NOVEMBER 15, 1916 



1081 



Compared with the arid and sandy region 

 of Sinai, Canaan was and is yet a very 

 desirable country. Bread is to be found 

 everywhere in Palestine. Labban is almost 

 a necessity and a sweet dish — a kind of 

 luxury. Hebron, in the south, is the great 

 country of vine3'ards, and dibs is prepared 

 from the juice of grapes. Joshua and 

 Caleb cut off the luxuriant grapes from 

 Eshcol; and if now the modern travelers 

 inquire what is done with the grapes there, 

 " dibs " will be the answer., Diks is the 

 name given to grape-treacle in all the south. 



The Bible student reads the Bible as 

 translated by Europeans in the 14th and 

 15th centuries, and by translator who knew 

 Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, but who did not 

 know Palestine nor the innumerable shades 

 of meaning in their language. They could 

 not distinguish between milk and sour milk 

 nor between dibs and honey; and as they 

 certainly knew nothing of sour milk and 

 dibs they simply translated eretz zabath 

 halab u'dehash by '^ a land flowing with 

 milk and honey," as in Exodus 3 :8. 



Very late in their national history the 

 Hebrews began to make a distinction be- 

 tween g:iape honey and comb honey. Jon- 

 athan was probably the first Hebrew who 

 tasted comb honey. In his memorable pur- 

 suit of the Philistines he saw the ovei'- 

 turned booty, and with his staff picked up 

 a piece of comb honey, iri'at dahash, found 

 in the spoil taken from the enemy — see I. 

 Sam. 14:29. The text is veiy clear here. 

 The Hebrew dahash and Arabic dibs are 

 one and the same article. Dibs is made by 

 crushing the grapes in rock-cut presses 

 which are hewn out in the vineyards. Work- 

 ers and vintners are allowed to suck the 

 flowing juice as it runs down from the rock 

 into the jar below. The Moslems, like 

 the ancient Recliabites of Jeremiah 35, are 

 not allowed to drink any strong drink. "Ye 

 shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your 

 sons for ever." The grapes in all Islam 

 are transformed into dibs as it was with the 

 Perizzites. The pressing in the rocks, the 

 flowing into the jar, and the sucking of the 

 dahash from the rocks are mentioned in 

 Deuteronomy 32:13, in Job 20:17, and in 

 Psalm 81:16; and the rocks alone prove tiie 

 sweet to have been dibs and not assal, the 

 Arabic name for honey taken from the bees. 

 That bee lioney was not meant by the writ- 

 ers of sacred histoi-y, every modern beekeep- 

 er will understand at once for several rea- 

 sons: 1. Because honey remains in the comb 

 if left alone, and will remain thus for years, 

 even in the hottest part of Palestine, as the 

 clefts of rocks are always cool — at least 

 where bees have selected their dwelling. 



2. Should the honey flow, bees would 

 swarm around and become so aggressive 

 that there would hardly be a beekeeper au- 

 dacious enough to put his lips to the rocks 

 and risk the furious stings of the robbers. 



Dibs easily ferments when it is a few 

 months old ; and the prudent Arabs huny 

 the sale of the small jars, containing about 

 G lbs. each, at the price of 40 cents — for so 

 it was in the daj's of my youth, during the 

 "80's. 



By the end of January most dibs is sold 

 in Hebron and its environs. Jerusalem and 

 Bethlehem grocers may keep some in big 

 jars and cool places till Easter. Later on, 

 the dibs may ferment. This explains why 

 the Hebrew legislator warns the people not 

 to bring dahash. Offerings made by fire 

 were to have a sweet savor. " No meal of- 

 ferings which ye shall offer unto the Lord 

 shall be made with leaven, for ye shall burn 

 no leaven, nor any dahash as an offering " — 

 Leviticus 2 :9-ll. 



In spring dibs begins to ferment, and is 

 simply thrown away when the fermentation 

 is irremediable. The Philistines, who 

 originated in the islands, were more advanc- 

 ed in agricultural knowledge as well as in 

 other industries. Then the Hebrew-Bed- 

 ouin were obliged to have their weapons 

 made by the Philistyies; and beekeeping, 

 no doubt, was not only known to the Philis- 

 tines exclusively, but they kept their pro- 

 cesses secret to some extent. 



In this unchanging East, beekeeping still 

 flourishes in the Philistine plains. It was 

 introduced into the mountains of Judah 

 very much later; at all events, the author 

 of Proverbs knew honeycomb which he pre- 

 sented to his Edomite w^ife, altho he knew 

 nothing about bees themselves. He had 

 wisdom and understanding (Proverbs 1:2), 

 and lie spealvs of " four things that be little 

 upon earth, but they are exceeding wise. 

 The ants are a people not strong, yet they 

 provide their meat in the summer. The 

 conies (hares) are but a feeble folk, yet 

 make they their houses in the rocks. The 

 locusts have no king, yet go they foilh all 

 of them by bands. The spider works with 

 her liands. yet sh.e lives in kings' palaces." — 

 Proverbs 30:24-28. Very likely liad Solo- 

 mon seen bees he would liave mentioned 

 Ihem in tliat place. The Arabs disting-uish 

 dibs, the grape-treacle, from assal, the 

 lioney of bees. The Hebrews of old had 

 only one name for the sweet sticky matter, 

 and tliey had only one name for hornets 

 and bees — if they ever knew them. In 

 later years honey was introduced from Syria 

 or Assyria, and Egypt, and a name was giv- 

 en to distinguish it from grape-treacle — 



