Which "millet" is in the Biblical verse, Ezekiel 4:9?
Even if you haven't read the Bible, you may have seen the one verse from it that mentions "millet" on a brand of sprouted bread and cereal named after that verse: Ezekiel 4:9. "Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, even three hundred and ninety days, shalt thou eat thereof." Ezekiel 4:9 (ASV)/1 But do we know what millet it was exactly? The Hebrew is דֹּחִן (do'chan), which more than one source on the Bible say is Panicum miliaceum (proso or broomcorn millet). One of those sources, the authoritative *McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia* is among those commentaries./2 That source also notes the Arabic cognate, دُخْن (duḵn), which it says also refers to P. miliaceum. However, Wehr and Cowan's authoritative *A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic* (3rd ed., 1976) defines the term as pearl millet, i.e., Pennisetum glaucum./3 Both the Hebrew and Arabic words come from roots that also denote smoke. McClintock and Strong see the connection with proso as being "the dark-green or smoky color of the leaf." However, one should also note that the grains of pearl millet typically have a greyish hue, that might be called a smoky color as well. Another source on the Bible, says that the Arabic word is used "to describe two different kinds of millet" (which it does not specify)./4 That might remove the ambiguity in favor of the Hebrew word meaning P. miliaceum - if perhaps the two millets in Arabic are proso and pearl. However, it would be useful to consult work of historians and ethnobotanists on the dissemination of these two crops in the ancient Middle East - one coming from China and the other from West Africa. A shallow dive on the latter suggestion ... It's hard from researching online to get any clear answer, and I'm under no illusion that "doing my own research" on the internet about common names for millets in ancient languages would refute the conclusions of Biblical scholars. However, having worked along the boundaries of domain expertise, where understandable errors can be made and overlooked, I would not be astonished if a valid case could be made for pearl millet in the Book of Ezekiel. There has been research and discussion about how the African-origin millets - pearl millet, sorghum, and finger millet - made their way to India./5 It is also known that on the one hand, pearl millet was in Egypt fairly early, and that proso was in Sudanese Nubia for a time, even though there's apparently no evidence for it in Egypt or Mesopotamia. While proso disseminated across Eurasia to Europe, did it also follow a sea-coast route from Asia to Nubia (the reverse of what has been posited for African millets to India)? All of this, by the way, before the time of the Book of Ezekiel. Could proso have become the or an established millet in the Middle East in the time of Ezekiel? Keep in mind that its cultivation in Nubia did not endure. What of pearl millet in the region during this period? Anyway, lots of questions. Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance Notes: 1. https://www.bible.com/bible/compare/EZK.4.9 2. https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/M/millet.html 3. https://ia803408.us.archive.org/3/items/dictionary-of-modern-written-arabic-... (scroll to p; 275) 4. https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Millet 5. https://dispatchesfromturtleisland.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-did-african-crop... (a discussion about research, including by noted millets scholar Dorian Q. Fuller)
Don, Wow…. Amazing fact…I will keep this question in mind while searching literature. Thank you very much for sharing this. Dipak Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ________________________________ From: Collab <collab-bounces@lists.millets2023.space> on behalf of Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> Sent: Sunday, September 8, 2024 6:24:30 PM To: collab@lists.millets2023.space <collab@lists.millets2023.space> Subject: [Collab] Which "millet" is in the Biblical verse, Ezekiel 4:9? Caution: Non-NU Email Even if you haven't read the Bible, you may have seen the one verse from it that mentions "millet" on a brand of sprouted bread and cereal named after that verse: Ezekiel 4:9. "Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, even three hundred and ninety days, shalt thou eat thereof." Ezekiel 4:9 (ASV)/1 But do we know what millet it was exactly? The Hebrew is דֹּחִן (do'chan), which more than one source on the Bible say is Panicum miliaceum (proso or broomcorn millet). One of those sources, the authoritative McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia is among those commentaries./2 That source also notes the Arabic cognate, دُخْن (duḵn), which it says also refers to P. miliaceum. However, Wehr and Cowan's authoritative A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (3rd ed., 1976) defines the term as pearl millet, i.e., Pennisetum glaucum./3 Both the Hebrew and Arabic words come from roots that also denote smoke. McClintock and Strong see the connection with proso as being "the dark-green or smoky color of the leaf." However, one should also note that the grains of pearl millet typically have a greyish hue, that might be called a smoky color as well. Another source on the Bible, says that the Arabic word is used "to describe two different kinds of millet" (which it does not specify)./4 That might remove the ambiguity in favor of the Hebrew word meaning P. miliaceum - if perhaps the two millets in Arabic are proso and