POISON. There is no reference either in the 0. or N. T. to the use of poison for taking away life. The word occurs only once in the N. T. (James iii. 8), and but seldom in the 0. T., and always in poetical passages, and in a metaphorical sense. In Job vi. 4 there may be an allusion to the practice, so common among barbarous nations of all times, of poisoning arrows. The words Oapkaucebs (Rev. xxi. 8) and Oapktatcefa (Gal. v. 20; Rev. ix. 21 ; xviii. 23) have been sometimes re ferred to the employment of poisonous drugs, but such is not their use in the LXX., and there can be no doubt that the A. V. is right in understand ing them of sorcery.' There is one instance of suicide by poison in the Apocrypha (2 Maccab. x. 13), in the case of Ptolemy Macron.
The two words translated poison' in the A. V. are—(I.) rinn, from the unused root incaluit, used generally of heat," anger' (Gen. xxvii. 44; Jer. vi. r), but sometimes, metaphorically, of serpents' poison' (Dent. xxxii. 24, 33 ; Ps. 4 (5); cxl• 3 (4) ), from its inflammatory effects on the system. The LXX. almost invariably translate it °mhos, but Ps. cxl. 4, lie dartaw. (2.) j 1, generally of vegetable poison (Deut. xxix. 18 ; xxxii. 32 ; Hos. x. 4), but sometimes of the venom of serpents (Dent. xxxii. 33 Job xx. 16). Comparing the passages in which it is found, rOsh' was probably a plant springing up among the corn (Hos. x. 4; Amos vi. 12) bearing a berry or fruit (Deut. xxxii. 32, 'grapes of rOsh'), either yielding a very bitter juice, or imparting the same flavour to water in which it was steeped (Jer. viii. 14; ix. 15 ; xxiii. 15, water of rOsh'). Its bitter ness is evident from its constant association with wormwood' (Dent. xxix. IS ; Lam. iii. 19 ; Amos vi. 12 ; A. V., hemlock'). And since among the Tews `bitterness' and poison' were kindred terms (cf. n-rin, Job xx. 14; Dent. xxxii. 24, for the poison of serpents'), its deadly properties may be inferred. Until our knowledge of the flora of Palestine is more complete, the identification of this plant must be merely conjectural. In the LXX. it is rightly translated by the general term X°K except Hos. x. 4, where we find tiypcocra, couch grass' (Ven., rtOiseXos, spurge'). The usual Vulgate rendering is amaritudo,' that of the A. V., 'gall ;' our translators in the margin of Deut. xxix. 18 giving the alternative rendering rosh, or a poisonful herb.' tEdmann (iv. 83) identifies the plant with the colocynth, Cucumis colocynthi ;' Michaelis (Fragen., 145), the henbane, Hyos cyamus ;' or (Suppl., 2220) the darnel, Lolium temulentum ;' Celsius, Hierobot., ii. 46, the hem lock, Cicuta ;' Gesenius, simply on etymological grounds, el."1, also meaning a head,' is in favour of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum,' from the large capsules from which the juice is obtained. None of these suggestions carry conviction with them, and we wait for fuller information.—E. V.
POL &in) occurs twice in Scripture, and no doubt signifies beans,' as translated in the A. V.
The first occasion is in 2 Sam. xvii. 28, where beans are described as being brought$to David, as well as wheat, barley, lentils, etc., as is the custom at the present day in many parts of the East when a traveller arrives at a village. So in Ezek. iv. 9, the prophet is directed to take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, etc., and make bread thereof. This meaning ofpo/ is confirmed by the Arabic Jr;, fill, which is the same word (there being no,pe in the Arabic), and is applied to the bean in modern times, as ascer tained by Forskal in Egypt, and as we find in old Arabic works. The common bean, or at least one of its varieties, has been employed as an article of diet from the most ancient times, since, besides the mention of it in Scripture, we find it noticed by Hippocrates and Theophrastus under the names of KOCV.407 EXN7F/K6S, to distinguish it from KOCLILOS al-yenrrios, the Egyptian bean, or bean of Pytha goras, which was no doubt the large farinaceous seed of Nelumbium speciosum. Beans were em ployed as articles of diet by the ancients, as they are by the modems ; and are considered to give rise to flatulence, but otherwise to be wholesome and nutritious. Melangee a la quantite d'une livre sur dix a douze de farine de froment, elle fournit un assez bon pain, et donne de la con sistance a in pate lorsqu'elle est trap molle.' So Pliny : Inter legumina maximus bonus fable : quippe ex qua tentatus etiarn sit panis. Frumento etiam miscetur apud plerasque gentes.' Beans are cultivated over a great part of the old world, from the north of Europe to the south of India ; in the latter, however, forming the cold-weather cultivation, with wheat, peas, etc. They are ex tensively cultivated in Egypt and Arabia, Mr. Kitto states that the extent of their cultivation in Palestine he had no means of knowing. In Egypt they are sown in November, and reaped in the middle of February (three and a half months in the ground ; but that in Syria they may be had throughout the spring. The stalks are cut down with the scythe ; and these are afterwards cut and crushed, to fit them for the food of camels, oxen, and goats. The beans themselves, when sent to a market, are often deprived of their skins. Basnage reports it as the sentiment of some of the Rabbins, that beans were not lawful to the priests, on ac count of their being considered the appropriate food of mourning and affliction ; but he does not refer to the authority ; and neither in the sacred books nor in the Mishna can be found any traces of the notion to which he alludes. So far from attaching any sort of impurity to this legume, it is described as among the first-fruit offerings ; and several other articles in the latter collection prove that the Hebrews had beans largely in use, after they had passed them through the mill (Phys. Hist. of Palestine, cccxix. )—J. F. R.