EZRACII (rm). This word occurs only once in Scripture, namely, in Ps. xxxvii. 35, where it is rendered bay-tree. Commentators and translators have differed respecting it ; some supposing it to indicate a specific tree, as the laurel ; others, sup ported by the Septuagint and Vulgate, the cedar of Lebanon ; others, an evergreen tree ; others, a green tree that grows in its native soil, or that has not suffered by transplanting, as such a tree spreads itself luxuriously ; while others again, as the un known author of the sixth Greek edition, who is quoted by Celsius (i. p. 194), consider the word as referring to the indigenous man :' Vidi impium et impudentem, in ferocia sua gloriantem, et dicen tern : sum instar amhulanti in justitia ;' and this opinion is adopted by Celsius himself.
Celsius states that recent interpreters have adopted the laurel or bay-tree for no other reason than because viret semper laurus, nec fronde caducaCarpitur.
Sir Thomas Browne, indeed, says, as the sense of the text is sufficiently answered by this, we are unwilling to exclude that noble plant from the honour of having its name in Scripture.' The cause why the laurel is not more frequently mentioned in Scripture, is, probably, because it was never very common in Palestine ; as otherwise, from its pleasing appearance, grateful shade, and the agreeable odour of its leaves, it could hardly have failed to attract attention. Though Celsius and others have remarked that, if ezrach does indeed signify a tree, it must be some one distinct from the laurel, and one quae in Judea frequens fuerit, et altitudine, frondiumque umbra, atque ameenitate prxcelluerit cxteris,' yet no evidence is adduced by any of the above authors in behalf of the bay-tree, as that intended in the passage re ferred to. It appears to us that the Hebrew word must have been derived from the Arabic ashmek, which is described in Arabic works on Materia Medica as a tree having leaves like the ghar, that is, the bay-tree or laurus nobilis of botanists. If ezrach, therefore, was originally the same word as ashruk, then it would indicate some tree resembling the bay-tree, rather than the bay tree itself; but, until that can be discovered, the latter is, upon the whole, well suited to stand as its representative.
The laurel or bay-tree, laurus nobilis of botanists, is well known to the Asiatics by its Arabic name of 6., ghar, under which it is mentioned by Serapion and Avicenna, who quote chiefly Dios corides and Galen, thus indicating that they had not much original information of their own respect ing a tree which is probably not indigenous in the countries in which they wrote. The leaves and berries of the laurel, as well as the bark and the root, were employed in medicine : the berries con tinue, even in the present day, to be exported to India, where we found them in the bazaars, under the name of hubal-ghar (Rlzest. Him. Bot., p. 326),
being still esteemed as a stimulant medicinal, though not possessed of any properties superior to those of the laurels of more southern latitudes. The Arabs give zafnee and zaknee as the Greek names of the ghar-tree. These are corruptions, no doubt, of the name by which the bay tree was known to the Greeks. It does not appear to occur in Palestine, as travellers, such as Rauwolf and Belon, do not mention it. Hassel quist expressly states that he had not met with it in Judxa or Galilee, but had rested himself very comfortably under its shade near the mountains beyond White Cape, on the road from Acre to Sidon. In the neighbourhood of Antioch bay trees were formerly very abundant, especially at the village and grove of Daphne, famous for the temple of Apollo and its licentious rites. Though the cypress-grove and the consecrated bay-trees have disappeared from the immediate vicinity of Antioch, Dr. Pococke states that they are in great abundance at some little distance. Capts. Irby and Mangles describe the beauty of the scenery on the banks of the Orontes as surpassing anything they expected to see in Syria, and the luxuriant variety of the foliage as prodigious. The laurel, laurestinus, bay-tree, fig-tree, wild vine, plane tree, English sycamore, arbutus, both common and Andrachne, dwarf oak, etc., were scattered in all directions. Capt. M. Kinneir describes a delight ful spot, called Babyle, about seven miles from Antioch, which he was disposed to consider the ancient Daphne. A number of fountains boil up from amongst the rocks, and flow in different channels through a meadow, shaded with luxu riant bay-trees, walnut-trees, and groves of myrtle. The bay-tree is well known to be common in the south of Europe, as in Spain, Italy, Greece, and the Levant. It is usually from 20 to 30 feet in height, often having a bushy appearance, from throwing up so many suckers ; but in England it has attained a height of 6o feet, which is not un usual in warmer climates. It is unnecessary to allude further to the celebrity which it attained among the ancients—a celebrity which has not yet passed away, the laurel-wreath being still the symbolical crown as well of warriors as of poets. Its ever green grateful appearance, its thick shade, and the agreeable spicy odour of its leaves, point it out as that which was most likely in the eye of the Psalmist.—J. F. R.