BROAD BEANS

[Heb., pohl].

The Hebrew term corresponds with the Arabic fûl and is identified with the broad bean, Vicia faba L., an annual plant extensively cultivated in Syria and Palestine. This type of bean has been found in Egyptian mummy coffins, indicating the use of it in Egypt from ancient times.

The plant is hardy and erect, reaches a height of about three feet (.9 meter), and produces a sweet perfume when in blossom. The ripe pods are large and thick and the beans are brown or black in color. Planted after the early rains in the autumn, they are usually harvested in the late spring toward the close of the barley and wheat harvest. The plants are winnowed much like grain.

As a food, the green immature pods may be boiled whole as a vegetable, while the ripe beans are often cooked with oil and meat. When David moved out of Jerusalem and across the Jordan due to Absalom’s revolt, his company was greeted in Mahanaim by a delegation voluntarily offering equipment and foodstuffs, including broad beans. (2 Sam. 17:24-29) Ezekiel was instructed to mix broad beans with lentils and grains to make a coarse bread to be eaten by weight, depicting famine conditions.—Ezek. 4:9, 10.