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Hygiene Among the Israelites
193
care—these are health’s greatest safeguards. To the Israelites they
were to be the very keynote of life.
The journey made three times a year to the annual feasts at
Jerusalem, the week’s sojourn in booths during the Feast of Taberna-
cles, were opportunities for outdoor recreation and social life. These
feasts were occasions of rejoicing, made sweeter and more tender
by the hospitable welcome given to the stranger, the Levite, and the
poor.
“Rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given
to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is
among you.”
Deuteronomy 26:11
.
So, in later years, when the law of God was read in Jerusalem to
the captives who had returned from Babylon, and the people wept
because of their transgressions, the gracious words were spoken:
“‘Do not mourn. ... Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and
send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day
is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength.’”
Nehemiah 8:9, 10
.
And it was published and proclaimed “in all their cities and in
Jerusalem, saying, ‘Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches,
branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches
[158]
of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.’ Then the people went
out and brought them and made themselves booths, each on the roof
of his house, or in their courtyards or the courts of the house of God,
and in the open square of the Water Gate and in the open square of
the Gate of Ephraim. So the whole congreation of those who had
returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths. ...
And there was very great gladness.”
Verses 15-17
.
God gave to Israel instruction in all the principles essential to
physical as well as moral health, and it was concerning these prin-
ciples no less than concerning those of the moral law that He com-
manded them:
“‘These words which I command you today shall be in your
heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk
of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way,
when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a
sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.