162 VINE. 



a higher state of culture than at any subsequent period. The 

 vineyards at one time in Egypt must have been extensive, 

 judging from the representations on the monuments and sculp 

 tures, where great numbers are represented gathering and pre 

 paring the grapes for wine, and stowing away the jars and the 

 fruit itself. Allusions in Isaiah xvi. prove that vineyards and 

 wine-presses existed east of the Jordan, at Heshbon and Jazer; 

 and the scriptural accounts go to show that the cultivation 

 must have been extensive. But now the vineyards planted 

 and wines made there are scarcely worth mention; and the 

 prophecy of Jeremiah is most mournfully and literally fulfilled: 

 &quot;0 vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of 

 Jazer : thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the 

 sea of Jazer (Dead Sea) : the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer 

 fruits and upon thy vintage. And joy and gladness is taken 

 from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have 

 caused wine to fail from the wine-presses : none shall tread 

 with shouting.&quot; (Jer. xlviii. 32, 33.) Palestine presented a 

 great contrast to Egypt in the extent and excellence of its 

 vineyards, and its wines in the times of the Ptolemies were 

 imported into Egypt, as the vineyards had long before that 

 date disappeared from the land of Pharaoh. Even at present 

 the grapes of Judea in places are extremely large and delicious, 

 and forcibly suggest the fertility of the vineyards in the joyous 

 times of the Jewish prosperity. 



