4. Oil was also used as an illuminating agent in lamps. Pure olive oil burns without soot, but has the disadvantage of being rapidly consumed. In the usual Jewish lamps half a log=a little less than half a pint, was used in a night (Menahéth, ix. 3). For tabernacle and temple lamps pure oil was used (Ex 27%, Ly 24°), and the charge arene oil in the tabernacle was given to Eleazar (Nu 418). This lamp oil is also mentioned in Ex 25° 35° 14. 38 397. The wicks were of flax, as alluded to in Is 423, Flaxen wicks were also used in Egypt, but in recent times cotton twisted round straws is often employed (Lane, Mod. Hgyp. i. 201). For the use o oil in NT for this purpose see Mt 25° *- §, For the Sabbath lamps, R. Zarphon says that none but olive oil should be used; but others allow oil of sesame, of ’anuzim (nuts), of radishes, fish oil, ete. (Sabbath, ii. 2).
5. As food, the use of oil is common in the East, and is referred to by almost all travellers from Ibn Batuta to Robinson and Burckhardt ; but references to its dietetic employment are not numerous in the Bible. Cakes made with oil supported the widow of Zarephath’s household during the famine (1 K 1112). il formed part of the food of the unfaith- ful wife typical of Israel (Ezk 16%). The tithe of oil was to be eaten before the Lord (Dt 1917). The taste of manna is compared to that of oil (Nu 115).
6. The employment of oil in the meal-offering was a derivative of its use as food. It formed part of the offering—(1) in the daily sacrifice, Ex 29%; (2) the meal-offering, Lv 7; (3) the consecration- offering for the priests, Ex 29°, Ly 6-21; (4) the consecration-offering of the Levites, Nu 8°; (5) the offering at the expiry of the vow of the Nazirite, Nu 6"; (6) the offering for the purification of the leper, Ly 14; and (7) the special offering at the erection of the tabernacle, Nu 7. No oil was to be used in the sin-offering (Lv 5"), or the jealousy- offering (Nu 5").
For these ceremonial purposes large quantities of oil were required. The allowance given to Ezra was 100 baths of oil (about 820 gallons), Ezr 73; the best of the oil was to be given to the priests, Nu 18%. The amount thus offered is called 7 pr, the ordinance (AV) or set portion (RV) of oil, Ezk 45",
The vessels used for oil in Bible times were various, Samuel and Zadok used a horn (777
keren), 1S 16, 1 K 1%; Samuel also used a vial (xp pak) of oil for anointing Saul, 1S 10], as did the prophet who anointed Jehu, 2 Καὶ 9'(AV box). The widow’s oil was in a cruse {ππϑ gappahath) 1K 17% The widow of the prophet, whose οἱ Elisha multiplied, held it in a pot (τς ‘G@sth), 2K 4% The virgins in the parable carried their oil in a ἀγγεῖον or vessel.
The word ‘oil’ is used metaphorically in many passages. The pouring of oil out of the rock of flint in Dt 32 and Job 29° is a figure of abund- ance, the rock being either the stone press by which the olives are squeezed, or more probably the rocky slopes upon which the olives were culti- vated. Part of the blessing of Asher (Dt 33*) was that he should dip his foot in oil—a sign of favour and prosperity, a token that oil should be abundant in his territory. Josephus says of Galilee, in which was the lot of Asher, οὔσης ἐλαιοφόρου μάλιστα (BJ ll. xxi. 2). The foolish use of oil is a token of extravagance and cause of poverty (Pr 21"), while the husbanding of it is a proof of wisdom (Pr 21”). In Job 24", where the distressful case of the slaves of the oppressor is depicted, one of the labours to which they are condemned is the making of oil within the walls of the enclosed garden of their masters. The word used here (:173:, Hiph. of a denominative verb from 79s: ‘ oil’) does not occur elsewhere, and was understood by LXX in a different sense, ἐν στενοῖς ἀδίκως ἐνήδρευσαν ὁδὸν δὲ δικαίων οὐκ ἤδεισαν, and the Vulg. renders it Inter acervos eorum meridiati sunt qui calcatis torculari- bus sitiunt.
The ‘oil of gladness’ of Ps 457 = He 1%, and the oil of joy of Is 615, are marks of joy and festivity. he reproof of the righteous is com- pared to oil on the head (Ps 141°). AV calls it ‘an excellent oil which shall not break my head,’ but it is better given in RV, ‘oil upon the head, let not my head refuse it.’ Words of deceit are said to be softer than oil (Ps 55", Pr 58). Cursing permeates the life of the wicked even as oil soaks into bone (Ps 1098). The destruction of the olive- yards in drought is called a languishing of the oil (J1 1°). . MACALISTER.
OIL TREE (jou py ‘éz-shemen, κυπάρισσος, lignum olive or olivarum, lignum pulcherrumum).—This Heb. expression is tr‘ (Is 411°) AV, RV text ‘oil tree,’ RVm ‘oleaster’; (1 Καὶ 0539: 381-88) AV ‘olive trees,’ m. ‘trees of oil’ or ‘oily trees,’ RV ‘olive wood’; (Neh 815 AV ‘pine branches,’ RV ‘branches of wild olive.’ It is clear from Neh that the plant in question is not the olive, as that is mentioned in the same sentence by its own name. The difference between the latter and the wild olive is so small that it is quite unlikely that it would have been mentioned by a separate name in so brief a list of trees used for the same purpose. A candidate for ‘éz- shemen must fulfil the following conditions, sug- gored by the passages cited above. (1) It must