fine polish, it was used in inlaid work with ivory, with which it formed a beautiful contrast. It is mentioned with ivory, as among the imported articles, in Ezek. xxvii. 15; and that is the only place in which the word occurs in Scripture. It is to be observed that the word is in the plural, and Theophrastus, Hist. 1. iv. c. 5, Plin. N. H. 1. xii. c. 4, and other authors mention two kinds of ebony; besides, all the other kinds of precious woods in Scripture are in the plural; as D'DW twenty times in Exodus, and D' or 'N 1 Kings, x. 12; 2 Chron. ix. 10, 11; and this, perhaps, not from their being varieties, but their being in separate pieces, or being sold in parcels. EGG. D BETZIM, plur. Occ. Deut. xxii. 6; Job, xxxix. 14; Isai. x. 14, and lix. 5. SON Luke, xi. 12. Eggs are considered as a very great delicacy in the east, and are served up with fish and honey, at their entertainments. As a desirable article of food, the egg is mentioned, Luke, xi. 12. "If a son ask for an egg, will his father offer him a scorpion?"It has been remarked that the body of the scorpion is very like an egg, as its head can scarcely be distinguished; especially if it be of the white kind, which is the first species mentioned by Ælian, Avicenna, and others. Bochart has produced testimonies to prove that the scorpions in Judea were about the bigness of an egg 81. So the similitude is preserved between the thing asked, and the thing given. The reasoning is this-If a child ask an earthly parent for bread, a necessary of life, he will not deny him what is proper for his support, putting him off with a stone; and if he should ask for a sort of food of the more delicious kind, an eel or an egg, he will not, we may assure ourselves, give his child what is hurtful, a serpent or a scorpion. If sinful men, then, will give good gifts to their children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the necessary and the more desirable gifts of his spirit to those who supplicate for them? This passage may be compared with Isai. lix. 5. They hatch the eggs of the basilisk He that eateth their eggs dieth; And when it is crushed, a viper breaketh forth. CHALAMUTH, which in Job, vi. 6, our translators have rendered "the white of an egg," intends indeed insipidness, but it is not easy to fix the precise meaning to the Hebrew word 82. Theophrastus also says, that Ebony was peculiar to India; but Pliny quotes Herodotus, to show that Ethiopia produces Ebony; and Lucian mentions it as growing in that country. 82 The critical reader will do well to consult Mr. Good's learned note upon the passage. This word is found only once in our translation of the Bible. Hosea, iv. 13. But the word there used in the Hebrew is in all other places rendered oak. EMERALD. NOPHEC. Occurs only Exod. xxviii. 18; and Ezek. xvii. 16, and xxviii. 13: and ΣMAPAг^ОΣ, Rev. xxi. 19; and Ecclus. xxxii. 6; Tobit, xiii. 22; and Judith, x. 21. This is generally supposed to be the same with the ancient Smaragdus. It is one of the most beautiful of all the gems; and is of a bright green colour, without the admixture of any other. Pliny thus speaks of it. "The sight of no colour is more pleasant than green; for we love to view green fields and green leaves, and are still more fond of looking at the emerald, because all other greens are dull in comparison with this. Besides, these stones seem larger at a distance, by tinging the circumambient air. Their lustre is not changed by the sun, by the shade, nor by the light of lamps; but they have always a sensible moderate brilliancy 833 From the passage in Ezekiel we learn that the Tyrians traded in these jewels in the marts of Syria. They probably had them from India, or the south of Persia. The true oriental emerald is very scarce, and is only found at present in the kingdom of Cambay. FALLOW-DEER. " ' YACHMUR. Occ. Deut. xiv. 5, and 1 Kings, iv. 23. The animal here mentioned is not the fallow-deer, but the bubalus; and it is so rendered by the Septuagint and Vulgate; and indeed Bochart has sufficiently proved that in the ancient Greek writers Bebaλos or BeCaλs signifies an animal of the deer kind. This animal Dr. Shaw supposes to be the bekkar el wash, which is nearly of the same size with the red deer; with which it also agrees in colour, as yachmur likewise the scripture name (being a derivative from HOMMAR, rubere) may denote. The flesh is very sweet and nourishing; much preferable to the red deer, so might well be received, with the deer and the antelope, at Solomon's table, as mentioned 1 Kings, iv. 2384. On the other hand Herodotus, Oppian, Ælian, Aristotle, describe an animal of the species of Gazelles, which Pallas 85 calls" Antelope Bubalis," and Oedman renders probable is the creature here mentioned 86; and Niebuhr observes that there is an antelope which still retains this name in Arabia 87. It inha 83 Nat. Hist. 1. xxxvii. c. 5. 