יֶ֫קֶב
ye.qev
wine
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word יקב (yeqev): Wine in Ancient Israel The Hebrew word *yeqev* denotes wine and appears 16 times throughout the biblical text, establishing it as a recognized term in the vocabulary of ancient Israelite life. This relatively modest frequency—compared to more common words for wine—suggests that *yeqev* may have represented a specific category or context of wine rather than serving as the primary everyday term for the beverage. The word's presence across multiple biblical texts indicates that wine-related terminology was important enough to require different lexical options. The term's limited but consistent usage suggests it held particular significance in specific contexts, whether related to a particular type of wine, its preparation, storage, or ceremonial use. Without additional lexical data showing synonyms or definitional distinctions between *yeqev* and other Hebrew wine terms, the precise nuance distinguishing this word remains within the scope of the data provided. What remains clear is that wine was sufficiently central to ancient Israelite culture that multiple Hebrew terms were available to describe it, with *yeqev* occupying its own distinct place in that linguistic landscape across the 16 occurrences documented in the biblical corpus.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
16 total occurrences across the text
They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.
Proverbs 3:10so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.
Isaiah 5:2He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
Isaiah 16:10Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.
Jeremiah 48:33Gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab. I have caused wine to cease from the wine presses. No one will tread with shouting. The shouting will be no shouting.
Hosea 9:2The threshing floor and the wine press won’t feed them, and the new wine will fail her.
Joel 2:24The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
Joel 3:13Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”
Haggai 2:16Through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty, there were only twenty.
Zechariah 14:10All the land will be made like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she will be lifted up, and will dwell in her place, from Benjamin’s gate to the place of the first gate, to the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses.
Numbers 18:27Your wave offering shall be credited to you, as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the wine press.
Numbers 18:30“Therefore you shall tell them, ‘When you heave its best from it, then it shall be credited to the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the wine press.
Deuteronomy 15:14You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.
Deuteronomy 16:13You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press.
Judges 7:25They took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at Oreb’s rock, and Zeeb they killed at Zeeb’s wine press, as they pursued Midian. Then they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.
2 Kings 6:27He said, “If Yahweh doesn’t help you, where could I get help for you? From of the threshing floor, or from the wine press?”