translates it, wood most proper to float; Junius, Tremellius, and Buxtorf, a kind of cedar called by the Greeks nεdeελaти; Avenarius and Munster, pine; Castalio, turpentine; Pelletier prefers the opinion of those who suppose that the ark was made of cedar. His reasons are the great plenty of it in Asia, whence Herodotus and Theophrastus relate that the kings of Egypt and Syria built whole fleets of it; the incorruptibility of the wood; and the common tradition prevailing throughout the East that remains of the ark are yet found on Mount Ararat. The Mahometans explain it by the word " sag," which is understood to be the Indian plane-tree 2. And Dr. Geddes 33 apprehends that the Syrian translator has given the true meaning in the word Ny, rendered in the Polyglott by the Latin word " vimen," signifying, in general, a twig, or rod, wicker of any kind. In Arabia the same word signifies a chest, coffer, or basket made of twigs, particularly of palm-tree leaves: and, indeed, all the first vessels of capacity, whether coffer, ark, or ship, seem to have been composed of the same materials. He conceives, therefore, that the ark of Noah was a large coffer formed of twigs, like basket-work, and covered over with bitumen, within and without, to keep out the water. He does not presume absolutely to determine of what wood it was constructed, but thinks it must have been of osier, which, as we learn from Columella, was the principal of the wicker kind. It is certain, that not only baskets, but boats were made originally of such twigs, and particularly of osier 34; and even those which were externally covered with skins, had ribs of that wood on account of its pliability 35. On the other hand, the learned Mr. Fuller, in his Miscellanies, 1. iv. c. 5, has shown that the wood of which the ark was built was undoubtedly that which the Greeks call xviσos or κυπάρισσος the cypress tree; for, taking away the termination, kupar and gopher differ very little in sound. The affinity of the letters and, G and c, strengthens the resemblance. This observation the great Bochart has confirmed, and shown very plainly, that no country abounds so much with this wood as that part of Assyria which lies about Babylon. Cocquius, Phytologia Sacra, p. 125; and Celsius, Hierobotan. V. i. p. 329, very learnedly support and confirm this interpretation. GOURD, ' KIKIUN. Occurs Jonah, iv. 6, 7, 9, 10, only. It is difficult to determine what the plant was which grew up suddenly, and made a shelter to the prophet Jonah. The author of "Scripture Illustrated," p. 190, says, "the gourd of Jonah should be no trivial lesson to theological disputants. long ago as the days of Jerom and Augustine, those pious fathers differed as to what the plant was; and they not only differed in 32 Herbélot. p. 675. 33 Critical Remarks, Vol. i. p. 67. So words, but from words they proceeded to blows; and Jerom was accused of heresy at Rome by Augustine. Jerom thought this plant was an ivy, and pleaded the authority of Aquila, Sym-. machus, Theodotion, and others: Augustine thought it was a gourd, and he was supported by the Seventy, the Syriac, the Arabic, &c. &c. Had either of them ever seen the plant? No. Which of them was right? Neither. Let the errors of these pious men teach us to think more mildly, if not more meekly, respecting our own opinions; and not to exclaim, Heresy! or to enforce the exclaination, when the subject is of so little importance as-gourd versus ivy." "Nevertheless, there is a just importance in this subject as well as in others; and the most minute plant or insect mentioned in the word of God demands our best endeavours to obtain a competent acquaintance with it." 36. M. Michaelis, in his remarks on this subject, says, "Celsius appears to me to have proved that it [the kikiun] is the 'kiki,' of the Egyptians. He refers it to the class of the ricinus (the great catapucus). According to Dioscorides it is of rapid growth, and bears a berry from which an oil is expressed. Lib. iv. c. 164. In the Arabic version of this passage, which is to be found in Avicenna, it is rendered, "from thence is pressed the oil which they call oil of kiki, which is the oil of Alkeroa So Herodotus, Hist. Euterpe, § 94, says: "The inhabitants of the marshy grounds in Egypt make use of an oil, which they term the kiki, expressed from the Sillicyprian plant. In Greece this plant springs spontaneously without any cultivation; but the Egyptians sow it on the banks of the river and of the canals; it there produces fruit in great abundance, but of a very strong