the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Field
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or Sadeh in Hebrew implies cultivated land (as field is derived from felling trees), but unenclosed; whereas the English "field" implies enclosure. In contrast to the adjoining wilderness (Genesis 33:19; Genesis 36:35). The sadeh is contrasted with what is enclosed, as a vineyard (Numbers 22:23-24) or a city (Deuteronomy 28:3; Deuteronomy 28:16). Unwalled villages were counted by the law as "the fields of the country" (Leviticus 25:31). "Field" means the open country, apart from habitations, in Genesis 25:27; Genesis 37:15. Stones marked off separate plots; to remove these landmarks entailed the curse (Deuteronomy 27:17). The lack of fences exposed the fields to straying cattle (Exodus 22:5) or fire (2 Samuel 14:30).
Hence, the need of watchers, now named nator . The rye or spelled was placed "in its (the field's) border" (Isaiah 28:25). The wheat was put in the middle, the best and safest place, and the several other grains in their own place. The tallest and strongest grain outside formed a kind of fence. "A town in the country (field)" is a provincial town, as distinguished from the royal city (1 Samuel 27:5). "Fruitful field" is a distinct word, Carmel. (See CARMEL.) Another term, mareh , "meadows," is a naked treeless region (Judges 20:33); "the liers in wait came from the open plains of Gibeah"; not that their ambush was there, but the men of Benjamin had been previously enticed away from the city (Judges 20:31), so the liers in wait came to the city from the thus exposed plain.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Field'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/f/field.html. 1949.
