^^- the ample foliage affords a delightful shadow
5^5^ (see 1 Kings iv, 25 ; Mic. iv, 4).
~-^-z_-,.- Besides planting the vine and protecting
„._ it from aggressors, such as jackals or "little
foxes" (Cant, ii, 15), and that wholesale de- stroyer "the boar out of the wood" (Psa. Ixxx, 13), to say nothing of unscrupulous passengers or mischievous marauders (ver. 12 ; Gen. xlix, 22, 23), the careful husliand- fev' - rnan "prunes and purges" his vine, that ; it may bring forth more and better fruit ^' (John XV, 2). " The pruniiiff, or lopping •\^ ^ of the fruitless shoots, takes place first in ISIarch, when the clusters begin to form. The twig that is lopped off in ]\Iarch has time to shoot by April, when, if it give no promise, it is again lopped off, and thus
VINE
793
VINE
again, if still fruitless, in May; after which it does not shoot forth, and the process of pruning ceases. Such is the different treatment of the fruitful and the fruit- less branch. From the former a twig or shoot is taken away ; the latter is taken away itself, and, its wood being untit for any other use, it is cast into the tire and burned (Ezek. xv, 2, 5). The purtjiwj of the vine is effected by making incisions in it with a knife, which requires to be done with great skill and delicacy. In this way the infected sap is drawn off, and the diseased vine, which would otherwise die, is preserved. This is what is calleil the bleeding of the vine, and is often alluded to by religious writers as an emblem of sancti- fied atttictiiin" (Anderson, /)iWe L'ufht from Bible Lands, p. 290). Besides wild-boars, jackals, and foxes, other enemies, such as birds, locusts, and caterpillars, occa- sionally damaged the vines.
The vine in the Mosaic ritual was sidiject to the usual restrictions of the "seventh year" (Kxod. xxiii, 1 1) and the jubilee of the tiftieth year (Lev. xxv, 11). Tiie gleanings, oleloth (n?5"), were to be left for the ]io()r and stranger (Jer. xlix, 9; Deut. xxiv, 21). The vineyard was not to be sown "with divers seeds" (xxii, 9), but lig-trees were sometimes planted in vineyards (Luke xiii, G; comp. 1 Kings iv, 25: "Every man un- der his vine and under his tig-tree"). Persons passing through the vineyard were allowed to eat the grapes therein, but not to carry any away (Deut. xxiii, 24).
The vintage, batsir (~i^;J3), which formerly was a season of general festivity, as is the case more or less in all vine-growing countries, commences in September. The towns are deserted, and the people live among the vineyards (S^S) in the loilges and tents (Robinson, ut Slip. ; comp. Judg. ix, 27; Jer. xxv, 30; Lsa. xvi, 10). The grapes were gathered with shouts of joy by the " grape-gatherers" ("^3) (Jer. xxv, 30), and put into baskets (seevi, 9). They were then carried on the head and shoulders, or slung upon a yoke, to the " wine- press" (rw). Those intended for eating were perhaps put into flat open baskets of wickerwork, as was the custom in Egypt {Wi\kmson, Am: Ur/ypf. i, 40). In Palestine at present the finest grapes, says liobinson, are dried as raisins, fsiinmuk (p^52^), and the juice of the remainder, after having been trodden and pressed, " is boiled down to a syrup which, under the name of dibs (iT^T')' i'* much used by all classes, wherever vine- yards are found, as a condiment with their food." For furtlier remarks on the modes of making fermented drinks, etc., of the jiuce of the grape, see Wine. The vineyard (w"13), which was generally on a hill (lsa. V, I; Jer. xxxi, 5; Amos ix, 13), was surrounded by a wall or hedge in order to keep out the wild boars (Psa. Ixxx, 13), jackals, and foxes (Numb, xxii, 24; Cant, ii, 15; Neh. iv, 3; Ezek. xiii, 4, 5; l\Iatt. xxi, 33), which commit sad havoc among the vines, both by treading them down and by eating tiie grapes. With- in the vinevard was one or more towers of stone in which the vine-dressers, koremim (D'^'2"i2), lived (lsa.
i, 8; V, 2; Matt, xxi, 33; see also Robinson, Bill. Jies. i, 213; ii, 81). The press, gath ("5), and vat, i/ekeb (SJ?;^), which was dug (Matt, xxi, 33) or hewn out of the rocky soil, were jiart of the vineyard furniture (lsa. V, 2). One of these ancient wine-presses, scooped out in the living rock, has been described by Robinson. He found it on the road from Akka to Jerusalem. "Advan- tage had been taken of a ledge of rock ; on the upper side, towards the south, a shallow vat had been dug out, eight feet stpiare and fifteen inclies deep, its bot- tom declining slightly towards the north. The thick- ness of rock left on the north side was one foot; and two feet lower down on that side another smaller vat was excavated, four feet scpiare 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 var. This ancient press would seem to prove that in other days these hills were covered with vineyards; and such is its state of preservation that, were there still grapes in the vicini- ty, it might at once be brought into use without repair" {Bibl. Res. iii, 137). This may be taken as a type of the Hebrew wine-press. Like the Egyptians, the Jews may have also em[)loyed presses made of wood ; but those hewn out of the living rock woidd be landmarks as permanent as threshing-floors similarly constructed (comp. Judg. vii, 25; Zech. xiv, 10, with (ien. 1, 10; 2 Sam. xxiv, 18). It was a simjile but sutticient arrange- ment, and modern ingenuity has not much improved on it. Nor has any effectual substitute been fomid for the human foot as an apparatus for exjiressing the juice of the grape without crushing the seeds or " stones." See