rotates. In old presses the pressure of the level was supplemented by heavy stones (Thomson, i. 286). The oil is allowed to stand until the sedi- ment subsides, and it is then poured oft"; sometimes salt is used to clarify it. Among those who have no oil pre.sses the Pulp is put in hot water and the oil skimmed oS". The fruit is sometimes kept until soft and black before crushing. It is possible that in this state it may sometimes have been trodden by the feet, but that is never done now (Mic 6"). The oil is kept in cisterns of stone or cement (I Ch 27^), or in jars (khawabies) kept in cellars. For a description of the oil presses see Robinson, BRP iii. 365 ; and Thomson, Land and Book, ii. 286 ff. Gethsemane means an oil press.
The oil of the olive was one of the most im- portant products of the Holy Land : corn, wine, and oil were its three staple crops. ' Certe oleo et vino gandebat Paloestina prae .<Egypto' (Reland, Palais- tina, ccclvii.). The oil is used in cookery (Lv 2^), and is spread on bread (Ex 29^), or burnt in lamps for lighting (Ex 25'), or used externally for anoint- ing. This use is referred to in Jothara's parable (Jg 9"). The excessive use of oil was a luxiir\' which brought men to poverty (Pr 21"). Olive oil is called n-t \'-^ shemen zayith ; the finer oil which runs out of pounded olives without compression is distinguished as n-ns kdthith (Ex 27-'", Lv 24- etc.). Olive oil was one of the exports from Judah to Tyre (Ezk 27"). Oil was occasionally caiTied as a part of their provisions by travellers (Lk 10*^).
The olive tree is liable to a parasitic mould disease, a mildew which causes it to cast its fruit or makes its flower to shrivel (Dt 28", Job 15^). It is also liable to be attacked by in.sects (Am 4'). The olive tree is used as a type of heavenly favour (Ps 52^ Hos 14", Jer 11"), and of family prosperity (Ps 128^). Oil is used metaphorically as expressive of divine grace (see ANOINTING) ; or the salutary reproof of the righteous (Ps 141°). The oil of joy is spoken of in Is 61', see Erman, p. 231. The oil tree, 'ezs!iemrn of Neh 8", 1 K 6^, Is 41'", is generally believed to be the zackum or Balanites ./Egyptiaca, a native of the .Jordan Valley, and one wliose oil is esteeiiu'd as a useful medicine.
Pomegranates (p":i rimmijn, LXX p4a), used both for the tree and the fruit. This is also an abundant fruit in Palestine, of which it is a native, and is mentioned 32 times in the Bible. Ponie^anat«3 were among the fruits brought back by tiie spies from E.shcol (Nu IS^). The tree {Punica granatum) grows to about 20 ft. in height, and has myrtle-like leaves and scarlet flowers, which come out early in the spring (Ca6"). The fruit is well known, and was a favourite with the Jews ; its bright colour is referred to in Ca 4'. Its sour juice was, and is, used in cookery (Russell, i. 85 ; Thomson, i. 286) ami in making cooling sherbet, as we use lemons. The juice is sometimes fermented (Dioscorides, v. 34), but the wine is rather tasteless unless spiced (Ca 8-). ' In this fruit Nature h.as shown to us a grape, and indeed not must, but wine ready made ' ( Pliny, xxiii. 6). The pomegranate sujiplied a pattern for ornament (1 K 7'-", Ex 2S^. In RV 'pome- granates' in 1 K 7" is tr. ' jiillars').
Vines ([rj gephen ; in Nu %*, .Ig IS" \"y\ [rs gcphen hnyyayin, the wine-vine). The \'itis vhii/rra was the fruit tree most abundantly cultivated in Pales- tine and Egypt in ancient times. It is a native of tlie liill.v countries north of SjTia, but early spread along the shores of the Mediterranean. (Irane kernels have been found in mummy cases of the 11th dynasty in Egj-pt, dating from about n.C. 2(100. A special varietv with liark red grapes ia called pii? .wrek (Is 5^ Jer 2", Gn 49") ; these grapes liave very small kernels. Figuratively, the uiipruneil vine in the sabbatic year and jubilee is called T?) rxliir, being compareil to the uiitrimmed
hair of the Nazirite. The colocynth plant in 2 K {^ is called ^ephen sSdeh, a vine of the fields. A wild grape-vine bearing worthless grapes is called gephen nokr% in Jer 2^', ' the degenerate plant of a strange vine.' Palestine, especially in its hilly parts, ifl well suited for vine-growing — ' Apertos Bacchus amat coUes' (Virgil, Georg. ii. 113). The valley of Eshcol, named from its bunches of grapes, produced the CTeat cluster which the two spies carried home between them on a staff, Nu 13** (see Wagenseil, Sola, 709*). Modem travellers have seen bunches of 10 to 12 lb. in weight ; still larger bunches up to 19 lb. have been grown in this country under glass. The hills about Jezreel, where Naboth's vineyard was situated, were famous for their vines, as were the grapes of Ephraim (Jg 8=). The Moabite hills of Sibmah (Is 16*- ', Jer 48*^), and those of Heshbon and Elealeh, were also renowned, and those of Engedi (Ca 1") in Judah. It was in the hUl-country of Judah that the s/jrck grew (Gn 49"), and the valleys of Sorek and Eshcol were named from these, as was Beth-haccherem, ' the house of vines,' near Tekoa (Jer 6'). A bottle of Bethlehem wine was a present fit for a king (1 S 16*). Thewinesof Lebanon (Hos 14') and of Helbon (Alej)po*) (one of the exports from Syria to Tyre, Ezk 21'") are also named (Robinson, jBJiP iii. 472).