ites; for those kept in dove-cotes | which are highly esteemed. The word jasmin, and jasemin of the Turks, resembles strongly the shemen of the Hebrew original here. The Persians also name this plant semen and simsyk." The authority, however, of the Septuagint must prevail. are, in the later Hebrew, called by The pine appears in our translation three times; namely, Nehem. viii. 15; Isai. xli. 16; and lx. 13. These I proceed to examine. I. Nehemiah, viii. 15, giving directions for observing the feast of tabernacles, says: "Fetch olive branches, pine branches, myrtle branches, and branches, of thick trees, to make booths." The Hebrew phrase, WV ETZ SHEMEN, means literally, branches of oily or gummy plants. The LXX say, cypress. Scheuchzer says, the Turks call the cypress zemin. The Author of Scripture Illustrated says: "I should prefer the whole species called jasmin, on account of its verdure, its fragrance, and its flowers, 33 Buxtorf, Chald. Rabbin Lexic. p. 630. II. In Isai. xli. 19, and lx. 13, the Hebrew word is 7 TIDAHER. A tree, says Parkhurst, so called from the springiness or elasticity of its wood. Luther thought it the elm, which is a lofty and spreading tree; and Dr. Stock renders it the ash. After all, it may be thought advisable to retain the pine. La Roche, Descr. Syriæ, p. 160, describing a valley near to Mount Lebanon, has this observation: "La continuelle verdure des pins et des chénes verds fait toujours sa beauté." PITCH. 1 ZEPHET. Exod. ii. 3. Isai. xxxiv. 9. [aopaλros, Septuagint.] A fat, combustible, oily matter; called by the Greeks, asphaltos. Hence, the name Asphaltites, (i. e., the asphaltic or bituminous lake,) given to the Dead Sea, on the surface of which it rises in the form of liquid pitch, and floats like other oleaginous bodies; but is condensed by degrees through the heat of the sun, and grows dry and hard. The word which our Translators have rendered "pitch" in Gen. vi. 14, and "slime," HHEMAR, Gen. xi. 3, and xiv. 10, is generally supposed to be bitumen 34. In the first of these places, it is mentioned as used for smearing the ark, and closing its interstices. It was peculiarly adapted to this purpose. Being at first soft, viscous, and pliable, it might be thrust into every chasm and crevice with the greatest ease; but would soon acquire a tenacity and hardness superior to those of our pitch. A coat of it spread over both the inside and outside of the proof. The longer it was kept in ark, would make it perfectly waterthe water, the harder and stronger 34 And so should it have been rendered, Exod. i. 14; ii. 3. it would grow. The Arabs still use it for careening their vessels. In the second passage, it is described as applied for cement in building the tower of Babel. It was much used in ancient buildings in that region; and, in the ruins of Babylon, large masses of brick-work cemented with it are discovered. It is known that the plain of Shinar abounds with it, both in its liquid and solid state 35: and that the famous tower and no less famous walls of Babylon were built by this kind of cement, is confirmed by the testimony of several ancient authors 36. Modern travellers inform us, that these springs of bitumen are called, oyum hit, the fountains of hit ;' and that they are much celebrated and used by the Persians and Arabs. The slime pits of Siddim, Gen. xiv. 10, were holes out of which issued this liquid bitumen, or naphtha. Bitumen was formerly much used by the Egyptians and Jews in embalming the bodies of their dead 37. POMEGRANATE. RIM MON. רמון Occurs Numb. xiii. 24; xx. 5; 1 Sam. xiv. 2; and frequently elsewhere. A low tree, growing very common in Palestine, and other parts of the East. Its branches are very thick 35 Thus Strabo tells us, In Babylonia bitumen multum nascitur, cujus duplex est genus, authore Eratosthene, liquidum et aridum. Liquidum vocant naphtham, in Susiano agro nascens: aridum vero quod etiam congelescere potest in Babylonia fonte propinquo naphtha." Lib. xvi. 36 Dioscorides, 1. 1. c. 100. Thus Justin, 1. 1, speaking of Semiramis, says: "Hac Babyloniam condidit, murumque urbis cocto latere circumdedit, arena vice bitumine interstrato, qua materia in illis locis passim e terris ex@stuat." Vitruvius also says: "Babylonia locus est. amplissima magnitudine, habens supranatans liquidum bitumen, et latere testaceo structum murum Semiramis Babyloni circumdedit." lib. viii. See also Strabo, lib. xvi. Aristot. de mirab. tom. i. p. 1163, edit. du Val. fol. Paris, 1619. Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. 