42 HEBREW LIFE AND CUSTOM
Rechabites, maintained unchanged the nomadic mode of
life.1 Water drinking, needless to say, was not confined to
the nomadic population, but in many places fresh spring
water was not available throughout the year, and when it
was possible it was stored in rock-hewn cisterns.2 It is not
improbable that there are some still living, who remember
—or whose fathers have told them—what the water used
to be like in the days of the old sailing vessels, and such
people will readily conjecture what the water collected in
the rock-hewn cisterns was like when the supply was get-
ting low ! It is therefore probable that all who could
afford it mixed wine with the water. Although drunken-
ness is unsparingly denounced in the Hebrew Scriptures,3
it is evident that a certain amount of alcoholic exhilaration
at a feast was not only condoned but regarded as proper.*
It is noteworthy that the word for a banquet or feast is
literally a drinking. From the warnings against the misuse
of wine in the Book of Proverbs5 the temptation to
drunkenness would seem to have been somewhat greater
in the Greek period. Wine which had been kept for a
considerable time and had been carefully strained, like
‘ old crusted ’ port, was much prized.6 Ordinary wine was
sometimes mixed with spice 7 to make it more palatable.
Vinegar was taken as a condiment : it was forbidden to
Nazirites, as being fermented. Whether any kind of alco-
holic liquor (Heb. shekhdr} other than grape-juice was
drunk is ιmcertain, but it is suggested by the combination
of shêkhâr with jay in (wine) otherwise than in parallelism.8
Commonly mentioned in connexion with food and
drink, though perhaps more frequently used in lamps and
* Jer. xxxv. 6 ff. ’ Jer. ii. ɪɜ.
5 Amos vi. 6 ; Isa. v. ɪɪ, xxviii. ɪ, 7 ; ɪ Sam. i. 14.
4 Gen. xliii. 34 ; cf. Hag. i. 6 ; Judges ix. 13 ; Prov. xxxi. 6.
5 Prov. xx. ɪ, xxiii. 29-32, xxxi. 4.
6 Isa. xxv. 6 ; cf. Zeph. i. 12 ; Jer. xlviii. ɪɪ.
7 Cant, viii. 2 ; Prov. ix. 2, 5 ; Isa. v. 22.
g Judges xiii. 4, 7; Mic. ii. ɪɪ ; ɪ Sam. i. ɪʒ j Lcv. x. 9; DeuU
xxix. 6.
WINE AND OIL 43
for unction, was olive oil (Heb. yishaτ). It is noteworthy
that this word is never used of the sacred anointing oil,
which is always shemen.1 Shémen is actually used of olive
oil,2 but its original meaning seems to have been animal
grease,3 especially of the kidney fat ; hence the metaphori-
cal expressions t the kidney-fat of the oil ’ and ‘ the kidney-
fat of the vintage and of the com,.4
The Hebrews liked rich greasy food and also sweet
things.5
MEALS AND BANQUETS
The chief meals of the Hebrews appear to have been at
noon6 and in the evening,’ though hospitality to guests
was bound by no set rules.8 Presumably some light re-
freshment was taken in the morning before work was
begun, but there happens to be no reference to such a
thing, even when we should expect it. Saul took leave of
Samuel in the early morning without partaking of any
breakfast.9 The topers whom Isaiah denounced began
their potations in the early morning and continued till
evening.10
At feasts to which guests had especially been invited it
was customary to send servants to fetch them.11
Before a meal began hands were washed by having
water poured over them,12 and the guests at a feast, at all
ɪ Zech. iv. 14 is an exception. The two ‘ sons of oil ’ or, with a
more intelligible translation of the idiomatic Hebrewphrase, ‘ the two
oil-abounding ones ’, are the two olive-trees mentioned above (ver. ɪɪ),
which provide a continual supply of oil to the reservoir of the
lampstands.
’ Deut. viii. 8 ; 2 Kings xviii. 32 ; Exod. xxvii. 20, xxx. 24 ; Lev.
xxiv. 2.
3 Isa. xxv. 6 ; Ps. cix. 24 ; cf. Isa. v. i, xxviii. ι, 4. See W. Robert-
son Smith, Religion of the Semites, 2nd ed., p. 383.
4 Num. xviii. 12. s Isa. xxv. 6, xxx. 23.
6 Gen. xliii. 16, 25 ; Ruth ii. 14.
7 Gen. xix. 3 ; Judges xix. 14 ff. ; Ruth iii. 17.
’ Gen. xviii. 5 ; Exod. ii. ι8 ff. » ɪ Sam. ix. 26.
" Isa. v. ιι. “ Prov. ix. 3. ɪɪ 2 Kings iii. ɪɪ.