When they reached the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey,' abundance of all kinds of food awaited the favoured people. The rich pasture-lands of Palestine enabled them to rear and maintain large flocks and herds ; game of various kinds was abundant in the more moun tainous and uninhabited districts ; fish was largely supplied by the rivers and inland seas, and seems to have been used to a considerable extent (2 Chron. xxxiii. 14 ; Neh. iii. 3 ; Matt. vii. to ; xiv. 17 ; xv. 34 ; Luke xxiv. 42 ; John xxi. 6-14), so that the destruction of it was represented as a special judgment from God (Is. 1. 2 ; Hos. iv. 3 ; Zeph. 3) [FrsH]. In the Mosaic code express regulations are laid down as to the kinds of animals that may be used in food (Lev. xi.; Deut. xiv.) Those expressly permitted are, of beasts, the ox, the sheep, the goat, the hart, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the wild goat, the pygarg, the wild ox, the chamois, and in general every beast that parteth the hoof and cleaveth the cleft into two claws [that is, where the hoof is completely parted, and each part is separately cased in bone], and cheweth the cud ; of fish, all that have scales and fins ; of fowls, all clean birds, that is, all except the carnivorous and pisciVorous birds ; of insects, the locust [ARPEH], the bald locust [SALEAm], the beetle [CHARGor], and the grasshopper [CHAGAB]. Whether the Hebrews attended to the rearing of gallinaceous fowls remains matter of doubt [BAR BURIM ; BIRDS ; COCK.] Besides animals declared to be unclean, the Israelites were forbidden to use as food anything which had been consecrated to idols (Exod. xxxiv. 15) ; animals which had died of disease or been torn by wild beasts (Exod. xxii. 31 ; Lev. xxii. 8 ; comp. Ezek. iv. 14), and certain parts of animals, viz., the blood (Lev. xxvii. to ; xix. 26 ; Deut. xii. 16-23), the fat covering the intestines, the kid neys, and the fat covering them, the fat of any part of the ox, or sheep, or goat, especially the fat tail of certain sheep (Exod. xxix. 13-22 ; Lev. iii. 4-9, to ; ix. 19). They were also forbidden to use any food or liquids occupying a vessel into which the dead body of any unclean beast had fallen, as well as all food and liquids which had stood uncovered in the apartment of a dead or dying person (Num. xix. 15). The eating of a kid boiled in the milk or fat of its mother was also prohibited (Exod. xxiii. 19 ; xxxiv. 26 ; neut. xiv. 21). These restrictions rested chiefly, doubtless, on religious and theocratic grounds [FAT], but for some of them reasons of a sanitary kind may also have existed. It belonged to the essence of the theocra tic system that the people should be constantly surrounded by what reminded them of their se paration to Jehovah, and the need of keeping themselves free from all that would level or lower the distinction between them and the nations around them. For this reason specific restric tions were laid upon their diet, which were not attended to by other nations, nor were in every case insisted on in the case of strangers dwelling with in their bounds (Deut. xiv. 21). This does not, however, preclude our admitting that reasons of a social or political kind may have also conspired to render these restrictions desirable. In warm cli mates the importance of avoiding contagion ren ders the utmost caution necessary in handling what ever may have been exposed to the influence of a corpse ; and it is well known that the use of adi pose matter in food requires, in such climates, to be restricted within narrow limits. The peculiar prohibition of a kid boiled in its mother's milk was ordained ptobably for the purpose of avoiding conformity to some idolatrous usage, or for thc purpose generally of encouraging humane feelings on the part of the Israelites towards their domesti cated animals (Winer, R. TV. B. art. Speisegesetze ; Spencer, De Legg. Hebr. Ruud 11., bk. ii. ch. 8 ; Michaelis, llios. Rccht, iv. 2oo).
