Fine

fin (adj., from Latin finire, "to finish"): Indicates superior quality. Only in a few instances does "fine" represent a separate word: (1) Tobh, "good," qualifies gold (2Ch 3:5,8, "fine gold"; compare Ge 2:12, "good"); fine gold (La 4:1, the King James Version "most fine gold," the Revised Version (British and American) "most pure gold," literally, "good fine gold"), copper (Ezr 8:27, the Revised Version (British and American) "fine bright brass"); Tabh, Aramaic (Da 2:32, "fine gold"). (2) paz, "refined" (Song 5:11, "the most fine gold"). (3) chelebh, "fatness," "the best of any kind"; compare Ge 45:18; De 32:14, etc. (Ps 81:16, "the finest of the wheat," the Revised Version, margin Hebrew "fat of wheat"). (4) sariq, "fine combed" (Isa 19:9, "fine flax," the Revised Version (British and American) "combed flax").

See a list of verses on FINE in the Bible.

In other places it expresses a quality of the substantive: kethem, "fine gold" (Job 31:24; Da 10:5, the Revised Version (British and American) "pure gold"); paz, used as a noun for refined gold (Job 28:17; Ps 19:10; Pr 8:19; Isa 13:12; La 4:2); charuts, "fine gold" (Pr 3:14; compare Ps 68:13, "yellow gold"); coleth, "flour," rendered "fine flour," rolled or crushed small (Le 2:1,4-5,7, etc.); semidalis, "the finest wheaten flour" (Re 18:13); qemach coleth, "fine meal" (Ge 18:6); cadhin, "linen garment" (Septuagint sindon, Pr 31:24 the King James Version; Isa 3:23); shesh, "white," "fine linen" (Ge 41:42; Ex 25:4, etc.); in Pr 31:22 the King James Version has "silk"; sheshi (Eze 16:13, "fine flour"); 'eTun, "what is twisted or spun," "yarn" (Pr 7:16 the King James Version, "fine linen of Egypt" the Revised Version (British and American) "yarn of Egypt"); buts, "fine white cloth," "cotton or linen," "fine linen" (1Ch 4:21; Eze 27:16, etc.; 2Ch 5:12, King James Version "white," the Revised Version (British and American) "fine"); bussos, "byssus," "linen" from buts Septuagint for which, 2Ch 2:14; 3:14), deemed very fine and precious, worn only by the rich (Lu 16:19; Re 18:12); bussinos, "byssine" made of fine linen, Septuagint for buts (1Ch 5:26) (Re 18:16, "clothed in fine linen," the Revised Version (British and American) "arrayed," Re 19:8,14); sindon, "fine linen" (Mr 5:43, "He bought fine linen," the Revised Version (British and American) "a linen cloth"; compare Mr 14:51-52; Mt 27:59; Lu 23:53); it was used for wrapping the body at night, also for wrapping round dead bodies; sindon is Septuagint for cadhin (Jg 14:12-13; Pr 31:24); chalkolibanon (Re 1:15; 2:18, the King James Version "fine brass").

The meaning of this word has been much discussed; chalkos is "brass" in Greek (with many compounds), and libanos is the Septuagint for lebhonah, "frankincense," which word was probably derived from the root labhan, "to burn"; this would give glowing brass, "as if they burned in a furnace"; in Da 10:6 it is nehosheth qalal, the King James Version "polished brass," the Revised Version (British and American) "burnished" (qalal is "to glow"). Plumptre deemed it a hybrid word composed of the Greek chalkos, "brass," and the Hebrew labhan, "white," a technical word, such as might be familiar to the Ephesians; the Revised Version (British and American) has "burnished brass"; Weymouth, "silver-bronze when it is white-hot in a furnace"; the whiteness being expressed by the second half of the Greek word. See Thayer's Lexicon (s.v.).

See the definition of fine in the KJV Dictionary

In Apocrypha we have "fine linen," bussinos (1 Esdras 3:6), "fine bread"; the adjective katharos, separate (Judith 10:5, the Revised Version, margin "pure bread"); "fine flour" (Ecclesiasticus 35:2; 38:11); semidalis (Bel and the Dragon verse 3; 2 Macc 1:8, the Revised Version (British and American) "meal offering").

W. L. Walker

See also the McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia.


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