THE RAVEN. 187

forbidding any one of the family to be used as food ; cer-
tainly the interdiction would in this case be no hardship, as
the habits of the principal species do not recommend them
for that purpose; nor would they, under ordinary circum-
stances, be chosen as purveyors of food for man, but in
1 Kings xvii. we read that Elijah, when living in retirement
near the brook Cherith, was fed by ravens: “ And the ravens
brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and
flesh in the evening.” There have been various explanations
of this passage, by those who see no reason for believing
that any miracle was performed for the support of the
prophet: the most probable is that which would substitute
for “raven” the word “ Arabians” (whose name is almost
identical), or the inhabitants of some town called Ored, “a
raven :” we know there was a rock called by this name, and
a town or village may have borne the same designation.
The passage would have equal force, were either of these
words substituted: “I have commanded” the Arabians, or
the inhabitants of Oreb, “to feed thee there ;” and again,
“The Arabians,” or “the inhabitants of Oreb,” “brought
him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in
the evening ;” and we have no warrant for substituting a
miraculous interposition, where so simple an expedient