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Smith's Bible Dictionary
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Table of
Contents Yarn
The notice of yarn is contained in an extremely obscure passage
in (1 Kings 10:28; 2 Chronicles 1:16) The Hebrew Received Text
is questionable. Gesenius gives the sense of "number" as
applying equally to the merchants and the horses: "A band of
the king's merchants bought a drove (of horses) at a price."
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Table of
Contents Year
the highest ordinary division of time. Two years were known to,
and apparently used by, the Hebrews.
+ A year of 360 days appears to have been in use in Noah's
time.
+ The year used by the Hebrews from the time of the exodus may:
be said to have been then instituted, since a current month,
Abib, on the 14th day of which the first Passover was kept,
was then made the first month of the year. The essential
characteristics of this year can be clearly determined,
though we cannot fix those of any single year. It was
essentially solar for the offering of productions of the
earth, first-fruits, harvest produce and ingathered fruits,
was fixed to certain days of the year, two of which were in
the periods of great feasts, the third itself a feast
reckoned from one of the former days. But it is certain that
the months were lunar, each commencing with a new moon. There
must therefore have been some method of adjustment. The first
point to be decided is how the commencement of each gear was
fixed. Probably the Hebrews determined their new year's day
by the observation of heliacal or other star-risings or
settings known to mark the right time of the solar year. It
follows, from the determination of the proper new moon of the
first month, whether by observation of a stellar phenomenon
or of the forwardness of the crops, that the method of
intercalation can only have been that in use after the
captivity,--the addition of a thirteenth month whenever the
twelfth ended too long before the equinox for the offering of
the first-fruits to be made at the time fixed. The later Jews
had two commencements of the year, whence it is commonly but
inaccurately said that they had two years, the sacred year
and the civil. We prefer to speak of the sacred and civil
reckonings. The sacred reckoning was that instituted at the
exodus, according to which the first month was Abib; by the
civil reckoning the first month was the seventh. The interval
between the two commencements was thus exactly half a year.
It has been supposed that the institution at the time of the
exodus was a change of commencement, not the introduction of
a new year, and that thenceforward the year had two
beginnings, respectively at about the vernal and the autumnal
equinox. The year was divided into--
+ Seasons . Two seasons are mentioned in the Bible, "summer"
and "winter." The former properly means the time of cutting
fruits, the latter that, of gathering fruits; they are
therefore originally rather summer and autumn than summer and
winter. But that they signify ordinarily the two grand
divisions of the year, the warm and cold seasons, is evident
from their use for the whole year in the expression "summer
and winter." (Psalms 74:17; Zechariah 14:18)
+ Months . [MONTHS]
+ Weeks . [WEEKS]
Year Of Jubilee
[[1307]Jubilee, The Year Of, YEAR OF]
Year, Sabbatical
[[1308]Sabbatical Year YEAR]
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Table of
Contents Yoke
+ A well-known implement of husbandry, frequently used
metaphorically for subjection, e.g. (1 Kings 12:4,9-11;
Isaiah 9:4; Jeremiah 5:5) hence an "iron yoke" represents an
unusually galling bondage. (28:48; Jeremiah 28:13)
+ A pair of oxen, so termed as being yoked together. (1 Samuel
11:7; 1 Kings 19:19,21) The Hebrew term is also applied to
asses, (Judges 19:10) and mules, (2 Kings 5:17) and even to a
couple of riders. (Isaiah 21:7)
+ The term is also applied to a certain amount of land, (1
Samuel 14:14) equivalent to that which a couple of oxen could
plough in a day, (Isaiah 5:10) (Authorized Version "acre"),
corresponding to the Latin jugum .