Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 32:32
For their vine [is] of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes [are] grapes of gall, their clusters [are] bitter:
32. These foes of Israel are of the same stock morally (can one produce grapes of thistles?) as the cities whose destruction for their wickedness was proverbial. They are therefore doomed.
fields ] Heb. s e demth, a rare word of uncertain meaning. Tracts is probably nearer it. It may have been chosen here for its assonance to S e dom in the previous line.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 32. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom] The Jews are as wicked and rebellious as the Sodomites; for by the vine the inhabitants of the land are signified; see Isa 5:2; Isa 5:7.
Their grapes] Their actions, are gall and worm-wood-producing nothing but mischief and misery to themselves and others.
Their clusters are bitter] Their united exertions, as well as their individual acts, are sin, and only sin, continually. That by vine is meant the people, and by grapes their moral conduct, is evident from Isa 5:1-7. It is very likely that the grapes produced about the lake Asphaltites, where Sodom and Gomorrah formerly stood, were not only of an acrid, disagreeable taste, but of a deleterious quality; and to this, it is probable, Moses here alludes.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For, or but; for these words seem to contain an answer to that question, Deu 32:30, How should, &c. To this he answers,
1. Negatively; It was not from impotency in God, for if he had not forsaken and delivered them up, they could not have been so easily chased.
2. Positively; But, saith he, the true reason was this, their vine, &c. Of the vine of Sodom: The people of Israel, which I planted and brought up as a choice vine, are now degenerated and become like the vine of Sodom; their principles and practices are all corrupt and abominable. Compare Isa 1:10.
Their clusters are bitter; their fruits or actions are most loathsome to me, malicious and mischievous to others, and at last will be pernicious to themselves.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
32. vine of Sodom . . . grapes ofgallThis fruit, which the Arabs call “Lot’s Sea Orange,”is of a bright yellow color and grows in clusters of three or four.When mellow, it is tempting in appearance, but on being struck,explodes like a puffball, consisting of skin and fiber only.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For their vine [is] of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah,…. This respects the false Christians in the Roman empire, who should have taken warning by the Jews, and not have embraced such sentiments of theirs, which had been resented by the Lord, and condemned in them; such as the doctrines of man’s freewill, of justification and salvation not alone by Christ, but by their own works of righteousness, saying, “our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this”, De 32:27. Now out of the errors and heresies which arose in the primitive Christian church sprung the man of sin, the son of perdition, antichrist, or the antichristian and apostate church of Rome, the degenerate plant of a strange vine; and is here described as “of the vine of Sodom”, a slip from that, transplanted from Judea, and from the worse part of it, Sodom; bearing a resemblance to the old Jewish church in its more degenerate state, reviving many of its antiquated rites and ceremonies, and embracing its unsound doctrines; especially which relate to justification, and salvation by the works of men; and having such a likeness to Sodom in its abominable practices, that it is even called Sodom itself, Re 11:8; particularly for pride, luxury, idleness, idolatry, profaneness, contempt of serious religion, and for bodily uncleanness; even for that sin which has its name from Sodom, which has not only been frequently committed by the popes and other great personages among their, and connived at; but praised and commended in printed books, published and sheltered under public authority; [See comments on Re 11:8]; and with this compare
Eze 16:49; “and of the fields of Gomorrah”; another city of the plain, destroyed for the same sins that Sodom was; the phrase signifies the same as before; who has not heard of the apples and fruits of Gomorrah, which are said to look very fair and beautiful without, but when touched into ashes? a fit emblem of the fair show of religion and devotion, and the many outward works of piety in the Romish church they pretend to perform, but when examined are “lies in hypocrisy”, 1Ti 4:2;
