The largest of all the inhabitants of the water. It is well ascertained, that the writers of the Bible must have been ignorant of this animal; as it is never seen near Jerusalem or Egypt, and as they could have no history of Greenland and Spitzbergen. Å recent author, in a dissertation expressly for the purpose, has attempted to prove that the crocodile, and not the whale, is spoken of in Gen. i. 21. I shall transcribe his concluding argument. “There yet remains an argument which proves that the crocodile, and not the whale, is to be understood in Gen. i. 21. At whatever time Moses wrote the book of Genesis, whether before or after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, to assure them that the Lord their God was the creator of the crocodile, has a manifest propriety, which is not to be found in the present translation. For he might naturally suppose, should they incline to idolatry, one of the first objects of their adoration would be the crocodile, which they had seen worshiped in Egypt." And Dr. Geddes" thinks, that 10 Rev. James Hurdis, "Critical Dissertation upon the true meaning of the Hebrew word translated whale, in Gen. i. 21." 8vo. 1790. 11 New translation of Gen. i. annexed to his proposals, &c. the circumstance of its being an Egyptian divinity, might induce the historian to particularize it, as being but a mere creature, like the rest. The word in Job vii. 12, must also intend the crocodile. It must mean some terrible animal, which, but for the watchful care of Divine Providence, would be very destructive. Our translators render it dragon in Isai. xxvii. 1, where the prophet gives this name to the king of Egypt: He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. The sea there, is the river Nile, and the dragon, the crocodile. Compare Ezek. xxxii. 2. On this passage Bochart remarks: Then is not a whale, as people imagine; for a whale has neither feet nor scales, neither is it to be found in the rivers of Egypt; neither does it ascend therefrom upon the land; neither is it taken in the meshes of a net: all of which properties are ascribed by Ezekiel to the n of Egypt. Whence it is plain that it is not a whale that is here spoken of, but the crocodile. See LEVIATHAN. Merrick supposes David, in Psalm lxxiv. 13, to speak of the tunny, a kind of whale, with which he was probably acquainted: and Bochart thinks, it has its Greek name thunnos from the Hebrew thanot. The lastmentioned fish is undoubtedly that spoken of in Psalm civ. 6. We are told that, in order to preserve the prophet Jonah, when he was thrown overboard by the mariners, "the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow him up." What kind of fish it was, is not specified; but the Greek translators take the liberty to give us the word kηTOS (whale). St. Matthew (xii. 40) makes use of the same word; but we may conclude that he did so in a general sense, and that we are not to understand it as an appropriated term, to point out the particular species of the fish. Naturalists inform us, that the make of the whale will not permit it to swallow a human body, as the shark and some other of the water animals are | thew do that which swallowed Joknown to be capable of doing: and nah, κητος. Ώσπερ και Ηρακλης it is notorious, that sharks are a spe- ᾄδεται, διαρραγείσης της νεως, εφ' cies of fish common in the Mediter- ης επλει, ύπο ΚΗΤΟΥΣ κατοποranean 12. θηναι και διασωζεσθαι. "As Hercules also is reported, when he was shipwrecked, to have been swallowed by a [кnтоç] whale, and yet to have been saved 14. Bochart and Linnæus suppose it the charcarias13, or lamia, which has a throat and belly so prodigiously great that it can easily swallow a man without the least hurt. It is much more natural to believe that it was one of these fishes that swallowed Jonah, than to multiply miracles without necessity, by supposing that God, who kept him alive for three days in the belly of the fish, should have brought a whale from the northern coasts, and then enlarge its throat for his reception. Our Lord observes, Luke xi. 30, that Jonas "was a sign to the Ninevites;" and it may be well worth remarking, that the fame of the prophet's miraculous preservation was so widely propagated as to reach even Greece; whence, as several learned men have observed, was, no doubt, derived the story of Hercules escaping alive out of a fish's belly, which is alluded to by Lycophron, who calls Hercules, Τριεσπέρι λεοντος, ὃν ποτε γναθοις Τρίτωνος ημαλαψε καρχαρος κυων. That famed three-nighted lion, whom of old Triton's carcharian dog, with horrid jaws, Devoured. That is, says Bochart, whom the canis charcarias, or shark, sent by Neptune, swallowed. The Author of the " Fragments" appended to Calmet, No. cxlv., explains this, not of a living animal, but of a floating preserver, by which Jonah was saved from drowning. He remarks, that though 7 DAG, signifies primarily " a fish," yet, that it also signifies "a fish-boat," and figuratively "a preserver:" so that the passage will admit of being rendered: "The Lord prepared a large DAG [preserver] to receive Jonah, and Jonah was in the inner part [the belly, or hold] of this DAGAH, three days and nights; and then was cast up on the shore 15." This allusion is adverted to by our Lord, Matth. xii. 40, who says: "As Jonah was in [Ty Kota Tоv KηTOVÇ] the hollow cavity of the KHTOΣ three days and nights, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth 16." The word "whale" occurs in the translation of Ecclesiasticus, xliii. 