Fitches

or VETCHES, a kind of tare. There are two words in Hebrew which our translators have rendered fitches, קצח and בסמת : the first occurs only in Isa 28:25; Isa 28:27, and must be the name of some kind of seed; but the interpreters differ much in explaining it. Jerom, Maimonides, R. David Kimchi, and the rabbins understand it of the gith; and rabbi Obdias de Bartenora expressly says that its barbarous or vulgar name is ניילי . The gith was called by the Greeks μελανθιον, and by the Latins nigella; and is thus described by Ballester: “It is a plant commonly met with in gardens, and grows to a cubit in height, and sometimes more, according to the richness of the soil. The leaves are small like those of fennel, the flower blue, which disappearing, the ovary shows itself on the top, like that of a poppy, furnished with little horns, oblong, divided by membranes into several partitions, or cells, in which are enclosed seeds of a very black colour, not unlike those of the leek, but of a very fragrant smell.” And Ausonius observes, that its pungency is equal to that of pepper:—

Est inter fruges morsu piper aequiparens git.

Pliny says it is of use in bakehouses, pistrinis, and that it affords a grateful seasoning to the bread. The Jewish rabbins also mention the seeds among condiments, and mixed with bread. For this purpose it was probably used in the time of Isaiah; since the inhabitants of those countries, to this day, have a variety of rusks and biscuits, most of which are strewed on the top with the seeds of sesamum, coriander, and wild garden saffron.

The other word rendered fitches in our translation of Eze 4:9, is בסמת ; but in Exo 9:32, and Isa 28:25, “rye.” In the latter place the Septuagint has ξεα, and in the two former ολυρα; and the Vulgate in Exodus, far, and in Isaiah and Ezekiel, vicia. Saadias, likewise, took it to be something of the leguminous kind, גלנאן , cicircula, (misprinted circula in the Polyglott version,) or, “a chickling.” Aquila has ζεα, and Theodotion, ολυρα. Onkelos and Targum have בונתיא , and Syriac, בונחא , which are supposed to be the millet, or a species of it called panicum; Persian, בורבגדם , the spelt; and this seems to be the most probable meaning of the Hebrew word; at least it has the greatest number of interpreters from Jerom to Celsius. There are not, however, wanting, who think it was rye; among whom R. D. Kimchi, followed by Luther, and our English translators: Dr. Geddes, too, has retained it, though he says that he is inclined to think that the spelt is preferable.

Dr. Shaw thinks that this word may signify rice. Hasselquist, on the contrary, affirms that rice was brought into cultivation in Egypt under the Caliphs. This, however, may be doubted. One would think from the intercourse of ancient Egypt with Babylon and with India, that this country could not be ignorant of a grain so well suited to its climate.

This word occurs only in Isa 28:25; Isa 28:27. It is no doubt from the difficulty of proving the precise meaning of the original term ketzach, that different plants have been assigned as its representative. But if we refer to the context, we learn some particulars which at least restrict it to a certain group, namely, to such as are cultivated. Thus, Isa 28:25, ’When he (the plowman) hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches?’ And again, Isa 28:27, ’For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cartwheel turned about upon the cummin; but fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.’ From which we learn that this grain was easily separated from its capsule, and therefore beaten out with a stick.

Interpreters have had great difficulty in determining the particular kind of seed intended, some translating it peas, others, as Luther and the English Version, vetches, but without any proof. Meibomius considers it to be the white poppy, and others, a black seed. This last interpretation has the most numerous, as well as the oldest, authorities in its support. Of these a few are in favor of the black poppy-seed, but the majority, of a very black-colored and aromatic seed, still cultivated and in daily employment as a condiment in the East. The plant is called Nigella by botanists, and continues in the present day, as in the most ancient times, to be used both as a condiment and as a medicine. The various species of nigella are herbaceous (several of them being indigenous in Europe, others cultivated in most parts of Asia), with their leaves deeply cut and linear, their flowers terminal, most of them having under the calyx leafy involucres which often half surround the flower. The fruit is composed of five or six capsules, which are compressed, oblong, pointed, sometimes said to be hornlike, united below, and divided into several cells, and enclosing numerous, angular, scabrous, black-colored seeds. From the nature of the capsules, it is evident, that when they are ripe, the seeds might easily be shaken out by moderate blows of a stick, as is related to have been the case with the ketzach of the text.

Fitches. (that is, Vetches). Without doubt the Nigella sativa, an herbaceous annual plant belonging to the natural order, Ranunculaceoe, (the buttercup family), which grows in the south of Europe and in the north of Africa. Its black seeds are used like pepper, and have almost as pungent a taste. The Syrians sprinkle these seeds over their flat cakes before they are baked. See Rye.

