Grape

Grape

is the representative in the A.V. of the following Heb. and Greek words: properly, נָב, grapes in the berry (Ge 40:10-11; Ge 49:11; Le 25:5; Nu 6:3; Nu 13:20,23; De 23:24; De 32:14,32; Ne 13:15; Isa 5:2,4; Jer 8:18; Ho 9:10; Am 9:13; "wine," Hosea 3,); not in the bunch, σταφυλή ("grapes," Mt 7:16; Lu 6:44; Re 14:18); improperly for פֶּרֶט, pearet (lit. scattering), grapes that drop off spontaneously (Le 19:10), grape gleanings, לֵלוֹת oleloth', (Jg 8:2; Isa 17:6; Isa 24:13; Jer 49:9; Ob 1:5; Mic 7:1); A tender grape, סמָדִר; semadar', prob. a vine-blossons (Song 2:13,15; Song 7:12); unripe grape, בֹּסֶד, be'ser (Job 15:33), and sour grace, בֹּסֶר, bolser (Isa 18:5; Jer 31:29-30; Eze 18:2); wild grapes, בּאֻשַׁים beaishim' SEE COCKLE, a worthless species (French lambrusques, so Jerome and Jarchi); not poisonous (Gesenius, in his Comment. on Isaiah 1:230; 2:364, has shown that the common sense of aconitum or wolfasbane, monk's-hood, rests upon an error of Celsus, Hierobot. 2:199), Isa 5:2,4. SEE RAISINS; SEE KERNELS; SEE BITTER.

In more than one passage of Scripture grapes are used in a figurative sense, as in Re 14:18: "Gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe;" i.e., the appointed time for the execution of divine vengeance has come, and the iniquities of the inhabitants of the earth have made them fully ripe for destruction. In Mic 7:1, the figure is well expressed by Newcome: "As the early fig of excellent flavor cannot be found in the advanced season of the summer, or the choice cluster of grapes after vintage, so neither can the good and upright man be discovered by diligent searching in Israel." So in Jer 6:9, an address to the Chaldaeans, exhorting them. to return and pick up those few inhabitants that were left before like the grape-gleanings, and to carry them also into captivity. The Chaldeans did so, as may be seen (Jer 52:28-30). In Jer 49:9, the meaning is, that when the enemy came to spoil they should meet with no interruption, but should glean quite clean, and leave nothing behind through haste, (See Blayney.) Eze 18:2: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge," a proverbial expression, explained by the Chaldea, "The fathers have sinned and the sons are smitten." In the second commandment it is expressly declared that the children should be punished in this life for the idolatry of the fathers. In the destruction by the Babylonians the good were to escape (Eze 6:4-5); but they were only to deliver themselves (14:14, 20, 21). Whenever the children had suffered temporal evils for the idolatry of their fathers, they had justly incurred a punishmennt solemnly denounced. With respect to the impending calamity from Nebuchadnezzar, God's purpose was to observe another rule of conduct. SEE VINE.