Of this, something will be noted under their proper articles. It may in brief be observed here, that such as fed upon grain and seeds were allowed for food, and such as devoured flesh and carrion were prohibited. Birds were offered for sacrifice on many occasions. Levit. i. 14, 15, 16, and v. 7, 8. Moses, to inspire the Israelites with sentiments of tenderness towards the brute creation, orders, if they find a bird's nest, not to take the dam with the young, but to suffer the old one to fly away, and to take the young only. Deut. xxii. 6. This is one of those merciful constitutions in the law of Moses, which respect the animal creation, and tended to humanize the heart of that people, to excite in them a sense of the Divine Providence extending itself to all creatures, and to teach them to exercise their dominion over them with gentleness. The law seems also to regard posterity; for letting the dam go free, the breed may be continued; whereas if it should wholly fail, would it not in the end be ill with them, and by thus cutting off the means of their continual support, must not their days be shortened on the land? Besides, the young never knew the sweets of liberty; the dam did: they might be taken and used for any lawful purpose; but the dam must not be brought into a state of captivity. They who can act otherwise must be either very inconsiderate or devoid of feeling; and such persons can never be the objects of God's peculiar care and attention, and therefore need not expect that it shall be well with them, or that they shall prolong their days upon the earth. Every thing contrary to the spirit of mercy and kindness the ever blessed God has in utter abhorrence. And we should remember a fact; that he who can exercise cruelty towards a sparrow or a wren, will, when circumstances are favourable, be cruel to his fellow creatures 33 The poet Phocylides has a maxim, in his admonitory poem very similar to that in the sacred texts. Μηδε τις ορνιθας καλιης αμα παντας ελέσθω, Μητέρα δ' εκπρολιπης ιν' έχης παλιν της δε νεοττός. V..80. Nor from a nest take all the birds away, The mother spare, she'll breed a future day. It appears that the ancients hunted birds. Baruch, iii, 17, speaking of the kings of Babylon, says, "They had their pastime with the fowls of the air;" and Daniel, iii. 38, tells Nebuchadnezzar that God had made the fowls of the air subject to him." BITTER-HERBS. MURURIM. Exod. xii. 8, and Numb. ix. 11. The Jews were commanded to eat their passover with a salad of bitter herbs; but whether one particular plant was intended, or any kind of bitter herbs, has been made a question. By the Septuagint it is rendered εTI TIиgidwv: by Jerom, "cum 33 Dr. Adam Clarke's note in loc. lactucis agrestibus ;" and by the Gr. Venet. ETI Tigion. Dr. Geddes remarks, that "it is highly probable, that the succory or wild-lettuce is meant: the Jews of Alexandria, who translated the Pentateuch, could not be ignorant what herbs were eaten with the paschal lamb in their days. Jerom understood it in the same manner and Pseudo-Jonathan expressly mentions horehound and lettuces." Eubulus, an Athenian comic poet, in his Amalthea, mentions Hercules as refusing to eat the Tingides, in these words: Καγω γαρ ε καυλοισιν, εδε σιλφίω Βολβοις τ' εμαυτον χορτασων εληλυθα. The Mischna in Pesachim, cap. 2, reckons five species of these bitter herbs. (1.) CHAZARETH, taken for lettuce. (2.) ULSIN, supposed to be endive or succory. (3.) TAMCA, probably tansay 34. (4.) CHARUBBINIM, which Bochart thought might be the nettle, but Scheuchzer shows to be the camomile. (5.) MEROR, the sow-thistle, or dent-de-lion, or wild lettuce. Mr. Forskal says, "the Jews in Sana, and in Egypt, eat the lettuce with the paschal lamb;" he also remarks that moru is centaury, of which the young stems are eaten in February and March. BITTERN. TE KEPHUD. Occurs Isai. xiv. 23, xxxiv. 