Village in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE
vil'-aj (qaphar, chawwoth, qatserim, banoth, perazoth;
kome): (1) The general term for a village, in common with
Aramaic and Arabic is qaphar (Song 7:11; 1 Ch 27:25; kopher;
1 Sam 6:18; kephir, Neh 6:2). This designation is derived
from the idea of its offering "cover" or shelter. It is used
in combination, and place-names of this formation became
prominent in post-Biblical times, probably because the
villages so named had then grown into towns. A well-known
Biblical instance of such names is Capernaum. (2) Chawwoth
(always "town" in English Versions of the Bible; see
HAVVOTH-JAIR) means originally a group of tents (Arabic
chiwa'). These in settled life soon became more permanent
dwellings, or what we understand by a village. The term,
however, is applied only to the villages of Jair in the
tribe of Manasseh (Nu 32:41; 1 Ki 4:13). (3) Chatserim
likewise came from nomadic life. They were originally
enclosures specially for cattle, alongside of which
dwellings for the herdsmen and peasantry naturally grew up
(see HAZAR-ADDAR; HAZOR). They were unwalled (Lev 25:31) and
lay around the cities (Josh 19:8). (4) Banoth is literally
"daughters." The word is applied to the dependent villages
lying around the larger cities, and to which they looked as
to a kind of metropolis (Nu 21:25, etc.); the Revised
Version (British and American) "towns" except in Nu 32:42.
(5) Perazoth means "the open country," but it soon came to
mean the villages scattered in the open (Ezek 38:11; Zec
2:4; Est 9:19). Some have sought to connect the Perizzites
with this word and to regard them, not as a distinct people,
but as the peasant class. Attempts have also been made to
connect perazon in Jdg 5:7,11 with the same root, and the
King James Version rendered it "inhabitants of the
villages." the Revised Version (British and American), on
the contrary, gives it the meaning of "rulers." The versions
indicate a word meaning authority, and probably the text
should be emended to read rozenim, "rulers." A similar
emendation is required in Hab 3:14. "Village" in the Revised
Version (British and American) of the New Testament
invariably represents the Greek kome, but in 2 Macc 8:6 the
Revised Version (British and American) Apocrypha has
"village" for chora, lit. "country."
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