EGG. .BETZIM, plur ביצים Occ. Deut. xxii. 6; Job, xxxix. 14; Isai. x. 14; and lix. v. ΩΟΝ Luke, xi. 12. dicted the subjugation of Judea in | twenty times in Exodus, and pubx these terms: "He shall pass through or x 1 Kings, x. 12; 2 Chron. Judah. He shall overflow, and go ix. 10, 11; and this, perhaps, not over. He shall reach even to the from their being varieties, but their neck. And the stretching out of being in separate pieces, or being his wings (the array of his army sold in parcels. shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel." Isai. viii. 8. The king of Egypt is also styled by Ezekiel, "a great eagle, with great wings, and many feathers;" but he manifestly gives the preference to the king of Babylon, by adding, that he had " long wings, full of feathers, which had divers colours;" that is, greater wealth, and a more numerous army. See GIER-EAGLE. EBONY. 7, or, according to 23 of Dr. Kennicott's codices, on HOBNIM; Greek, EBENOΣ7; Vulgate, hebeninos. An Indian wood, of a black colour, and of great value in ancient times. As being very hard and heavy, and admitting of a fine polish, it was used in inlaid work with ivory, with which it formed a beautiful contrast. It is mentioned with ivory, as among the imported articles, in Ezek. xxvii. 15; and that is the only place in which the word occurs in Scripture. It is to be observed that the word is in the plural; and Theophrastus, Hist. 1. iv. c. 5, Plin. N. H. I. xii. c. 4, and other authors mention two kinds of ebony. Besides, all the other kinds of precious woods in Scripture are in the plural; as Dow 6 Paxton, Illustrations of Scripture, V. ii. p. 14. 7" In Montfauconii quidem Hexaplis Origenianis nihil de Symmacho notatum est: at ex Theodoreto disco, eum de Hebeno cogitasse. Ta negara, inquit ad h. l. Zvμuaxos seves ηρμηνευσιν, αφ' ων τα εξενια καλύμενα γίνεται. Ergo Hebeni nomen in hoc versu apud Symmachum legit, sed male ad retulit." Michaelis, Not. ad Geogr. Heb. exter. part i. p. 206. 8 Eggs are considered as a very great delicacy in the East, and are served up with fish and honey at their entertainments. As a desirable article of food, the egg is mentioned, Luke, xi. 12. If a son ask for an egg, will his father offer him a scorpion?"-It has been remarked, that the body of the scorpion is very like an egg, as its head can scarcely be distinguished; especially if it be of the white kind, which is the first species mentioned by Ælian, Avicenna, and others. Bochart has produced testimonies to prove that the scorpions in Judea were about the bigness of an egg 10. So the similitude is preserved between the thing asked and the thing given. The reasoning is this. If a child ask an earthly parent for bread, a necessary of life, he will not deny him what is proper for his support, putting him off with a stone; and if he should ask for a sort of food of the more delicious kind, an eel or an egg, he will not, we may assure ourselves, give his child what is hurtful, a serpent or a scorpion. If sinful men, then, will give good gifts to their children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the necessary and the more desirable gifts of his Spirit to those who supplicate for them! This passage may be compared with Isai. lix. 5. They hatch the eggs of the basilisk- Sola India nigrum Fert ebenum. VIRG. Georg. ii. 117. Ω έξενος, ω χρυσος, ω εκ λευχει ελεφαντος Αιετοι ! THEOCR. Idyl. xv. v. 123. Theophrastus also says, that Ebony was peculiar to India; but Pliny quotes Herodotus, to shew that Ethiopia produces Ebony; and Lucian mentions it as grow-in loc. ing in that country. forth. 9 Lamy Appar. Bibl. b. iii. c. 2. §. 7. The Greeks have an adage, av tegang σxogπIOV: instead of a perch (fish), a scorpion. Beza 10 Bochart. Hieroz. vol. iii. p. 549. CHALAMUTH, which, in Job, vi. 6, our translators have rendered "the white of an egg," intends indeed insipidness, but it is not easy to fix the precise meaning to the Hebrew word 1. ELEPHANT. Maccab. vi. 34, only. ΕΛΕΦΑΣ. 1 and clumsy, and shapeless. His feet are undivided, but have their margins terminated by five round hoofs. His tail is similar to that of a hog, and fringed at the extremity with a few long hairs of the bigness of a packthread. The body is bare, covered with a rough, strong hide. Bochart, Hieroz. c. xxii. v. i. p. His eyes are small, but lively; and 233, desirous of finding the elephant distinguished from those of all other in Scripture, was for reading an animals by their pathetic, sentimental SCHENHABBIM, in this manner, expression. The ears are long, broad, SCHEN KAHABBIM; because the ele- and pendulous. The trunk is a rephant is called in Arabic "alikha-markable organ, peculiar to the eleban." I imagine that the ali is only the titular distinction, or merely the article al', and that khaban is the name; so, in Hebrew, SCHEN is tooth, and HABBIM elephants. The elephant is well known as the largest and strongest of quadrupeds. The height of a full-grown one is from nine to fifteen feet; and the body has been found to weigh four thousand and five hundred pounds. It is not easy to convey in words a distinct idea of the form of any animal. Words may assist the imagination