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PEEPS INTO PALESTINE
Part I
Joppa;
or, Discoveries on Stepping Ashore
Let me land you in imagination on the shore of Palestine. In doing so, allow me to impress upon you in the strongest manner possible three most important facts, which would seem to be known to comparatively few, and fully realised by scarcely any. First,
The Bible is an Eastern Book;
as much an Eastern book, be it said reverently, as the Arabian Nights — a work indeed fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, but, as to its human side, written in the East, by Easterns, and for Easterns — indeed, as to a great part of it, during ages for Easterns alone — and, therefore, only to be rightly interpreted in the light and colouring of the East. Secondly,
The Life of Palestine is Most Ancient.
Its modern manners, customs, rites, modes of speech, climate, and natural features are all essentially the same as those seen and heard by Abraham 4,000 years ago. The origin of its customs is lost in remote ages. All that members of the oldest families can tell, when asked to account for anything that now goes on, is “our fathers did thus,” “it is from ancient times,” “it always was done so,” “it is our ’adeh, or custom.” Perhaps the strangest and strongest instance of the changeless life of Bible lands is afforded by the dress of the women, which is positively the same in every particular as that worn from the earliest times in the memory of man. Truly has it been said “immutability is the most striking law of Eastern life.” The word, the idea, that governs them with absolute and despotic rule is ’adeh, “custom.” All-powerful ’adeh! Constantly is it on their lips; like an iron chain it binds their lives. To their ideas it is wrong, morally wrong, to act differently from their ancestors. The people will not — cannot — change! The third highly important fact is that
Palestine Life is Most Uniform.
Not only is everything most ancient, but at the same time most uniform. In all matters there may be said to be a perfect agreement. The tiny handleless cup, with its egg-cup-like stand, out of which, as a guest, you sip your host’s coffee, is of the same shape and size, in every house you enter, and so is the copper ewer and bason, with which his slave, when he has taken a towel and “girded himself” (John 13.4), comes forward to wash your hands, and, should you go barefoot, as all peasants do, or wear sandals, like many of the Bedaween, your feet. If one speaks of a plough, then from the north of Syria to the south of Egypt, the light, one-handled, simple instrument is in every village precisely the same. In the rural districts, small towns, and wherever purely Oriental usages prevail, men and women respectively, if of the same class of life, dress exactly alike; and the material, colour, and style of a woman’s apparel to-day is not only, as I have said, just the same as that of her great, great, great grandmother, but also as that of all her neighbours and acquaintances! No different modes, no passing fashions change, or ever have changed, the simple features of Palestine life. To Western minds, and in an age like ours, this seems little less than a standing miracle. Thus wonderfully has the power and goodness of God afforded us, throughout the lands of the Bible, as it were, a living, accurate, divinely preserved commentary on its inspired pages!
And now as we step ashore at
Joppa, the Beautiful,
for so is the meaning of its name, let me show in what its beauty consists. There is nothing grand or lovely in the town, or its site, or the form of the surrounding country; and a freethinker sailing close by might well come home and declare that it in no way answered to its Hebrew name. But it is exceedingly beautiful for all that, in a way which you only come to comprehend when you are thoroughly acquainted with its surroundings, on account of the glorious groves of orange with mingled lemons, palms, bananas, pomegranates, and all manner of precious and graceful “fruitful trees” that extend for miles around the little town. The orange, which forms the principal produce of these rich semi-tropical gardens, is a noble evergreen, which is in full bearing at mid-winter, and is one of the choicest and most vigorous members of the vegetable kingdom. Captain Conder, RE, has pointed out that these suburbs of Joppa owe their splendid fertility to a wide underground river flowing beneath the plain of Sharon to the sea. The water is tapped by wells, some 10 feet across by from 50 feet to 80 feet deep, and then what is needed for irrigation is drawn up by means of two rude wooden wheels working an endless band, to which a number of small buckets are attached. “He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters” (Num 24.7), is an allusion to this Sakkieh, or well-wheel. In these words Balaam foretells that Israel shall derive much wealth and comfort from the culture, in Palestine, of
“Watered Gardens,”
to which, for their wealth of fruitfulness and beauty, the prophets afterwards likened their happy life in the glorious coming age: “Their soul shall be like a watered garden” (Jer 31.12; see also Isa 58.11). The burning rainless heat for six months running, from the end of April to the end of October, makes it impossible to have a garden of any value in Palestine unless it is thoroughly irrigated once a week; and possible, when thus supplied with “the water of life,” to have one that is green and fruitful all the year round, yielding no less than four crops, and the varied products of almost all temperate and tropical climes! In these “watered gardens” the labourers, all of whose limbs are naked, work almost as much with their feet as with their hands. The ground is divided into little plots about 12 feet square, surrounded by tiny trenches, and, when turning the rills from the main stream into each of these, the gardener kicks a hole with his foot into the trench through the lightly turned-up soil, and after sufficient water has run past he stops up the breach in the same easy fashion. Hence, when Moses, speaking of Egypt, says to Israel, “Thou wateredst it with thy foot, like a garden of green vegetables” (Deut 11.10), he simply alludes to the important fact, that, in the rainless land of the Pharaohs, farm-culture needs irrigation, natural or artificial, in the same way as garden-culture requires it in the more favoured climate of Palestine, where sufficient rain falls to raise the main crops.
