Field
Field
(usually , sadeh’ [poetic ;saday’], ; but occasionally , e’rets, land [Chald. , bar, open country], ; , chuts, out-doors; , chelkah’, a portion or plot, ; , shedemah’, a cultivated field, according to Gesenius and Furst from the context, in the plur. Deu 32:32 ; 2Ki 23:4; Isa 16:8; Jer 31:40; Hab 3:17; also , fageb’, an arable field, in the plur. Jer 39:10). The Hebrew sadeh is not adequately represented by our “field:” the two words agree in describing cultivated land, but they differ in point of extent, the sadeh being specifically applied to what is unenclosed, while the opposite notion of enclosure is involved in the word field, SEE DESERT.
The essence of the Hebrew word has been variously taken to lie in each of these notions, Gesenius (Thesaurus, p. 1321) giving it the sense of freedom, Stanley (Palest. p. 484) that of smoothness, comparing arvum from arare. On the one hand sadeh is applied to any cultivated ground, whether pasture (Gen 29:2; Gen 31:4; Gen 34:7; Exo 9:3), tillage (Gen 37:7; Gen 47:24; Rth 2:2-3; Job 24:6; Jer 26:18; Mic 3:12), woodland (1Sa 14:25, A. V. “ground;”‘ Psa 132:6), or mountain-top (Jdg 9:32; Jdg 9:36; 2Sa 1:21): and in some instances in marked opposition to the neighboring wilderness, as in the instance of Jacob settling in the field of Shechem (Gen 33:19), the field of Moab (Gen 36:35; Num 21:20, A. V. “country;” Rth 1:1), and the vale of Siddim, i.e. of the cultivated fields, which formed the oasis of the Pentapolis (Gen 14:3; Gen 14:8), though a different sense has been given to the name (by Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 1321). On the other hand, the sadeh is frequently contrasted with what is enclosed, whether a vineyard (Exo 22:5; Lev 25:3-4;. Num 16:14; Num 20:17; compare Num 22:23; “the ass went into the field,” with Num 22:24, “a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side and a wall on that side”), a garden (the very name of which, , implies enclosure), or a walled town (Deu 28:3; Deu 28:16): unwalled villages or scattered houses ranked in the eye of the law as fields (Lev 25:31), and hence the expression = – houses in the fields (Vulg. in villas; Mar 6:36; Mar 6:56). In many passages the term implies what is remote from a house (Gen 4:8; Gen 24:63; Deu 22:25) or settled habitation, as in the case of Esau (Gen 25:27; the Sept., however, refers it to his character, ): this is more fully expressed by , ” the opez field” (Lev 14:7; Lev 14:53; Lev 17:5; Num 19:16; 2Sa 11:11), with which is naturally coupled the notion of exposure and desertion (Jer 9:22; Eze 16:5; Eze 32:4; Eze 33:27; Eze 39:5). SEE MEADOW.
The separate plots of ground were marked off by stones, which might easily be removed (Deu 19:14; Deu 27:17; comp. Job 24:2; Pro 22:28; Pro 23:10); the absence of fences rendered the fields liable to damage from straying cattle (Exo 22:5) or fire (Exo 22:6; 2Sa 14:30); hence tile necessity of constantly watching flocks and herds, the people so employed being in the present day named Nature (Wortabet, Syria, i, 293). A certain amount of protection was gained by sowing the tallest and strongest of the grain crops on the outside: “spelt” appears to have been most commonly used for this purpose (Isa 28:25, as in the margin). From the absence of enclosures, cultivated land of any size might be termed a field, whether it were a piece of ground of limited area (Gen 23:13; Gen 23:17; Isa 5:8), a man’s whole inheritance (Lev 27:16 sq.; Rth 4:5; Jer 32:9; Jer 32:25 ; Pro 27:26; Pro 31:16), the ager publicus of a town (Gen 41:48; Neh 12:29), as distinct, however, from the ground immediately adjacent to the walls of the Levitical cities, which was called (A. V. “‘suburbs”), and was deemed an appendage of the town itself (Jos 21:11-12), or, lastly, the territory of a people (Gen 14:7; Gen 32:3; Gen 36:35; Num 21:20; Rth 1:6; Rth 4:3; 1Sa 6:1; 1Sa 27:7; 1Sa 27:11). In 1Sa 27:5, “a town in the field” (Auth. Vers. “country”)=a provincial town as distinct from the royal city. A plot of ground separated from a larger one was termed (Gen 33:19; Rth 2:3; 1Ch 11:13), or simply (2Sa 14:10; 2Sa 23:12; comp. 2Sa 19:29). Fields occasionally received names after remarkable events, as Helkath-Hazzurim, the field of the strong men, or possibly of swords (2Sa 2:16), or from the use to which they may have been applied (2Ki 18:17; Isa 7:3; Mat 27:7). SEE LAND.