Subject to these restrictions, the Israelites were free to use for food all the produce of their fer tile and favoured land. 'Thou shalt bestow thy money,' said God to them, for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, and thou shalt eat there of before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt re joice, thou and thy household' (Deut. xiv. 26). And in the enumeration of blessings conferred by God on Israel, we find 'honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat,' specified as among his free gifts to his people (Deut. xxxii. 13, 14). Though allowed this wide range, however, of animal food, the Hebrews do not seem to have in ordinary life availed themselves of it. The usual food of the
people appears to have consisted of milk and its preparations [MILK ; CHEESE], honey, bread, and vegetables of various sorts ; and only at the royal table was animal food in daily use (I Kings iv. 23 ; Neh. v. 18). The animals commonly used for food were calves (Gen. xviii. 7 ; I Sam. xxviii. 24 ; Amos vi. 4) ; these were fattened for the purpose, and hence were called fallings, or fatted calves (116axos co-Evros, Luke xv. 23 ; ati-to-rd, Matt. xxii. 4) ; lambs (2 Sam. xii. 4 ; Amos vi. 4) ; sheep (I Sam. xiv. 34 ; xxv. 18 ; Kings iv. 23) ; oxen stall-fed, or from the pastures (1 Kings i. 9 ; iv. 23 ; 2 Chron. XViii. 2 ; Matt. xxii. 4) ; fat cattle (to."10, a particular kind of the bovine genus pecu liar to Bashan, supposed by some to be a species of buffalo or ure-ox, but not to be confounded with the fatling or fatted calf above mentioned, 2 Sam. vi. 13 ; Kings i. 9 ; Amos V. 22 ; Ezek. xxxix. IS); kids (r Sam. xvi. 20) ; and various kinds of game, such as the ajil, the tsebi, and the jachmur (I Kings v. 3 [iv. 23, A. V.]) The articles brought by Abigail to David were bread, sheep, parched [roasted] corn, raisins, and figs (I Sam. xxv. 18); when Ziba met David on his flight from Absalom he brought to him bread, raisins, and summer fruits [FRuurs] (2 Sam. xvi. 1) ; and the present of Barzillai to the king consisted of wheat, barley, flour, roasted corn, beans, lentils,* honey, butter, sheep, and cheese (2 Sam. xvii. 28). We may pre sume from this that these formed the principal articles of food among the Jews at this time. Besides raisins or grapes dried in the sun, they used grapes pressed into cakes (ny:',0i) ; they haa also fig-cakes (1:6;-0. On special occasions they probably indulged in more costly viands ; in times of famine they resorted to even very vile food ; in seasons of affliction they abstained front all deli cacies, and even sometimes from all food ; and to prisoners the food allowed seems to have bcen only bread and water (1 Kings xxii. 27 ; Jer. xxxvii. 2 1). Besides the vegetables above mentioned, the Jews were acquainted with the melon, the ber, the mallow, the leek, the onion, garlic, and bitter herbs [ABATT1CHIM ; QISHUIM; MALLUACH; CHATZ1R; BETZAL; SHUMIM; MERORIM]. In Job vi. 6 mention is made of nanti -on, which Ge ,- - .
senius would translate perslain-sli me, or purslain broth = something extremely insipid (Thes. p. 48o). The reasons be gives for this are not without force, but cannot be held conclusive. The A. V. follows the Rabbinical interpretation, which Rosenmtiller, Ewald, etc., also approve ; Lee (in loc.) and Furst prefer understanding it of the whey of curdled milk ; Renan translates it ivies de la mauve.
The drinks of the Hebrews were, besides water, which was their ordinary beverage, milk, wine, and 'IT), which in the A. V. is rendered strong drink [SHEcHAR]. To give the water a greater relish, they probably sometimes dissolved a por tion of fig-cake in it, according to the fashion of the Aubs at the present day (Niebuhr, Arab. p. 57). The wines used were of various sorts, and sometimes their effect was strengthened by ming ling different kinds together, or by the mixture with them of drugs (Ps. lxxv. 9 ; Prov. ix. 23, 30 ; Is. v. 22). A species of delicacy seems to have been furnished by spiced wines,' that is, wines gavoured by aromatic herbs, or perhaps simply by the juice of the pomegranate (Song viii. 2). I'Vo mention is made in Scripture of the mixing of water with wine for the purpose of drinking it ; the refe rence in Is. i. 22 being to the adulteration of wine by fraudulent dealers ; but the habit was so com mon in ancient times (comp. Odyss. 110; ix. 208 ff.; Hippocrates De Mork. iii. 30; Lucian Asin. ; Plin. Hist. Nat. xxiii. 22) that we can hardly doubt that it was known also among the Hebrews [WINE]. Vinegar, r9h, was also used by them as a means of quenching thirst (Ruth iir-I4; Num. vi. 3) ; mixed with oil this is still a favourite in the East, and mixed with water it was drunk by the Roman soldiers and poor under the name of taxa (Plin. N. H. xix. 29 ; xxii. 58 ; Plaut.
Glor. ill. 2, 23).
The Hebrews made use of condiments to heighten the flavour of their dishes as well as of spices to in crease the effect of their wines. Besides the gene ral condiment salt, they used cummin, dill [ANE THON], mint [HEDuosmoti], coriander [GAD], rue [PEGAN0/1, mustard [SINAPts], and the seeds of an herb to which they gave the name of i%j) [QE'rsAcill. Sometimes their made dishes were so richly flavoured that the nature of the meat used could not be discovered (Gen. xxvii. 9, 25). Be sides myrrh, with which they flavoured their wines, the Hebrews used various odoriferous products