Hebrew word · H891
בְּאֻשִׁים
be'ushim
sour grapes
A plural noun from ba'ash, "to stink, smell foul" (used of rotting fish in Exod 7:18 and of spoiled manna in Exod 16:20). It means stinking or rotten things: grapes that are diseased, rotten on the vine, or worthless. Found only here and in v.4.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
stinking or worthless things, wild grapes, stinkberries
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
A plural noun from ba'ash, "to stink, smell foul" (used of rotting fish in Exod 7:18 and of spoiled manna in Exod 16:20). It means stinking or rotten things: grapes that are diseased, rotten on the vine, or worthless. Found only here and in v.4.
- Against the English
"Wild grapes" (KJV, WEB, and ESV likewise), "sour" (BSB), "bad ones" (YLT), "worthless ones" (NASB), "bad fruit" (NIV), "bitter" (NLT).
- How it drifted
"Wild grapes" comes from the Vulgate's labruscas, Latin for the wild vine. The Septuagint guessed "thorns" (ἀκάνθας). Neither reflects the Hebrew root "stink." The Latin tradition passed into English through the Reformation-era Bibles.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The root b-'-sh is common for foul smell (Exod 7:18, 21; 16:20, 24; Ps 38:5; Eccl 10:1, "dead flies make the perfumer's oil stink"). The Septuagint has ἀκάνθας, "thorns," and the Vulgate labruscas, "wild grapes." Isaiah 5:7 then makes the moral point with sound-alike pairs: mishpat/mispah (justice/bloodshed) and tsedaqah/tse'aqah (righteousness/an outcry).
- Range of meaning
Found only here and in v. 2. It is a plural noun from the root b-ʾ-sh, "to stink, smell foul, become rotten". The literal sense is "stinkers" or "stinking things". Applied to grapes it means rotten, foul, worthless berries. HALOT gives "stinking, worthless (berries)" and BDB "stinking or worthless things, wild grapes".
- Against the English
KJV/WEB/ESV "wild grapes" (from the Vulgate labruscas). BSB "sour fruit". NASB "worthless ones". NIV "bad". NLT "bitter grapes". "Wild grapes" names a botanical kind of grape. The Hebrew names a smell and a verdict: the crop is rotten.
- How it drifted
Jerome's labruscae (the wild vine and its berries) passed into the KJV tradition. A modern reader hears "wild grapes" as small, natural, perhaps tart fruit of an uncultivated vine, a neutral picture. The Hebrew word is disgusting on purpose.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The verb from the same root describes the Nile fish dying and the river stinking (Exod 7:18, 21) and hoarded manna breeding worms and stinking (Exod 16:20). A related noun boʾshah (Job 31:40) is a foul weed growing instead of barley. The verb is also used for people becoming "a stench" to others (Gen 34:30; 1 Sam 13:4). The LXX here has akanthas, "thorns". Botanical explanations (fruit with rot or disease, or a choice vine that reverted to a wild type) are guesses. The root meaning "stink" is certain.
Where it appears
Isaiah · 2
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Isaiah 5:2 בְּאֻשִֽׁים׃ wild grapes
He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!
Here: From the root "to stink": berries that are rotten, diseased or foul-smelling, fit for nothing. They are not another, wilder kind of grape. They are what the choice vine itself produced. It is the punchline of the song.
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Isaiah 5:4 בְּאֻשִֽׁים׃ wild grapes
What more could have been done for My vineyard than I have done for it? Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?
Here: From the root "to stink": foul, rotten, worthless berries. It is the last word of the verse and lands like a smell. In v. 7 it is matched by "bloodshed" and "outcry".
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.