It is evident from Deut. xxix. 18, that some herb or plant is meant of a malignant or nauseous kind 60, being there joined with "wormwood," and in the margin of our bibles explained to be "a poisonful herb." In like manner, see Jerem. viii. 14; ix. 15; and xxiii. 15. In Hosea, x. 4, the comparison is to a bitter herb, which, growing among grain, overpowers the useful vegetable, and substitutes a pernicious weed. "If (says the author of 'Scripture Illustrated') the comparison be to a plant growing in the furrows of the field, strictly speaking, then we are much restricted in our plants likely to answer this character; but if we may take the ditches around, or the moist or sunken places within the field also, which I partly suspect, then we may include other plants; and I do not see why hemlock may not be intended. Scheuchzer inclines to this rather than wormwood or agrostes,' as the LXX have rendered. I suppose the prophet means a vegetable which should appear wholesome, should resemble those known to be salutary (as judgment, when just, properly is); but experience should demonstrate its malignity (as unjust judgment is when enforced). Hemlock is poisonous, and water-hemlock especially; yet either of these may be mistaken, and some of their parts, the root particularly may be received-but too fatally." . Michaelis, Quest. No. xlii. is inclined to think it the henbane, "hyoscyamus." See GALL. HEN. OPNIE. Matth. xxiii. 37, and Luke, xiii. 34; [and compare 2 Esdras, i. 30.] cr In these passages, our Saviour exclaims, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." The metaphor here used is a very beautiful one. When the hen sees a bird of prey coming, she makes a noise to assemble her chickens, that she may cover them with her wings from the danger. The Roman eagle was about to fall upon the Jewish state. Our Lord expresses a desire to guard them from threatened calamities. They disregarded his invitations and warnings; and fell a prey to their adversaries. The affection of the hen to her brood is so strong as to become proverbial. There is a beautiful Greek epigram in the Anthologia, which affords a very fine illustration of this passage 61. It has been thus translated. "Beneath her fostering wing, the hen defends Her darling offspring, while the snow descends; 60❝Instead of wx, five MSS. have w, and a sixth had at first the same reading, which, in the elder editions, was the textual reading in ch. xxii. 32, and which I am apt to think is the true original reading. But what is the precise meaning of wx or w, it is not easy to determine." Dr. Geddes, Cr. Rem. in loc. 6 Anthol, lib. i. tit. 87, ed. Bosch. p. 344. And through the winter's day unmoved, defies Till, vanquish'd by the cold and piercing blast, Plutarch, in his book "De philostorgia," represents this parental attachment and care in a very pleasing manner. “Do we not daily observe with what care the hen protects her chickens! giving some shelter under her wings, supporting others upon her back; calling them around her, and picking out their food; and if any animal approaches that terrifies them, driving it away with a courage and strength truly wonderful!” "It does not appear," says Michaelis 62, "that the Israelites were accustomed to the breeding of poultry; for in the history of the Patriarchs, where so much is said on rural economy, not a word do we find concerning poultry, not even in the laws relating to offerings. Nay, great as is the number of other animals mentioned in it, the Hebrew bible does not so much as furnish a name for them; unless perhaps in a book written about the commencement of the Babylonish captivity, and even there, through the mistakes of transcribers, it is rendered almost undiscoverable. I entertain a suspicion, of which, however, I cannot here enter fully into the grounds, that in Jerem. xvii. 11, instead of we should read 17, and translate, 'the hen hatches and clucks with the chickens of eggs not her own.' Sometimes the hen steals the eggs of a bird of a different species, hatches them, and clucks with the chickens as if they were her own; but if they are not of the gallinaceous kind, but ducks or such like, they soon forsake their supposititious mother. To a hen of this thievish cast, the miser, who accumulates wealth by unjust means, may be compared. His riches take wings and flee away. This explanation, however, is not incontrovertible; and if here the prophet had not our domestic poultry in his view, in no passage of the Old Testament is mention made of them, nor do we find them among