For, or but; for these words seem to contain an answer to that question, Deuteronomy 32:30, How should, &c. To this he answers,
1. Negatively; It was not from impotency in God, for if he had not forsaken and delivered them up, they could not have been so easily chased.
2. Positively; But, saith he, the true reason was this, their vine, &c. Of the vine of Sodom: The people of Israel, which I planted and brought up as a choice vine, are now degenerated and become like the vine of Sodom; their principles and practices are all corrupt and abominable. Compare Isaiah 1:10. Their clusters are bitter; their fruits or actions are most loathsome to me, malicious and mischievous to others, and at last will be pernicious to themselves.