[135] בֹּולֵס, bôlês, probably from a root (found in Æthiopic) balas, _a fig_; hence one who _had to do with figs, handled them, ripened them_. [136] The Egyptian sycomore, _Ficus sycomorus_, is not found in Syria above one thousand feet above the sea, while Tekoa is more than twice as high as that. Cf. 1 Kings x. 27, _the sycomores that are in the vale_ or _valley land_, עֵמֶק; 1 Chron. xxvii. 28, _the sycomores that are in the low plains_. "The sycamore grows in sand on the edge of the desert as vigorously as in the midst of a well-watered country. Its roots go deep in search of water, which infiltrates as far as the gorges of the hills, and they absorb it freely even where drought seems to reign supreme" (Maspero on the Egyptian sycomore; _The Dawn of Civilization_, translated by McClure, p. 26). "Everywhere on the confines of cultivated ground, and even at some distance from the valley, are fine single sycamores flourishing as though by miracle amid the sand.... They drink from water, which has infiltrated from the Nile, and whose existence is nowise betrayed upon the surface of the soil" (_ib._, 121). Always and still reverenced by Moslem and Christian. [137] So practically Oort (_Th. Tjidsch._, 1891, 121 ff.), when compelled to abandon his previous conclusion (_ib._, 1880, 122 ff.) that the Tekoa of Amos lay in Northern Israel. [138] In 1891 we met the Rushaideh, who cultivate Engedi, encamped just below Tekoa. But at other parts of the borders between the hill-country of Judæa and the desert, and between Moab and the desert, we found round most of the herdsmen's central wells a few fig-trees or pomegranates, or even apricots occasionally. [139] Luke i. 80. [140] Mark i. 18. [141] v. 5; viii. 14. [142] See p. 36. [143] Prov. xxxi. 24. [144] vi. 10. [145] i. 9. [146] v. 16. [147] v. 21 ff. [148] li. 7, 8. [149] viii. 4 ff. [150] vi. 1, 4-7. [151] See pp. 136 f. [152] i. 2. [153] שׁופר, as has been pointed out, means in early Israel always the trumpet blown as a summons to war; only in later Israel was the name given to the temple trumpet. [154] See further on this important passage pp. 89 ff. [155] _Shall a little bird fall on the snare earthwards and there be no noose about her? Shall a snare rise from the ground and not be taking something?_ On this see p. 82. Its meaning seems to be equivalent to the Scottish proverb: "There's aye some water whan the stirkie droons." [156] There is thus no reason to alter the words _who shall not prophesy_ to _who shall not tremble_--as Wellhausen does. To do so is to blunt the point of the argument. [157] See Chap. IV. [158] See pp. 53 ff. [159] See pp. 69 f. [160] viii. 8. [161] viii. 9. [162] v. 14.