Force

Thesubst. 'force' has become restricted in meaning since 1611. It then signified a man's personal might, as Jer 23'" 'their course is evil, and their force is not right' (1733, Cheyne 'their might or heroism'); even physical strength, as Dt .S4' ' his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated' (0*7, only here, but adj.

n^ is moist, fresh, of fruit, Nu 6', or of growing or freshly-cut wood, Ezk 17", Gn SC, hence ' neither had his freshness fled ' — Driver) ; Job 40'° ' his force is in the navel (RV muscles) of his belly' (['in, here of behemoth, in 18'- '2 of man's strength); Am 2''' 'the strong shall not strengthen his force' (ni)). Cf. Ps 102® (Stemhold and Hopkins) — * My wonted strength and force be hath abated in the way.'

Force as a personal attribute is now restricted to strength in action or application, as it is in Ezk 34* ' with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them ' ("310) ; and in the phrase ' take by force,' which in Mt 1113, Jn 615, Ac 23 '» is the tr» of the single verb dpirdfeii', to seize. The phrase ' of force ' is now replaced by • in force.'

It occurs He 9" ' a testament is of force after men are dead ' (p^^aios) ; and in a slightly different sense, 2 Es 7^ ' the good deeds shall be of force, and wicked deeds shall bear no rule ' (iustitice vigilabunt, RV 'shall awake'): cf. ^ ' the law perisheth not, but remaineth in his force ' (permans%t in suo honore, RV 'in its honour'). The phrase was also used in the sense of ' by com- pulsion,' as we still use ' perforce ' ; so often is Shakfl. aa / Henry /K. U. iii.

120— 'Will this content you, Katef It must, of force ' ; Jvl. Cccs. IV. iii. 203— Good reasons must, of force, ffiv« place to better' | Milton, PL iv. 813— ' No falsehood can endure Touch of celestial temper, but returns Of force to its own likeness ' ; and L 144 — ' Our conqueror (whom I now Of force believe almighty) — though Craik thinks ' of force ' in the last passage may mean ' in power.' tor Force, Forces = military strength, see Army. J. Hastings. FORD (ivyn, nijs)?.

In J" 125- « AV needlessly substitutes 'passages ' for ' fords ' ; in 2 S 15'* IV" RV has 'fords' (nnay) where AV has 'plains' {nmv). See Driver's note, ad lor..) — Fords were important landmarks in early OT times, when there were no bridges across rivers. There seem to have been two principal fords across the Jordan — (1) that opposite Jericho (Jos 2', Jg 3^, 2S 19"), used to tins day for crossing from Pal.

into Moab, except in early summer when the river is in flood (Jos 3'5) ; (2) Bethabara (the reading of TK and AV, but WH and RV have Bethany) where John baptized (Jn l'^). The site has been identified by the oflicers of the Ordnance Survey, and described by Conder as the spot called 'AbArah, where the Jalfld river, flowing down the Valley of Jezreel, debouches into the Jordan (2'ent Work in Pal. p. 229). Some of the fords of the Jordan, of which about forty were iden- tified by the Pal.

Survey, are impassable in spri ng or early summer, as the waters, swollen by the melt- ing of the snows of the Lebanon and adjoining regions, rise and overflow their banks, covering the allurial plains on either side. Such was the case when the Isr. under Joshua crossed on dry ground by command of J" to besiege Jericho (Jos 3").

Amongst the other fords mentioned in Scripture are those of the Jabbok (Gn 32^) and the Amon, a river descending from the tableland on the east of the Jordan Valley, and at the time of the Isr. invasion forming the boundary between the Moabites and the Amorites (Nu 21"), also refened to in Is 16-. The Romans were probably the first great bridge-builders over the streams of Palestine. (See, further, G. A. Smith, Hist. Geog. 206, 337 n. ; Moore, Judges, 102 f. 214 ; Driver, Text of Sam.

245, 257.) E. Hull.