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Before leaving these delightful Joppa gardens, laden for miles with their rich produce of golden oranges, let it be said that
The “Apple” of Scripture
is undoubtedly this tree. The “apple” (tappooahh) of our Bible may be known by four marks: First, golden colour; “apples of gold” (Prov 25.11). Secondly, a peculiarly rich fragrance; “the fragrance of thy nostrils is like the apples” (Cant 7.8). Thirdly, a dense foliage; “I sit down under his shadow with great delight” (Cant 2.3). And lastly, sweet fruit; “his fruit is sweet to my taste” (Cant 2.3). Now these four marks meet in the orange, each in the highest degree, and in that tree alone. This wonderful tree of life bears, often for hundreds of years, an immense quantity of handsome, nourishing, sweet, and highly medicinal fruit, a mass of beautiful and exceedingly fragrant flowers, and an abundance of thick, shining, rich green leaves, all on the tree together throughout a great part of the year, and especially that part, winter, when other trees stand bare. Addison notices this remarkable feature in a paper on “A Fine Garden” in Number 445 of the Spectator. The intense vitality of the orange well fits it to be the emblem of the Lord Christ, who is “the Life” itself — Essential Life — and who came that we, though “dead in trespasses and sins,” might have this Life from Him and “have it abundantly” (John 1.4; 10.10; 11.25).
“As an orange-tree among the trees of the rocky-mountain-forest,
I sit down under his shadow with eager desire,
Its singularly reviving and refreshing scent sheds a flood of light on a passage which would otherwise be without any meaning. In our version it is
“Comfort me with apples,
For I am sick of love” (Cant 2.5).
But the word “comfort,” raphad, which occurs here, in the only two other passages where we find it, Job 17.13; 41.30, means “to spread, or strew” hence it should be “strew me,” not “comfort me.” Observe it is the bride in the Song of Songs who is represented as using these words when faint with emotion. Now, the idea of spreading over a bride either branch, blossom, or fruit of the apple tree, possesses no significance whatever. But if we supply the name of the true tree, do we not at once see the striking appropriateness of the exclamation of the bride, “Strew me with orange!” This is just what is done with a bride down to the present day, and here, surely, we have the often enquired for, natural, Eastern origin of the customary bridal wreath. And still more, we have the very reason for its adoption — namely, that, to an Eastern, its pungent and reviving perfume serves as a smelling-bottle does to some sensitive English maiden!
Observe, too, in the light of this explanation, the beauty of that proverb which tells of the excellence of graceful and gentle speech.
“A word spoken on its wheels
Is like oranges (tappoohheem) of gold in figured work of silver” (Prov 225.11).
The flowers and fruit, I have said, continue on the tree together in rich abundance. The blossom of the orange is a brilliant white resembling the hue of the molten silver which is so much prized in the jewellery of the East. As the rich ripe fruit is constantly seen standing out amidst clusters of the shining bloom, it is naturally, to a vivid Oriental imagination, “like oranges of gold in figured work of silver.” “A word spoken on its wheels” means “a smooth, courteous word,” that is, “flowery language,” which men value so highly in lands like Syria, and carry to the extreme of countless formal compliments and much fulsome flattery. But, while avoiding excess and insincerity, well is it for us when, in all our intercourse with others, the golden orange of good matter is seen set off by the fair silvern flowers of a good manner! Some earnest believers do not attach to this subject the importance it undoubtedly deserves.
