Bag (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. B'p^;, D'y'irr 'V? ; ir-fipa ; bag for food, shep- herd's wallet, or scrip for a journey, made of a kid's skin with a strap fastened to each end so as to ban" from the shoulder, and holding one or two day? allowance of bread, raisins, olives, cheese, etc. ; one of tlie emblems of the pastoral and pilgrim life ; parent of the hunting-bag and portfolios of higher oHice. Into it David put the pebbles wlien going to meet Goliath (1 S 17"). Tlie command to dispense with it (Mt 1U'», Mk 6', Lk 9") meant for the disciples complete trust in those visited, in their message, and in their Master. 2. 0'3 (Arab, kij/), bag for merchant's weights, made of stout cotton, leather, or in the form of a flexible rush-basket. This bag is still a necessity with the Syrian jieasant or trader when selling from house to house his olive-oil, figs, graiie-sj^iip, cheese, etc. The special warning against false weights (Dt 25'», Pr 20'") was due to the fact that pebbles and odd pieces of metal were doubtless, then as now, used thus as weights, putting the purchaser at the mercy of the seller. Hence the Arab, proverb, ' The hand of an honourable man is a balance.' 3. B. for money, purse. In this connexion we have — (a) D'j kff. Pr 1", Is 46", where the use of the commonest word for bag seems suggestive of waste. (4) t5-in /utrit (Arab. Itaritut), 2 K 5-^, into which Naaman's gift was put. The occurrence of the same word in Is 3''' (AV 'crisping pins,' RV ' satchels ') would suggest that some kind of ornamentally-woven pouch or satchel was used. (c) -iiif zerOr (Arab, ptrrat), something tied, either round about like a parcel, or at the neck like a pouch. The purse of the mod. Syrian peaxant is a little bag, sometimes of woven silk 232 BAGGAGE BALAAM tliread, but usually of yellow cotton. The open tiiouth is not drawn close by a string, but is gathered up by one hand, and then by the other the neck of the bag is carefully whipped round. B<i, PCS!, -A^, The ceremony of tying and untying is still a quaintly arresting feature in its use. It was such a purse that was found in the sacks of Joseph's brothers, Gn 42>. Job compares the irrevocable past to the purse with a seal on its string. Job 14". Unblessed prosperity is money in a bag \vith holes, Hag 1«. Similar to this zirGr or tied-bag was the ^aXXd;'T<o;' in Lk Xl^l'!?^, and in Jn 12" the 7\uo-cr6/coMoi', a term derived from the pouch for the mouth-piece of a musical instrument. {(/) In the NT this bag or purse is also expressed by fcJi'T) (Mt 3^ 10", Ac 21", Rev 1" 15«). A modern illustration of this is found in the waist-belt of BAG. OmDLB-Prm.SR, ;(wnb the Syrian peasant, which is double for a foot and a half from the buckle, thus making a safe and well-guarded purse. G. M. Mackie.