תמר, Exodus xv, 27, &c. This tree, sometimes called the date
tree, grows plentifully in the east. It rises to a great height. The
stalks are generally full of rugged knots, which are the vestiges of the
decayed leaves; for the trunk of this tree is not solid, like other
trees, but its centre is filled with pith, round which is a tough bark
full of strong fibres when young, which, as the tree grows old, hardens
and becomes ligneous. To this bark the leaves are closely joined, which
in the centre rise erect; but, after they are advanced above the vagina
which surrounds them, they expand very wide on every side the stem; and,
as the older leaves decay, the stalk advances in height. The leaves,
when the tree has grown to a size for bearing fruit, are six or eight
feet long, are very broad when spread out, and are used for covering the
tops of houses, &c. The fruit, which is called date, grows below the
leaves in clusters and is of a sweet and agreeable taste. The learned
Kæmpfer, as a botanist, an antiquary, and a traveller, has exhausted the
whole subject of palm trees. The diligent natives,” says Mr. Gibbon,
celebrated, either in verse or prose, the three hundred and sixty uses
to which the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit,
were skilfully applied.” “The extensive importance of the date tree,”
says Dr. E. D. Clarke, is one of the most curious subjects to which a
traveller can direct his attention. A considerable part of the
inhabitants of Egypt, of Arabia, and Persia, subsist almost entirely
upon its fruit. They boast also of its medicinal virtues. Their camels
feed upon the date stone. From the leaves they make couches, baskets,
bags, mats, and brushes; from the branches, cages for their poultry, and
fences for their gardens; from the fibres of the boughs, thread, ropes,
and rigging; from the sap is prepared a spirituous liquor; and the body
of the tree furnishes fuel. It is even said that from one variety of the
palm tree, the _phœnix farinifera_, meal has been extracted, which is
found among the fibres of the trunk, and has been used for food.”
In the temple of Solomon were pilasters made in the form of palm trees,
1 Kings vi, 29. It was under a tree of this kind that Deborah dwelt
between Ramah and Bethel, Judges iv, 5. To the fair, flourishing, and
fruitful condition of this tree, the psalmist very aptly compares the
votary of virtue, Psalm xcii, 12, 13, 14:--
The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree.
Those that are planted in the house of Yahweh,
In the courts of our God, shall flourish;
In old age they shall still put forth buds,
They shall be full of sap and vigorous.
The palm tree is crowned at its top with a large tuft of spiring leaves
about four feet long, which never fall off, but always continue in the
same flourishing verdure. The tree, as Dr. Shaw was informed, is in its
greatest vigour about thirty years after it is planted, and continues in
full vigour seventy years longer; bearing all this while, every year,
about three or four hundred pounds’ weight of dates. The trunk of the
tree is remarkably straight and lofty. Jeremiah, speaking of the idols
that were carried in procession, says they were upright as the palm
tree, Jer. x, 5. And for erect stature and slenderness of form, the
spouse, in Canticles vii, 7, is compared to this tree:--
How framed, O my love, for delights!
Lo, thy stature is like a palm tree,
And thy bosom like clusters of dates.
On this passage Mr. Good observes, that “the very word _tamar_, here
used for the palm tree, and whose radical meaning is ‘straight,’ or
‘upright,’ (whence it was afterward applied to pillars or columns, as
well as to the palm,) was also a general name among the ladies of
Palestine, and unquestionably adopted in honour of the stature they had
already acquired, or gave a fair promise of attaining.”
A branch of palm was a signal of victory, and was carried before
conquerors in the triumphs. To this, allusion is made, Rev. vii, 9: and
for this purpose were they borne before Christ in his way to Jerusalem,
John xii, 13. From the inspissated sap of the tree, a kind of honey, or
dispse, as it is called, is produced, little inferior to that of bees.
