Deuteronomy 28:39

39 You might plant lots of vineyards and work hard in them, but you won't drink any wine or harvest the grapes because worms will devour them.

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 You will become a horror, fit only for use in proverbs and in insults by all the nations where the LORD drives you.

38 You might scatter a lot of seed on the field, but you will gather almost nothing because the locusts will eat it all.

39 You might plant lots of vineyards and work hard in them, but you won't drink any wine or harvest the grapes because worms will devour them.

40 You might have many olive trees throughout your territories, but you won't cover yourself with their oil because your olive trees will fail.

41 You might have sons and daughters, but they won't be yours for long because they will be taken away as prisoners.