This recipe is from our cookbook "Cooking with the Bible: Recipes for Biblical Meals." This particular soup is based on the story told in Numbers 11:1, 4–9; 31–32a. What is being described here are probably muskmelons or chate melons (an unsweet variety), and the melons (in Hebrew, abattichim) were most likely cantaloupes, casabas, or honeydew. But watermelon was also grown in Egypt from the earliest times, their seeds having been found in the tombs of the pharaohs, so we based our recipe upon this delicious fruit. —Anthony Chiffolo
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