Khomets: VINEGAR

VINEGAR- khomets (Strong’s 2558).

Root: חֹמֶץ

Sounds like: khoe’mets

Last week we looked at salt, so this week we’re looking at vinegar because, who doesn’t love that combo? My days living in England were filled with a trip to my favourite fish and chip shop. I’d douse my chips (fries)  in malt vinegar with a healthy (or not so healthy) sprinkling of salt. (FYI, I’d also swap out ketchup and add British brown sauce for dipping! YUM!)

White vinegar also has a big part to play in my arsenal of house cleaning projects. It’s a great cleaning agent and I always have a spray bottle handy for a quick wipe-down of my counters or spot cleaning my floors. 

In the Bible, vinegar shares a root with the word for leavened/soured/fermented (khamets). Without yeast fermentation, bread does not rise. In the rush to leave Egypt, the Hebrew people had no time to add yeast and wait for their bread to rise. The result was unleavened bread, a flat a reminder of the sourness they were leaving behind. 

The taste of vinegar isn’t a mild taste, it gives a big reaction and it makes an impact. Although this word isn’t found very frequently in the Bible, it’s impactful and was a good word to use in the Proverbs. The writer of the Proverbs used vinegar twice in their rhetorical use of similes:

Proverbs 10:26

Like vinegar [ka-khomets כַּחֹ֤מֶץ] to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy one to those who send him. 

In other words, lazy employees are annoying.

 Proverbs 25:20

Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar [khomets חֹ֣מֶץ] on soda, is one who sings songs to a troubled heart. 

In other words, singing songs (a usual happy event) to a person whose heart is troubled just doesn’t sit right. It makes you shiver.

Vinegar was a common food, available to anyone, so it was an effective word to use in the Proverbs. It had universal understanding.

No vinegar for a Nazirite

There was only one law, found in the Bible, which included vinegar. It was associated with Nazirite rules:

Numbers 6:1-4

Again YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man or woman makes a special vow, namely, the vow of a Nazirite, to live as a Nazirite for YHWH, he shall abstain from wine and strong drink; he shall consume no vinegar [khomets חֹ֥מֶץ] made from wine or vinegar [w-khomets וְחֹ֥מֶץ] made from strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice nor eat fresh or dried grapes. All the days of his consecration he shall not eat anything that is produced from the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin.’”

What does this passage tell us about vinegar in the Biblical age? Well, there were at least two ways to make it (from grape wine or from a different kind of “strong drink”). Vinegar of any kind was out of bounds to the men and women who took the Nazirite vow.

We know that Samson took this vow (Judges 13:4-5) and Hannah promised to raise her son Samuel under this vow (1 Samuel 1:11). There’s a good chance that John the Baptist was also a Nazirite as the angel announced to his father, Zechariah, that his son would “drink no wine or liquor” (Luke 1:15).

Being a Nazirites was serious business. They were to be level-headed with a mind focused on YHWH, so it made no sense to have a mind dulled by the effects of alcohol or fermented vinegar.

The Nazirites were banned from consuming vinegar, but that did not mean that vinegar was a bad thing. Apart from those under vow, pretty much everyone consumed vinegar, including king David’s great grandparents, Ruth and Boaz:

Ruth 2:8-16

Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but join my young women here. Keep your eyes on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have ordered the servants not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw.” 

Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favour in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 

Boaz replied to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know. May YHWH reward your work, and may your wages be full from YHWH, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” 

Then she said, “I have found favour in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and indeed have spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not like one of your female servants.”

And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here, that you may eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar [ba-khomets בַּחֹ֑מֶץ].” 

So she sat beside the reapers; and he served her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left. When she got up to glean, Boaz commanded his servants, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not insult her. Also you are to purposely slip out for her some grain from the bundles and leave it so that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.”

This is a beautiful story of a friendship based on respect. Boaz admired the widowed Ruth. He heard of the kindness she showed her (also widowed) mother-in-law. He appreciated the bravery it took for Ruth to leave her Moabite family and homeland behind and join a foreign people (the Israelites) with their foreign God and foreign culture. She risked  rejection and destitution, but not on Boaz’s watch! Immediately after meeting her he wanted to protect her.

Ruth realized her fortune and announced, “I have found favour in your sight”. These were the same words the messenger of God told Mary: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30).

Boaz was a rescuer and redeemer for Ruth and he invited her to his table. There she dipped her bread into the table’s bowl of vinegar.

At the communion table Judas stood in stark contrast to Ruth. Judas was the betrayer and Yeshua (Jesus) dipped his bread into an unnamed substance and gave it to him, symbolically announcing the betrayal of his friend and student:

John 13:21-27

When Jesus had said these things, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Truly, truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” 

The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking. Lying back on Jesus’ chest was one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. So Simon Peter nodded to this disciple and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.” He then simply leaned back on Jesus’ chest and said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” 

Jesus then answered, “That man is the one for whom I shall dip the piece of bread and give it to him.” So when He had dipped the piece of bread, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After this, Satan then entered him. Therefore Jesus said to him, “What you are doing, do it quickly.”

Yeshua knew the story of his great great (etc) grandparents and their bowl of vinegar story may have come to mind as He sat with His followers at His final Passover meal. It doesn’t actually say that Yeshua dipped Judas’ bread in vinegar but the traditional Passover meal gives us a hint that it was likely vinegar.

At a modern Passover meal you dip a green vegetable or bitter herbs in red wine vinegar or salt water, symbolically tasting the bitter tears that the Hebrew people shed as slaves. Many think this ritual started as a reminder of when Joseph’s brothers dipped his coat in blood to trick their father into thinking Joseph had been killed. If that’s the case, Yeshua was announcing that Judas was about to sell Him off to servitude and death.

Judas wasn’t like Ruth in any way. Ruth dipped the bread she was offered at Boaz’s table in vinegar, she was satisfied & had some left over. Judas was handed bread, he took it and turned on the giver. Ruth was brought INTO the family by the sharing of bread and vinegar, Judas was ushered OUT of the family by the actions of his own choosing. Immediately after he took the bread, ha-Satan received full control of Judas’ heart. 

Ruth, on the other hand, was handing her own life over to Boaz’s trust. She took the action herself and dipped her bread into the vinegar as a sign of trust. She would take what was offered from the groom and her life would be full and satisfied and the goodness wouldn’t end.

The Last Supper only inferred vinegar, but there was one single mention of vinegar (sour wine) in the gospel story of Yeshua (and, in fact, the whole New Testament). However, the one instance is found in all four accounts of the crucifixion narrative, which makes it a significant memory at the event:

John 19:25-30 (see also Matthew 27:45-51, Mark 15:33-39, Luke 23:33-38)

Now beside the cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. So when Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture would be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine [oxous] was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine [oxous] on a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine [oxos], He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

What Scripture was Yeshua fulfilling with the action of drinking vinegar? It was Psalm 69: 

Psalm 69:16-21

Answer me, YHWH, for Your mercy is good; according to the greatness of Your compassion, turn to me, and do not hide Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress; answer me quickly.

Come near to my soul and redeem it; ransom me because of my enemies! You know my disgrace, my shame, and my dishonour; all my enemies are known to You. Disgrace has broken my heart, and I am so sick. And I waited for sympathy, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

They also gave me a bitter herb in my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar [khomets חֹֽמֶץ] to drink.

Only after drinking vinegar would Yeshua be able to end His nightmare on the cross and die, fulfilling His mission to save and redeem God’s image bearers. Vinegar was the last taste on Yeshua’s tongue before his final breath, a stark and sour announcement of death. 

Think on that the next time vinegar sits on your table!

Next week: boat/ship