And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. (Judges 6:11)
Literally, “under the terebinth.” The Hebrew word used here designates the terebinth, or turpentine tree, which resembles the oak when leafless, except that it grows singly and not in clusters. This terebinth was the property, we are told, of Gideon’s father.
Ophrah.
Although the exact site of this city is unknown, it seems, from the narrative of ch. 9, that it must have been in the vicinity of Shechem. It belonged to the clan of Abiezerites (ch. 6:24), who were of the tribe of Manasseh (Joshua 17:2).
By the winepress.
The usual location of threshing floors was in the open fields. But such locations were too vulnerable to attack (1 Sam. 23:1). To avoid detection, Gideon resorted to a wine press, a vat dug out of the ground, hoping that the wandering groups of Midianites would not search in such an unlikely place. Working thus in the wine press, he would be able to thresh only a little at a time.