it is quite common, even at present, for the Arabs to se cure their corn and other effects, which they cannot carry along with them, in deep pits or subterraneous grottoes. Sir John Chardin, in a note upon this very passage of the prophet, says, "The eastern people in many places hide their corn in these concealments." To these various customs, the Baptist alludes in his solemn warning to the multitudes concerning Christ: "Whose fan (rather whose shovel) is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but the chaff will he burn with unquenchable fire."" And our Lord himself, in his parable of the good seed: "Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn."" The corn which they reserve for daily use, they keep in long earthen jars; because, when kept in sacks or barrels, it is liable to be eaten by worms. This is confirmed by Norden, who tells us, that when he was travelling in Upper Egypt, one of the natives opened a great jar, in order to shew him how they preserved their corn there. In some regions of the East Indies, the paddy, or rice in the husk, is also preserved in large earthen jars, that are kept in the house; or in small cylindrical stores, which the potters make of clay; the mouth is covered with an inverted pot; and the paddy is drawn out of a hole at the bottom, as it is wanted. It seems to have been in one of these earthen jars, that the woman of Zarephath kept her corn, of which she had only enough left, when the prophet Elijah applied to her n Mat. iii, 12. P Trav. vol. ii, p. 119. corn in the same way. • Mat. xiii, 30. Volney's Trav. vol. ii, p. 273. Hesiod also directs the Greeks to preserve their Opera et Dies. 1. 600. for a morsel of bread, to make an handful of meal. our translation, the original term (75) chad, is rendered barrel; but a barrel properly speaking, it could not be, because a vessel of that sort is never used for holding corn in those regions. Neither could it be a chest, although this is often used in the east for preserving corn; because the Hebrew term is quite different. In the second book of Kings it is stated, that "Jehoiada the priest took (1) aron, a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar." The same word is employed by Moses, to denote a coffin; but most generally, to signify the chest, or ark of the testimony, on which the cherubim stood, in the holy of holies. This term, among the Hebrews, therefore, properly signified a chest made of wood; never a vessel for holding water. But (5) chad they commonly used, to signify a jar or pitcher for holding water; which was made of earth, never of wood. It is the same word in the original, which the sacred historian employs, to denote the vessels in which Gideon's army concealed their torches, and which they brake with a clashing terrific noise, when they blew with their trumpets. Both these circumstances suppose they were vessels of earth, which are employed in the east, for the double purpose of preserving corn, and holding water. The (5) chad was also the vessel with which Rebecca went out to fetch water from the well; which, in our translation, is rendered pitcher. But the orientals never carried a barrel to the fountain, nor drew water with a wooden vessel. Hence, the barrel in which the woman of Zarephath kept her corn, was in reality, an earthen jar. The four barrels of water then, which Elijah commanded his atten9 2 Kings xii, 9. dants to pour on the sacrifice,' should have been transJated four jars or pitchers; for the original word is the same in all these instances.$ In temperate latitudes, the fields are generally covered with durable verdure; but in Asia, gramineous plants of all kinds are extremely perishable. The wonderful rapidity of their growth, is celebrated by every traveller into the east. Sir Thomas Roe says, that when the ground has been destitute of rain nine months together, and looks all of it like the barren sand in the deserts of Arabia, where there is not one spire of green grass to be found, within a few days after those fat enriching showers begin to fall, the face of the earth there (as it were by a new resurrection) is so revived, and throughout so renewed, as that it is presently covered all over with a pure green mantle. Dr. Russel, in the same admiring terms, describes the springing of the earth as a resurrection of vegetable nature." Vegetation is so extremely quick in Hindostan, that, as fast as the water rises, the plants of rice grow before it, so that the ear is never immersed.▾ To the powerful influence of the rain upon the face of oriental nature, Moses compares, with singular beauty and force, the effect which the lessons of heavenly wisdom produce in the human mind: " My doctrine shall-drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." Even the dews, which are most copious in those W * 1 Kings xviii, 33. * See Harmer's Observ. vol. ii, p. 267, and vol. iv, p. 250; Pococke's Trav. vol. ii, p. 61, 62; and Chandler's Trav. p. 21. regions, produce a change so beneficial and sudden, that Solomon compares to their energy, the influence of royal favour, which, in oriental courts, frequently raises in one day a person from the lowest condition, to the highest ranks of life: The king's "favour is as a dew upon the grass." But such extraordinary quickness of growth is incompatible with strength and permanence; the feeble and sickly blade, yields as quickly to the burning heat, and vanishes away. To this rapid change, the Psalmist compares the short-lived prosperity of wicked men : his own evanescent comforts; the swift progress of his days,a and of time in general. So soon are the powers of nature exhausted, that the grass does not always come to maturity, even in the best soils; in the language of ancient prophecy," it is blasted before it be grown up." This may be one reason, that hay is seldom or never made in the east. In our version indeed, the Psalmist foretold, that the blessings of the promised Messiah shall come down like rain upon the "mown grass ;" and the prophet Amos, describing the judgment of the grasshoppers, expresses himself in this manner : "Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me; and behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth, after the king's mowings." But the contradiction is in our translation, not in the original Scriptures, which perfectly correspond with the fact. The Hebrew terms (1) gez, and (2) gizze, of which the first is rendered in our own version mown, and the last, mowings, come from a root which * Prov, xix, 11. b Psa. xc, 5. y Psa. xxxvii, 2. d Shaw's Trav. vol. i, p. 254. z Psa. cii, 4. a Verse 11. Isa. xxxvii, 27. Psa. cxxix, 6. e Am. vii, 1. signifies to take off, or take away; applied to corn or grass, to cut down, or to cut short, particularly by the teeth of animals; it signifies, therefore, to browse or feed; and, in the first instance, seems rather to mean grass that has been eaten down, which is precisely the view given of the word in the Targum, grass eaten down by the locusts; and in the second, may be rendered feedings or grazings, that is, the time, which was probably in March, when the king's cattle were led out to graze in the common pastures of Judea. The vision of Amos represented to him the coming of locusts to eat up the pastures, as soon as the king's horses were withdrawn, and the inhabitants hoped to enjoy the plenty of April and May, before the scorching heat of summer burnt up the grass.f If these observations be just, our version of that proverb must be improper: "The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered." The gross impropriety, indeed, appears from the very arrangement imputed to the inspired writer; for, with what justice can hay, which is grass cut and dried after it has come to maturity, be made to precede, or even associated with the tender grass, which is but just beginning to shew itself? It is certainly the design of Solomon in this passage, which is highly poetical, to describe the beautiful progress of vegetation, which must have filled an eastern beholder, whose aching eye had wandered so long over a bare and sterile waste, with equal joy and wonder. Calmet, therefore, proposes another version, which accords at once with the fact stated by travellers, and the purpose of the royal preacher: "The tender risings of the grass are in motion; and the buddings of f See Harmer's Observ. vol. iv, p. 394. Prov. xxvii, 25. |