These are said to be 'trodden,' which signifies that the grapes were placed in a receptacle, and were trodden on by the feet, a pipe conveying the juice into a vessel at the side. Places have been found which apparently were used for this purpose: they are hewn out of a rock with a shallow channel by which the juice could escape. Judges 6:11; Nehemiah 13:15; Job 24:11; Isaiah 5:2; Isaiah 63:2; Mark 12:1; etc. In Egypt the grapes were also pressed in a bag by its being twisted tighter and tighter.
Symbolically the wine-press is used as a figure of the execution of God's judgements: the people, as grapes, are placed in the press, and there crushed: "and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horses' bridles, by the space of 1600 furlongs" (about the extent of Palestine) Revelation 14:19,20; Revelation 19:15 .