Bible animals

by J. G. Wood

Salt and spices were generally added to it; see Ezek. xxiv. 10: "Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well." The surface was carefully skimmed, and, when the meat was thoroughly cooked, it and the broth were served up separately. The latter was used as a sort of sauce, into which unleavened bread was dipped. So in Judges vi. 19 we read that when Gideon was visited by the angel, according to the hospitable custom of the land, he "made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it to him."

Valuable, however, as was the Sheep for this purpose, there has always existed a great reluctance to kill the animal, the very sight of the flocks being an intense gratification to a pastoral Oriental. The principal part of the food supplied by the Sheep was, and is still, the milk; which afforded abundant food without thinning the number of the flock. As all know who have tasted it, the milk of the Sheep is peculiarly rich, and in the East is valued much more highly than that of cattle. The milk was seldom drunk in a fresh state, as is usually the case with ourselves, but was suffered to become sour, curdled, and semi-solid.

This custom exists at the present day, the curdled milk being known by the name of "leben." It is worthy of notice that all the Kaffir tribes of Southern Africa, who live almost entirely on milk, also use it curdled, under the name of "amasi," and utterly refuse to drink it in its fresh state, looking upon new milk much as we should look upon unfermented ale. It is curdled by being placed in a vessel together with some of the already curdled milk, and the usual plan is to preserve for this special purpose a vessel which is never wholly emptied, and which is found to curdle the milk with great rapidity.

"Leben" is exceedingly nutritious, and especially adapted for children, who, when accustomed to it, will very much prefer it to the milk in a fresh state. Two separate words are used in the Old Testament to distinguish fresh from curdled milk, the former being called Châlâb, and the latter Chemhah.

For butter (if we may accept the rendering of the word) the milk of the cow or the goat seems to have been preferred, although that of the Sheep also furnishes it. This distinction is drawn even in the earliest days of Jewish history, and in the Song of Moses (Deut. xxxii. 13, 14) we find this passage, "He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs."

There is, however, a little uncertainty about the word which is translated as butter, and as this word is only used in a very few passages, we will refer briefly to them. The first mention of butter occurs in Gen. xviii. 8, where we are told that Abraham "took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them." In this passage we find the words "chemhah" and "châlâh" are used, the former being translated in the Jewish Bible as "clotted cream." Abraham therefore gave his angelic guests their choice of milk, both fresh and curdled. In the passage from Deut. xxxii. 14, which has already been mentioned, the same words are used, as they are in the well-known passage in the history of Jael and Sisera (Judges v. 25): "He asked water, and she gave him milk (châlâb); she brought forth butter (chemhah) in a lordly dish."

Again, the butter which Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai brought to David, together with honey, was the chemhah (2 Sam. xvii. 29). In the familiar passage, "Butter and honey shall He eat" (Isa. vii. 15), the same word is used; and so it is in Job xx. 17, "He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter."

But in Prov. xxx. 33, "Surely the churning (mitz) of milk (châlâb) bringeth forth butter" (chemhah), we have a proof that the chemhah, whatever it may be, is produced by the churning or pressure of the fresh milk. As to the exact force of the word "mitz" there is a little doubt, some persons translating it as pressure, and others as agitating or shaking, a movement which, when applied to milk, would be rightly translated as churning. This latter interpretation is strengthened by the context, "Surely the churning (mitz) of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing (mitz) of the nose bringeth forth blood."

It is most probable that the chemhah may signify both clotted cream and butter, just as many words in our language have two or more significations. Some commentators have thought that the ancient Jews were not acquainted with butter. This theory, however, is scarcely tenable. Butter is used largely at the present day, and is made after the simple fashion of the East, by shaking the cream in a vessel, exactly as it is made among the black tribes of Southern Africa and other parts of the world. And, considering the unchanging character of institutions in the East, we may assume as certain that the ancient inhabitants of Palestine were, like their modern successors, acquainted both with the clotted cream and true butter.

Moreover, two substances, butter and honey, which are mentioned in Samuel, in Job, and in Isaiah, as connected with each other, are still eaten together in the East.