Vine of Sodom is the translation of found in the King James and some other translations of the Bible into English, most notably in the

Tyndale Bible The Tyndale Bible generally refers to the body of Bible translations, biblical translations by William Tyndale into Early Modern English, made . Tyndale's Bible is credited with being the first Bible translation in the English language to work ...

, which renders it: "Their vines are the vines of Sodom." The Douay-Rheims renders the phrase as, "Their vines are of the vineyard of Sodom," the

JPS Tanakh The New Jewish Publication Society of America Tanakh, first published in complete form in 1985, is a modern Jewish 'written from scratch' translation of the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible into Jewish English Bible translations, English. It is ...

: "The vine for them is from Sodom," and the

Revised Standard Version The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1952 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. This translation itself is a revision of the Ameri ...

, "For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom." The full verse in the King James Version reads: "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter." (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: ''Kî miggep̄en Səḏōm gap̄nām, ū-miššaḏmōṯ ‘Ǎmōrāh; ‘ănāḇêmōw ‘innəḇê rōwōš, ’aškəlōṯ mərōrōṯ lāmōw.'') Among the many conjectures as to this tree, the most probable is that it is the osher (''

Calotropis procera ''Calotropis procera'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae that is native to North Africa, Pakistan,tropical Africa, Western Asia, South Asia, and Indochina. The green fruits contain a toxic milky sap that is extremely bi ...

'') of the

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...

, which grows from

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

to southern

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. The fruit of ''Calotropis procera'' is therefore called " apples of Sodom", Sodom apple, and Dead Sea apple. Although beautiful to the eye, are bitter to the taste. Another conjecture equates it with the

colocynth ''Citrullus colocynthis'', with many common names including Abu Jahl's melon, (native name in Turkey) colocynth, bitter apple, bitter cucumber, egusi, vine of Sodom, or wild gourd, is a desert viny plant native to the Mediterranean Basin and A ...

(''

Citrullus colocynthis ''Citrullus colocynthis'', with many common names including Abu Jahl's melon, (native name in Turkey) colocynth, bitter apple, bitter cucumber, egusi, vine of Sodom, or wild gourd, is a desert viny plant native to the Mediterranean Basin and ...

''). Its fruit are called Vine of Sodom, which, although beautiful to the eye, are bitter to the taste.

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Biblical phrases Torah Trees in mythology {{Hebrew-Bible-stub

See also

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