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.
Where the verse stands in the song
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!
Whose vine? Two readings
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.
Grapes of poison
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 fruit God had looked for
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).
Bitter fruit under an orderly religion
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.
Summary
- 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.