Grape

Fruit which grows in clusters on a vine. It was very widely cultivated in the Near East in biblical times and was used mostly for making wine.

The cultivation of grapes indicative of rich and fertile land

Numbers 20:2–5 See also Numbers 13:21–25

Now there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered against Moses and Aaron. The people quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had perished with our brothers before the LORD! Why have you brought the LORD’s assembly into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here? Why have you led us up out of Egypt to bring us to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain, figs, vines, or pomegranates — and there is no water to drink!”

The failure of the grape harvest indicative of misfortune or disaster

Isaiah 32:10–13 See also Jeremiah 8:13; Micah 7:1; Habakkuk 3:16–19

In a little more than a year you will tremble, O secure ones. For the grape harvest will fail and the fruit harvest will not arrive. Shudder, you ladies of leisure; tremble, you daughters of complacency. Strip yourselves bare and put sackcloth around your waists. Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines, and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers — even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.

Grapes used to make wine

Deuteronomy 28:39 See also Genesis 40:9–11, Genesis 49:10–12; Micah 6:15

You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but will neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.

Treading grapes

Amos 9:13 See also Judges 9:27; Nehemiah 13:15; Jeremiah 25:30

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, with which all the hills will flow.

Harvesting grapes

Jeremiah 49:9–10 parallel Obadiah 1:5 See also Leviticus 26:5; Numbers 13:20; Isaiah 62:8–9

If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleanings? Were thieves to come in the night, would they not steal only what they wanted? But I will strip Esau bare; I will uncover his hiding places, and he will be unable to conceal himself. His descendants will be destroyed along with his relatives and neighbors, and he will be no more.

Regulations concerning the grape harvest

Leviticus 19:10 See also Leviticus 25:1–7; Deuteronomy 23:24, Deuteronomy 24:21

You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God.

Dried grapes: raisins

1 Samuel 30:11–12 See also 1 Samuel 25:14–19; 2 Samuel 6:17–19 parallel 1 Chronicles 16:1–3; 2 Samuel 16:1–2; 1 Chronicles 12:38–40; Song of Solomon 2:5; Hosea 3:1

Now his men found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David. They gave the man water to drink and food to eat — a piece of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins. So he ate and was revived, for he had not had any food or water for three days and three nights.

Nazirites were forbidden to consume grapes or grape products

Numbers 6:1–4 See also Judges 13:2–14

And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, he is to abstain from wine and strong drink. He must not drink vinegar made from wine or strong drink, and he must not drink any grape juice or eat fresh grapes or raisins. All the days of his separation, he is not to eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins.

The metaphorical use of grapes

Jeremiah 6:9 See also Deuteronomy 32:32–33; Judges 8:2; Job 15:32–34; Psalm 80:8–19; Isaiah 5:1–7, Isaiah 24:5–13, Isaiah 65:8; Jeremiah 48:32; Hosea 9:10; Joel 3:12–13; Revelation 14:17–20

This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as a vine. Pass your hand once more like a grape gatherer over the branches.”

The proverbial use of grapes

Matthew 7:15–16 parallel Luke 6:43–45 See also Jeremiah 31:29–30; Ezekiel 18:1–2; 1 Corinthians 9:7; James 3:12

Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?