The following description of oriental houses will serve to
illustrate several passages of Scripture. From the gate of the porch,
one is conducted into a quadrangular court, which, being exposed to the
weather, is paved with stone, in order to carry off the water in the
rainy season. The principal design of this quadrangle, is to give light
to the house, and admit the fresh air into the apartments; it is also
the place where the master of the house entertains his company, who are
seldom or never honoured with admission into the inner apartments. This
open space bears a striking resemblance to the _impluvium_, or _cava
ædium_, of the Romans, which was also an uncovered area, from whence the
chambers were lighted. For the accommodation of the guests, the pavement
is covered with mats or carpets; and as it is secured against all
interruption from the street, is well adapted to public entertainments.
It is called, says Dr. Shaw, the middle of the house, and literally
answers to τὸ μέσον of the evangelist, into which the man afflicted with
the palsy was let down through the ceiling, with his couch, before
Jesus, Luke v, 19. Hence, he conjectures that our Lord was at this time
instructing the people in the court of one of these houses; and it is by
no means improbable, that the quadrangle was to him and his Apostles a
favourite situation, while they were engaged in disclosing the mysteries
of redemption. To defend the company from the scorching sun-beams, or
“windy storm and tempest,” a veil was expanded upon ropes from one side
of the parapet wall to the other, which might be unfolded or folded at
pleasure. The court is for the most part surrounded with a cloister,
over which, when the house has a number of stories, a gallery is erected
of the same dimensions with the cloister, having a balustrade, or else a
piece of carved or latticed work, going round about, to prevent people
from falling from it into the court. The doors of the enclosure round
the house are made very small; but the doors of the houses very large,
for the purpose of admitting a copious stream of fresh air into their
apartments. The windows which look into the street are very high and
narrow, and defended by lattice work; as they are only intended to allow
the cloistered inmate a peep of what is passing without, while he
remains concealed behind the casement. This kind of window the ancient
Hebrews called _arubah_, which is the same term that they used to
express those small openings through which pigeons passed into the
cavities of the rocks, or into those buildings which were raised for
their reception. Thus the prophet asks: “Who are these that fly as a
cloud, and as the doves, אל-ארבתיהם, to their small or narrow windows.”
The word is derived from a root which signifies to lie in wait for the
prey; and is very expressive of the concealed manner in which a person
examines through that kind of window an external object. Irwin describes
the windows in Upper Egypt as having the same form and dimensions; and
says expressly, that one of the windows of the house in which they
lodged, and through which they looked into the street, more resembled a
pigeon hole than any thing else. But the sacred writers mention another
kind of window, which was large and airy; it was called חלון, and was
large enough to admit a person of mature age being cast out of it; a
punishment which that profligate woman Jezebel suffered by the command
of Jehu, the authorized extirminator of her family. These large windows
admit the light and the breeze into spacious apartments of the same
length with the court, but which seldom or never communicate with one
another. In the houses of the fashionable and the gay, the lower part of
the walls is adorned with rich hangings of velvet or damask, tinged with
the liveliest colours, suspended on hooks, or taken down at pleasure. A
correct idea of their richness and splendour may be formed from the
description, which the inspired writer has given of the hangings in the
royal garden at Shushan, the ancient capital of Persia: “Where were
white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and
purple, to silver rings and pillars of marble,” Esther i, 6. The upper
part of the walls is adorned with the most ingenious wreathings and
devices, in stucco and fret-work. The ceiling is generally of wainscot,
painted with great art, or else thrown into a variety of pannels with
gilded mouldings. In the days of Jeremiah the prophet, when the
profusion and luxury of all ranks in Judea were at their height, their
chambers were ceiled with fragrant and costly wood, and painted with the
richest colours. Of this extravagance the indignant seer loudly
complains: “Wo unto him that saith, I will build me a wide house and
large chambers, and cutteth him out windows: and it is ceiled with
cedar, and painted with vermilion,” Jer. xxii, 14. The floors of these
splendid apartments were laid with painted tiles, or slabs of the most
