34 HEBREW LIFE AND CUSTOM
cultivated the land milk formed a considerable portion of
their diet. We know that to the end of the Jewish mon-
archy the Rechabites cultivated neither cereals nor vine-
yards.1 Both goats and cows were kept for milking, but
the former seem to have been far more numerous.2
It is remarkable that nowhere is there any reference to
the process of milking. Ewes may have been milked,3 and
this is the view taken by the R.V. of Deut. xxxii. 14, but
inasmuch as se (the nomen unitatis of which son is the collec-
tive) may denote either a sheep or a goat/ this cannot be
positively asserted.
Milk would ordinarily be consumed in the form of curd
(Heb. hem,a, modem leben).s Abraham gave his guests
curds and veal to eat, and milk to drink.6 In addition to
curds (Λm,fl) milk was also made into gbina? Since the
latter was produced by squeezing the skin which contained
the milk8—presumably in different parts, thus causing a
shaking up of the milk as in a chum—we should perhaps
Imderstand butter to be intended, since milk in a vessel
which has contained curds would curdle of itself without
being shaken. Cheese, i.e. compressed curd, seems to have
been known.9 What is meant by the sJfpJio th bâkâr which
' was brought to David at Mahanaim10 is very doubtful. It
might mean cream if we suppose that the pointing as shin is
incorrect, and that it should be sɪn, but in this context
cream does not appear very probable.
The non-nomad majority of the population doubtless
subsisted mainly on various sorts of bread. It must not be for-
gotten, however, that the word commonly rendered ‘ bread ’
is frequently used in a much wider sense. The prophets whom
Obadiah supplied withtbread and water*,11 notwithstanding
ɪ Jer. xxxv. 7.
’ Prov. xxvii. 27 ; Isa. vii. 2i ; Exod. xxiii. 19.
3 Deut. xxxii. 14. 4 Gen. xxvii. 9 ; Exod. xii. 5.
3 Isa. vii. 15, 22. 6 Gen. xviii. 8; cf. Judges v. 25.
7 Job x. ɪo. 8 Prov. xxx. 33. ’ ɪ Sam. xvii. x8.
" 2 Sam. xvιi. 29. π ɪ Kings xviii. 4.
MILK AND CEREALS 35
the prevailing scarcity, were probably better fed than
the children in many English schools a century ago, who
having failed to repeat some lesson by heart before break-
fast, were punished for the rest of the day by being given
nothing but bread and water.
The ordinary bread was made of meal,ɪ from which
apparently the bran was not separated. Fine flour (sôletK)
was also used,2 but this was a luxury. The most common
cereal appears to have been barley,3 which, together with
tébhen, i.e. straw chopped up by the threshing-sledges, was
sometimes by the very wealthy given even to horses.*
Wheat was naturally more prized than barley,5 and we
may assume that the fine flour mentioned in Solomon’s
bill of fare was of wheat.6
Inferior cereals were also used, e.g. beans,7 lentils,8
millet,9 spelt.10 We read also of what may perhaps be
some sort of cereal called 'aτisoth (plural) : the meaning of
the word is, however, very uncertain. Various sorts of grain
were sometimes roasted whole and eaten ɪɪ—as formerly
both in England and Scotland. Grain entirely uncooked
was sometimes eaten.12 Lentils, and doubtless other sorts
of grain also, were sometimes boiled into some form of
porridge.
Com was usually ground as required, and the meal so
obtained might be hastily mixed into dough, and while
still unleavened,13 baked into loaves of various shapes,
'ιtgg^A,1* Orkikkfwth Iehem.13 The unleavened 'uggoth would
ɪ Judges vi. 19; I Sam. i. 24.
’ Gen. xviii. 6 ; ɪ Kings v. 2 (E. V. iv. 22) ; Ezek. xvi. 13, 19.
3 Hos. iii. 2 ; Ruth ii. 17, iii. 15, 17. 4 ɪ Kings iv. 28.
5 Deut xxxii. 14. 6 ɪ Kings iv. 22.
’ Ezek. iv. 9 ; 2 Sam. xvii. 28.
8 Ezek. iv. 9 ; 2 Sam. xvii. 28, xxiii. ɪ ɪ ; Gen. xxv. 34.
’ Ezek. iv. 9. ” Exod. ix. 32 ; Isa. xxviii. 25 ; Ezek. iv. 9.
11 ɪ Sam. xxv. ι8; 2 Sam. xvii. 28; Joshua v. ɪɪ ; Ruth ii. 14.
ɪ* Deut. xxiii. 25 ; 2 Kings iv. 42.
ŋ Gen. xix∙ 3 ; juʤes vi. 19. ч Gen. xviii. 6.
’5 Judges viii. 5.