(6) Further, the increasing Jewish commerce sup- plied many with a motive for travelling. In the earlier period it was mostly foreigners that tra- velled through the land and carried on trade with its inhabitants (cf. the story of Joseph, Gn 3778*-, Ex 218, Dt 14?!, and the term sdhér used for the trader by whose standard money was weighed, Gn 231%, 2 K 1?-5), But as early as the monarchical period and still more in the later post-exilic times the Israelites began to take an active part in both home and international trade, and this involved frequent journeys in their own land as well as to foreign parts. ‘The trade in horses carried on by Solomon led his buyers to the neighbouring States (1 K 10°), while the shipping trade from ‘Ezion- geber inaugurated by him gave the Israelites an acquaintance with travelling by sea. Israelitish merchants established factories in foreign cities, as at Damascus, where Ahab was able to obtain State permission for his subjects to erect dwellings in a certain quarter of the city (1 K 20%), In the later post-exilic period Jewish commerce made a great advance, particularly after the Jews came into possession of some seaports on the Mediter- ranean; and it was all the easier for them to undertake trading journeys, because they could count with certainty on meeting with countrymen of their own in all foreign trading towns. © The wife of an Israelite now knew that it meant a distant journey when her husband on setting out took the money-bag with him (Pr 314).
(c) A third motive for travelling was supplied by the political and diplomatic relations into which the Israelites entered with other peoples. A nation that was in vassalage to another required to send men to hand over the tribute (Jg 3%"), The later kings of Israel had often to go in person to a foreign court to pay homage to their powerful suzerain (2 K 16”, Jer 51), But more especially
* Special risks naturally attended those travelling companies that carried with them large sums of money, as, for instance, in connexion with the transmission of the poll-tax of the Baby- lonian Jews. Hence these companies included many thousand persons (Jos, Ant, XVIII. ix, 1).
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN OT)
attempts to arrange political alliances led to a constant coming and going of ambassadors (Is 3077 311; and on the other side 14 18. 39, Jer 27°).—Journeys of an involuntary character are seen in the deportation of conquered peoples, a fate which befell the Israelites more than once. But there were also occasions when one volun- tarily left his home to find safety in a foreign land (Jer 43). A happier condition was that of the travelling companies which by the grace of their sovereign were permitted to return te. their homes (Ezr 1. 8). Moreover, the sojourn of a portion of the people of Israel in the Diaspora gave occasion for frequent journeys between the foreign land and the home country, as we see from Jer 29°, Zec 61°, Neh 25% 136#:,
(ad) A special motive for undertaking a journey was ill-health, which led to the visiting of foreign places in the hope of a cure (cf. 2K 5). This habit finds illustration particularly in later times, when the various hot springs in the Jordan Valley were much frequented.*
(e) Lastly, wars of conquest and plunder may in a certain sense be reckoned among the motives to travel, which brought great multitudes of men to foreign lands.
Travelling on the part of Jews was beset by a peculiar difficulty in the shape of the Sabbath law, after so strict an observance of it had been intro- duced that on the Sabbath day and on those festival days on which sabbatical rest was en- joined it was unlawful to walk more than a fixed number of paces. Thus Josephus (Ant. XIII. viii. 4) mentions incidentally that the Syrian king, Antiochus Sidetes, out of consideration for Hyr- canus who accompanied him, remained for two days by the river Lycus, on account of a Jewish festival being then in progress. On the other hand, the Law accommodated itself to the needs of tra- vellers in so far as it permitted those who were on a journey in the month of Nisan to celebrate the Passover in the following month (Nu 91),
ii, Mopes OF TRAVEL.—Those who were not particularly well-to-do, especially if they were young, strong men, went for the most part on foot (Gn 28, Jos 9, 1 K 194%, Is 527, and the Gospel narratives).. Hence the first attention shown to an arriving guest was to wash his feet (Gn 184, Je 1971), Women and elderly well-to-do men rode upon asses, Which also carried the baggage (Jg 1931S, 25°05 2S) 1778 Ke Oks lal people of high rank also used mades (2S 13%, 1 kK 1°8),. Camels were less frequently employed, and only when the journey led through the desert (Gn 24). Horses, on the other hand, were used only in war, being either ridden or harnessed to the chariots. The chariots mentioned in the OT are, as a rule, chariots of war, but they were used by kings also in journeying from one part of the country to another (1 K 12%, 2K 10%; and the story of Naaman in 2 K 5, where, however, we have to do with a foreigner). In 1S 67 we meet with an ow-waggon as a vehicle of transport ; and in the case of the waggons sent from Egypt to convey the old men, the women, and the chil- dren, we should probably think also of similarly simple vehicles (Gn 45"). From a later period we have the story of the Ethiopian chamberlain (here again a foreigner) driving in a chariot (Ac 82"f-), Josephus (Ant. XIX. viil. 1) speaks of a larger kind of chariot (drjvn), in which Agrippa, accom- panied by other kings, drove out to meet the