bottle Summary and Overview

a vessel made of skins for holding wine (Josh. 9:4. 13; 1 Sam. 16:20; Matt. 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37, 38), or milk (Judg. 4:19), or water (Gen. 21:14, 15, 19), or strong drink (Hab. 2:15). Earthenware vessels were also similarly used (Jer. 19:1-10; 1 Kings 14:3; Isa. 30:14). In Job 32:19 (compare Matt. 9:17; Luke 5:37, 38; Mark 2:22) the reference is to a wine-skin ready to burst through the fermentation of the wine. "Bottles of wine" in the Authorized Version of Hos. 7:5 is properly rendered in the Revised Version by "the heat of wine," i.e., the fever of wine, its intoxicating strength. The clouds are figuratively called the "bottles of heaven" (Job 38:37). A bottle blackened or shrivelled by smoke is referred to in Ps. 119:83 as an image to which the psalmist likens himself.

The Arabs keep their water, milk and other liquids in leathern bottles. These are made of goatskins. When the animal is killed they cut off its feet and its head, and draw it in this manner out of the skin without opening its belly. The great leathern bottles are made of the skin of a he-goat, and the small ones, that serve instead of a bottle of water on the road, are made of a kid's skin. The effect of external heat upon a skin bottle is indicated in #Ps 119:83| "a bottle in the smoke," and of expansion produced by fermentation in #Mt 9:17| "new wine in old bottles." Vessels of metal, earthen or glassware for liquids were in use among the Greeks, Egyptians, Etruscans and Assyrians, and also no doubt among the Jews, especially in later times. Thus #Jer 19:1| "a potter's earthen bottle." (Bottles were made by the ancient Egyptians of alabaster, gold, ivory and stone. They were of most exquisite workmanship and elegant forms. Tear-bottles were small urns of glass or pottery, made to contain the tears of mourners at funerals, and placed in the sepulchres at Rome and in Israel. In some ancient tombs they are found in great numbers. #Ps 56:8| refers to this custom.--ED.)

BOT'TLE . Gen 21:14. Ancient bottles were made of the skins of animals, which were properly dressed for the purpose. The openings of the skin were closed except at the neck, through which the liquor was to be received and discharged, and which was fastened by a string, like a bag. They were, of course, of different sizes and shapes, as the skins of kids, goats, or oxen might be used. Bruce describes particularly a bottle which he saw in Arabia, made in this manner, of an ox-skin, which would hold 60 gallons. BOW BOZ Christian missionaries in Eastern countries frequently speak of the goatskins and leathern bottles in which they carry water in their journeys. Skin-Bottles. (Ayre.) Where the travelling is rough and the vessels likely to strike against each other, they are made of the strongest material that can be found. The skins or bottles used for new wine were of the freshest and most flexible kind, in order that they might the better endure the process of fermentation. Matt 9:17. The effect of smoke on a skin-bottle would be to blacken and shrivel it. Ps 119:83. Water or wine put into such a bottle would all run out. Nearly Arab Water-Carner. all the drinking-water now used in Egypt is brought from the river Nile in skinbottles, by Arab water-carriers, as shown in the picture.

Of two kinds: (1) Of skin or leather, used for carrying water, wine, and milk. A goatskin whole, the apertures at the feet and tail being bound up, and when filled tied at the neck. They are tanned with acacia bark and left hairy at the outside. The Gibeonites' bottles were rent, as they pretended, with their distant journey (Joshua 9:4; Joshua 9:13). New wines by fermenting would rend "old bottles" of skin (Matthew 9:17). It is therefore put in new goatskin bottles, and without a vent to work off the fermentation strains even them. So Elihu, the young friend of Job, after the older ones had failed to comfort him, compares himself, filled with the spirit which inspired him so as to be full of words seeking for utterance, to new bottles of wine: "my belly is as wine which hath no vent, it is ready to burst like new bottles" (Job 32:19). Hung in the smoke to dry, the skin bottles become parched and shriveled; whence the psalmist (Psalm 119:83) says, "I am become like a bottle in the smoke." Skins for wine are still used in Spain, called borrachas. (2) Bottles of glass or "potters'" earthenware, easily "dashed in pieces": a frequent image of sinners, God's creatures (Romans 9:21-23; 2 Timothy 2:20-21) dashed in pieces by God their Maker at His righteous pleasure when they do not answer His end, namely His glory (Jeremiah 13:12-14; Jeremiah 19:1-10; Psalm 2:9; Revelation 2:27). The Egyptian monuments illustrate the pottery and glass work of that country fifteen hundred years B.C. The clouds pouring down water are figuratively "the bottles of heaven" (Job 38:37). "Who can stay (rather, incline, so as to empty out and pour) the bottles of heaven?" the rain filled clouds. "Put Thou my tears (as a precious treasure in Thy sight) into thy bottle" (the repository of precious objects, sealed up anciently), so as to reserve them for a manifold recompence of joy hereafter (Psalm 136:5; Isaiah 61:7)