Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HONEY

A sweet viscid fluid produced by bees or derived from flowers. Honey (Heb. dĕḇaš) is one of the seven characteristics of the “good land,” Israel (Deut. 8:7-10); according to the Talmudic sages, this is date rather than bee honey, since the other seven qualities derive from plants, not animals. The period between Passover and Pentecost is crucial for the success of the olive, grape, pomegranate, date, fig, wheat, and barley crops, but is not so for the successful production of bee honey.

The frequent references to “a land flowing with milk and honey” imply, depending on context, either blessing or destruction. In most instances the expression indicates the riches of the land; Isaiah, however, employs it with reference to the pending destruction of the land by the Assyrians (Isa. 7:22).

The references to the land of milk and honey in the Pentateuch and Joshua are to uncultivated land. These pastures, good for the grazing of sheep and goats, and therefore milk production, were rich in flowers on which wild honey bees thrived. In the OT honey was gathered from wild bees, rather than cultivated in domestic hives (Prov. 25:16; Judg. 14:8-9). 1 Sam. 14:25-26 illustrates that honey was connected to undeveloped land rather than agricultural land. Since the land was cultivated during the Monarchy, prophetic announcements of a return to a land of milk and honey indicated the deportation of the people, which would result in cultivated land returning to its natural state: a land flowing with milk and honey.

Bibliography. N. Hareuveni, Nature in Our Biblical Heritage (Kiryat Ono, 1980).

Alan Ray Buescher

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HONEY

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)