WINE PRESS (Heb. gath, an upper vat ; Heb. yeh'keb, trough; Heb. fioo-raw', crushing).
An excavation (probably rectangular) was made in the rock, or was formed in the ground and lined with mason work, in which to crush the grapes. This was the press and another cavity, arranged to catch the juice, was the fat or vat. Ancient excavations of this kind remain in Palestine, and one of them is thus described by Robinson with his usual accuracy: "Advantage had been taken of a ledge of rock ; on the upper side a shallow vat had been dug out, eight feet square and fifteen inches deep. Two feet lower down another smaller vat was excavated, four feet square by three feet deep. The grapes were trodden in the shallow upper vat, and the juice drawn off by a hole at the bottom (still remain ing) into the lower vat." Both these vats are re ferred to in Joel iii :i3. By the larger or upper re ceptacle Gideon threshed wheat for the sake of concealment (Judg. vi:it). Such rock presses as these are still used in some parts of Syria.
Travelers tell us that the first vintage usually begins in the latter part of August; that they often see the black grapes spread on the ground in beds, exposed to the sun to dry for raisins, while at a little distance, one or two, and some times as many as five, men are seen, with feet and legs bare, treading the fruit in a kind of cistern or vat, usually about eight feet square and four feet high, with- a grated aperture near the bottom, through which the expressed juice runs into a vessel beneath (Is. lxiii :3 ; Hag. ii A). The
treaders sang and shouted (Is. xvi :to), while the red blood of the grapes flowed around them and thoroughly stained their flesh and garments ( Jer. xxv :3o; xlviii :33; Lam. i :15; Rev. xix:13-15). (Schaff, Bib. Diet.) (See VAT.) Figurative. (1) The destruction of a nation or army, or Christ's destroying his enemies in the wine press of his wrath, is likened to a vintage, in which sometimes there are gleanings left, a small remnant spared ; and sometimes the poor re mains are gleaned, and put into the basket: i. e. are destroyed, or carried captive (Is. lxiii :1-4 Rev. xiv :18-2o; Zech. xi:2; Lam. i :15; Is. xxiv: 13 ; Jer. vi :g, and xlix :fp; Obad. 5; Judg. viii :2). (2) The Chaldeans are called grape-gatherers, since they crushed the nations, as in a wine press, and carried them out of their own lands (Jer. xlix :9). (3) The vision of John (Rev. xix :t3, eq.), is evidently based upon Is. lxiii :7-6. (4) Severe oppression is forcibly illustrated in Job xxiv :9-12, where serfs arc said to "tread win,. presses and suffer thirst."