3. Building Materials. The principal build ing tnaterials mentioned in Scripture may be enumerated with reference to their place in the three kingdoms of nature: (1) Vegetable Substances. (a) Shittim, or the timber of the acacia tree, which grows abundantly in the valleys of Arabia Petrxa, and was therefore employed in the construction of the tabernacle. Not being, however, a tree of Palestine, the wood was not subsequently used in building.
(b) Shakenzim; that is, the wood of the syca more fig-tree, mentioned in Is. ix :to, as a build ing timber in more common use than cedar, or perhaps than any other wood known in Pales tine.
(c) Eres, or cedar. As this was a wood im ported from Lebanon, it would only be used in the higher class of buildings. For its quality as a building timber, and respecting the question of its being really what we call the cedar, see ERES.
(d) Algum-wood, which, being imported from the Eastern seas, must have been valued at a bigh price. It was used by Solomon for pillars for his own palace, and for the Temple ( f Kings x:ii, 12).
(e) Berosh, or cypress-wood. Boards of this were used for the floor of the Temple, which may suggest the use to which it was ordinarily applied (1 Kings vi 2 Chron. :5).
(2) Mineral Substances. (a) Marble. We find the court of the king of Persia's palace covered with marble of various colors (Esth.i :6). David is recorded to have possessed abundance of marble Chron. xxix :2 ; comp. Cant. v:z5), and it was used by Solomon for his palace, as well as for the Temple.
(b) Porphyry and Granite are supposed to be 'the glistering stones, and stones of divers colors' named in Chron. xxix :2. If so, the mountains of Arabia Petrma furnished the nearest source of supply, as these stones do not exist in Palestine or Lebanon.
(c) Brieks. Bricks hardened by fire were em ployed in the construction of the tower of Babel (Gen. xi :3), and the hard bondage of the Israel ites in Egypt consisted in the manufacture of sun-dried bricks (Exod. v :7, io-z3). This im portant building material has been noticed under another head. (See BracK.) No subsequent notice of bricks as being used by the Hebrews occurs after they had entered Palestine. Yet, judging from existing analogies, it is more than probable that bricks were to a considerable extent employed in their buildings.
(d) Chalk and Gypsum, which the Hebrews appear to have comprehended under the general name of sid. That the Hebrews were acquainted with these materials appears from Deut. xxvii :2:
and from Dan. v:5, and Acts xxiii :3, it further ap pears that walls were covered with them. A highly instructive and curious account of the plasters used in the East may be seen in tome iv of Langles's edition of Chardin's Voyages.
(e) Mortar, a cement made of lime, ashes, and chopped straw, or of gypsum and_chopped straw.. This is probably meant in Jer. :9 ; Ezek. xiii to, 1, 14, 15.
(f) Aspha/tum, or Bitumen, which is mentioned as being used for a cement by the builders of Babel. This must have been in the want of lime mortar, the country being a stoneless plain. But the Israelites, who had no lack of the usual cements, did not employ asphaltum. (See BITU MEN.) (g) The metals also must be, to a certain ex tent, regarded as building materials; lead, iron and copper are mentioned ; and even silver and gold were used in combination with wood, for various kinds of solid, plated, and inlaid work (Exod. xxxvi :34, 38).
(3) Animal Substances. Such substances can be but in a small degree applicable to build ing. Ivory houses are mentioned in 1 Kings xxii: 39; Amos iii :14; most likely from certain parts of the woodwork, probably about the doors and windows, being inlaid with this valuable sub stance. Solomon obtained ivory in great quan tities from Tyre (1 Kings X :22 ; 2 Chron. ix :21). (See Ivony.) 4. Present Conditions. In describing the houses of ancient Palestine, there is no way of arriving at distinct notions but by taking the texts of Scripture and illustrating them by the existing houses of those parts of Western Asia which have been the least exposed to the changes of time, and in which the manners of ancient days have been the best preserved.
The present writer, having resided for a con siderable time in Turkish Arabia, where the type of Scriptural usages has been better preserved than in Egypt, or even in Palestine itself, is en abled to speak on this matter with somewhat more precision. Of four houses in which he there resided, two were first rate and two second rate. One of the latter has always seemed to him to suggest a more satisfactory idea of a Scriptural house than any of the others, or than any he ever saw in other Eastern countries. That one has therefore formed the basis of all his ideas on this subject, and where it seemed to fail, the others have usually supplied the illus tration required.