The Hebrew word signifies any thing collected together,
provisions, or magazines. So they say, a treasure of corn, of wine, of
oil, of honey, Jer. xli, 8; treasures of gold, silver, brass, Ezek.
xxviii, 4; Dan. xi, 43. Snow, winds, hail, rain, waters, are in the
treasuries of God, Psalm cxxxv, 7; Jer. li, 16. The wise men opened
their treasures, Matt. ii, 11, that is, their packets, or bundles, to
offer presents to our Saviour. Joseph acquainted his brethren, when they
found their money returned in their sacks, that God had given them
treasures, Genesis xliii, 23. The treasures of the house of God, whether
in silver, corn, wine, or oil, were under the care of the Levites. The
kings of Judah had also keepers of the treasures both in city and
country, 1 Chron. xxvii, 25; and the places where these magazines were
laid up were called treasure cities. Pharaoh compelled the Hebrews to
build him treasure cities, or magazines.
TREE is the first and largest of the vegetable kind, consisting of a
single trunk, out of which spring forth branches and leaves. Heat is so
essential to the growth of trees, that we see them grow larger and
smaller in a sort of gradation as the climates in which they stand are
more or less hot. The hottest countries yield, in general, the largest
and tallest trees, and those, also, in much greater beauty and variety
than the colder do; and even those plants which are common to both
arrive at a much greater bulk in the southern than in the northern
climates; nay, there are some regions so bleak and chill, that they
raise no vegetables at all to any considerable height. Greenland,
Iceland, and similar places, afford no trees at all; and the shrubs
which grow in them are always little and low. In the warmer climates,
where trees grow to a moderate size, any accidental diminution of the
common heat is found very greatly to impede vegetation; and even in
England the cold summers we sometimes have give us an evident proof of
this in the scarcity of produce from all our large fruit trees. Heat,
whatever be the producing cause, acts as well upon vegetation one way as
another. Thus the heat of manure, and the artificial heat of coal fires
in stoves, are found to supply the place of the sun. Great numbers of
the eastern trees, in their native soil, flower twice in a year, and
some flower and bear ripe fruit all the year round; and it is observed
of these last, that they are at once the most frequent and the most
useful to the inhabitants; their fruits, which always hang on them in
readiness, containing cool juices, which are good in fevers, and other
of the common diseases of hot countries. The umbrageous foliage, with
which the God of providence has generally furnished all trees in warm
climates, affords a most refreshing and grateful shade to those who seek
relief from the direct and hurtful rays of a tropical sun.
The Land of Promise cannot boast, like many other countries, of
extensive woods; but considerable thickets of trees and of reeds
sometimes arise to diversify and adorn the scene. Between the Lake
Samochonites and the sea of Tiberias, the river Jordan is almost
concealed by shady trees from the view of the traveller. When the waters
of the Jordan are low, the Lake Samochonites is only a marsh, for the
most part dry and overgrown with shrubs and reeds. In these thickets,
among other ferocious animals, the wild boar seeks a covert from the
burning rays of the sun. Large herds of them are sometimes to be seen on
the banks of the river, near the sea of Tiberias, lying among the reeds,
or feeding under the trees. Such moist and shady places are in all
countries the favourite haunts of these fierce and dangerous animals.
Those marshy coverts are styled woods in the sacred Scriptures; for the
wild boar of the wood is the name which that creature receives from the
royal psalmist: “The boar out of the wood doth waste it; and the wild
beast of the field doth devour it,” Psalm lxxx, 13. The wood of Ephraim,
where the battle was fought between the forces of Absalom and the
servants of David, was probably a place of the same kind; for the sacred
historian observes, that the wood devoured more people that day than the
sword, 2 Sam. xviii, 8. Some have supposed the meaning of this passage
to be, that the soldiers of Absalom were destroyed by the wild beasts of
the wood; but it can scarcely be supposed, that in the reign of David,
when the Holy Land was crowded with inhabitants, the wild beasts could
be so numerous in one of the woods as to cause such a destruction. But,
supposing the wood of Ephraim to have been a morass covered with trees
and bushes, like the haunts of the wild boar near the banks of Jordan,
the difficulty is easily removed. It is certain that such a place has
more than once proved fatal to contending armies, partly by suffocating
those who in the hurry of flight inadvertently venture over places
incapable of supporting them, and partly by retarding them till their
pursuers come up and cut them to pieces. In this manner a greater number
of men than fell in the heat of battle may be destroyed. It is probable,
however, that nothing more is intended by the sacred historian, than the
mention of a fact familiar to military men in all ages, and whatever
kind of weapons were then employed in warfare,--that forests, especially
such thick and impassable forests as are common in warm countries,
constitute the very worst ground along which a discomfited army can be
compelled to retreat. Their orderly ranks are broken; the direction
which each warrior for his own safety must take is uncertain; and while
one tumultuous mass is making a pass for itself through intervening
brushwood and closely matted jungle, and another is hurrying along a
different path and encountering similar or perhaps greater impediments,
the cool and deliberate pursuers, whether archers or sharp shooters,
enjoy an immense advantage in being able to choose their own points of
annoyance, and by flank or cross attacks to kill their retreating foes,
with scarcely any risk to themselves, but with immense carnage to the
routed army.
