Places & biblical world
Winepress
A facility for extracting juice by treading or pressing grapes.
Also called · wine vat
What it means
Excavated winepresses include examples with a treading floor connected by channels to a collecting vat. Extracting the juice and its later fermentation are separate stages.
In Judges 6, Gideon beats out wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites. The scene uses a place for processing grapes to conceal work with another crop.
How it appears in the Bible
Isaiah 5 and the vineyard parables include a winepress. Isaiah 63 uses treading as an image of wrath; Revelation 14 describes grapes thrown into the wine press of God’s wrath in a vision.
Translation note
Winepress and wine vat name aspects of grape-processing facilities. Follow the passage to distinguish agricultural work from an image of judgment.