Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-277).

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Viticulture as a Vital Facet of Israelite Culture -- The Sociology of the Vintner -- The Cultivation of Grape Vines -- Installations of the Israelite Vineyard -- The Grape Harvest -- Wine Consumption -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Scripture Index -- Subject Index.

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The practice of viticulture--from planting vines to drinking wine--in Israelite culture is the focus of Walsh's investigation. Viticulture, no less than drinking, marked the social sphere of Israelite practitioners, and so its details were often enlisted to describe social relations in the Hebrew Bible. These features of everyday life offer important clues for the reconstruction of Israelite social history, the literary constructions of the oral transmitters, authors, and redactors and for thematic and theological meanings attached to biblical representations of the vine and wine imagery.