beautiful marble. A pavement of this kind is mentioned in the book of
Esther; at the sumptuous entertainment which Ahasuerus made for the
princes and nobles of his vast empire, “the beds,” or couches, upon
which they reclined, “were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red
and blue, and white and black marble.” Plaster of terrace is often vised
for the same purpose; and the floor is always covered with carpets,
which are for the most part of the richest materials. Upon these
carpets, a range of narrow beds, or mattresses, is often placed along
the sides of the wall, with velvet or damask bolsters, for the greater
ease and convenience of the company. To these luxurious indulgences the
prophets occasionally seem to allude: Ezekiel was commanded to pronounce
a “wo to the women that sew pillows to all armholes,” Ezek. xiii, 18;
and Amos denounces the judgments of his God against them “that lie upon
beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the
lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall,”
Amos vi, 4. At one end of each chamber is a little gallery, raised three
or four feet above the floor, with a balustrade in front, to which they
go up by a few steps. Here they place their beds; a situation frequently
alluded to in the Holy Scriptures. Thus Jacob addressed his undutiful
son, in his last benediction: “Thou wentest up to thy father’s bed,--he
went up to my couch,” Gen. xlix, 4. The allusion is again involved in
the declaration of Elijah to the king of Samaria: “Now, therefore, thus
saith the Lord, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art
gone up, but shalt surely die,” 2 Kings i, 4, 16. And the Psalmist sware
unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob, “Surely I will
not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed, until I
find out a place for the Lord,” Psalm cxxxii, 3. This arrangement may
likewise illustrate the circumstance of Hezekiah’s “turning his face to
the wall, when he prayed,” that the greatness of his sorrow, and the
fervour of his devotion, might, as much as possible, be concealed from
his attendants, 2 Kings xx.
The roof is always flat, and often composed of branches of wood laid
across rude beams; and, to defend it from the injuries of the weather,
to which it is peculiarly exposed in the rainy season, it is covered
with a strong plaster of terrace. It is surrounded by a wall
breast-high, which forms the partition with the contiguous houses, and
prevents one from falling into the street on the one side, or into the
court on the other. This answers to the battlements which Moses
commanded the people of Israel to make for the roof of their houses, for
the same reason. “When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a
battlement, מעקה, for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine
house, if any man fall from thence,” Deut. xxii, 8. Instead of the
parapet wall, some terraces are guarded, like the galleries, with
balustrades only, or latticed work. Of the same kind, probably, was the
lattice or net, as the term שבכה seems to import, through which Ahaziah,
the king of Samaria, fell down into the court, 2 Kings i, 2. This
incident proves the necessity of the law which was graciously dictated
from Sinai, and furnishes a beautiful example of God’s paternal care and
goodness; for the terrace was a place where many offices of the family
were performed, and business of no little importance was occasionally
transacted. Rahab concealed the spies on the roof, with the stalks of
flax which she had laid in order to dry, Joshua ii, 6; the king of
Israel, according to the custom of his country, rose from his bed, and
walked upon the roof of his house, to enjoy the refreshing breezes of
the evening, 2 Sam. xi, 2; upon the top of the house the prophet
conversed with Saul, about the gracious designs of God, respecting him
and his family, 1 Sam. ix, 25; to the same place Peter retired to offer
up his devotions, Acts x, 9; and in the feast of tabernacles, under the
government of Nehemiah, booths were erected, as well upon the terraces
of their houses, as in their courts, and in the streets of the city,
Neh. viii, 16. In Judea, the inhabitants sleep upon the tops of their
houses during the heats of summer, in arbours made of the branches of
trees, or in tents of rushes. When Dr. Pococke was at Tiberias, in
Galilee, he was entertained by the sheik’s steward, and with his company
supped upon the top of the house for coolness, according to their
custom, and lodged there likewise, in a sort of closet of about eight
feet square, formed of wicker-work, plastered round toward the bottom,
but without any door, each person having his cell. In like manner, the
Persians take refuge during the day in subterraneous chambers, and pass
the night on the flat roofs of their houses.
The expression, “to dig through houses,” occurs, Job xxiv, 16.
