Gin

Gin - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

A trap. (1.) Ps. 140:5, 141:9, Amos 3:5, the Hebrew word used, mokesh, means a noose or "snare," as it is elsewhere rendered (Ps. 18:5; Prov. 13:14, etc.).

(2.) Job 18:9, Isa. 8:14, Heb. pah, a plate or thin layer; and hence a net, a snare, trap, especially of a fowler (Ps. 69: 22, "Let their table before them become a net;" Amos 3:5, "Doth a bird fall into a net [pah] upon the ground where there is no trap-stick [mokesh] for her? doth the net [pah] spring up from the ground and take nothing at all?", Gesenius.)

Gin - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

GIN, n. A contraction of Geneva, a distilled spirit. [See Geneva.]

GIN, n. [A contraction of engine.] A machine or instrument by which the mechanical powers are employed in aid of human strength. The word is applied to various engines, as a machine for driving piles, another for raising weights, _c., and a machine for separating the seeds from cotton, invented by E.Whitney, is called a cotton-gin. It is also the name given to an engine of torture, and to a pump moved by rotary sails.

1. A trap; a snare.

GIN, v.t. To clear cotton of its seeds by a machine which separates them with expedition.

1. To catch in a trap.

GIN, v.i. To begin.

jin (moqesh, pach): A noose of hair or wire for snaring wild birds alive. There are over half a dozen traps and net devices indicated by different terms in the Bible. The gin was of horse-hair for small birds and wire for larger ones. It is mentioned in Am 3:5: "Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is set for him? shall a snare spring up from the ground, and have taken nothing at all?" Job writing in mental and physical discomfort on the ash heap included all methods mentioned in one outburst:

"For he is cast into a net by his own feet.

And he walketh upon the toils.

A gin shall take him by the heel,

And a snare shall lay hold on him,

A noose is hid for him in the ground.

And a trap for him in the way" (Job 18:8).

Gene Stratton-Porter