sand Summary and Overview

SAND (from a root meaning to whirl). The wastes of Palestine consist mainly of parched soil and gravel. Sand occurs only along the shores of the seas and rivers. It is found in some parts of the desert of Sinai, and abundantly in Egypt. On the west especially the Nile valley is ever menaced by "the sands of the African desert - sands and sand-drifts which in purity, in brightness, in firmness, in destructiveness, are the snows and glaciers of the south." - Stanley. The pyramids and most of the ancient remains of Egypt stand upon the edge of the whirling sand-wastes, and therefore are liable to be covered up, as indeed many have been. Here all stirring of the surface is quickly and utterly obliterated. Ex 2:12. God has placed the sand for a bound of the sea by a perpetual decree. Jer 5:22. Sand is also figuratively used to denote an innumerable multitude or great abundance. Gen 32:12; Gen 41:49, and also that which is heavy. Job 6:3; Prov 27:3. Issachar was to "suck of the abundance of the seas and of treasures hid in the sand." Deut 33:19. Some authorities find here an allusion to the great value of the sand of the river Belus, near Acre, for the manufacture of glass. But in this sand the mollusk (Murex trunculus) used for the purple dye is abundant, and vast quantities of crushed shells attest the ancient productiveness of this industry at Acre. Lieut. Conder understands these to be the "treasures hid in the sand," and claims this to be the interpretation of the Jewish rabbis.