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In Egypt and the East: Israel

The manna gathered by the Children of Israel in the wilderness was delicious to the hungry people, "and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey."

The Children of Israel brought as an offering to the temples of the Lord, "in abundance, the first-fruits of corn, wine and oil, and honey."

Honey, however, could not be used in sacrifices for it is commanded: - "Ye shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering of the Lord made by fire."

It has been by some explained that honey was prohibited as a burnt-offering because it, like leaven, caused fermentation to take place when mixed with flour; and again, the heathen used honey in their sacrifices, a valid In Egypt and the East reason for its prohibition by the Hebrews. Moreover, honey was sometimes used as a symbol for carnal pleasure, and bees are classed as "unclean" animals, that is, it is indirectly forbidden to eat them. But while honey may not be used as a burnt-offering, it is very acceptable as an offering of first-fruits because these were not sacrificed, but went to the nourishment of the priests.

The punishment of the wicked is that "he shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks, of honey and butter." Honey, in Palestine as in India, was found in clefts in the rocks and in the trunks of trees, and honey in the rock is more than once referred to in the Bible, as in the Psalm where the Lord complains of the disobedience of the Children of Israel, and declares what he would have done for them had they deserved it : - "He [Jehovah] should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee."

The Lord thus addresses Jerusalem : - "Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil; and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom." And blames the people for setting up images : - "My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour and oil and honey wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour."

The Lord, describing Tyrus, says: "Judah, and the lamb of Israel, they were thy merchants; they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm."

In the Book of the Judges we read how Samson found the honey in the carcass of the young lion he had himself slain. It is not stated that the bees had their origin in the dead body of the lion, though if that is meant we have here a trace of the superstition believed by the Greeks and by them referred to Egypt, that the bee comes from the body of a slain bull.

In Samson's case the finding of honey and subsequent expounding of his riddle, "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness," was fraught with direful consequences, resulting as it did in the slaying of thirty men.