Manger – A feedingtrough, crib, or open box in a stable designed to hold fodder for livestock. In Bible times, mangers were made of clay mixed with straw or from stones cemented with mud. In structures built by King Ahab at Megiddo, a manger cut from a limestone block was discovered. Mangers were also carved in natural outcroppings of rock,
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HYGIENE
The Jewish diet was generally good for health. (For instance, Daniel and his friends looked far healthier on a vegetarian diet than did their companions who ate meat, Daniel 1:5-16.) The Jewish food laws gave a good degree of protection from food poisoning when cooking temperatures were low. The biggest health problem concerned the water, which
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Jews were promised health if they obeyed God’s laws (Exodus 15:26), and they were given a number of health laws (regular rest and relaxation, suit able food, avoidance of contaminated water, marriage regulations, cleanliness, separation from contagious disease), which when followed led to a high level of good health. If the laws were disobeyed, disease resulted (Deuteronomy 28:60-61). There was no call for doctors, and anyone who resorted to them came under criticism for going against the will of God. This
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PLOUGHING
Ploughing and sowing were often one operation. The grain was scattered from an open basket and replenished from a sack tied on the back of a donkey. It took about thirty pounds of seed to the half acre, although the Babylonians had invented a primitive seed drill that was in use in some places and was more economical with the seed. The seed was then ploughed in so that it would not be taken by the birds (Matthew 13:4). This method of
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When the Jewish people entered Canaan and took up agriculture after the seminomadic life of forty years in the wilderness, they were entering into work that went back in their own history for hundreds of years and into a country that was extremely rich in plants. Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham had come from, was sustained by healthy agricultural system based on irrigation ditches from the river bank, stone ploughshares, and flint
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HOMES FOR THE WEALTHY
The difference between the homes of the wealthy and of the poor lay in the provision of a courtyard. At the lowest level this was simply an enclosure added onto the house. But the Continue reading MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE BIBLE (HOMES FOR THE WEALTHY)
Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to both you and your ancestors, He did it to help you realize that food isn’t everything, and that real life comes by obeying every command of God. For all these forty years your clothes haven’t grown old, and your feet haven’t been blistered or swollen. So you should realize that, as a man punishes his son, the Lord punishes you to help you. Obey the laws of the Lord your God. Walk in his
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This ark of the testimony is better known by its alternate name, “ark of the covenant” (Deuteronomy 31:26. It is also called “the ark of God” (1 Samuel 3:3). It was a sacred portable chest that symbolized God’s grace and guidance in the lives of the Israelites.
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