Bible Dictionary
Lees
Lees are the sediment or dregs that settle at the bottom of wine. Scripture uses them figuratively for settled ease that hardens people in complacency and for the bitter suffering of judgment.
Definition
Lees are the sediment or dregs that settle at the bottom of wine. Wine left standing on its lees was regarded as full-bodied, but it had to be strained before drinking.
Biblical Usage
To be settled on the lees pictures people who have become hardened and complacent through undisturbed ease. To drink the lees signifies enduring severe suffering or punishment.
Historical Background
The imagery comes from the practice of leaving wine on its sediment for preservation and then removing the dregs before consumption.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(Heb. shemarim), from a word meaning to keep or preserve. It was applied to “lees” from the custom of allowing wine to stand on the lees that it might thereby be better preserved (Isa. 25:6). “Men settled on their lees” (Zeph. 1:12) are men “hardened or crusted.” The image is derived from the crust formed at the bottom of wines long left undisturbed (Jer. 48:11). The effect of wealthy undisturbed ease on the ungodly is hardening. They become stupidly secure (comp. Ps. 55:19; Amos 6:1). To drink the lees (Ps. 75:8) denotes severe suffering.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
the coarser parts of a liquor, its sediment or dregs. “Wine on the lees” means a generous, full-bodied liquor. (Isaiah 25:6) Before the wine was consumed, it was necessary to strain off the lees; such wine was then termed “well refined.” (Isaiah 25:6) To drink the lees, or “dregs,” was an expression for the endurance of extreme punishment. (Psalms 75:8)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>lez.</p><p>See WINE.</p>