Bottle

Bottles in the ancient biblical world were most commonly made from the skins of goats or other animals, sewn into watertight containers with the neck of the animal serving as the opening. The Gibeonites carried old, cracked wineskins as evidence of a long journey (Josh. 9:4, 13), and David received a skin of wine from Jesse when sent to Saul (1 Sam. 16:20). Clay vessels also served as bottles for water and other liquids, and the Hebrew baqbuq (probably onomatopoeic for the gurgling sound) designates an earthenware flask (Jer. 19:1, 10).

Jesus' parable of new wine in old wineskins (Matt. 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37–38) uses the familiar limitation of leather bottles—which lose elasticity with age and burst under the expansion of fermenting wine—to illustrate the incompatibility of the new order of the kingdom with the rigid structures of the old. The “bottle in the smoke” of Psalm 119:83 describes a parched, shriveled wineskin, an image of exhaustion and affliction. Job 32:19 compares his need to speak to new wineskins about to burst.