In the language of the Hebrews, every place where plants and
trees were cultivated with greater care than in the open field, was
called a garden. The idea of such an enclosure was certainly borrowed
from the garden of Eden, which the bountiful Creator planted for the
reception of our first parents. Beside, the gardens of primitive nations
were commonly, if not in every instance, devoted to religious purposes.
In these shady retreats were celebrated, for a long succession of ages,
the rites of Pagan superstition. Thus Yahweh calls the apostate Jews,
“a people that provoketh me continually to anger to my face, that
sacrificeth in gardens,” Isa. lxv, 3. And in a preceding chapter, the
prophet threatens them in the name of the Lord: “They shall be ashamed
of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the
gardens which ye have chosen.” The oriental gardens were either open
plantations, or enclosures defended by walls or hedges. Some fences in
the Holy Land, in later times, are not less beautiful than our living
fences of white thorn; and perfectly answer the description of ancient
Jewish prophets, who inform us that the hedges in their times consisted
of thorns, and that the spikes of these thorny plants were exceedingly
sharp. Doubdan found a very fruitful vineyard, full of olives, fig
trees, and vines, about eight miles south-west from Bethlehem, enclosed
with a hedge; and that part of it adjoining to the road, strongly formed
of thorns and rose bushes, intermingled with pomegranate trees of
surpassing beauty and fragrance. A hedge composed of rose bushes and
wild pomegranate shrubs, then in full flower, mingled with other thorny
plants, adorned in the varied livery of spring, must have made at once a
strong and beautiful fence. The wild pomegranate tree, the species
probably used in fencing, is much more prickly than the other variety;
and when mingled with other thorny bushes, of which they have several
kinds in Palestine, some of whose prickles are very long and sharp, must
form a hedge very difficult to penetrate. These facts illustrate the
beauty and force of several passages in the sacred volume: thus, in the
Proverbs of Solomon, “The way of the slothful man is as a hedge of
thorns,” Prov. xv, 19; it is obstructed with difficulties, which the
sloth and indolence of his temper represent as galling or insuperable;
but which a moderate share of resolution and perseverance would easily
remove or surmount. In the prophecies of Hosea, God threatens his
treacherous and idolatrous people with many painful embarrassments and
perplexities, which would as effectually retard or obstruct their
progress in the paths of wickedness, as a hedge of thorny plants
stretching across the traveller’s way, the prosecution of his journey:
“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a
wall, that she shall not find her paths,” Hosea ii, 6. In the days of
Micah, the magistrates of Judah had become exceedingly corrupt: “The
best of them is a brier; the most upright is sharper than a thorn
hedge;” to appear before their tribunal, or to have any dealings with
them, was to involve one’s self in endless perplexities, and to be
exposed to galling disappointments, if not to certain destruction. They
resembled those thorny plants which are twisted together, whose spines
point in every direction, and are so sharp and strong that they cannot
be touched without danger, and so entangling that when the traveller has
with much pain and exertion freed himself from one, he is instantly
seized by another. “But the sons of Belial,” said the king of Israel,
“shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be
taken with hands: but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with
iron, and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with
fire in the same place,” 2 Sam. xxiii, 6, 7. Other enclosures had fences
of loose stones, or mud walls, some of them very low, which often
furnished a retreat to venomous reptiles. To this circumstance the royal
preacher alludes, in his observations of wisdom and folly: “He that
diggeth a pit, shall fall into it: and whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent
shall bite him,” Eccles. x, 8. The term which our translators render
_hedge_ in this passage, they might with more propriety have rendered
_wall_, as they had done in another part of the writings of Solomon: “I
went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void
of understanding; and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles
had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken
down,” Proverbs xxiv, 30.