to recall a form with which it is familiar; but scarcely any clearness of verbal description will give the mind a distinct impression of an image entirely new to it. In attempting to describe the elephant, this difficulty is felt. The body is very bulky; the neck short and stiff. His back is considerably arched. His legs are thick phant. It is a cartilaginous substance, composed of numerous rings, terminating in a small moveable kind of hook; and having the nostrils in its extremity. This proboscis the animal can contract, dilate, and bend in any direction. The sense of feeling is centred in this organ; and is as delicate and distinct as in the human species. By means of this trunk he conveys his food and his drink into his mouth, which is situated below where this singular organ commences. The superior part of this protuberance projects forward about five inches, and answers as a kind of finger, enabling him to lay hold of the minutest things with great facility, to pick up grains of corn, &c. His tusks, also, distinguish the elephant in a singular manner. Neither jaw is furnished with fore teeth. Each has four large flat grinders. But in the upper are two enormous tusks, of a solid, white, and fine-grained substance; which, as they proceed from the gums in which they are rooted, first point forwards, and then bend slightly upwards. These are often seven feet long, and have been found to weigh a hundred and fifty pounds. The elephant is nourished on vegetable food; fruits, leaves, branches, corn, and other grains, which he devours in large quantities. He grows slowly, and is supposed to live to a great age; it is said, from one to two hundred years. With this trunk he 11 The critical reader will do well to consult Mr. Good's learned note upon the utters occasionally a sound like that of a trumpet. When enraged or passage. alarmed, his voice, which seems to | This, his proboscis named, at will he wields, No like proportion in his feet we find ; As nature urges, and despoils the fields. Before, he lifts them higher than behind. Rough, dusky, thick, the skin his frame surrounds, proceed from his throat and mouth, is very terrible. His sense of hearing is quick. He delights in the sound of instruments; and seems particularly fond of music. He has an exquisite smelling; and is passionately fond of perfumes of all sorts, and of fragrant flowers. Plains, forests, and gently rising hills are the favourite abodes of the elephant. He is a native of Africa and Asia. He cannot bear the heat of the torrid regions under the line; but is still more impatient of cold. Which not hard iron's piercing sharpness Fierce and untamed amidst the shady wood, The beeches, olive-trees, and palmy groves ground. But man's strong hands the furious beast Mankind have, in all ages, been at great pains in taming elephants. They are caught in the forests by artifice, dexterity, strength, and terHistorians and travellers relate ror. They are subdued by threats; many tales concerning the prudence, and domesticated by kind treatment penetrating sagacity, and obliging and caresses; and at last rendered temper of the elephant, which seem tractable and submissive. Indeed, almost incredible. It is certain that when tame, the elephant is per- they appear to be more influenced haps the most docile, gentle, and by a regard to the consequences of obedient of all animals. He forms their actions, than any other domesan attachment to his keeper; com- ticated animals. On the promise of prehends signs; learns to distin- a reward, they are often induced to guish the various tones of the hu- extraordinary exertions of ingenuity man voice, as expressive of anger, and strength. They are said to be approbation, or command; is even particularly fond of wine; and it is capable of being taught to under- frequently offered them to induce stand the import of articulate lan- them to perform labours, and given guage; adopts in many instances to reward exertion. We find it used the manners and the sentiments of in this manner, successfully, in the mankind; discovers a sense of pro-wars of the Maccabees. 1 Maccab. bity and honour, and expects to be vi. 34. honestly dealt with; resents every affront with force and dignity; is generous, grateful, patient, magnanimous, and humane. Elephants are fond of gorgeous trappings; and formerly were much used in war. The following is a description of the elephant by Oppian : "None of the forest kind so vast arise; The tusks of the elephant have long been applied, under the denomination of ivory, to a variety of important uses in the arts. IVORY. See This word is found only once in our translation of the Bible; Hosea, iv. 13. But the word there used in the Hebrew, is in all other places rendered oak. EMERALD. .NOPHEK כפר Occurs only Exod. xxviii. 18; and Ezek. xvii. 16, and xxviii. 13: and ΣMAPAгAO2, Rev. xxi. 19; and Ecclus. xxxii. 