the Jews until after their subjection by the Romans.' See PARTRIDge. HERON. EN ANAPHA. Occ. Levit. xi. 19, and Deut. xiv. 18. This word has been variously understood. Some have rendered it the kite, others the woodcock, others the curlieu, some the peacock, others the parrot, and others the crane. The root DIN ANAPH, signifies to breathe short through the nostrils, to snuff, as in anger; hence to be angry; and it is supposed that the word is sufficiently descriptive of the heron, from its very irritable disposition. Bochart, however, thinks it the mountain falcon; the same that the Greeks call avotɛa, mentioned by Homer, Odys. i. 320; and this bears a strong resemblance to the Hebrew name. 62 Comment. on Laws of Moses, V. ii. p. 386, transl. HIND. 'N AJALAH. Occ. Gen. xlix. 21; 2 Sam. xxii. 34; Job, xxxix. 1; Psalm xviii. 33; xxix. 9; Prov. v. 19; Cantic. ii. 7; iii. 5; Jer. xiv. 5; Habak. iii. 19. The mate or female of the stag. It is a lovely creature, and of an elegant shape. It is noted for its swiftness and the sureness of its step as it jumps among the rocks 63. David and Habakkuk both allude to this character of the hind. "The Lord maketh my feet like hind's feet, and causeth me to stand on the high places 64." The circumstance of their standing on the high places, or mountains, is applied to these animals by Xenophon 65. Solomon has a very apposite comparison, Prov. v. 19, of connubial attachment, to the mutual fondness of the stag and hind. "Let the wife of thy bosom be as the beloved hind and favourite roe." It is well known that the males of the gazelle kind are remarkably fond of their females at the time when the natural propension operates; and, though at other seasons weak and timid animals, they will then, at the hazard of their lives, encounter any danger rather than forsake their beloved partners. Our translators made Jacob, prophesying of the tribe of Naphtali, Gen. xlix. 21, say, "Naphtali is a hind let loose, he giveth goodly words." Interpreters pretend that this prediction relates to Barak, who was of that tribe, who had not the courage to oppose the army of Sisera without the assistance of Deborah, though she assured him that God had commanded him to do it, and promised him success; but yet gave goodly words in the song which he sung after obtaining the victory. But, as this prophecy regarded the whole of the tribe, it could not be accomplished in the person of an individual; besides, it was not he that composed the song, but the prophetess Deborah, who was of the tribe of Ephraim. Nor do we find it any where recorded that Naphtali, or his posterity, have been more eloquent than the other tribes; not to mention that the Galileans, whose country made a part of that of the Naphtalites, and who might have been of the same tribe, were so unpolished in their language that those at Jerusalem could not bear their dialect 66. The Chaldee paraphrase, and that of Jerusalem, and the Rabbins, have mentioned other fables to justify this version, which suppose that the tribe of Naphtali were quick in bringing good news, &c. But the total want of connexion between the images employed and the future situation of Naphtali, so as that the 63 2 Sam. xxii. 34; Cantic. ii. 8, 9; viii. 14. 64 Psal. xviii. 33; Hab. iii. 19. 65 Επισκοπειν δε έχοντα τας κύνας, τας μεν ΕΝ ΤΟΙΣ ΟΡΕΣΙΝ ΕΣΤΩΣΑΣ ΕΛΑΦΟΥΣ. Venari oportet cum canibus cervas quæ in montibus stant. lib. de Venat. 66 Pirke Aboth. c. 39. Thus Peter was charged with being a Galilean, Matth. xxvi. 73. "Thou art one of them; thy speech bewrayeth thee." one should be the counterpart of the other, which the prophecy has been to the circumstances of the other tribes in every preceding instance; and the incoherence and want of unity between the first and the last clause of the same verse convince me that something is wrong. The learned Bochart removes the whole difficulty, and elucidates the passage only by altering a little the punctuation of the original; and it then reads, "Naphtali is a spreading tree, shooting forth beautiful branches 67." This rendering agrees with the translation of the Septuagint, with the Chaldee paraphrase, and with the Arabic version. It renders the passage intelligible, and the accomplishment of the prophecy complete. Nor are we to wonder that the changing of a few arbitrary points should make so essential a difference in translation; when a very trifling alteration will sometimes make considerable change in the sense of a word even in our own language 68. Admitting this construction of the passage, it may refer to the fruitfulness of the soil, and the especial, providential care and blessing of the Almighty; agreeably to the expression of Moses, Deut. xxxiii. 