Bread – Brethren

Bread

bred (lechem; artos):

I. DIETARY PREEMINENCE

II. MATERIALS

1. Barley

2. Wheat

3. Three Kinds of Flour

III. BREAD-MAKING

1. Grinding

2. Kneading

3. Baking

(1) Hot Stones

(2) Baking Pans

4. Ovens

(1) The Bowl-Oven

(2) The Jar-Oven

(3) The Pit-Oven

5. Forms of Baked Bread

6. Work for Women

IV. SANCTITY AND SYMBOLISM OF BREAD

1. Sanctity

2. Symbolism

LITERATURE

The art of bread-making is very ancient. It was even known to the Egyptians at a very early day (Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians), to the Hebrews of the Exodus (Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebr. Archaologie) and, of course, to the Greeks and Romans of a later day. Bread played a large part in the vocabulary and in the life of the ancient Hebrews.

I. Dietary Preeminence.

(1) In the East bread is primary, other articles of food merely accessory; while in the West meat and other things chiefly constitute the meal, and bread is merely secondary. Accordingly "bread" in the Old Testament, from Genesis 3:19 onward, stands for food in general.

(2) Moreover in ancient times, as now, most probably, when the peasant, carpenter, blacksmith or mason left home for the day's work, or when the muleteer or messenger set out on a journey, he wrapped other articles of food, if there were any, in the thin loaves of bread, and thus kept them ready for his use as needed.

(3) Often the thin, glutinous loaf, puffed out with air, is seen today, opened on one side and used so as to form a natural pouch, in which meat, cheese, raisins and olives are enclosed to be eaten with the bread (see Mackie in DCG, article "Bread"). The loaf of bread is thus made to include everything and, for this reason also, it may fitly be spoken of as synonymous with food in general. To the disciples of Jesus, no doubt, "Give us this day our daily bread" would naturally be a petition for all needed food, and in the case of the miraculous feeding of the multitude it was enough to provide them with "bread" (Matthew 14:15 ff).

II. Materials.

1. Barley:

Barley was in early times, as it is today, the main bread-stuff of the Palestine peasantry (see Judges 7:13; where "the cake of barley bread" is said to be "the sword of Gideon"), and of the poorer classes of the East in general (see John 6:13, where the multitude were fed on the miraculous increase of the "five barley loaves," and compare Josephus, BJ, V, x, 2).

2. Wheat:

But wheat, also, was widely used as a breadstuff then, as it is now, the wheat of the Syrian plains and uplands being remarkable for its nutritious and keeping qualities.

3. Three Kinds of Flour:

Three kinds, or qualities, of flour, are distinguished, according to the way of making:

(1) a coarser sort, rudely made by the use of pestle and mortar, the "beaten corn" of Leviticus 2:14,Leviticus 2:16 (the Revised Version (British and American) "bruised");

(2) the "flour" or "meal" of ordinary use (Exodus 29:2; Leviticus 2:2; Leviticus 6:15), and

(3) the "fine meal" for honored guests (see Genesis 18:6, where Abraham commands Sarah to "make ready .... three measures of fine meal") with which we may compare the "fine flour" for the king's kitchen (1 Kings 4:22) and the "fine flour" required for the ritual meal offering, as in Leviticus 2:1; Leviticus 5:11; Leviticus 7:12; Leviticus 14:10; Leviticus 23:13; Leviticus 24:5; etc.

III. Bread-Making.

1. Grinding:

After thoroughly sifting and cleaning the grain, the first step in the process was to reduce it to "meal" or "flour" by rubbing, pounding, or grinding. (In Numbers 11:8 it is said of the manna "The people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars.") It has been shown that by a process, which is not yet extinct in Egypt, it was customary to rub the grain between two the "corn-rubbers" or "corn grinders," of which many specimens have been found by Petrie, Bliss, Macalister and others, at Lachish, Gezer and elsewhere (PEFS, 1902, 326; 1903, 118; compare Erman, Egypt, 180, for illustrations of actual use). For detailed descriptions of the other processes, see MORTAR; MILL.

