[1004] The Civilisation of Palestine, p. 33.
[1005] The Biblical World, Feb., 1910, p. 105. Inscriptions of Sinai (published in 1913 by the Egypt Exploration Fund) furnish much evidence as regards the intercourse between Egypt and Israel. For the trade between Solomon and Egypt, see 1 Kings x. 28, etc.
[1006] See Plates 370 and 371 in Wilkinson, and antea, p. 314.
[1007] See antea, pp. 355-9.
[1008] In Singer, Jewish Ency., V. p. 404. “Fishing implements such as hook and line, sometimes secured on shore to need no further attention (Shab. 18A), and nets of various constructions” are practically all that are given.
[1009] After acknowledging (Notes and Queries, Dec. 2, 1916) that there is no mention in either Old or New Testament of a Rod, Mr. Breslar goes on, “Yet there are places such as Job xl. 31 (xli. 7) where the Hebrew words are translated barbed irons and fish spears, and in Job xl. 26 (xli. 2) a thorn. A fishing-rod in the modern sense no one could reasonably demand, though I opine that in agmoun (Isaiah lviii. 5), used in that sense in Job xl. 26, we have the nucleus of one.” Mr. Breslar is evidently not aware or does not realise that fish spears, bidents, etc., were of the earliest weapons of fishing, long anterior to the Rod, and that these are the weapons referred to in Job. A reference to the Jewish Encyclopædia edited by Isidore Singer, would have shown him that ẓilẓal dagim in Job xli. 7 was in all probability a harpoon. Then, “that this phrase (Klei metzooda) or a similar one is not found in the Bible is merely an accidental omission like, I believe, that of the name of Jehovah from the Book of Esther.” This is hardly helpful: let us grant that the omission of a name from a short book like Esther was an accident. How can this be “like” the omission of all mention of or allusion to the Rod in the vast literature of the Old and New Testaments and of the Talmud, especially when we find in all three numerous passages dealing with fishing and the tackle employed for fishing?
[1010] At the beginning of the world (Buddha tells the Monk of Jetavana) all the fishes chose Leviathan for their King. No hint as to what fish this Leviathan represented is given us: but the Leviathan conceived by the Talmudists seems to have been an indefinable sea-monster, of which the female lay coiled round the earth till God, fearing that her progeny might destroy the new globe, killed her and salted her flesh and put it away for the banquet which at the end awaits the pious of the earth. On that day Gabriel will kill the male also, and make a tent out of his skin for the Elect who are bidden to the banquet (Robinson, op. cit., p. 8). As Robinson is somewhat misleading, especially as regards the word Leviathan, I give the story as told by Buddha with reference to Anqulimāta from Jātaka, nv. 537, vol. V. p. 462. A certain king had been a Yakkha, and still wanted to eat human flesh. His commander-in-chief tells him a tale to warn him. “Once upon a time there were great fishes in the Ocean. One of them, Ānanda, was made king of all the fish, ate the other fish, and finally ate his own tail thinking it was a fish. The remaining fish smelling blood, devoured Ānanda’s tail until they reached his head, and all that was left of Ānanda was a heap of bones.” Leviathan is a gloss of Robinson’s, because the only word in the text which could in any degree correspond to Leviathan is Mahā Maccho = great fish. For the election of a King of fish, see also the Naĉĉa Jātaka, and the Ubrīda Jātaka.
[1011] Bk. II. 70.
[1012] See, however, an article in The Spectator, Feb. 14, 1920, which asserts that the existence of crocodiles in the Nahr-ez-Zerka, or the River of Crocodiles of the Crusaders, cannot be questioned, and also H. B. Tristram, Land of Israel (London, 1865), p. 103, to similar but unconvincing effect.
[1013] Cf. Isaiah xxxvii. 29, “Therefore will I put my hook (ḥoḥ) in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips,” and 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11, “Which took Manasseh with hooks” (R.V. margin).