What is so bad about a cottage in a vineyard?
Question:
"And 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).
What's so bad about 'a cottage in a vineyard' and a 'lodge in a garden of cucumbers'?
Answer:
"Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city" (Isaiah 1:7-8).
The wrong impression is being given because "cottage" and "lodge" are too fancy of terms in modern English for what is being referred to.
The first structure is a sukkah in Hebrew. It refers to a temporary shelter, such as a hut. These are the booths erected during the feast of the Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34, 42-43). It is also what Jonah erected to protect him from the sun (Jonah 4:5). During harvest season, temporary huts were erected for the watchmen who protected the crops. After the harvest, the huts were abandoned and left to fall apart on their own. And, of course, people rarely visit the fields after the harvest is past, so it is the image of abandonment, loneliness, and decay.
The second structure is a melunah in Hebrew. It also refers to a watchman's hut. It means a frail, insecure structure that is easily knocked down. This word is also used in "The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall totter like a hut; its transgression shall be heavy upon it, and it will fall, and not rise again" (Isaiah 24:20).