2. Kneading:

The "flour" was then ordinarily mixed simply with water, kneaded in a wooden basin or kneading-trough (Exodus 8:3) and, in case of urgency, at once made into "cakes" and baked. (See Exodus 12:34, "And the people took their dough before it was leavened.") The Hebrews called such cakes matstsoth, and they were the only kind allowed for use on the altar during Passover, and immediately following the Feast of Unleavened Bread (also called Matstsoth). Commonly however the process was as follows: a lump of leavened dough of yesterday's baking, preserved for the purpose, was broken up and mixed with the day's "batch," and the whole was then set aside and left standing until it was thoroughly leavened (see LEAVEN).

3. Baking:

We find in the Old Testament, as in the practice of the East today, three modes of firing or baking bread:

(1) Hot Stones:

That represented by Elijah's cake baked on the hot stones (1 Kings 19:6 the Revised Version, margin; compare "the cakes upon the hearth," Genesis 18:6 the King James Version, and see Robinson, Researches, II, 406). The stones were laid together and a fire was lighted upon them. When the stones were well heated the cinders were raked off, and the cakes laid on the stones and covered with ashes. After a while the ashes were again removed and the cake was turned (see Hosea 7:8) and once more covered with the glowing ashes. It was thus cooked on both sides evenly and made ready for eating (compare the Vulgate, Panis subcineraris, and DeLagarde, Symmicta, II, 188, where egkouthia, is referred to as "the hiding" of the cakes under the ashes). Out of these primitive usages of the pastoral tribes and peasants grew other improved forms of baking.

(2) Baking Pans:

An ancient method of baking, prevalent still among the Bedouin of Syria and Arabia, is to employ a heated convex iron plate, or griddle, what we would call a frying pan, in lieu of the heated sand or stones. The Hebrew "baking-pan" (machabhath, Leviticus 2:5; Leviticus 7:9; compare Ezekiel 4:3) must have been of this species of "griddle." The reference in 1 Chronicles 9:31 is probably to bread baked in this way. There it is said that one of the sons of the priests "had the office of trust over the things that were baked in pans."

4. Ovens:

tannur (compare Arabic), no doubt were used by the Hebrews, when they settled in Palestine, as they were used by the settled populations of the Orient in general, more and more as they approached civilized conditions. These "ovens" were of various kinds:

(1) The Bowl-Oven:

The simplest used by the ancients were hardly more primitive than the kind quite commonly used in Palestine today. It may be called the "bowl-oven." It consists of a large clay-bowl, which is provided with a movable lid. This bowl is placed inverted upon small stones and then heated with a fuel distinctly oriental, consisting of dried dung heaped over and around it. The bread is baked on the stones, then covered by the inverted oven, which is heated by the firing of the fuel of dung on the outside of the cover.

(2) The Jar-Oven:

The jar-oven is another form of oven found in use there today. This is a large earthen-ware jar that is heated by fuel of grass (Matthew 6:30), stubble (Malachi 4:1), dry twigs or thorns (1 Kings 17:12) and the like, which are placed within the jar for firing. When the jar is thus heated the cakes are stuck upon the hot inside walls.

(3) The Pit-Oven:

The pit-oven was doubtless a development from this type. It was formed partly in the ground and partly built up of clay and plastered throughout, narrowing toward the top. The ancient Egyptians, as the monuments and mural paintings show, laid the cakes upon the outside of the oven (Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians); but in Palestine, in general, if the customs of today are conclusive, the fire was kindled in the inside of the pit-oven. Great numbers of such ovens have been unearthed in recent excavations, and we may well believe them to be exact counterparts of the oven of the professional bakers in the street named after them in Jerusalem "the bakers' street" (Jeremiah 37:21). The largest and most developed form of oven is still the public oven of the town or city of this sort; but the primitive rural types still survive, and the fuel of thorns, and of the grass, "which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven," are still in evidence.

5. Forms of Baked Bread:

(1) The large pone or thick, light loaf of the West is unknown in the East. The common oriental cake or loaf is proverbially thin. The thin home-made bread is really named both in Hebrew and Arabic from its thinness as is reflected in the translation "wafer" in Exodus 16:31; Exodus 29:23; Leviticus 8:26; Numbers 6:19; 1 Chronicles 23:29. Such bread was called in Hebrew raqiq (raqiq; compare modern Arabic warkuk, from warak = "foliage," "paper").

