S. R. Driver.
POPLAR occurs twice in EV (Gn 3(F, RVm 'stvrax • Hos 4>-'). The Heb. n::'?, libneh, signiliea 'a white tree.' The LXX in Genesis gives <rTi.p<£- KLvo^=stora3:, and in Hosea Xei'.K7(= 'poplar. 1 he authority of the Arab, luhna, which signihes tho storax, may be considered decisive as to the meaning of the Hebrew. Styrax officinalis, L., of the order
• lUhlfs, following Ewald, calls attention (pp. 6-29) to the numerous similarities of expression and ^^^X'^^^^'^ro"!!' in particular the group of Ps:dnis, 22. 25. 31. 34 36. s». 4(i. ou. n. 102. 109; he aTsigni the group (p. 30 9.) to the close of ths
^^The'^nSte'is iSuch'abbreriated (the sentence ou the original difference of ':V and 1J» being added) in Nowock's revised ed. ot Uupfeld's Comm. (ISsS).
PORATHA
POET
21
Sf tjracacetx, is a shrub or tree 6 to 20 feet high, with ovate to round -ovate leaves, glabrescent at upper, and white-woolly at lower, surface. It bears numerous snowy-white flowers, resembling orange blossoms, 1 to 2 inches broad, and a green drupe-like berry. The otlicinal storax is the in- spissated juice of the inner layer of the bark. It has an agreeable vanilla-like odour. It was formerly employed in medicine as a stimulant expectorant, but is little used now. The name lihneh, ' white,' is well justified by the snowy- white under surfaces of the leaves, and the wealth of beautiful white blossoms. No wild tree of the country is more ornamental than this. It is common in thickets from the coast to the sub- alpine regions. In Syria it is called haxiz. It has been objected to the rendering 'styrax' (Hos 4") that it IS not large enough to give the ' shadow ' rei)uired, and that therefore 'poplar' should be retained. We have, however, indicated that Sfi/rax officinalis attains a height of 20 feet, and Euch trees would give a better sliade than the tall, cylindrical poplar. Moreover, the poplar is a tree of valleys and plains, growing only by water- courses, while Stijrax grows on dry hillsides, in localities similar to those of the oak and tere- binth. G. E. Post.
PORATHA (N,n-;-s ; B *a/)o5(i#o, S ^apadOa, A Bop- 9i0a). — The fourth of the sons of Haman, who were put to death by the Jews (Est 9*). The name is prob- ablj- Persian, and the LXX reading suggests that the true form is Poradatha (k^'i-)13= ' given by fate ' ?).
PORCH. — A covered entrance to a building. It is f.'(-nerally outside the main building, and so differs from vestibule which is inside, and from which doors open into tlie several apartments of the house. Two words in OT denote porch, viz. Heb. dS'n ['(lam), found in Ezk 40 onlj', and c^m ('aidm), which occurs in 1 K, 1 and 2 Ch, Ezk, and Joel. As to the identical meaning of these Heb. words see under Ancn.
There is another Heb. word I^"i";P {misdSrCn), which EV tr. by porch (.Jg 3^ ' Then Ehud went into the porch ). This word is not used else- where ; and while we do know that some part of a house is denoted, we have no means of saying what part. The versions render little if any aid, nor do the cognates throw any light on the mean- ing. The root is ^^5 {sr.rier), a row, series, order. So |n^;? (m>sdfr6n) might be expected, according to its etymology-, to denote something built in line with or according to the form of something else, such as a wing, built along the outside walls of a porch, with sides at right angles to the main building.
The word 'iUdm or 'ildm is variously applied inOT. ^ '^
1. It is used of the porch erected to the ea-st of Solomon's temple, 1 K 6' and 1", and 2 Ch 15» 20'- ". It was 20 cubits long by 10 broad ; its height is not given in 1 K, but in 2 Ch 3* it is said to be 120 cubits high. Now, a porch 20 cubits long, 10 broad, and 120 high would be a mon- strosity; indeed the whole verse as it stands is senseless. Kautzsch, Bertheau, Oettli, and Kittel attempt a reconstruction, and all agree that 120 for the height is an evident mistake ; A of the LX.X, the SjT., and Arab, versions have 20, which is likely enough to be correct, though Bertheau prefers reading 30. Aug. Hirt (i)er Te.inpd Srtlomo's, p. 4), together with the above authori- ties, excepting Bertheau, decide for 20. If the text is to be upheld, it is to be explained, as by Ewald {Gesch. iii. p. 42), according to the well- known leaning of tne Chronicler to exaggeration ; but in this case tlie exaggeration is one which
makes the ■«Titer ridiculous, and it is far better to emend the text. The similarly situated porch of Ezekiel's temple has the same name, Ezk 40^ 41" (read with CornUl, sing. ' porch '). 2. The same word is employed for each of the two porches belonging to Solomon's palace, the 'porch of pillars ' IK"', and the ' throne porch ' (or place of judgment), 1 K 7'. 3. In Ezk the word stands for the two large apartments, one lying at the inner end of the outer gate, the other at the outer end of the inner gate. It is in this connexion that the form 'Ham is mostly, though not exclusively, em- ployed. Of these minor porches there were in all six : one at each of the three outer (N. E. S.), and one at each of the three corresponding inner gates.