od’; and Twysden, Decem Script. col. 2650, ‘ For
efore that the fende fader of lesynges was lowside, was never this gabbyng contryvede.’
The word occurs three times in AV, Ps 4° ‘how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing ?’ (Heb. 31) wp2n, Wye. ‘sechen lesing,’ Cov. ‘seke after lyes,’ Gen. ‘seking lyes,’ Douay ‘seeke lying,’ Bish. ‘seeke after leasing,’ RV ‘seek after false- hood’ [so also Driver, Parall. Psalter, with note ‘i.e. probably vain plans (2!) for the ruin of the Psalmist, and false charges or calumnies against him,’ to which he adds on p. 487, under Corrigenda, ‘Or better, perhaps, false and baseless imputations ’ by impatient and distrustful companions, ‘ reflect- ing discredit upon the Psalmist ’]) ; 5° ‘Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing’ (3)? 135, Wye. ‘Thou schalt leese alle that speken leesyng,’ Cov. “Thou destroyest the lyers, Gen. ‘Thou shalt destroy them that speake lyes,’ Dou. ‘Thou wilt destroy al that speake lie,’ Bish. *Thou shalt
LEAVE 89 destroy them that speake leasing,’ RV ‘Thou shalt destroy them that speak lies’); 2 Es 14} ‘For the truth is fled far away, and leasing is hard at hand’ (appropinquabit mendacium, RV ‘For the trath shall withdraw itself further off, and leasing be hard at hand’; the AV is again the tr® of the Bishops). In Is 59% Cov. has ‘ leasing’ as tr® of 722 (AV and RV ‘ lies’). Ἢ _The word, which is frequently used by Spenser in his antiquated English, is found only twice in Shaks. (Lwelfth Night, 1. v. 105, and Corivlanus, V. li. 22), and by the time of Thomas Fuller had dropped out of use. In Ch. Hist. m1. i. 33, Fuller says, ‘Amongst the many simoniacal Prelates that swarmed in the land, Herbert, Bishop of Thetford, must not be forgotten ; nicknamed (or fitnamed shall I say?) Losing, that is, the Flatterer; our old English word leasing for lying retains some affinity thereunto, and at this day we call an insinuating fellow a Glozing Companion.’ J. HASTINGS.
LEATHER, LEATHERN (1p ‘dr, δέρμα, depudrwos). —Elijah and John the Baptist wore a girdle of leather (2 K 18 τὴν ax, Mt 34, Mk 1° ξώνη δερματίνη. In the last passage AV needlessly introduces the variety, ‘girdle of skin’). Although mentioned in EV only in connexion with girdles, leather must have been used for many purposes. The Heb. and Gr. words properly mean s/in ; and in such passages as Ex 25° (‘rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins’) they clearly refer to tanned skins, and perhaps in Nu 310 (‘all that is made of skins’) they do the same. Leather was used for thongs, latchets of sandals, etc. Water-bottles and wine-bottles were often made of leather, as at the present day in Syria and Palestine. The Egyptians used it for many pur- poses besides those mentioned, such as coverings for shields, seats of chairs, ete. (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyp. ii. 185-189) ; also for writing (ib. 183), rolls being made of it like papyrus. See, further, SKIN, TANNER. H. PORTER.
LEAVE.—The verb to leave is often used in AV in the sense of ‘desist,’ ‘leave off,’ as Gn 18* ‘And the Lorp went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham’; Ru 118 ‘When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her’; Ac 21* ‘when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.’ Cf. Tind. Expos. Ὁ. 106, ‘He that buildeth a costly house even to the tiling, will not leave there, and lose so great cost for so small a trifle more.’ So Latimer, Serm. of the Plough, ‘lf I might see any such inclination in you, that you would leave to be merciless, and begin to be charitable, I would then hope well of you’; and Shaks. 1 Henry IV. v. v. 44—
* Let us not leave till all our own be won.’
‘ Leave off’ is also found in AV, as Sir 23"? * All bread is sweet to a whoremonger, he will not leave off till he die’; 47% ‘But the Lord will never leave off his mercy.’ And it is used both with the ptep. in -ing, and with to and the injin., as Gn 17* * And he left off talking with him’; 1 Καὶ 15” ‘he left off building of Ramah’; Gn 115 ‘ they left oft to build the city’; Hos 4° ‘they have left off to take heed to the Lorp.’ In Gn 17 Tindale’s Pent. of 1530 has ‘left of talking,’ but the ed. of 1534 ‘left talking.’
In Ac 1818 and 2 Co 2 ἀποτάσσομαι is tr’ ‘ take leave of.’ RV retains this tr. and introduces it in Mk 6 for AV ‘send away’; but in Lk 9" RV retains ‘ bid farewell’ of AV, and in 14% (the only other occurrence of the Gr. verb in NT) changes AV ‘forsake’ into ‘renounce.’ The verb dorafoua is once (Ac 21°) rendered ‘take leave of’ in AV, when RV prefers ‘ bid farewell.’
90 LEAVEN
With the expression in Ac 915 ‘Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand’ : ct. Ac 9015 Rhem. * Paul had purposed to saile leaving Ephesus’; Nu 34" Tind. ‘And then goo downe at the Iordayne, and leve at the salte sea’; and especially Guylforde, Pylgrymage, p. 14, ‘whiche yle we lefte on our lefte hande towardes Grece.’ J. HASTINGS.