The image of the vineyard in Isaiah 5:1–7 is well known. Jesus himself reuses the metaphor to confront presumptive attitudes in the first century (Matt 21:33–46). However, familiarity notwithstanding, the full force of the vineyard image is frequently underappreciated. The key issue is determining the meaning of the rare plural noun באשׁים in 5:2, 4. Preference for evaluative and cognitive descriptions of the vineyard’s grapes invites glosses like “bad” (NIV) or “worthless” (CSB). Other interpretations privilege sensory referents in which sight and taste dominate, with the vineyard’s produce understood as “wild grapes” (ESV) or “sour ones” (NET). However, a few scholars suggest olfactory connotations and render באשׁים as “foul-smelling grapes” (Irsigler) or “stinking things” (Watts). Still, these suggestions do not consider the psychosomatic effect of disgust within the overall function of the pericope. Accordingly, this paper pursues the rhetorical force of olfactory readings of Isaiah 5:2, 4 when brought into conversation with Avrahami’s observation that smell “carries [a] figurative meaning and evokes a judgmental reaction.” I argue that the grievous shock of the vineyard’s imagery is directly correlated to the intensity of its horrific death-smell. Without this connotation, the imagery loses its ability to affectively engage the audience, and the persuasive power of the pericope is diminished. Maintaining a focus on smell enables a visceral, embodied experience of the vineyard pericope that gives acute insight into YHWH’s feelings, thoughts, and necessary reaction to his people’s condition.