reaching out the vine branch
to My nose. The Masoretic Text says “their nose,” but this is an explicit
“scribal correction,” introducing a kind of euphemism in order not to say
something offensive relating to God. But the meaning of the expression is
elusive. The attempt by some to link zemorah, “vine branch,” with a
homonymous root that means “strength” is far-fetched —the clear meaning of the
word is “vine branch.” Some have imagined, perhaps fancifully, that it reflects
the worship of a phallic deity. But, as Greenberg observes, the prophet at this
point has moved on from pagan rituals to a condemnation of moral
turpitude—“they . . . fill the land with outrage.” The most reasonable
assumption is that the branch extended toward the nose is some sort of
insulting gesture. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York:
W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:1074)
