He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. No vinegar of wine, etc. - חמץ chomets signifies fermented wine, and is probably used here to signify wine of a strong body, or any highly intoxicating liquor. Dr. Lightfoot supposes that the Leper being the most defiled and loathsome of creatures, was an emblem of the wretched, miserable state of man by the fall; and that the Nazarite was the emblem of man in his state of innocence. Wine and grapes are here particularly forbidden to the Nazarite because, as the doctor thinks, being an emblem of man in his paradisiacal state, he was forbidden that tree and its fruits by eating of which Adam fell; for the doctor, as well as the Jewish rabbins, believed the tree of knowledge to have been none other than the vine.
Vinegar of strong drink - See the note on Leviticus 10:9.