Almond (Hastings)

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Heb: shaked.

Shaked is, like many names of plants, used for both the plant and its fruit. Thus in Eccl 12:5 and Jer 1:11, the reference is to the tree, while in Gen 43:11, Ex 25:33f, Ex 37:19f, Num 17:8, the reference is to the fruit. The Arab. name for the almond is lauz. The same word occurs once in OT (Gen 30:37), where it is wrongly translated in AV Hazel. The Heb. equivalent, ???, is undoubtedly another name for the almond, probably the more ancient one.

The almond, Amygdalus communis, L., belongs to the order Rosaceae, tribe Amygdaleae, and is a tree with an oblong or spherical comus, from fifteen to thirty feet high. The branches are somewhat straggling, especially in the wild state. The leaves are lanceolate, serrate, acute, three to four inches long, and most of them fall during the winter. About midwinter the bare tree is suddenly covered with blossoms, an inch to an inch and a half broad. Although the petals are pale pink toward their base, they are usually whitish toward their tips, and the general effect of an almond tree in blossom is white. As there are no leaves on the tree when the blossoms come out, the whole tree appears a mass of white, and the effect of a large number of them, interspersed among the dark-grecn foliage and golden fruit of the lemon and orange, and the feathery tops of the palms, is to give an indescribable charm to the January and February landscapes in the orchards of the large cities of Palestine and Syria. Soon after blossoming, the delicate petals begin to fall in soft, snowy showers on the ground under and around the trees, and their place is taken by the young fruit; and, at the same time, the young leaves begin to open, and the tree is covered with foliage in March. The young fruit consists of an oblong, flattened, downy pod, which often attains a length of two and a ualf to three inches, and a thickness of two-thirds of an inch. This pod is called in Arab, kur'aun-el-lauz, and just before ripening it has a crisp, cucumber-like consistence, and a pleasant acid taste, which are greatly liked by the people. It is hawked about the streets during the months of April and May, and eaten with great relish, especially by children. At this stage the shell of the nut is yet soft, and the kernel juicy, with a slight smack of peachstone flavour. Very soon, however, the succulent flesh of the outer envelope loses its juice, and dries around the hardening shell, to which it forms a shrunken, leathery envelope. The kernel acquires firmness, and in early summer the nut is ripe. It is then from an inch to an inch and a half long. Almonds are, and always have been, a favourite luxury of the Orientals (Gen 43:11). They make a delicious confection of the hulled kernels, by beating them into a paste with sugar in a mortar. This paste, moulded into various shapes, is called hariset-el-lauz. The half kernels are spread over several sorts of blancmange, called mahallibiyeh, and nashawuyeh, and mughli. Almonds are also sugared as with us.

There are several species of wild almond in Palestine and Syria:

1. The wild state of Amygdalus com-munis, L., a stunted tree, with smaller blossoms and pods, and small bitter nuts. Some of the varieties of this have leaves less than an inch long.
2. A. Orientalis, Ait., a shrub with spinescent branches, small silvery leaves, and bitter nuts, three-quarters of an inch long.
3. A. lycioides, Spach, a shrub with intricate, stiff, spiny branches, linear-lanceolate, green leaves, and a bitter nut half an inch long.
4. A. spartioides, Spach, a shrub with few linear-lanceolate leaves, and bitter nuts, a little over half an inch long. All of these share more or less the peculiarities of flowering and fruiting which belong to the cultivated almond.

The Heb. word for almond signifies the 'waker,' in allusion to its being the first tree to wake to life in the winter, The word also contains the signifi¬cation of 'watching' and 'hastening.' In Jer 1:11 the word for 'almond tree' is shaked, and the word for 'I will hasten' (Jer 1:12), shoked, from the same root. The almond was the emblem of the divine forwardness in bringing God's promises to pass. A similar instance in the name of another rosaceous plant is the apricot, which was named from praecocia (early) on account of its blossoms appearing early in the spring, and its fruit ripening earlier than its congener the peach (Pliny, xv. 11).

The usual interpretation of Eccl 12:5 'the almond tree shall flourish,' is that the old man's hair shall turn white like the almond tree. To this Gesenius objects, that the blossom of the almond is pink, not white. He prefers to translate the word for flourish by spurn or reject, making the old man reject the almond because he has no teeth to eat it. But this objection has no force. The pink colour of the almond blossom is very light, usually mainly at the base of the petals, and fades as they open, and the general effect of the tree as seen at a distance is snowy-white. The state of the teeth has already been alluded to (Eccl 12:3), 'and the grinders cease because they are few,' and 'the sound of the grinding is low.' We may therefore retain the beautiful imagery which brings to mind the silver hair of the aged, and draw from the snowy blossom the promise of the coming fruit.