Isaiah 16:8

the fields means here as in Deuteronomy 32:32 "vineyards."

the vine of Sibmah Sibmah, in the vicinity of Heshbon, must have been famous for a choice variety of vines, which are here described by a title resembling that used in ch. Isaiah 5:2 for the "choicest vine" of Jehovah's vineyard.

the lords of the heathen … thereof Better: whose choice grapes struck down (i.e. intoxicated) the lords of the nations. For the figure see ch. Isaiah 28:1. The wine of Sibmah was found on the tables of princes far and near, and its potent effects were well known.

The remainder of the verse celebrates the extensive cultivation of this variety of the vine on the east of the Jordan. The writer is not thinking of anything so prosaic as the export trade in the wine of Sibmah; he represents the whole vine culture of the district under the image of a single vine, which reached to Jazer in the north, strayed to the desert on the east, and passed to the (Dead) Sea on the west.