This is how the honey was harvested in many countries......
Judges 14:8,9 recounts the story of Samson finding a swarm af bees in the carcass of the lion he had killed on his previous trip to Timnath, and of how he ate and shared the honey with his parents without telling them where it came from.
Isaiah 7:18, In connection with a prophecy that the Messiah should be a Nazarite and eat butter and honey, we read that "the Lord shall hiss...for the bee that is in the land of Assyria." The hissing is more in nature of "psst," a common way of catching someone's attention without alerting everyone. The Arabs also called bees this way to get their attention.
Man domesticated bees early in history, and the methods of bee culture in some Bible lands probably chaned little until recently. Beekeepers stacked earthen vessels on their sides and partly covered them with earth to keep them from becoming too hot from the sun. Then they introduced swarms into their ready made hives. Getting the honey from them was the hard part.
Some more progressive householders built the cylindrical pots into the walls of their houses with the open end out and the bottom end exposed inside the house. The swarm then worked to fill the pot with honey. When the family wanted some, they would gently tap on the inside of the pot till the bees, annoyed by the noise, flew out. then by means of a cord they dropped a trapdoor from inside to close the bees out of the hive. Removing the bottom of the pot, they could spoon the honey out. Leaving the eggs and larvae inside, they put the bottom back so the bees could make more honey.
The israelites regularly ate honey when they had it, often with bread. Sometimes they would consume it in the comb [Luke 24:42], and at other times they let it drip out and purified it. John the Baptist ate it with his locust, and it no doubt helped to supply elements that his sparse diet might lack.
Israelites today raise hybrid American and Italian bees in modern hives and remove the honey with electric extractors not far from some bee farmers who still use some of the primitive methods described above.
Thank you Jesus, for the little bee that gives us so much 'sweet' pleasure.
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charlene