“Thieves,” says Mr. Ward, “in Bengal very frequently dig through the mud
walls, and under the clay floors of houses, and, entering unperceived,
plunder them while the inhabitants are asleep.” Our Lord’s parable of
the foolish man who built his house on the sand derives illustration
from the following passages in Ward’s “View,” and Belzoni’s “Travels:”
“The fishermen in Bengal build their huts in the dry season on the beds
of sand, from which the river has retired. When the rains set in, which
they often do very suddenly, accompanied by violent north-west winds,
the water pours down in torrents from the mountains. In one night
multitudes of these huts are frequently swept away, and the place where
they stood is the next morning undiscoverable.” “It so happened, that we
were to witness one of the greatest calamities that have occurred in
Egypt in the recollection of any one living. The Nile rose this season
three feet and a half above the highest mark left by the former
inundation, with uncommon rapidity, and carried off several villages,
and some hundreds of their inhabitants. I never saw any picture that
could give a more correct idea of a deluge than the valley of the Nile
in this season. The Arabs had expected an extraordinary inundation this
year, in consequence of the scarcity of water the preceding season; but
they did not apprehend it would rise to such a height. They generally
erect fences of earth and reeds around their villages, to keep the water
from their houses; but the force of this inundation baffled all their
efforts. Their cottages, being built of earth, could not stand one
instant against the current; and no sooner did the water reach them,
than it levelled them with the ground. The rapid stream carried off all
that was before it; men, women, children, cattle, corn, every thing was
washed away in an instant, and left the place where the village stood
without any thing to indicate that there had ever been a house on the
spot.”
House is taken for family: “The Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house,”
Gen. xii, 17. “What is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?” 2
Sam. vii, 18. So Joseph was of the house of David, Luke i, 27; ii, 4;
but more especially he was of his royal lineage, or family; and, as we
conceive, in the direct line or eldest branch of the family; so that he
was next of kin to the throne, if the government had still continued in
possession of the descendants of David. House is taken for kindred: it
is a Christian’s duty to provide first for those of his own house, 1
Tim. v, 8, his family, his relatives.
illustrate several passages of Scripture. From the gate of the porch,
one is conducted into a quadrangular court, which, being exposed to the
weather, is paved with stone, in order to carry off the water in the
rainy season. The principal design of this quadrangle, is to give light
to the house, and admit the fresh air into the apartments; it is also
the place where the master of the house entertains his company, who are
seldom or never honoured with admission into the inner apartments. This
open space bears a striking resemblance to the _impluvium_, or _cava
ædium_, of the Romans, which was also an uncovered area, from whence the
chambers were lighted. For the accommodation of the guests, the pavement
is covered with mats or carpets; and as it is secured against all
interruption from the street, is well adapted to public entertainments.
It is called, says Dr. Shaw, the middle of the house, and literally
answers to τὸ μέσον of the evangelist, into which the man afflicted with
the palsy was let down through the ceiling, with his couch, before
Jesus, Luke v, 19. Hence, he conjectures that our Lord was at this time
instructing the people in the court of one of these houses; and it is by
no means improbable, that the quadrangle was to him and his Apostles a
favourite situation, while they were engaged in disclosing the mysteries
of redemption. To defend the company from the scorching sun-beams, or
“windy storm and tempest,” a veil was expanded upon ropes from one side
of the parapet wall to the other, which might be unfolded or folded at
pleasure. The court is for the most part surrounded with a cloister,
over which, when the house has a number of stories, a gallery is erected
of the same dimensions with the cloister, having a balustrade, or else a
piece of carved or latticed work, going round about, to prevent people
from falling from it into the court. The doors of the enclosure round
the house are made very small; but the doors of the houses very large,
for the purpose of admitting a copious stream of fresh air into their
apartments. The windows which look into the street are very high and
narrow, and defended by lattice work; as they are only intended to allow
the cloistered inmate a peep of what is passing without, while he
remains concealed behind the casement. This kind of window the ancient
Hebrews called _arubah_, which is the same term that they used to
express those small openings through which pigeons passed into the
cavities of the rocks, or into those buildings which were raised for
their reception. Thus the prophet asks: “Who are these that fly as a
cloud, and as the doves, אל-ארבתיהם, to their small or narrow windows.”
