fin (adj., from Latin finire, "to finish"): Indicates superior quality. Only in a few instances does "fine" represent a separate word: (1) Tobh, "good," qualifies gold (2 Chronicles 3:5,8, "fine gold"; compare Genesis 2:12, "good"); fine gold (Lamentations 4:1, the King James Version "most fine gold," the Revised Version (British and American) "most pure gold," literally, "good fine gold"), copper (Ezra 8:27, the Revised Version (British and American) "fine bright brass"); Tabh, Aramaic (Daniel 2:32, "fine gold"). (2) paz, "refined" (Song of Solomon 5:11, "the most fine gold"). (3) chelebh, "fatness," "the best of any kind"; compare Genesis 45:18; Deuteronomy 32:14, etc. (Psalms 81:16, "the finest of the wheat," the Revised Version, margin Hebrew "fat of wheat"). (4) sariq, "fine combed" (Isaiah 19:9, "fine flax," the Revised Version (British and American) "combed flax").

In other places it expresses a quality of the substantive: kethem, "fine gold" (Job 31:24; Daniel 10:5, the Revised Version (British and American) "pure gold"); paz, used as a noun for refined gold (Job 28:17; Psalms 19:10; Proverbs 8:19; Isaiah 13:12; Lamentations 4:2); charuts, "fine gold" (Proverbs 3:14; compare Psalms 68:13, "yellow gold"); coleth, "flour," rendered "fine flour," rolled or crushed small (Leviticus 2:1,4-5,7, etc.); semidalis, "the finest wheaten flour" (Revelation 18:13); qemach coleth, "fine meal" (Genesis 18:6); cadhin, "linen garment" (Septuagint sindon, Proverbs 31:24 the King James Version; Isaiah 3:23); shesh, "white," "fine linen" (Genesis 41:42; Exodus 25:4, etc.); in Proverbs 31:22 the King James Version has "silk"; sheshi (Ezekiel 16:13, "fine flour"); 'eTun, "what is twisted or spun," "yarn" (Proverbs 7:16 the King James Version, "fine linen of Egypt" the Revised Version (British and American) "yarn of Egypt"); buts, "fine white cloth," "cotton or linen," "fine linen" (1 Chronicles 4:21; Ezekiel 27:16, etc.; 2 Chronicles 5:12, King James Version "white," the Revised Version (British and American) "fine"); bussos, "byssus," "linen" from buts Septuagint for which, 2 Chronicles 2:14; 3:14), deemed very fine and precious, worn only by the rich (Luke 16:19; Revelation 18:12); bussinos, "byssine" made of fine linen, Septuagint for buts (1 Chronicles 5:26) (Revelation 18:16, "clothed in fine linen," the Revised Version (British and American) "arrayed," Revelation 19:8,14); sindon, "fine linen" (Mark 5:43, "He bought fine linen," the Revised Version (British and American) "a linen cloth"; compare Mark 14:51-52; Matthew 27:59; Luke 23:53); it was used for wrapping the body at night, also for wrapping round dead bodies; sindon is Septuagint for cadhin (Judges 14:12-13; Proverbs 31:24); chalkolibanon (Revelation 1:15; 2:18, the King James Version "fine brass").

The meaning of this word has been much discussed; chalkos is "brass" in Greek (with many compounds), and libanos is the Septuagint for lebhonah, "frankincense," which word was probably derived from the root labhan, "to burn"; this would give glowing brass, "as if they burned in a furnace"; in Daniel 10:6 it is nehosheth qalal, the King James Version "polished brass," the Revised Version (British and American) "burnished" (qalal is "to glow"). Plumptre deemed it a hybrid word composed of the Greek chalkos, "brass," and the Hebrew labhan, "white," a technical word, such as might be familiar to the Ephesians; the Revised Version (British and American) has "burnished brass"; Weymouth, "silver-bronze when it is white-hot in a furnace"; the whiteness being expressed by the second half of the Greek word. See Thayer's Lexicon (s.v.).

In Apocrypha we have "fine linen," bussinos (1 Esdras 3:6), "fine bread"; the adjective katharos, separate (Judith 10:5, the Revised Version, margin "pure bread"); "fine flour" (Ecclesiasticus 35:2; 38:11); semidalis (Bel and the Dragon verse 3; 2 Macc 1:8, the Revised Version (British and American) "meal offering").

W. L. Walker

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Are you a good person? Try the good person test.