Let me now tell you about the office of this sturdy young Jew, who has just staggered past us with a huge burden on his back. He is
The ’Atal, or Porter, of Palestine.
No sooner does a traveller land at Joppa, than he finds his belongings frantically contended for by a shouting, struggling crowd of such porters. They are called in Arabic ’atal or hammal. In the complete absence of carts, their services are necessary in all the towns. They wear a coarse, indestructible tunic of camel’s hair cloth, the “sack-cloth” of Scripture (which, as the dress of the lowest class amongst the people, became a sign of distress and mourning (Gen. 37.34; 2 Sam 3.31)) and they carry a strong rope, about five yards long. They can lift and transport enormous weights. They crouch down in front of a pile of heaped-up boxes, or some huge packing case, and skilfully arrange their rope without any knots, so as to catch and sustain the whole load. Then with a sudden spring they rise to their feet, and bring the burden to bear upon their shoulders and the upper part of their back. In this effort to rise they usually empty their lungs of air, with a loud grunting sound, just as men do here when engaging in very heavy lifting labour, to prevent, by this sudden giving out of breath, the danger of breaking a blood-vessel. I have sometimes watched these men with wonder, as they have passed by, laden with burdens so huge in bulk and heavy in weight as to seem altogether beyond human strength. In the accompanying drawing of an ancient Assyrian sculpture there is a striking instance of the unchanged and unchangeable nature of Eastern manners and customs. Here a man, probably a captive slave, is seen carrying a burden, apparently a large stone, in precisely the same way as I have described it as borne now. The familiar office of the ’atal, or burden bearer, is evidently the source of the graphic and affecting figure used by David:
“My iniquities are gone over my head,
Like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me” (Ps 38.4).
This was, doubtless, the origin of that picture of Christian in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress when he first set out heavenward bowed down under an intolerable weight of guilt. How different is the image that rose in the mind of David from that of the man with a small comfortable clothes-bundle strapped upon his back, which seems the highest flight of the artist’s imagination! Constantly have I seen the porter’s huge load reaching far over and above his head, which he has had to hold down in a bowed and painful position, while he staggered along under a weight so monstrous that, had he fallen, it would probably have crushed him to death. Solemn, never-to-be-forgotten picture of a soul “weary and heavy laden” under a deep sense of sin!
Hence, too, the force of the figure of the “burden” in the prophets (Isa 13.1, etc).
Our Blessed Lord plainly refers to the toil of the ’atal when, denouncing the cruelly oppressive ceremonial traditions forced upon the masses by the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees, He tells us that these spiritual task-masters “bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with their finger” (Matt 23.4) In beautiful contrast to such wearisome ritualistic and ceremonial observances, which only tend to bondage, Jesus emphatically declares, “My burden is light” (Matt 11.30).
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Here, in this street, you may see another strange and highly characteristic feature of Oriental life,
The Sais, or Fore-Runner.
His is an extremely picturesque and evidently ancient calling. He may now be seen to the best advantage in the large towns of Egypt. When rich people drive or ride abroad, a servant attends them, called, a sais, or groom, whose duty it is to run on foot at some distance in front of his master’s horse or carriage. This office, like most others in the East, is distinguished by its own peculiar costume. The dress of the sais is light and elegant. The legs are left bare. The spotless white kamise, or cotton tunic, has large, flowing, fan-shaped sleeves, which, as they begin to run, holding their arms stretched out, look like wings. A handsome scarf of cashmere or silk, some eight yards long, is wound round their waist, and over the tunic they wear a short, sleeveless, velvet jacket, profusely embroidered with gold or silver lace. They carry in their hands a long rod. It is their business to clear a passage for their master through the narrow crowded streets, to open gates, announce his coming, and wait upon him when his horse or chariot halts. They take the place of the servants called “footmen” amongst us, and hence the origin of this modern name. As they run, uttering loud warning cries, they use the rod freely over the shoulders of all who obstruct the way. Their strength and powers of endurance are most remarkable, as great in another direction as those of the ’atal. Men drive very rapidly in the East, yet the sais will run without stopping before his master’s carriage, however swiftly borne along, for a distance of a dozen miles! The Khedive in Egypt only allows a subject, no matter how great his rank, to be attended by one sais; and members of the viceregal family may always be known there, when they appear in public, by having two such grooms, or out-runners.
