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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Lentiles
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. Small beans, common in Syria and Egypt, called 'adas, very palatable; the ingredient of the red pottage ('edom), for which Esau sold his birthright. Dried and cooked they are still used as portable provisions for a journey; so Barzillai brought them to David's hungry followers (). In time of scarcity used with wheat, barley, beans, millet, and fitches, as a substitute for pure flour (). The Arabs make Hebron the scene of Esau's selling his birthright, and therefore daily supply the needy with lentil soup from the kitchen of a mosque there. Some derive "Lent" from the use of lentils at that season in Roman Catholic countries.