FIELD (שָׂדֶה, H8441, open field; שָׂדַי, H8442, level place; אֶ֫רֶץ, H824, land; בַּר֩, H1340, open country; חוּץ, H2575, out-of-doors; חֶלְקָה֮, H2754, plot; שְׁדֵמָה, H8727, field; יָגֵב, H3321, arable field; ἀγρός, G69, the open country; χώρα, G6001, territory belonging to a particular tribe, people; χωρίον, G6005, a particular locality). The Heb. word שָׂדֶה, H8441, is the most commonly used word for “field,” and means an unenclosed tract of ground, whether for pasture or tillage, and varying in size from a small area to the territory of a people (Gen 14:7 “country”; 23:9; Ruth 1:6 “country”; Matt 6:28; 13:24). It is sometimes contrasted with what is enclosed, whether a vineyard (Exod 22:5), a garden, or a walled town (Deut 28:3, 16). In some passages the word implies land remote from a house (Gen 4:8) or a settled habitation (24:27).

The separate plots of ground were marked off by stones, which might easily be removed (Deut 19:14), not by fences of any kind. Flocks and herds therefore constantly had to be watched. Fields sometimes received names after remarkable events, as Helkath-Hazzurim (“the field of swords”), or from the use to which they may have been applied, as “Fuller’s Field” (Isa 7:3) and “potter’s field” (Matt 27:7). See Agriculture.