Some doubtful as vegetable substances.
Hyssop (Heb., Êzôb)
“And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin.”—Ex. 12:22; 149122And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. (Exodus 12:22) B.C. “Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.” “As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water.”—Lev. 14:4,6; 14904Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: (Leviticus 14:4)
6As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: (Leviticus 14:6) B.C. “And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent.”—Num. 19:18; 147118And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave: (Numbers 19:18) B.C. “And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.”—1 Kin. 4:33; 1014 B.C. “And they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.”—John. 19:29; 33 A.D. “He (Moses) took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people.”—Heb. 9:19; 6419For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, (Hebrews 9:19) A.D.
Few words in the Bible have been a greater puzzle to commentators than the Hebrew word êzôb; all adopt it as the name of some plant. It was not till nearly five hundred years after the Passover had been instituted that we learn that the word êzôb was really the name of a plant; we then read that Solomon “spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall” (hyssop being the Greek translation of êzôb). But this does not help us to fix upon any special plant, there being many different kinds that spring out of and grow upon walls. It, however, may reasonably be supposed that Solomon’s hyssop was a small plant.
In the time of Dioscorides, about 60 A.D., a plant was called hyssop us, but what that plant was or whether it was then considered to be the êzôb of the Hebrews is not now known. Celsius devotes forty-two pages of his book to this question, and mentions no less than eighteen plants, without arriving at any satisfactory conclusion as to which one is the êzôb.
By some modern botanists it is considered to have been some species of the mint family, but, with the exception of Origanum œgyptiacum, a kind of marjoram, all the plants they name are natives of Greece, not of Egypt.
On account of Linnæus having adopted the Greek word, hyssopus, as the name of a genus of labiate plants, one of the species being H. officinalis, the well known garden herb called hyssop, the authoress of the “Scripture Herbal,” and many readers of the Bible, have accepted it as the hyssop used by the Israelites; such, however, it cannot have been, as it is a native of the south of Europe and not of Egypt.
Other plants have been named; for instance, Dr. Boyle has endeavored to show that the êzôb is the caper bush, Capparis spinosa, a hard-wooded, spiny shrub, attaining a height of four or five feet, with small oval leaves about an inch in length, each having a large hooked spine below its attachment to the stem. Its general appearance may be compared to that of the blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, common in hedges and waste places in this country. The caper bush is a plant of the desert, and is common in the rocky parts of Palestine: it grows abundantly on old walls at Jerusalem.
The similarity of its Arabic name, asaf or ezzof to êzôb led Dr. Boyle to consider it the “hyssop that springeth out of the wall.” Admitting this view to be correct, it must, however, be considered a very unfit and unlikely plant for the purpose ascribed to it at the Passover.
Although the Caper bush is a desert plant, it is, nevetheless, extensively cultivated in France and other parts of Southern Europe for its flower buds, which are collected before expansion, and form the well-known table condiment, “Capers.” It is not sufficiently hardy to thrive in the open air in this country without protection in severe winters.
Another plant, considered by Dr. Kitto to be the êzôb, is Phytolacca decandra, a strong-growing, perennial herb, having a purplish branching stem, attaining the height of 6 to 12 feet, with alternate spinach-like leaves, 4 to 5 inches in length, and 1 to 1½ inches in breadth (often larger), those towards the top of the stem producing from their arils erect, compact racemes of flowers, followed by pulpy berries, having a red juice. It is a native of the United States, and is called the “Virginian Poke-weed.” It is either truly wild or has become naturalized in North Africa, India, China, New South Wales, Sandwich Islands, and others. In some of these localities it may, however, be a distinct but closely allied species to P. decandra. It is also recorded as a native of Syria, but we are not aware that it grows in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Be that as it may, we nevertheless think it as unlikely and unsuited as the caper-bush to be the êzôb used at the Passover.
Dr. Kitto founds his opinion of this plant being the hyssop of Scripture from having been told while traveling in Mexico, that a kind of Phytolacca was formerly used by the Indian females instead of soap; and he says, “In no instance has any plant been suggested that at the same time had a sufficient length of stem to answer the purpose of a wand or pole, and such detergent or cleansing properties as to render it a fit emblem for purification.”