odour. When gathered they obtain from it, either by friction or pressure, an unctuous liquid which diffuses an offensive smell, but for burning it is equal in quality to the oil of olives." This plant rises with a strong herbaceous stalk to the height of ten or twelve feet; and is furnished with very large leaves, not unlike those of the plane-tree. Rabbi Kimchi says that the people of the East plant them before their shops for the sake of the shade, and to refresh themselves under them. M. Niebuhr, Descr. Arab. p. 180, Fr. ed. says, "I saw for the first time at Basra, the plant el-keroa, mentioned in M. Michaelis's Questions, No. LXXXVII. It has the form of a tree. The trunk appeared to me rather to resemble leaves than wood; nevertheless, it is harder than that which bears the Adam's fig. Each branch of the keroa has but one large leaf, with six or seven foldings in it. This plant was near to a rivulet which watered it amply. At the end of October, 1765, it had risen in five months 36 Jerom says, that the Punic and Syriac name of the Kikiun is alkeroa: thus a Coptic lexicon explains the English word, KOTKI by the berry of the alkeroa. Abenbitar also renders the kiki of Dioscorides by the Arabic alkeroa. time, about eight feet, and bore at once flowers and fruit, ripe and unripe. Another tree of this species, which had not had so much water, had not grown more in a whole year. The flowers and leaves of it which I gathered, withered in a few minutes; as do all plants of a rapid growth. This tree is called at Aleppo, "Palma Christi." An oil is made from it called "oleum de keroa; oleum CICINUM; oleum ficus infernalis." The Christians and Jews of Mosul [Nineveh] say, it was not the keroa whose shadow refreshed Jonah, but a sort of gourd, el-kera, which has very large leaves, very large fruit, and lasts but about four months." The epithet which the prophet uses in speaking of the plant, son of the night it was, and, as a son of the night it died," does not compel us to believe that it grew in a single night, but either by a strong oriental figure that it was of rapid growth, or akin to night in the shade it spread for his repose. The figure is not uncommon in the East, and one of our own poets has called the rose "child of the summer." Nor are we bound to take the expression "on the morrow," as strictly importing the very next day, since the word has reference to much more distant time, Exod. xiii. 5; Deut. vi. 20; Josh. iv. 6. It might be simply taken as afterwards. The circumstance of the speedy withering of the flowers and leaves of the keroa should not be slightly passed over; nor that of its present name cicinum (pronouncing the c hard like K), which is sufficiently near the kikiun of Jonah. The author of "Scripture Illustrated" remarks, "as the history in Jonah expressly says, the LORD prepared this plant, no doubt we may conceive of it as an extraordinary one of its kind, remarkably rapid in its growth, remarkably hard in its stem, remarkably vigorous in its branches, and remarkable for the extensive spread of its leaves and the deep gloom of their shadow; and, after a certain duration, remarkable for a sudden withering, and a total uselessness to the impatient prophet.' The following extract will explain the circumstance of the worm with which this plant is infested. "Rumphius in Herbario Amboinensi, t. iv. p. 95, narrat, calidioribus diebus, tenui cadente pluvia, in ea generari erucas nigras magna multitudine, ejus folia per unam noctem subito depascentes, ut nude modo costæ supersint, idque se sæpius non sine admiratione vidisse, simillime, addit, arbusculæ, olim Ninivitica." Hiller, in his Hierophyticon, part i. p. 456, gives a beautiful poetical illustration of this history. "Aspice morentis ricinum solamine Jonæ, Scilicet hæc mundi frustra gaudentis imago, In Poole's Annotations is a pathetic and eloquent apostrophe on this passage of sacred history. It will be recollected that Jonah could have wished with all his soul to have had the gourd spared; and pity for it found way to his breast as soon as it was destroyed, although it had cost him no labour or toil. It is on this consideration that Jehovah says, "And shall I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons, which cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and also much cattle ?” “Jonah, thou hast pity on a sorry shrub, and shall thy God be by thee confined, that he should not have pity on a vast and mighty city? A stately structure, which cost immense treasures; was the labour of almost one million and a