אבטחים, Numbers xi, 5, a luscious fruit so well known that a
description of it would be superfluous. It grows to great perfection,
and is highly esteemed in Egypt, especially by the lower class of
people, during the hot months. The juice is peculiarly cooling and
agreeable in that sultry climate, where it is justly pronounced one of
the most delicious refreshments that nature, amidst her constant
attention to the wants of man, affords in the season of violent heat.
There are varieties of this fruit; but that more particularly referred
to in the text must be the water melon. It is cultivated, says
Hasselquist, on the banks of the Nile, in the rich clayey earth, which
subsides during the inundation. This serves the Egyptians for meat,
drink, and physic. It is eaten in abundance during the season, even by
the richer sort of people; but the common people, on whom Providence has
bestowed nothing but poverty and patience, scarcely eat any thing but
these, and account this the best time of the year, as they are obliged
to put up with worse fare at other seasons. This fruit sometimes serves
them for drink, the juice refreshing these poor creatures, and they have
less occasion for water than if they were to live on more substantial
food in this burning climate. This well explains the regret expressed by
the Israelites for the loss of this fruit, whose pleasant liquor had so
often quenched their thirst, and relieved their weariness in their
servitude, and which would have been exceedingly grateful in a dry
scorching desert.
description of it would be superfluous. It grows to great perfection,
and is highly esteemed in Egypt, especially by the lower class of
people, during the hot months. The juice is peculiarly cooling and
agreeable in that sultry climate, where it is justly pronounced one of
the most delicious refreshments that nature, amidst her constant
attention to the wants of man, affords in the season of violent heat.
There are varieties of this fruit; but that more particularly referred
to in the text must be the water melon. It is cultivated, says
Hasselquist, on the banks of the Nile, in the rich clayey earth, which
subsides during the inundation. This serves the Egyptians for meat,
drink, and physic. It is eaten in abundance during the season, even by
the richer sort of people; but the common people, on whom Providence has
bestowed nothing but poverty and patience, scarcely eat any thing but
these, and account this the best time of the year, as they are obliged
to put up with worse fare at other seasons. This fruit sometimes serves
them for drink, the juice refreshing these poor creatures, and they have
less occasion for water than if they were to live on more substantial
food in this burning climate. This well explains the regret expressed by
the Israelites for the loss of this fruit, whose pleasant liquor had so
often quenched their thirst, and relieved their weariness in their
servitude, and which would have been exceedingly grateful in a dry
scorching desert.