40 HEBREW LIFE AND CUSTOM
there are a considerable number of references to fishing.1
Cetaceans, needless to say, were regarded as fish, and the
fish-spears of which we have mention2 may have been
harpoons used in spearing the dugong.3 There is, how-
ever, no proof that the flesh was eaten.
In post-exilic times the Tyrians carried on a fish trade
at Jerusalem.*
It is remarkable that locusts were regarded as legitimate
food.5 The precedent for this may have arisen when the
locusts had stripped the land of all other food.
Salt was, of course, commonly used, both ritually 6 and
as a condiment.7 The supply seems to have come from
the Dead Sea and its neighbourhood.8
Of fruits au naturel we read of the following : grapes 9
naturally head the list, and it is not improbable that, apart
from the manufacture of wine, freshly pressed out grape-
juice 10 was sometimes taken as a beverage. Next to grapes
were figs,ɪɪ of which the first ripe fruit was considered a
great delicacy.12 It was an ideal of peace and plenty that
every man should possess a vine and a fig-tree, in the
shade of which he might sit.13 The so-called ‘ sycomore-
figs ’, in districts sufficiently warm for their growth, were
not highly prized as fruit, though they were eaten by the
poor. The trees are mentioned as abundant in the foot-
hills west of the main mountain range of Judah, but the
uplands were too cold for them.1* Pomegranates seem to
ɪ Amos iv. 2 ; Jer. xvi. ι6; Hab. i. 15 ; cf. Ezek. xlvii. 9, ɪo.
’ Job xli. 7.
3 Leather from the dugong is mentioned (Ezek. xvi. ɪo), and as
covering for the Tabemacle (Exod. xxvi. 14).
4 Neh. xiii. ι6 ; cf. iii. 3. 5 Lev. xi. 22.
6 Lev. ii. 13 ; Num. xviii. 19.
7 Job vi. 6. 8 Ezek. xlvii. ɪɪ.
7 Hos. ix. ɪo ; Isa. v. 2, 4 ; Mie. vii. ɪ ; Num. xiii. 20, &c.
,0 Gen. xl. ɪɪ. "ɪ Jer. xxiv. 2 ; Num. xiii. 23.
” Hos. ix. ɪo ; Mie. vii. ɪ ; Isa. xxviii. 4. ɪ3 Zech. iii. 10.
'4 Amos vii. 14 is commonly supposed to refer directly to this fruit.
The text of the passage, however, is by no means certain. Amos was
LOCUSTS, SALT, FRUIT 41
have been fairly common,1 and were evidently prized for
their fresh juice.2
Water-melons are mentioned as growing in Egypt з and
were evidently not unknown in parts of Palestine. Apples,*
if the word tappυfh should be so understood, are mentioned
among various other fruits. The simile in Cant. vii. 8 is
at first sight somewhat surprising. It should probably,
however, be interpreted as meaning that the scent of the
fair lady’s breath is as delightful in its way as are apples
in their way : compare the simile in Ps. cxxxiii. 2, 3 !
It is possible that the word tappυ!,h was once applied to
some other tree. We also hear of nuts.5
Dried and preserved fruits were also known, such as
figs 6 and raisins.7 Raisin cakes of some sort are men-
tioned,8 and may originally have had a ritual significance.
What is meant by rîphôth9 is uncertain. It may have
meant some kind of fruit dried and pounded, or possibly
bruised grain.
The staple drink among the nomads would be water10
or milk,ɪɪ wine not being drunk by those who, like the
certainly not a bôkêr, a tender of oxen, for in ver. 15 he says that he
has been taken from following the flock, and says nothing about
sycomore-figs. The word for which bôkêr is a misreading is probably
n6kedh, which in 2 Kings iii. 4 is applied to Mesha, King of Moab, and
in the E.V. rendered ‘ sheep-master ’. The Greek translation of Kings
transliterates the Hebrew.- In the later title of the book Amos is
described as ‘ one of the n0k,dhim from Tekoa ’. Here the unfamiliar
word, misread, is taken by the Greek translator as a proper name.
In Amos vii. 14 the Greek has κvlζωv, ‘ scraping ’ or ‘ pricking ’. The
sy∞more-fig is commonly infested by an insect which must be
removed by nipping or pricking, so that the Greek translator, being
familiar with the process but unfamiliar with the technical use with
reference to sheep, understood Πp3 to mean t pricker ’. Q,Dpt? D½ is
then an incorrect gloss to Πp3.
ɪ Num. xiii. 23. * Cant, viii. 2. 3 Num. xi. 5.
, Joel i. i2. 5 Cant. vi. ιι. 6 ɪ Sam. xxv. 18, xxx. 12.
7 i Sam. xxv. ι8, xxx. 12 ; 2 Sam. xvi. ɪ ; ɪ Chron. xii. 40.
8 2 Sam. vi. 19; Hos. iii. ι ; Cant. ii. 5 ; Isa. xvi. 7 (sic).
, 2 Sam. xvii. 19 ; Prov. xxvii. 22.
” Gen. xxiv. 46. h Judges iv. 19, v. 25.