(2) It is still significantly customary at a Syrian meal to take a piece of such bread and, with the ease and skill of long habit, to fold it over at the end held in the hand so as to make a sort of spoon of it, which then is eaten along with whatever is lifted by it out of the common dish (compare Matthew 26:23). But this "dipping in the common dish" is so accomplished as not to allow the contents of the dish to be touched by the fingers, or by anything that has been in contact with the lips of those who sit at meat (compare Mackie, DCG, article "Bread").

(3) Such "loaves" are generally today about 7 inches in diameter and from half an inch to an inch thick. Such, probably, were the lad's "barley loaves" brought to Christ at the time of the feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:9,John 6:13). Even thinner cakes, of both leavened and unleavened bread, are sometimes made now, as of old, especially at times of religious festivals. Often they are coated on the upper surface with olive oil and take on a glossy brown color in cooking; and sometimes they are sprinkled over with aromatic seeds, which adhere and impart a spicy flavor. They may well recall to us the "oiled bread" of Leviticus 8:26 and "the wafers anointed with oil" of Exodus 29:2 and Leviticus 2:4.

(4) Sometimes large discs of dough about 1 inch thick and 8 inches in diameter are prepared and laid in rows on long, thin boards like canoe paddles, and thus inserted into the oven; then, by a quick, deft jerk of the hand, they are slipped off upon the hot pavement and baked. These are so made and baked that when done they are soft and flexible, and for this reason are preferred by many to the thinner cakes which are cooked stiff and brown.

(5) The precise nature of the cracknels of 1 Kings 14:3 (the American Standard Revised Version "cakes") is not known. A variety of bakemeats (Genesis 40:17, literally "food, the work of the baker") are met with in the Old Testament, but only in a few cases is it possible or important to identify their nature or forms (see Encyclopedia Bibl, coll. 460 f). A cake used for ritual purposes (Exodus 29:2 and often) seems, from its name, to have been pierced with holes, like the modern Passover cakes (compare Kennedy, 1-vol HDB, article " Bread").

6. Work for Women:

(a) Every oriental household of importance seems to have had its own oven, and bread-making for the most part was in the hands of the women. Even when and where baking, as under advancing civilization, became a recognized public industry, and men were the professional bakers, a large part of the baker's work, as is true today, was to fire the bread prepared and in a sense pre-baked by the women at home.

(b) The women of the East are often now seen taking a hand in sowing, harvesting and winnowing the grain, as well as in the processes of "grinding" (Ecclesiastes 12:3; Matthew 24:41; Luke 17:35), "kneading" (Genesis 18:6; 1 Samuel 28:24; 2 Samuel 13:8; Jeremiah 7:18) and "baking" (1 Samuel 8:13), and doubtless it was so in ancient times to an equal extent.

IV. Sanctity and Symbolism of Bread.

1. Sanctity:

It would seem that the sanctity of bread remains as unchanged in the Orient as the sanctity of shrines and graves (compare Mackie, DCG, article "Bread," and Robinson's Researches). As in Egypt everything depended for life on the Nile, and as the Nile was considered "sacred," so in Palestine, as everything depended upon the wheat and barley harvest, "bread" was in a peculiar sense "sacred." The psychology of the matter seems to be about this: all life was seen to be dependent upon the grain harvest, this in turn depended upon rain in its season, and so bread, the product at bottom of these Divine processes, was regarded as peculiarly "a gift of God," a daily reminder of his continual and often undeserved care (Matthew 5:45 ff; consider in this connection the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," Matthew 6:11; compare Luke 11:11). Travelers generally note as a special characteristic of the Oriental of today that, seeing a scrap of bread on the roadside, he will pick it up and throw it to a street dog, or place it in a crevice of the wall, or on a tree-branch where the birds may get it. One thing is settled with him, it must not be trodden under foot in the common dust, for, in the estimat ion of all, it has in it an element of mystery and sacredness as coming from the Giver of all good.

2. Symbolism:

(a) In partaking of the hospitality of the primitive peasants of Palestine today, east and west of the Jordan, one sees what a sign and symbol of hospitality and friendship the giving and receiving of bread is. Among the Arabs, indeed, it has become a proverb, which may be put into English thus: "Eat salt together, be friends forever." Once let the Arab break bread with you and you are safe. You may find the bread the poorest barley loaf, still marked by the indentations of the pebbles, with small patches of the gray ash of the hearth, and here and there an inlaid bit of singed grass or charred thorn, the result of their primitive process of baking; but it is bread, the best that the poor man can give you, "a gift of God," indeed, and it is offered by the wildest Arab, with some sense of its sacredness and with somewhat of the gladness and dignity of the high duty of hospitality. No wonder, therefore, that it is considered the height of discourtesy, yea, a violation of the sacred law of hospitality, to decline it or to set it aside as unfit for use.

