Hebrew word · H1660

גַּת

gat

wine press

A winepress, specifically the treading floor or basin where grapes were crushed by foot. Ancient presses usually had a shallow upper floor (gat) cut in rock or plastered, and a channel leading to a lower collecting vat (yeqeb). Sometimes gat names the whole installation.

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

winepress, wine vat

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 63:2

Range of meaning

A winepress, specifically the treading floor or basin where grapes were crushed by foot. Ancient presses usually had a shallow upper floor (gat) cut in rock or plastered, and a channel leading to a lower collecting vat (yeqeb). Sometimes gat names the whole installation. The same word is the name of the Philistine city Gath. A related Aramaic form appears in 'Gethsemane' (gat šemānê, 'oil press').

Against the English

'Winepress' makes many modern readers picture a mechanical screw or beam press. The gat was a floor for bare feet, and that is why the treader's clothes end up splattered. KJV's 'winefat' (fat being the old spelling of 'vat') and WEB's 'wine vat' point to the basin.

How it drifted

Screw-and-lever presses became common in the Roman period and later, and later European art shows those machines. Iron Age Judah trod grapes by foot in rock-cut installations, which archaeologists have found in large numbers in the hill country.

Used elsewhere in the period

Judges 6:11: Gideon threshes wheat 'in the winepress' (bəgat), hidden in a rock-cut basin. Nehemiah 13:15: 'treading winepresses (gittôt) on the Sabbath'. Joel 4:13 (Eng. 3:13): 'Go in, tread, for the winepress (gat) is full… for their evil is great', a judgment image very close to this one. Revelation 14:19–20 and 19:15 take up the image of 'the great winepress of the wrath of God'.

From the study of Judges 6:11

Range of meaning

A winepress, specifically the treading floor or vat where grapes were crushed by foot (Isa 63:2–3; Neh 13:15; Lam 1:15). It was often cut into bedrock, linked to a lower collecting vat (yeqeḇ), and found in or near vineyards.

Against the English

Most versions say 'in a/the winepress'. KJV says 'by the winepress', which loses the Hebrew ba- ('in') and with it the picture of Gideon down inside a pit. NLT spells out 'at the bottom of a winepress'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Many rock-cut wine installations from the Iron Age have been found in the central hill country. Wheat was harvested in late spring (May–June) and grapes in late summer (August–September), so at wheat harvest the press would have been empty and dry.

From the study of Lamentations 1:15

Range of meaning

Gat is the treading floor of a winepress: a shallow basin, usually cut into rock, where grapes were crushed underfoot. The juice ran down a channel into a lower vat (yeqev). Darakh means to tread or stamp, and it is the technical verb for treading grapes (Neh 13:15; Isa 16:10; Amos 9:13). It is also used for bending a bow and walking a road.

Against the English

Most versions add 'as in' or 'like grapes in' a winepress. That is a fair way to make the comparison clear. The Hebrew is starker: 'a winepress the Lord has trodden, on the maiden Daughter Judah.' Judah is not like the grapes. She is in the press.

Used elsewhere in the period

Treading grapes went with shouting and song, the hedad (Isa 16:10; Jer 25:30; 48:33). Grape juice is 'the blood of grapes' (Gen 49:11; Deut 32:14). The winepress is a picture of divine judgment on nations in Isa 63:1–6 ('I trod the winepress alone... their juice spattered my garments'), in Joel 3:13 [4:13 Hebrew], and later in Rev 14:19–20 and 19:15.

Where it appears

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 6:11 בַּגַּ֔ת in the winepress

    Then the angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

    Here: Inside the winepress, a treading pit usually cut into bedrock. It was a hollow, enclosed space and stood empty at wheat harvest, so it was the opposite of an exposed threshing floor.

Nehemiah · 1

  1. Nehemiah 13:15 גִּתּ֣וֹת׀ winepresses

    In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day.

    Here: The upper treading floor of a winepress, usually cut into rock, where grapes were trampled so the juice ran down into a lower vat. Pressing grapes points to the grape harvest in late summer.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 63:2 בְּגַֽת׃ in a winepress

    Why are Your clothes red, and Your garments like one who treads the winepress?

    Here: 'In a winepress': the rock-cut treading floor where grapes were crushed under bare feet. Nobody needs it explained that a treader comes out splashed red. The question already hints at the answer in v.3.

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 1:15 גַּ֚ת a winepress

    The Lord has rejected all the mighty men in my midst; He has summoned an army against me to crush my young warriors. Like grapes in a winepress, the Lord has trampled the Virgin Daughter of Judah.

    Here: The shallow rock-cut floor where grapes were trodden by bare feet. Its position at the front of the clause throws the picture forward: 'a winepress!'

Joel · 1

  1. Joel 3:13 גַּ֔ת [the] winepress

    Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because their wickedness is great.

    Here: The upper treading floor of a winepress, usually cut into rock, where grapes were piled and crushed by foot.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.