11; and Zeph. ii. 14. Interpreters have rendered this word variously; an owl, an osprey, a tortoise, a porcupine, and even an otter. "How unhappy," says Mr. Harmer, "that a word which occurs but three times in the Hebrew Bible should be translated by three different words, and that one of them should be otters 35 !" Isaiah, prophesying the destruction of Babylon, says that “the Lord will make it a possession for the bittern and pools of water;" and Zephaniah, ii. 14, prophesying against Nineveh, says that "the cormorant and bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows 36" Dr. Shaw, Bp. Lowth, Mr. Dodson, and Bp. Stock, following Bochart, I think improperly render it the porcupine. I see no propriety in ranking that animal with the cormorant, the raven, and the owl; but the bittern, which is a retired bird, is more likely to be found in their company in the same wilds and fens. Besides the porcupine is not an aquatic animal: and pools of water are pointed out as the retreat of those here mentioned; neither has it any note, yet of these creatures it is said, their voices shall sing in the windows; least of all could we think of either that or the other making a lodging on the chapiters of the columns. It is remarkable that the Arabic version reads, "Al-houbara." 34 Harmer Obs. v. 3. p. 100. 35 Scheuchzer says, "the BEAVER is what best agrees with the word." 36 Vide J. E. Faber, Dissertatio de Animalibus quorum mentio fit Zeph. ii. 14. According to Dr. Shaw, the Houbara is "of the bigness of a capon, but of a longer habit of body. It feeds on little shrubs and insects, like the Graab el Sahara, frequenting in like manner the confines of the desert." Golius interprets it the bustard; and Dr. Russel says, that the Arabic name of the bustard is "houbry." BLACK. There are three words in the Hebrew. (1.) SHAKOR, which is applied to the blackness of a quenched coal, Job, xxx. 30, Lament. v. 10; to the darkness which precedes the dawning of the day, Job, iii. 9, and many other places; and to the colour of the raven, Cantic. v. 11. (2.) 'N AISH, is the blackness of the pupil of the eye, Deut. xxii. 10, Psal. vii. 2,9, and 20. xx. (3.) 77 KODER, the darkness of the sky, Mic. iii. 6; and emblematic of mourning, Job, xxx. 28, and frequently elsewhere. BLUE. The Hebrew word л THECHELETH, Exod. xxv. 4, and thirty times more in this single book has been variously understood by interpreters. Josephus, Antiq. 1. iii. c. 8, § 1. Philo, in Vit. Mos. 1. iii. p. 148. Origen, Greg. Nysen, Ambrose, Jerom, and most of the ancient versions, render it hyacinthine; but Bochart asserts it to be cerulean, azure, or sky colour s My learned friend, the Hon. James Winthrop, suggests that the colour extracted from the indigo may be intended. That plant probably derived its origin, as it doubtless does its name, from India, where its beautiful dyes have long given value to the fine linens and cottons of that ancient empire. Niebuhr mentions two places in Arabia in which indigo is now cultivated and prepared 38. Whether it grew there in remote ages may not be easily determined. The splendour and magnificence of dress seem to have consisted among the ancients, very much in the richness of colours; the art of dyeing which to perfection was esteemed a matter of great skill. The excellence of the Tyrian purple is celebrated by both sacred and profane authors; and the blue, which, from many passages of Scripture, we find to have been in great request, was imported from remote countries, as an article of expensive and elegant luxury. See Ezek. xxvii. 7, 24; Jer. x. 4. Buxtorf, in his Hebrew Lexicon, applies the word translated vermilion in Jer. ii. 14, and Ezek. xxiii. 14, to the dye prepared from indigo. Harenburg, in Musæum Brem. vol. ii. p. 297, observes that the thecheleth of the Jews is by the Talmudists rendered CHALASDON, which he thinks to be the Greek yλarov, the Latin glastum, and the German woad. 37 Hieroz. part ii. lib. v. c. 19. Conf. Braunius de Vest. sacerd. Hebr. ii. 14. p. 553. Abarbinel," est sericum infectum colore qui mari similis est." 38 Page 133, and 197. Occ. Levit. xi. 9; Deut. xiv. 8; Psal. lxxx. 13; Prov. xi. 22; Isai. lxv. 4, lxvi. 3, 17. The wild boar is considered as the parent stock of our domestic hog. He is much smaller, but at the same time stronger and more undaunted. In his own defence, he will turn on men or dogs; and scarcely shuns any denizen of the forests, in the haunts where he ranges. His colour is always an iron gray, inclining to black. His snout is longer than that of the common breed, and his ears are comparatively short. His tusks are very formidable, and all his habits are fierce and savage. It should seem, from the accounts of ancient authors, that the ravages of the wild boar were considered as more formidable than those of other savage animals 39. The conquest of the