Jeremiah 2:21

The fault did not lie in Jehovah's planting, but in Israel's perversity. Hosea 10:1 has the same illustration. Jeremiah has probably a reminiscence also of Isaiah 5:1 ff., where, however, Israel is not as here the vine, but the vineyard in which it is planted.

a noble vine a Sorek vine, the word Sorek probably referring to the colour of the fruit, a vine bearing dark-purple grapes. It is the "choice vine" of Genesis 49:11.

how then art thou turned That which had been sown, in other words the people, when first chosen to be God's, was uncorrupt. How is it then, He asks, that such "right seed" can have produced such degenerate shoots?

degenerate plant The Hebrew is harsh, and suggested emendations are rendered either (with LXX) bitterness, or (with Dr.) evil smell.

strange foreign. For the word in this sense cp. Genesis 42:7; Exodus 21:8; Psalms 114:1 and so

And palmers for to seeken straungestrondes.

Chaucer, Cant. Tales, prol.

unto me to my grief a frequent use of the dative case.