Kiberath-Haaretz

KIBERATH-HAARETZ, we meet with this Word in Genesis xxxv. 16, and xlviii. 7, and 2 Kings v. 19. St. Jerom in two several Passages translates it Spring, Verno tempore; and in the third, electo terræ tempore. The Septuagint keep to the Hebrew Word Chaphrata, and join it with Hippodromos, intending perhaps to shew, that Kiberath-Haaretz was the Space which a Horse run in the Hippodrom, that is, two Furlongs or three hundred Paces. Aquila translates it along the Ways; others an Arm of Land; others, the Way which a Chald. Syr. Vatab.Man might go from Meal to Meal. It is our Opinion, that Kiberath comes from the Hebrew, Kerab, or Kabar, which signifies to plough; and that Kiberath-Haaretz signifies a Ridge of Land, or the Length of a Piece of Ground which two Oxen might plough in a Day. This Length is an hundred and twenty Feet¹ whereof an Acre of Land is double. Jugum vocabatur, says Plin. l. 18. c 3.Pliny, quod uno jugo boum in die arari posset. Actus, in quo boves aguntur cum aratro, uno impetu justo. Hic erat cxx pedum; duplicatusque in longitudine jugerum faciebat. Compare Columella. l. 5. c. 1. Isidor. Origin. l. 15. c. 15. See likewise 1 Sam. xiv. 14, where it is said, that Jonathan and his Armour-bearer killed twenty men, within as it were half an Acre of Land, which a Yoke of Oxen might plough.

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