Eschol were clusters of grapes to be found of ten or twelve pounds 39.

Moses, in the law, Levit. xix. 10; Deut. xxiv. 21, 22, commanded that when the Israelites gathered their grapes, they should not be careful to pick up those that fell, nor be so exact as to leave none upon the vines. What fell and what were left behind the poor had liberty to glean. For the same beneficent purpose the second vintage was reserved: this, in those warm countries, was considerable; though never so good nor so plentiful as the former 40. The wise son of Sirach says [Ecclesiasticus, xxxiv. 15], “ I waked up last of all, as one that gleaneth after grape-gatherers. By the blessing of the Lord, I profited, and filled my wine press like a gatherer of grapes."

It is frequent in Scripture to describe a total destruction, by the similitude of a vine, stripped in such a manner that there was not a bunch of grapes left for those who came to glean 11.

The prophecy, Gen. xlix. 11, "He shall wash his clothes in wine, and his garments in the blood of the grape," means that he shall reside in a country where grapes were in abundance. The vineyards of Engedi and of Sorek, so famous in Scripture, were in the tribe of Judah; and so was the valley of Eschol, whence the spies brought those extraordinary clusters.

The proverbial expression, Jerem. xxxi. 29," the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge," seems to be founded on what is generally declared in several parts of Scripture, that God visiteth the sins of the fathers upon the children; and perhaps on his having particularly threatened to bring evil upon Judah and Jerusalem, for the sins committed in the reign of Manasseh; ch. xv. 2; 2 Kings, xxi. 11—15; xxiii. 26, 27. "But," says Bishop Blaney, "it certainly does not follow from hence, as the proverb would seem to insinuate, that the innocent children were to be punished for the offences of their guilty fathers. This is in no way consistent with our ideas of natural justice; nor can any instance be produced of God's ever having proceeded in such a manner. I speak of judicial punishment, properly so called, and not of the natural effects and consequences of sin. If children have been punished for the transgressions of their parents, it was because the children were guilty as well as the parents. Nor did the children suffer more than their own iniquities had deserved; although the delinquency of their forefathers might have become a reasonable motive for treating them with greater severity than they would otherwise have met with, in order to put a stop to the progress of hereditary wickedness. This is all, I conceive, that ever was, or could be designed, by God's visiting the sins of the fathers 39 Voyage de la Terre Sainte, c. 21.

40 M. Flaccus Illyricus, Clav. S. S. voce racemus.
41 Isai. xvii. 6; xxiv. 13; Jer. vi. 9; xlix. 9; Obad. 5.

upon the children. It is promised, however, that in those future times of which the prophet was speaking, no regard of any kind should be had to the sins of others, but that every man should bear his own burden, and suffer simply and solely for his own transgressions." So, in Ezekiel, xviii. 2, Jehovah says, "What mean ye that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, the fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, ye shall not any more use this proverb in Israel." Upon this passage Archbishop Newcombe observes, "the Chaldee explains the proverb rightly: 'the fathers have sinned, and the sons are smitten.' In the second commandment, it is expressly declared that the children should be punished in this life for the idolatry of their fathers. Idolatry was high treason, while the theocracy subsisted; and was to be restrained by the severest sanctions, under a dispensation appointed for these among other purposes, to preserve the Israelites from the general taint of idolatry, and to maintain and propagate the knowledge of the one God."

II. The WILD GRAPES, D'UN BAESHIM, are the fruit of the wild, or bastard vine 42; sour and unpalatable; and good for nothing but to make verjuice.

In Isaiah, v. 2—4, Jehovah complains that he had planted his people as a choice vine, excellent as that of Sorek 43; but that their degeneracy had defeated his purpose and disappointed his hopes: "When he expected that it should bring forth choice fruit, it yielded only such as was bad:" not merely useless and unprofitable grapes, but clusters offensive and noxious. By the force and intent of the allegory, says Bishop Lowth, to good grapes ought to be opposed fruit of a dangerous and pernicious quality; as in the application of it, to judgment is opposed tyranny, and to righteousness oppression.