The instructions of Moses regarding the use of hyssop on the evening of the Passover, and in the ceremony of cleansing, do not bear out Dr. Kitto’s opinion that the hyssop was of the nature of soap. His alluding to it as a wand or pole has reference to the hyssop mentioned by John, which was an article of some length: this, of course, must have been widely different from the bunch of hyssop ordered to be used at the Passover, or at the cleansing of the leper. In Matthew and Mark we read that the sponge was put, that is fixed, upon the top of a reed, thus showing that the sponge was to be used at a height beyond the reach of a man’s arm. In John it is said that the sponge was put upon hyssop, therefore the hyssop there spoken of must have been of a length sufficient to answer the purpose of the reed of Matthew and Mark.
In order to form some idea of what the hyssop of John was, it is reasonable to suppose that it was made of the same material, or of something of a similar nature, as the bunch of hyssop of Moses, which must have been some substance readily procurable and abundant; for, according to biblical students, it is calculated that two millions of Israelites, old and young, left Egypt on the morning after the Passover. Some writers allow ten, others twenty, as the number of a family in each house; taking the average number of fifteen, there would be above one hundred and thirty-three thousand Israelitish householders, each requiring a bunch of êzôb; and, therefore, if êzôb was a plant, it must have been very abundant throughout the whole land of Goshen in order that each householder could obtain a bunch on one and the same day, as ordered by Moses. It may be admitted to have been some culinary herb in daily use during its season (see Leek and Bitter Herbs), or, more probably, it may have been some common domestic article made of a fibrous substance, such as tow, or the wiry stem of some plant, or even straw, tied together so as to form a wisp or brush, such as is used in many places in this country at the present day for scrubbing.
The spikes of the heads of millet, Sorghum vulgare, when ripe, become hard and wiry, and are extensively used for making brushes and brooms in all countries where it is cultivated; they are largely imported to this country for that purpose, and fifty years ago were well known in the streets of London by the cry of “buy a broom.”
As millet was cultivated in Egypt in early times, the spikelets may then have been used as a wisp or broom, and may have been the hyssop of Moses.
Admitting it to be such, assists to reconcile the hyssop of John with the reed of Matthew and Mark, and forces us to the conclusion that this was the dry stem of Sorghum vulgare, which is truly a reed, attaining a height of four, five, or more feet. This, with the spikelets on its apex, would be the hyssop of John on which the sponge was fixed.
The early Christians appear to have adopted some kind of plant as the Hebrew êzôb, as we learn from history that a bunch of hyssop was tied to a handle so as to form a little broom or brush, which was used in their ceremonies of purification, in imitation of those of the Jews. Even at the present day, in some Roman Catholic churches the brush used for sprinkling the holy water is called the hyssop.
Scarlet (Heb., Tola)
“And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.”—Num. 19:6; 14716And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. (Numbers 19:6) B.C. In Lev. 14:6,51-52; 14906As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: (Leviticus 14:6)
51And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times: 52And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet: (Leviticus 14:51‑52) D.C. it is mentioned as the scarlet.
The word scarlet is a well-known name for a deep red color given to cloth, paintings, and so forth, by a red dye, obtained chiefly from several kinds of plants, or from an insect that lives on plants. In the above quotation, it can be read only as meaning color, and we must presume it was some colored substance, as it was to be burnt with the hyssop and cedar wood. In Hebrews 9:19; 6419For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, (Hebrews 9:19) A.D., Paul says, Moses “took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people.” From this we learn that the scarlet which was to be burnt was wool dyed scarlet. Scarlet wool is, however, not mentioned by Moses, nor is it alluded to during the period of one thousand five hundred years that intervened between the time of Moses and Paul.
Our reason for taking up the word scarlet, is for the purpose of explaining the source from which the scarlet dye is supposed to have been procured. This, we have every reason to believe, was an insect called kermes, which infests a species of oak, Quercus coccifera, common to the regions of the Mediterranean and Palestine. On this oak the insect breeds, covering the branches with flocky masses, similar to the blight common to apple trees in this country. At a certain period, the insect, which is like a bug, is collected; it is then used as a dye like cochineal, to which it is, however, inferior. Its use as a scarlet dye is recorded to have been known to the Phoenicians before the time of Moses.
Manna (Heb., Manhu)
In the Bible the word manna is first mentioned in Exo. 16:13-15; 149113And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. 14And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. 15And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. (Exodus 16:13‑15) B.C. “In the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone tip, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.” Again in Numbers 11:6-96But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes. 7And the manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof as the color of bdellium. 8And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. 9And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it. (Numbers 11:6‑9), we read: “But now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes. And the manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof as the color of bdellium. And the people went about, and gathered it: and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.”