Hebrew qetsach, Septuagint melanthion, Isa 28:25; Isa 28:27; of the order Ranunculaceos, and suborder Helleboreos, in southern Europe and northern Africa; the black poppy. Nigella sativa, "fennel," with black seed like cummin, easily "beaten out with a staff"; used in sauces as condiment like pepper; aromatic and carminative. In Eze 4:9 kussemeth, KJV "fitches," is rather "spelt" or dhourra, less suitably rendered "rye" Exo 9:32; Isa 28:25, where the illustration from the husbandman shows that God also adapts His measures to the varying exigencies of the several cases and places, now mercy, now judgment, here punishing sooner there later (an answer to the scoff that His judgments were so slow that they would never come at all, Isa 5:19); His aim not being to destroy His people any more than the husbandman’s aim in threshing is to destroy his crop.

He will not use the threshing instrument where, as in the case of the "fennel," the "staff" will suffice. From the readiness with which the ripe capsules yield their tiny black seeds (the poor man’s pepper, poivrette), nothing could be so absurd as to use a threshing instrument. Even in the case of the "bread grain" which needs to be "bruised" or threshed with the grain drag or trodden out by cattle, "He will not always be threshing it"; for "because" translated "but" (compare Isa 27:7-8). Spelt has a smooth slender ear (as it were shorn, kussemeth being from kaasam "to shear"), the grains of which are so firm in the husk that they need special devices to disengage them.

(i.e. VETCHES or chick-pea), the incorrect rendering, in the Auth. Vers., of two Heb. words. SEE BOTANY.

1. קֶצִח (kettsa’h, something strewn), which occurs only in Isa 28:25; Isa 28:27, where especial reference is made to the mode of threshing it; not with “a threshing instrument," מוֹרִג, חָרוּוֹ), but "with a staff" (מִטֶה), because the heavy-armed cylinders of the former implement would have crushed it. Although ketsach, in Chaldee קִצְחָא(Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. col. 2101), is always acknowledged to denote some seed, yet interpreters have had great difficulty in determining the particular kind intended, some translating it peas, others, as Luther and the English version, vetches, but without any proof. Meibomius considers it to be the white poppy, and others a black seed. This last interpretation has the most numerous, as well as the oldest authorities in its support. Of these a few are in favor of the black poppy- seed, but the majority of a black seed common in Egypt, etc. (Celsius, Hiesrobot. ii, 70). The Sept. translates it μελάνθιον, the Vulg. gith (perhaps from the Heb. גִּד, coriander; see Plautus, Rud. v, 3, 39), and Tremellius melanthium, while the Arabic has shuznez. All these mean the same thing, namely, a very black-colored and aromatic seed, "fennel- flower" or "black cumin," still cultivated and in daily employment as a condiment in the East. Thus Pliny (xx, 17,71), "Gith, from the Greeks, others call melanthion, and still others melanspermon. The best is that of the most pungent smell, and blackest." By Dioscorides (iii, 93), or the ancient author who is supposed to have added the synonymes, we are informed that μελάνθιον was also called the "wild black poppy," that the seed was black; acrid, and aromatic, and that it was added to bread or cakes. Pliny also says, " The seed of the melanthium or melanspermum makes an excellent confection in the loaves" (xix, 8). Mlfelanthium is universally recognised by botanists to be the Nigella. Thus Bauhin Pinax, "Nigella, from the black color of the seed, is commonly called μελάνθιον."

The shunez of the Arabs is, moreover, the same plant or seed, which is usually called "black cumin." So one kind of cumin is said by Dioscorides to have seeds like those of melanthion or nigella. It was commonly cultivated in Egypt, and P. Alpinus mentions it as "Suneg Egyptiis." The Arabs, besides shunez, also call it hub-al-souda, and the Persians seah dana, both words signifying black seed. One species, named Nigella Indica by Dr. Roxburgh, is called kalajira in India, that is, black zlra or cumin, of the family of Ranunculacese. " Nigella sativa is alone cultivated in India, as in most Eastern countries, and continues in the present day, as in the most ancient times, to be used both as a condiment and as a medicine" (Illusto Himal. Byt. p. 46). If we consider that this appears to have always been one of the cultivated grains of the East, and compare the character of nigella with the passages in which ketsach is mentioned, we shall find that the former is applicable to them all. Indeed, Rabbi Obadias de Bartenora states that the barbarous or vulgar name of the ketsach was nielle, that-is, nigella. The Nigella sativa is a garden plant, which commonly attains the height of an ell, with narrow leaves, like the leaves offennel, a blue flower, out of which is formed, on the very top of the plant, an oblong muricate capsule, the interior of which is, by means of thin membranes, separated into compartments containing a seed of a very black color not unlike the poppy, but of a pleasant smell, and a sharp taste not finlike pepper. The various species of nigella are herbaceous (several of them being indigenous in Europe, others cultivated in most parts of Asia), with their leaves deeply cut and linear, their flowers terminal, most of them having under the calyx leafy involucres which often half surround the flower. The fruit is composed of five or six capsules, which are compressed, oblong, pointed, sometimes said to be hornlike, united below, and divided into several cells and enclosing numerous angular, scabrous, black-colored seeds. From the nature of the capsules, it is evident that, when they are ripe, the seeds might easily be shaken out by moderate blows of a stick, as is related to have been the case with the ketsach of the text. SEE THRESHING.

