Commento su Deuteronomio 32:33

חמת תנינים יינם THEIR WINE IS THE POISON OF DRAGONS — Understand this as the Targum does: הא כמרת תניניא כס פורענותהון which means: Behold, like the gall of serpents is the cup of the drink of their punishment.

חמת תנינים יינם, their wine is the venom of asps; among the clusters mentioned in verse 32 there are also poisonous grapes, hidden and unidentifiable among the grapes. This disaster awaits them as a manifestation of the attribute of Justice they have richly deserved. Until they actually are extracting the juice from these grapes [this is all hyperbole, of course, Ed.] G’d did not convert His threat of retribution into something actual. Compare Isaiah 63,3, G’d saying that He alone squeezed out these grapes by treading on them.

חמת תנינים, they should by rights have been made to drink the venom of asps had it not been for the desecration of G’d’s holy name that would have resulted from this, for the nations would have said: “we have accomplished this.”

Their cup, merciless to the bite victim, etc. “Their cup” refers to the adders.

V. 33. חמת וגו׳. Ihre Lust artet in niedrige Schadenfreude und Grausamkeit aus. Das Ganze ist eine Schilderung der oben als גוי נבל, als sittlich und staatlich entartet bezeichneten Völker, die Gott als Werkzeug seines Strafgerichts an Israel gebrauchte. — ראש siehe Kap. 29, 17. — אכזר. Die Bedeutung von אכזר ist unzweifelhaft. Es kommt wiederholt in der Bedeutung: grausam vor. Zweifelhaft ist die Ableitung. Verglichen mit אכזב (Jirm. 15, 18) wäre die Wurzel כזר, die aber weiter nicht vorkommt und nur vielleicht eine Analogie mit גזר, schneiden gewährt. Man könnte sich fast veranlasst sehen, es als ein Kompositum אך זר zu begreifen: etwas, was dem andern als völlig fremd, lieblos gegenüber steht.

חמת תנינים יינם, “their wine is the venom of serpents.” It will make them totally drunk.

וראש פתנים AND AS THE VENOM OF VIPERS is their cup — venom, which proves cruel (אכזר) to him who is bitten. The sense is: a cruel enemy will come and exact punishment from them.

פתנים אכזר, the word פתן means “a wicked creature;” it also occurs in Psalms 58,5 פתן חרש יאטם אזנו, “a deaf viper that stops its ears.”

A merciless enemy shall come, etc. I.e., this is the meaning of the verse, “A merciless enemy, etc.”

וראש פתנים אכזר, “and the cruel poison of asps.” Even their wine will be gall and wormwood.