half of workmen, through eight years, and the great wonder of the world! Thy gourd, Jonah, may not be named on the same day with this; only in a passion this must be ruined to please thee, and thy gourd must not, lest it displease thee. Is this equal? Wouldst thou have me less merciful to such a goodly city, than thou art to a weed? It was a single gourd Jonah pitied, and is angry that it is smitten; here are many hundred thousands of men and women which I have pitied and spared. Here are more than six score thousand innocents, who are infants, who are my creatures, made for eternity, who grow slowly under my care and charge, whom I value as my own; and, peevish Jonah, wilt thou not allow me to show pity to mine own invaluable creatures, when thou pitiest what is neither thine, nor valuable? Had it been thine, this might have required thy affection; had it been of worth, this might have excused thy earnestness for it; but all this aggravates thy fierce and cruel passion against Nineveh. Beside men, women, and children who are in Nineveh, there are many other of my creatures that are not sinful, and my tender mercies are, and shall be, over all my works. If thou wouldst be their butcher, yet I will be their God. I know what becomes me, God of prophets, and though once I hearkened to Elijah to send fire from heaven to contemptuous sinners, yet it is not meet to send fire from heaven on repenting Nineveh. I know how to impress their minds with a continual belief that Jonah came from God to preach repentance, and that it was their repentance which prevented their overthrow. I can save thy credit, Jonah, and yet not humour thy cruelty. Go, Jonah, rest thyself content, and be thankful. That goodness, mercy, and kindness, which spared Nineveh, hath spared thee, in this, thine inexcusable frowardness. I will be to repenting Nineveh what I am to thee-God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and I will turn from the evil thou and they deserve." II. We read of the WILD-GOURD, in the second book of Kings, iv. 39; that Elisha, being at Gilgal, during a great famine, bade one of his servants prepare something for the entertainment of the prophets who were in that place. The servant, going into the field, found (as our translators render it) some wild-gourds, gathered a lap full of them, and having brought them with him, cut them in pieces and put them into a pot, not knowing what they were. When they were brought to table, the prophets, having tasted them, thought they were mortal poison. Immediately the man of God called for flour, threw it into the pot, and desired them to eat without any apprehensions. They did so, and perceived nothing of the bitterness whereof they were before so sensible. This plant or fruit is called in Hebrew There have been various opinions about it. Celsius supposes it the colocynth 3. The leaves of the plant are large, placed alternate; the flowers white, and the fruit of the gourd kind, of the size of a large apple, which, when ripe, is yellow, and of a pleasant and inviting appearance; but, to the taste intolerably bitter, and proves a drastic purgative. .PEKAIM פקעים PEKAOTH and פקעות It seems that the fruit, whatever it might have been, was early thought proper for an ornament in architecture. It furnished a model for some of the carved work of cedar in Solomon's temple. 1 Kings, vi. 18; vii. 24. HANAB. GRAPE. The fruit of the vine. There were fine vineyards and excellent grapes in the promised land. The bunch of grapes which was cut in the valley of Eschol, and was brought upon a staff between two men to the camp of Israel at Kadeshbarnea, [Numb. xiii. 23,] may give us some idea of the largeness of the fruit in that country: though, as Dr. A. Clarke observes, "the bringing of the cluster in this manner was probably not rendered necessary by the size of the bunch or cluster, but to preserve it from being bruised, that the Israelites might have a fair specimen of the fruit." It would be easy to produce a great number of witnesses to prove, that the grapes in those regions grow to a prodigious size. By Calmet, Scheuchzer, and Harmer this subject has been exhausted; and to them I may refer the reader 38, observing only, that Doubdan assures us, that in the valley of 37 Cucumis prophetarum. Linn. Syst. Nat. 1436. Cucumis colocynthis. 38 Among other authorities, see Olearius Itiner. 1. 3. Forster, Dict. Hæbr. p. 862. J. C. Dieterius, Antiq. Bibl. p. 249. Huetius, Quæst. Alnetanæ. 1. 2. c. 12. n. 24. Leo Africanus, Radzivil, Sir J. Chardin, Voyages, t. iii. p. 12. |