Vineyard

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

Vineyards were generally on hills
(Isa. 5:1; Jer. 31:5; Amos 9:13); surrounded by walls or hedges to keep out boars (Psa. 80:13); jackals and foxes (Num. 22:24; Neh. 4:3; Song of Sol. 2:15; Ezek. 13:4; Matt. 21:33). Towers were erected within the vineyard for watch-houses and dwellings for the vine-keeper (Isa. 1:8; 5:2; Matt. 21:33).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

See VINE.

From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

Matthew 21:33. There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower.
See also Mark 12:1; Luke 20:9.
1. There appear to have been several ways of planting vineyards in Palestine. Sometimes the vines were planted in rows and trained on stakes. Dr. Robinson describes the celebrated vineyards near Hebron as arranged in this manner: The vines “are planted in rows eight or ten feet apart in each direction. The stock is suffered to grow up large to the height of six or eight feet, and is there fastened in a sloping position to a strong stake, and the shoots suffered to grow and extend from one plant to another, forming a line of festoons. Sometimes two rows are made to slant toward each other, and thus form by their shoots a sort of arch. These shoots are pruned away in autumn” (Biblical Researches, vol. 2, pp. 80-81).
The vines are sometimes planted on the side of a terraced hill, the old branches being permitted to trail along the ground, while the fruit-bearing shoots are propped with forked sticks.
An ancient mode of planting vineyards was by training the vines over heaps of stones. Palmer discovered large numbers of these stone-heaps while traveling through the Negeb, or south country of Palestine. Near the ruins of El-’Aujeh he found some. “The black, flint-covered hill-slopes which surrounded the fort are covered with long, regular rows of stones, which have been carefully swept together and piled into numberless little black heaps. These at first considerably puzzled us, as they were evidently artificially made, and intended for some agricultural purpose; but we could not conceive what plants had been grown on such dry and barren ground. Here again Arab tradition came to our aid, and the name teleilat-el-anab, ‘grape-mounds,’ solved the difficulty. These sunny slopes, if well tended, with such supplies of water and agricultural appliances as the inhabitants of El-’Aujeh must have possessed, would have been admirably adapted to the growth of grapes, and the black flinty surface would radiate the solar heat, while these little mounds would allow the vines to trail along them, and would still keep the clusters off the ground” (Desert of the Exodus, p. 367). In another place (p. 352) he represents these “grape-mounds” as forming one of the most striking characteristics of the Negeb, the hill-sides and the valleys being covered with them for miles.
The vineyards were sometimes fenced with walls of stone (see Num. 22:24; Prov. 24:31) and sometimes with a hedge of thorny plants (see Psa. 80:12) and again with stone—walls and hedge combined. The last method is probably referred to in Isaiah 5:5, where hedge and wall are both spoken of. Maundrell mentions another sort of wall which he saw surrounding the gardens near Damascus. “The garden-walls are of a very singular structure. They are built of great pieces of earth made in the fashion of brick, and hardened in the sun. In their dimensions they are two yards long each and somewhat more than one broad, and a yard thick. Two rows of these, placed edgeways, one upon another, make a cheap, expeditious, and, in this dry country, a durable wall” (Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, under date of April 27).
The wine-press consisted of two parts—the receptacle for the grapes, and the vat for the liquor. Either part, by itself, is sometimes called the press. Some very primitive wine-presses are spoken of by travelers, consisting of a single excavation in the rock, lower at one end than at the other, so that the wine when pressed out might find a place to settle. In some instances a trench is dug in the ground in a similar way, and lined with stone or cement. Usually, however, the receptacle for the grapes and the vat for the wine are distinct. The place where the grapes are put may be of stone, or of wood. Near the bottom on one side, or else in the bottom, is a closely-grated hole, through which the wine flows into the vat beneath.
Dr. Robinson found a very ancient wine-press at Nableh, not far from Kefr Saba, the Antipatris of Paul’s time. “Advantage had been taken of a ledge of rock; on the upper side, towards the south, a shallow vat had been dug out, eight feet square and fifteen inches deep, its bottom declining slightly towards the north. The thickness of rock left on the north was one foot; and two feet lower down on that side 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 remaining) into the lower vat.... Such is its state of preservation that, were there still grapes in the vicinity, it might at once be brought into use without repair” (Biblical Researches, vol. 3, p. 137).
The grapes were put into the upper part of the wine-press, and trodden by the feet of men. Reference is made to this in Judges 9:27; Nehemiah 13:15; Amos 9:13. At least two trod together, and often seven or more.
To tread “the wine-press alone” was an expression indicative of desolation (Isa. 63:3). The treaders usually supported themselves by ropes which hung from a cross-beam over their heads. Some think a reference to this custom is made in Isaiah 63:5, where it is said, “my fury, it upheld me”; the idea being that there were no ropes on which this lonely treader could hang, but that he was sustained solely by the strength of his passion.
The pressure of the grapes by the feet naturally spattered the red juice over the upper garments. Thus we read of Judah in the prophecy of the dying Jacob: “He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes” (Gen. 49:11). Thus also the question is asked in Isaiah: “Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine fat?” (Isa. 63:2). The grape-treaders accompanied their labors with songs and shouts. See note on Isaiah 16:10 (#495).
4. The tower was designed as a place of temporary dwelling for the guard, who watched over the vineyard while the fruit was ripening, to keep off thieves and wild beasts. It was also sometimes used as a temporary abode by the owner during the season of vintage. Though many of the towers were frail edifices, scarcely lasting longer than one season, others were more durable, being built of stone. They were either circular or square in shape, and varied in height from fifteen feet to fifty. In a garden near Beirut Maundrell saw an unfinished tower, which had been built to the height of about sixty feet, and was twelve feet thick. These lofty towers could be used not only as guard-houses for the vineyards, but also as watchtowers, to detect the coming of an enemy in the distance. Similar towers were built in the open country for the protection of the shepherds. See note on 2 Chronicles 26:10 (#369).
The vineyard, the hedge, the wine-press, and the tower, are also referred to in Isaiah 5:1-2.

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