In preparing the vineyard, the stones had to be gathered out of the soU (Is 5^). This is noticed by Cato {De lie Riistica, 46), who says that the vine- yard should be 'bipalio delapidato.' It needed also to be fenced with a hedge (Mt 21^^), a stone wall (Nu 22-^), or a ditch, to protect it from the wild beasts, such as jackals (Ca 2'°, Ezk 13*), boars (Ps 80""), and from robbers (Jer 49»). The favourite site was a hillside (Is 5^ Jer 31', Am 9"), and the plants are set about three paces from each other in rows (Robinson, ii. 80 f.). When the vines grew up they were sustained on stout stakes, over which tlie branches were trained (Ezk 19"- '*). This was also tlie practice in Egypt; see Lepsius, Denkmalcr, ii. 53, 61. All these conditions may be observed to tills day, although the Mohammedan rule has dis- couraged viticulture in Palestine. There is usually a tower (-rupyo^) in a large vineyard, as described in Mt 21^, in which the watchers of the vineyard stay. Vineyards were called Ln Heb. m.s kerem. In Am 5" tliis is coupled with ijn hemed, 'pleasant,' in Is 27^" with njn keener, ' of wine,' but "Targ. reads hemed here also, and LXX /taX6s. The towers in the vine- yards for the keepers or vine-dressers (o'D-ib) (Ca 1') are mentioned in Chilaim, v. § 3, but iii smaller vineyards they lived in booths (Is P). The vine- yard must not be so-\vn with two kinds of seed, else the whole produce was forfeited as a c'lp kodesk, or sanctified thing (Dt 22") ; but trees of otter sorts, as fi" trees, might be planted in a vineyard (Lk 13", Mic 4''). Ramses lU. had olive trees in his large vineyard, which was called the 'spirit of Egypt.' P<^P- Harris, i. 8. 7.
The vine-buds appear in March, and send out new branches, whicli are called D':i5' sariglm. These are not tendrils, for in Gn 40>» they are described as bearing fruit ; when living, these new branches are green, but when the surface is eaten by locusts the skeleton branch looks white (Jl 1'). The tendrils are called D'^H zalzalltm in Is 18", or snlsillCth in Jer 6» (see Basket). The flowers appear in early AprU, and have a slight fragrance (Ca 2"-"). This was the time when the vines were pruned, hence it is said in the passage that in the spnn^-time the period of the tdi or pruning of vines (RVm) has come (so LXX, Aq. Synim. Targ. Vulg.). AV follows Parchon and Kimchi in rendering it ' the time of the singing of birds is come.' The reference to the pruning of vines in Jn 15' is familiar.
• But Schrader (COT' IL 121) disputes the identiflcatioii.
The grape (ajs 'endh) grows in cluBterg, which are named Si);y^ 'eshkol, LXX aratfivXi). The fruit- bearing branch is in Nu 13" called rr^o\ zim6rdk, which IB the word used in the phrase descriptive of the worship of the sun in Ezk 8" ' they put the branch to tlie nose,' usually taken as referring to an old Persian custom of holding a bundle of vme- rods, called barsom, before the face of the priest when praying to the unextinguished fire of the Pyrretheia (Strabo, ed. Casaubon, xv. 733). For a different meaning see Tract Joma, 77*.
The ripening grapes are called idS fioyer in Is 18', and nearly the same word is used in Job 15". These are sour and set the teeth on edge (Ezk 18'V Sickly vines sometimes drop their grapes in thie stage (as in Job 15^*), the result of a blight. In Jnne or July the early grapes are ripe (Is 18'), and in September the vintage (T?;! bdztr) begins. This is a season of rejoicing, and during the grape-harvest the people live in booths in the midst of the vine- yards. It has been conjectured that the ordinance of the Feast of Tabernacles was a mode of turning this custom to the service of religion. This vintage season was celebrated at Shechem (Jg 9"). The grapes are cut with a .^^P1D mazmerdh, or pruning hook (Is 2", Jl 3'°), which is called V35 rrutggAl, or sickle in Jl 3^', and are collected in baskets. Tliere was no vine-harvest in the sabbatic or jubilee year. For particulars on viticulture see Tliomson, The Grape Vine ; and Barron, Virte Culture.
The best grapes were dried in the sun into raising, which were compressed into pi'^x zimmuk, or cakes (Kimchi). Abigail brought 100 such cakes to David (1 S 25'*), and David refreshed the fainting Egyptian with two such cakes (1 S 30"). Similar cjikes were brought by Ziba to David (2 S 16' ; see also 1 Ch 12*). These raisins, as well as fresh grapes, were forbidden to the Nazirite while undei his vow. To him all that comes of the grape, from the D'3s-;n harzannim, or kernels, to the Jj zag, or husks, was taboo (see Jg 13"). The rteiVN 'dsM- shSth, given by David to those who accompanied him in bringing the ark to Jerusalem (2 S 6", I Ch 16'), and tr. in AV 'flagons of wine,' were probably cakes of raisins, as in RV, which has made a similar change in Ca 2'. The reading in the AV is supported on Talmudic authority, but this rests on a very doubtful etymology. For the use of these fruit-cakes by travellers see Russell, i. 82. Cakes of this kind were used as ofi'erings to Baal (Hos 3').