A fence in Scripture is usually a hedge or a stone wall around a vineyard, and what becomes of it tells a story. In Isaiah 5 the owner “fenced it, and gathered out the stones”, then takes away the hedge when the vineyard yields wild grapes. Jesus tells a similar parable of a householder who “hedged it round about” (Matthew 21:33). Proverbs 24 walks past a lazy man’s field where “the stone wall thereof was broken down.” And in Ezekiel 22:30 God looks for someone to “make up the hedge, and stand in the gap.” Isaiah 5 is a good place to start.
11 verses
But the angel of the LORD stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side.
How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.
The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.
I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;
And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:
Matthew George Easton, 1897
(Heb. gader), Num. 22:24 (R.V.). Fences were constructions of unmortared stones, to protect gardens, vineyards, sheepfolds, etc. From various causes they were apt to bulge out and fall (Ps. 62:3). In Ps. 80:12, R.V. (see Isa. 5:5), the psalmist says, “Why hast thou broken down her fences?” Serpents delight to lurk in the crevices of such fences (Eccl. 10:8; comp. Amos 5:19).