The word is derived from a root which signifies to lie in wait for the
prey; and is very expressive of the concealed manner in which a person
examines through that kind of window an external object. Irwin describes
the windows in Upper Egypt as having the same form and dimensions; and
says expressly, that one of the windows of the house in which they
lodged, and through which they looked into the street, more resembled a
pigeon hole than any thing else. But the sacred writers mention another
kind of window, which was large and airy; it was called חלון, and was
large enough to admit a person of mature age being cast out of it; a
punishment which that profligate woman Jezebel suffered by the command
of Jehu, the authorized extirminator of her family. These large windows
admit the light and the breeze into spacious apartments of the same
length with the court, but which seldom or never communicate with one
another. In the houses of the fashionable and the gay, the lower part of
the walls is adorned with rich hangings of velvet or damask, tinged with
the liveliest colours, suspended on hooks, or taken down at pleasure. A
correct idea of their richness and splendour may be formed from the
description, which the inspired writer has given of the hangings in the
royal garden at Shushan, the ancient capital of Persia: “Where were
white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and
purple, to silver rings and pillars of marble,” Esther i, 6. The upper
part of the walls is adorned with the most ingenious wreathings and
devices, in stucco and fret-work. The ceiling is generally of wainscot,
painted with great art, or else thrown into a variety of pannels with
gilded mouldings. In the days of Jeremiah the prophet, when the
profusion and luxury of all ranks in Judea were at their height, their
chambers were ceiled with fragrant and costly wood, and painted with the
richest colours. Of this extravagance the indignant seer loudly
complains: “Wo unto him that saith, I will build me a wide house and
large chambers, and cutteth him out windows: and it is ceiled with
cedar, and painted with vermilion,” Jer. xxii, 14. The floors of these
splendid apartments were laid with painted tiles, or slabs of the most
beautiful marble. A pavement of this kind is mentioned in the book of
Esther; at the sumptuous entertainment which Ahasuerus made for the
princes and nobles of his vast empire, “the beds,” or couches, upon
which they reclined, “were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red
and blue, and white and black marble.” Plaster of terrace is often vised
for the same purpose; and the floor is always covered with carpets,
which are for the most part of the richest materials. Upon these
carpets, a range of narrow beds, or mattresses, is often placed along
the sides of the wall, with velvet or damask bolsters, for the greater
ease and convenience of the company. To these luxurious indulgences the
prophets occasionally seem to allude: Ezekiel was commanded to pronounce
a “wo to the women that sew pillows to all armholes,” Ezek. xiii, 18;
and Amos denounces the judgments of his God against them “that lie upon
beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the
lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall,”
Amos vi, 4. At one end of each chamber is a little gallery, raised three
or four feet above the floor, with a balustrade in front, to which they
go up by a few steps. Here they place their beds; a situation frequently
alluded to in the Holy Scriptures. Thus Jacob addressed his undutiful
son, in his last benediction: “Thou wentest up to thy father’s bed,--he
went up to my couch,” Gen. xlix, 4. The allusion is again involved in
the declaration of Elijah to the king of Samaria: “Now, therefore, thus
saith the Lord, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art
gone up, but shalt surely die,” 2 Kings i, 4, 16. And the Psalmist sware
unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob, “Surely I will
not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed, until I
find out a place for the Lord,” Psalm cxxxii, 3. This arrangement may
likewise illustrate the circumstance of Hezekiah’s “turning his face to
the wall, when he prayed,” that the greatness of his sorrow, and the
fervour of his devotion, might, as much as possible, be concealed from
his attendants, 2 Kings xx.