85 Spicel Zool. fasc. I. No. 10. 84 Trav. p. 170, and 415. ed. 4to. 86 Vermischte Sammlungen aus der Naturkunde, fasc. 1. c. 3, p. 27, and fasc. iv. c. 2. 87 Præf. xlii. bits the mountains of that country, and it is frequent about the Euphrates. For other conjectures I refer to the note of Rosenmuller on Bochart, Hieroz. l. II. c. 28. p. 282, vol. i. Michaelis, Suppl. Lexic. Hebr. p. v. p. 1544, and Tychsen, Physiologus Syrus, p. 36-42. FERRET. IN ANAKAH, from N ANAK to groan, or cry out. Occ. Levit. xi. 29. The ferret is a species of the weasel; but Bochart will have the ANAKAH to be the spotted lizard called by Pliny❝stellio." Dr. James takes it for the "frog," in allusion to the name which literally signifies "the crier," befitting the croaking of that animal; but we shall find the frog mentioned under another name. Dr. Geddes renders it "the newt," or rather "the lizard of the Nile," and it evidently must be of the lizard species. Pliny mentions" the galeotes, covered with red spots, whose cries are sharp 89, which may be the Gekko, which I have reason to think the animal here intended; besides which, few if any lizards cry. As its name in the Indies tockai, and in Egypt gekko, is formed from its voice, so the Hebrew name anakah, or perhaps anakkah, seems to be formed in like manner; the double K being equally observable in all these appellations 90. If these remarks are admissible, this lizard is sufficiently identified. FIG-TREE. IN TEENAH; Arab. tijn. Occ. Gen. iii. 7; Numb. xiii. 23; and elsewhere freq.; and ETKEH Matth. vii. 16; xxi. 19; xxiv. 32; Mark, xi. 13, 20, 21; xiii. 28; Luke, vi. 44; xiii. 6, 7; xxi. 29; Joh. i. 48; James, iii. 12; and Rev. vi. 13. This tree was very common in Palestine. It becomes large, dividing into many branches, which are furnished with leaves shaped like those of the mulberry. It affords a friendly shade. Accordingly, we read in the Old Testament of Judah and Israel dwelling, or sitting securely, every man under his fig-tree. 1 Kings, iv. 25. (Comp. Mic. iv. 4; Zech. iii. 10; and 1 Maccab. xiv. 12). And in the New Testament, we find Nathaniel under a fig-tree, probably for the purposes of devotional retirement. Joh. i. 49, 51. Hasselquist, in his journey from Nazareth to Tiberias, says, "We refreshed ourselves under the shade of a fig-tree, under which was a well, where a shepherd and his herd had their rendezvous; but without either house or hut." The fruit which it bears is produced from the trunk and large branches, and not from the smaller shoots as in most other trees. It is soft, sweet, and very nourishing. 88 Lacerta Nilotica, Hasselquist, p. 221. 89 Nat. Hist. 1. xxix. c. 4. 90 In the Syriac version it is amkatha, which according to Gabriel Sionita is a kind of lizard. Milton is of opinion that the banian-tree 91 was that with whose leaves our first parents made themselves aprons 92. But his account, as to the matter of fact, wants even probability to countenance it; for the leaves of this are so far from being, as he has described them, of the bigness of an Amazonian target, that they seldom or never exceed five inches in length, and three in breadth. Therefore we must look for another of the fig kind, that better answers the purpose referred to by Moses, Gen. iii. 7; and as the fruit of the banana-tree 93 is often, by the most ancient authors, called a fig, may we not suppose this to have been the fig-tree of Paradise? Pliny describing this tree, says that its leaves were the greatest and most shady of all others 94: and as the leaves of these are often six feet long, and about two broad; are thin, smooth, and very flexible, they may be deemed more proper than any other for the covering spoken of, especially since they may be easily joined together with the numerous threadlike filaments, which may, without labour, be peeled from the body of the tree 95. The first ripe fig is still called boccôre in the Levant, which is nearly its Hebrew name, . Jer. xxiv. 2. Thus Dr. Shaw, in giving an account of the fruits