The grape gatherers were forbidden to glean, the nWSy 'dlelGth or gleanings being left for the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless. In the prophetic picture of rebellious Jerusalem as a vine, the fruit la described as being completely gleaned, the gatherer turning his hand baclc into the tendrils of the vine (Jer 6' ; see also Jer 49°).
A portion of the grape-harvest is used in making artificial honey or dibs, the juice expressed from the grape being boiled into a syrup, ' dulcis musti Vulcano decoquit humorem, et foliis undam trepidi despumat aheni' (Virg. Georg. L 295). The Heb. name is b^ji dibash, or honey, and it was an aiticle of commerce exported from Palestine to Tyre (Ezk 27"), and sent by Jacob to Egypt (Gn 43"). (See Dates, above.) Dibs forms 'a part of the food of the present inhabitants of Palestine ' (Thomson, i. 279 ; Russell, i. 82). It was, and is, the ordinary sweetener of cakes and pastry (Lv 2", Robinson, iii. 381).
Alost of the crop was carried in baskets by girls and children to the wine-presses (see descrip- tion of the shield of Achilles, II. xviii. 562 IF.). These were cavities either hollowed out of the rock or built on the ground, and lined with masonry and cement (Mt 21^). Each press, called
H! gath, LXX \rivbs, was made of two parts. The upper was the nTs/jurdA (LXX TrpoMiviov), or wine- press proper (Is 63* 5^). From the bottom of this a pipe, •vjf zinndr, leads into the lower receptacle or ag' yckeb (LXX vTroXrjViov, the ' fat ' or vat of Jl 2-^ and 3'' as in Mk 12» AV, wine-press RV). The names yekeb or gath are used, however, for the whole wine-press. In Hag 2'° the purdh is called the press-fat (AV) or wine-fat (RV, see Aboda Zara, iv. 8). In these presses the grapes were trodden. The whole process ia shown in several Egyptian pictures (Lepsius, ii. 13, 53, 9G, iii. 11'; Wilkin- son, i. 385), in one of which the treaders are repre- sented holding by cords from the roof over the pi'irdh. Sometimes flat stones are put over the grapes to assist the treading. The garments and feet of those treading are dyed Avith the ' blood of the grape' (Dt 32", Is 63»). As they trod they shouted (Jer 48^) and sang their vintage songs (Is le'"). It has been supposed that there is a line of one of these preserved ia Is 65* (see Smith, OTJC 209). The same customs are still observed wherever wine is made in the East (Robinson, i. 431 and ii. 81). The wine-press is a favourite figure with the prophets, typifying God's judgments on sin (Is 63', La V', Rev 14»).
The first part of the mice which entered the yeA(;6 was the first-fruits {Ex 22^), and was offered to God. In Egypt the residuum from the press is put into a sack and squeezed by wringing ; see Lepsius, ii. 53.
There is no mention in the Bible of the subse- quent processes of wine-making, but probably the expressed juice was left in the 'fats' until fer- mentation had set in (Hag 2'), or put, as repre- sented in the E^ptian picture (WUtinsou, i. 385), into jars, or, when fermented, it was transferred for storage to large ox-skins. These at the present day are kept ranged around the storehouse or cellar, which is called in 1 Ch 27" ["!i ns'm 'ozar hai/i/ayin. Bruce speaks of ox-skins capable of holding 60 gallons, and greased on the outside to prevent evaporation {Travels, iv. 334 ; see AthenKus, li. 28. Herodotus speaks of camel-skin vessels, iii. 9). When the deposit of the tartarous matter or lees (D"!Cy' shlmarim, LXX rpvyias, 54|o, or ipiiXay/m) had taken place, the clear supernatant wine was poured off into a new vessel (Jer 48"), and this is the well-refined wine of Is 25'. In this passage shSmarim is used in alliteration with shSmdntm, ' fat things,' in the earlier clause. Drinking the lees is used allegorically in the sense of the bitter penal conse- quences of sin (Ps 75* ; see also Zeph 1'-, Jer 48").
Wine is known by nine names in the OT, but these do not necessarily mean different kinds. The varieties of wines are named from the locality of their production. Thus we read of the wines of Kerotim, Tolim, Bethrima, Bethlaba, and Signa as those suited for the service of the sanctuary (Menachoth, viii. 6). Other well-known wines were those of En-gedi, Acco, and Gaza. In Egypt the wines of Bubastis (Herod, ii. 126), of Sebcnnytus, and of Mareotis (Strabo, x\\\. 779 ; Athena'us, i. 33) were highly esteemed. Saronitic wine was so strong that it needed two parts of water to dilute it {Shnbbath, Ixxvii. 1), and Babylonian wine needed also to be diluted {Berachoth, i.). See Kimehi (Comm. on Hos 14').
The commonest word used for wine is I" yayin, a loan word from a non-Semitic root. This occurs 143 times, being first mentioned in connexion with Noali's drunkenness. It is the word used for wine in the blessing of Jacob (Gn 49"- ") ; it is said to cheer God and man (Jg 9"), and to make glad the heart of man (Ps 104"). Repentant and returning Israel is to be rewarded by again drinking the wine of her vineyards (Am 9"), as she had done before (Ec 9'). It was to be given to them of hea\'y VOL. 11. — 3