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Saturday, December 21st, 2024
the Third Week of Advent
Bible Encyclopedias
Village
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
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vil´ā́j ( כּפר , ḳāphār , חוּות , ḥawwōth , חצרים , ḥăcērı̄m , בּנות , bānōth , פּרזות , perāzōth ; κώμη , kṓmē ): (1) The general term for a village, in common with Aramaic and Arabic is ḳāphār ( Song of Solomon 7:11; 1 Chronicles 27:25; kōpher ; 1 Samuel 6:18; kephı̄r , Nehemiah 6:2 ). This designation is derived from the idea of its offering "cover" or shelter. It is used in combination, and place-names of this formation became prominent in post-Biblical times, probably because the villages so named had then grown into towns. A well-known Biblical instance of such names is Capernaum. (2) Ḥawwōth (always "town" in English Versions of the Bible; see HAVVOTH-JAIR ) means originally a group of tents (Arabic ḥiwa' ). These in settled life soon became more permanent dwellings, or what we understand by a village. The term, however, is applied only to the villages of Jair in the tribe of Manasseh (Numbers 32:41; 1 Kings 4:13 ). (3) Ḥăcērı̄m likewise came from nomadic life. They were originally enclosures specially for cattle, alongside of which dwellings for the herdsmen and peasantry naturally grew up (see HAZAR-ADDAR; HAZOR ). They were unwalled (Leviticus 25:31 ) and lay around the cities (Joshua 19:8 ). (4) Bānōth is literally "daughters." The word is applied to the dependent villages lying around the larger cities, and to which they looked as to a kind of metropolis (Numbers 21:25 , etc.); the Revised Version (British and American) "towns" except in Numbers 32:42 . (5) Perāzōth means "the open country," but it soon came to mean the villages scattered in the open (Ezekiel 38:11; Zechariah 2:4; Esther 9:19 ). Some have sought to connect the Perizzites with this word and to regard them, not as a distinct people, but as the peasant class. Attempts have also been made to connect perāzōn in Judges 5:7 , Judges 5:11 with the same root, and the King James Version rendered it "inhabitants of the villages." the Revised Version (British and American), on the contrary, gives it the meaning of "rulers." The versions indicate a word meaning authority, and probably the text should be emended to read rōzenı̄m , "rulers." A similar emendation is required in Habakkuk 3:14 . "Village" in the Revised Version (British and American) of the New Testament invariably represents the Greek kōmē , but in 2 Macc 8:6 the Revised Version (British and American) Apocrypha has "village" for chṓra , lit. "country." See CITY; TOWN .
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Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Village'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/isb/v/village.html. 1915.
