Hebrews 3:12

3:12 See to it, ¹  brothers and sisters, ²  that none of you has ³  an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes ⁴  the living God. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 29:18

29:18 Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the Lord our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit. ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 32:32

32:32 For their vine is from the stock ⁷  of Sodom,

and from the fields of Gomorrah. ⁸ 

Their grapes contain venom,

their clusters of grapes are bitter.

Isaiah 5:4

5:4 What more can I do for my vineyard

beyond what I have already done?

When I waited for it to produce edible grapes,

why did it produce sour ones instead?

Isaiah 5:7

5:7 Indeed ⁹  Israel ¹⁰  is the vineyard of the Lord who commands armies,

the people ¹¹  of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight.

He waited for justice, but look what he got – disobedience! ¹² 

He waited for fairness, but look what he got – cries for help! ¹³ 

Jeremiah 2:21

2:21 I planted you in the land

like a special vine of the very best stock.

Why in the world have you turned into something like a wild vine

that produces rotten, foul-smelling grapes? ¹⁴ 

Matthew 7:16-18

7:16 You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered ¹⁵  from thorns or figs from thistles, are they? ¹⁶  7:17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad ¹⁷  tree bears bad fruit. 7:18 A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit.

[3:12]  ¹ tn Or “take care.”

[3:12]  ² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

[3:12]  ³ tn Grk “that there not be in any of you.”

[3:12]  ⁴ tn Or “deserts,” “rebels against.”

[3:12]  ⁵ tn Grk “in forsaking the living God.”

[29:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “yielding fruit poisonous and wormwood.” The Hebrew noun לַעֲנָה (la’anah) literally means “wormwood” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB), but is used figuratively for anything extremely bitter, thus here “fruit poisonous and bitter.”

[32:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “vine.”

[32:32]  ⁸ sn Sodom…Gomorrah. The term “vine” is a reference to the pagan deities which, the passage says, find their ultimate source in Sodom and Gomorrah, that is, in the soil of perversion exemplified by these places (cf. Gen 18:20; 19:4-28; Isa 1:10; 3:9; Jer 23:14; Lam 4:6; Ezek 16:44-52; Matt 10:15; 11:23-24).

[5:7]  ⁹ tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[5:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the house of Israel” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[5:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.

[5:7]  ¹² tn Heb “but, look, disobedience.” The precise meaning of מִשְׂפָּח (mishpakh), which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Some have suggested a meaning “bloodshed.” The term is obviously chosen for its wordplay value; it sounds very much like מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “justice”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[5:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “but, look, a cry for help.” The verb (“he waited”) does double duty in the parallelism. צְעָקָה (tsa’qah) refers to the cries for help made by the oppressed. It sounds very much like צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “fairness”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[2:21]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “I planted you as a choice vine, all of it true seed. How then have you turned into a putrid thing to me, a strange [or wild] vine.” The question expresses surprise and consternation. The translation is based on a redivision of the Hebrew words סוּרֵי הַגֶּפֶן (sure haggefen) into סוֹרִיָּה גֶּפֶן (soriyyah gefen) and the recognition of a hapax legomenon סוֹרִיָּה (soriyyah) meaning “putrid, stinking thing.” See HALOT 707 s.v. סוֹרִי.

[7:16]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “They do not gather.” This has been simplified to the passive voice in the translation since the subject “they” is not specified further in the context.

[7:16]  ¹⁶ sn The statement illustrates the principle: That which cannot produce fruit does not produce fruit.

[7:17]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “rotten.” The word σαπρός, modifying “tree” in both v. 17 and 18, can also mean “diseased” (L&N 65.28).