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•PARBAR (1 Chronicles 26:18), a place apparently connected with the temple, probably a “suburb” (q.v.), as the word is rendered in 2 Kings 23:11; a space between the temple wall and the wall of the court; an open portico into which the chambers of the official persons opened (1 Chronicles 26:18).
•PARCHED GROUND (Isaiah 35:7), Hebrews sharab, a “mirage”, a phenomenon caused by the refraction of the rays of the sun on the glowing sands of the desert, causing them suddenly to assume the appearance of a beautiful lake. It is called by the modern Arabs by the same Hebrew name serab.
•PARCHMENT a skin prepared for writing on; so called from Pergamos (q.v.), where this was first done (2 Timothy 4:13).
•PARDON the forgiveness of sins granted freely (Isaiah 43:25), readily (Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 86:5), abundantly (Isaiah 55:7; Romans 5:20). Pardon is an act of a sovereign, in pure sovereignty, granting simply a remission of the penalty due to sin, but securing neither honour nor reward to the pardoned. Justification (q.v.), on the other hand, is the act of a judge, and not of a sovereign, and includes pardon and, at the same time, a title to all the rewards and blessings promised in the covenant of life.
•PARLOUR (from the Fr. parler, “to speak”) denotes an “audience chamber,” but that is not the import of the Hebrew word so rendered. It corresponds to what the Turks call a kiosk, as in Judges 3:20 (the “summer parlour”), or as in the margin of the Revised Version (“the upper chamber of cooling”), a small room built on the roof of the house, with open windows to catch the breeze, and having a door communicating with