CHAPTER I 



GRASS AND HERBS. 



THE general term for herbaceous productions, in the Hebrew 

 writings, is desha, although it is also specifically applied to grass in 

 particular. The corresponding Greek term in the New Testament 

 is chortos. Wetstein remarks, that the Hebrews divide all kinds of 

 vegetables into trees and herbs ; the former of which the Hellenists 

 call xylon, the latter chortos, under \vhich they comprehend grass, 

 corn, and flowers. In Matt. vi. 30, and Luke xii. 28, this term is 

 certainly designed to include the lilies of the field, of which our Sa- 

 viour had just been speaking. 



There is great impropriety in our version of Proverbs xxvii. 25: 

 ' The hay appeareth, and the tender grass showeth itself, and herbs 

 of the mountains are gathered.' Certainly, if the tender grass is but 

 just beginning to show itself, the hay, which is grass cut and dried, 

 after it has arrived at maturity, ought by no means to be associated 

 with it ; still less to precede it. Upon this passage, Mr. Taylor re- 

 marks, that none of the Dictionaries or Lexicons give what seems 

 to be the accurate import of the word translated hay, which betakes 

 to mean the first shoots, the rising just budding spires of grass. 

 So the wise man says, * the tender risings of the grass are in motion ; 

 and the buddings of grass (grass in its early state) appear; and the 

 tufts of grass, proceeding from the same root, collect themselves to- 

 gether, and, by their union, begin to clothe the mountain tops with 

 a pleasing verdure.' Surely, the beautiful progress of vegetation, 

 as described in this passage, must appear to every man of taste as 

 too poetical to be lost ; but what must it be to an eastern beholder 

 to one whose imagination is exalted by a poetic spirit one 

 who has lately witnessed an all-surrounding sterility a grassless 

 waste ! 



The same impropriety, but in a contrary order, and where per- 

 haps the English reader would be less likely to detect it, occurs in 

 our version of Isaiah xv. 6, * For the waters of Nimrim [water is a 

 principal source of vegetation] shall be desolate departed DEAD; 

 so that [the 'hay' in our translation, but as it should be] the tender 

 just sprouting risings of the grass are withered dried up; the 

 buddings of the grass are entirely ruined,' [* there is no green thing,* 

 in our version.] The following verse may be thus translated : ' In- 

 somuch, that the reserve he had made, and the deposit he had placed 

 with great care in supposed security, shall all be driven to the brook 

 of the willows.' 