their grapes [are] grapes of gall, their clusters [are] bitter; which may denote the large number of the members of this church clustered together, and the many religious orders in it; which make a fair show in the flesh, but are in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity; and the variety of ordinances and institutions of man’s devising: so as the ordinances of the true church of Christ are compared to clusters of grapes, So 7:7; the ordinances of the false church are like clusters of bitter grapes, both for their quantity and quality; and may mean also their many evil works and actions, especially their oppression and cruelty in persecuting the saints, and shedding their blood; just as the wild grapes of the vine of Judah are interpreted of oppression and a cry, Isa 5:4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
32. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom. I think it was far from the intention of Moses, as some make it to be, to refer to the punishment which the Israelites deserved; but that he rather inveighs against their corrupted morals, and obstinate disposition. But metaphorically he calls them an offshoot from the vine of Sodom and Gomorrah, inasmuch as they resemble in their nature both those nations, as much as if they had sprung from them, just as grafts of the vine produce fruits similar to the stocks from which they are taken. God complains by Isaiah that, when he looked for good and sweet grapes from His vineyard, it brought forth wild grapes. (Isa 5:2.) And also by Jeremiah that, when He had planted a trustworthy and genuine seed, it was turned into the branches of a strange vine, (Jer 2:22😉 but Moses goes further here, that the people was not merely a degenerate vine, bun poisonous, and producing nothing but what was deadly; and therefore he adds, not only that their clusters were bitter, but that their wine was the poison of dragons and asps; whereby he signifies that nothing worse or more abominable than that nation could be imagined.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(32) Their vinei.e., Israels, not the enemies; going back to Deu. 32:30, Their Rock, i.e., Israels Rock, had sold them . . . for their vine is of the vine of Sodom. Comp. Hos. 10:1 : Israel is an empty vine; he bringeth forth fruit unto himself; and Isa. 5:2; Isa. 5:7 : He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes . . . He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
32. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom Israel is compared to a vine. For similar imagery comp. Psa 80:8: “Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt.” So in Isaiah, chap. v, the nation is compared to a vineyard of Jehovah’s planting. The vine of Sodom implies the utter depravity of the people. Comp. Isa 1:10, “rulers of Sodom,” applied to the wicked princes of Judah. Jer 23:14: “They are all of them unto me as Sodom.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Deu 32:32 For their vine [is] of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes [are] grapes of gall, their clusters [are] bitter:
Ver. 32. For their vine is of the vine. ] Vitis non vinifera, sed venenifera. The vine is the wicked nature, the grapes are the evil works. So Isa 59:5 ; – “They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web”; vanity or villainy is their whole trade; “he that eateth of their eggs dieth,” &c. Look how the bird that sitteth on the serpent’s eggs, by breaking and hatching them, brings forth a perilous brood to her own destruction: so do those that are yet in the state of nature, being the heirs of original and the fathers of actual sins, which “when they are finished bring forth death.” Jam 1:15
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
of the vine of Sodom: or, worse than the vine of Sodom, etc. Isa 1:10, Jer 2:21, Lam 4:6, Eze 16:45-51, Mat 11:24
their grapes: Deu 29:18, Isa 5:4, Heb 12:15
Reciprocal: 1Ch 12:1 – while he yet Isa 5:2 – wild grapes Jer 8:14 – water Jer 23:14 – Sodom Eze 15:2 – What Eze 16:46 – thy younger sister Hos 4:18 – drink Act 8:23 – the gall Rev 14:19 – and cast
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 32:32. Their vine is the vine of Sodom God had planted Israel a noble vine, a right seed, but they turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine, Jer 2:21. Their principles and practices became corrupt and abominable. Their grapes are grapes of gall Their fruits are loathsome to me, mischievous to others, and at last will be pernicious to themselves. And so Josephus, their own countryman, describes them before their last destruction, when he says, their city was so wicked that, if the Romans had not fallen upon them, the earth would have opened its mouth and swallowed them up, or thunder and lightning from heaven must have destroyed them as it did Sodom: for they were a more atheistical nation than those who suffered such things. And in another place, that there was no one work of wickedness that was not committed, nor can one imagine any thing so bad that they did not do; endeavouring publicly, as well as privately, to exceed one another, both in impiety toward God, and injustice to their neighbours.