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templating the regular confusion, the intricate harmony of the scenes that rise before him:

These, as they change, Almighty Father! these
Are but the varied God: The rolling year

Is full of thee.

To the systematic arrangements of Moses and Solomon we have already adverted, in the introductory section to this volume; we shall here merely add, in the words of Mr. Charles Taylor, that no clearer proofs of system can be produced from any writer whatever, than are exhibted in Gen. i. 11, 12, and 1 Kings iv. 33. There is a uniform progress from a lesser to a larger; from 'grass,' including the minutest species of whatever is green, to 'shrubs,' which are apparently taken for trees of the smaller kinds; and from these to 'trees,' which not only differ by their enlarged dimensions, but by their permanency also.

CHAPTER I.

GRASS AND HERBS.

THE general term for herbaceous productions, in the Hebrew writings, is desha, although it is also specifically applied to grass in particular. The corresponding Greek term in the New Testament is chortos. Wetstein remarks, that the Hebrews divide all kinds of vegetables into trees and herbs; the former of which the Hellenists call xylon, the latter chortos, under which they comprehend grass, corn, and flowers. In Matt. vi. 30, and Luke xii. 28, this term is certainly designed to include the lilies of the field, of which our Saviour had just been speaking.

There is great impropriety in our version of Proverbs xxvii. 25: 'The hay appeareth, and the tender grass showeth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered.' Certainly, if the tender grass is but just beginning to show itself, the hay, which is grass cut and dried, after it has arrived at maturity, ought by no means to be associated with it; still less to precede it. Upon this passage, Mr. Taylor remarks, that none of the Dictionaries or Lexicons give what seems to be the accurate import of the word translated hay, which he takes to mean the first shoots, the rising-just budding-spires of grass. So the wise man says, 'the tender risings of the grass are in motion; and the buddings of grass (grass in its early state) appear; and the tufts of grass, proceeding from the same root, collect themselves together, and, by their union, begin to clothe the mountain tops with a pleasing verdure.' Surely, the beautiful progress of vegetation, as described in this passage, must appear to every man of taste as too poetical to be lost; but what must it be to an eastern beholder -to one whose imagination is exalted by a poetic spirit-one who has lately witnessed an all-surrounding sterility-a grassless waste!

The same impropriety, but in a contrary order, and where perhaps the English reader would be less likely to detect it, occurs in our version of Isaiah xv. 6, 'For the waters of Nimrim [water is a principal source of vegetation] shall be desolate-departed-DEAD; so that [the 'hay' in our translation, but as it should be] the tender -just sprouting-risings of the grass are withered-dried up; the buddings of the grass are entirely ruined,' [' there is no green thing,' in our version.] The following verse may be thus translated: 'Insomuch, that the reserve he had made, and the deposit he had placed with great care in supposed security, shall all be driven to the brook of the willows.'

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A similar gradation of poetical imagery is used in 2 Kings xix. 26, 'Their inhabitants were of shortened hand; dismayed, ashamed, they were as grass of the field, vegetables in general, as the green buddings of grass; as the tender risings on the house tops; and those, too, struck by the wind, before it is advanced in growth to a rising up.' What a climax of imbecility!

Is it not unhappy, that in the only two places of the Old Testament where our translators have used the word hay, it should be necessary to substitute a word of a directly contrary meaning, in order to accommodate the true rendering of the passages to the native (eastern) ideas of their authors?

SECTION I.

GRAIN.

THE generic name for grain, in the Old Testament writings, is dagen, corn; so named from its abundant increase. In Gen. xxvi. 12, and Matt. xiii. 8, grain is spoken of as yielding a hundred fold; and to the ancient fertility of Palestine all authorities bear testimony. Burckhardt states, that in some parts of the Haouran, a tract of country on the east of the river Jordan, he found the barley to yield eighty fold, even in the present neglected state of the country.

It is evident from Ruth ii. 14, 2 Sam. xvii. 28, 29, and other passages, that parched corn constituted part of the ordinary food of the Israelites, as it still does of the Arabs. Their methods of preparing corn for the manufacture of bread were the following. The thrashing was done either by the staff or the flail, (Isa. xxviii. 27, 28)-by the feet of cattle (Deut. xxv. 4)-or by a sharp thrashing instrument having teeth' (Isa. xli. 15), which was something resembling a cart, and drawn over the corn by means of horses or oxen. When the corn was thrashed, it was separated from the chaff and dust, by throwing it forward across the wind, by means of a winnowing fan, or shovel (Matt. iii. 12); after which the grain was sifted to separate all impurities from it, Amos ix. 9; Luke xxii. 31. Hence the thrashing floors were in the open air, Judg. vi. 11; 2 Sam. xxiv. 18. The grain thus obtained was commonly reduced to meal by the hand-niill, which consisted of a lower mill-stone, the upper side of which was concave, and an upper mill-stone, the lower surface of which was convex. The hole for receiving the corn was in the centre of the upper mill-stone, and in the operation of grinding, the lower was fixed, and the upper made to move round upon it, with considerable velocity, by means of a handle. These mills are still in use in the East, and in some parts of Scotland, where they are called querns. The employment of grinding with these mills is confined solely to females; and the practice illustrates the prophetic observation of our Saviour, concerning the day of Jerusalem's destruction; Two women shall be grinding at the mill: one shall be taken, and the other shall be left, Matt. xxiv. 41. Mr. Pennant, who has given a particular account of these handmills, as used in Scotland, observes, that the women always accompany the grating noise of the stones with their voices; and that when ten or a dozen are thus employed, the fury of the song rises to such a pitch, that you would, without breach of charity, imagine a troop of female demoniacs to be assembled. As the operation of

grinding was usually performed in the morning at day-break, the sound of the females at the hand-mill was heard all over the city, which often awoke their more indolent masters. The Scriptures

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mention the want of this noise as a mark of desolation in Jer. xxv. 10, and Rev. xviii. 22. There was a humane daw, that no man shall take the nether or upper mill-stone in pledge, for he taketh a anan's life in pledge,' Deut. xxiv. 6. He could not grind his daily bread without it.

The late editor of Calmet has some valuable remarks upon the adoption of grain as a symbol of a future state: we need no apology for offering the result of his inquiries to our readers. sobrept lil The close of life at mature age is compared to a shock of corn fully ripe: Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in (to the garner) in its season,' Job v. 26. See also Gen. xxv. 8, and Job xlii. 17.vad sagin on oil sund

Our Lord compares himself to a corn of wheat falling into the ground, but afterwards producing much fruit (John xii. 24); and the prophet Hosea (xiv. 7,) speaks of 'growing as the vine, and reviving as the corn.' In fact, the return of vegetation, in the spring of the year, has been adopted very generally, as an expressive symbol of a resurrection. The apostle Paul uses this very simile, in reference to a renewed life; The sower sows a bare-nakedgrain of corn, of whatever kind it be, as wheat, or some other grain, but after a proper time it rises to light, clothed with verdure; clothed also with a husk and other appurtenances, according to the nature which God has appointed to that species of seed; analogous to this is the resurrection of the body,' &c. 1 Cor. xv. 37. Now if this comparison were in use among the ancients, (and a gem of Mountfaçon delares its antiquity) it could hardly be unknown to the Corinthians, in their learned and polite city, the 'Eye of

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