(2) The seine, nnbDO (Is 19') or nny^p (Hab 1'°), aaynvrf. This was used in two ways — either let down into the deep and drawn together in a narrowing circle and then dra\vn into the boat or boats (Lk 5*"°), or as a semicircle drawn to the shore (Mt 13"). Both these methods are seen daily.
(3) The hook, n^n (Is 19», Job 41'), n;^, td (Am 4^), iyKiarpov (Mt IT-''). This was used ^^"ith a line, San, but no mention is made of a rod, as fly-fishing is unknown. Hab 1" mentions aU the three methods we have described.
(4) The harpoon or spear (Job 41'), EV ' barbed irons' (nisi?), 'fish spears' (O'jn Ss^V). This is a method depicted on Egyptian and As.syrian monu ments. At present it is practised only at night by torchlight.
In spite of the mistranslations ' fish pools ' (Ca 7* AV), 'ponds for fish' (Is 19'° AV), there is no e\'idence that the pools of the Bible were use 1 for fish culture.
Tlie Turkish Government now taxes fishing as an occupation, and also takes 20 per cent, of the price of the fish sold in the seaports, and collects this again if the fish are taken to another port. The fisheries of Merom and Galilee are f.armeu out to contractors, who forbid all others to engage in the trade.
As an occupation fishing has been honoured by the selection of its followers as apostles ; by being the object of Jesus' special favour on two occasions
FISH-GATE
FLAX
IS
(Lk 5"-, Jn 21) ; and chosen as the type of earnest, skilful soul-saving (Mk 1", Lk 51").
W. K. Eddy. FISH-GATE.— See Jkkusalem.
FISH-POOL occurs in AV of Ca 7* ' Thine eyes are [like] the fish-pools of Heshbon,' but the exact translation is simply ' jjools ' (so RV ; Heb. niDi?, LXX Xi/i^ai). See Hitzig, adloc, and art. Hesh- bon. Equally unwarrantable is the introduction of ' fish ' in Is 19'", where AV, following Ibn Ezra, tr. Pji"?;^ 1;? '^V^? ' all that make sluices [and] ponds for fish.' The passage is obscure (see Skinner, ad toe), but probably the correct tr° is that of RV, ' all they tnat work for hire shall be grieved in soul. ' * It is possible that the elsewhere unexampled '53N (for •ojy) was a play suggested by the employment of the ' workers for hire ' in the construction of water-tanks (d-sjn ; so Del. quot- ing Ehrentreu, ad loc). The LXX, while agree- ing >Tith this tr° of irjJ-'pjN (Xvirrie-qaoin-ai. nal ras ff/vxis roviaovaii'), gives ' manufacturers of strong drink ' (iroioCn-es t6v fCSov),t instead of ' workers for hire.' They must have read VP for ''?'?■
T A ^T*"! RIP"
FITCHES.— AV gives fitches in the text in two places. 1. Ezk 4'. Here the Heb. is njED kussemeth, tt^ in AVm and RV spelt. We believe the plant intended is the kirsene/i or kirsenneh of the Arabs, Vicia Ervilia, L. The same Heb. word is used in two other places (Ex 9^, Is 28^), where AV has rye and RV spelt (see Rye). 2. Is 28^-2'. Here tlie Heb. is nsg kezah. This is the nutmeg flower, Nigella sativa, L., a Ranunculaceous plant, cultivated everywhere in the East for its olack seeds, which are used as a condiment and a medicine. It is called in Arab, shuniz, or shihniz, and habhat el-barakah, i.e. the seed of blessing, or el-habbat es-sanda, i.e. the black seed. An Arab, proverb says, 'in the black seed is the medicine for every disease.' Avieenna recommends it in dyspepsia, and for bronchial and other affections. Orientals often put a pinch of the seeds on the middle of the upper surface of the flat loaves of bread before baking. In baking they adhere. Pliny alludes to their use by bakers (Nat. Hist. six. 52). They are believed to assist digestion. They have a warm aromatic flavour and carmina- tive properties. Like other seeds produced in small quantities, as cummin, they are often beaten out with a stick, as mentioned in Is 28", instead of being threshed out with the vUJrag.
G. E. Post.
FLAG. — Two Heb. words are tr* hy flag. 1. inK i'dhu ; ixa [in LXX of Sir 40" this was supposed till 1896 to represent the Heb. 'dhn] ^oirroiiov) occurs in three connexions, (a) Where the kine feed in an 'dhu (Gn 4P>8). (6) Where Bildad asks, ' Can the rush (ftji, viTrvpos) grow up without mire? can the flag (intt, po&roiiov) grow without water?' (Job 8"). (c) In a passage (Hos 13'') where both AV and RV, foUowmg the LXX, give brethren for cnif 'Ahtm, which the Oxf. Heb. Lex. regards as a plural of inx, abbreviated from D'lnx 'Akdivtm, tlie context seeming to point to a water plant, withering before the E. wind, which dries up its spring. In the passage in Job the gume and the 'dhu occur in the two members of a parallelism. RVm gives for g6me ' pa[>3Tus,' and for 'dhu ' reed-grass ' (cf. Ebers, Egypten u. die Biicher Moses, 338 f.). The latter is no more definite than flag, and therefore only confuses the question of identity by another term. We
• lUflhi has ' ponds of rett,' where the waters rest and ore retained 1 Ibn Ezra gives 'where are the souls of the fish'; this is also adopted by Kimchi in his Lexicon (* pools in which they hunt tish'); in his Comm. be mentions it, out he himself offers the some explanation as the RV.