Joel 2:24

The reversal of Joel 1:10-12.

the floors i.e. the threshing-floors which, however, were not like our threshing-floors: see the description in the footnote on p. 227.

fats i.e. (as we should say) vats, fatbeing an old form of vat, A.S. fœt, Germ. Fass: so constantly in A.V., as Joel 3:13; Haggai 2:16. Both the gath, in which the grapes were trodden (Nehemiah 13:15; Isaiah 63:2, where winefatis wrong), and the yeḳeb(lit. a place hollowed out), in which the expressed juice was received (cf. on Amos 9:13), were commonly excavated in the rock (cf. Isaiah 5:2, "and also hewed out in it a yeḳeb," or winefat[R.V. marg.]): and remains of those dug in ancient times are still to be seen in Palestine. Robinson (B.R[44] 3:137) describes one: on the upper side of a ledge of rock, a shallow vat had been dug out, 8 feet square, and 15 inches deep; two feet below there was another smaller vat, 4 feet square and 3 feet deep; the grapes were trodden in the shallow upper vat, and the hole by which the juice was drawn off into the lower vat still remained. Cf. ib.p. 381 (a similar arrangement in use in 1852). Sometimes there were two such lower receptacles, communicating with each other, attached to the gath;and Schick (Z.D.P.V[45] 10:1887, p. 146 f.) describes one with three: the must, in such cases, would be transferred from one to the other in order gradually to clarify.

[44] .R.… Edw. Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine(ed. 2, 1856).

[45] .D.P.V.… Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins.

overflow Joel 3:13. Comp. Proverbs 3:10, "and thy vats shall burst with must (ornew wine)."

wine and oil new wine (or must) and fresh oil (as Joel 1:10). Olives are now usually crushed by a large circular stone revolving in a kind of mortar; but formerly (see Micah 6:15; and cf. the name Gethsemane, "oil-press") they were trodden by the feet of men, like grapes.