This was a thin sour wine, that might be called either wine or vinegar, there being other words for wine of a better quality. It was the drink of the reapers and of the Roman soldiers. It is represented as intoxicating, and as irritating to the teeth. “As vinegar upon niter [natron, an alkali], so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart” (Prov. 25:20). Its acidity is referred to in Proverbs 10:26.
Vinegar was offered to the Lord mingled with myrrh or gall, and He refused it; but He received the vinegar when He had said, “I thirst,” according to the prophecy “In My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink” (Num. 6:3; Ruth 2:14; Psa. 69:21; Matt. 27:34,48, and others).