pearl. However, it would be useful to consult work of historians and ethnobotanists on the dissemination of these two crops in the ancient Middle East - one coming from China and the other from West Africa. A shallow dive on the latter suggestion ... It's hard from researching online to get any clear answer, and I'm under no illusion that "doing my own research" on the internet about common names for millets in ancient languages would refute the conclusions of Biblical scholars. However, having worked along the boundaries of domain expertise, where understandable errors can be made and overlooked, I would not be astonished if a valid case could be made for pearl millet in the Book of Ezekiel. There has been research and discussion about how the African-origin millets - pearl millet, sorghum, and finger millet - made their way to India./5 It is also known that on the one hand, pearl millet was in Egypt fairly early, and that proso was in Sudanese Nubia for a time, even though there's apparently no evidence for it in Egypt or Mesopotamia. While proso disseminated across Eurasia to Europe, did it also follow a sea-coast route from Asia to Nubia (the reverse of what has been posited for African millets to India)? All of this, by the way, before the time of the Book of Ezekiel. Could proso have become the or an established millet in the Middle East in the time of Ezekiel? Keep in mind that its cultivation in Nubia did not endure. What of pearl millet in the region during this period? Anyway, lots of questions. Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance Notes: 1. https://www.bible.com/bible/compare/EZK.4.9<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.bible.com/bible/compare/EZK.4.9__;!!PvXuogZ4sRB2p-tU!E6s1RQoiX8-e7g5W8Vw2McGwDYhDGCuWSkL7y_qwwWpUtyo6fOIEuNmzdv_KSUzA4oiNCDUKkq3qjxEiig$> 2. https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/M/millet.html<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/M/millet.html__;!!PvXuogZ4sRB2p-tU!E6s1RQoiX8-e7g5W8Vw2McGwDYhDGCuWSkL7y_qwwWpUtyo6fOIEuNmzdv_KSUzA4oiNCDUKkq1_WpO3Mg$> 3. https://ia803408.us.archive.org/3/items/dictionary-of-modern-written-arabic-hans/Dictionary_of_modern_written_Arabic_Hans.pdf<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://ia803408.us.archive.org/3/items/dictionary-of-modern-written-arabic-hans/Dictionary_of_modern_written_Arabic_Hans.pdf__;!!PvXuogZ4sRB2p-tU!E6s1RQoiX8-e7g5W8Vw2McGwDYhDGCuWSkL7y_qwwWpUtyo6fOIEuNmzdv_KSUzA4oiNCDUKkq18r2j7GA$> (scroll to p; 275) 4. https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Millet<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Millet__;!!PvXuogZ4sRB2p-tU!E6s1RQoiX8-e7g5W8Vw2McGwDYhDGCuWSkL7y_qwwWpUtyo6fOIEuNmzdv_KSUzA4oiNCDUKkq1j8jkR3g$> 5. https://dispatchesfromturtleisland.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-did-african-crops-get-to-india.html<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://dispatchesfromturtleisland.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-did-african-crops-get-to-india.html__;!!PvXuogZ4sRB2p-tU!E6s1RQoiX8-e7g5W8Vw2McGwDYhDGCuWSkL7y_qwwWpUtyo6fOIEuNmzdv_KSUzA4oiNCDUKkq0W19s1lQ$> (a discussion about research, including by noted millets scholar Dorian Q. Fuller)
Thank you for the feedback, Dipak. Here's a question: Could one describe the leaves of proso millet as having a "dark-green or smoky color," as the McClintock and Strong source does? I would have placed proso plants more or less in the middle of a spectrum of greens, along with many other crops. Anyway, that source seems to cite something for this that I can't find online - "Sept. κέγχρος,Vulg. nzilium." Another site has a page with commentary from several sources: https://reformadoresdasaude.com/dicb/?sis=3683 . Some of those mention sorghum as a possibility One of them mentions foxtail (as Italian millet), but also states that proso ("common millet") was "cultivated in Egypt in very ancient times," which other sources would not agree with. Recall also that there appears to be evidence of pearl millet in ancient Egypt (at least one source suggests there is not, but see below). To be clear, wheat and barley were by far the dominant crops in Egypt's Nile valley. One article by Dorian Q. Fuller and Leilani Lucas ("Savanna on the Nile: Long‐term Agricultural Diversification and Intensification in Nubia," in E. Emberling & B.B. Williams, eds., *The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia*, 2021, https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10119133/1/Nubia%20handbook%20final%20... ) notes evidence of sorghum and pearl millet in some sites in Nubia and up into oasis areas of Egypt. Proso/broomcorn millet is mentioned in the later Meroitic period. (Interested to note also mention of "a lost indigenous foxtail millet, Setaria sphaceleata" - which, rather than foxtail millet, S. italica, was apparently also cultivated there in ancient times.) In any event, Egypt, with its dominant flooding agriculture, is a different situation than either Nubia or the Levant, which in turn are in different climate and agro-ecological zones. Anyway, it's complicated. In addition to better understanding what millets were grown where and when in the Middle East, cultural and historical factors during the time of Ezekiel would be helpful in reviewing the question of which millet was being referred to in Ezekiel 4:9. Anyway, that's all I have now on this... Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Sun, Sep 8, 2024 at 9:44 PM Dipak Santra <dsantra2@unl.edu> wrote:
Don, Wow…. Amazing fact…I will keep this question in mind while searching literature.
