dung Summary and Overview

(1.) Used as manure (Luke 13:8); collected outside the city walls (Neh. 2:13). Of sacrifices, burned outside the camp (Ex. 29:14; Lev. 4:11; 8:17; Num. 19:5). To be "cast out as dung," a figurative expression (1 Kings 14:10; 2 Kings 9:37; Jer. 8:2; Ps. 18:42), meaning to be rejected as unprofitable. (2.) Used as fuel, a substitute for firewood, which was with difficulty procured in Syria, Arabia, and Egypt (Ezek. 4:12-15), where cows' and camels' dung is used to the present day for this purpose.

The uses of dung were two-fold --as manure and as fuel. The manure consisted either of straw steeped in liquid manure, #Isa 25:10| or the sweepings, #Isa 5:25| of the streets and roads, which were carefully removed from about the houses, and collected in heaps outside the walls of the towns at fixed spots --hence the dung-gate at Jerusalem --and thence removed in due course to the fields. The difficulty of procuring fuel in Syria, Arabia and Egypt has made dung in all ages valuable as a substitute. It was probably used for heating ovens and for baking cakes, #Ezr 4:12,15| the equable heat which it produced adapting it pecularily for the latter operation. Cow's and camels dung is still used for a similar purpose by the Bedouins.

DUNG . In many countries of the East wood is so scarce and dear as to be sold by weight. Hence animal excrements are used as fuel. Eze 4:12. It is a very common material for heating ovens, even among people of comfortable circumstances. In Arabia the excrements of asses and camels are collected in the streets by children, mixed with cut straw, put in the sun to dry, and thus fitted for use as fuel. The effluvia arising from the use of it are very offensive, and penetrate the food. Dove's Dung, See Dove,

Used as manure and fuel. Straw was trodden in the water of the dungheap to make it manure (compare Psalm 83:10). Isaiah 25:10, "Moab shall be trodden down ... as straw is trodden down for the dunghill"; also Isaiah 5:25, margin The dung sweepings of the streets were collected in heaps at fixed places outside the walls, e.g. "the dung gate" at Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:13), and thence removed to the fields. The dunghill is the image of the deepest degradation (Psalm 113:7; Lamentations 4:5; 1 Samuel 2:8). Manure is inserted in holes dug about the roots of fruit trees to the present day in S. Italy (Luke 13:8). The dung of sacrifices was burnt outside the camp (Exodus 29:14). In Malachi 2:3, "I will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts," the point is, the maw was the priests' prequisite (Deuteronomy 18:3); 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 Deuteronomy 23:12. The removal to separate receptacles, and exposure of human and other ordure, gives the force to the threats, Daniel 2:5; Daniel 3:29; Ezra 6:11; 2 Kings 10:27; "a draught house," 2 Kings 9:37; 1 Kings 14:10; Jeremiah 8:2. In Isaiah 36:12 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." (2 Chronicles 32:11). 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 (Ezekiel 4:12). In Philemon 3:8, "I do count them dung," skubala means "refuse cast to the dogs."