2. c. 106. § 103. 1. 28. c. 7. § 23. 37 Greenhill's Art of Embalming. Hence it was called "Gummi funerum," and "Mumia." It is red colour, resembling a rose. chiefly valued for the fruit, which is as big as a large apple, is quite round, and has the general qualities of other summer fruits, allaying heat and quenching thirst. The high estimation in which it was held by the people of Israel, may be inferred from its being one of the three kinds of fruit brought by the spies from Eshcol to Moses and the congregation in the wilderness; Numb. xiii. 23; xx. 5; and from its being specified by that rebellious people as one of the greatest luxuries which they enjoyed in Egypt, the want of which they felt so severely in the The pomegranate, sandy desert. classed by Moses with wheat and barley, vines and figs, oil-olive and honey, was, in his account, one principal recommendation of the promised land. Deut. viii. 8. The form of this fruit was so beautiful as to be honoured with a place at the bottom of the high priest's robe; Exod. xxviii. 33, and Ecclesiasticus, xlv. 9; and was the principal ornament of the stately columns of Solomon's temple. A section of the apple gives a fine resemblance of a beautiful cheek. Cantic. iv. 3. The inside is full of small kernels, replenished with a generous liquor. In short, there is scarcely any part of the pomegranate which does not delight and recreate the senses. "Wine of the pomegranates," Cantic. viii. 1, may mean, either wine acidulated with the juice of pomegranates, which the Turks about Aleppo still mix for this purpose 38: or rather wine made of the juice of pomegranates, of which, Sir John Chardin says, they still make considerable quantities in the East, particularly in Persia 39. POPLAR. The Vulgate renders this kali, in 2 Sam. xvii. 28, "frixum cicer," parched peas." Now Dr. Shaw informs us, that the cicer garavanços, or chich-pea, are in the greatest repute after they are parched in pans or ovens; then receiving the name of leblebby. This seems to be of the greatest antiquity, for Plautus, Bacch. act iv. scen. v., speaks of it as very common in his time: "Tam frictum ego illum reddam, quam frictum est cicer." And Horace, De Art. Poet. 249, mentions it as the food of the poorer Romans: "Si quid fricti ciceris probat, et nucis emptor." The like observation we meet with in Aristophanes, speaking of a country clown, who was av@pakisov Toupeßiv0ov, parching cicers. II. In Daniel i. 12, 16, the word rendered "pulse," D'у ZEROIм, may signify seeds in general. Various kinds of grain were dried and prepared for food by the people of the 7 ARGAMAN. explain the treasures hid in the sand, of those highly valuable murices and purpura, which were found on the sea-coast, near the country of Zebulon and Issachar, and of which those tribes partook in common with their heathen neighbours of Tyre, who rendered the curious dyes made from those shell-fish so famous among the Romans by the names of" Sarranum ostrum," and " Tyrii colores." In reference to the purple vestment, Luke xvi. 19, it may be observed, that this was not appro Occ. Exod. xxv. 4, and elsewhere frequently. ПIOPOYPA, Mark xv. 17, 20; Luke xvi. 19; John xix. 2, 5; and Rev. xvii. 4; xviii. 12, 16. This is supposed to be the very precious colour extracted from the purpura or murex, a species of shellfish; and the same with the famous Tyrian dye, so costly, and so much celebrated in antiquity. The pur-priately a royal robe. In the earlier ple dye is called in 1 Maccab. iv. 23," purple of the sea," or sea purple; it being the blood or juice of a turbinated shell-fish, which the Jews call CHALSON. See BLUE and SCARLET. 66 Among the blessings pronounced by Moses upon the tribes of Israel, those of Zebulon and Issachar (Deut. xxxiii. 19), are, they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of the treasures hid in the sand." Jonathan Ben Uzziel explains the latter clause thus: "From the sand are produced looking-glasses, and glass in general; the treasures, the method of finding and working which, was revealed to these tribes." Several ancient writers inform us, that there were havens in the coasts of the Zebulonites, in which the sand proper for making glass was found. The words of Tacitus are remarkable: "Et Belus amnis Judaico mari illabitur, circa ejus os lecta arenæ admixto nitro in vitrum excoquuntur." The river Belus falls into the Jewish sea, about whose mouth those sands mixed with nitre are collected, out of which glass is formed 47. But it seems much more natural to 46 See this largely described, and the manner of dyeing with it, in Pliny, N. Hist. 1. 