(5) Butter. Butter is not often mentioned in Scripture, and even less frequently than our ver sion would suggest ; for, as already intimated, the word khene-aw must sometimes be understood curdled milk. Indeed, it may be doubted whether it denotes butter in any place besides Deut. xxxii : 14, 'butter of kine,' and Prov. xxx :33, 'the churn ing of milk bringeth forth butter,' as all the other texts will apply better to curdled milk than to butter. Butter was, however, doubtless much in use among the Hebrews, and we may be sure that it was prepared in the same manner as at this day among the Arabs and Syrians. The milk is put into a large copper pan over a slow fire, and a little leben or sour milk (the same as the curdled milk mentioned above), or a portion of the dried entrails of a lamb, is thrown into it. The milk then separates, and is put into a goatskin bag, which is tied to one of the tent poles, and con stantly moved backwards and forwards for two hours.. The buttery substance then coagulates, the water is pressed out, and the butter put into an other skin. In two days the butter is again placed over the fire. with the addition of a quan tity of burgoul ( wheat boiled with leaven, and dried in the sun), and allowed to boil for some time, during which it is carefully skimmed. It is then found that the burgoul has precipitated all the foreign substances, and that the butter remains quite clear at the top. This is the process used by the Bedouins, and it is also the one em ployed by the settled people of Syria and Arabia. The chief difference is that in making butter and cheese the townspeople employ the milk of cows and buffaloes, whereas the Bedouins, who do not keep these animals, use that of sheep and goats. The butter is generally white, of the color and consistence of lard, and is not much relished by English travelers. It is eaten with bread in large quantities by those who can afford it, not spread out thinly over the surface, as with us, but taken in mass with the separate morsels of bread. (See BUTTER.) FiguratiVe. In the greater number of exam ples it is employed figuratively to denote great abundance, and in many instances it is used as a general term for all or any of the preparations from it.
(t) In its figurative use, the word occurs some times alone, as the sign of abundance (Gen. xlix: I2 ; Ezek. xxv :4 ; Joel iii :18, etc.) ; but more fre quently in combination with honey—`milk and honey' being a phrase which occurs about twenty times in Scripture. Thus a rich and fertile soil is described as a 'land flowing with milk and honey' ; which, although usually said of Palestine, is also applied to other fruitful countries, as Egypt (Num. xvi :13). Hence its use to denote the food of children.
(2) Milk is also constantly employed as a sym bol of the elementary parts or rudiments of doc trine (1 Cor. 111:2 ; Heb. V :12, 13) ; and from its purity and simplicity it is also made to symbolize the unadulterated word of God and the blessings of the Gospel. (I Pet. ii :2 ; comp. Is. lv :1).
MILL (m11), Heb. 77, ray-kheh', to pulverize; Gr. paw, moo7one, grinder).
The mill for grinding corn had not wholly su perseded the mortar for pounding it in the time of Moses. The mortar and the mill are named together in Num. xi :8. But fine meal, that is,
meal ground or pounded fine, is mentioned so early as the time of Abraham (Gen. xviii :6) ; hence mills and mortars must have been pre viously known. The mill common among the He brews differed little from that which is in use to this day throughout Western Asia and North ern Africa. It consisted of two circular stones two feet in diameter, and half a foot thick. The lower is called the 'nether millstone' (Job xli 24), and the upper the 'rider,' Z21 (Judg. IX:53; 2 Sam. xi :21). The former was usually fixed to the floor, and had a slight elevation in the center, or, in other words, was slightly convex in the. upper. surface. The upper stone had a concavity in its under surface fitting to, or re ceiving, the. convexity of the lower stone. There was a hole in the top, through which the corn was introduced by handfuls at a time. The upper stone had an upright stick fixed in it as a handle, by which it was made to turn upon the lower stone, and by this action the corn was ground, and came out at the edges. As there were neither public mills nor bakers, except the king's (Gen. x1:2; Hos. vii :4-8), each family possessed a mill; and as it was in daily use, it was made an in fringement of the Law for a person to take an other's mill or millstone in pledge (Deut. xxiv:6).
The mill was, as now, commonly turned by two persons, usually women, and these, the work being laborious, the lowest maid-servants in the house. They sat opposite each other. One took hold of the mill-handle, and impelled it half way round; the other then seized it, and completed the revolution (Exod. xi:5; Job xxxi:io, ; Is.
xlvii :2 ; xxiv :41). As the labor was severe and menial, enemies taken in war were often con demned to perform it (Judg. xvi:2i; Lam. v:13). (Jahn, Biblischcs Archaol. ix:139.) lt will be seen that this millstone does not materially differ from the Highland quern; and is, indeed, an obvious resource in those remote quarters, where a population is too thin or too scattered to afford remunerative employment to a miller by trade. In the East this trade is still unknown, the hand mill being in general and exclusive use among the corn-consuming, and the mortar among the rice-consuming, nations. (See BREAD ; CORN.) Figuratitre. (1) Both the millstones were hard, and it seems especially the nethermost, which was fixed ; and so the heart of leviathan is likened to a piece of it, to represent his un daunted courage and obstinacy (Job xli :24). (2) The ceasing of the sound of the millstones was a sure sign that a place had been turned into a desolation (Jer. xxv :to; Rev. xviii :22). (3) Christ's falling on men, and grinding them to powder, denotes the final, complete and terrible destruction of those who refuse to yield their wills to him (Matt. xxi :44; Luke xx :18). (4) To "grind the faces of the poor," is cruelly to op press and afflict them (Is. iii:i5). (5) "Let my wife grind to another"; let her become the prop erty of another man, and his slave to work at the mill (Jceb xxxi:to). Our jaw teeth. which chew our food, are called our "grinders"; and their sound is brought low when they are lost by old age (Eccl. xii :3. 4)•