Besides the N. sativa, there is another species, the N. arvemmais, which may be included under the term ketsach; but the seeds of this last-named plant are less aromatic than the other. They are annual plants belonging to the natural order Ranunculacece, and suborder Helleboresa. The nigella far-ms a singular exception among the family to which it belongs, inasmuch as they are terrible poisons, while the nigeala produces seeds that are not only wholesome and aromatic, but are in great reputation for their medicinal qualities. SEE AROMATICS.

2. In Eze 4:9, fitches" are mentioned among the materials of the bread the prophet was bidden to make, but there it represents the Heb. word כֻּסֶּמֶת, kusse’meth. This word is incorrectly translated in A.V. "rye" (q.v.) in Exo 9:32, and Isa 28:25; but in the latter place, as in Eze 4:9, we have the marginal reading "’ spelt," which is the true rendering of the word. The -root of כֻּסֶּמֶתis כָּסִם, to shear, and the species of corn to which it-gives a name is the ’Triticum spelta of Linnous- in Greek ζἐα; in Latin far and ador. " Spelt has a four-leaved blunted calix, small blossoms, with little awns, and a smooth, slender ear (as it were shorn), the grains of which sit so firmly in the husks that they must be freed from them by peculiar devices; it grows about as high as barley, and is extensively cultivated in the southern countries of Europe, in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine, in more than one species. The Sept. translate it by ὄλυρα, in Pliny arinca, which corresponds with the French riguet; and ’Herodotus. (ii, 36) observes that it was used by the Egyptians as for baking bread" (Kalisch ama Exo 9:32). SEE CEREALS.

Fitches. This word occurs in Isa 28:25; Isa 28:27. It would seem to be the black cummin, Nigella sativa, used for both food and medicine. The seed is aromatic, and of a sharp taste. This plant was beaten out with a staff, because the heavy drag would have crushed the seeds. The "fitches" of Eze 4:9 was spelt.

1. kussemeth, ’spelt,’ a species of grain resembling wheat with shorn ears. Eze 4:9. The same word is in Exo 9:32; Isa 28:25, translated RYE.

2. qetsach, ’black cummin,’ R.V. margin. This is doubtless the nigella sativa. Its small black seeds are aromatic, and are used as a condiment and a medicine. The prophet says they are beaten out with a rod. Isa 28:25-27.

FITCHES.—1. qetsach (Isa 28:25; Isa 28:27), RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘black cummin,’ the seeds of the aromatic herb Nigella sativa, commonly used to-day in Palestine as a condiment, especially on the top of loaves of bread. The contrast between the staff for the ‘fitches’ and the rod for the cummin is the more instructive when the great similarity of the two seeds is noticed. 2. kussemeth, Eze 4:9, in AVm [Note: Authorized Version margin.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘spelt,’ and in Exo 9:32, Isa 28:25 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘rie’ and RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘spelt.’ Spelt (Triticum spelta) is an inferior kind of wheat, the grains of which are peculiarly adherent to the sheath.

E. W. G. Masterman.

fich´iz (the English word “fitch” is the same as “vetch”):

(1) קצח, ḳecaḥ (Isa 28:25, Isa 28:27; the Revised Version, margin has “black cummin” (Nigella sativa)). This is the “nutmeg flower,” an annual herb (Natural Order, Ranunculaceae), the black seeds of which are sprinkled over some kinds of bread in Palestin. They were used as a condiment by the ancient Greeks and Romans. These seeds have a warm aromatic flavor and are carminative in their properties, assisting digestion. They, like all such plants which readily yield their seed, are still beaten out with rods. The contrast between the stouter staff for the “fitches” and the lighter rod for the cummin is all the more noticeable when the great similarity of the two seeds is noticed.

(2) כּסּמים, kuṣṣ^emı̄m (pl.) (Eze 4:9) the Revised Version (British and American) “spelt” (which see).

Isa 28:25 (b) In this passage types are used to illustrate the preaching of the Gospel, the harvesting of souls, and the use of the person after he is saved.

The fitches represent some of the things that accompany the Gospel. The wheat represents the saving message of the Gospel.

The four other grains may represent songs, prayers, humbleness of mind, and acceptance of the Word, all of which do usually accompany the preaching of the Gospel. GOD’s Gospel must occupy the principal place in all of our ministry to the lost. For that reason, the wheat is to be planted in the principal places in this allegory.

Fitches. Two different plants mentioned in the KJV

1. An annual herb one-half meter (one to two feet) tall with finely cut leaves and blue flowers, which produces black poppy seeds used in curries and sprinkled on breads. It is translated black cumin in the NKJV ( Isa 28:25; Isa 28:27).

2. A plant apparently mislabeled by the KJV in ( Eze 4:9). The correct identification is spelt. Also see Spelt.