Beans
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(2 Sam. 17:28) — a garden plant, mentioned in Holy Scripture among other nourishing foods brought to David during his flight from Absalom. Beans were often mixed, and are still mixed to this day, in the East with white corn flour, ground together, and the bread baked from this mixture came out firmer and more pleasant in taste. Pliny mentions that beans were mixed with ground wheat in exactly the same way. In the book of the prophet Ezekiel (4:9) the distressed state of the people of Jerusalem during the coming siege is depicted under the image of bread baked from wheat, barley, beans, lentils, and spelt.
Garden beans, boiled with oil and onion, are to this day a favorite dish among the inhabitants of the Levant. The so-called horse bean (Vicia faba) is used as fodder for pack animals.