Page:03.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.B.vol.3.LaterProphets.djvu/1800

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food for him;” it is the herbage of the hills (which is scanty in the lower and more abundant in the upper valley of the Nile) that is intended, after which this uncouth animal climbs (vid., Schlottm.). בּוּל is neither a contraction of יבוּל (Ges.), nor a corruption of it (Ew.), but Hebraeo-Arab. = baul, produce, from bâla, to beget, comp. aballa, to bear fruit (prop. seed, bulal), root בל, to soak, wet, mix.^[1]Job 40:20 describes how harmless, and if unmolested, inoffensive, the animal is; שׁם there, viz., while it is grazing.
In Job 40:21 Saadia correctly translates: Arab. tḥt 'l-ḍâl; and Job 40:22, Abulwalid: Arab. ygṭı̂h 'l-ḍl mdlllâ lh, tegit eum lotus obumbrans eum, by interpreting Arab. ‘l-ḍl, more correctly Arab. ‘l-ḍâl, with es-sidr el-berrı̂, i.e., Rhamnus silvestris (Rhamnus Lotus, Linn.), in connection with which Schultens' observation is to be noticed: Cave intelligas lotum Aegyptiam s. plantam Niloticam quam Arabes Arab. nûfr. The fact that the wild animals of the steppe seek the shade of the lote-tree, Schultens has supported by passages from the poets. The lotus is found not only in Syria, but also in Egypt, and the whole of Africa.^[2]

↑ Whether בּליל, Job 6:5; Job 24:6, signifies mixed provender (farrago), or perhaps ripe fruit, i.e., grain, so that jabol, Jdg 19:21, in the signification “he gave dry provender consisting of barley-grain,” would be the opposite of the jahushsh (יחשׁ) of the present day, “he gives green provender consisting of green grass or green barley, hashı̂sh,” as Wetzst. supposes, vid., on Isa 30:24.
↑ The Arab. ḍâl or Dûm-tree, which likes hot and damp valleys, and hence is found much on the northern, and in great numbers on the eastern, shores of the Sea of Galilee, is called in the present day sidra, collect. sidr; and its fruit, a small yellow apple, dûma, collect. dûm, perhaps “the not ending, perennial,” because the fruit of the previous year only falls from the tree when that of the present year is ripe. Around Bagdad, as they told me, the Dûm-tree bears twice a year. In Egypt its fruit is called nebq (נבק, not nibq as in Freytag), and the tree is there far stronger and taller than in Syria, where it is seldom more than about four and twenty feet high. Only in the Wâdi 's-sidr on the mountains of Judaea have I seen several unusually large trunks. The Kâmûs places the signification “the sweet Dûm-tree” first of all to Arab. ḍâl, and then “the wild D.” In hotter regions there may also be a superior kind with fine fruit, in Syria it is only wild - Neshwân (ii. 192) says: “dâla, collect. dâl, is the wild Dûm-tree,” - yet I have always found its fruit sweet and pleasant to the taste. - Wetzst.

[1] Whether בּליל, Job 6:5; Job 24:6, signifies mixed provender (farrago), or perhaps ripe fruit, i.e., grain, so that jabol, Jdg 19:21, in the signification “he gave dry provender consisting of barley-grain,” would be the opposite of the jahushsh (יחשׁ) of the present day, “he gives green provender consisting of green grass or green barley, hashı̂sh,” as Wetzst. supposes, vid., on Isa 30:24.

[2] The Arab. ḍâl or Dûm-tree, which likes hot and damp valleys, and hence is found much on the northern, and in great numbers on the eastern, shores of the Sea of Galilee, is called in the present day sidra, collect. sidr; and its fruit, a small yellow apple, dûma, collect. dûm, perhaps “the not ending, perennial,” because the fruit of the previous year only falls from the tree when that of the present year is ripe. Around Bagdad, as they told me, the Dûm-tree bears twice a year. In Egypt its fruit is called nebq (נבק, not nibq as in Freytag), and the tree is there far stronger and taller than in Syria, where it is seldom more than about four and twenty feet high. Only in the Wâdi 's-sidr on the mountains of Judaea have I seen several unusually large trunks. The Kâmûs places the signification “the sweet Dûm-tree” first of all to Arab. ḍâl, and then “the wild D.” In hotter regions there may also be a superior kind with fine fruit, in Syria it is only wild - Neshwân (ii. 192) says: “dâla, collect. dâl, is the wild Dûm-tree,” - yet I have always found its fruit sweet and pleasant to the taste. - Wetzst.

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