In another place we read that the manna was to be gathered fresh every day, an omer for each man; that none was to be kept till the morning, that which was kept breeding worms and stinking; also that no manna fell on the Sabbath day. The people were, however, to gather a double quantity on the sixth day for the Sabbath; this did not breed worms nor stink. Manna continued to “rain from heaven” regularly during the forty year sojourn of the Israelites in the wilderness, but ceased after they entered the land of Canaan.
On studying the nature and descriptions of manna as given in the above and other texts of the Bible, we find nothing to lead us to suppose that it was a plant, or the produce of a plant. If the question then be asked, “Why give it a place in this work?” we answer, “Because the name manna has, in modern times been given to the produce of certain plants which some travelers and writers consider to be the manna of the Israelites.”
Plant manna is the concrete sap of the stems, or gummy exudations from the leaves, of certain plants. It is produced by two special plants, natives of the deserts of Sin and Sinai, the more important of the two being a species of tamarisk which Ehrenberg has named Tamarix mannifera. It is a small tree or much-branched shrub, in general habit resembling the pretty heath-like shrub, T. gallica, common on the sea shores of this country, France, and the region of the Mediterranean generally. T. mannifera is common in the desert of Sinai, and is the tarfa of the Bedouin Arabs. At certain seasons of the year, its stems are punctured by a small insect, a species of the Cynips family: from the bark thus punctured, a honey-like liquid exudes, which is collected by the Bedouin Arabs of the present day: They preserve it like honey, or harden it and make it into cakes: and they look upon it as a great delicacy.
At a meeting of the Linnæan Society, in February, 1837, a paper was communicated by Lieutenant Welstead, who had traveled in Syria; and specimens of the tamarisk, with the manna exuding, were exhibited, as also samples of the concrete manna. He attributed the disappearance of the manna, after the Israelites crossed the Jordan, to the soil and climate not being favorable to the life and breeding of the puncturing insect; for, although the tamarisk bushes grew there, there was no manna.
The other manna plant of the desert is Alhagi maurorum, a low, scrubby, spiny bush, with small simple leaves, belonging to the Astragalus group of Leguminosœ. During the heat of the day a sweet gummy substance exudes from the leaves and stems; this hardens, and is collected by shaking the bushes. Being of a sweet, mucilaginous nature, it is called a manna; and Professor Don was so convinced that it was the manna of the Israelites, that he proposed to change the name of the plant to Manna Hebraica.
There is every reason to believe that the Israelites did not overlook these plant mannas; and, on considering the differences in the descriptions of the nature of the manna as given by Moses, it appears to us that part of the descriptions may belong to the plant manna, and part to the manna that fell every night. The quantity of plant manna obtainable would be quite insignificant when compared with the quantity required every day to feed between two and two and a half millions of Israelites calculated to be then living in tents in the wilderness. The allowance to each man was an omer a day, which is equal to about two and a quarter English pints, each pint averaging about a pound of such substances as tapioca, sago, and more, to which an equal bulk of manna may be compared in weight. Therefore, allowing an omer to contain about two pounds, to speak in round numbers upwards of two thousand tons would have to be collected every day.
Manna is again mentioned six times in the Bible, all being to the effect that it was miraculously provided as bread for the Israelites while in the wilderness.
In the Apocrypha, in the Book of Baruch, chapter 1, verse 10, we read, “And they said, Behold, we have sent you money to buy burnt offerings, and incense, and prepare ye manna, and offer upon the altar of the Lord our God.” This was long after the manna that fell in the wilderness ceased to be used by the Israelites as bread; and, as the manna here spoken of could evidently be purchased, no doubt seems to be left but that it was either the tamarisk or camel-thorn manna of the desert, which would be collected as an article of trade.
The manna of commerce of the present day is obtained by making incisions in the stems of the flowering ash, Fraxinus Omits (Melia, Greek, means sweet like honey) a much-branched tree, attaining the height of 30 or 40 feet; this tree is a native of Southern Europe and the Levant. The greatest quantity of manna comes to this country from Sicily and Calabria, and we have no account of its being collected in Syria.