6; Tobit, xiii. 22; and Judith, x. 21. Occ. Deut. xiv. 5, and 1 Kings, iv. 23. The animal here mentioned is not the fallow-deer, but the bubalus; and it is so rendered by the Septuagint and Vulgate; and indeed Bochart has sufficiently proved, that, in the ancient Greek writers, Beßaλoç or Baßaλic signifies an animal of the deer kind. This animal Dr. Shaw supposes to be the bekkar el wash, which is nearly of the same size with the red deer; with which it also agrees in colour, as yachmur likewise, the scripture name, (being a derivative from 7, HOMMAR, rubere,) may denote. The flesh is very sweet and nourishing; much preferable to the red deer; and so might well be received, with the deer and the antelope, at Solomon's table, as mentioned, 1 Kings, iv. 2313. On the other hand, Herodotus, Oppian, Ælian, Aristotle, describe an animal of the species of Gazelle, which Pallas 14 calls "Antelope Bubalis," and Oedman renders probable is the creature here mentioned 15; and Niebuhr observes, that 13 Trav. p. 170, and 415. ed. 4to. 14 Sicel. Zool. fasc. I. No. 10. 15 Vermischte Sammlungen aus der Naturkunde, fasc. 1. c. 3, p. 27, and fasc. iv. c. 2. F there is an antelope which still retains this name in Arabia 16. It inhabits the mountains of that country, and it is frequent about the Euphrates. For other conjectures, I refer to the note of Rosenmuller on Bochart, Hieroz. 1. II. c. 28. p. 282, vol. i. Michaelis, Suppl. Lexic. Hebr. p. v. p. 1544, and Tychsen, Physiologus Syrus, p. 36-42. FERRET. P ANAKAH, from The ferret is a species of the weasel; but Bochart will have the ANAKAH to be the spotted lizard called by Pliny "stellio." Dr. James takes it for the "frog," in allusion to the name, which literally signifies" the crier," befitting the croaking of that animal; but we shall find the frog mentioned under another name. Dr. Geddes renders it " the newt,' or rather "the lizard of the Nile 17;" and it evidently must be of the lizard species. Pliny mentions "the galeotes, covered with red spots, whose cries are sharp 18" this may be the Gekko, which I have reason to think the animal here intended. Besides which, few, if any, lizards cry. As its name in the Indies, tockai, and 16 Præf. xlii. 17 Lacerta Nilotica, Hasselquist, p. 221. 18 Nat. Hist. 1. xxix. c. 4. in Egypt gekko, is formed from its | herd had their rendezvous; but voice, so the Hebrew name anakah, without either house or hut." or perhaps anakkah, seems to be formed in like manner; the double K being equally observable in all these appellations 19. If these remarks are admissible, this lizard is sufficiently identified. FIG-TREE. tijn. TEENAH; Arab. Occ. Gen. iii. 7; Numb. xiii. 23; and elsewhere freq.; and XYKEH Matth. vii. 16; xxi. 19; xxiv. 32; Mark, xi. 13, 20,21; xiii. 28; Luke, vi. 44; xiii. 6,7; xxi. 29; John, i. 48; James, iii. 12; and Rev. vi. 13. This tree was very common in Palestine. It becomes large, dividing into many branches, which are furnished with leaves shaped like those of the mulberry. It affords a friendly shade. Accordingly, we read, in the Old Testament, of Judah and Israel dwelling, or sitting securely, every man under his fig-tree. 1 Kings, iv. 25. (Comp. Mic. iv. 4; Zech. iii. 10; and 1 Maccab. xiv. 12.) And in the New Testament, we find Nathaniel under a fig-tree, probably for the purposes of devotional retirement. John i. 49, 51. Hasselquist, in his journey from Nazareth to Tiberias, says: "We refreshed ourselves under the shade of a fig-tree, under which was a well, where a shepherd and his 19 In the Syriac version it is amkatha, which, according to Gabriel Sionita, is a kind of lizard. The fruit which it bears, is produced from the trunk and large branches, and not from the smaller shoots, as in most other trees. It is soft, sweet, and very nourishing. Milton is of opinion that the banian-tree 20 was that with whose leaves our first parents made themselves aprons 21. But his account, as to the matter of fact, wants even probability to countenance it; for the leaves of that tree are so far from being, as he has described them, of the bigness of an Amazonian target, that they seldom or never exceed five inches in length, and three in breadth. Therefore we must look for another of the fig kind, that better answers the purpose referred to by Moses, Gen. iii. 7; and as the fruit of the banana-tree 22 is often, by the most ancient authors, called a fig, may we not suppose this to have been the fig-tree of Paradise? Pliny, describing this tree, says, that its leaves were the greatest and most shady of all others 23: and as the leaves of these are often six feet long, and about two broad, are thin, smooth, and very flexible, they may be deemed more proper than any other for the covering spoken of; especially since they may be easily joined together with the numerous threadlike filaments, which may, without labour, be peeled from the body of the tree 24. The first ripe fig is still called boccôre in the Levant, which is nearly its Hebrew name, 72. Jer. xxiv. 20 Ficus Indica: Opuntia. Tournef. 239. Cactus, Lin. gen. plan. 539. 21 Paradise Lost, ix. 1101. 22 Musa, the Egyptian mauze. 23 Folium habet maximum umbrosissi mumque." N. H. lib. xvi. c. 26. 24 So Homer's Ulysses covers his nakedness in the wood. Odys. vi. 127. " Then where the grove with leaves um brageous bends, With forceful strength a branch the hero rends; Around his loins the verdant cincture spreads, A wreathy foliage and concealing shades." BROOME. |