Rayen, rayin
To 'raven' is to seize with violence, to prey u])on with greed or rapacity, and .so 'raven' or 'ravin' is plunder or prey. The word comes from Lat. ranina plunder, through Old Fr. ravine, whence also Eng. 'ravine' a mountain gorge, and ' rapine ' plunder. There is no con- nexion with the bird, the raven, whose name is of native origin, Anglo-Sax. hrefn. The verb occurs in AV in Gn 49" (' ravin,' intrans.), Ezk 22^- " (' ravening,' trans.), the Heb. being i",ia to tear as proif. As a snbst. 'ravin' is found in Nah 2'- ' The lion . . . filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin' (njnp) ; and ' ravening' in Lk 11™ 'Your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness' (dpiray^, RV 'extortion'). The adj. is either 'ravening' (Ps 22", Mt 7") or ' ravenous' (Is 35" 46", Ezk 39'). An example of ' ravin ' in the sense of ' plunder- ing' is Udall, lirasmus' Paraph, i. 17 — ' Mekencsse obteyneth more of them that gcve wyllyngly and of theyr owne accorde, then violence and ravine can purchase or obta3no by hooke and croke'; and in the sense of ' plunder,' ' booty,' Spenser, FQ I. xi. 12- ' His deepe devouring Jawes Wide paped, like the (jriesly mouth of hell, Througti which into his darke abysse all ravin fell.' J. Hastings. RAZIZ {'Panels). — The hero of a narrative in 2 Mac 14"''-. I^'icanor, having been informed against Razis (who is described as 'an elder of Jerusalem, a lover of his countrymen, and a man of very good report, and one called " father of tha Jews "for his goodwill towards them'), sent a band of soldiers to apprehend him. He escaped arrest by committing suicide, the circumstances of which are described in revolting detail in 2 Mac. His conduct is criticised adversely by Augustine (Ep. civ. (3) in opposition to the Donatists, w ho admired it, as the author of 2 Mac. evidently did. RAZOR (ifn 'knife,' Nu 6" 8', Ps 52', Is 1'^, Ezk 51 ; n-iiD ' razor,' Jg 13^ 16", 1 S 1").— It is not likely that originally there was any distinction between razors and knives, the same word ii'ij being used in many passages for both, but a special word for razor (m,io, Arab, mi'is) is used in the stories of Samson and Samuel. In the above passages the LXX uiiiforndv tr. tyo by ^vpdv, and n-iio by ffioijpos except in .)g 16" where B has (TibTipos but A (vpif. In early times razors were piobably made of bronze, as other cutting instru- ments were. In Wilkinson's Anc. Efjtjpt. 1878, vol. ii. I). 333 note, it is said of the barber, ' his instruments and razors varied at diflerent times, being sometimes in shape of a small short hatchet with recurved handle ; other instruments knife- shaped were also employed.' Forty years ago a peculiarly shaped razor, with a straight tixed handle, was in use in Syria ; now European razors are universally used. W. Carslaw.