WHALE

WHALE The Hebrew word tan (plural, tannin) is so rendered in Job 7=>12 (A.V.; but R.V., “sea- monster”). It is rendered by “dragons” in Deuteronomy 32=>33; Psalm 91=>13; Jeremiah 51=>34; Psalm 74=>13 (marg., “whales;” and marg. of R.V., “sea-monsters”); Isaiah 27=>1; and “serpent” in Exodus 7=>9 (R.V. marg., “any large reptile,” and so in ver. 10, 12). The words of Job (7=>12), uttered in bitter irony, where he asks, “Am I a sea or a whale?” simply mean, “Have I a wild, untamable nature, like the waves of the sea, which must be confined and held within bounds, that they cannot pass?” “The serpent of the sea, which was but the wild, stormy sea itself, wound itself around the land, and threatened to swallow it up... Job inquires if he must be watched and plagued like this monster, lest he throw the world into disorder” (Davidson’s Job). The whale tribe are included under the general Hebrew name tannin (Genesis 1=>21; Lamentations 4=>3). “Even the sea-monsters [tanninim] draw out the breast.” The whale brings forth its young alive, and suckles them. It is to be noticed of the story of Jonah’s being “three days and three nights in the whale’s belly,” as recorded in Matthew 12=>40, that here the Gr. ketos means properly any kind of sea-monster of the shark or the whale tribe, and that in the book of Jonah (1=>17) it is only said that “a great fish” was prepared to swallow Jonah. This fish may have been, therefore, some great shark. The white shark is known to frequent the Mediterranean Sea, and is sometimes found 30 feet in length. ■W HE AT one of the earliest cultivated grains. It bore the Hebrew name hittah, and was extensively cultivated in Palestine. There are various species of wheat. That which Pharaoh saw in his dream was the Triticum compositum, which bears several ears upon one stalk (Genesis 41=>5). The “fat of the kidneys of wheat” (Deuteronomy 32=>14), and the “finest of the wheat” (Psalm 81=>16; 147=>14), denote the best of the kind. It was exported from Palestine in great quantities (1 Kings 5=>11; Ezekiel 27=>17; Acts 12 => 20 ). Parched grains of wheat were used for food in Palestine (Ruth 2=>14; 1 Samuel 17=>17; 2 Samuel 17=>28). The disciples, under the sanction of the Mosaic law (Deuteronomy 23=>25), plucked ears of corn, and rubbing them in their hands, ate the grain unroasted (Matthew 12=>1; Mark 2=>23; Luke 6=>1). Before any of the wheat-harvest, however, could be eaten, the first-fruits had to be presented before the Lord (Leviticus 23=>14).