The same juice, after fermentation, makes a sort of wine much used in
the east. It is once mentioned as wine, Num. xxviii, 7; Exodus xxix, 40;
and by it is intended the strong drink, Isaiah v, 11; xxiv, 9. Theodoret
and Chrysostom, on these places, both Syrians, and unexceptionable
witnesses in what belongs to their own country, confirm this
declaration. This liquor,” says Dr. Shaw, which has a more luscious
sweetness than honey, is of the consistence of a thin syrup, but quickly
grows tart and ropy, acquiring an intoxicating quality, and giving by
distillation an agreeable spirit, or _arâky_, according to the general
name of these people for all hot liquors, extracted by the alembic.” Its
Hebrew name is שכר, the σικερα of the Greeks; and from its sweetness,
probably, the _saccharum_ of the Romans. Jerom informs us that in Hebrew
any inebriating liquor is called _sicera_, whether made of grain, the
juice of apples, honey, dates, or any other fruit.”
This tree was formerly of great value and esteem among the Israelites,
and so very much cultivated in Judea, that, in after times, it became
the emblem of that country, as may be seen in a medal of the Emperor
Vespasian upon the conquest of Judea. It represents a captive woman
sitting under a palm tree, with this inscription, _Judea capta_;” [Judea
captivated;] and upon a Greek coin, likewise, of his son Titus, struck
upon the like occasion, we see a shield suspended upon a palm tree, with
a Victory writing upon it. Pliny also calls Judea _palmis inclyta_,
renowned for palms.” Jericho, in particular, was called the city of
palms,” Deut. xxxiv, 3; 2 Chron. xxviii, 15; because, as Josephus,
Strabo, and Pliny, have remarked, it anciently abounded in palm trees.
And so Dr. Shaw remarks, that, though these trees are not now either
plentiful or fruitful in other parts of the holy land, yet there are
several of them at Jericho, where there is the conveniency they require
of being often watered; where, likewise, the climate is warm, and the
soil sandy, such as they thrive and delight in. Tamar, a city built in
the desert by Solomon, 1 Kings ix, 18; Ezekiel xlvii, 19; xlviii, 28,
was probably so named from the palm trees growing about it; as it was
afterward by the Romans called Palmyra, or rather Palmira, on the same
account, from _palma_, a palm tree.”
tree, grows plentifully in the east. It rises to a great height. The
stalks are generally full of rugged knots, which are the vestiges of the
decayed leaves; for the trunk of this tree is not solid, like other
trees, but its centre is filled with pith, round which is a tough bark
full of strong fibres when young, which, as the tree grows old, hardens
and becomes ligneous. To this bark the leaves are closely joined, which
in the centre rise erect; but, after they are advanced above the vagina
which surrounds them, they expand very wide on every side the stem; and,
as the older leaves decay, the stalk advances in height. The leaves,
when the tree has grown to a size for bearing fruit, are six or eight
feet long, are very broad when spread out, and are used for covering the
tops of houses, &c. The fruit, which is called date, grows below the
leaves in clusters and is of a sweet and agreeable taste. The learned
Kæmpfer, as a botanist, an antiquary, and a traveller, has exhausted the
whole subject of palm trees. The diligent natives,” says Mr. Gibbon,
celebrated, either in verse or prose, the three hundred and sixty uses
to which the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit,
were skilfully applied.” “The extensive importance of the date tree,”
says Dr. E. D. Clarke, is one of the most curious subjects to which a
traveller can direct his attention. A considerable part of the
inhabitants of Egypt, of Arabia, and Persia, subsist almost entirely
upon its fruit. They boast also of its medicinal virtues. Their camels
feed upon the date stone. From the leaves they make couches, baskets,
bags, mats, and brushes; from the branches, cages for their poultry, and
fences for their gardens; from the fibres of the boughs, thread, ropes,
and rigging; from the sap is prepared a spirituous liquor; and the body
of the tree furnishes fuel. It is even said that from one variety of the
palm tree, the _phœnix farinifera_, meal has been extracted, which is
found among the fibres of the trunk, and has been used for food.”
In the temple of Solomon were pilasters made in the form of palm trees,
1 Kings vi, 29. It was under a tree of this kind that Deborah dwelt
between Ramah and Bethel, Judges iv, 5. To the fair, flourishing, and
fruitful condition of this tree, the psalmist very aptly compares the
votary of virtue, Psalm xcii, 12, 13, 14:--
The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree.
