toman pretor.| In Ca 3° we read of a sedan chair
* Cf. Dechent, ‘ Heilbiider u. Badeleben in Palistina’ in ZDPV Vii. 173 ff.
t+ When Josephus (An#f. vir. vii. 3-4) relates how Solomon often drove out to his gardens at Etham, he is simply adding a picturesque touch of his own,
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN OT)
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT) 375
or palanquin (jim=x, Popeiov) being used by people of high rank.
On account of the attendant risks, one did not care to go on a long journey alone,* but had at least: one companion, who received a daily wage and, if the journey terminated happily, a present besides (To 5"). When Nehemiah travelled from the Persian court to Jerusalem, he carried with him letters from the king to the governors of the various provinces commanding them to grant him free passage and an armed escort (Neh 2’). The favourite method was to combine into large com- panies (caravans, originally a Persian word), which were accompanied by armed men (cf. Ezr 8”). Such caravans, travelling under military protec- tion, are referred to in the Tel el-Amarna letters (see above, p. 368>). In the wilderness they were conducted by the Bedawin tribes, e.g. the Dedan- ites (Is 213). When unknown regions had to be traversed, a guide acquainted with the roads had to be procured (Nu 10*!), or parties were sent in advance to make inquiry about the way and about the cities that had to be passed (Dt 1%). The deadly danger of a caravan when the water of which it has come in search is found dried up, is poraeyed with poetic beauty in Job 6%.
iii, PROVISION FOR THE WANTS OF TRAVELLERS. —For the comfort and the refreshment of travellers very little provision was made. In the wilderness the inhabitants of the oases might, as described in Is 214, meet the exhausted caravans with water and bread; but, in the main and as a matter of course, a traveller through the desert had to pro- vide for himself by bringing the necessaries of life with him (Gn 21%). But the same was the case even in travelling through inhabited regions. The Levite of Jg 19 takes with him fodder and straw for the asses as well as bread and wine (v."%); and a similar course is followed by the Gibeonites when they seek to give themselves the appearance of having come from far (Jos 9). In Nu 20" we read of a great company binding itself, as it passed through a country, to keep to the highway, to touch nothing in the vineyards or the fields, and to pay for the water drunk by man and beast.
f inns in the proper sense of the term we do not hear till NT times (Lk 10**); and the very circumstance that the Greek word ravdoxetov there employed was adopted by the Jews as p35, proves that the whole institution was a new and foreign appearance.t In earlier times there may have been establishments at least somewhat akin to the modern khans—large empty buildings surround- ing a courtyard, in which travellers can pass the night, but where the necessaries of life are not sold.t Some have thought to find the correspond- ing word in Hebrew in the nj (gértith) of Jer 41" ; but the real meaning of this word is very un- certain, and even the text is doubtful, for Josephus (Ant. X. ix. 5) read the word ninv (‘ hurdles,’ ‘sheep-pens’). Likewise the word Won (malén) has to be considered ; for, even if in some passages it appears to mean simply the place where one takes up his quarters at night, the sense of khan fits very well passages like Gn 42” 43°, Jer 92,, The king was attended on his journeys by @ 713) (sar ménthah, lit. ‘captain of the resting-place,’ RV ‘chief chamberlain,’ RVm ‘quarter-master’), whose duty was to look after night quarters for the royal party (Jer 51°).
* R. Meir, in an epigram, called the solitary traveller a ‘son of death’ (W. Bacher, Die Agada der Tannaiten, ii. Lapa
+ Cf., on the further travels of this word, 8. Krauss, Griech. u. Latein. Lehnwérter im Talmud, Midrasch, u. Targum, ii. 428, In the form Funduk it still occurs as the name of a village in southern Samaria, the Fondeka of the Talmud (Neubauer, Géog. du Talmud, 172).
¢ According to Herodotus (v. 52), there were such caravan- serais (zereAtces) on the roads in the Persian empire.
In general, then, in early times the traveller, unless he carried his victuals with him and pre- ferred, like Jacob, to sleep in the open air, had to fall back on the hospitality of the inhabitants of the place; but this he could do with confidence, for in all ages hospitality has been one of the most beautiful virtues of the Oriental. Although it is not expressly enjoined in the Law,” narratives like Gn 18!#- 2431, Ex 2° show how highly it was esteemed ; and Job, in the passage where he casts a backward glance on his former life in order to prove his integrity, says, amongst other things, ‘The stranger did not lodge in the street, but I opened my doors to the traveller’ (31°). Passages like Jg 19% indicate how severe was the judgment passed on those who suffered the traveller to pass the night outside; while the story related in Gn 19 and that in Jg 19 are meant to show the enormity of the offence of offering violence to the defenceless guest. The deed of Jael alone is praised (Jg 52%), although, according to ancient Semitic notions, her guest ought to have been specially sacred to her, because he had drunk from her milk- bowl. But in this instance duty to a guest is re- garded as overshadowed by duty to one’s country.