"For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are poisonous grapes, bitter clusters have they. Dragon-poison is their wine, and dreadful venom of asps." The connection is pointed out by Calovius thus: "Moses returns to the Jews, showing why, although the rock of the Jews was very different from the gods of the Gentiles, even according to the testimony of the heathen themselves, who were their foes, they were nevertheless to be put to flight by their enemies and sold; and why Jehovah sold them, namely, because their vine was of the vine of Sodom, i.e., of the very worst kind, resembling the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, as if they were descended from them, and not from their holy patriarchs." The "for" in Deuteronomy 32:32 is neither co-ordinate nor subordinate to that in Deuteronomy 32:31. To render it as subordinate would give no intelligible meaning; and the supposition that it is co-ordinate is precluded by the fact, that in that case Deuteronomy 32:32 and Deuteronomy 32:33 would contain a description of the corruptions of the heathen. The objections to this view have been thus expressed by Schultz with perfect justice: "It is priori inconceivable, that in so short an ode there should be so elaborate a digression on the subject of the heathen, seeing that their folly is altogether foreign to the theme of the whole." To this we may add, that throughout the Old Testament it is the moral corruption and ungodliness of the Israelites, and never the vices of the heathen, that are compared to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Israelites who were forsaken by the Lord, were designated by Isaiah (Isaiah 1:10) as a people of Gomorrah, and their rulers as rulers of Sodom (cf. Isaiah 3:9); the inhabitants of Jerusalem were all of them like Sodom and Gomorrah (Jeremiah 23:14); and the sin of Jerusalem was greater than that of Sodom (Ezekiel 16:46.). The only sense in which the "for" in Deuteronomy 32:32 can be regarded as co-ordinate to that in Deuteronomy 32:31, is on the supposition that the former gives the reason for the thought in Deuteronomy 32:30, whilst the latter serves to support the idea in Deuteronomy 32:30. The order of thought is the following: Israel would have been able to smite its foes with very little difficulty, because the gods of the heathen are not a rock like Jehovah; but Jehovah had given up His people to the heathen, because it had brought forth fruits like Sodom, i.e., had resembled Sodom in its wickedness. The vine and its fruits are figurative terms, applied to the nation and its productions. "The nation was not only a degenerate, but also a poisonous vine, producing nothing but what was deadly" (Calvin). This figure is expanded still further by Isaiah 5:2. Israel was a vineyard planted by Jehovah, that it might bring forth good fruits, instead of which it brought forth wild grapes (vid., Jeremiah 2:21; Psalm 80:9.; Hosea 10:1). "Their vine" is the Israelites themselves, their nature being compared to a vine which had degenerated as much as if it had been an offshoot of a Sodomitish vine. שׁדמת, the construct state of שׁדמת, floors, fields. The grapes of this vine are worse than wild grapes is snake-poison. Tannin: see Exodus 7:9-10. Pethen: the asp or adder, one of the most poisonous kinds of snake, whose bite was immediately fatal (vid., Rosenmller, bibl. Althk. iv. 2, pp. 364ff.). These figures express the thought, that "nothing could be imagined worse, or more to be abhorred, than that nation" (Calvin). Now although this comparison simply refers to the badness of Israel, the thought of the penal judgment that fell upon Sodom lies behind. "They imitate the Sodomites, they bring forth the worst fruits of all impiety, they deserve to perish like Sodom" (J. H. Michaelis).

The description of this judgment commences in Deuteronomy 32:34. Israel had deserved for its corruption to be destroyed from the earth (Deuteronomy 32:26); yet for His name's sake the Lord would have compassion upon it, when it was so humiliated with its heavy punishments that its strength was coming to an end.

Deuteronomy 32:39 Parallel Commentaries

I, even I

Psalm 102:27 But you are the same, and your years shall have no end.

Isaiah 41:4 Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.

Isaiah 45:5,18,22 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded you, though you have not known me...

Isaiah 46:4 And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry...

Isaiah 48:12 Listen to me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

Hebrews 1:12 And as a clothing shall you fold them up, and they shall be changed: but you are the same, and your years shall not fail.

Revelation 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What you see, write in a book...

Revelation 2:8 And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things said the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;

no god

Deuteronomy 4:35 To you it was showed, that you might know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.

Isaiah 45:5,18,22 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded you, though you have not known me...

I kill

1 Samuel 2:6 The LORD kills, and makes alive: he brings down to the grave, and brings up.

2 Kings 5:7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God...

Job 5:18 For he makes sore, and binds up: he wounds, and his hands make whole.

Psalm 68:20 He that is our God is the God of salvation; and to GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.

Isaiah 43:13 Yes, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?

Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return to the LORD: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up.

John 8:24 I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins: for if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins.

Revelation 1:17,18 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, Fear not; I am the first and the last...

neither

Job 10:7 You know that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of your hand.

Psalm 50:22 Now consider this, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

Isaiah 43:13 Yes, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?

Micah 5:8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the middle of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest...