(wine-)press (fat)

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

The Hebrew wine-fat, vat, or press, consisted of an upper and lower receptacle, the former for treading the grapes, the latter for catching the juice

(Isa. 63:3³I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. (Isaiah 63:3); Joel 3:13¹³Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. (Joel 3:13); Hag. 2:16¹⁶Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty. (Haggai 2:16)).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

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Ancient winepress located at “The Garden Tomb” near the Damascus Gate.

These are said to be “trodden,” which signifies that the grapes were placed in a receptacle, and were trodden on by the feet, a pipe conveying the juice into a vessel at the side. Places have been found which apparently were used for this purpose: they are hewn out of a rock with a shallow channel by which the juice could escape (Judg. 6:11¹¹And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. (Judges 6:11); Neh. 13:15¹⁵In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. (Nehemiah 13:15); Job 24:11¹¹Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst. (Job 24:11); Isa. 5:2²And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:2); Isa. 63:2²Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? (Isaiah 63:2); Mark 12:1¹And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. (Mark 12:1); &c). In Egypt the grapes were also pressed in a bag by its being twisted tighter and tighter.

Symbolically the vine-press is used as a figure of the execution of God’s judgments: the people, as grapes, are placed in the press, and there crushed: “and blood came out of the winepress, even unto horses’ bridles, by the space of 1600 furlongs”—about the extent of Palestine (Rev. 14:19-20¹⁹And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. ²⁰And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. (Revelation 14:19‑20); Rev. 19:15¹⁵And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (Revelation 19:15)).

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Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:

Number:

1660 (find all occurrences in KJV Bible)

Transliteration:

gath

Phonic:

gath

Meaning:

probably from 5059 (in the sense of treading out grapes); a wine-press (or vat for holding the grapes in pressing them)

KJV Usage:

(wine-)press (fat)