The office of the sais is unquestionably that of the “runner,” or “fore-runner” of Scripture. Samuel’s warning as to “the manner of the king,” — “he will take your sons . . . and they shall run before his chariots” (1 Sam 8.11), is explained by this custom. So also is the conduct of Absalom and Adonijah when, each in turn conspiring against the throne, by way of assuming royal honours, had “fifty men to run before him” (2 Sam 15.1; 1 Kings 1.5). It throws a flood of new light on Elijah’s perfectly natural and chivalrous, though none the less miraculous proceeding, when the king’s runners being either absent at the moment, or purposely replaced by the prophet, he girded up his loins, and, as a sais, ran before the chariot of Ahab from Mount Carmel to the entrance of Jezreel, a distance of some twenty miles (1 Kings 18.44-46)!
A deeply interesting and significant meaning is thus given to the words, “Whither Jesus entered for us as a fore-runner,” occurring in that passage where the Apostle is speaking of the “strong consolation” of those who have “fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Heb 6.18-20). He, who stooped to be amongst His disciples “as one who serves,” seems to Paul like the sais, or runner, who just precedes by a little the chariot of the prince, the believer — who in the coming age is to “reign in life” as a king (Rev 1.6; 5.10; 20.6) — to prepare his way, to enter into the gates of the palace, to take possession of it in his name, and to be ready with His own wonderful and Divine condescension to receive, wait upon, and serve him there (See Luke 12.37)! Viewed in this light we have indeed “strong consolation.”
Arabic is now the language of Palestine, as Syriac was in the days of our Lord. Both are similar to Hebrew, and hence you hear on all occasions an echo of the peculiar phrases and expressions of Holy Scripture. But more than this,
Rare Hebrew Words Occur in Arabic”
the common Arabic one hears now from the lips of the ignorant fellahheen, the modern peasantry of the Holy Land (who, according to the latest and most probable theory, are thought to be descendants of the original seven nations of Canaan) — difficult Hebrew words with their precise technical meaning, to which in some cases classical Arabic gives us no clue. A notable one occurs in the case of the word surar. It was found by Captain C R Conder, RE, while conducting the Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine, as the name of an ancient ruin, and after an educated native Arabic friend, who lived in a large town, had failed to find a meaning for the word, he discovered that it was still on the lips of the labourers on Mr Bergheim’s farm at Abu Shooshee, on the Judean edge of the Philistine Plain, signifying “pebble” or “small stone.” This gives us the true technical meaning of the precisely similar Hebrew word (according to the rules of Arabic spelling) tzeroar, and throws, as I shall presently show, a flood of light on the reference to sifting in Amos 9.9.
While speaking about the language of Palestine, let me call your attention to the great importance of these realistic Biblical studies as
A Means of Silencing Infidelity.
Take, for example, the highly damaging objection often urged by atheists against Holy Scripture, on the ground of the coarseness of the expressions it contains, and the handling of subjects, the very mention of which in such plain terms we should account immodest and even impure. Indeed, I know that this has been a grave and honest difficulty to many earnest and sensitive minds. Yet a comparatively short residence in Palestine serves to remove it altogether. No Eastern could possibly see any objection whatever on this score. They still, as in ancient times, use the greatest plainness of speech throughout Syria. As soon as one acquires a knowledge of common Arabic, the ear is assailed by a plain speaking on the most delicate subjects, which is extremely embarrassing until such time as one learns to become accustomed to it. Things that are never mentioned amongst us, are spoken of publicly in the East even by ladies of the highest class, and of the greatest respectability, refinement, and purity. This explains at once the naturalness and innocency of the use of expressions and the mention of matters in the Bible, which our translators have softened down in some instances, and public readers have tacitly agreed to omit in others. The purest-minded Eastern woman would smile at an objection to the Bible on this score! But I may go further, and boldly say that seeing the Bible purports to be an Eastern book, written in the East, by Easterns, and first — and for long ages — addressed to Easterns only, it could not possibly be genuine if these very matters which have given rise to such blasphemous cavils were absent from its pages! Thus, in the light of Palestine life, a terrible objection of coarse infidelity, not only melts away, but actually becomes transformed into a very strong evidence of the genuineness and accuracy of Holy Scripture!
