“538. BUTTER AND HONEY—ISAIAH 7:15-25”

Butter and Honey—Isa_7:15-25

We formerly had occasion to refer to the wonderful prediction of Isaiah, respecting the child to be born, which was given as a sign to Ahaz. Note: Morning Series: Fifty-first Week—Sunday. We therefore only refer to the repetition of the circumstance in the book of Isaiah’s prophecies, for the sake of calling attention to one or two of the particulars which it did not then lie in our way to notice.

It is said of the child—“Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good,”—or rather, “until he knows,”—that is, that he shall be so fed until the first few years of his life have passed. In regard to this eating of butter and honey, various singular explanations have been given by commentators, which would have been spared us, had they possessed some knowledge of Eastern habits of life. It must be understood that the word translated “butter,” not only denotes that which is properly butter, in our acceptation of the word, but sundry preparations from milk less than butter; such as cream, butter-milk, and sour curdled milk, all of which are largely used in Western Asia, especially in juvenile dietary. Even the butter proper is a different thing from ours, being white as lard, and very deficient of the flavor which we consider essential to good butter. Indeed, there are differences in this respect among ourselves; as, for instance, in Devonshire butter is not, as elsewhere, made from the skim of cold milk, but from the thick deposit (known as clotted cream) formed upon the surface of scalded milk, and is finally turned into “butter,” without the aid of the “churn;” employed in other parts of the country. The results of this further process, however conducted here and elsewhere, are all butter, whatever be the differences in the appearance and quality of the product. It is quite possible that in this and some other places where the word is translated “butter,” milk in even its simple state may be understood. Certainly milk, and such preparations of it as we have indicated, are consumed very largely, and, together with honey when it can be procured, form the staple diet of young children. It is surprising that some understand this diet as denoting a time of distress, seeing that no products of agriculture—no bread, is mentioned. It is surely forgotten that the plenty of the land of Canaan is continually described by its being “a land flowing with milk and honey.” The feeding of children with milk and honey, is also mentioned by heathen writers to express their prosperous bringing up. Indeed, in the Isa_7:22, of this very chapter, it seems that this “butter and honey” was, by reason of abundance, to enter more largely even than usual into the ordinary food of the people; and from the verse that precedes, it appears that not only the milk of kine, but of sheep (and elsewhere, Pro_27:27, of goats also) was employed, as among the Bedouins at this day. This diet is described by Irby and Mangles as forming the concluding mess of a feast with which they were entertained by an Arab Sheikh—“They afterwards gave us some honey and butter, together with bread to dip in it, Narsuk (the Sheikh) desiring one of his men to mix it for us, as we were rather awkward at it. The Arab having stirred the mixture up well with his fingers, showed his dexterity at consuming as well as mixing, and rewarded himself for his trouble by eating half of it.” In fact, cream or fresh butter mixed with honey, is much used at breakfast in those parts, especially among the Arabs; and when it is intended to provide an elegant repast, the bread-paste is kneaded up afresh, along with butter and honey. Children, especially, seem everywhere to have a taste for this sort of combination of butter and sweets. We count it among the reminiscences of our own childhood, that although we for ourselves preferred the butter “pure and simple”—treacle laid over bread already buttered, or sugar sprinkled over it, was regarded as a special luxury by most of our juvenile contemporaries. We are obliged to a friend in Scotland for an equally practical, and still more literal, illustration of this Oriental combination of honey with butter. He says: “In my father’s family, for many years, we every autumn received from the country a large supply of fresh (unsalted) butter, and honey. The former was dissolved in a sauce-pan, and then well mixed with the honey, after which the whole was poured into jars, where it was preserved in excellent condition for many months, and formed a favorite condiment to us youngsters.”

Before it should come to pass that the child spoken of by the prophet should be old enough “to refuse the evil and choose the good,” the confederacy then subsisting between the kingdoms of Israel and Syria, to the alarm and detriment of Judah, should be brought to naught through the invasion and subjugation of these lands by the Assyrians. This is expressed in the remarkable words: “I will hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.” The army is here compared to swarms of these insects with reference to their immense number, and to the pungency of their stings. To hiss for them, is to call or summon them, derived from the practice of the bee-keepers, who, with a whistle, summoned them from the hives to the open fields, and by the same means conducted them home again. We know not that the practice still exists. Most likely it does, though it has not been noticed; but we are assured by St. Cyril, that it still subsisted in Asia down to the fourth and fifth centuries.

Assyrian Archer shooting backwards

Further on we are told that the invaders should come with “arrows and with bows;” and these weapons are constantly ascribed to the Assyrians—more, indeed, to them than to any other of the invaders of Israel or Judah—with what fitness the sculptures of Nineveh now enable us to ascertain, as there will be soon another occasion to show. On this fact, an ingenious writer Note: Rev. Thomas Howes, in his Observations on Books, published occasionally, in parts, at intervals of years, so that a complete set is rarely to be found. The volumes (four) are rich in chronological materials and suggestions. of the last century, now difficult of access, founded a conjecture as to the reason of the bee being made the emblem of the Assyrians. It was probably, he thinks, on account of the resemblance between a quiver full of arrows and the forked sting in the tail of the bee; “and if,” he adds, in these early times, the archers in their flight shot arrows backwards, as the Persians and Parthians did afterwards, the resemblance would be still more characteristic of the archer in the Assyrian army; whether native Assyrians or Median and Persian allies.” He goes on to urge, that the choice of this emblem becomes a strong proof that the circumstance of archery was noticed as “a distinguishing property in that army.” All these happy conjectures are confirmed by the sculptures, in which we not only find the arrow the distinguishing weapon of the Assyrians, but have instances of men turning round in their flight to discharge arrows at the pursuing enemy. It will be observed, that the analogy indicated by Howes is not merely between an arrow to the sting of a bee, but of a quiver of arrows to a bee’s sting. The ingenuity and fitness will be obvious to those acquainted with the structure of that sting which was probably known to him, and which may be made intelligible by the annexed enlarged representation of it.

Sting of a Bee

Considering the great abundance of bees in Assyria, and the excellence of its honey, it is far from unlikely that the bee may have been a known symbol of the Assyrian power. We have not been able to discover any evidence of this among the sculptures hitherto brought to light; but we find a modern and sufficiently appropriate instance, in the adoption of the bee as the symbol of the French empire by Napoleon. Considering his early-entertained and long-cherished dreams of eastern conquest, it has been supposed by some that he had this text in view in the adoption of that emblem. It is better ascertained, however, that he wished the bee to be regarded as indicating the revival of the Merovingian dynasty, of which this insect seems to have been the symbol; Note: In the year 1654 a tomb was discovered at Tournay (in Flanders), which was supposed to be that of Childeric I, son of Merovée (head of the Merovingian dynasty,) and father of Clovis, who reigned in the Low Countries from 458 to 481. This tomb contained a sword with a golden hilt, an iron hatchet, many bees of gold, 100 gold medals of the emperors of Constantinople contemporary with Childeric, with 200 silver medals of the same empire prior to Childeric. The Emperor Leopold presented these remains to Louis XIV, and they are still preserved in the Cabinet of Antiquities of the National Library at Paris. and as representing the industry of the nation. The spread bee also is not unlike the national fleur-de-lis, and it seems Napoleon was not unwilling that it should be mistaken for such by the populace.

Autor: JOHN KITTO