(b) Christ must have been influenced by His knowledge of some such feeling and law as this when, on sending forth His disciples, He charged them to "take no bread with them" (Mark 6:8). Not to have expected such hospitality, and not to have used what would thus be freely offered to them by the people, would have been a rudeness, not to say an offense, on the part of the disciples, which would have hindered the reception of the good tidings of the Kingdom.

(c) It has well been pointed out that God's gift of natural food to His people enters in for the praises of the Magnificat (Luke 1:53), and that when Christ called Himself "the bread of life" (John 6:35) He really appealed to all these endeared and indissoluble associations connected in the eastern mind with the meaning and use of bread. Most naturally and appropriately in the inauguration of the New Covenant Christ adopted as His memorial, not a monument of stone or brass, but this humble yet sacred article of food, familiar and accessible to all, to become, with the "wine" of common use, in the Lord's Supper, the perpetual symbol among His disciples of the communion of saints.

LITERATURE.

Wilkinson. Ancient Egypt, 1878, II, 34; Erman, Aegypten und aegyptisches Leben, 1885, 191 ff; Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebr. Archaologie, 1894; Maimonides, Yadh, Temidhin U-Mucaphin, v, 6-8; Bacher, Monats-schrift, 1901, 299; Mishna B. M., II, 1, 2; Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine, II, 416; Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, I, 131; Josephus, BJ; and Bible Dicts. on "Bread," "Dietary Laws": "Matstsoth," "Challah," etc.

George B. Eager

Breadth

bredth (rochabh, the root idea being to make wide, spacious): A term of expanse or measurement used of the ark (Genesis 6:15); of the tabernacle (Exodus 27:13); of Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6:2). platos, "breadth," as of the celestial city (Revelation 21:16). Figuratively, of the comprehensiveness of God's law (Psalms 119:96); of the heart (1 Kings 4:29, rendered "largeness of heart" English Versions); of God's immeasurable love (Ephesians 3:18).

Break

brak: shabhar = "break" (down, off, in pieces, up), "destroy," "quench" (Isaiah 14:25; Jeremiah 19:10,Jeremiah 19:11; Ezekiel 4:16; Amos 1:5); paraq = "to break off" or "craunch"; figuratively "to deliver" (Genesis 27:40 the King James Version); `araph = "to break the neck," hence, "to destroy" (Exodus 13:13); harac = "to break through" (Exodus 19:21,Exodus 19:24); parats = "to break" (forth, away), occurs in Exodus 19:22,Exodus 19:24; 1 Samuel 25:10; "breaking faith," Hosea 4:2; parach = "to break forth as a bud" (Leviticus 13:12); nathats or nathaq = "destroy" (Ezekiel 23:34 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "gnaw"; see BREAST); chalal = "profane," "defile," "stain" (Numbers 30:2; Psalms 89:31,Psalms 89:34); baqa = "rip open" (2 Kings 3:26; Isaiah 58:8); ra`a` = "to spoil by breaking to pieces," "to make good for nothing" (Job 34:24; Psalms 2:9; Jeremiah 15:12, the King James Version "Shall iron break northern iron?"); patsach = "to break out" (in joyful sound), "break forth," "make a noise" (Isaiah 14:7, the nations rejoice in the peace which follows the fall of the oppressor); nir = "to glisten," "gleam" (as of a fresh furrow) (Jeremiah 4:3; Hosea 10:12); pathach = "to open wide," "loosen," "have vent" (Jeremiah 1:14); naphats = "to dash to pieces or scatter," "overspread," "scatter" (Jeremiah 48:12, the work usually done carefully shall be done roughly; Jeremiah 51:20–23, descriptive of the terrible fate appointed for Babylon); na'aph = "to break wedlock" (Ezekiel 16:38); tsalach or tsaleach = "break out," "come mightily" (Amos 5:6). The New Testament employs luo = "to loosen," "dissolve" (Matthew 5:19); diorusso = "to penetrate burglariously," "break through" (Matthew 6:19,Matthew 6:20, Greek "dig through"); rhegnumi or rhesso = "to disrupt," "burst," "to utter with a loud voice" (Galatians 4:27); klao = "to break" (Acts 20:7, "to break bread," i.e. to celebrate the Lord's Supper; 1 Corinthians 10:16).