The above is sufficient to show that the manna produced by the plants of the desert cannot be the manna which fell every night on the camp of the Israelites for a period of forty years. Such being the case, a class of travelers and natural history writers have endeavored to prove that the small round thing that lay on the ground like coriander seed was a cryptogramic plant of the lichen family, first brought to notice by Pallas, a Russian traveler and botanist, in 1788. He observed it in the Crimea, and also on very dry limestone hills in the desert of Tartary, lying on the ground like small stones united together. The use made of it by the inhabitants for food in times of scarcity led him to name it Lichen esculentus (Lecanora esculenta of modern botanists), and he described and figured it in a Russian botanical work in 1796. The species now in question, and a closely allied species (Lecanora affinis), occupy vast tracts of barren plains and mountains in many regions of Western Asia, and also of North Africa; in time it loses its attachment to the surface on which it grows, and being light is carried up by the winds, and conveyed in the air to a great distance, ultimately falling to the ground, and sometimes forming a layer several inches in thickness. Sheep eat it, and in times of scarcity the inhabitants make a kind of bread of it, regarding it as sent to them by Providence, and believing that it falls from Heaven. About twenty years ago a shower of this lichen fell in Persia in a time of great scarcity, and was an opportune relief to the inhabitants. Specimens of this shower are to be seen in the Museum at Kew, sent by W. H. Loftus, Esq., in 1854; also specimens from Bayaza, in Asiatic Turkey, sent in 1855 by H. H. Calvert, Esq., British Consul at Erzeroum. On the 3rd of August, 1828, a shower is recorded to have fallen in the region of Mount Ararat, in Armenia.
The same, or a closely allied species of lichen, has been observed by the Rev. H. B. Tristram, in the great Desert of Sahara, lying on the ground like nodules of sand; it is gathered by the natives, and used by them as food in times of scarcity.
The late Giles Munby, Esq., who resided a number of years in Algeria, also gives an account of it in a paper read before the British Association at Birmingham, in 1849. He says that L. esculenta, or an allied species, covers the sand of the desert; and that the French soldiers, during an expedition south of Constantine, subsisted on it for some days, cooking it in various ways, and making it into bread. He further states that it is blown about by the wind, and collects in heaps. Being of a soft, starchy nature, it can readily be imagined that it would soon ferment, and stink.
These accounts seem to leave no doubt that one or more species of crustaceous, eatable lichens grow on sterile plains and mountains, and are occasionally carried by the winds to distant localities; that the latter circumstance seems to be uncertain and erratic, and also that these lichens do not agree with the text, which says, “When the sun waxed hot, it (the manna) melted.”
All this evidence gathered together, does not, however, explain the regularity of the manna falling in the wilderness every night (except the Sabbath) for forty years.
In the “Bible Educator” the very Rev. R. Payne Smith, D. D., Dean of Canterbury, says that it “was certainly miraculous in its first giving, and in many of the circumstances connected with its gathering and continuance, though it may, like the plagues of Egypt, have been, to some extent, based upon a natural phenomenon.”
As crustaceous lichens do not spring up suddenly, it may be a question whether some of these reported falls are not due to the sudden growth of a gelatinous alga, such as star jelly, Nostoc commune, which grows on garden walks and other surfaces during the night. It is recorded that in the Presidency of Bombay in 1855, an area of several square miles was covered with Nostoc collinum; the Scindians called it meat, and believed that it fell from Heaven. In China, Nostoc edule is dried and forms an ingredient in soup.
Bitter Water
“And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.” “And the Lord showed him (Moses) a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.”—Ex. 15:23,25; 149123And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. (Exodus 15:23)
25And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, (Exodus 15:25) B.C.
It is difficult to form any opinion as to what the tree mentioned in the above verses was, as the event took place in the desert. The spot called Marah, or the bitter fountain of the Israelites, is well known, and has been visited by travelers, who have found the waters to be unpleasant, saltish, and somewhat bitter, as is common with waters in the desert. The Arabs consider it bitter, but when pinched, drink of it, as do also their camels. Inquiries were made of the Bedouin Arabs as to whether they used, or knew of any tree for sweetening the water, and the answer was invariably in the negative. The only trees seen in modern times near Marah are a few date palms, the fruits of which are sweet, and if bruised and put into water would no doubt sweeten it. A bushy shrub, called by the Arabs Ghurked, the Nitraria Schoberi of botanists; is abundant: it is a stiff, rigid, thorny shrub, with thick, fleshy leaves, the whole of a forbidding aspect. It is truly a plant of the desert, especially of saline plains. It has white flowers, and produces a small red fruit (not unlike the barberry), which is juicy and refreshing to travelers. Some have conjectured that the fruits of this bush were used by Moses, but, unfortunately for this supposition, they could hardly be ripe at the time he sweetened the water. Another plant, Peganum Harmala, a perennial rutaceous herb, abundant in that part of the desert, has been named, but, not being a tree, it is more unlikely than the former.
