For the OT villages and their relation to the 'mother' city, see City, and cf. Fortification and Siegecraft, ad init. In all periods of Heb. history the cultivators of the soil lived for greater security in villages, the cultivated and pasture land of which was held in common. Solitary homesteads were unknown. The NT writers and Josephus also distinguish between a city (polis) and a village (k

Village.

This word in addition to its ordinary sense, is often used, especially in the enumeration of towns in

Jos 13:15,19

to imply unwalled suburbs outside the walled towns. Arab villages, as found in Arabia, are often mere collections of stone huts, "long, low rude hovels, roofed only with the stalks of palm leaves," or covered for a time with tent-cloths, which are removed when the tribe change their quarters. Others are more solidly built, as are most of the of palestine, though in some the dwellings are mere mud-huts.