| false prophet | A person who claims to speak for God but does not really speak God’s truth. |
| famine | A time when there is not enough rain for crops to grow, causing people and animals to die without enough food or water. |
| fast | To live without food for a time of prayer or mourning. |
| fathers | Important ancestors of the Jewish people, especially the leaders of the tribes of Israel. |
| fawn | A baby deer. |
| fellowship offering | An offering to God that was also eaten by the person giving the sacrifice and shared with others, especially during New Moon celebrations. |
| Festival of Harvest | A one-day celebration of the wheat harvest in the spring, fifty days after Passover, during which the first part of the new crop was offered to God. Often called “Festival of Weeks,” it was later known as “Pentecost” (from the Greek word meaning “fifty”). |
| Festival of Shelters | A special week each year when the Israelites, and later the Jews, lived in tents to remember God’s protection during the time their people wandered in the desert for 40 years with Moses. Also called “Festival of Ingathering” (Ex. 23:16; 34:22). Read Lev. 23:33-36, 39-43. |
| Festival of Unleavened Bread | An important and holy week for the people of Israel and their descendants. In the time of the Old Testament it began the day after Passover, but by New Testament times the two festivals had become one. To prepare for it, the people threw out all their yeast and ate only bread without yeast for seven days.” |
| firepan | A small shovel used for removing ashes from an altar. |
| first agreement | The contract God gave to the Israelites when he gave them the Law of Moses. See “agreement.” |
| firstborn | The first child born into a family. The first son was very important in ancient times and became the head of the family at the father’s death. From this idea the word developed the meaning of a person who has a place of honor, a high position, or special importance. This is the sense of the word when it is used in the New Testament to refer to Jesus Christ. (It had already been used in the Old Testament to describe the Messiah. See Ps. 89:27.) |
| fortress | A building or city with tall, strong walls for protection. |
| fortuneteller | A person who tries to use magic to learn what will happen in the future. |
| frankincense | Special dried tree sap that was burned to make a sweet-smelling smoke and offered as a gift to God. See “incense.” |
| Free Men | Jews who had been slaves or whose fathers had been slaves, but were now free. |
| furnace | Or “kiln,” an oven for baking bricks to make them hard. |
