Bible dictionaries
Farm
What Bible dictionaries say about “Farm”, one article after the other.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
Farm - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)
(Matt. 22:5). Every Hebrew had a certain portion of land assigned to him as a possession (Num. 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 Sam. 11:5-7; 1 Kings 19:19; 2 Chr. 26:10). (See LAND LAWS; [206]TITHE.)
Farm - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)
F'ARM, n.
1. A tract of land leased on rent reserved; ground let to a tenant on condition of his paying a certain sum annually or otherwise for the use of it. A farm is usually such a portion of land as is cultivated by one man, and includes the buildings and fences. Rents were formerly pain in provisions, or the produce of land; but now they are generally paid in money.
This is the signification of farm in Great Britain, where most of the land is leased to cultivators.
2. In the United States, a portion or tract of land, consisting usually of grass land, meadow, pasture, tillage and woodland, cultivated by one man and usually owned by him in fee. A like tract of land under lease is called a farm; but most cultivators are proprietors of the land, and called farmers.
A tract of new land, covered with forest, if intended to be cultivated by one man as owner, is also called a farm. A man goes into the new States, or into the unsettled country, to buy a farm, that is, land for a farm.
3. The state of land leased on rent reserved; a lease.
It is great wilfulness in landlords to make any longer farms to their tenants.
F'ARM, v.t.
1. To lease, as land, on rent reserved; to let to a tenant on condition of paying rent.
We are enforced to farm our royal realm.
[In this sense, I believe, the word is not used in America.]
2. To take at a certain rent or rate. [Not used in America.]
3. To lease or let, as taxes, impost or other duties, at a certain sum or rate per cent. It is customary in many countries for the prince or government to farm the revenues, the taxes or rents, the imposts and excise, to individuals, who are to collect and pay them to the government at a certain percentage or rate per cent.
4. To take or hire for a certain rate per cent.
5. To cultivate land.
To farm let, or let to farm, is to lease on rent.
Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)
The article in Easton + Webster 1828International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)
farm: Mt 22:5 is the only passage where agros, has been rendered "farm." In the many other passages where the same word occurs it is rendered "field" or "piece of ground." Farms such as the Occidental is accustomed to see, namely, isolated dwellings with their groups of outbuildings, surrounded by walls or hedges and overlooking the planted fields, were probably unknown in Palestine. For protection against wild beasts and Arab marauders everyone lived in a village and went out to his fields, located perhaps miles away, only as occasion required.
James A. Patch
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2
The article in ISBE 1915