For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, And of the fields of Gomorrah Their grapes are grapes of poison, Bitter are their clusters;
Moses is near the end of his song. He has just said that Israel's defeats could only come from their own Rock giving them up, and now he turns to a vineyard picture. Commentators differ over whose vine it is, and that question decides how the verse is read.
The song looks ahead to a fall that had not yet happened:
This is a prophetic song, and it rests on the fall of the people that God already knew was coming. First it declares that Jehovah is perfect, whatever happens. It is Israel who have corrupted themselves… But Jeshurun (Israel) grew fat and kicked, and abandoned the Rock of his strength.
Verse 32 follows straight on from the two rocks compared in verse 31. Even Israel's enemies can see the difference:
Verse 29 gives a very moving appeal: "Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would think about how they will end!… For their rock is not as our Rock; even our enemies can judge that." There is, and there can be, only one Rock. Blessed be His glorious Name through all ages!
Some take the "their" of verse 32 as the nations around Israel — the same "they" whose rock is not Israel's Rock:
The vine of Israel's enemies was the vine of Sodom… But in fact, "their grapes are grapes of poison," bitter in the end… The wine from their grapes was the poison of serpents. The serpents point to Satan's deception, which brings the poison of death to its victims. This describes the spiritual deception that held Israel's enemies in the land captive. Was Israel so foolish as to think they could share in such things and escape terrible consequences?
Others read the same words as God's verdict on Israel, spoken long before Israel entered Canaan:
In His plan for governing the earth, He had marked out a place of distinction and great honour for them. But they proved themselves a foolish people, a nation without understanding, and completely unworthy of the trust He had meant to give them. They were a perverse and crooked generation, children with no faithfulness in them. They had proved themselves to be all this before they ever entered the promised land.
Older translations call these "grapes of gall". Sodom and Gomorrah were the cities God destroyed, so a vine rooted there points to the same end:
Many have suggested what tree this refers to. Josephus speaks of fruit that grew near the Dead Sea, which "looks as if it is fit to eat, but when you pick it, it crumbles into smoke and ashes." Some judge the vine spoken of in Scripture to be the poisonous colocynth, which grows near the Dead Sea. May the term not be a picture of what leads to destruction — the very fate that came on Sodom?
The Owner had looked for fruit. That is where the grief of this verse lies:
Yet He longs and yearns over them! Let the cross say whether He does not… Oh, that they had been wise! That they had understood, and had thought about the end that was certain to come!… No — sadly, the fruit He had looked for from them was only the vine of Sodom, bitter and poisonous. And He, the Righteous One, had no choice but to be against them.
Yet the verdict is not the song's last word:
All this lay open before Jehovah before He brought His people into the good land. Israel's condition called for His righteous judgment. Yet in the end God would bring them into blessing, and the nations with them, just as He said: "Rejoice, you nations, with His people" (Deut. 32:43, older translation).
The ruin of the people was total, yet the religious routine never stopped:
In short, the moral ruin, disgrace and shame of the people was total and complete — their vine was the vine of Sodom, their grapes, grapes of poison — apart from the little remnant. Yet as far as religion went, all was in order. The blood of bulls and goats flowed daily. The golden and bronze altars were in constant use. They offered the incense just as in earlier days.
- Rock — the song sets one true Rock against all others. Israel's defeats came not from a weak God, but from a God who gave them up.
- Vine — a stock taken from Sodom names the crop's destination; the fruit looks edible and turns to ashes.
- Fruit — God looked for fruit and found poison. His own righteousness then had to stand against them.
- Verdict — commentators differ on whose vine this is: Israel's enemies, or Israel. Either way, no one drinks this wine and lives.
- Vintage — the song that exposes the vine still ends with the nations called to rejoice with His people.
Their wine is the poison of dragons, And the cruel venom of vipers.
Moses is singing his final song over Israel. Near its close he describes a people whose whole harvest is corrupt. Their vineyard grows bitter fruit, and the cup pressed from it is venom. Two questions follow: whose wine is this, and what does God do about it?
The word behind "asps" names a real snake. Scripture then borrows its venom to picture people.
The word is pethen. It has been identified with the naja haje, a snake that can spit its deadly poison some distance. That is why the Dutch colonists at the Cape called them the spitting snake. Scripture uses its "cruel venom" as a picture of the wine of the wicked (Deut. 32:33, compare Rom. 3:13), and the inward misery of those who are secretly wicked (Job 20:14, 16).
The same image runs through the Bible, and it cuts in two directions.
Scripture uses the poison of serpents and of asps as a symbol for the judgement of God, and for the malice already inside the wicked. Deut. 32:24, 33; Job 6:4; Job 20:16; Ps. 58:4; Ps. 140:3; Rom. 3:13. The tongue is "a restless evil, full of deadly poison" (James 3:8).
Commentators differ on who "their" refers to. Some see a portrait of Israel's enemies in the land, whose idea of joy ended in death.
The vine, which yields grape juice, pictures joy. Ungodly people count it joy to corrupt themselves as the people of Sodom did… But in reality, "their grapes are grapes of gall," bitter in the end. The wine from their grapes was the poison of serpents (v.33). The serpents tell us of Satan's delusion, bringing the poison of death to its victims. This describes the spiritual delusion that held Israel's enemies in the land in bondage. Was Israel so ignorant as to think they could indulge in such things without suffering dire consequences?
Others read it as God's verdict on Israel themselves.
They had proved themselves to be a foolish people, a nation with no understanding, and completely unworthy of the trust He had purposed to commit to them… The mark they bore was not the mark of His children. They bore instead the marks of the first rebel. They were a perverse and crooked generation, children in whom there was no faithfulness.
Whoever is in view, the picture does not end there. God's long delay is mercy, not indifference.
What a terrible picture of a people's moral condition, drawn by a master hand! This is the divine estimate of the real state of all those whose rock was not as the Rock of Israel. But a day of vengeance will come. It is delayed, in long-suffering mercy, but it will come as surely as there is a God on the throne of heaven.
One writer turns the image on believers who added law-keeping to the gospel.
Those they fooled were still to blame… They should have remembered what they once knew about Paul, and how law differs from gospel, as they saw it in him. They should also have known better, and guarded more carefully, the treasure God had given them through him. But instead of watching, they were over-confident. Their own carelessness deceived them, and they ended up drinking the poison of serpents (Deut. 32:33) instead of the pure milk of the word of grace.
Moses sang this verdict before Israel crossed into the land. The failure never caught God off guard, and it never cancelled His purpose.
God was no more taken aback by Israel's failure to produce fruit for His pleasure than He was by the fall of Adam in Eden… All this was in the LORD's view before He brought His people into the good land. The state of Israel called for His righteous judgment. Yet God would in the end bring them into blessing, and the Gentiles with them, just as He said, "Rejoice, O nations, with His people" (Deut. 32:43).
- Vine — the picture starts with a vineyard that copies the corruption of Sodom. Its fruit is bitter in the end.
- Venom — the wine pressed from that fruit is snake poison. In Scripture that poison means two things: God's judgment, and the malice already inside a wicked heart.
- Verdict — commentators differ on whether this describes Israel's enemies or Israel herself. Either way, it is God's estimate of anyone whose rock is not the true Rock.
- Vengeance — the reckoning looks slow because God is patient. He delays the day; He has not dropped it.
- Vindication — Moses sang this before Israel entered the land, so the failure surprised no one. The same song ends by calling the nations to rejoice with His people.