Honey

(Deut 32:13; Ps 81:16). Moses says that the Lord set His people upon the high places of the earth, that they might eat the increase of the fields, and He fed them with honey out of the rock, and with oil out of the flinty rock. Honey is separated by bees not from the food on which they themselves feed, but is gathered by them only from the dust of fragrant flowers, which they carry to their hives and lay up in the honeycomb. The abundance of honey in the land of Judea is noted in many places in Holy Scripture, as well as in the writings of many modern travelers.

Palestine was truly a land flowing with milk and honey (Exod 3:8, 17). The wild honey on which John the Baptist fed in the wilderness was in all likelihood honey gathered from clefts in the rocks and hollows of trees. Sometimes the word “honey” is understood to mean the sugary liquid obtained from grape clusters and other honey-bearing plants, which in Hebrew is called debbesh (2 Chr 31:5). According to Dr. Robinson, the best clusters of grapes are dried as raisins, while the rest are put into a press, squeezed there, and their juice boiled in some vessel until it becomes a syrup.

This syrup is in wide use among all classes, wherever there are vineyards, as a relish for food. It resembles molasses, but is far more pleasant to the taste. In some parts of the East there is also frequently found a particular tree, from whose leaves and branches the Arabs collect into vessels a sweet liquid used as food, which at first strongly resembles honey. The allegorical references of the sacred writers to honey and honeycomb are truly striking and beautiful (Ps 19:10; Prov 5:3; 27:7).

Milk and honey, among the ancient peoples, as among the Bedouins at the present day, formed the chief and daily food. Butter and honey are also mentioned in Holy Scripture among articles of food (2 Sam 17:29). In southern Africa bees deposit their honey on the surface of cliffs and rocks, and for its preservation cover it with a dark-colored wax. This wax, through the action of time and weather, hardens and becomes as it were stony. Travelers make a cut in this hardened mass, and, applying their mouths to the opening, suck out as much liquid honey as they need (Deut 32:13).

Honey was not permitted among the offerings brought to the Lord upon the altar (Lev 2:11), probably with the purpose of making a distinction between the religious rites of the Hebrews and those of the pagans, in whose sacrificial offerings honey often held one of the chief and foremost places (Ezek 16:13, 19).