Hasselquist is inclined to believe that the prophet here means the "Solanum incanum," hoary night shade; "because it is common in Egypt and Palestine, and the Arabian name agrees well with it. The Arabs call it "Aneb el dib," wolf's grapes. The prophet could not have found a plant more oppo

42 Called in Latin, "labrusca." Plin. l. xxiii. c. 1. Virg. Ecl. v. V. 5.

43 Sorek was a valley lying between Ascalon and Gaza, and running far up eastward in the tribe of Judah. Both Ascalon and Gaza were anciently famous for wine. The former is mentioned as such by Alexander Trallianus; the latter by several authors (quoted by Reland, Palæst. p. 589, and 986). And it seems that the upper part of the valley of Sorek, and that of Eschol (where the spies gathered the large bunch of grapes which they were obliged to bear between two upon a staff,) being both near to Hebron, were in the same neighbourhood; and that all this part of the country abounded with rich vineyards. Compare Numb. xiii. 22, 23; Jud. xvi. 3, 4: and see P. Nau, Voyage de la Terre Sainte, 1. iv. c. 18. De Lisle's posthumous Map of the Holy Land. Paris, 1763. Bochart Hieroz. ii. col. 725. Thevenot, i. p. 406, and Bishop Lowth's Notes on Isai. v. 2, &c.

Trav. p. 298. See also Michaelis, Quest. No. Ixiv.

site to the vine than this; for it grows much in the vineyards, and is very pernicious to them. It is likewise a vine." Mr. Bate, however, explains it of grapes that rot upon the vine; so Montanus," uvas putidas."

Jeremiah uses the same image, ch. ii. 21, and applies it to the same purpose, in an elegant paraphrase of this part of Isaiah's parable, in his flowing and plaintive manner. "I planted thee a Sorek, a cion perfectly genuine. How then art thou changed, and become to me the degenerate shoot of a strange vine!"

From some sort of poisonous fruits of the grape kind, Moses [Deut. xxxii. 32, 33] has taken those strong and highly poetical images with which he has set forth the future corruption and extreme degeneracy of the Israelites, in an allegory which has a near relation, both in its subject and imagery, to this of Isaiah.

"Their vine is from the vine of Sodom,

And from the fields of Gomorrah.

Their grapes are grapes of gall;

And their clusters are bitter.

Their wine is the poison of dragons,
And the deadly venom of aspics."

The historians mention fruits brought from the neighbourhood of Sodom, which on the outside appeared to be fair and of a lively red colour, but within were very bitter, and as it were full of soot and ashes 45. Tertullian, Apol. c. xl. speaks of them in the same manner. But Maundrell, describing the Dead Sea, tells us, that for the apples of Sodom so much talked of, he neither saw nor heard of any hereabouts; nor was there any tree near the lake from which one might expect such a kind of fruit: which induced him to believe that it was only a fiction, kept up, as Lord Bacon observes, as many other false notions are, "because it serves for a good allusion, and helps the poet to a similitude."

Hasselquist says that the "Poma Sodomitica," the apple of Sodom, is the fruit of the "Solanum Melongana" of Linnæus, called by others "mad apple." It is found in great quantities near Jericho, in the valleys near the Jordan, and in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea. If this fruit causes madness, if it grows near the city of Sodom, and retains the name "Sodomitica," may it not be the vegetable intended by Moses? Does it sufficiently resemble the vine to be compared to it 46? See GALL.

GRASS. NWT DESHA.

Occurs first in Gen. i. 11, and afterwards frequently.

The well known vegetable upon which flocks and herds feed; and which decks our fields and refreshes our sight with its

45 Josephus De Bel. Jud. 1. iv. c. 27. Plin. l. v. c. 16. 1. v. c. 6. "Atra et inania velut in cinerem vanescunt." 46 Scripture Illustrated, p. 77.

Strabo, l. xvi. Tacitus,
Solinus, c. xxxvi.

grateful verdure. Its feeble frame and transitory duration is mentioned in Scripture as emblematic of the frail condition and fleeting existence of man. The inspired poets draw this picture with such inimitable beauty as the laboured elegies on mortality. of ancient and modern times have never surpassed. See Psalm, xc. 6, and particularly Isai. xl. 6, 7, 8. “A voice sayeth, Proclaim! And I said, what shall I proclaim? All flesh is grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, when the wind of Jehovah bloweth upon it. Verily, this people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God abideth for ever." This is thus versified by Mr. Butt.

“ Lo! a voice spoke.

Proclaim! and I replied
What? That all flesh is grass, and all its pride
But as a field-flower. Quickly fades the grass,
And so as quick, the flower's soft glories pass!
Yea, e'en the little day allow'd their kind
Shortens beneath Jehovah's stormy wind.
Judah, as grass, shall speedily decay;
Grass is soon gone, nor flowers a longer day
Boast; but the word of God which I proclaim,
For ever lives, for ever is the same."