It should be observed that the expressions “fruitful field” (Isa 10:18; Isa 29:17; Isa 32:15-16) and “plentiful field” (Isa 16:10; Jer 48:33) are not connected with sadeh, but with karmel, meaning a park or well- kept wood, as distinct from. a .wilderness or a forest. The same term occurs in 2Ki 19:23, and Isa 37:24 (A.Vers. ” Carmel”); Isa 10:18 (“forest),” and Jer 4:26 (“fruitful place”). SEE CARMEL. Distinct from this is the expression in Eze 17:5, (AV. ” fruitful field”), which means a field suited for planting suckers. SEE AGRICULTURE.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Field
(Heb. sadeh), a cultivated field, but unenclosed. It is applied to any cultivated ground or pasture (Gen. 29:2; 31:4; 34:7), or tillage (Gen. 37:7; 47:24). It is also applied to woodland (Ps. 132:6) or mountain top (Judg. 9:32, 36; 2 Sam. 1:21). It denotes sometimes a cultivated region as opposed to the wilderness (Gen. 33:19; 36:35). Unwalled villages or scattered houses are spoken of as “in the fields” (Deut. 28:3, 16; Lev. 25:31; Mark 6:36, 56). The “open field” is a place remote from a house (Gen. 4:8; Lev. 14:7, 53; 17:5). Cultivated land of any extent was called a field (Gen. 23:13, 17; 41:8; Lev. 27:16; Ruth 4:5; Neh. 12:29).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Field
Sadeh in Hebrew implies cultivated land (as field is derived from felling trees), but unenclosed; whereas the English “field” implies enclosure. In contrast to the adjoining wilderness (Gen 33:19; Gen 36:35). The sadeh is contrasted with what is enclosed, as a vineyard (Num 22:23-24) or a city (Deu 28:3; Deu 28:16). Unwalled villages were counted by the law as “the fields of the country” (Lev 25:31). “Field” means the open country, apart from habitations, in Gen 25:27; Gen 37:15. Stones marked off separate plots; to remove these landmarks entailed the curse (Deu 27:17). The lack of fences exposed the fields to straying cattle (Exo 22:5) or fire (2Sa 14:30).
Hence, the need of watchers, now named nator. The rye or spelled was placed “in its (the field’s) border” (Isa 28:25). The wheat was put in the middle, the best and safest place, and the several other grains in their own place. The tallest and strongest grain outside formed a kind of fence. “A town in the country (field)” is a provincial town, as distinguished from the royal city (1Sa 27:5). “Fruitful field” is a distinct word, Carmel. (See CARMEL.) Another term, mareh, “meadows,” is a naked treeless region (Jdg 20:33); “the liers in wait came from the open plains of Gibeah”; not that their ambush was there, but the men of Benjamin had been previously enticed away from the city (Jdg 20:31), so the liers in wait came to the city from the thus exposed plain.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Field
FIELD
The three Greek words (, , ) rendered field in the Gospels are distinguishable in meaning, and sometimes require more specific renderings. in general means field in the sense of cultivated land, or open country thought of as subject to cultivation: e.g. sowed good seed in his field (Mat 13:24), lilies of the field, grass of the field (Mat 6:28; Mat 6:30), etc. denotes generally a region, or district of country, as the region of Trachonitis (Luk 3:1), the country of the Gadarenes (Mar 5:1); is more distinctly locative, as a place called Gethsemane (Mat 26:36), the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to Joseph (Joh 4:5), etc. But, on the other hand, we find used also of the country in distinction from the city (Mar 5:14; Mar 6:56, Luk 8:34; Luk 9:12; Luk 23:26), used of fields of ripened grain, as in Joh 4:35 Look on the fields, for they are white (cf. Jam 5:4 who have reaped down your fields); and where St. Matthew uses of the field of blood (Mat 27:8), St. Luke uses (Act 1:19).
A knowledge of certain peculiarities of the fields of Palestine is helpful to the full understanding of several of the parables of our Lord and some other passages in the Gospels. There are now, as there were of old, numerous fields in Palestine where the lilies and many other flowers grow in gorgeous profusion without human care or culture, and where the grass of the field, including fibrous weeds as well as shortlived flowers, when dried by the tropical sun, are still gathered as fuel, and used to heat ovens for baking bread (cf. Mat 6:28; Mat 6:30). The argument of the Master, drawn from the grass of the field which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven, still holds good, and still finds abundant illustration. It is true occasionally now, also, that after the owner of the land has sowed good seed in his field, an enemy will in sheer spite creep in secretly and sow tares, the noxions darnel (Lolium temulentum); but see Tares.
In Palestine, as in all unsettled countries, it was common, and in parts of the land it is still common, to resort to the field (the cultivated land or the open country) as a fit place in which to hide treasure (cf. Mat 13:44) In ancient times the land was peculiarly subject to revolutions, exposed to raids from wandering tribes, and, in some districts, liable to plunder from robbers at home. So, in the absence of safety vaults and the like, owners of treasure who feared robbery or thievery (Mat 25:25), or who were setting off on a journey to a distant country, would bury their money, jewellery, etc., in the field. Then, if the owner were killed in battle, or died in a far country, no one might know where his treasures were hid; and, according to usage, such valuables when found, if no owner appeared to claim them, belonged to the owner of the landa fact which gives point to the parable of the Hid Treasure (Mat 13:44, cf. Job 3:21, Pro 2:4). Many persons are found digging for hid treasure in Egypt and Palestine to-day, and not a few spend their last farthing in the effort (cf. Thomson, LB [Note: The Land and the Book.] ii. p. 640).
