Grapes have been a symbol of the Holy Land’s bounty ever since the country’s first “tourists” – Joshua and Caleb – brought back to the Israelites a cluster so huge it took two of them to carry it suspended between them (Num. 13:23). Throughout the Bible, vineyards continued to be a potent biblical metaphor (Isaiah 5; Ezek. 17:6-10; John 15:1-5; Rev. 14:18-20).
The fruit of the vine still hangs heavy in the Holy Land, in the traditional grape-growing country of Judah around Jerusalem (Gen. 29:11) and the Galilee Mountains (Matt. 20:1-16). You’ll see another biblical grape-growing region in the lowlands west of Jerusalem, in the shadow of the looming Tel Lachish. You’ll recall those vineyards again in the Israel Museum. There, you’ll see replicas of the reliefs with which King Sennacherib, who conquered Lachish in 701 BCE, adorned his palace in Nineveh, on which he depicted grapevines to show the richness of the land. Israeli farmers continue viniculture not only in these traditional areas, but in the Golan Heights and even in the desert, where they work hard to raise both table and wine grapes.
Once you realize how synonymous grapes were with summer for the ancient inhabitants of this land, you’ll be able to guess which female figure depicting the seasons stands for summer in the synagogue mosaic of Hamat Tiberias National Park – it’s the woman wearing grapes in her hair! That might remind you of the girls dancing in the vineyards of Shiloh during the “festival of the Lord” (Judges 21:20). When you visit Shiloh, like so many other sites in the country, both the joy of this season and the biblical story come alive.