Those that are planted in the house of Yahweh,
In the courts of our God, shall flourish;
In old age they shall still put forth buds,
They shall be full of sap and vigorous.
The palm tree is crowned at its top with a large tuft of spiring leaves
about four feet long, which never fall off, but always continue in the
same flourishing verdure. The tree, as Dr. Shaw was informed, is in its
greatest vigour about thirty years after it is planted, and continues in
full vigour seventy years longer; bearing all this while, every year,
about three or four hundred pounds’ weight of dates. The trunk of the
tree is remarkably straight and lofty. Jeremiah, speaking of the idols
that were carried in procession, says they were upright as the palm
tree, Jer. x, 5. And for erect stature and slenderness of form, the
spouse, in Canticles vii, 7, is compared to this tree:--
How framed, O my love, for delights!
Lo, thy stature is like a palm tree,
And thy bosom like clusters of dates.
On this passage Mr. Good observes, that “the very word _tamar_, here
used for the palm tree, and whose radical meaning is ‘straight,’ or
‘upright,’ (whence it was afterward applied to pillars or columns, as
well as to the palm,) was also a general name among the ladies of
Palestine, and unquestionably adopted in honour of the stature they had
already acquired, or gave a fair promise of attaining.”
A branch of palm was a signal of victory, and was carried before
conquerors in the triumphs. To this, allusion is made, Rev. vii, 9: and
for this purpose were they borne before Christ in his way to Jerusalem,
John xii, 13. From the inspissated sap of the tree, a kind of honey, or
dispse, as it is called, is produced, little inferior to that of bees.
The same juice, after fermentation, makes a sort of wine much used in
the east. It is once mentioned as wine, Num. xxviii, 7; Exodus xxix, 40;
and by it is intended the strong drink, Isaiah v, 11; xxiv, 9. Theodoret
and Chrysostom, on these places, both Syrians, and unexceptionable
witnesses in what belongs to their own country, confirm this
declaration. This liquor,” says Dr. Shaw, which has a more luscious
sweetness than honey, is of the consistence of a thin syrup, but quickly
grows tart and ropy, acquiring an intoxicating quality, and giving by
distillation an agreeable spirit, or _arâky_, according to the general
name of these people for all hot liquors, extracted by the alembic.” Its
Hebrew name is שכר, the σικερα of the Greeks; and from its sweetness,
probably, the _saccharum_ of the Romans. Jerom informs us that in Hebrew
any inebriating liquor is called _sicera_, whether made of grain, the
juice of apples, honey, dates, or any other fruit.”
This tree was formerly of great value and esteem among the Israelites,
and so very much cultivated in Judea, that, in after times, it became
the emblem of that country, as may be seen in a medal of the Emperor
Vespasian upon the conquest of Judea. It represents a captive woman
sitting under a palm tree, with this inscription, _Judea capta_;” [Judea
captivated;] and upon a Greek coin, likewise, of his son Titus, struck
upon the like occasion, we see a shield suspended upon a palm tree, with
a Victory writing upon it. Pliny also calls Judea _palmis inclyta_,
renowned for palms.” Jericho, in particular, was called the city of
palms,” Deut. xxxiv, 3; 2 Chron. xxviii, 15; because, as Josephus,
Strabo, and Pliny, have remarked, it anciently abounded in palm trees.
And so Dr. Shaw remarks, that, though these trees are not now either
plentiful or fruitful in other parts of the holy land, yet there are
several of them at Jericho, where there is the conveniency they require
of being often watered; where, likewise, the climate is warm, and the
soil sandy, such as they thrive and delight in. Tamar, a city built in
the desert by Solomon, 1 Kings ix, 18; Ezekiel xlvii, 19; xlviii, 28,
was probably so named from the palm trees growing about it; as it was
afterward by the Romans called Palmyra, or rather Palmira, on the same
account, from _palma_, a palm tree.”