Fatness

FATNESS [ISBE]

FATNESS - fat'-nes (deshen; piotes):

1. Literal:

The translation of deshen (Jdg 9:9, "But the olive-tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness?"; Job 36:16 (of food)), "full of fatness"; of chelebh, "fat," "the best part," "the marrow" (Job 15:27; Ps 73:7; Isa 34:6,7); of mishman, "fathess," "fertility" (Gen 27:28, "the fatness of the earth"; Isa 17:4, "the fatness of his flesh"); of shemen, "fatness," "oil" (Ps 109:24); of piotes, "fat," "fatness" (Rom 11:17, "partaker .... of the root of the fatness of the olive tree").

2. Figurative:

"Fatness" is used figuratively for the richness of God's goodness; as such it is the translation of deshen ("They shall be abundantly satisfied (margin "Hebrew watered") with the fatness of thy house" (Ps 36:8); "Thy paths drop fatness" (Ps 65:11; compare Isa 55:2; Jer 31:14).

"With fatness" is supplied, Dt 32:15 the King James Version, "covered with fatness"; the Revised Version (British and American) has "become sleek"; for "The yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing" (Isa 10:27) the American Standard Revised Version has "by reason of fatness," margin "Hebrew oil"; the English Revised Version as the King James Version, with margin as the American Standard Revised Version; the text is believed to be corrupt; Septuagint has "from your shoulders."

W. L. Walker