the wild beast (Lev. xxv. 1-7; Deut. xv. 1—10). The object of this regulation seems to have been, to secure the preservation of wild beasts, to let the ground recover its strength, and to teach the Hebrews to be provident of their income, and to look out for the future. It is true, that extraordinary fruitfulness was promised on the sixth year, but in such a way as not to exclude care and foresight (Lev. xxv. 20-24). It is demonstrable, from numerous and authentic sources, that those writers who have described Palestine as a barren and unfruitful place, have formed their notions upon a very partial survey of the land; or else that they have, from unworthy motives, grossly misrepresented the fact. Abulfeda describes the country as the most fruitful part of Syria; and the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, as one of the most fruitful parts of Palestine. Malte Brun has remarked, that if the advantages of nature were seconded by the efforts of human skill, we might, in the space of twenty leagues, bring together in Syria the vegetable riches of the most distant countries. The land of Canaan was characterised by Moses as a land flowing with milk and honey," and it still answers to this description; for it contains extensive pasture lands of the richest quality, and the rocky country is covered with aromatic plants, yielding to the wild bees, which hive in the hollow of the rocks, such abundance of honey as to supply the poorer classes with an article of food (see Matt. iii. 4; 1 Sam. xiv. 25; Ps. lxxxi. 16). Tacitus compares both the climate and soil of Judea to those of Italy; and particularly specifies the palm-tree and balsamtree, as productions which gave the country an advantage over his own. 66 The following is an enumeration of the vegetable fubstances mentioned in the Bible, and we select, for a brief notice, such as are difficult of identification, or such as furnish illustrations of particular passages of the sacred writings. Acacia-Algum-tree-Aloes -Apple-tree-Ap ples of Sodom-Balm-Bay-Bdellium-Box-tree Wood-Soap-Spikenard-Stacte-Storax-SycaTare Terebinth, or Turpentine-tree more Vine - Vine of Thorns and Thistles - Tiel-tree -Zukkum. CHAPTER II. GRAIN, HERBS, REEDS, ETC. THE Hebrew generic name for grain is dagen; no doubt from its abundant increase. In Gen. xxvi. 12, and Matt. xiii. 8, grain is spoken of as yielding a hundred fold; and, to the ancient fertility of Palestine, all authorities bear testimony. In some parts of the Haouran-a tract of country on the east of the river Jordan-barley is found to yield eighty fold, even in the present neglected state of the country. The Hebrews called wheat chetah, a word the etymology of which it is not easy to ascertain. The reader may see a variety of conjectures in Parkhurst, who, tracing the root through the Chaldee and Samaritan languages, suggests that delicate, delicious, or the like, is its ideal meaning, and that this species of corn is so named from its superior delicacy or deliciousness to other grain. The meat-offerings, as they are called in the English Bible, of the Levitical dispensation, were not what their designation would seem to imply, animal flesh, but wheat, either in its simple state, or reduced to flour, or made up into cakes. (See Lev. ch. ii.) REED, corresponds to the Hebrew agmun, and includes the several species of cane and rushes mentioned in the sacred writings. On the banks and in the streams of the Nile, reeds grow in immense quantities, and hence it is, probably, that in 2 Kings xviii. 21, the country of Egypt is called a reed. The prophet Ezekiel attests the fidelity of the Assyrian general's representation. "When they all took hold of thee by the hand, thou didst break, and rend their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand" (ch. ix. 6, 7). . Hence we see what is meant by a bruised reed in Isa. xlii. 3, and from its reference to the church, we must understand it of a weak believer; or, perhaps, more particularly of one whose heart is broken and contrite for past offences. In Matt. xi. 7, our Saviour says of John the Baptist, that he was not a reed shaken with the wind. There was nothing vacillating or unstable in his character: his mind was constant and fixed on the truth; and his testimony to the character of the Saviour was always the same. In the neighbourhood of Suez, some of these reeds grow to the height of twelve yards; hence we see how easily, by means of one of them, the soldier who stood at the foot of our Saviour's cross could raise to his mouth a sponge filled with vinegar (Matt. xxvii. 48). We must not omit to notice the appropriation of reeds to the purposes of writing, before the invention of our common pens, as there are several allusions to the practice in the sacred writings, although not discernible in the English Bible. 66 66 SWEET In the English Bible, we meet with the " CANE," and also with the calamus," and sweet calamus," all of which signify the same thing, and answer to the Hebrew kaneh, sometimes compounded 81 with beshem, aromatic, or sweet; and sometimes with toov, good, pleasant, etc. The Calamus Aromaticus, or sweet-scented cane, grows in Egypt, in Judea, and in several parts of Syria, but the best kind is found in Arabia and India. It was probably among the number of those plants that the Queen of Sheba presented to Solomon. So powerful is its fragrance that the air is said to be filled with a strong aromatic smell even while it is growing (see Cant. iv. 13, 14); and, when dried and reduced to powder, it forms an ingredient in the richest perfumes. It was used for this purpose by the Jews (Exodus xxx. 23; Isaiah xliii. 24). Jeremiah (ch. vi. 20) speaks of the "rich aromatic reed" as coming from a "far country," and it is probable that this, as well as the frankincense spoken of in connection with it, came from Saba, which was, with respect to Judea, "a a far country." Our Saviour, speaking of its queen, whom he calls "the queen of the south," says that she came "from the extreme parts of the earth," or land (Matthew xii. 42). |