Tribute (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. &?. The rendering 'tribute' for this word is very misleading. Its meaning is collective =yorref/ labourers, labour- gang. One of the most notable of such companii's was the body of task -workers for the public service, consisting of 30,000 men, which Solomon (see above, p. 565°) raised by levy upon the people (1 K 5"'"' 9'»-="; contra-st the statement, in 2 Ch 8"', according to which this levy was imposed onlj' upon the remnant of the aboriginal inhabitants of Canaan). Something of the same kind ap[iears to have been introduced already by David (2 S 20 ' Adoram was over the labour-gang,' cf. 1 Iv 4' 5" 12'"=2 Ch 10"). Another familiar instance is the slave-gangs of Israelites in Egj-pt, with their over- seers (c""i7 Ex 1"). Conquered populations w'ere frequently subjected to forced labour : Dt 20", Jos 16'« 17", Jg l«-3"»». Is 31', La 1'. ' Issachar became a slaving labour-band ' (iji'-i^S Gn 49" [J]). In Pr 12^ it is said that ' slothfulness [a .slothful man] shall be put under taskwork.' In late Hebrew the word D? (by use of the concrete for the abstract) came to mean forced service, serf- dom. In Est 10' it possibly means tribute in sense of forced payment . 2. In Dt 16'" EV ' with a tribute of a freewill oll'oring ' would be clearer if liV'm were adopted : 'after the measure of the,' etc. The Heb. [here onl}-] is n;7, common in Aram. = 'suliiciency,' and as adv. ace. =pro ratione. The meaning is that the otl'erer is to give according to the full measure in which Jahweli has blessed him in the year's harvest (see Driver, nd loc, and Oxf. Heb. Lex. s.v.). 3. rrj7 (loan-word from Assyr. mandnttu, ' tri- bute')', Ezr 4", Neh 5. i. 'i'?? (prob. the Assyr. bUtu, 'impost'; see Schrader, CUT ii. 65 f.). S. Djt, prop, 'computation,' used only of the duty for Jahweh levied on the spoil, Nu 3"l'^- <"■ 's- ^■■"- " [all P]. 6. k;9, lit. 'burden,' 2 Ch 17" (cf. 2 Ch 24", Hos S'O). 7. Sii- ' fine,' ' indemnity,' 2 K 23^ (of tlie sura exacted by Pharaoh-necho after he had dejiDscd Jeboahaz), cf. Pr 19" (AV 'punisbmint,' RV 'penalty '). J. A. Seluik.