Fence

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

 2 Samuel 23:7 (a) We are informed by this type that many wicked men are so dangerous, so strong, and so resourceful in their evil that those who approach them need to be well guarded lest they be greatly injured. This is certainly true of many of our great underworld characters.

 Job 10:11 (a) Because of Job's great troubles, trials and suffering, he wanted to die. He was not able to die, and so he describes the limitations of his body by this figure.

 Job 19:8 (a) Job felt that his hope of escape could not be found. All his resources were gone, his friends failed him, his health had departed, and he was left alone. He describes these experiences as being a fence which held him to his ash pile.

 Psalm 62:3 (a) There is some irony in this Scripture and some misery with it. David asks his enemies whether they regard him as a bowing wall or a tottering fence which they can easily destroy. He reminds them that this is not true, and that GOD will destroy them instead of they destroying him.

 Isaiah 5:2 (a) This figure represents the protection that GOD gave to Israel when he brought them into the land of Canaan and put His fear upon the nations round about so that they could develop themselves into a mighty kingdom. Instead of appreciating this wonderful protection, they discarded His care, and became followers of the idolatry of the neighboring nations.

 Jeremiah 15:20 (a) GOD assured Jeremiah that when he stood as a warning against Israel and reproved them for their sins, he would be fully protected and preserved by the GOD who sent him on this mission.

King James Dictionary

Fence n. fens. See Fend.

1. A wall, hedge, ditch, bank, or line of posts and rails, or of boards or pickets, intended to confine beasts from straying, and to guard a field from being entered by cattle, or from other encroachment. A good farmer has good fences about his farm an insufficient fence is evidence of bad management. Broken windows and poor fences are evidences of idleness or poverty or of both. 2. A guard any thing to restrain entrance that which defends from attack, approach or injury security defense.

A fence betwixt us and the victor's wrath.

3. Fencing, or the art of fencing defense. 4. Skill in fencing or defense.

FENCE, fens.

1. To inclose with a hedge, wall, or any thing that prevents the escape or entrance of cattle to secure by an inclosure. In New England, farmers, for the most part, fence their lands with posts and rails, or with stone walls. In England, lands are usually fenced with hedges and ditches.

He hath fenced my way that I cannot pass.  Job 19 .

2. To guard to fortify.

So much of adder's wisdom I have learnt, to fence my ear against thy sorceries.

FENCE,

1. To practice the art of fencing to use a sword or foil, for the purpose of learning the art of attack and defense. To fence well is deemed a useful accomplishment for military gentlemen. 2. To fight and defend by giving and avoiding blows or thrusts.

They fence and push, and pushing, loudly roar, their dewlaps and their sides are bathed in gore.

3. To raise a fence to guard. It is difficult to fence against unruly cattle.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( v. i.) Hence, to fight or dispute in the manner of fencers, that is, by thrusting, guarding, parrying, etc.

(2): ( v. t.) To fend off danger from; to give security to; to protect; to guard.

(3): ( n.) That which fends off attack or danger; a defense; a protection; a cover; security; shield.

(4): ( v. i.) To make a defense; to guard one's self of anything, as against an attack; to give protection or security, as by a fence.

(5): ( v. t.) To inclose with a fence or other protection; to secure by an inclosure.

(6): ( n.) A projection on the bolt, which passes through the tumbler gates in locking and unlocking.

(7): ( n.) An inclosure about a field or other space, or about any object; especially, an inclosing structure of wood, iron, or other material, intended to prevent intrusion from without or straying from within.

(8): ( n.) A receiver of stolen goods, or a place where they are received.

(9): ( n.) Self-defense by the use of the sword; the art and practice of fencing and sword play; hence, skill in debate and repartee. See Fencing.