As in their decay the herbs of the field strikingly illustrate the shortness of human life, so in the order of their growth, from seeds dead and buried, they give a natural testimony to the doctrine of a resurrection: and the prophet Isaiah [xxvi. 19,] and the apostle Peter, [1 Pet. i. 24, 25,] both speak of bodies rising from the dead, as of so many seeds springing from the ground to renovated existence and beauty.

II. It is a just remark of Grotius that the Hebrews ranked the whole vegetable system under two classes, yy oтz, and awy OSHEB. The first is rendered uλov or devdpov, tree; to express the second, the LXX have adopted xogros, as their common way to translate one Hebrew word by one Greek word, though not quite proper, rather than by a circumlocution. It is accordingly used in their version of Gen. i. 11, where the distinction first occurs, and in most other places. Nor is it with greater propriety rendered "grass" in English, than xoptos in Greek. The same division occurs in Matth. vi. 30, and Rev. viii. 7, where our translators have in like manner had recourse to the term "grass." Dr. Campbell prefers and uses the word herbage, as coming nearer the meaning of the sacred writer. Under the name herb is comprehended every sort of plant which has not, like trees and shrubs, a perennial stalk. That many, if not all sorts of shrubs, were included by the Hebrews under the denomination, tree, is evident from Jotham's apologue of the trees choosing a king, Jud. ix. 7, where the bramble is mentioned as one. See HAY.. GRASSHOPPER. CHAGAB; in Arabic giaba is the term for Grasshoppers in general. See MENISKI, No. 6717,

Occ. Levit. xi. 22; Numb. xiii. 33; 2 Chron. vii. 13; Eccles. xii. 5; and Isai. xl. 22; 2 Esdras, iv. 24; Wisd. xvi. 9; Ecclus. xliii. 17.

Bochart supposes that this species of the locust has its name from the Arabic verb hajaba, to veil; because when they fly, as they often do in great swarms, they eclipse even the light of the sun. "But I presume," says Parkhurst," this circumstance is not peculiar to any particular kind of locust; I should rather, therefore, think it denotes the cucullated species, so denominated by naturalists from the cucullus, cowl or hood, with which they are furnished, and which distinguish them from the other kinds. In Scheuchzer may be seen several of this sort 47; and it will appear that this species nearly resemble our grasshopper." Our translators render the Hebrew word "locust" in the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple, 2 Chron. vii. 13, and with propriety. But it is rendered "grasshopper" in Ecclesiastes, xii. 5, where Solomon, describing the infelicities of old age, says, "the grasshopper shall be a burden." "To this insect,' says Dr. Smith, "the preacher compares a dry, shrunk, shrivelled, crumpling, craggy old man; his backbone sticking out, his knees projecting forwards, his arms backwards, his head downwards, and the apophyses or bunching parts of the bones in general enlarged. Ând from this exact likeness, without all doubt, arose the fable of Tithonus, who, living to extreme old age, was at last turned into a grasshopper." Dr. Hodgson, referring it to the custom of eating locusts, supposes it to imply, that "luxurious gratification" will become insipid; and Bishop Reynolds, that "the lightest pressure of so small a creature shall be uncomfortable to the aged, as not being able to bear any weight." Other commentators suppose the reference to the chirping noise of the grasshopper, which must be disagreeable to the aged and infirm, who naturally love quiet, and are commonly unable to bear much noise. It is probable that here also a kind of locust is meant; and these creatures are proverbially loquacious. They make a loud, screaking, and disagreeable noise with their wings. If one begins, others join, and the hateful concert becomes universal. A pause then ensues, and, as it were, on a signal given, it again commences and in this manner they continue squalling for two or three hours without intermission 48.

The prophet Isaiah, xl. 22, contrasts the grandeur and power of God, and every thing reputed great in this world, by a very expressive reference to this insect. "Jehovah sitteth on the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants are to him as grasshoppers." What atoms and inanities are they all before Him, who sitteth on the circle of the immense heavens, and views the potentates of the earth in the light of grasshoppers, those poor insects that wander over the barren heath for sustenance, spend 47 Phys. Sacr. tab. cclv. and cclvi. 48 Paxton's Illustrations, V. i. p. 324.