23, “O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord!" So that he may be represented under the figure of a tree planted in a rich soil, growing to a prodigious size, and extending its numerous branches in all directions. This, indeed, renders the simile uniform; but another critic has remarked, that "the allusion to a tree seems to be purposely reserved by the venerable patriarch for his son Joseph, who is compared to the boughs of a tree; and the repetition of the idea in reference to Naphtali is every way unlikely 69." "Besides," he adds, "the word rendered 'let loose,' imports an active motion, not like that of the branches of a tree, which, however freely they wave, are yet attached to the parent stock; but an emission, a dismission, or sending forth to a distance: in the present case, a roaming, roaming at liberty. The verb 'he giveth' may denote shooting forth. It is used of production, as of the earth which shoots forth, yields, its increase, Levit. xxiv. 4. The word rendered goodly' signifies noble, grand, majestic; and the noun translated words,' radically signifies divergences, what spread forth. For these reasons, he proposes to read the passage, Naphtali is a deer roaming at liberty; he shooteth forth spreading branches,' or 'majestic antlers.' Here the distinction of imagery is preserved; and the fecundity of the tribe and the fertility of their lot intimated.” In our version of Psal. xxix. 9, we read, "the voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests." Mr. Merrick, in an ingenious note on the place, attempts to 67 See Hieroz. tom. ii. p. 257. Ancient Univ. Hist. vol. ii. b. i. p. 492, and Dr. Geddes' remarks and note on the place. 68 Dr. Collyer's Lectures on Scripture Prophecy, p. 152. 69 See "Scripture Illustrated,” by the editor of Calmet. justify the rendering; but Bp. Lowth, in his Lectures on the sacred poetry of the Hebrews, observes, that, "this agrees very little with the rest of the imagery, either in nature or dignity; and that he does not feel himself persuaded, even by the reasonings of the learned Bochart on this subject, Hieroz. part 1. lib. iii. c. 17. Whereas the oak, struck with lightning, admirably agrees with the context. [The Syriac seems, for me, hinds, to have read, oaks, or rather, perhaps, terebinths 70. And Bochart himself explains the word (which has been absurdly understood by the Masorites and other commentators as relating to a stag) as spoken of a tree in a very beautiful explication of the obscure passage in Genesis, xlix. 2171" The passage in the Psalm may be thus versified : Hark! his voice in thunder breaks, And lay the spreading forests bare! HOG. See SWINE. HONEY. W DEBASH. Occ. Gen. xliii. 11, and frequently in the Old Testament; and MEAI, Matth. iii. 4; Mark, i. 6; and Rev. x. 9; and MEAIΣZION KHPION, a bee's, or honey-comb, Luke, xxiv. 42. A sweet vegetable juice collected by the bees from various flowers, and deposited in the cells of the comb 72. Most probably, that the Jews might keep at distance from the customs of the heathen, who were used to offer honey in their sacrifices, Jehovah forbid that any should be offered to him, that is to say, burnt upon the altar. Levit. ii. 11; but at the same time commanded that they should present the first fruits of it. These first fruits and offerings were designed for the support and sustenance of the priests, and were not consumed upon the altar. Some suppose that the honey here mentioned was not that produced by bees, but a sweet syrup procured from dates when in maturity; and the Jewish doctors observe, that debash, rendered "honey," in 2 Chron. xxxi. 15, signifies properly dates 73. The Arabians at this day call the dates dubous, and the honey obtained from them dibs or dibis. Dr. Geddes in his Critical Remarks on Gen. xliii. 11, says: "In my version I have rendered the Hebrew word w, palm-honey; after Bochart and 70 Celsius, Hierobot. V. i. p. 34. Michaelis, Quest. xliv. 71 See Gregory's translation, Vol. ii. p. 253. 72 Bochart has devoted twenty-eight pages to the illustration of the passages of Scripture where honey is mentioned. Hieroz. V. 3. p. 374. 73 Talm. tract. Nedarim, c. 6. § 10. Terumoth, c. xi. § 2. Maimonid. Comment. in Tr. Biccurim, c. i. Misn. 3. Josephus mentions this palm honey, de Bel. Jud. 1. v. c. 3. See also Hiller, Hierophyt. part i. p. 125: Celsius, Hierobot. p. ii. p. 476. |