קוד: Skin of milk? בתנ"ך
סוג: פרטים1
מאת: אבנר רמו
אל:
We read that when the escaping Sisera reached Jael’s tent he said: השקיני-נא מעט-מים, כי צמאתי - “Give me, I pray you, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty” (Jud 4:19). Now we read that Jael: ותפתח את-נאוד החלב, ותשקהו - “And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink” (Jud 4:19). The Greek translator wrote here: “and she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink.” Raw milk is an excellent medium for microbial growth and when stored at ambient temperature bacteria and other pathogens soon multiply. The US Centers for Disease control data show that raw milk (unless immediately cooled or boiled, and stored in aseptic container) is responsible for nearly three times more hospitalizations than any other food-borne disease. Untreated raw milk at room temperature will start almost immediately to ferment and will become sour within 3 hours. Within one day it will completely curdle. Therefore, even if Jael had pre-boiled the milk she could not store it as a drinkable liquid in a non-sterile skin container. At best she might have boiled the milk in a clay jar. This suggests the possibility that נאוד החלב (nod hakhalav) is a letter-substitution error of כד החלב (kad hakhalav) - “the jar of milk.” In the next chapter in Deborah ode we read about this event: מים שאל, חלב נתנה; בספל אדירים הקריבה חמאה.“Water he asked, milk she gave him; in a lordly bowl she brought him curd” (Jud 5:25). As indicated above raw milk at room temperature start to ferment almost immediately, and Jael could indeed have stored the curd.”