Famish (Hastings' Dictionary)

Occurring but four times in all, ' famish ' is thrice used transitively. Zeph 2" ' he will famish all the gods of the earth ' (np,, lit. as AVrc 'will make lean'); Gn 41" 'And when all the lajid of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread ' (^npi) ; Is 5" ' their honour- able men are famished' (3j;i "pij 'ii^^j, lit., as AVm and RVm, ' their glory are men of famine,' but the reading is doubtful, see esp. Driver on Dt 32-^).

This transitive use of ' famish ' may be illustrated by Coverdale's tr. of Jl 1" the shepe are fameszshed awaye,' and Shaks. Tarn, of Shrew, IV. iii. 3 — What, did he marry me to famish me?' Tit. Andron. V. iii. 179 — Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him ' ; and Milton, PL xii. 78— 'Thin air Above the clouds wili pine his entrails grofli. And famish him of breath, if not of bread. The Intrana. occurrence is Pr 103 • The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish.

* The Heb., translated ' suffer to fami.sh,' is the same (though in Hiphil) as in Gn 41^, and scarcely means more than 'cause to hunger' ; so that the btat«raent loses some of ite comfort under the Eng. translation, if it does not even lose all its point. J. HASTINGS.