Reed (Hastings' Dictionary)

There is as mnch uncertainty in regard to the signilication of the Heb. words used to designate the various sorts of aquatic and marsh plants, grouped under the above general term, as there is about the English term itself. Two of these, 'dhu and sdph, have alreaily been discussed under Flag. There remain the foil, four : — 1. P'V, iin;N 'agmon. This word seems to l)e derived from d:n 'again, the same as the Ar.ab. 'ajam, denoting ' a troubled or muddy pool ' (Is 14-^ c'c-'DJK), such as reeds and rushes grow in, and thence a reed from such a pool (Jer 51'-, RVm 'mnrslie'i, Heb. pools'). 'Agmon is tr^ in ilob 41^ AV 'hook,' RV 'rope'; job 41-'" AV 'caldron,' liV ' burning rushes' ; Is 58' ' bulrush,' RV ' rush.' The word is used metaphorically for the lowly, and tr" 'rush' (Is 9'' 19"). The LXX (cpU-os = ' ring,' S.v8pa^-='coa\,' /itKp6s = ' small,' Ti\oi=' end,' give us no clue to the signihcation of 'agmon. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the etymology which is any more helpfiil. The expression 'bow down his head like a bulrush' (Is 58') would ex- clude the true rushes, which are stifi', erect plants. There are several rush-like plants to which it would well apply, as the Twiij Rush, Cladium inariscus, L. ; Cijperus longus, L., and a number of the Scirpi, all of the order Cyperacece ; the Common Reed, Phrngmites coi)iminii>:, L., of the Graminece; the Flowering Rush, Bntomus vmbel- Intus, L. , of the Alismacew ; and the Rur Reed, Sprirgnnium. ramos^un, Huds., of the Ti/p/iacew. The expression 'canst thou put an 'agmun (AV ' hook,' RV ' rope ') into his nose ? ' (Job 41'-) m.ay be explained as referring to the ring Avhich is passed through the nostrils of bulls to lead them. 'This is usually of iron. Sometimes it is of tough, twisted withes. It may be that it was sometimes made of rushes. But this also gives no light as to the par- ticular kind. The tr" ' rush ' is admissible only if we take it in its widest and most general sense. 2. Kti gome'. The Ueb. root signifies ' to swallow or imbibe.' Gome' occurs in connexion with its marshy place of growth (Job 8", LXX i-din/pos, AV and RV 'rush,' RVm 'papyrus'). The ark in which Moses was placed was made of gome' (Ex 2'). The LXX says only flr,3i! = ' wicker basket,' without mentioning the material of which it was made ; AV and RV ' bulrushes,' RVm 'papyrus.' What were the 'vessels of gome" ^ (Is 18=, AV 'bulrushes,' RV 'papyrus'). That boats for sea voyages were ma<le of papyrus is improbable. But the passage does not require tliat. The allusion in the expression 'sea' is doubtless to the Nile, the gieater branches of which, as well as the main stream, are called by the Arabs 6aAr = 'sea.' The Blue Nile is el- b'lhr el-azrnk, and the White Nile el-bahr el- ablnd, while the united stream is called bnhr en-Nil far more frequently than nnhr (river) en- Nil. This being understood, the vessels must be considered as boats or skills or canoe.s. The LXX seems to have another text, and gives ^iriffToXds /ii^Xii'05 = ' letters on parchment.' We have pro- fane testimony as to the use of papyrus, which is here generic for sedges, etc., for boats (I'lin. Nat. Hist. xiii. 22 ; Theophrast. //w<. PI. iv. 8), sails, mats, cloths, coverlets, and ropes. Gome' is mentioned in one other passage along with Ifdtieh (Is 35', LXX fXo$='a swamp,' AV and RV 'rushes'). If we adojit 'rush' as the generic expression to represent 'agmon, it would be better to take ' sedge ' as an equivalent generic expression for gome'. This will include the papyrus, Cyperus Papyrus, L., the bnbir or bardi of the Arabs; C. alepecuroides, Rotb., a species growing to tlie height of a man or taller, in the marshes of Egypt and the IJftleh, and used in making mats, etc. ; Llie Club Rush, or Bulrush, Scirpus maritimus, L., which grows as large as the last, and is used for similar purposes ; S. mucronatus, L. ; S. lacustris, L. ; and S. littoralis, L. ; and the Twig Rush, Cladium mariscus, L., which has been mentioned under 'agmon. The papyrus is the largest and finest of all. It grows from creeping root stocks, which produce tufts of sterile, linear leaves at the surface of the mud or water. The culms are 10 to 15 ft. high, and 2 to 3 in. thick at the base, which is enclosed in imbricated, brown sheaths. These are leaHess, or end in a broad, lanceolate limb. The culm is triquetrous above, and ends in an umbel 8 to 15 in. broad, subtended by an involucre of numerous lanceolate leaves. The spikelets are only a third of an inch long, of a pale fawn colour. This noble sedge is the orna- ment of the yoleh swamps, and the finest of the Cyperacew of Bible lands, perhaps of the whole world. It used to be common in Lower Egypt, but has now disappeared. 