Dove’s Dung (Heb., Chiryónim)
Although so repugnant to our notions of what constitutes human food, some writers consider that the words of the above verse are to be taken literally, that dove’s dung was really used for food, and that it was so scarce that the fourth part of a cab, about six ounces, and measuring a pint and a half, cost twelve shillings and sixpence of our money. Considering that doves-and pigeons, both wild and domesticated, are extremely numerous in some parts of Palestine, being bred as in this country about dwellings and in dove cots, it might not be difficult to obtain a certain quantity of dove’s dung.
Josephus says, “And the Hebrews bought a sextary of dove’s dung, instead of salt, for five pieces of silver.” This leads to the inference that salt was scarce in Samaria during the siege; and that dove’s dung contained a salt, and was used as a substitute. If this be correct, no further comment as to the use made of dove’s dung is necessary, but subsequent commentators, with more reason, have considered the Hebrew word translated dove’s dung to be the vulgar name of some common food plant, in the same way as in this country toad-stool is a vulgar name for eatable fungi, such as mushrooms and champignons, which might easily by some writer be rendered toad’s dung. Admitting the dove’s dung so-called to be some vegetable substance, there is yet much difficulty in arriving at any satisfactory conclusion on the subject; we may, however, conclude that it was something kept in store, and sold as a common article of food, and that the store, as a result of the siege, had become nearly exhausted, which led to the high price at which it was sold.
Buckhart says that the Arabs give the name of dove’s dung to a kind of moss that grows on trees and stones; this, no doubt, is some species of lichen, which cannot be accepted with any degree of certainty as the dove’s dung of Samaria. It is supposed by some to have been pulse, such as beans, lentils, chick pea, or even parched corn; but if so, how is it that they were not spoken of by their proper names?
Another and more likely view is that it was the root of some bulbous plant, and Ornithogalum umbellatum, well known in English gardens as the “Star of Bethlehem,” is considered by some to be the plant. It is found wild in some parts of this country, and produces an umbel of beautiful white flowers on a stalk six to eight inches high. It is abundant in Palestine, the hill sides in spring being white with its flowers. There is historic evidence that its bulbous roots were used as food in Syria. Dioscorides, writing about 60 A.D., says the roots were dried and reduced to meal, and mixed with flour to make bread. They are also recorded to have been used for food in early times in Italy.
In North America, the roots of its ally, Camassia esculents, are dried and stored, and thus form a considerable part of the winter food of the Indians. This leads us to presume that in Palestine the roots of Ornithogalum were collected, dried, and regularly sold for food, and that during the siege they became scarce.
The generic name, Ornithogalum, given to it by Linnæus means literally “bird’s milk.”
Soap (Heb., Borith)
The reason for soap being mentioned here is that alkaline salts used in its manufacture are obtained by burning certain kinds of plants, chiefly of the family Chenopodiaceœ, the principal being Salsola Kali and Salicornia fruticosa. They are common in the Northern Hemisphere, and are always confined to mud banks of tidal rivers, and the sea coasts; they abound on the Mediterranean coast of Palestine, as also on the shores of the Dead Sea.
Salsola Kali is a brittle, succulent, branched plant, of a bluish-green hue, forming a bush a foot to a foot and a half high, having numerous small awl-shaped spiny leaves; it is common in this country, and is known by the name of salt wort.
Salicornia herbacea is a succulent, jointed-stemmed plant; it grows in the same situations as the former, attains the height of six or more inches, and is known by the name of glass wort. S. fruticosa is an erect, twiggy, branching shrub, 2 to 3 feet high, having small semi-cylindrical leaves, not more than an inch in length; it is rare in this country, but abundant on all the coasts of the Mediterranean. The flowers of all these species are small and inconspicuous. Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum, Saponaria officinalis, and some species of Chenopodium, are also burned for the same purpose.
The making of soap with the ashes of these plants, and with olive oil, instead of animal fat, was extensively carried on along the Mediterranean coast of Palestine in early times, as it is at the present day. Soap forms a considerable article of trade from Joppa and other ports.
Kali or El kali is the Arabic word for the Salsola, hence our familiar word Alkali.
Pannag (Heb., Pannag)
“Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.”—Ezek, 27:17; 588 B.C.
In the English version of the Bible the word pannag has not been translated; it is supposed by some to be the production of some vegetable-indigenous to Syria, while others think that it is the grain called millet, Panicum miliaceum, which is extensively used in many countries for making bread. Panis, being the Latin for bread seems to afford some explanation of the word pannag. Probably the word includes many kinds of small wares carried in baskets or panniers on animals’ backs; this custom obtains in many countries at the present day, pannag being the common name of the articles so carried.