Several critics imagine that by עץ חדר, rendered “goodly trees,” Lev.
xxiii, 40, the citron tree is intended. עץ-עבת, rendered “thick trees”
in the same verse, and in Neh. viii, 15; Ezek. xx, 28, is the myrtle,
according to the rabbins, the Chaldee paraphrase, Syriac version, and
Deodatus. The word אשל, translated “grove” in Gen. xxi, 33, has been
variously translated. Parkhurst renders it an oak, and says, that from
this word may be derived the name of the famous asylum, opened by
Romulus between two groves of oak at Rome. On the other hand, Celsius,
Michaēlis, and Dr. Geddes render it the tamarisk, which is a lofty and
beautiful tree, and grows abundantly in Egypt and Arabia. The same word
in 1 Sam. xxii, 6; xxxi, 13, is rendered “a tree.” It must be noted too,
that in the first of these places, the common version is equally obscure
and contradictory, by making _ramah_ a proper name: it signifies hillock
or bank. Of the trees that produced precious balsams there was one in
particular that long flourished in Judea, having been supposed to have
been an object of great attention to Solomon, which was afterward
transplanted to Matarea, in Egypt, where it continued till about two
hundred and fifty years ago, according to Maillet, who gives a
description of it, drawn, it is supposed, from the Arabian authors, in
which he says, “This shrub had two very differently coloured barks, the
one red, the other perfectly green; that they tasted strongly like
incense and turpentine, and when bruised between the fingers they smelt
very nearly like cardamoms. This balsam, which was extremely precious
and celebrated, and was used by the Coptic church in their chrism, was
produced by a very low shrub; and it is said, that all those shrubs that
produced balsams are every where low, and do not exceed two or three
cubits in height.”
Descriptions of the principal trees and shrubs mentioned in Holy Writ
the reader will find noticed in distinct articles under their several
denominations.
provisions, or magazines. So they say, a treasure of corn, of wine, of
oil, of honey, Jer. xli, 8; treasures of gold, silver, brass, Ezek.
xxviii, 4; Dan. xi, 43. Snow, winds, hail, rain, waters, are in the
treasuries of God, Psalm cxxxv, 7; Jer. li, 16. The wise men opened
their treasures, Matt. ii, 11, that is, their packets, or bundles, to
offer presents to our Saviour. Joseph acquainted his brethren, when they
found their money returned in their sacks, that God had given them
treasures, Genesis xliii, 23. The treasures of the house of God, whether
in silver, corn, wine, or oil, were under the care of the Levites. The
kings of Judah had also keepers of the treasures both in city and
country, 1 Chron. xxvii, 25; and the places where these magazines were
laid up were called treasure cities. Pharaoh compelled the Hebrews to
build him treasure cities, or magazines.
TREE is the first and largest of the vegetable kind, consisting of a
single trunk, out of which spring forth branches and leaves. Heat is so
essential to the growth of trees, that we see them grow larger and
smaller in a sort of gradation as the climates in which they stand are
more or less hot. The hottest countries yield, in general, the largest
and tallest trees, and those, also, in much greater beauty and variety
than the colder do; and even those plants which are common to both
arrive at a much greater bulk in the southern than in the northern
climates; nay, there are some regions so bleak and chill, that they
raise no vegetables at all to any considerable height. Greenland,
Iceland, and similar places, afford no trees at all; and the shrubs
which grow in them are always little and low. In the warmer climates,
where trees grow to a moderate size, any accidental diminution of the
common heat is found very greatly to impede vegetation; and even in
England the cold summers we sometimes have give us an evident proof of
this in the scarcity of produce from all our large fruit trees. Heat,
whatever be the producing cause, acts as well upon vegetation one way as
another. Thus the heat of manure, and the artificial heat of coal fires
in stoves, are found to supply the place of the sun. Great numbers of
the eastern trees, in their native soil, flower twice in a year, and
some flower and bear ripe fruit all the year round; and it is observed
of these last, that they are at once the most frequent and the most
useful to the inhabitants; their fruits, which always hang on them in
readiness, containing cool juices, which are good in fevers, and other
of the common diseases of hot countries. The umbrageous foliage, with
which the God of providence has generally furnished all trees in warm
climates, affords a most refreshing and grateful shade to those who seek
relief from the direct and hurtful rays of a tropical sun.
