VILLAGE. Some of the words rendered vie'. la,ge in the A. V. are improperly so rendered. Thus Hah. iii. 14 the pl. of is rendered vil lages.' It should be captains' or eminent men ' men separated by their rank or prowess from the mass ; LXX. Supda-rat ; Syr. she lithono, prinaps, pratectus. In Judg. v. 7, Jr, lire, properly rulers, Sept Sovarot, is rendered villages ;' 'and Ezek. xxxviii. 1111t-S means open country. The cognate noun 411B, however, tying a countryman, a rustic, with "I'n prefixed, signifies a country village. The word ttirr, trans lated villages' Lev. xxv. 3x, is more con:ectly dered at the 34th ver. suburbs.' The proper Heb. term for village is which appears also in the forms "pp (Neb. vi. 2) and Sam. vi. 18), and is represented by the Arabicii‹, kifr, still so much in use ; but another term, properly an enclosure, is used of farm-buildings enclosing a court, of the encampment of nomades (Gen. xxviii 16 ; DeuL 25, etc.), and of hamlets near towns 00Sh. %Hi. 23, 28 • XV. 32, seq. ; Chron. iv. 33 ; Neh. xi. 2, 5). Different from these were the rein -ovr,,, daughters of Mealy, which were small towns or villages lying near to a great city, dependent on it, and included under its jurisdiction. The term r1111, from 7, to breathe, to live, mi. place of liviLs- , though others prefer to derive it from the Arab. chawa, convolvit, in gyrum se Axle, whance chewaon, a tent, or a duster of tents, an abode nomades, also denotes a village. The term
occurs only in the plural, and only in reference to certain villages or small towns bearing the name of Havoth-Jair. These are mentioned Num. xxxii. 42 ; Deut. 14 ; Josh. xiii. 30 ; Judg. x. 4 ; Kings iv. 23 [HavoTH-JArn]. In the N. T. the term Ku5pen is used of Bethphage (Matt. xxi. 2) ; of Bethany (Luke x. 38 - John xi. 2) ; of Emmaus fLuke xxiv. 23) ; and o'f Bethlehem (John vii. 42). Bethsaida of Galilee is called Wan (Mark viii. 23, 26), and v-6Xis ( John 45). Bethsaida of Gaulon itis, to which Herod-Philip II. allowed the dignity ef a city (Joseph. Antig. XViii. 2. I), is called rats ; unless these two are one and the same place (Thom son, Land and Book).
The Rabbins make the distinction between a city (1V) and a village (1CM) to lie in the former having and the latter wanting the number of learned men (ten) deemed requisite to entitle a place to a syna gogue (Lightfoot, Chorograph. Matt. pramirs. c. 98 ; and Hor. Heb. in Matt. iv. 23). This is a distinction, however, so purely arbitrary and arti ficial that it is worthless for any practical purpose. We know nothing distinctively characteristic of the villages of ancient Palestine except that they were not surrounded by walls. Probably in some cases they were not much better than a collection of huts vvith mud walls, or composed of stones rudely built together.—W. L. A.