Another meaning may be obtained from the similarity of the word pannag to the Greek panaxeia, which means an universal medicine or panacea, considered by the ancient Greek physicians as a cure for a great variety of diseases. Hence comes our English word panacea. From what plant the ancients obtained their panaxeia is not now known. It is supposed by some to have been the famous ginseng of China, which is held in high estimation by the Chinese, and is said to ward off all complaints, and to make old people young; it is, however, very doubtful whether in the time of Ezekiel the trade of Greece and Palestine extended so far east as China.
Linnaeus adopted the Greek word panaxeia (reduced to Panax) as the name of a genus of plants of the family Araliacecœ. It consists of small trees, shrubs, and perennial herbs, none of which are natives of Syria, Egypt, or the regions of the Mediterranean. The type of the genus is Panax quinquefolia, a perennial herb, native of North America, which was supposed to be the ginseng of China, P. Schinseng. On account of the latter becoming scarce in China, P. quinquefolia has been substituted for it, large quantities having been shipped from New York to China; this, however, could not be the panaxeia of the ancients, as the Continent of America was not then known.
Amber (Heb., Chashmal)
The word amber occurs three times in Ezekiel 1:4; 1:27; 8:24And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. (Ezekiel 1:4)
27And I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. (Ezekiel 1:27)
2Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the color of amber. (Ezekiel 8:2). In each of these places it is spoken of with regard to its color only. Some commentators consider it to be a shining metal similar to brass, which view is probably correct, as it is very questionable whether the substance we call amber was known in Palestine in the time of Ezekiel. Amber has, in modern times, been ascertained to be the resinous sap naturally exuded from certain kinds of trees in lumps of various sizes, it becomes hardened and resists decay, and its being found where no trees now exist, led to the belief that it was a fossil substance; the kind that is found in the north of Europe is supposed to be the produce of some coniferous tree. A kind called gum copal is found in abundance in a fossil as also in a recent state in East and West Africa, and is the produce of trees of the family Leguminosœ.
Bdellium (Heb., Bedólach)
It is quite impossible to determine what the substance was called bdellium in the above verse, but as it is mentioned with gold and the onyx stone, some suppose it to be a mineral substance, others pearl or musk.
Two thousand years afterward, the word again occurs in Numbers 11:77And the manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof as the color of bdellium. (Numbers 11:7), where it is said, “And the manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof was as the color of bdellium.” This clearly shows that the Israelites were acquainted with the substance called bdellium, and as, at the time it was spoken, they had not been long out of Egypt, it shows that they had obtained a knowledge of it in Egypt. By some it is supposed to have been an aromatic gum resin, the product of trees natives of South Arabia and the opposite coast of Africa. This, no doubt, would be an article of trade with the Egyptians.
At the present day the resin obtained from Balsamodendron africanum is called “African bdellium,” and that from B. Roxburghii “Indian bdellium:” they come to this country by way of Bombay (see Balm and Myrrh).
Onycha (Heb., Shecheteth)
Commentators differ in opinion as to the substance called onycha: some consider it to be the horny operculum or shield of some shellfish of the Strombus tribe; it was formerly employed in medicine under the name of Blatta byzantina; nevertheless it is very doubtful whether it is the kind of onycha spoken of in the above quotation; for being mentioned with sweet spices, stacte, and galbanum leads to the inference that it was the produce of a plant; but we have no data to lead us to judge what that plant was, except that it was sweet smelling. In the Arabic version of the Bible the word ladana stands for the onycha of our version, thus implying that it was the gum resin ladanum (see Myrrh). Onycha is also mentioned in the Apocrypha, where in Ecclesiastes 24:15, we read, “A pleasant odor like the best myrrh, as galbanum, and onycha, and sweet storax:” by being mentioned with sweet smelling storax, has led some Bible commentators to consider it to he the produce of an allied species, namely, Styrax benzoin, which yields the well gum resin “benzoin.” This is a small tree or shrub native of Sumatra, therefore very unlikely to be the source of the onycha of the Bible. It is, however, probable that there might have been two kinds of onycha, one the produce of a plant, the other of a mollusc. Of the kind from the latter, there seems to be no doubt, a quantity having been seen some years ago in the Bombay custom house by Dr. Birdwood, the writer on perfumes in the “Bible Educator;” it, however, seems to be rare, and he says it has no perceptible perfume. Onycha, or in Greek, onux, means a nail, or like the finger nail.
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