Deuteronomy 28:39

39 You shall plant vineyards and you shall dress [them], but you shall not drink wine and you shall not gather grapes, for the worm shall eat it.

Deuteronomy 28:39 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 28:39

Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress [them]
Plant them and prune them, in expectation of much fruit from them:

but shall neither drink [of] the wine nor gather [the grapes];
so far from drinking of the wine of them, that they should not be able to gather any grapes from them:

for the worms shall eat them;
a sort of worms pernicious to vines, which the Greeks call "ipes", or "ikes" ^F15; and the Latins "convolvuli" and "volvoces", as Pliny ^F16.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 See Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 27. col. 622, 623.
F16 Nat. Hist. l. 17. c. 28.

Deuteronomy 28:39 In-Context

37 And you will become a horror and a proverb and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you there.

38 "You shall carry out much seed to the field, but you shall gather little [produce], for the locust shall devour it.

39 You shall plant vineyards and you shall dress [them], but you shall not drink wine and you shall not gather grapes, for the worm shall eat it.

40 There shall be olive trees for you in all of your territory, but you shall not anoint [yourself], for your olives shall drop off.

41 You shall bear sons and daughters, but they shall not be {yours}, for they shall go into captivity.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "cultivate"
• [b]. That is, the produce