32 HEBREW LIFE AND CUSTOM
For baking, portable ovens ɪ were used, which were
heated by a fire lighted within them, like the old English
ovens, or round them. Since they were breakable,2 they
were presumably of coarse earthenware. Each household
would possess one, and it is a sign of the breaking-up of
households by war and famine when the women bake
their bread in one oven.3 Normally every household
would have home-made bread, but in the reign of Zedekiah
Jerusalem had a ‘street of the bakers’ where ordinary
bread was sold,4 though it is not improbable that in the
more prosperous times the shops in the street would have
sold what we should rather classify as confectionery.3
Since in Nehemiah’s time there was a ‘ tower of the ovens ’6
a guild of bakers may have found some form of co-
operative baking more economical.
Although great reliance cannot be placed on the text of
the passage concerning the cakes which Tamar cooked for
Amnon,7 it seems to be meant that they were cooked over
a brazier in some sort of liquid, and this suggests a frying
pan. At any rate a flat iron plate, apparently a ‘ girdle’,
is mentioned by Ezekiel,8 and a similar utensil is used in
one sort of cereal oblation.’ It is reasonable to suppose
that the Coxmterpart of some of the utensils mentioned in
connexion with the Temple would also be found in
domestic kitchens. There is no mention of any dish
specially intended for holding cooked meat, though such
doubtless existed. In addition to the various appliances
for cooking there would necessarily be various vessels for
holding both liquid and solid food ; and we read of pails
or pans for milk,10 and also of some comparatively small
jugs or jars.1 ɪ
, Gen. xv. 17. * Lev. xi. 33, 35. 3 Lev. xxvi. 26.
4 Jer. xxxvii. 21.
5 Compare the mention of bakers, Gen. xl. 2, x6f. ; ɪ Sam. viii. ι3.
6 Neh. iii. ɪɪ, xii. 38. 7 2 Sam. xiii. 9.
8 Ezek. iv. 3. ’ Lev. ii. 5. ” Job xxi. 24.
” ɪ Sam. xxvi. ɪɪ ; ɪ Kings xvii. 12, xix. 6.
‘CLEANING’ AND GRINDING CORN 33
Among the necessary utensils, each household would
possess millstones for grinding? The grinding of corn was
considered derogatory to manly dignity;2 it was ordinarily
done by the women of the household, and, where there
were female slaves, by them.3
Preliminary to grinding it was necessary to sift the
grain to separate from it any pebbles which might have
been taken up with it from the threshing-floor.4 This pro-
cess, for which of course a sieve was required, was known
as ‘ cleaning ’, according to the more correct Hebrew text
imderlying the Septuagint account of Ishbosheth’s murder:
the word is the same as is used in Isaiah’s parable of the
vineyard5 to denote the cleaning of the ground. The
Revisers of the Authorized Version have entirely missed
the point in Amos ix. 9. Since they started with the
preconceived idea that ‘ to fall to the ground ’ must
necessarily be something bad, they have translated the
word which means t pebble ’ 6 by ‘ grain ’. But the pur-
pose of sifting com is that the grain may fall through the
meshes of the sieve, and the pebbles and other refuse be
retained in it. This is not only suitable to the metaphor
which Amos uses, but is shown to be correct by a like
metaphor of Ben Sira :
In the shaking of a sieve the refuse remaineth,
So the filth of man in his reasoning.7
FOOD
In the food of the inhabitants of Palestine during the
period covered by the Hebrew Scriptures there was doubt-
less as much variety as in their homes. The staple food of
nomads is milk, and it is likely that even among those who
, Num. xi. 8 ; Deut. xxiv. 6 ; Eccles, xii. 3, 4.
’ Lam. v. 13 ; Judges xvi. 21.
3 Isa. xlvii. 2. 4 Amos ix. 9.
5 2 Sam. iv. 6 ; Isa. v. 2 ; li⅛pD'i is to be connected with the Syriac
6 As in 2 Sam. xvii. 13. 7 Ecclus. xxvii. 4.
F