734. A life of agriculture took the place of the wandering life of nomads after Israel had been in the land of Canaan for many years and settled in. Houses began to take the place of tents. The average home of the common people was a one-room shelter. In Bible times, people spent as much time as possible in God's outdoors. The Hebrew word for house is bayith and means shelter. It served only as a place to rest after a day outside. The sacred writers referred to God as a "shelter" or a "refuge" (Ps. 61:3; Isa. 4:6).
735. The one-room houses were usually made of clay bricks dried in the sun (similar to adobe houses in Mexico), but sometimes they were made of rough, local sandstone and set with a mud mortar. Only the palaces or houses of the wealthy were constructed of hewn stones, like the palaces of Solomon (1 Kings 7:9).
736. The roofs of these humble houses were made by laying beams across from wall to wall, then putting down a mat of reeds or thorn bushes and over it a coating of clay or mud. Sand and pebbles were then scattered over this and a stone roller was used to make it smooth enough to shed rain.
737. Earthy homes create challenges unfamiliar to westerners. It is not uncommon to see grass growing on the tops of the houses, as the Bible even references, "May they be like grass on the roof, which withers before it can grow" (Ps. 129:6; see also 2 Kings 19:26; Isa. 37:27). With a dirt roof, leaks often soak through after a heavy rain. The Book of Proverbs compares this dripping to a quarrelsome wife (Prov. 19:13; 27:15). Not only did dripping cause trouble, but snakes often crawled in through cracks, and thieves could dig through and get into the house. Job said, "In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime" (Job 24:16 KJV).
738. The houses with one room were in the villages and those with more than one room were in the cities. If a house with two rooms was to be built, the rooms weren't placed side by side. Rather the breadth of another room was left between the two rooms, and a wall was constructed between the ends to make an open court. If there were three or more rooms, a room would be substituted for the wall at the end of the court and there would be more rooms around the courtyard, making a secluded area from the street.