3. njij kaneh. Tliis is undoubtedly the equi- valent, neither more nor less general, of the Eng. 'reed.' Both are generic for all tall grasses, and more or less for grass-like plants. The word hdna in Arabic came to signify a spear, from the long reed which constitutes its handle. Such reeds grow in great profusion in the cane brakes of the Lower Euphrates and Upper Nile. Egypt and the Holy Land are pre-eminently lands of tall grasses and canes. Among the most notable of the Graminece of the Holy Land are Arundo Donax, L., called in Arabic kamb fdrisi={.\\e Persian Reed. This noble grass often attains a height of 15 to 20 ft. Its silky panicle, swaying gracefully to and fro in the wmd, may well have been the 'reed shaken by the wind (Mt 11'). Immense brakes of this cane are found on the boi'ilers of tlie stre.aiiis about the Dead Sea, in the Jordan Valley, I,Iflleh, and along the irrigation canals and rivers throughout the land. Another noble grass is Sacclmrum .^gyptiacum,, Willd., called in Arsuhic ghazzdr. It resembles the Pamp.xu Gr.ass of the Argentina in the beauty of its silky panicles, which are often borne on stalks 10 to 15 ft. high. Others are Panicum turgidum, Forsk. ; Erianthus Ravennie, L., the Woolly Beard Grass; Ammophila aranarin, L. ; Phragmites communis, the true Reed, known in Arabic as ghdb and bus ; Eragrostis cyno/turoidcs, Riem. et Schultz, the famous Hal/A, from which Wady Haifa in Nubia derives its name. This latter attains a height of 6 to 10 ft., and has a be.autiful panicle. It forms dense brakes in marsliy regions, from the latitude of Jalt'a and Ghi'ir es-SHJieh to Egj'pt and the Upper Nile. l^fineh is tr'' by various words — (1) ' Reed' (e.g. 1 K 14"). The allusion to the ' bruised reed ' (2 K 18-') shows a keen insight into the facts of nature. The grasses have hollow stems. A slight force is sulRcient to crash them in, and then their ela-sticity and strength are gone. Yet even such, by God'a help, may be saved from fracture (Is 42, Alt VX"). The reed is spoken of as growing in marshes (Job 4(F). The ' wild beast of the reeds' (P368' AVm and RV) is probably either the crocodile or (cf. Job 4(1-') the ni[>popotamus ; in either case it is a symbolical designation of Egypt (cf. Ezk 29', I's 74"). See Driver, Parallel P.ialter, p. 190, n. 7. The stronger kinds of reeds, such as Arundo Dunax, L., were used for walking stairs (Ezk 29"-', Is 36"). This sort was, and still is, used for measuring purposes (Ezk 40'- » etc. [cf. Rev 11' 21'"-]. This one was 6 cubits and 6 palms long. The Gr. xdXa/io! was also a measure of 61 cubits). (2) 'Stalk (of grain)' (Gn 41», -). (3) 'Bone' (Job 31^'), from the fact of this being a tube like the hollow stems of gra.sses. (4) 'Beam of a balance,' thence the balance itself (Is 46°), probably because the cross beams oi REED GRASS REFUGE, CITIES OF 213 balances were sometimes made of reeds. (5) The ' branches of a lampstand,' probably because these were tubular (Ex 25"- »=). Possibly these tubes carried oil, as in the case of the seven pipes (n7>"C) of the lampstand in Zechariah's vision (Zee 4»-'-'). (6) 'Cane' (Is -13-'), RVm' calamus.' Tlie fuller form is rsn 7^:r, kaneh haliobh, 'sweet cane' (Jer G-'" KVm ' calaiuus).' (7) 'Calamus' (Ca 4", Ezk 27"). Tlie fuller form is D-^'S-njp ktnih-bOsem = ' sweet calamus ' (Ex 30-"). Calamus is not in- digenous in Syria and Palestine. This is noted in Jer G-'", wliere it is said that it comes ' from a far country.' Pliny {Kat. Hist. xii. 48) says, ' Scented calamus, also, which grows in Arabia, is common botli in India and Syria, that which grows in the last country being superior to all the rest. At a distance of 150 stadia from the Mediterranean, between Mount Libanus and another mountain of no note (and not, as some have supposed, Anti- libanus), there is a valley of moderate size, situate in the vicinity of a lake, the marshj' swamps of ■which are dried up every summer. At a distance of 30 stadia from this lake grow the sweet-scented calamus and the rush.' This indication of locality would probably refer to the Lake of Hems, and the ewamj^s of the Upper Orontes. But no modern botanist lias detected Arorus Calamus there. Nor have we been able to identify ' scented calamus ' with any of tlie reeds or rushes which grow there. Tlie precision of Jeremiah's language seems to for- bid the idea that he spoke of any indigenous plant. 4. rn-ij'aroth (Is 19') is tr'' in AV 'paper reeds,' RV more properly 'meadows,' see art. Mkauow in vol. ii. I). 307 note t ; LXX x^wp<5s. There is no authority for identifjing this with the papyrus. G. E. I'OST. REED GRASS (Gn 41«'8). _RV for mx, AV • meadow.' The same word is tr'' in Job 8" ' flag,' RVm ' reed grass.' See Flag 1.