DRINK, STRONG.) Its root was probably jr, ya van or yanah, the primary idea of both being that of turbidness, or boiling up, so characteristic of the appearance of the grape juice as it rushes foaming into the wine-vat. Yah'yin, in Bible use, is a very general term, including every species of wine made from grapes, though in later ages it became extended in its application to wine made from other substances.
(a) It is frequently used in the same compre hensive sense as the vinunt of the Latins. Cato (De Re Rustica, cxlvii) speaks of the hanging wine (vinum pendens). So in Num. vi:4,yah'yin stands for vine-the grape vine. In Deut. xxviii: 39, it is ranked among things to be sucked, gath ered or eaten. In Is. xvi:io, it is used for the grapes to be trodden. In Is. lv :1, it probably signifies thick grape sirup, or honey (see Is. vii: 22). The word sirup, it may be here remarked, is derived from an Oriental term for wine; hence, in Turkey, shirab-jee signifies 'wine seller' (see Turkey and the Turks, p. 197). This species of wine is still called ' honey' in the East, and it is by the prophet appropriately connected with milk, as a thing to be eaten. Yah'yin is also used for 'grapes,' or for 'wine in the cluster,' in Jer.
12 ; xlviii :33 ; and probably also in Deut. xiv :26. In this sense Josephus (lie Bell. Ind. vii) em ploys the Greek equivalent when he enumerates among the stores in the fortress of Nlassada, flour, wine and oil, and adds that the Romans found the remains of these fruits uncorrupted.
(b) Yalt'yin signifies also 'the blood of the grape' freshly expressed, as in Gen. xlix :12 (comp. with Is. lxiii:1-3), reference being there had to the juice of the claret grape—'His eyes shall be more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.' In this sense yah'yin denoted what the Greeks specifically called glcukos (sweet wine), the term used by Josephus in speaking of the grape juice expressed into Pharaoh's cup (Gen. xl:tt). In Cant. v (compared with vii: 9), it seems to refer to a sweet innocent wine of this sort, which might be drunk abundantly. In Ps. civ :15, as illustrated by Judg. ix :13; Exod. xxii :29, yah'yin probably designates the first 'droppings' or tears of the gathered grapes, which were to be offered fresh—without 'delay.' (c) In Prow. ix :2, 5, yah'yin refers to a boiled wine, or sirup, the thickness of which rendered it necessary to mingle water with it previously to drinking. Wine preserved in this way was some times introduced into the offerings for the use of the priests (Num. xviii :12, 3o).
(d) Yah'yin also comprehends a mixed wine of a very different character; a wine made strong and inebriating by the addition of drugs, such as myrrh, mandragora, and opiates. Thus the drunk
ard is properly described (Prow. xxiii:30) as one 'that seeketh mixed wine,' and is 'mighty to mingle strong drink' (Is. v:22). And hence the Psalmist took that highly poetical and sublime image of the cup of God's wrath, called by Isaiah (li :17) 'the cup of trembling,' causing intoxication and stupefaction (see Chappelow's note on flariri p• 33) ; containing, as St. John (Rev. xiv :to) ex presses in Greek, this Hebrew idea with the utmost precision, though with a seeming contradiction in terms, kekerasmcnon akraton, the mixed unmixed wine, merum mixtune (Comment. on Is. i :22).
(e) Yah'yin also includes every species of fer mented grape wine and is a general term for 'all sorts of wine' (Neh. v :18).
2. Aw-sees',Heb.: occurs in five texts only (Cant. viii :2; Is. AIX :26 ; Joel i :5 ; :18 ; Amos ix :13). The name is derived from awsas, 'to tread down,' and denotes the expressed juice of the grape or other fruit. By the Greeks it is called gleukos, sweet; by the Latins mustum, from the Hebrew, 'fresh,' sweet,"pure.' 3. So'bek (Hcb. to drink freely), be cause the inspissated wine which it denoted was enticing, and might be freely drunk when mingled with water. The term occurs but thrice, probably because this sort of wine is often expressed by the general term 'yah'yin,' or by `debhash! (See HONEY.) The three texts in which so'beh occurs answer to the preceding description of it. In Is. i :22, we read—'Thy silver is become dross, thy so'beh (or boiled wine, is become) a thin wine mingled with water.' Professor Stuart justly observes, that mahool, 'here rendered mixed, means cut, cut round, circumcised.' Varro uses a phrase exactly parallel, applying to wine of the second pressing the term 'circumcised wine,' which, being mixed with water, yields lora, the drink of the laborer in winter (De Re Rust, i. 54). Hence the force of the text is this: 'Thy silver is become like dross; thy so'beh (the rich drink of thy no bles) is become like mahool, even as circumcised wine mixed with water, common lora, the drink of a peasant.' Rabbi D. Kimchi has this com ment, 'The current coin was adulterated with brass, tin, and other metals, and yet circulated as good money. The wine also was adulterated with water in the taverns, and sold, notwithstanding, for pure wine.' In Hos. iv A, it is said, 'Their so'beh is sour.' As this wine was valued for its sweetness, it was of course spoiled by acquiring acidity. But inspis sated wines are peculiarly liable to this degen eracy. 'Def rutunt,' says Columella, 'however care fully made, is liable to grow acid' (xii :2o).