25, and in the " dren," v. 57: in both which places, Song of the three chilthe Greek word κητος is used. See DRAGON and FISH. Occ. Gen. xxx. 14; Deut. viii. 8; and freq. ZITO, Matth. xiii. 25; Luke xvi. 7; 1 Cor. xv. 37. kind of grain for the service of man. The principal and most valuable See BARLEY and FITCHES. Thus, the poet not only agrees with the Scripture account of Jonah as to the time his hero remained entombed, but even mentions the very species of fish by which it is most probable that the prophet was 14 The reader may see more on this subswallowed. Æneas Gazæus, how-ject in Bochart, Hieroz. V. iii. p. 687. ever, calls the fish that devoured Hercules, as the LXX and St. Mat 12 See Bochart, vol. iii. p. 743. Univ. Hist. v. x. p. 554. Le Pluche Nat. dis played, v. iii. p. 140. 13 Syst. Nat. v. i. p. 400, No. 12. "Jonam prophetam, ut veteres Herculem, trinoctem, in hujus ventriculo tridui spatio, hæsisse verosimile est." Vossius de orig. Idol. I. ii. c. 15. Grotius de Verit. l. i. § 16, not. 105, and the author of" Fragments in addition to Calmet," in his "Investigations on the Dag of Jonah." 15"Surely it is as rational to think God made use of a ship, called Dag, to preserve Jonah, as to suppose that all the laws of nature were suspended, and a number of miracles performed to accomplish the same purpose." 16 Great ships were called "ketos." In the second chapter of Leviti- | I imagine the pannag to be the cus, directions are given for obla- panic. WILLOW. Dy ARABIM. Occ. Levit. xxiii. 40; Job xl. 22; Psalm cxxxvii. 2; Isai. xv.7; xliv. 4. tions, which in our translation are called " meat-offerings;" but as meat means flesh, and all kinds of offerings there specified, were made of wheat, it had been better to render it wheaten-offerings. Calmet has observed, that there were five kinds of these; simple flour,-oven cakes, -cakes of the fire-plate,-cakes of the frying-pan, and green ears of corn. The word BAR, translated "corn," Gen. xli. 35, and "wheat," in Jer. xxiii. 28; Joel ii. 24; Amos v. 11; and elsewhere, is undoubtedly the burr, or wild corn of the Arabs, mentioned by Forskal. According to our English version, we read, in Ezek. xvii. 17, that the Tyrian merchants traded in "wheat of Minnith and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm." But a late writer 17 supposes MINNITH, and PANNAG, to be a corrupt reading; and would substitute in the room of them zith, uphug. The text will then be rendered, " They traded in thy market with wheat, the olive and the fig, and honey, and oil, and balm. This is a proper detail, he thinks, of the commodities of Canaan, and fit subjects of commerce with the merchants of Tyre. But 17 Dimock, Sermon on Ezek. xxvii. 17. 4to. 1783. A small tree, well known, growing in low and wet places. It is beyond doubt, that the word ARABIM, OREBIM, or GOREBIM, signifies willows: all interpreters agree in it, and the LXX translate it so. The Arabs call this tree garabon, which approaches the Hebrew appellation. We read in Ezekiel xvii. 5: "He took of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow-tree; and it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof under him: soit became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs." The Rabbins uniformly agree in interpreting the DYDY TZAPHTZA PHA of this place, the willow 18. R. Salomon says, it is the species vulgarly named selce, [salix]. Avicenna says, the Tziphtzaph is the Chilaf; which, according to Abu'lfadli, is of the willow kind, named by the Greeks, 18 R. David Kimchi. R. Obadias de Bartenora ad Tr. Succa, c. iii. 3. Maimo nides, Tr. Suc. c. vii. 6 4. R. Ben Melech. See also Prosp. Alpinus, De Plant. Ægypti, c. xiv. p. 35, and Celsius, Hierobot. V. ii. p. 107. ITεa. Paul Lucas, in Itiner. Afri- | put into wooden casks destined to cano, part ii. p. 91, remarks: "Les receive wine, with as much of the Arabes le nomment sofsaf, qui signifie liquor as is necessary to prevent en Arabe saule." This brings us them from becoming dry before use. again to the willow. The chief dif- Casks thus prepared are very vaficulty in this interpretation arises luable. When the wine a year old from its being called "a vine;" but is put in, the dregs rise, and make the term may imply, a spreading it appear muddy, but afterwards they plant, as well as a creeping one. subside and carry down all the other Parkhurst, indeed, thinks y to feculences. The dregs are so much be used here adverbially, for very valued that they are not sold with circumspectly; and Bp. Newcome the wine in the vase, unless particu renders it," he set it with much larly mentioned. care:" but, in a note on the place, makes this acknowledgment: "Dathius justly observes, that the word signifies a willow-tree in Arabic. Golius, p. 1362." The Arabic version justifies this rendering; and the opinion of all the ancient Rabbins confirms it. Rauwolf (Flora Orientalis, No. 33, p. 13), under the Eleagnus, places "salicis species, incolis SAFSAF, Theophrasto vera Eleagnos dicta." WINE. IN 19. Occ. Gen. xix. 32, and elsewhere frequently. OINO, Matth. ix. 17, and freq. A liquor expressed from grapes. Before the art of distillation was discovered, the wines must have been much inferior, both for exhilaration and intoxication, to those of modern manufacture. This discovery was made by the Saracens. The "new wine," or must, is mentioned Isai. xlix. 26; Joel i. 5; iv. 18; and Amos ix. 13, under the name D'DY. The "mixed wine," on, Prov. xxiii. 