ETZ-HADAR (-17;:t 17) occurs only once in Scripture, in Lev. xxiii. 4o, where the Israelites are directed, in remembrance of their dwelling in tents or booths when they were brought out of the land of Egypt, to leave their homes and dwell in booths for a season every year. 'And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees (pert etz-hadar), etc.' The words pert etz haa'ar, the Septuagint renders xamrbv EOXou thpalop, and the Vulgate, fructus arboris pulcherrima., the 'fructus ligni honoris ' of Ursini. These transla tions are followed in many versions, as enumerated by Celsius (Hierobot. i. p. 252); but, as this author also shews, Onkelos and others consider the phrase to signify fructus arboris citrei :' so R. Aben Esra, in Hebrew, but as translated by Celsius, 'Fructus arboris • specioste est citrus. Nam certe nullus fructus arboreus speciosior est illo.' The term etragh or atruj is that translated citrus. This interpretation has been adopted by the Jews, and is that given by Josephus. The orange and lemon have sometimes been adduced as the citrus of the above passages, but both were unknown in those early times so far north as Palestine ; while the citron seems to have been early introduced from Media, and was known to the Greeks and Romans, as we shall shcw under the article TAPPUACH. Some again are of opinion that the
olive is intended by the word hadar, as the olive is mentioned instead of this tree by Nehemiah (viii. 15), in reference apparently to the above passage. Instead of fruit, however, some, as Tremellius and Dr. Geddes, conceive that pen/ signifies young growing shoots or boughs, as indeed it is inter preted in our A. V. There can be no objec tion to the citron being considered the hada, as is done by the Jews; since we learn from Josephus that they had them in their hands in festo Scenopegiorum, when they threw them at King Alexander Janmeus ; and they still con tinue to use citrons at the Feast of Tabernacles. But this does not prove that the citron was common in Palestine, or rather in the desert, at the time of Moses. The lawgiver, if he specified any, would no doubt direct the Israelites to take such fruits or branches as were procurable in the desert ; but it is probable, as maintained by the majority of commentators, that the term is general, rather than specific, and therefore that the fruit or branches of any goodly tree might be thus employed. (Comp. Ursini, Arboret. Bibl. p. 577).—J. F. R.