Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Dung
Subjects in this Topic:
Used as manure and fuel. Straw was trodden in the water of the dungheap to make it manure (compare ). , "Moab shall be trodden down ... as straw is trodden down for the dunghill"; also , margin The dung sweepings of the streets were collected in heaps at fixed places outside the walls, e.g. "the dung gate" at Jerusalem (), and thence removed to the fields. The dunghill is the image of the deepest degradation (; ; ). Manure is inserted in holes dug about the roots of fruit trees to the present day in S. Italy (). The dung of sacrifices was burnt outside the camp (). In , "I will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts," the point is, the maw was the priests' prequisite (); you shall get the dung in the maw, instead of the maw.
The sanctity of the Israelites' camp through Jehovah's presence is made the ground for rules of cleanliness such as in . The removal to separate receptacles, and exposure of human and other ordure, gives the force to the threats, ; ; ; ; "a draught house," ; ; . In the sense is, "Is it to thy master and thee I am sent? Nay, it is to the men off the wall, to let them know that (so far am I from wishing them not to hear), if they do not surrender they shall be reduced to eating their own excrement." (). Scarcity of fuel necessitated the use of cows' dung and camels' dung, formed in cakes with straw added, for heating ovens as at this day; but to use human dung implied cruel necessity (). In , "I do count them dung," skubala means "refuse cast to the dogs."