Few strange sights impress one more upon first entering the country than those presented by the universal habit of
Carrying Weapons of War
Civilians of the most peaceable character may constantly be met armed with sword, pistols, knife, and gun. The wild beasts which roam by night, the Syrian bears, hunting leopards, wolves, hyaenas, wild boars, packs of wild dogs, and huge vultures of every kind, up to the monstrous lammergeyer, require men to be armed; and so also do the endless family feuds arising out of the terrible thar, or “blood revenge,” border warfare, Bedaween raids, and desperate attacks by robbers, which have always been features of a residence in Palestine. When I first went out to Jerusalem, I determined not to carry firearms, thinking them inconsistent with my peaceful calling; but I had not been there many months — during which I had to make long journeys alone by night — before I found it, humanly speaking, absolutely necessary to do as I found everyone doing around me, if only as a protection against wild beasts, and I accordingly sent home for a case of the best revolvers. This universal practice of carrying weapons, and when travelling of being armed to the teeth, affords a striking, undesigned, and therefore powerful evidence of the genuineness of the Book of Psalms. On one occasion, when I made a classified list of the fourteen subjects into which the imagery of that Book may be divided, I found figures drawn from weapons of war coming third in frequency. It would not be so in Western poems.
What a light, too, this throws on the figurative words of our Blessed Lord, “He that has no sword, let him sell his cloak and buy one” (Luke 22.36)! I learned, by the experience of every-day life, that these words, in their fullest meaning, imply no more than saying, “Take now the usual precautions which all prudent and experienced people employ when setting out upon long and dangerous journeys.” This passage in the Gospel has been much carped at by unbelievers, but the reader will see that their objections are the result of ignorance, and cannot live for a moment in the light of Palestine life.
The Dress of the People
is very varied, striking, and picturesque; yet each class is clothed alike, in garments, for the most part, of the same material, colour, and style. The fellahheen, or peasantry, the mass of the people, who may be said to be “the working-men” of Bible times, wear no shoes or stockings, but are clad in a white wide-sleeved shirt, coming down almost to the ankles, and gathered in round the waist with a red leather girdle. Their head-dress is the turban. Though it is not worn when working, they have a large, sleeveless, thick, camel’s hair cloak, often alluded to in Scripture, which forms their principal covering at night (Exod 22.26, 27. They have also red leather shoes which they seldom wear.) The “girding” of the Bible is the fastening the belt round the loins, and tucking up the end of the long cotton shirt, and thrusting it through the belt so as to leave most of the legs uncovered, and free for exercise or work. Whenever, therefore, in Scripture we find mention of “a girdle (that is, a belt) of leather,” we know (whether or not the fact is added that its possessor had a “hair cloak”) that the person brought under notice was dressed as a fellahh, or working-man. Thus, Elijah and John the Baptist, it is intimated by the mention of their leather belts, were dressed in this humble fashion, which brings much more of contempt and reproach in a land like Palestine — where dress, in every case, is a distinct mark of rank — than it would with us (2 Kings 1.8; Matt 3.4). John the Baptist, as a priest, was one of the nobility. Josephus makes this plain at the commencement of the story of his life, when speaking of his own descent. The priestly caste were the highest nobility amongst Israel. John, though a nobleman, dressed as a working-man. This is the pointed allusion. All the prophets assumed this humble garb. Hence the fitness of our Saviour’s living as He did as a fellahh, or villager, nay, the absolute necessity for His doing so if He were to be believed in as a prophet! (Even false prophets wore “a hair cloak” — Zech 13.4.)
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The Three Conditions of Life
Throughout Palestine and Bible lands generally, there are to-day, and ever have been, three classes or conditions of life. The first of these is the Belladeen, or dwellers in walled towns, who have lived there from generation to generation, generally in their own freehold houses, and who are mostly merchants, tradesmen, and artisans. The second is the Fellahheen, that is, “ploughmen,” or farmers, the dwellers in settled unwalled villages, who, from the Sheikh, or primitive ruler, down to the humblest man in the community possessing oxen to plough, are joint owners under the crown in a kind of freehold tenure of the soil which they cultivate. The third class is the Bedaween, or nomad Arabs, who roam the desert, the dwellers in rough, dark tents, or as they call them “houses of hair,” consisting as they do of cloths made of goat’s or camel’s hair, sewn together and stretched on rude poles, and who pursue the calling of shepherds and herdsmen. Each of these classes, or conditions of life, has matters peculiar to itself, and a distinct knowledge of where they agree and how they differ is necessary to a full understanding of many passages of Scripture. The Bedaween are the least civilised; the Fellahheen are a little higher in the social scale; while the Belladeen, or townsmen, have many luxuries and comforts unknown to the other two.