Thank you very much for sharing this.
Dipak
Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ------------------------------ *From:* Collab <collab-bounces@lists.millets2023.space> on behalf of Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> *Sent:* Sunday, September 8, 2024 6:24:30 PM *To:* collab@lists.millets2023.space <collab@lists.millets2023.space> *Subject:* [Collab] Which "millet" is in the Biblical verse, Ezekiel 4:9?
Caution: Non-NU Email
Even if you haven't read the Bible, you may have seen the one verse from it that mentions "millet" on a brand of sprouted bread and cereal named after that verse: Ezekiel 4:9.
"Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, even three hundred and ninety days, shalt thou eat thereof." Ezekiel 4:9 (ASV)/1
But do we know what millet it was exactly?
The Hebrew is דֹּחִן (do'chan), which more than one source on the Bible say is Panicum miliaceum (proso or broomcorn millet). One of those sources, the authoritative *McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia* is among those commentaries./2
That source also notes the Arabic cognate, دُخْن (duḵn), which it says also refers to P. miliaceum. However, Wehr and Cowan's authoritative *A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic* (3rd ed., 1976) defines the term as pearl millet, i.e., Pennisetum glaucum./3
Both the Hebrew and Arabic words come from roots that also denote smoke. McClintock and Strong see the connection with proso as being "the dark-green or smoky color of the leaf." However, one should also note that the grains of pearl millet typically have a greyish hue, that might be called a smoky color as well.
Another source on the Bible, says that the Arabic word is used "to describe two different kinds of millet" (which it does not specify)./4 That might remove the ambiguity in favor of the Hebrew word meaning P. miliaceum - if perhaps the two millets in Arabic are proso and pearl.
However, it would be useful to consult work of historians and ethnobotanists on the dissemination of these two crops in the ancient Middle East - one coming from China and the other from West Africa.
A shallow dive on the latter suggestion ...
It's hard from researching online to get any clear answer, and I'm under no illusion that "doing my own research" on the internet about common names for millets in ancient languages would refute the conclusions of Biblical scholars. However, having worked along the boundaries of domain expertise, where understandable errors can be made and overlooked, I would not be astonished if a valid case could be made for pearl millet in the Book of Ezekiel.
There has been research and discussion about how the African-origin millets - pearl millet, sorghum, and finger millet - made their way to India./5 It is also known that on the one hand, pearl millet was in Egypt fairly early, and that proso was in Sudanese Nubia for a time, even though there's apparently no evidence for it in Egypt or Mesopotamia. While proso disseminated across Eurasia to Europe, did it also follow a sea-coast route from Asia to Nubia (the reverse of what has been posited for African millets to India)?
All of this, by the way, before the time of the Book of Ezekiel. Could proso have become the or an established millet in the Middle East in the time of Ezekiel? Keep in mind that its cultivation in Nubia did not endure. What of pearl millet in the region during this period?
Anyway, lots of questions.
Don
Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance
Notes: 1. https://www.bible.com/bible/compare/EZK.4.9 <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.bible.com/bible/compare/EZK.4.9__;!!PvXuogZ4sRB2p-tU!E6s1RQoiX8-e7g5W8Vw2McGwDYhDGCuWSkL7y_qwwWpUtyo6fOIEuNmzdv_KSUzA4oiNCDUKkq3qjxEiig$> 2. https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/M/millet.html <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/M/millet.html__;!!PvXuogZ4sRB2p-tU!E6s1RQoiX8-e7g5W8Vw2McGwDYhDGCuWSkL7y_qwwWpUtyo6fOIEuNmzdv_KSUzA4oiNCDUKkq1_WpO3Mg$> 3. https://ia803408.us.archive.org/3/items/dictionary-of-modern-written-arabic-... <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://ia803408.us.archive.org/3/items/dictionary-of-modern-written-arabic-hans/Dictionary_of_modern_written_Arabic_Hans.pdf__;!!PvXuogZ4sRB2p-tU!E6s1RQoiX8-e7g5W8Vw2McGwDYhDGCuWSkL7y_qwwWpUtyo6fOIEuNmzdv_KSUzA4oiNCDUKkq18r2j7GA$> (scroll to p; 275) 4. https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Millet <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Millet__;!!PvXuogZ4sRB2p-tU!E6s1RQoiX8-e7g5W8Vw2McGwDYhDGCuWSkL7y_qwwWpUtyo6fOIEuNmzdv_KSUzA4oiNCDUKkq1j8jkR3g$> 5. https://dispatchesfromturtleisland.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-did-african-crop... <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://dispatchesfromturtleisland.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-did-african-crops-get-to-india.html__;!!PvXuogZ4sRB2p-tU!E6s1RQoiX8-e7g5W8Vw2McGwDYhDGCuWSkL7y_qwwWpUtyo6fOIEuNmzdv_KSUzA4oiNCDUKkq0W19s1lQ$> (a discussion about research, including by noted millets scholar Dorian Q. Fuller)
participants (2)
-
Dipak Santra -
Don Osborn