Honey

Honey in the biblical world referred both to the honey of wild bees (Hebrew dĕbaš yĕʿārîm, forest honey) and to a thick sweet syrup made from dates or grape must, the latter being the more common product in agricultural contexts. Palestine was proverbially a land flowing with milk and honey, a phrase occurring over twenty times in the Old Testament as a description of Canaan's fertility. Wild bees nested in rock crevices, hollow trees, and animal carcasses; the most dramatic honey incident in the Bible is Samson finding honeybees in the carcass of the lion he had killed, from which he drew his famous riddle.

Honey was valued as a luxury food and sweetener in a world without refined sugar. Jonathan tasted honey during a battle against the Philistines and was immediately refreshed, an episode that nearly cost him his life due to Saul's rash oath. The Psalms describe God's law as sweeter than honey (Psalm 19:10; 119:103), and Proverbs 24:13 commends honey as good for the soul. However, honey was excluded from grain offerings to God (Leviticus 2:11), possibly because fermented honey was associated with pagan worship. John the Baptist's diet of locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4) was a sign of austere wilderness existence.