The Land of Promise cannot boast, like many other countries, of
extensive woods; but considerable thickets of trees and of reeds
sometimes arise to diversify and adorn the scene. Between the Lake
Samochonites and the sea of Tiberias, the river Jordan is almost
concealed by shady trees from the view of the traveller. When the waters
of the Jordan are low, the Lake Samochonites is only a marsh, for the
most part dry and overgrown with shrubs and reeds. In these thickets,
among other ferocious animals, the wild boar seeks a covert from the
burning rays of the sun. Large herds of them are sometimes to be seen on
the banks of the river, near the sea of Tiberias, lying among the reeds,
or feeding under the trees. Such moist and shady places are in all
countries the favourite haunts of these fierce and dangerous animals.
Those marshy coverts are styled woods in the sacred Scriptures; for the
wild boar of the wood is the name which that creature receives from the
royal psalmist: “The boar out of the wood doth waste it; and the wild
beast of the field doth devour it,” Psalm lxxx, 13. The wood of Ephraim,
where the battle was fought between the forces of Absalom and the
servants of David, was probably a place of the same kind; for the sacred
historian observes, that the wood devoured more people that day than the
sword, 2 Sam. xviii, 8. Some have supposed the meaning of this passage
to be, that the soldiers of Absalom were destroyed by the wild beasts of
the wood; but it can scarcely be supposed, that in the reign of David,
when the Holy Land was crowded with inhabitants, the wild beasts could
be so numerous in one of the woods as to cause such a destruction. But,
supposing the wood of Ephraim to have been a morass covered with trees
and bushes, like the haunts of the wild boar near the banks of Jordan,
the difficulty is easily removed. It is certain that such a place has
more than once proved fatal to contending armies, partly by suffocating
those who in the hurry of flight inadvertently venture over places
incapable of supporting them, and partly by retarding them till their
pursuers come up and cut them to pieces. In this manner a greater number
of men than fell in the heat of battle may be destroyed. It is probable,
however, that nothing more is intended by the sacred historian, than the
mention of a fact familiar to military men in all ages, and whatever
kind of weapons were then employed in warfare,--that forests, especially
such thick and impassable forests as are common in warm countries,
constitute the very worst ground along which a discomfited army can be
compelled to retreat. Their orderly ranks are broken; the direction
which each warrior for his own safety must take is uncertain; and while
one tumultuous mass is making a pass for itself through intervening
brushwood and closely matted jungle, and another is hurrying along a
different path and encountering similar or perhaps greater impediments,
the cool and deliberate pursuers, whether archers or sharp shooters,
enjoy an immense advantage in being able to choose their own points of
annoyance, and by flank or cross attacks to kill their retreating foes,
with scarcely any risk to themselves, but with immense carnage to the
routed army.
Several critics imagine that by עץ חדר, rendered “goodly trees,” Lev.
xxiii, 40, the citron tree is intended. עץ-עבת, rendered “thick trees”
in the same verse, and in Neh. viii, 15; Ezek. xx, 28, is the myrtle,
according to the rabbins, the Chaldee paraphrase, Syriac version, and
Deodatus. The word אשל, translated “grove” in Gen. xxi, 33, has been
variously translated. Parkhurst renders it an oak, and says, that from
this word may be derived the name of the famous asylum, opened by
Romulus between two groves of oak at Rome. On the other hand, Celsius,
Michaēlis, and Dr. Geddes render it the tamarisk, which is a lofty and
beautiful tree, and grows abundantly in Egypt and Arabia. The same word
in 1 Sam. xxii, 6; xxxi, 13, is rendered “a tree.” It must be noted too,
that in the first of these places, the common version is equally obscure
and contradictory, by making _ramah_ a proper name: it signifies hillock
or bank. Of the trees that produced precious balsams there was one in
particular that long flourished in Judea, having been supposed to have
been an object of great attention to Solomon, which was afterward
transplanted to Matarea, in Egypt, where it continued till about two
hundred and fifty years ago, according to Maillet, who gives a
description of it, drawn, it is supposed, from the Arabian authors, in
which he says, “This shrub had two very differently coloured barks, the
one red, the other perfectly green; that they tasted strongly like
incense and turpentine, and when bruised between the fingers they smelt
very nearly like cardamoms. This balsam, which was extremely precious
and celebrated, and was used by the Coptic church in their chrism, was
produced by a very low shrub; and it is said, that all those shrubs that
produced balsams are every where low, and do not exceed two or three
cubits in height.”
Descriptions of the principal trees and shrubs mentioned in Holy Writ
the reader will find noticed in distinct articles under their several
denominations.