(10): ( v. i.) To practice the art of attack and defense with the sword or with the foil, esp. with the smallsword, using the point only.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

FENCE .   Psalms 62:3 is the only occurrence of the subst., and probably the word there has its modern meaning (Coverdale ‘hedge’). But the participle ‘ fenced ’ (used of a city) always means ‘fortified’ (which Amer. RV [Note: Revised Version.] always substitutes). See Fortification.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Numbers 22:24  Psalm 62:3 Psalm 80:12 Isaiah 5:5 Ecclesiastes 10:8 Amos 5:19

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

fens ( בּצר , bācar , מבצר , mibhcār ): Commonly used in the King James Version in the description of fortified places, as the translation of bācar , "to cut off," "to separate," "to fortify" (and forms) ( Deuteronomy 3:5;  Deuteronomy 9:1;  Deuteronomy 28:52 , etc.); mibhcar , "fenced city," is a fortified place ( Numbers 32:17 ,  Numbers 32:36;  Joshua 10:20;  Joshua 19:35 , etc.); mācōr , "fenced cities," means "bulwark," "citadel" ( 2 Chronicles 8:5 ); mecūrāh , "fortification" ( 2 Chronicles 11:23;  2 Chronicles 12:4;  2 Chronicles 14:6;  2 Chronicles 21:3 ); for "fenced" the American Standard Revised Version substitutes "fortified" in all these instances; in  Daniel 11:15 , mibhcar is "a well-fortified city," margin "the fortified cities," the English Revised Version "well-fenced"; "fence" is also the translation of gādhēr , "a wall" or "fence" ( Job 19:8 the American Standard Revised Version, "walled up" ( gādhar );  Psalm 62:3 ); ‛āzaḳ , "to loosen" (the ground) as with a mattock ( Isaiah 5:2 , where the King James Version has "fenced" it (the vineyard), the American Standard Revised Version "digged it," the English Revised Version "made a trench about it," it" margin "digged it" sūkh , "to interweave" or "interlace" ( Job 10:11 , the Revised Version (British and American) "clothed"); mālē' , "to be or become full" ( 2 Samuel 23:7 , the Revised Version (British and American) "armed," margin "Hebrew filled").

ERV has "fence" for "wall" ( Numbers 22:24;  Isaiah 5:5;  Hosea 2:6; the American Standard Revised Version retains "wall"), for "hedge" ( Ecclesiastes 10:8;  Ezekiel 13:5;  Ezekiel 22:30; the American Standard Revised Version "wall"); "fenced" for "walled" ( Numbers 13:28;  Deuteronomy 1:28; the American Standard Revised Version "fortified"); compare for "strong"  Joshua 19:29;  Nehemiah 9:25;  Psalm 108:10 (margin   Joshua 19:29 , "the city of Mibzar-zor, that is, the fortress of Tyre," the English Revised Version ,"fenced"), for "hedged" ( Lamentations 3:7 , American Revised Version, "walled"); compare for "defenced," the English Revised Version "fenced," the American Standard Revised Version "fortified" ( Isaiah 36:1;  Isaiah 37:26 , etc.); "fences" for "hedges" ( Psalm 80:12 , the American Standard Revised Version "walls"); in  Jeremiah 49:3 , the English Revised Version and the American Standard Revised Version have "fences." See also Hedge .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( Psalms 62:3), גָּדֵר , Gader', a Wall (q.v.) rather than hedge (as elsewhere generally rendered). The Hebrews use two terms to denote a fence of different kinds: נָּדֵר , Goder', or גְּדֵרָה , gederah', and מְשׂוּכָה , Mesukah'. According to Vitringa, the latter denotes the outer thorny fence of the vineyard, and the former the inner wall of stones surrounding it. The chief use of the former was to keep off men, and of the latter to keep off beasts, not only from gardens, vineyards, etc., but also from the flocks at night (see  Proverbs 15:19;  Proverbs 24:31). (See Hedge). From this root the Phoenicians called any enclosed place Guddir, and particularly gave this name to their settlement in the south-western coast of Spain, which the Greeks from them called Γάθειρα , the Romans Gades, and the moderns Cadiz. (See Gederah). In  Ezekiel 13:5;  Ezekiel 22:30gader appears to denote the fortifications of a city; and in  Psalms 62:3, the wicked are compared to a tottering fence and bowing wall; i.e. their destruction comes suddenly upon them. Fenced cities (see below) were such as were fortified. (See Agriculture).