Fleshpot

And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

-- Exodus 16: 3 (KJV)

At first the Israelites welcomed their delivery from slavery in Egypt, but hunger in the wilderness isn't quite what they expected. As the previous verse puts it, "The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron," their deliverers. In retrospect, slavery doesn't seem so bad at all: at least the Israelites had their fill of the famous "flesh pots" of Egypt.

"Flesh pot" -- the phrase is from Miles Coverdale's 1535 translation -- refers to a large metal caldron used by luxuriating Egyptians to boil meat. For centuries writers used "flesh pot" exclusively with reference to this passage. And since the author of Exodus clearly looks askance at the Israelites' yearnings, the phrase has always signified decadent temptation. But it's only in this century that the "flesh" of "fleshpot" has come to mean human flesh, and the luxury become carnal. Those who wish to be more precise use the derivative term "sexpot," which gets right to the point.

 
Index  |  Next:  Manna from Heaven

Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!