Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
3:9,10) as being set apart for the altar, (Leviticus 3:16; 7:25) In addition to the above, Christians
were forbidden to eat the flesh of animals portions of which had been offered to idols. All beasts
and birds classed as unclean, (Leviticus 11:1) ff.; Deuteronomy 14:4 ff., were also prohibited. Under
these restrictions the Hebrews were permitted the free use of animal food: generally speaking they
only availed themselves of it in the exercise of hospitality or at festivals of a religious, public or
private character. It was only in royal households that there was a daily consumption of meat. The
animals killed for meat were—calves, lambs, oxen not above three years of age, harts, roebucks
and fallow deer; birds of various kinds; fish, with the exception of such as were without scales and
fins. Locusts, of which certain species only were esteemed clean, were occasionally eaten, (Matthew
3:4) but were regarded as poor fare.
Footman
a word employed in the English Bible in two senses:
•Generally, to distinguish those of the fighting men who went on foot from those who were on
horseback or in chariots;
•In a more special sense, in (1 Samuel 22:17) only, and as the translation of a different term from
the above—a body of swift runners in attendance on the king. This body appears to have been
afterwards kept up, and to have been distinct from the body-guard—the six hundred and thirty—
who were originated by David. See (1 Kings 14:27,28; 2 Kings 11:4,6,11,13,19; 2 Chronicles
12:10,11) In each of these cases the word is the same as the above, and is rendered “guard,” with
“runners” in the margin in two instances - (1 Kings 14:27; 2 Kings 11:13)
Forehead
The practice of veiling the face (forehead) in public for women of the high classes, especially
married women, in the East, sufficiently stigmatizes with reproach the unveiled face of women of
bad character. (Genesis 24:64; Jeremiah 3:3) The custom among many Oriental nations both of
coloring the face and forehead and of impressing on the body marks indicative of devotion to some
special deity or religious sect is mentioned elsewhere. The “jewels for the forehead,” mentioned
by Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 16:12) and in margin of Authorized Version, (Genesis 24:22) were in all
probability nose-rings. (Isaiah 3:21)
Forest
Although Palestine has never been in historical times a woodland country, yet there can be no
doubt that there was much more wood formerly than there is a t present, and that the destruction
of the forests was one of the chief causes of the present desolation.
Fortifications
[Fenced Cities CITIES]
Fortunatus
(fortunate) (1 Corinthians 16:17) one of the three Corinthians the others being Stephanas and
Achaicus, who were at Ephesus when St. Paul wrote his first epistle. There is a Fortunatus mentioned
in the end of Clement’s first epistle to the Corinthians, who was possibly the same person.
Fountain
(a spring in distinction from a well). The springs of Palestine, though short-lived, are remarkable
for their abundance and beauty, especially those which fall into the Jordan and into its lakes, of
which there are hundreds throughout its whole course. The spring or fountain of living water, the
“eye” of the landscape, is distinguished in all Oriental languages from the artificially-sunk and
enclosed well. Jerusalem appears to have possessed either more than one perennial spring or one
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William Smith