The inner courts are often planted with fine trees, and the interior walls, verandahs, and stair- case clothed with vines and creepers.
Ewald {Geschichtc'', iii. 451, 602) suggests that the 'armOn, ' keep,' of a palace was the harem or women's apartment, the most securely guarded portion of Eastern houses ; but Gesenius {Lex. ) says, 'None of the ancients rendered the word "women's apartment," as very many of late have done, after J. D. Michaolis.'anJ gives the meaning as 'fortress,' •palace' (so Ox/. Hch. Lex., and Siegfried-Stade). "The harem of the kin" of Persia is spoken of in Est 2", and also the t7iambcrlain, keeper of the women. It is also probable that king Solomon, after his foreign marriages, kept a harem at Jeru- salem ; but this was not part of the life of the Hebrews. And the customs of Moslems regarding the seclusion of women can throw little light upon the customs of people among whom the sexes were on almost equal terms.
The doors of the inner court are not usually furnished with locks and bolts, and a curtain is often all that separates it from the outer court, the Idea being that all is private within the outer gate or outer court (Dt 24"*, Ac lU" 12'=).
The upi)er rooms of the house are called the 'Slixjnli, which is also the Hebrew word (•'.•'ri',) for upper chamber. Thomson (Land and t/u: Book, i. 2;io) states that in northern Syria this is the most desirable part of the establishment, is best fitted up, and is still given to guests who are to bo treated witli honour. The women and servants live below, and their apartment is called 'ardiycA, VOL. II. — 28
or ground floor ; in common parlance heit, or house. Every respectable dwelling has both winter and summer house, beit shntaivtj and bcit scify. II these are on the same floor, then the exterior and airy apartment is the summer-house, and that for winter is the interior and more sheltered room (2 K 4'», Jer 36'=', Am 3">; see Driver's note). In the Lebanon the upper rooms are used in summer and the lower rooms in winter. In some jiarts of the country where the cold in winter is severe, vaults uniler ground are used during the cold weather. With regard to the use of the roof of the house, the ' housetop,' see Rook.
The only mention of cooking-places is in Ezk 46'' (the temple). The kitchens would probably, ;us with the Romans and Greeks, have had a hearth, with stone divisions for resting the pots on. There wers no other lireplaces(Jer36-RV). It is supposed that there were no chimneys, but a smoke-hole is spoken of (Hos 13'; see Window), and it is dilKcult to under- stand how the smoke could be got rid of in two- storeyed buildings without chimneys of some kind.
Leprosy of houses (Lv H*"-") is described by Gesenius as probably a nitrous scab ; Thomson (Land and Book, ii. 518) alludes to leprosy in gar- ments and in buildingb as phenomena not imly unknown, but utterly unintelliifiblo at this day.
In considering the household arrangements of the Hebrews, the gradual advance of civilization and luxury must not be forgotten, and the proba- bility that even the rich in early days lived with a roughness of surroundings which would be con- sidered as squalor in later days. The influence of the Greeks and Romans on the customs of Palestine and the East has also to be considered. In the very earliest days of the entry of the Hebrews into the Promised Land, the Philistine? from Caphtor (which is generally identified with Crete) were in possession of the lowlands of Judah : from B.C. 332 to B.C. 63 Palestine was more or less directly under Greek influence, and from the latter date for many centuries it was directly umler Roman influence. The customs of the people h.ive therefore been influenced by Egypt, Assyria, Svria, Persia, Greece, and Rome ; and though the d wellings of the poor may have been little atiected by these influences, there can be no doubt that those of the rich would have reflected the feelings of the ma-xters of the day. ' How apt we all are to look at the manners of ancient times through tlie false medium of our everyday associations ! How dillicnlt it is to strii) ourtbouglits of their mo<lern garb, and to escape from the thick atiiiuspliere of prejudice in which custom and lialiit have enveloped us ! anil yet, unless we take a cuiiiprehensive and extended view of the objects of archa?ological speculation, unless we can look upon ancient customs with the eyes of the ancients, unless we can transport ourselves in the spirit to other lands and other times, and sun ourselves in the clear light of by- gone days, all our conception of what was done by the men who have long since cea.scd to bo must be dim, uncerta.in, and unsatisfactory, and all our reproductions as soulless and uiiinstruciive its the scattered fragments of a broken statue" (Niebuhr, K/ii)!,- Hr/irijlcn, p. 92).
Chamber (bed-, guest-, inner, upper). — Wlien a particular apartment of a house is alluded to, the word 'chamber,' ' parlour,' or 'closet' is generally u.scd in AV, the word 'room' l)eing uschI in a general sense, ' Is there room in tliy father's house for us?' 'Wo have room to Uxlge in' (Gn 21-^), except in three instances in the NT (Mk 14", Lk '22", Ac 1").