in Barbary, mentions "the black and white boccôre, or early fig, which is produced in June, though the kermes or kermouse, the fig, properly so called, which they preserve and make up into cakes, is rarely ripe before August 96" And on Nah. iii. 12, he observes that "the boccôres drop as soon as they are ripe, and according to the beautiful allusion of the prophet, fall into the mouth of the eater upon being shaken." Farther, "it frequently falls out in Barbary," says he, "and we need not doubt of the like in this hotter climate of Judea, that, according to the quality of the preceding season, some of the more forward and vigorous trees will now and then yield a few ripe figs six weeks or more before the full season. Something like this may be alluded to by the prophet Hosea, ch. ix. 10, when he says that he saw their fathers as the first ripe in the fig-tree, at her first time. Such figs were reckoned a great dainty." Comp. Isai. xxviii. 4. The prophet Isaiah gave orders to apply a lump of figs to Hezekiah's bile; and immediately after it was cured 97. God, in 91 Ficus Indica: Opuntia. Tournef. 239. Cactus, Lin. gen. plan. 539. 94 “Folium habet maximum umbrosissimumque.” N. H. lib. xvi. c. 26. BROOME. Trav. p. 144, 335, and 342. ed. 4to. 97 Isai. xxxviii. 21; 2 Kings, xx. 7. effecting this miraculous cure, was pleased to order the use of means not improper for that end 98. The story of our Saviour's denunciation against the barren fig-tree, Matth. xxi. 19; Mark, xi. 13, has occasioned some of the boldest cavils of infidelity, and the vindication of it has exercised the ingenuity of several of the most learned critics and commentators 99. The whole difficulty arises from the circumstance of his disappointment in not finding fruit on the tree, when it is expressly said, "that the time of figs was not yet." While it was supposed that this expression signified, that "the time for such trees to bring forth fruit was not yet come," it looked very unaccountable that Christ should reckon a tree barren, though it had leaves, and curse it as such, when he knew that the time of bearing figs was not come; it seemed strange that he should come to seek figs on this tree, when he knew that figs were not used to be ripe so soon in the year. But it has been shown that the expression does not signify the time of the coming forth of figs, but the time of the gathering in of ripe figs, as is plain from the parallel expressions. Thus "the time of the fruit," Matth. xxi. 34, most plainly signifies the time of gathering in ripe fruits, since the servants were sent to receive those fruits for their master's use. St. Mark and St. Luke express the same by the word time, or season; at the season he sent a servant," &c. that is, at the season or time of gathering in ripe fruit, ch. xii. 2; Luke, xx. 10. In like manner, if any one should say in our language, "the season of fruit"-" the season of apples"-" the season of figs,"-every one would understand him to speak of the season or time of gathering in these fruits. When therefore, St. Mark says, that "the time, or season of figs was not yet," he evidently means that the time of gathering ripe figs was not yet past; and if so, it was natural to expect figs upon all those trees that were not barren; whereas, after the time of gathering figs, no one would expect to find them on a fig-tree, and its having none then would be no sign of barrenness. St. Mark, by saying, " for the time of figs was not yet," does not design to give a reason for what he said in the immediately following clause," he found nothing but leaves;" but he gives a reason for what he said in the clause before that, "he came if haply he might find any thereon ;" and it was a 66 98 This appears from Pliny, N. H. 1. xxiii. c. 7. to have been the usual application to this kind of sore. "Carbunculi, si sine ulcere est, quam pinguissimam ficum imponi, singlare remedium est." 99 See Poole's Synopsis, in loc. Vossius, Harm. Evang. I. i. c. 6. Bp. Kidder, Demonstr. of the Messiah, ii. p. 38. Whitby, Doddridge, and Macknight, in loc. Bowman, Defence of our Lord's cursing the Fig-tree, in answer to Woolston, 8vo. Lond. 1721. Knatchbull, Annot. p. 52. Essay for a new Translation, &c. part 2. c. 6. Hallet's Notes, vol. ii. p. 114. Bp. Pearce, Vindication of the Miracles of Jesus. Works, v. ii. p. 360. ed. 4to. Dimock, Dissertation on the Barren Fig-tree, Lond. 1804. Bowyer's Crit. Conject. 3d edit. 1782, 4to. |