The seed, therefore, is committed to the earth after it has been levelled by the roller, and then it is harrowed. Which seems to me the most satisfactory explication of this place. is translated in different ways; some call it measured wheat, that is wheat not to be sown except according to the proportion of the land, in a certain measure : others call it wheat in order, that is placed in order; others, the principal wheat, that is the best, deriving the word from which means the principal: but this does not please me, I would rather translate it the rich wheat, from which in Arabic means to be fat: for the Sin of the Hebrew generally answers to Shin in Arabic, and vice versa. But since I find this word placed among the kinds of corn, it has struck me that may denote something that grows in the field: but what it is, it is difficult to say, since the word is απαξ λεγομενον, occurring only in this place, whence the Seventy and the Syriac omit it in their versions. The Vulgate translates it by order, taking it perhaps from 1. Different kinds of grain are mentioned in this place: but in the East rice is a very excellent grain, from which the best bread is made, and in many places it is the daily food. If therefore I may venture a conjecture, I think that by the word rice is intended, and that it is derived from an Arabic root which signifies to be fat; for there is no grain richer than rice. Aristobulus has said that the height of its stalk was four cubits, that it contained many ears and much fruit, that it was reaped about the setting of the Pleiades and was pounded like spelt. It luxuriates in the land of Palestine, especially in the wet and marshy places, and is found in great quantities near the Jordan: besides, it grows in the Bactrian, the Babylonian, and the Susean lands, and also in the lower part of Syria. Moreover the Italians, according to Pliny* are very fond of * Hist. Natural, lib. xviii. Bontius in Dialogo III. lib. ii. de medicina Indorum. rice, from which they make broth, which other people make from barley. Experience, however teaches us, says Bontius, that warm rice is injurious, not only to the stomach, but also to the brain, and the whole nervous system : hence it happens from the gross and dry vapours that ascend into the brain, the optic nerves are often so injured as to produce blindness; on which subject and its cure Bontius has treated largely in his Indian method of treating it. Hence you will never see the inhabitants of Java or the Malays eating warm rice. That means wheat, is the opinion of all. It is the most common grain from which the Orientals make their bread. Nothing is more productive than wheat, which nature has kindly provided, since it constitutes the principal support of man so that from a bushel, according to Pliny,* if a the soil be good, such as the Byzician plain of Africa, a hundred and fifty bushels are produced. The Procurator of Augustus sent to him from one grain planted in that place, about forty sprouts, the letter concerning which is yet extant. There were sent to Nero from one grain three hundred and sixty straws. But the wheat of Palestine surpasses that of all other regions in price, whence it is highly praised by Celsus,† who, instituting a comparison between this and the Egyptian, says, fifteen bushels of the wheat of Palestine affords the same quantity of flour, as twenty bushels of Egyptian wheat, and moreover is superiour in quality and whiteness. In 1 Kings v. 11., we read that Solomon gave yearly to the king of Tyre twenty thousand measures of wheat. y signifies barley. Two kinds of barley are found in the East, according to Niebuhr,‡ one very like to our barley, but superior in sweetness of taste; the other is black, and is a suitable food for beasts of burden, yielding * Histor. Natur., lib. xviii. cap. 10. † In Heirobot. Tom. II. p. 114. Thomson's Reisebeschreibung, p. 19. In seiner Beschreibung von Arabien, p. 157. fifty fold. An hundred fold is promised to Jacob,* and. the Greek and Latin writers speak of crops still more productive. The region about Babylon, especially, is spoken of by Herodotus, as far the best for grain. For it is so fertile as to produce sometimes two hundred fold, and in the very best parts it has yielded even three hundred fold. 10 is generally considered as an adjective belonging toy, and is translated appointed barley, which ought to be translated the best. Then it is derived from DD, which, among the Chaldees and Rabbins, signifies he hath marked; whence ' a mark, in the place of Which explication I appears plainly to arise אות which the Bible employs think entirely false; for from the Greek word nusov and to have been received by the Rabbins and inserted in their language, whence it is a new word. For Alexander making an expedition into the East, and reducing it under his dominion, many Greek words were adopted by the Orientals, of which number this is one. But these are by no means suitable words by which to explain