water-pipes with their rubbish, build in the windows and under the beams of the roof, and would
stuff your hat full of stubble in half a day if they found it hanging in a place to suit them.”
Sparta
a celebrated city of Greece, between whose inhabitants and the Jews a relationship was believed
to subsist. Between the two nations a correspondence ensued.—Whitney. The act of the Jews and
Spartans, 2 Macc. 5:9 is an ethnological error, which it is difficult to trace to its origin.
Spear
[Arms, Armor]
Spearmen
(Acts 23:23) These were probably troops so lightly armed as to be able to keep pace on the
march with mounted soldiers.
Spice, Spices
Heb. basam, besem or bosem. In (Song of Solomon 5:1) “I have gathered my myrrh with my
spice,” the word points apparently to some definite substance. In the other places, with the exception
•
perhaps of (Song of Solomon 1:13; 6:2) the words refer more generally to sweet aromatic odors,
the principal of which was that of the balsam or balm of Gilead; the tree which yields this substance
is now generally admitted to be the Balsam-odendron opobalsamum. The balm of Gilead tree
grows in some parts of Arabia and Africa, and is seldom more than fifteen feet high, with straggling
branches and scanty foliage. The balsam is chiefly obtained from incisions in the bark, but is
procured also from the green and ripe berries.
•Necoth. (Genesis 37:25; 43:11) The most probable explanation is that which refers the word to
the Arabic naku’at i.e. “the gum obtained from the tragacanth” (Astragalus).
•Sammim, a general term to denote those aromatic substances which were used in the preparation
of the anointing oil, the incense offerings, etc. The spices mentioned as being used by Nicodemus
for the preparation of our Lord’s body, (John 19:39,40) are “myrrh and aloes,” by which latter
word must be understood not the aloes of medicine, but the highly-scented wood of the Aquilaria
agallochum.
Spider
The Hebrew word ’accabish in (Job 8:24; Isaiah 59:5) is correctly rendered “spider.” Put
semamith is wrongly translated “spider” in (Proverbs 30:28) it refers probably to some kind of
lizard. (But “there are many species of spider in Palestine: some which spin webs, like the common
garden spider; some which dig subterranean cells and make doors in them, like the well-known
trap-door spider of southern Europe; and some which have no web, but chase their prey upon the
ground, like the hunting-and the wolf-spider.”—Wood’s Bible Animals.)
Spikenard
(Heb. nerd) is mentioned twice in the Old Testament viz. in (Song of Solomon 1:12; 4:13,14)
The ointment with which our Lord was anointed as he sat at meat in Simon’s house at Bethany
consisted of this precious substance, the costliness of which may be inferred from the indignant
surprise manifested by some of the witnesses of the transaction. See (Mark 14:3-5; John 12:3,5)
(Spikenard,from which the ointment was made, was an aromatic herb of the valerian family
(Nardostachys jatamansi). It was imported from an early age from Arabia India and the Far East.
The costliness of Mary’s offering (300 pence=) may beat be seen from the fact that a penny (denarius,
15 to 17 cents) was in those days the day-wages of a laborer. (Matthew 20:2) In our day this would
equal at least or .-ED.)