Bible Lexicons

בָּלַס (denom. from بَلَسُ, በሰስ፡ a fig, in Eth. also sycomore), to cultivate figs (and sycomores), or to gather, or to eat them, comp. συκάζειν and ἀποσυκάζειν. Amos 7:14, בּוֹלֵס שִׁקְמִים, well rendered by the LXX. κνίζων συκάμινα. Vulg. vellicans sycamina. For nipping, vellicatio, belongs to the cultivation of sycamines. [“a process by which they were ripened, πέπτειν οὐ δύναται ἂν μὴ ἐπικνισθῇ· ἀλλʼ ἔχοντες ὄνυχας σιδηρᾶς ἐπικνίζουσιν· ἃ δʼ ἂν ἐπικνισθῇ, τεταρταῖα πέπτεται.”] See Theophr. Hist. Pl. iv. 2; Plin. N. H. xiii. 7, § 14. Bochart in Hieroz. i. 348, seq.;