9. c. 60-65, ed. Bipont. Goguet, Orig. of Laws, Arts, &c. V. ii. p. 98. Swinburne, in his Travels through the Sicilies, gives a particular account of this dye. Sect. 31. times, it was the dress of any of higher rank. Thus all the courtiers were styled by the historians, "purpurati.' This colour is more properly crimson than purple; for the LXX, Josephus, and Philo, constantly use Tооovраv, to express the Hebrew, by which the Talmudists understood crimson: and that this Hebrew word was not the Tyrian purple, but brought to that city from another country, appears from Ezek. xxvii. 748. The purple robe put on our Saviour, John xix. 2, 5, was according to a Roman custom; the dressing of a person in the robes of state, being the investiture of office: and the robe was brought by Herod's or the Roman soldiers, scoffingly, as though it had been the "pictæ vestes" usually sent by the Roman senate. In Acts xvi. 14, Lydia is said to be" a seller of purple." "the Mr. Harmer styles purple, most sublime of all earthly colours, having the gaudiness of red, of which it retains a shade, softened with the gravity of blue." PYGARG. DISHON. Occ. Deut. xiv. 5, only. The word pygarg is from the Septuagint, vyaoyos, which signifies white buttocks. Dr. Shaw in his Descr. of Barbary, says: “Besides the common gazelle or antelope, 48 For curious information respecting 47 Strabo, l. xvi. Plin. N. H. 1. xxxvi. the purple dye of the ancients, I refer to c. 26. Tacit. Hist. l. v. c. 7. Goguet, Vol. ii. p. 98-107. (which is well known in Europe,) | Dison, which our translation renthis country likewise produces an- ders pygarg,' after the Septuagint other species, of the same shape and and Vulgate versions." [The Arabic colour, though of the bigness of our translators consider a species of wild roebuck, and with horns sometimes goat to be intended. Gesenius suptwo feet long. This, the Africans poses the word to be derived from call Lidmee; and it may, I presume, be, to spring or leap; and supposes the Strepsichorus and Addace of the a species of gazelle or antelope to ancients. Bochart, from the sup- be referred to. The animal next posed whiteness of the buttocks, mentioned in the text, rendered wild finds a great affinity between the ox by our translators, is probably the Addace I have mentioned and the oryx. See Ox.] quails passed from Asia into Europe. They are then to be found in great quantities upon the coast of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. God I caused a wind to arise, that drove them within and about the camp of the Israelites: and it is in this that the miracle consisted, that they were brought so seasonably to this place, and in so great number as to furnish food for above a million of persons for more than a month. The Hebrew word shalav, signifies a quail, by the agreement of the ancient interpreters. And the Chaldee, A bird of the gallinaceous kind. Syriac, and Arabic languages call Hasselquist, mentioning the quail of them nearly by the same name 19. the larger kind, says: "It is of the The Septuagint and most of the Comsize of the turtle-dove. I have met mentators, both ancient and modern, with it in the wilderness of Pales-understand it in the same manner; tine, near the shores of the Dead and with them agree Philo (de Vita Sea and the Jordan, between Jordan Mosis, l. 1); Josephus (Antiq. 1. iii. and Jericho, and in the deserts of c. i. § 12); Appollinaris, and the Arabia Petræa. If the food of the Rabbins. But Ludolphus 50 has enIsraelites was a bird, this is certainly deavoured to prove that a species of it; being so common in the places locust is spoken of by Moses. Dr. through which they passed." Shaw 51 answers, that the holy Psalmist, in describing this particular food of the Israelites, by calling the animals feathered fowls, entirely confutes this supposition. And it should be recollected, that this mi It is recorded, that God gave quails to his people in the wilderness upon two occasions. First, within a few days after they had passed the Red Sea, Exod. xvi. 3-13. The second time was at the encampment at the place called in Hebrew, Kibroth Hattaavah, the graves of lust, Numb. xi. 32; Psalm cv. 40. Both of these happened in the spring, when the 49 For the Arabic name salwa, see Her belot. Bibl. Orient. p. 477, and Sale's Koran, c. ii. p. 11, V. i. edit. 8vo. note. 50 Comment. ad Hist. Æthiop. p. 168. 51 Trav. p. 189, 2d edit. |