A basin or container where harvested grapes are trampled or squeezed to extract juice for making wine.
About Winepress
A sunken area (Judges 6:11) where the grape harvest was thrown and trodden with bare feet, amid shouts of joy and vintage work songs (Jeremiah 48:33; compare Isaiah 65:8). The red juice flowed through spouts into jars. Full winepresses meant prosperity; deserted ones spoke of destitution. The common winepress was a natural landmark (Judges 7:25; Zechariah 14:10). A privately owned one showed the vineyard owner's care (Isaiah 5:2; Matthew 21:33).
Grape treading symbolized the ruthless trampling by invading armies (Lamentations 1:15). This vivid battle metaphor mixes with divine judgment (Isaiah 63:1–6). It anticipates the Lord's final judgment, called “the great winepress of God’s wrath” (Revelation 14:18–20).
Key References
He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!
Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes of the earth, and he threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.
All Scripture References (26)
Numbers (2)
Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress.
Therefore say to the Levites, ‘When you have presented the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the produce of the threshing floor or winepress.
Deuteronomy (2)
You are to furnish him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. You shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.
You are to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.
Judges (2)
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.
They also captured Oreb and Zeeb, the two princes of Midian; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. So they pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.
2 Kings (1)
He answered, “If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?”
Nehemiah (1)
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.
Job (1)
They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.
Proverbs (1)
then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.
Isaiah (4)
He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!
Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards. No one tramples the grapes in the winepresses; I have put an end to the cheering.
Why are Your clothes red, and Your garments like one who treads the winepress?
“I have trodden the winepress alone, and no one from the nations was with Me. I trampled them in My anger and trod them down in My fury; their blood spattered My garments, and all My clothes were stained.
Jeremiah (1)
Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard and from the fields of Moab. I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses; no one treads them with shouts of joy; their shouts are not for joy.
Lamentations (1)
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.
Hosea (1)
The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them, and the new wine will fail them.
Joel (2)
Haggai (1)
from that time, when one came expecting a heap of twenty ephahs of grain, there were but ten. When one came to the winepress to draw out fifty baths, there were but twenty.
Zechariah (1)
All the land from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem will be turned into a plain, but Jerusalem will be raised up and will remain in her place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses.
Matthew (1)
Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
Mark (1)
Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
Revelation (3)
So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes of the earth, and he threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.
And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and the blood that flowed from it rose as high as the bridles of the horses for a distance of 1,600 stadia.
And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.