In the parable of the Sower (Mat 13:4, Mar 4:4, Luk 8:5), where the Authorized Version has some (seeds) fell by the wayside, the picture is really of grains of wheat or barley which fell on the trodden pathway leading across the field, and so were left exposed where the birds could see and devour them (cf. Luk 8:5 trodden under foot). It is still common in Palestine to see flocks of birds following the peasant as he sows his seed, eagerly picking up every grain that is not covered by the quick-following harrow. And where it is said some fell upon stony places (Authorized Version ), the real allusion is to the underlying rock of limestone. The traveller finds numberless places where a broad, flat, limestone rock lies just beneath the surface of the field, with only a thin layer of earth upon it (cf. Luk 8:6; Luk 8:13 the rock). Stony ground (Authorized Version , following early English versions) suggests a soil abounding in loose stones, such as is often found there producing good wheat; but the picture is rather of a soil into which the seeds could not sink deep, and, the film of earth being readily heated because of the underlying rock, they would come up sooner than elsewhere, and at first would look uncommonly flourishing; but, not being able to send roots deep into the moist earth (cf. Luk 8:6), when the hot, dry weather came the stalks would wither, and thus show that the fair promise of a crop there had been deceptive (cf. Psa 129:6 grass upon the house-tops).
In the fields of Palestine, too, there are still found spots that are rich, but are peculiarly infested with briars and thorn-bushes, where one may see the wheat in scattered and spindling stalks struggling for life (cf. Mat 13:7). In Mar 2:23 and Luk 6:1 (Authorized Version ) we have corn-fields where the Gr. word () is the same as in Mat 12:1, where it is rendered simply corn,through the corn (after Tindale). It is literally through the sown (places), i.e. the grain-fields, as Noyes and Bib. Un. Vers. render it, fields of wheat or barley, not of maize or Indian corn, of course. The picture is of Jesus and His disciples going along, either through the standing grain, or by a footpath which bounded the fields, the grain in either case being within easy reach. It was customary then, as it is now, in Palestine, for the lands of different owners to be separated, not by fences or walls, but usually only by crude individual stones set up at intervals on the surface of the ground as landmarks (cf. Deu 19:14); and the roads, mere footpaths as a rule, were not distinct from the fields, as they are with us, but ran through them, so that the grain grew right up to the edge of the path. We are not meant to think of Jesus and His disciples as going ruthlessly through the fields and trampling down the grain, but as following one of these paths over or between the fields. But neither plucking the ears of wheat to eat, nor even walking across a pathless field, was, according to Jewish ideas (cf. Deu 23:25), a violation of the rights of property any more than it is to-day among the Arabs. It was not of this, but of Sabbath-breaking, that the Pharisees complained.
Geo. B. Eager.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Field
feld. See AGRICULTURE.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Field
Field. The Hebrew, sadeh is applied to any cultivated ground, and, in some instances, in marked opposition to the neighboring wilderness. On the other hand, the sadeh is frequently contrasted with what is enclosed, whether a vineyard, a garden or a walled town. In many passages, the term implies what is remote from a house, Gen 4:8; Gen 24:63; Deu 22:25, or settled habitation, as in the case of Esau. Gen 25:27.
The separate plots of ground were marked off by stones, which might easily be removed, Deu 19:14; Deu 27:17, compare Job 24:2; Pro 22:28; Pro 23:10. The absence of fences rendered the fields liable to damage from straying cattle, Exo 22:5, or fire, Exo 22:6; 2Sa 14:30, hence, the necessity of constantly watching flocks and herds. From the absence of enclosures, cultivated land of any size might be termed a field.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Field
Lev 19:19 (c) The Lord uses this figure to warn us against seeking to teach the truth in any group where falsehoods are taught. Teachers who teach GOD’s Gospel of grace sometimes think they can succeed in their ministry while teaching in a group where the Word of GOD is denied, and the Gospel is perverted. The Lord warns against any such mixture of teaching. Wheat and cockleburs should never be sowed together in the field. The weeds will take the crop. (See Deu 22:9).
Psa 96:12 (c) This probably is a picture of the blessed condition of this earth during the millennial reign of CHRIST. There will be no weeds, no burrs, no poison ivy, but the fields will be fertile, and will abound with flowers, grains and those things which bring joy to the heart of man.
Isa 16:10 (c) This probably is a picture of the famine, dearth and drought that would overtake Israel, or Moab, or any other nation when they become worshippers of idols and have no love for the GOD of Heaven.
Eze 17:5 (a) Babylon in this case is represented as a field into which the King of Babylon took the leaders of Israel and most of the people. There they were to grow and become strong again before returning to Israel.
Mat 13:38 (a) This is a name given to the various countries of the earth in which there is a harvest of souls to be gathered for the Lord.
Joh 4:35 (c) It is used here to describe the crops of grain upon which the reaper was to work. The grain represents people with whom the Spirit has been dealing and has made ready for salvation.