ALMOND (a'niind ), (Heb. shaw-kade', wakeful, probably from its early blossoming) (Gcn. xliii :It ; Num. xvii :8; Eccles. xii :5; Jer.
i :it). This tree is a native of Syria and Palestine, and is highly ornamental from the beauty of its blossoms. The form of the almond would lead to its selection for ornamental carved work (Exod. xxv :33. xxxvii :10, independently of its forming an esteemed esculent, as well as probably yielding a useful oil. In Eccles. xii:5, it is said, 'The almond tree shall flourish, and the fruit of the caper droop, because man god!) to his long home.' This evidently refers to the profuse flowering and white appearance of the almond tree when in full bloom, and before its leaves appear. It is hence adduced as illustrative of the hoary hairs of age, in the same way as the drooping of the fruit of the caper seems to refer to the hanging down of the head. Dr. Ditto mentions the almond among the first trees that flower in January. 'There are two species of Amygdalus in Palestine; the common almond tree, and the peach tree, and both are this month in blossom in every part of Palestine, on both sides of the Jordan. It was doubtless from this winter blossoming of the almond tree, not less than from the snowy whiteness of the blossoms, that the hoary head of the aged man is. 1w a beautiful metaphor, said in Scripture to flourish like the almond tree' (Physic. Hist. of Palestine).
G. E. I'ost, Hastings' Bib. Diet., says: "Time usual interpretation of Eccles. xii. 'the almond tree shall flourish: is that the old man's hair shall turn white like the almond tree. To this Gesenius objects, that the blossom of the al mond is pink, not white. He prefers to translate the word for flourish by spurn or reject, making the old man reject the almond because he has no teeth to eat it. But this objection has no force. The pink color of the almond blossom is very light, usually mainly at the base of the petals, and fades as they open, and the general effect of the tree as seen at a distance is snowy white. We may therefore retain the beautiful
imagery which brings to mind the silver hair of the aged, and draw from the snowy blossom the promise of the coming fruit." FiguratiVe. In Jer. i:11, 12, the Hebrew words for almond are Shamkade' and Show- Karr , and signify the 'wakes.' in allusion to its being the first tree to wake to life in the winter. The word also contains the signification of 'watching' and 'hastening.' The almond was the emblem of the divine forwardness in bringing God s promises to pass. A similar instance in the name of another rosaceous plant is the apricot, which was named from pray-ocia (early) on account of its blossoms appearing early in the spring, and its fruit ripening earlier than its congener the peach (Pliny, xv ALMS (amz). (Gr. IXennoat;vn, nay). The English word is an abridged form of the Greek, brought down in several successive cor ruptions, still to be found in the Anglo-Saxon and early English dialects: thus the Saxon trans lation of the original term is (Matt. vi:4) xlmes san; Luther's, ahnosen; Wycliffe's, al tnessc; Craft titer's, almose; Tyndale's, alines. The Greek word is derived from Acos, pity or mercy ; and hence comes to denote our manifestations of pity, namely, benefactions to the needy—'an almes-deede,' as it is translated in the Rheims version of the New Testament. The primary meaning of 'alms' does not, as is the case in its Greek original, appear on the face of the word, and the derivative signification only re mains in the English term; so that a word which prOperly signified merciful feelings and merciful actions towards the indigent has, in process of time, been restricted to one particular kind of charitable deeds, denoting now scarcely anything more than giving money to beggars. This de parture from the etymological meaning of the original word should be carefully borne in mind by those who undertake to expound such pas sages of Scripture as bear on the subject.