481. Lodge in a Garden

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 12
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Isaiah 1:88And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. (Isaiah 1:8). The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers.
As the fields were not always provided with fences it became necessary to have persons to watch them, especially while the fruit was ripening, in order to keep of all depredators, whether man, beast, or bird. These “keepers of a field” are referred to in Jeremiah 4:1717As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 4:17), and they are still to be seen in the East. During the ripening season they watch day and night and through all sorts of weather, and hence need some protection from excessive heat, dew, or storm. This protection is found in temporary huts, which are made of closely twined branches and leaves, or of pieces or matting thrown over a rude framework of poles. There is an allusion to such a frail structure in Job 27:1818He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh. (Job 27:18) and also in Isaiah 24:2020The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. (Isaiah 24:20). When the crop is gathered and the field forsaken the deserted lodge soon leans and falls, and the whole scene is one of utter loneliness. It was such a picture of desolation to which the prophet compares “the daughter of Zion.”