See also BREACH.

Frank E. Hirsch

Break Of Day

'or, "to be light," "the light breaks" (2 Samuel 2:32); auge, "bright light," "radiance" (Acts 20:11).

See DAWN.

Breast

brest: Signifying the front view of the bust in humans and the corresponding portion of the body in animals. chazeh, occurs in Exodus 29:26,Exodus 29:27; Leviticus 7:30,Leviticus 7:31,Leviticus 7:34; Leviticus 8:29; Leviticus 10:14,Leviticus 10:15; Numbers 6:20; Numbers 18:18; and chadhi, in Daniel 2:32. shadh or shodh = "breast" in the sense of pap of a woman or animal (Job 24:9; Song of Songs 8:1,Song of Songs 8:8,Song of Songs 8:10; Isaiah 60:16; Lamentations 4:3). Only one word occurs with this signification in the New Testament: stethos = "bosom," "chest" (Luke 18:13; Luke 23:48; John 13:25; John 21:20).

See WAVE OFFERING.

Figurative: "The breasts of virginity," pressed and bruised (Ezekiel 23:3,Ezekiel 23:8 the King James Version), indicative of Ezekiel's belief that Israel practiced idolatry in Egypt (compare Ezekiel 20:8). "To tear (pluck off) thy breasts" (Ezekiel 23:34) denotes the anguish of the people in parting with their beloved sin (compare Hosea 2:2). "Its breast of silver" (Daniel 2:32) is possibly expressive of the humanity and wealth of the Medo-Persian empire.

Frank E. Hirsch

Breastplate

brest'-plat.

See ARMOR.

Breastplate Of The High Priest

prest: The Hebrew word choshen, rendered in the King James Version "breastplate," means really a "pouch" or "bag." The references to it are found exclusively in the Priestly Code (Exodus 25:7; Exodus 25:28; Exodus 29:5; Exodus 35:9,Exodus 35:27; Leviticus 8:8). The descriptions of its composition and particularly the directions with regard to wearing it are exceedingly obscure. According to Ezra 2:63 and Nehemiah 7:65 the Urim and Thummim, which were called in the priestly pouch, were lost during the Babylonian exile. The actual pouch was a "span in length and a span in breadth," i.e. about 9 inch square. It was made, like the ephod, of "gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen" (Exodus 28:15 f). In it were twelve precious stones, in rows of four, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Apparently the pouch had two rings (perhaps four) through which passed two gold chains by which it was fastened to the ephod supplied for the purpose with ouches or clasps. The pouch was worn by the high priest over his heart when he entered the "holy place" "for a memorial before Yahweh." The presence of the high priest, the representative of the people, with the names of the separate tribes on his person, brought each tribe before the notice of Yahweh and thereby directed His attention to them. The full designation was choshen mishpaT, "pouch of judgment" or "decision." It was the distinctive symbol of the priest in his capacity as the giver of oracles. As already suggested the priestly pouch contained the Urim and Thummim which were probably precious stones used as lots in giving decisions. In all probability the restored text of 1 Samuel 14:41 preserves the true custom. On one side stood Saul and Jonathan, and the people on the other side. If the result was Urim, Saul and Jonathan would be the guilty parties. If the result was Thummim, the guilt would fasten on the people.