2. The land of promise has been, from the earliest ages, an unenclosed
country, with a few spots defended by a hedge of thorny plants, or a
stone wall built without any cement. At Aleppo, most of the vineyards
are fenced with stone walls; for in many parts of Syria a hedge would
not grow for want of moisture. But, as their various esculent vegetables
are now not unfrequently planted in the open fields, both in Syria and
Palestine, so Chardin seems to suppose they were often unfenced in
ancient times; and, on this account, those lodges and booths, to which
Isaiah refers, in the first chapter of his prophecy, were built. In
Hindostan they follow the same custom. At the commencement of the rainy
season, the peasants plant abundance of melons, cucumbers, and gourds,
which are then the principal food of the inhabitants. They are planted
in the open fields and extensive plains, and are therefore liable to the
depredations of men and beasts. In the centre of the field is an
artificial mount, with a hut on the top, sufficiently large to shelter a
single person from the inclemency of the weather. There, amid heavy
rains and tempestuous winds, a poor solitary being is stationed day and
night to protect the crop. From thence he gives an alarm to the nearest
village. Few situations can be more unpleasant than a hovel of this
kind, exposed for three or four months to wind, lightning, and rain. To
such a cheerless station the prophet no doubt alludes, in that passage
where he declares the desolations of Judah: “The daughter of Zion is
left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,”
Isa. i, 8. If such watch houses were necessary in those gardens which
were defended by walls or hedges, some of which, indeed, it was not
difficult to get over, they must have been still more necessary in those
which were perfectly open.
3. The oriental garden displays little method, or design; the whole
being commonly no more than a confused medley of fruit trees, with beds
of esculent plants, and even plots of wheat and barley sometimes
interspersed. The garden belonging to the governor of Eleus, a Turkish
town on the western border of the Hellespont, which Dr. Chandler
visited, consisted only of a very small spot of ground, walled in, and
containing only two vines, a fig and a pomegranate tree, and a well of
excellent water. And, it would seem, the garden of an ancient Israelite
could not boast of greater variety; for the grape, the fig, and the
pomegranate, are almost the only fruits which it produced. This fact may
perhaps give us some insight into the reason of the sudden and
irresistible conviction which flashed on the mind of Nathanael, when our
Saviour said to him, “When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.”
The good man seems to have been engaged in devotional exercises in a
small retired garden, walled in, and concealed from the scrutinizing
eyes of men. The place was so small, that he was perfectly certain no
man but himself was there; and so completely defended, that none could
break through, or look over, the fence; and, by consequence, that no eye
was upon him, but the all-seeing eye of God; and, therefore, since
Christ saw him there, Nathanael knew he could be no other than the Son
of God, and the promised Messiah.
trees were cultivated with greater care than in the open field, was
called a garden. The idea of such an enclosure was certainly borrowed
from the garden of Eden, which the bountiful Creator planted for the
reception of our first parents. Beside, the gardens of primitive nations
were commonly, if not in every instance, devoted to religious purposes.
In these shady retreats were celebrated, for a long succession of ages,
the rites of Pagan superstition. Thus Yahweh calls the apostate Jews,
“a people that provoketh me continually to anger to my face, that
sacrificeth in gardens,” Isa. lxv, 3. And in a preceding chapter, the
prophet threatens them in the name of the Lord: “They shall be ashamed
of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the
gardens which ye have chosen.” The oriental gardens were either open
plantations, or enclosures defended by walls or hedges. Some fences in
the Holy Land, in later times, are not less beautiful than our living
fences of white thorn; and perfectly answer the description of ancient
Jewish prophets, who inform us that the hedges in their times consisted
of thorns, and that the spikes of these thorny plants were exceedingly
sharp. Doubdan found a very fruitful vineyard, full of olives, fig
trees, and vines, about eight miles south-west from Bethlehem, enclosed
with a hedge; and that part of it adjoining to the road, strongly formed
of thorns and rose bushes, intermingled with pomegranate trees of
surpassing beauty and fragrance. A hedge composed of rose bushes and
wild pomegranate shrubs, then in full flower, mingled with other thorny
plants, adorned in the varied livery of spring, must have made at once a
strong and beautiful fence. The wild pomegranate tree, the species
probably used in fencing, is much more prickly than the other variety;
and when mingled with other thorny bushes, of which they have several
kinds in Palestine, some of whose prickles are very long and sharp, must
form a hedge very difficult to penetrate. These facts illustrate the
beauty and force of several passages in the sacred volume: thus, in the
Proverbs of Solomon, “The way of the slothful man is as a hedge of
thorns,” Prov. xv, 19; it is obstructed with difficulties, which the
sloth and indolence of his temper represent as galling or insuperable;