30, and in Isai. lxv. 11, rendered " drink-offering," may mean wine made stronger and more inebriating by the addition of higher and more powerful ingredients, such as honey, spices, defrutum (or wine inspissated by boiling it down), myrrh, mandragora, and other strong drugs 20. Thus the drunkard is properly described, Prov. xxiii. 30, as one that seeketh "mixed wine," and is mighty to mingle strong drink, Isai. v. 22; and hence the Psalmist took that highly poetical and sublime image of the cup of God's wrath, called by Isaiah li. 17, the cup of trembling," containing, as St. John The art of refining wine upon the expresses it, Rev. xiv. 10, pure wine lees was known to the Jews. The made yet stronger by a mixture of particular process, as it is now prac-powerful ingredients. Psal. lxxv. 8. tised in the island of Cyprus, is de-" In the hand of Jehovah is a cup, scribed in Mariti's Travels, ch. 27 and the wine is turbid; it is full of and 28. The wine is put imme- a mixed liquor; and he poureth out diately from the vat into large vases of it;" (or rather, he poureth it out of of potters' ware, pointed at the bot- one vessel into another, to mix it pertom, till they are nearly full, when fectly;)" verily, the dregs thereof they are covered tight and buried. (the thickest sediment of the strong At the end of a year, what is de- ingredients mingled with it), all the signed for sale is drawn into wooden ungodly of the earth shall wring casks. The dregs in the vases are them out, and drink them." Spiced wine," Cantic. viii. 2. 20 Such were the exhilarating, or rather stupifying ingredients which Helen mixed in the bowl, together with the wine, for her guests oppressed with grief, to raise their spirits; the composition of which she had learned in Egypt. Homer, Odyss. iv. 20. ་ The "wine of Helbon" (Ezek. xxvii. 18) was an excellent kind of wine, known to the ancients by the name of Chalibonium vinum.' It was made at Damascus; the Persians had planted vineyards there on purpose, says Posidonius, quoted by Athenæus, Deinosoph. 1. i. See also Strabo, 1. xv. and Plutarch de fortun. Alexandr. This author says, that the kings of Persia used no other wine. Hosea, xiv. 7, mentions the wine of Lebanon. The wine from the vineyards on that mount, are even to this day in repute but some think that this may mean a sweetscented wine, or wine flavoured with fragrant gums. Of the medicated wine, I have spoken in the articles GALL and MYRRH. WOLF. NI ZEEB. Arab. zeeb. M. Majus derives it from the Arabic word zaab or daaba, to frighten: and hence, perhaps, the German word DIEB, a thief 21. Occ. Gen. xlix. 27; Isai. xi. 6; lxv. 25; Jer. v. 6; Ezek. xxii. 27; Zeph. iii. 3; Hab. i. 8. AYKOE. Matth. vii. 15; x. 16; Luke x. 3; John x. 12; Acts xx. 29; Ecclesiasticus xiii. 17. A fierce, strong, cunning, mischievous, and carnivorous quadruped; externally and internally so nearly resembling the dog, that they seem modelled alike, yet have a perfect antipathy to each other. 21 In the Prænestine pavement, an animal is represented, as if howling, with the mouth half open; jaws long, and well armed with teeth; bearing the inscription, IOT, which may be the azybyte or 'zijbt, the Ethiopic name plural of the wolf. The scripture observes of the wolf, that it lives upon rapine; is violent, bloody, cruel, voracious, and greedy; goes abroad by night to seek its prey; and is a great enemy to flocks of sheep. Indeed, this animal is fierce without cause, kills without remorse, and, by its indiscriminate slaughter, seems to satisfy its malignity rather than its hunger. The wolf is weaker than the lion or the bear, and less courageous than the leopard; but he scarcely yields to them in cruelty and rapaciousness. His ravenous temper prompts him to destructive and sanguinary depredations; and these are perpetrated principally in the night. This circumstance is expressly mentioned in several passages of scripture. "The great men (said Jeremiah, v. 6.) have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds; wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them." The rapacious and cruel conduct of the princes of Israel is compared by Ezekiel, xxii. 27, to the mischievous inroads of the same animal. "Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, to destroy lives, to get dishonest gain." And Zephaniah, iii. 3, says: "Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow." Instead of protecting the innocent, and restraining the evil doer, or punishing him according to the demerit of his crimes, they delight in violence and oppression, in blood and rapine; and so insatiable is their cupidity, that, like the evening wolf, they destroy more than they are able to possess. |