2. It is obvious that Moses, under the similitude of a Sodom-like vine, grapes of gall, bitter clusters, wine like serpent-poison and deadly adder's gall, furnishes a moral portraiture of Israel's rebellious state. The vine of Sodom marks their degenerate character, its bitter and poisonous fruit their vicious tempers, and its venomous wine their injurious conduct toward the saints and prophets of God; but it is extremely unlikely that such images would have been borrowed from merely traditional or fictitious objects. The entire passage appears to glance retrospectively at the manufacture and use of powerfully intoxicating compounds familiar to the people of Sodom, the knowledge of which may have been transmitted to much later times. The figures themselves are a tacit but striking warning against inflaming drinks; no innocent substances, no good (dietetic) creatures, could have furnished such symbols to the poet-prophet of Israel. As the passage is part of a Hebrew poem, we may be permitted to convert it into English verse:

Their vine from Sodom draws its birth,

Reared in Gomorrah's putrid earth;

Their clustered-grapes are nought but gall,
Their stalks are bitterness to all;

Their wine huge-reptiles' poison makes,
And fiery gall of hooded snakes.

CHAPTER XXXII. VERSES 37, 38.

37 And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted; 38 Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink-offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.

AND DRANK THE WINE OF THEIR DRINK-OFFERINGS] Hebrew, yishtu yayn nesikahm, 'and drank the wine of their libations.' So Lxx. and V.

The wine poured out before the heathen idols was figuratively supposed to be drunk by them; and Jehovah is represented as asking His faithless people what had become of those gods who had eaten and drunk (i. e. accepted) their offerings, and then deserted them in the hour of their need.

CHAPTER XXXII. VERSE 42.

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.

The Hebrew reads, ashkir khitzai mid-dahm, 'I will satiate (drench) my arrows from blood'; the Lxx. methusō ta belee mou aph'haimatos traumatiōn, ‘I will drench my darts from the blood of the wounded'; the V., inebriabo sagittas meas sanguine, 'I will inebriate my arrows with blood.' The T. of Jonathan gives 'I will drench my arrows in the blood of their slain.' The Hebrew ashkir comes from shakar, 'to drink freely' of any sweet drink, and hence to be intoxicated if the drink is fermented. In this passage the figure is confined to the idea of repletion, the Divine arrows being described as made to drink till they are soaked with the blood of those who fell under them, so great should be the slaughter of the guilty.

CHAPTER XXXIII. VERSE 28.

Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.

THE FOUNTAIN OF JACOB] Hebrew, ain Yaaqov, 'the fountain (or eye) of Jacob.' As the same Hebrew word signifies 'eye' and 'fountain,' the versions differ. The Targumists take it in the sense of overflowing 'benediction.'

UPON A LAND OF corn and winE] Hebrew, el-eretz dahgan va-tirosh. This and the previous clause are rendered by the LXX. epi gees Iakōb, epi sito kai oino, 'upon the land of Jacob, upon corn and wine.' The V. has oculus Jacob in terra frumenti et vini, 'the eye Jacob in a land of corn and wine.' The Syriac gives the usual triad-'the fountain Jacob in a land of corn, and wine, and oil.' The Arabic reads, 'of expressed juice' (etzer). By 'fountain' many commentators · understand 'offspring'—his posterity spread like the waters of a fountain. If we read 'eye,' then it is a figure of the patriarch gazing with delight on the fruitful land prophetically stretched out before him.

THE

BOOK OF JOSHUA.

CHAPTER V. VERSE II.

And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.

UNLEAVENED CAKES] Hebrew, matzoth, 'unfermented cakes.'

The phrase 'selfsame day' seems to indicate the eagerness with which the people, sick of the manna, desired to eat the fruits of this long-promised land. It is added, ‘And the manna ceased'; teaching us that miracles of feeding are not works of supererogation, but disappear when the ordinary supplies of Providence are available. For the right use of these natural supplies men are as responsible as for the miraculous gifts, and for their abuse (by changing them) as sinful as the discontented Jews who loathed 'the bread from heaven.'

CHAPTER IX. VERSE 4.

They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up.

AND WINE BOTTLES] Hebrew, va-nodoth yayin, 'and bottles of wine'; LXX., askous oinou, 'skin bottles of wine'; V., utres vinarios, 'wine-bags.'

CHAPTER IX. VERSE 13.

And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey.

AND THESE BOTTLES OF WINE] Hebrew, vè-alleh nodoth hay-yayin, and these bottles of the wine'; the Lxx., kai outoi oi askoi tou oinou, and these skin bottles of the wine'; the V., utres vini, 'bags of wine.'

CHAPTER XV. VERSE II.

And the border went out unto the side of Ekron northward: and the border was drawn to Shicron, and passed along to mount Baalah, and went out unto Jabneel and the goings out of the border were at the sea.

Shicron was a

SHICRON] Hebrew, Shikron, drinking' or 'drunkenness.' town on the northern border of Judah. The reason of its name can only be conjectured. It may have had some relation to the abundance of shakar, 'sweet drink,' obtained from neighboring palm trees, or from the indulgence of the people in shakar, when not always safe to be drunk [see Note on John iv. 5], or, possibly, some famous drinker may have founded the city, whose name became a memorial of his intemperance.

CHAPTER XXIV. VERSE 13.

And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.

The Hebrew, kerahmin vě-zaithim, signifies ‘vineyards and olive trees.' The Lxx. has ampelōnas kai elaiōnas; the V., vineas et olivetas.

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

CHAPTER IV. VERSE 19.

And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.

He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.

MILK] Hebrew, khahlahv, ‘milk'; the Lxx., gala; the V., lac.

BUTTER] Hebrew, khemah, 'butter-milk'; the Lxx., bouturon; the V., butyrum. It was the kind of milk best suited to assuage the warrior's thirst. Some critics read 'cream,' or milk from which the cream was not separated. Some think that both a fluid and a more solid form of milk were given to Sisera. Butter was not used by the ancients, nor is it used by the Orientals of the present day except medicinally. Utterly unsupported is the notion that Jael gave Sisera camel's milk which had fermented, in order that he might be thrown into an intoxicated stupor. J. D. Michaelis, who had referred to Niebuhr as a witness for the intoxicating property of camel's milk, is contradicted by Rosenmüller, who observes, "Dicit potius Niebuhrius lac camelinum Arabibus, salubre et refrigerans haberi" (Niebuhr rather says that the milk of the Arabs' camel is healthy and refreshing). It is not always that an erring Michaelis has a critical Rosenmüller on his track. It is not certain, or even probable, that Jael resolved upon Sisera's death till he had fallen asleep. His request for no beverage but water, for I am thirsty,' is an example by which modern soldiers might profit. "Some think," says Dr Gill, "he did not ask for wine because he knew the Kenites did not drink any, and so of course kept none in their tents; but though this was the custom of the Rechabites, who were the same with the Kenites (Jer. xxxv. 8), yet it is very probable the custom had not obtained among them, since it was enjoined by Jonadab their father, who lived in the time of Jehu (2 Kings x. 15): 'She opened a bottle of milk, and gave him to drink,' which she did rather out of courtesy, being a better liquor, or with design to throw him into a sleep, which milk inclines to, making heavy, as all the Jewish commentators observe; though Josephus has no authority to say, as he does, that the milk she gave him was bad and corrupt." Dr Gill is too hard on Josephus, who states that the milk (gala) was diephthoros eedee, which Rosenmüller considers to mean 'acid already,' but not therefore bad to drink.