Erymanthian boar was one of the fated labours of Hercules; and the story of the Calydonian boar is one of the most beautiful in Ovid. The destructive ravages of these animals are mentioned in Psal. lxxx. 14. Dr. Pocock observed very large herds of wild boars on the side of Jordan, where it flows out of the sea of Tiberias; and several of them on the other side lying among the reeds by the The wild boars of other countries delight in the like moist retreats. These shady marshes then, it should seem, are called in the scripture, "woods," for it calls these animals "the wild boars of the woods 40." See HOG. sea, BOX-TREE. W TEAshur. Occ. Isai. xli. 9; lx. 13; and Ezek. xxvii. 6. BUXUS, 2 Esdras, xiv. 24; where the word appears to be used for tablets. Though most of the ancient, and several of the modern translators render this the " Buxus," or box-tree; from its being mentioned along with trees of the forest, some more stately tree must be intended. The Hebrew name implies flourishing or perpetual viridity: and in the Rabbinical book Jelammedenu, we read, "Quare vocatur Theaschur? Quia est felicissima inter omnes species cedrorum.' The passage Ezek. xxvii. 6, is of very difficult construction. The learned Mr. Dimock published a discourse upon it, in 1783, which I have not been able to procure. In our version it is, "the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim." The original w na, rendered “company of the Ashurites," Michaelis, Spicel. Geogr. p. iii. proposes, by a change of points, to read "filiæ lucorum,' supposing it to refer to the elephant, the inhabitant of the woods. Other learned men have said " ivory the daughter of steps;" " ivory well trodden;" " ivory set in box;" &c. And Bishop 39 Herodot. Hist. " Clio," § xxxvi. 40 See also Oedmann, Vermischte Sammlungen, fascic, i. c. 4. p. 41. Newcome renders it, "thy benches have they made of ivory, inlaid in box, from the isles of Chittim." The ancients sometimes made ornamental marquetry, or veneered work of box and ivory inlaid. <6 Quale per artem Inclusum Buxo, aut Oricia Terebintho VIRGIL, En. x. V. 135. But this would hardly be used on benches in a ship. The word SHEN," ivory," is wanting in one manuscript; and the bishop thinks it wrongly inserted in the text; the transcriber having been led to the mistake by the similar ending of the preceding word. The author of "Fragments as an Appendix to Calmet," No. ccxvii. proposes this reading: "thy shrine they made of ivory; for the Deity, the daughter of Assyria, brought from the isles of Chittim 41." He supposes the Assyrian nymph, or Venus of excellent Greek sculpture, to have been placed at the extremity of the poop of the vessel, as the tutelar deity. The LXX seem to authorize this construction; τα ιερα σου εποιησαν εξ ελεφαντος. BRAMBLE. TON ATAD. A prickly shrub. The raspberry bush, Judges, ix. 14, 15, and Psal. lviii. 9. In the latter place it is translated "thorn." Hiller supposes atad to be the cynobastus, or sweet-brier42. The author of Scripture Illustrated" says that the bramble seems to be well chosen as a representative of the original; which should be a plant bearing fruit of some kind, being associated (Jud. ix. 14), though by opposition, with the vine. But Dioscorides, as cited by Bochart 43, remarks that the Africans or Carthaginians called the rhamnus, a large species of thorn, Aradu, which is the plural of atad. The apologue, or fable of Jotham has always been admired for its spirit and application. It has also been considered as the oldest fable extant. For the meaning of the word translated brambles in Isai. xxxiv. 13, see THORN. The word is derived, according to Dr. Taylor, from the verb W NEHES, which signifies, "to observe with attention, to scrutinize, to look out for omens," &c. at the same time he acknowledges, that "its connexion with the root is uncertain." Parkhurst supposes the metal to be thus denominated "from its colour resembling that of serpents.' But if we may venture to conjecture, one single letter wrongly turned, and write it nun 41 The Syriac version reads Chetthoje, which has some resemblance to Cataya; by which we are directed towards India. Some of the Arabs translate the word the isles of India: but the Chaldee has it, the province of Afulia, meaning the region of elephants, and probably intending Pul in Egypt. 43 Vol. i. 752. 42 Hierophyt. c. lxi. p. 477. |