Numbers 6:4 - Exposition

From the kernels oven to the husk, or skin. Of grape-skins it is said that cakes were made which were considered a delicacy ( Hosea 3:1 , mistranslated "flagons of wine"), but this is doubtful. The Septuagint has οἷνον ἀμὸ στεμφόλων ἕως γιγάρτου , "wine of grape-skins (the liquor of grapes mentioned before) even to the kernel." The expression is best understood as including anything and everything, however unlikely to be used, connected with the grape. It is clear that the abstinence of the Nazirite extended beyond what might possibly intoxicate to what was simply pleasant to the taste, like raisins, or refreshing, like charnels. The vine represented, by an easy parable, the tree of carnal delights, which yields to the appetite of men such a variety of satisfactions. So among the Romans the Flamen Dialis might not even touch a vine.