This Piel verb means to dig about or dig carefully, especially the careful cultivation of soil around plants. The intensive Piel form suggests thorough, painstaking work. In Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard, the lover prepares his vineyard by carefully digging and working the soil, removing stones and planting choice vines—every detail shows intensive care. The verb connects to Arabic and Ethiopic roots meaning to cleave or furrow the earth with a tool, and to words for wells and cisterns dug into the ground. The image is of a vineyard keeper who spares no effort in preparing the soil, making the vineyard's failure to produce good grapes all the more tragic and inexcusable.