To take one instance, to show the importance of this in explaining Scripture, observe the mention of “coal,” by which you must always understand “charcoal,” the only coal of Bible lands. The Fellahheen class, to which our Blessed Lord and most of His first disciples, as dwellers in villages like Nazareth and Capernaum, appear to have belonged, do not commonly use any other fuel than wood for heating their houses (which burnt on the stone floor in the midst of the chimneyless room, is, on account of the smoke, a trying way of getting warmth), and dried cow-dung for cooking purposes (Ezek 4.15). To them, therefore, “coal,” that is, “charcoal,” would be a great luxury. Think of this in connection with the “fire of coals,” that had such attraction for Peter at the high-priest’s palace, that is, “the brazier of charcoal,” used amongst the wealthy in towns instead of our modern fireplace (John 18.18). Observe the force of it also in connection with that excellent “breakfast” of broiled fish and bread which our Blessed Lord prepared for His disciples. No wonder John notices with admiration “the fire of coals,” since these poor men were probably accustomed to their food being cooked with the usual fuel of dried cow-dung (John 21.9). So also in the case of Elijah’s meal (1 Kings 19.6).
How arduous is the life of an Eastern shepherd and how full of hardships and dangers! His ceaseless care of the flock calls for exposure to all manners of weathers, and involves work by night as well as by day, especially in the lambing season. Thus Jacob cries, “In the day drought has consumed me, and frost by night, and my sleep has wandered from my eyes” (Gen 31.40). It is for this reason that the duties of such a life are too trying and severe to be faithfully carried out by hirelings. Ezekiel, speaking of the neglect of faithless shepherds, cries: “The weak ye have not strengthened, and sick one ye have not healed, and the broken ye have not bound up, and the driven away ye have not brought back, and the lost ye have not sought” (Ezek 34.4). For all these labours have to be faithfully performed by a good shepherd. To such arduous duties must be added the perils they have to encounter daily in the deserts, which form the principal pastures in Bible lands, from wild beasts, brigands, and Bedaween and Arabs.
It will be seen what light this throws on our Lord’s words. “And the hireling also [literally ‘and’] not being a shepherd whose own the sheep are not, beholds the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep; and the hireling flees because he is an hireling, and is not caring for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd, and I know my [sheep] and I am known by mine, according as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10.12-15).
There is a very remarkable and regular provision of Nature, peculiar to Bible lands, which may be observed in a first sight of Palestine on any night in the hot season, when a west wind is blowing. I allude to
The Sea-Night-Mist of the Hot Season
It explains in a very striking and hitherto unsuspected manner the numerous mentions of the Hebrew word tal, uniformly rendered “dew” in the Authorised Version of the Bible. Some of these mentions have presented hitherto unanswerable difficulties, such as the statement of the wise man, that —
“The clouds drop down the ‘dew’” (Prov 3.20),
which, if “dew” in the scientific sense of the word is understood, is just what they do not, no dew ever forming when clouds are about! Again, the words in Isaac’s blessing, “God give thee of the ‘dew’ of heaven” (Gen 27.28); those of Moses, summing up the precious things of heaven in the “dew” (Deut 33.13); the power of an absolute Eastern king being likened to “‘dew’ upon the grass” (Prov 19.12); and saved Israel’s influence amongst the nations to “a ‘dew’ from Jehovah” (Mic 5.7; see also Hos 14.5); such words as these, and those in many other passages, bespeak a peculiar excellence and value which dew does not possess even amongst us, and still less in Palestine, where it only occurs in the winter, the time of abundant heavy rains, which render it comparatively useless!
