410 ROD NOT EMPLOYED—REASONS 
Sea-fishing was out of the question, for with the doubtful 
exception of a small bit of the Galilean coast—probably not 
held continuously—no part of the Mediterranean sea-shore 
belonged to Israel during the Monarchy, while the climate 
and intense heat of the Valley of the Jordan, the only real 
river, kept its inhabitants apart from the dwellers on the 
mountains. 
But contva: even if the majority were Simple Simons, 
the numerous references (about 74) in the Bible to fishes, 
fishing, and fishing implements indicate a wide, if perhaps 
impersonal, knowledge of the practice. The fact that the larger 
number of these were used as metaphors or similes evidences 
a more than local knowledge of fishing, because for a metaphor 
or simile to be telling it usually must, as do the Homeric, 
appeal to a well-known, common, and long-established custom 
or craft. 
B. Although fishing apparently prevailed always in the 
Sea of Galilee, it must be remembered that practically the 
whole literature of the Old Testament emanates from central and 
southern Palestine, and (as is the case with Egyptian literature 
as regards Deltaic conditions) contains but scant allusion to 
life among the Northern Tribes. Hence possibly the silence 
about the Rod, which may nevertheless have been employed. 
C. The Old Testament stories, although some belong to the 
same period as the Homeric, are told in a manner very different 
from the latter. Every picture is sketched with the fewest 
strokes, and accordingly details are, have to be, taken for 
granted. Thus, although the majority of the people subsisted 
largely on milk, there is not one reference to milking. 
But contra: this omission seems to me hardly on all fours 
with that of the Rod. The word milk, when not expressly 
limited, e.g. ‘‘ of thy bosom,’’ or used metaphorically, signifies 
solely the lacteal liquid extruded from the teats of an animal, 
and so implies milking or a previous act of extrusion, whereas 
the word fishing connotes no single method of taking fish, 
as the Old Testament in its mention of the implements, Spear, 
Hook and Line, and Nets, demonstrates. Then again Job xxi. 
24 (R.V. margin), “ his milk-pails are full of milk,” and Judges 
