FOLLY (folTy), (mostly Heb.t$, iv-veh'leth and neb-aw' law).
The first word means silliness, as in Prov. v:23, etc.; the second word emptiness (Gen. xxxiv :7, and many others).
1. Folly denotes, in general, weakness of under standing (Ps. xiv :1 ; Cor. :27; iv :to), and somethnes sin or wickcdncss (Ps. xxxviii :5; Josh. vii :15). The transgression and disobedience of Adam were the height of folly, as is the sin of humanity generally. Foolish talking, jesting, fool ish and unlearned questions, ctc. (2 Tim. ii :23), are such as are vain, frivolous, or have no useful tendency.
2. The phrase "Thou fool" (Matt. v :22), im plies not only an angry temper and foolishness, but probably also hnpiety and wickedness, in al lusion to Ps. xiv:t, where the atheist is called a fool. (See Foot.) FOOD (fi5Tid), (Heb. 2T.21?, lekh-em, bread, food).
The productions of a country, at an early period of the world, necessarily determined its food. Pal estinc abounded with grain and various kinds of vegetables, as well as with animals of different species. Such, accordingly, in general, was the sustenance which its inhabitants took.
(1) In Early Times. Bread formed 'the sO6c of life' to the ancient Hebrews even more than to ourselves; but the modes of preparing it have been noticed under other heads. (See BREAD ; MILL) On a remarkable occasion a calf, tender and good, is taken, slain, dressed (roasted, most prob ably, Judg. vi :19; Gen. xxvii :7; t Sam. ii :13 ; Exod. xii :8, 9; boiling was not known till long afterward), and set before the guests, while thc entertainer (Abraham) respectfully stood at their side, doubtless to rcnder any desirable service. The sauce or accompaniments on this occasion were butter and milk. From Gen. xix :3 it may be inferred that the bread was unleavened.
The cases, however, to which reference has been made were of a special nature ; and from them, as well as from what is rccorded touching Isaac and Esau and Jacob, it appears that flesh meat was reserved as food for guests, or as a dainty for the sick ; lentils, pulse, onions, grain, honey and milk being the ordinary fare.
The agreeable, and perhaps in part the salu brious, qualities of salt were very early known and recognized. In Lev. ii :13 it is expressly enjoined : 'Every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt; with all thine offerings shalt thou offer salt.'
Locusts were a permitted (Lev. xi :22) and a very common food. At the present day they are gathered by the Bedouins in the beginning of April, and, being roasted on plates of iron, or dried in the sun, are kept in large bags, and, when needed, eaten strewed with salt by handfuls.
Of four-footed animals and birds the favorite food were sheep, goats, oxen and doves. There are few traces of the eating of fish, at least in Palestine (Num. xi :15 ; Lev. xi :9-22). In the last passage a distinction is made between certain fish which might be eaten and others which were for bidden. 'These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters ; whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat; and all that have not fins and scales they shall be an abomination unto you.' (2) Among the Egyptians. The distinction of clean and unclean animals, and of animals which might and those which might not be eaten, is found to have existed to a grcat extent in ancient Egypt. Among fish the oxyrrhynchus, the phagrus, and the lepidotus were sacred, and might not even be touched. The inhabitants of Oxyrrhynchus ob jected to eating any fish caught by a hook, lest it should have been defiled by the blood of one they held so sacred. The phagrus was the eel ; and the reason of its sanctity, like that of the oxyrrhyncluis, was probably owing to its unwholesome qualities ; the most effectual method of forbidding its use being to assign it a place among thc sacred ani mals of the country.
Neither the hippopotamus nor the crocodile ap pears to have been caten by the ancient Egyptians. Some of the Egyptians considered the crocodile sacred, while others made war upon it (Herod. ii :69). In some places it was treated with the most marked respect, fed, attended, adorned, and after death embalmed. But the people of Apol linopolis, Tentyris, Heracicopolis and other places held the animal in abhorrence ; how far they car ried their dislike may be seen in Juvenal (Sat. xv), though something, probably, must be de ducted from the account, in consideration of poetic license.