According to this verse, the fine vineyards of the land will be abandoned.

Every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver: The prophet is referring to vineyards here, as Good News Translation has made clear. A vineyard that has a thousand vines is a big one. Its great value is stressed further by the detail that each vine (the creeping plant on which grapes grow) is worth a piece of silver. The number thousand is symbolic, representing a large number. This number may be rendered literally in languages where the same figurative meaning will be implied, or else it may be translated with a phrase that expresses a huge quantity, and that fits the present context. If the receptor language does not have a term for vines, a general term such as “[fruit] plants/branches” may be used (see the comments at 1.8). A shekel was a measure used for weighing things. A shekel weighed about 11 grams or 0.4 ounces. The monetary value of something was indicated by stating how many shekels of weight in silver or gold it was worth. Silver coins were not yet used in Isaiah’s time. Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Bible en français courant, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch render shekels as “pieces.” The expression “pieces of silver” (Good News Translation) is probably vague enough to leave it unclear whether these were coins in the modern sense of the word. Most important is the information that this verse is referring to large, prospering vineyards, with valuable vines and fruit.

Will become briers and thorns: See the comments on 5.6. Briers and thorns may be rendered “thorns and thornbushes.” The three times this phrase occurs in verses 23-25, translators may choose to translate it the same way to reflect Isaiah’s style. If this is unnatural in the receptor language, they may follow the model of Good News Translation and allow for some variation. Contemporary English Version has “thorn patches” in verse 23, “thornbushes” in verse 24, and “thorns and thistles” in verse 25.

Several translation examples for this verse are:

• At that time every place where there grew a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver will become a place where briers and thornbushes grows.

• In that day briers and thornbushes will grow in every place that formerly had a thousand grape vines worth a thousand pieces of silver.

• At that time only thorns will grow where once there were thousands of expensive grapevines growing.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .