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•FARM (Matthew 22:5). Every Hebrew had a certain portion of land assigned to him as a possession (Numbers 26:33-56). In Egypt the lands all belonged to the king, and the husbandmen were obliged to give him a fifth part of the produce; so in Palestine Jehovah was the sole possessor of the soil, and the people held it by direct tenure from him. By the enactment of Moses, the Hebrews paid a tithe of the produce to Jehovah, which was assigned to the priesthood. Military service when required was also to be rendered by every Hebrew at his own expense. The occuptaion of a husbandman was held in high honour (1 Samuel 11:5-7; 1 Kings 19:19; 2 Chronicles 26:10). (See LAND LAWS Ø(n/a); TITHE.)
•FARTHING (1.) Matthew 10:29; Luke 12:6. Greek assarion, i.e., a small as, which was a Roman coin equal to a tenth of a denarius or drachma, nearly equal to a halfpenny of our money.
(2.) Matthew 5:26; Mark 12:42 (Gr. kodrantes), the quadrant, the fourth of an as, equal to two lepta, mites. The lepton (mite) was the very smallest copper coin.
•FAST The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Leviticus 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9).
The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old Testament is in Zechariah 7:1-7; 8:19, from which it appears that during their captivity the Jews observed four annual fasts.
(1.) The fast of the fourth month, kept on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, the anniversary of the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; to commemorate also the incident recorded Exodus 32:19. (Comp. Jeremiah 52:6, 7.)
(2.) The fast of the fifth month, kept on the ninth of Ab (comp. Numbers 14:27), to commemorate the burning of the city and temple (Jeremiah 52:12, 13).
(3.) The fast of the seventh month, kept on the third of Tisri (comp. 2 Kings 25), the anniversary of the murder of Gedaliah (Jeremiah 41:1, 2).
(4.) The fast of the tenth month (comp. Jeremiah 52:4; Ezekiel 33:21; 2 Kings 25:1), to commemorate the beginning of the siege of the holy city by Nebuchadnezzar.