Wench (Hastings' Dictionary)

The translators of AV accepted this word from the Bishdps' Bible as the tr. of shiphhah in 2 S 17". Wyclif has (1382) ' bondwomman ' and (1388) 'handmaide,' Cov. 'damsell,' Geneva Bible ' maid.' The oldest form of the word is weiuhel (from Anglo-Sax. wendo, plu. ' children '), which signilied a child of either sex, as Anrrcn Eiwle, 334, ' Were and wif and wenchel.' Afterwards in the contracted form ' wenche ' it was restricted to a female child, a girl, or young woman. Thus Mt 9S4 ■\Wc.

' Go ye away, for the wenche is not dead, but slepith ' ; Mk S'" Rhem. ' And holding the wenches hand, he saith to her, Talitha rumi, which is being interpreted, wenche (I say to thee) arise ' ; Elyot, O'dfcrnoKr, ii. 324, 'Achilles . . for a lytle wenche contended with Agamemnon.' By 1611 the most frequent use of the word was to denote a servant maid, its meaning (as above) in AV. So Mt 26" Tind. ' When he was goone out into the poorche, a nother wenche saw him' ; Jn 18" Rhem.

• Tent-Work, 40. Conder says: 'The tradition of Jacob's well is one in which the Jews, Sam&ritans, Moslems, and Christiana alike agree.' lb. 33. t KV ' Cisterns hewn out which thou bewedst not,' probably both wells and cisterns were intended. ' The wench therfore that was portresse saith to Peter.' But the word was already used in a sense that opened the way to its present deterioration, as Bar 6" Cov. ' Like as a wench that loveth pera- mours is trymly deckte.' J. HASTINGS.

WHALE The EV tr" of two words. 1. in tan, and its derivatives (see DRAGON and Sea-Monster). 2. Krrros (Mt 12"). The latter is the LXX and NT rendering of Sh| 3^ ddgh qddhdl, ' a great fish ' (Jon 1"). There is no doubt of the existence of whales in the Mediterranean. Large parts of the skeletons of two specimens of the right whale are preserved in the museum of the Syrian Protestant College at Beirflt.

One of these animals was cast up on the shore near Tyre, not far from the traditional site of the ejection of Jonah, which is at Nebi-Yunfls, near Zidon. The other was drifted ashore at Beirflt itself. But the gullet of this species would not admit a man. The sperm whale has a gullet quite large enouj^h to enable him to swallow a man. It is probable that one of these monsters occasionally wanders into the Levant. KijTos, however, includes marine monsters other than the whale, as the shark.

Sharks exist in the Mediterranean large enough to swallow a man whole. The writer has seen one at Beirflt 20 ft. long. They sometimes attain a length of 30 ft. There are abundant testimonies in books of travel and works of natural history to the fact that sharks have swallowed men, and even horses and other large animals, whole (see Pusey). The pre- servation of Jonah alive in the belly of the fish seems to be intended by the writer to be considered part of a continued miracle.

' The Lord prepared a great lish to swallow up Jonah ' (1"). The Lord heard Jonah's prayer (2'-). ' The Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land' (2"'). But see art. Jonah. G. E. Post.