Joscjihus, in his Antii/iiitics and Wars of the Jews, gives several accounts of tlie horrible atroc- ities which took place during the famines in besieged cities, but in no account does he give such distressing details as in the story of the last siege of Jerus. by Titus, in which lie sums up that ' neither did any other city ever suller such miseries' {Wnrs, V. x. 6). This account of Jose- phua is considered to be a descrijition of the ful- filment of the prophecy by our Lord (Mt 24' ), ' For then shall ue great tribulation, such as hatk
852
FAMISH
FAEE, FAREWELL
not been since the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be,' and is the history of the last famine connected with the Bible.
In the Bible there is no allusion to horrors and privations due to famine such as occur periodi- cally in the world at the present time in the over- crowded portions of China and India.
C. Warren.
FAMISH. — Occurring but four times in all, ' famish ' is thrice used transitively. Zeph 2" ' he will famish all the gods of the earth ' (np,, lit. as AVrc 'will make lean'); Gn 41" 'And when all the lajid of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread ' (^npi) ; Is 5" ' their honour- able men are famished' (3j;i "pij 'ii^^j, lit., as AVm and RVm, ' their glory are men of famine,' but the reading is doubtful, see esp. Driver on Dt 32-^). This transitive use of ' famish ' may be illustrated by Coverdale's tr. of Jl 1*" the shepe are fameszshed awaye,' and Shaks. Tarn, of Shrew, IV. iii. 3 —
* What, did he marry me to famish me?' Tit. Andron. V. iii. 179 —
* Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him ' ; and Milton, PL xii. 78—
'Thin air Above the clouds wili pine his entrails grofli. And famish him of breath, if not of bread.*
The Intrana. occurrence is Pr 103 • The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish.* The Heb., translated ' suffer to fami.sh,' is the same (though in Hiphil) as in Gn 41^, and scarcely means more than 'cause to hunger' ; so that the btat«raent loses some of ite comfort under the Eng. translation, if it does not even lose all its point. J. HASTINGS.
FAN, FANNER.— Fan is used both as verb and as substantive. 1. As verb (Heb. .t;; in Qal) Is 41'* 'Thou shalt fan them [the mountains and hills], and the wind shall carry thern away ' ; Jer 4" for purifying ; 15' for chastisement ; and (same Heb. in Piel) Jer 51'. Amer. RV has ' winnow ' throughout. 2. As subst. 'a winnowing-machine,' Is 30-^, Jer 15' (.tjip) ; Mt 3i«, Lk 3" (jrriio^). Faniier occurs only in Jer 51' 'I will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land.' The Heb. of the Massoretic ointing (Dij) mea.ns 'strangers,' and so RV after iwald and others. But the VSS (LXX. Pesh. Targ. Vulg.) point the Heb. differently (oni), and gain the word-play. Cheyne thinks the prophet possibly intended to suggest both meanings. The Eng. tr. may be traced from theVxHg. ventilatores, through Cov. ' fanners,' whom Geneva, Bishops', Douay, and AV all follow. So also Lutlier { Wor'fler), and Rothstein in Kautzsch ; and the French translators Ostervald and Segond (van- neurs). See AGRICULTURE. J. Hastings.
FANCY is used as a verb absolutely in Sir 34» • And the heart fancieth, as a woman's heart in travail' {^xLyrdj^erai ; a verb which occurs elsewliere in LXX only Wis 6", 'showeth herself,' and in NT only He 12-' tA (fmyTa^iiiei'oy, AV 'the si-'ht,' RV ' the amiearance '). The previous Eng. Versions from \Vyc. have 'fantasie' as a subst. (Douay ' phantasie '), AV is the first to use the verb, and to spell 'fancy.'* The Ox/. Eng. Diet, gives only one example of ' fancy ' used absolutely, Locke (1698) 'we rather fancie than know.'
J. HAS'HNGS.
FAR.— 1. 'Far' is often used in AV as an adj. qualifyin;^ 'country,' as Is 8' 'all ye of far countries' (px-prnj ^3); Zee 10» 'they shall re- member me in far countries' (D'ijrnij). Twice it
• On the spelling Trench (Study of Word», SOI) may he quoted : * When " fancy " was spelt " phant'sy," as by Sylvester, in his trunslation of Du Bartas. an<l other scholarly writers of the 17th cent., no one could doubt of it« identity with "phantasy," as no Greek scholar could miss it« relation with
fa.rar.dc.'
I
qualifies other substantives, Dt 29" 'a far land' (.ijini px) ; Mk 13" 'a man taking a far journey' {ivOpunrot ixiSTjyUos, RV 'sojourning in another country '). Modern usage would probably require ' distant,' as Aldis Wright suggests. Certainly as an adj. 'far' was once used more freely than it is now: thus, Bp. Barlowe, Dialogs (1531), ed. of 1897, p. 35, ' Now to compare these fruites unto the actes of these Lutheran factyons, ye shal'. fynde a farre ditlerence.' In Mt 21^^ 25", Mk 12', Lk 20', where the Greek is aroi-qfUw and AV haa ' go into a far country,' RV more accurately trans lates 'go into another country.' But the same Greek is rendered by AV ' took his journey ' in Mt 25", by RV ' went on his journey ' ; and in Lk 15", where the Greek is more fully aircSr,fx.ri<r€r fls x'^P"-" ^oitpcii', AV renders ' took his journey unto a far cotintry,' and RV retains.