the Scriptures. Other interpreters translate it rich barley, deriving the word from 1, which in the Arabic signifies to be rich; but that this is contrary to the analogy of all those languages, every scholar who is moderately acquainted with them will see for in the Hebrew, according to the rule already given, it ought to be Shin moreover from this application a gross grammatical error arises, for is of this feminine gender, but 100 of the masculine, which none of these interpreters have observed. But that the word is a substantive, and that some plant is intended by it I have but little doubt, although no plant of this name can be found in Celsius. The Seventy, the Vulgate, Acquila and Theodotion translate it by the word millet. But then I think it should be read DJ, and this I take to be the true reading, * Gen. xxvi. 13. Conf. Lundi Jüdische Heiligthümer iv. 35. from the root, which signifies to be rough: so it is explained by Castell in his Lexicon, and it has the same. signification in the Armenian language. From the millet, according to Columella and Pliny, a very sweet bread is made, which, whilst warm, is very pleasant.* The Indian millet introduced into Italy in the time of Nero, was of a black colour, the grain was large, and the stock resembling that of a reed. It grows seven feet high, and has a very large stock; its productiveness surpasses that of all other kinds of corn, a single grain producing four or five pints. At the present time it is cultivated every where amongst us in the gardens as a curiosity; its grain is black and of the size of a pea; its straw resembles a reed; it grows five feet high and is called the Saracen corn. There are four kinds of the Indian millet; one kind produces yellow grains, another purple, and some is of a whitish colour. There is also a diversity in the ears; some have white, some purple and some yellow flowers, according as the grains are coloured. With respect to their shape there is no difference. The Ethiopeans have no other corn but millet and barley. The Campanians make great use of millet. The Salmatians live chiefly on food of which millet is an ingredient, together with raw flesh, and mare's milk or the blood taken from the veins of the leg. The use of the millet for food is very common amongst the Germans, and many of the poor live on it almost entirely, according to Rivius.† in this place, the Vulgate translates Vetch, which Luther follows, though improperly. But others, the Seventy, the Chaldee and the Syriac versions rightly render it-Gr. Zɛa; Lat. Spelta; Germ. Speltz s. Dinkel. It is a kind of grain, very like to wheat, and superior to it in taste. It does not grow every * Conf. Galenum de aliment. facultat., lib. i. cap. 15. p. 322. Rivii notae in Dioscoridem lib. cap. 89. On the Indian millet of great size vide Philostratum de vita Apollonii lib. iii. cap. 2. page 111. where, and is found in our country, but it is peculiar to Egypt, Palestine, Cilicia, Asia and Greece. Herodotus* says, many live on corn and barley, but in Egypt it is not esteemed respectable to live on them, they use a kind of food made of what they call Zea. Zea is of two kinds, according to Dioscorides,† one simple, the other bears two grains in a double shell, and on that account is called dicocci. It has more nourishment than barley in making bread it is not so light as wheat. The siligo, (a kind of corn) and oats are not found in Palestine, although many are of a contrary opinion. As to the siligo, I think Palestine is by no means its natural soil: for I do not discover that it was in the eastern countries, and all travellers visiting that land are silent about it. In the Talmud, indeed, I have found some places which make mention of it, by which many translators have been led into an error, being evidently ignorant of the natural productions of Palestine, and thinking that all kinds of corn which our land produces, grow there also. The places of Sacred Scripture which the translators render siligo, are to be differently explained in my opinion, and the mention of it in the Talmud, results from the trifles and fables of the Rabbins. Neither can you find the oats in the East: in our country it is the common food of horses, but with them barley is used in its place. Consequently their beasts of burden are badly kept; for being without oats, and also without hay, at least at this day, they feed them on cut straw, mixed with a few grains of barley. When the year is particularly fruitful, they increase the quantity of barley, and also add vetches and beans to the cut straw. * Histor. lib. ii. cap. 36. † De medicinali materia, lib. ii. cap. 81. Conf. Celsii Hierobot. T. II. p. 48. Ursini Herbar. Bibl. lib. ii. cap. 3. You can see more in Shaw's Travels and Observations in several parts of the Levant, page 123 ; and Niebuhr's Beschreib. von Arabien, p. 151. Thevenot, T. II. lib. i. c. 5. Bocharti Hierozoicon. p. 1. lib. ii. c. 9. Maillet's description d'Egypte, Lettre ix. p. 8.13. |