What is a Vat?
Proverbs 3:10
And your vats will be bursting with wine: Vats refers to large containers, sometimes cisterns carved out of stone, tubs, or wooden vessels for holding the juice of grapes as it ferments into wine. In Matt 9:17 wine is stored in skins. The word rendered vats may also refer to the wine press. The picture presented in this line is of wine vats or presses running over because they cannot contain the abundance of wine. Wine translates a word that refers to new wine, that is, grape juice in the early stages of fermentation. The wine crop is mentioned along with olive oil and grain as one of the major crops of the land of Canaan (Deut 7:13; Neh 5:11). The abundance of grain and wine is a symbol of prosperity throughout the Old Testament.
In the translation of verse 10, particularly where grapes are not grown and wine making is unknown, it may be necessary to supply the name of another fermented drink or use a borrowed word and explain the significance of wine making in a note.
Reyburn, William David, and Euan McG. Fry. A Handbook on Proverbs. New York: United Bible Societies, 2000. Print. UBS Handbook Series.
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