It was my good fortune, as a result of my residence in Jerusalem, to discover the deeply interesting natural feature which is called in our version “dew,” and fully to realise in what its importance and excellence consists. (It is true that Dr Thomson in The Land and the Book, and countless other writers, have passing allusions to the summer sea-night-mist, but all have spoken of it as “dew,” and have treated it as such, and have overlooked its true character which brings out so beautifully the accuracy and force of all the Bible allusions.) From the end of April till about the end of October no drop of rain falls; while each day, for some ten to twelve hours, the sun shines with great strength unveiled by a single cloud. This fierce heat is in May and October intensified by a burning wind, the shirocco, which gathers its withering, scorching; power as it sweeps over the vast sands of the Arabian desert, and is the awful “east wind” of the Bible. (For the withering and fatal effects of this painful wind see Job 27.21; Jer 18.17; Ezek 17.10, 19.15; Hos 13.15; etc). During this period, but more especially at its close in September and October, the west wind, which then prevails, comes up laden with moisture from the Mediterranean Sea, which is condensed in low-lying clouds of mist as soon as it reaches the land. These cloud-masses sweep along near the ground, leaving behind them an immense amount of what is mis-named in our version “dew,” but which is really a very fine, gentle rain in the form of a light Scotch mist. Its great excellence consists —
I. In its coming only in the hottest and driest season when no other moisture can be had.
II. In its only coming during the night “when no man can work,” and so interfering in no way with the business or pleasures of life.
III. In its coming in such rich abundance as far to exceed the moisture deposited by any formation of dew.
IV. In its coming in such fine particles and moderate quantities as not even to hurt the gathered grain lying out on the open-air threshing floors.
V. In its effects ceasing as soon as the sun is hot, and so leaving no miasmic or other injurious results behind, whence it is well called by Hosea “the night-mist which early goes away.”
This explanation exactly accounts for “the clouds” being said “to drop” it down, which is just what they do. Very beautiful are the silvery-shining mist-clouds which may be seen as the day dawns being drawn up and dissolved into thin air, the fugitive clouds to which Hosea compares Israel’s brief and transient seasons of goodness —
“Your goodness is like the morning cloud,
And like the night-mist [tal] which early goes away” (Hos 6.4).
It also displays the naturalness of the great amount of tal, or “night-mist,” which fell miraculously on Gideon’s fleece (Judg 6.38). It adds a new intensity to our Saviour’s pathetic appeal —
“Open to me . . .
For my head is filled with night-mist [tal]],
And my locks with the drops of the night” (Cant 5.2).
There is an icy chill often attending exposure to the “night-mist” which is not experienced on a dewy night; the latter being always fine. In a word, let “night-mist” be written in each of the thirty-four places in our Bible where “dew” occurs, and it will be found to give a new meaning and a new beauty in every instance!
What fresh point and power now clothe the gracious promise —
“I will be as the night-mist [tal] to Israel” (Hos 14.5),
and also that beautiful but difficult passage, Psalm 110.3!
Another picturesque custom claims our attention —
The Carrying on the Shoulder.
Here is a familiar Palestine sight, a woman carrying a child, a little naked babe, sitting astride upon her shoulder, and holding on to the top of her head with its little hands. This is a most sensible way of nursing, and it is universal throughout the East, only being varied by the child sometimes sitting astride on the hip. The admirable seat in the saddle, and the strong riding grip of the knees, for which Easterns are so justly celebrated, is learnt from earliest infancy in this simple but effectual way; and it is a lesson of the greatest importance in a land where every journey has to be made in the saddle, and where it is the fashion for women to sit astride a horse like men. There is a striking reference to this in Isaiah 49.22. Speaking of the honours and comforts to be received by God’s ancient people, the Jews, from those Gentiles who have persecuted them in the past, when they are brought back to their own land, the Prophet cries —
“I will lift up my hand to the nations. . . .
And thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders” (Isa 49.22).
This is the same as to say that Israel, the new-born children of God, shall enjoy lowly offices of service, and even parental nurture at the hands of those nations from whom, during eighteen centuries of wandering, they have suffered so much. And, therefore, in the next verse we read —
“And kings shall be thy nursing fathers,
And their princesses thy nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the earth.”
It should be borne in mind that girls in the East do not receive anything like the consideration shown to boys. In this, the order which the teaching of Christ has introduced amongst us is entirely reversed. The despised position occupied by women in Palestine, pointedly expressed in the daily prayer of every adult Jewish male, “Thank God, who has not made me a woman!” and in many other painful ways, is the necessary outcome of the debasing system of polygamy (the having more wives than one) which has prevailed in that country from the earliest times. There is, therefore, a touch of intense meaning given to the picture of the honour which God has in store for His ancient people, when He declares —
“Thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders!"