but which a moderate share of resolution and perseverance would easily
remove or surmount. In the prophecies of Hosea, God threatens his
treacherous and idolatrous people with many painful embarrassments and
perplexities, which would as effectually retard or obstruct their
progress in the paths of wickedness, as a hedge of thorny plants
stretching across the traveller’s way, the prosecution of his journey:
“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a
wall, that she shall not find her paths,” Hosea ii, 6. In the days of
Micah, the magistrates of Judah had become exceedingly corrupt: “The
best of them is a brier; the most upright is sharper than a thorn
hedge;” to appear before their tribunal, or to have any dealings with
them, was to involve one’s self in endless perplexities, and to be
exposed to galling disappointments, if not to certain destruction. They
resembled those thorny plants which are twisted together, whose spines
point in every direction, and are so sharp and strong that they cannot
be touched without danger, and so entangling that when the traveller has
with much pain and exertion freed himself from one, he is instantly
seized by another. “But the sons of Belial,” said the king of Israel,
“shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be
taken with hands: but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with
iron, and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with
fire in the same place,” 2 Sam. xxiii, 6, 7. Other enclosures had fences
of loose stones, or mud walls, some of them very low, which often
furnished a retreat to venomous reptiles. To this circumstance the royal
preacher alludes, in his observations of wisdom and folly: “He that
diggeth a pit, shall fall into it: and whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent
shall bite him,” Eccles. x, 8. The term which our translators render
_hedge_ in this passage, they might with more propriety have rendered
_wall_, as they had done in another part of the writings of Solomon: “I
went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void
of understanding; and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles
had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken
down,” Proverbs xxiv, 30.
2. The land of promise has been, from the earliest ages, an unenclosed
country, with a few spots defended by a hedge of thorny plants, or a
stone wall built without any cement. At Aleppo, most of the vineyards
are fenced with stone walls; for in many parts of Syria a hedge would
not grow for want of moisture. But, as their various esculent vegetables
are now not unfrequently planted in the open fields, both in Syria and
Palestine, so Chardin seems to suppose they were often unfenced in
ancient times; and, on this account, those lodges and booths, to which
Isaiah refers, in the first chapter of his prophecy, were built. In
Hindostan they follow the same custom. At the commencement of the rainy
season, the peasants plant abundance of melons, cucumbers, and gourds,
which are then the principal food of the inhabitants. They are planted
in the open fields and extensive plains, and are therefore liable to the
depredations of men and beasts. In the centre of the field is an
artificial mount, with a hut on the top, sufficiently large to shelter a
single person from the inclemency of the weather. There, amid heavy
rains and tempestuous winds, a poor solitary being is stationed day and
night to protect the crop. From thence he gives an alarm to the nearest
village. Few situations can be more unpleasant than a hovel of this
kind, exposed for three or four months to wind, lightning, and rain. To
such a cheerless station the prophet no doubt alludes, in that passage
where he declares the desolations of Judah: “The daughter of Zion is
left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,”
Isa. i, 8. If such watch houses were necessary in those gardens which
were defended by walls or hedges, some of which, indeed, it was not
difficult to get over, they must have been still more necessary in those
which were perfectly open.
3. The oriental garden displays little method, or design; the whole
being commonly no more than a confused medley of fruit trees, with beds
of esculent plants, and even plots of wheat and barley sometimes
interspersed. The garden belonging to the governor of Eleus, a Turkish
town on the western border of the Hellespont, which Dr. Chandler
visited, consisted only of a very small spot of ground, walled in, and
containing only two vines, a fig and a pomegranate tree, and a well of
excellent water. And, it would seem, the garden of an ancient Israelite
could not boast of greater variety; for the grape, the fig, and the
pomegranate, are almost the only fruits which it produced. This fact may
perhaps give us some insight into the reason of the sudden and
irresistible conviction which flashed on the mind of Nathanael, when our
Saviour said to him, “When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.”
The good man seems to have been engaged in devotional exercises in a
small retired garden, walled in, and concealed from the scrutinizing
eyes of men. The place was so small, that he was perfectly certain no
man but himself was there; and so completely defended, that none could
break through, or look over, the fence; and, by consequence, that no eye
was upon him, but the all-seeing eye of God; and, therefore, since
Christ saw him there, Nathanael knew he could be no other than the Son
of God, and the promised Messiah.