T. Lewis

Breath; Breathe; Breathing

breth, breth, breath'-ing: In the English Versions of the Bible of the Old Testament "breath" is the rendering of neshamah, and of ruach. These words differ but slightly in meaning, both signifying primarily "wind," then "breath," though the former suggests a gentler blowing, the latter often a blast. As applied to persons there is no very clear distinction between the words. Yet in general one may say that of the two neshamah is employed preferably of breath regarded physiologically: "vital breath," hence, the vital principle, "Soul (animal) life" (compare Genesis 2:7; Genesis 7:22; Job 27:3, where both words occur; Da 5:23); while ruach (though it, too, sometimes signifies "vital breath") is the word generally employed where the breath is regarded physically--breath or blast as an act or force--and so is related to the will or the emotions, whence the meaning "spirit," also sometimes "thought," "purpose" (compare Job 4:9; Job 9:18; Psalms 18:15; Psalms 146:4; Ezekiel 37:5,Ezekiel 37:6,Ezekiel 37:8,Ezekiel 37:9,Ezekiel 37:10). The examples cited, however, and other passages reveal a lack of uniformity of usage. Yet generally ruach is the expression, neshamah, the principle, of life. Yet when employed of God they of course signify the principle, not of His own life, but of that imparted to His creatures. "Breathe" in English Versions of the Bible of the Old Testament requires no remark except at Psalms 27:12 ("such as breathe out cruelty"), from yaphach, "to breathe hard," "to snort" (compare Acts 9:1). In the New Testament "breath" (pnoe) occurs once Acts 17:25 in the plain sense of vital principle, the gift of God. "Breathed" is employed in John 20:22 of our Lord's concrete symbolism of the giving of the Spirit. In Acts 9:1 Saul's "breathing threatening and slaughter" is literally "snorting," etc., and the nouns are partitive genitives, being the element of which he breathed.

See also SPIRIT.

J. R. Van Pelt

Breeches

brich'-iz, brech'-iz: A garment, extending from the waist to or just below the knee or to the ankle, and covering each leg separately. Breeches are not listed among the garments of an ordinary wardrobe, but the priests in later times (Exodus 20:26) wore a garment resembling modern trousers. These priestly linen breeches, mikhnece bhadh, were worn along with the linen coat, the linen girdle and the linen turban by Aaron on the Day of Atonement, when he entered the "holy place." (The word mikhnece is derived from a root, kanac = ganaz, "to cover up," "hide.") Ordinary priests also wore them on sacrificial occasions (Exodus 28:42; Exodus 39:28; Leviticus 6:10; Ezekiel 44:18). Apart from the breeches just referred to, the only reference to a similar garment among the Israelites is found in Daniel 3:21, where the carbal, the Revised Version (British and American) "hosen," is mentioned. (The King James Version translates "coats.") The rendering of the King James Version is the more likely, though the meaning of the Aramaic sarbal is obscure (compare the thorough discussion in Ges., Thesaurus). In Targum and Talmud (compare Levy, NHWB, under the word), and is so taken by the rabbinical commentators. Still, Aquila and Theodotion (sarabara), Septuagint in Daniel 3:27, Symmachus (anaxurides), Peshitta, express the meaning "trousers" (of a looser kind than those worn by us), a garment known (from Herodotus and other sources) to have been worn by the ancient Scythians and Persians, and to have been called by them sarabara. The word, with the same connotation, was brought into the Arabic in the form sirwal. In both these senses the word may be originally Persian: in that of mantle, meaning properly (according to Andreas) a "head-covering" (sarabara), for which in Persia the peasants often use their mantle; in that of "trousers," corresponding to the modern Persian shalwar, "under-breeches." Cook has pointed out that "mantles, long-flowing robes, and therefore extremely liable to catch the flames," are more likely to be especially mentioned in this chapter than trousers, or (Revised Version) "hosen."

The word paTish (Daniel 3:21), is also uncertain. The Septuagint and Theodotion render tiarai, "turbans"; Peshitta has the same word, which is variously taken by Syrian lexicographers as "tunic," "trousers," or a kind of "gaiter" (Payne Smith, Thes. Syriac., col. 3098). (For further discussion of these words, compare commentaries on Da of Jour. Phil., XXVI, 307 if.)

In general, we must remember that a thorough discussion of Israelite "dress" is impossible, because of the limitations of our sources.

H. J. Wolf

Breed

bred: Found in the past tense in Exodus 16:20 as a translation of rum = "to bring up," "to rise." In this verse, the manna is said to have arisen, i.e. "become alive" (with worms), to indicate that God's gifts are spoiled by selfish and miserly hoarding. The pres. act. occurs in Genesis 8:17 for sharats = "to wriggle," "swarm," "abound," hence, "breed abundantly"; and in Deuteronomy 32:14 for ben = "son," "descendant," "child," "colt," "calf," "breed." The present participle is found in Ze 2:9 the King James Version for mimshaq, a derivative of mesheq = "possession," "territory," "field." The passage in question should therefore be translated "field of nettles" (the Revised Version (British and American) "possession of nettles").

Frank E. Hirsch

Brethren

breth'-ren.

See BROTHER.