalem’s female personification and constitutes part of Daughter Zion’s larger story in Isaiah. Ancient Near Eastern woman–vineyard associations are well attested, and the love-song elements in the opening verses of the parable invite reading Isaiah’s vineyard as a figure for a woman. The parable’s depiction of the “beloved’s” devotion to the vineyard resonates strongly with the Zion tradition’s notions of divine choice of, presence in, provision for, and protection of Jerusalem. The combination of these associations in and around Isa 5:1–7 suggests that the vineyard–woman of the parable is Daughter Zion herself. The self-interpretation of the parable in Isa 5:7, coupled with the following series of woe oracles, makes the basic meaning of this text clear, but reading the Song of the Vineyard as part of Isaiah’s larger story of Daughter Zion sheds greater light on the relationship between YHWH and the people he has chosen.