The roof is always flat, and often composed of branches of wood laid
across rude beams; and, to defend it from the injuries of the weather,
to which it is peculiarly exposed in the rainy season, it is covered
with a strong plaster of terrace. It is surrounded by a wall
breast-high, which forms the partition with the contiguous houses, and
prevents one from falling into the street on the one side, or into the
court on the other. This answers to the battlements which Moses
commanded the people of Israel to make for the roof of their houses, for
the same reason. “When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a
battlement, מעקה, for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine
house, if any man fall from thence,” Deut. xxii, 8. Instead of the
parapet wall, some terraces are guarded, like the galleries, with
balustrades only, or latticed work. Of the same kind, probably, was the
lattice or net, as the term שבכה seems to import, through which Ahaziah,
the king of Samaria, fell down into the court, 2 Kings i, 2. This
incident proves the necessity of the law which was graciously dictated
from Sinai, and furnishes a beautiful example of God’s paternal care and
goodness; for the terrace was a place where many offices of the family
were performed, and business of no little importance was occasionally
transacted. Rahab concealed the spies on the roof, with the stalks of
flax which she had laid in order to dry, Joshua ii, 6; the king of
Israel, according to the custom of his country, rose from his bed, and
walked upon the roof of his house, to enjoy the refreshing breezes of
the evening, 2 Sam. xi, 2; upon the top of the house the prophet
conversed with Saul, about the gracious designs of God, respecting him
and his family, 1 Sam. ix, 25; to the same place Peter retired to offer
up his devotions, Acts x, 9; and in the feast of tabernacles, under the
government of Nehemiah, booths were erected, as well upon the terraces
of their houses, as in their courts, and in the streets of the city,
Neh. viii, 16. In Judea, the inhabitants sleep upon the tops of their
houses during the heats of summer, in arbours made of the branches of
trees, or in tents of rushes. When Dr. Pococke was at Tiberias, in
Galilee, he was entertained by the sheik’s steward, and with his company
supped upon the top of the house for coolness, according to their
custom, and lodged there likewise, in a sort of closet of about eight
feet square, formed of wicker-work, plastered round toward the bottom,
but without any door, each person having his cell. In like manner, the
Persians take refuge during the day in subterraneous chambers, and pass
the night on the flat roofs of their houses.
The expression, “to dig through houses,” occurs, Job xxiv, 16.
“Thieves,” says Mr. Ward, “in Bengal very frequently dig through the mud
walls, and under the clay floors of houses, and, entering unperceived,
plunder them while the inhabitants are asleep.” Our Lord’s parable of
the foolish man who built his house on the sand derives illustration
from the following passages in Ward’s “View,” and Belzoni’s “Travels:”
“The fishermen in Bengal build their huts in the dry season on the beds
of sand, from which the river has retired. When the rains set in, which
they often do very suddenly, accompanied by violent north-west winds,
the water pours down in torrents from the mountains. In one night
multitudes of these huts are frequently swept away, and the place where
they stood is the next morning undiscoverable.” “It so happened, that we
were to witness one of the greatest calamities that have occurred in
Egypt in the recollection of any one living. The Nile rose this season
three feet and a half above the highest mark left by the former
inundation, with uncommon rapidity, and carried off several villages,
and some hundreds of their inhabitants. I never saw any picture that
could give a more correct idea of a deluge than the valley of the Nile
in this season. The Arabs had expected an extraordinary inundation this
year, in consequence of the scarcity of water the preceding season; but
they did not apprehend it would rise to such a height. They generally
erect fences of earth and reeds around their villages, to keep the water
from their houses; but the force of this inundation baffled all their
efforts. Their cottages, being built of earth, could not stand one
instant against the current; and no sooner did the water reach them,
than it levelled them with the ground. The rapid stream carried off all
that was before it; men, women, children, cattle, corn, every thing was
washed away in an instant, and left the place where the village stood
without any thing to indicate that there had ever been a house on the
spot.”
House is taken for family: “The Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house,”
Gen. xii, 17. “What is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?” 2
Sam. vii, 18. So Joseph was of the house of David, Luke i, 27; ii, 4;
but more especially he was of his royal lineage, or family; and, as we
conceive, in the direct line or eldest branch of the family; so that he
was next of kin to the throne, if the government had still continued in
possession of the descendants of David. House is taken for kindred: it
is a Christian’s duty to provide first for those of his own house, 1
Tim. v, 8, his family, his relatives.