Letter Y
Yarn
Found only in 1 Kings 10:28, 2 Chr.1:16. The Heb. word mikveh, i.e., "a stringing together," so rendered, rather signifies a host, or company, or a string of horses. The Authorized Version has: "And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price;" but the Revised Version correctly renders: "And the horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt; the king's merchants received them in droves, each drove at a price."

Year
Heb. shanah, meaning "repetition" or "revolution" (Gen.1:14; 5:3). Among the ancient Egyptians the year consisted of twelve months of thirty days each, with five days added to make it a complete revolution of the earth round the sun. The Jews reckoned the year in two ways, (1) according to a sacred calendar, in which the year began about the time of the vernal equinox, with the month Abib; and (2) according to a civil calendar, in which the year began about the time of the autumnal equinox, with the month Nisan. The month Tisri is now the beginning of the Jewish year.

Yeshebi
The Hebrew word rendered "inhabitants" in Josh.17:7, but probably rather the name of the village Yeshepheh, probably Yassuf, 8 miles south of Shechem.

Yoke
(1.) Fitted on the neck of oxen for the purpose of binding to them the traces by which they might draw the plough, etc. (Num.19:2; Deut.21:3). It was a curved piece of wood called 'ol.

(2.) In Jer.27:2; 28:10, 12 the word in the Authorized Version rendered "yoke" is motah, which properly means a "staff," or as in the Revised Version, "bar."

These words in the Hebrew are both used figuratively of severe bondage, or affliction, or subjection (Lev.26:13; 1 Kings 12:4; Isa.47:6; Lam.1:14; 3:27). In the New Testament the word "yoke" is also used to denote servitude (Matt.11:29, 30; Acts 15:10; Gal.5:1).

(3.) In 1 Sam.11:7, 1 Kings 19:21, Job 1:3 the word thus translated is tzemed, which signifies a pair, two oxen yoked or coupled together, and hence in 1 Sam.14:14 it represents as much land as a yoke of oxen could plough in a day, like the Latin jugum. In Isa.5:10 this word in the plural is translated "acres."

Yoke-fellow
(Phil.4:3), one of the apostle's fellow-labourers. Some have conjectured that Epaphroditus is meant. Wyckliffe renders the phrase "the german felowe", i.e., "thee, germane [=genuine] comrade."

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