About ten years afterwards, when the city had been rebuilt and repeopled, the fish-market was again established, the dealers being chiefly men of Tyre, who took advantage of the neglect of the law which had been the result of the captivity among idolaters, and sold their goods on the Sabbath day: "There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem" (Neh. xiii. 16).
It is evident that the Fish which these traders brought must have been dried and salted, or otherwise they would not have borne the journey to Jerusalem from Tyre. Dried Fish were, according to Herodotus, largely used in Egypt, and it is probable that the Jews learned the art of drying and salting Fish for future use during their captivity in that land.
There are one or two passages in the Scriptures which relate to Fish, though in a less direct manner than those which have been quoted. One of them refers to the times of drought which occasionally visit Palestine, and which always bring with them terrible privations, and sometimes cause actual famine. See, for example, Isa. 1. 2: "Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst." These words exactly express the condition of the country after a long drought. The springs are gradually exhausted from the absence of rain, the large rivers sink lower and lower in their beds, and the little streams and tributaries dry up altogether, leaving their inhabitants to perish for want of water.
By way of contrast to this passage, we will take another, which speaks, not of death, but of life. It occurs in Ezek. xlvii. 10, and forms part of the vision in which the future of the Church was foretold:
"And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live whither the river cometh.
"And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many."
Now this is one of the many passages which might be passed over lightly, because its general signification is so evident, and yet which requires to be understood before its full force can be comprehended. Both these places, En-gedi and En-eglaim, are on the shores of the Dead Sea, in which no creature can live. Thousands of small Fishes are daily carried into the Dead Sea from the Jordan, and as soon as the fresh water of the river mingles with the poisonous waves of the Dead Sea the Fishes die. Putting aside as foreign to the purpose of this work the metaphorical signification of the passage, we find that the prophet foretold a complete regeneration of the waters, so that, instead of destroying every creature that entered them, the Fishes should multiply so that fishermen should ply their trade from one part of the Dead Sea to another.
Again, in Hosea iv: 3, where the destruction of Fish is mentioned among the plagues that would follow the continual disobedience of the Israelites: "Because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land, ....
"Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven: yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away."