Hook
Hook Is the rendering in the Auth. Vers. of the following terms in the original. SEE FISH-HOOK; SEE FLESH-HOOK; SEE PRUNING-HOOK. The idea of a thorn enters into the etymology of several of them, probably because a thorn, hooked or straight, was the earliest instrument of this kind. Tacitus thus describes the dress of the ancient Germans. "A loose mantle fastened with a clasp, or, when that cannot be had, with a thorn" (Germ. 17). SEE THORN.
1. חָח, chach (lit. a thorn), a ring inserted in the nostrils of animals, to which a cord was fastened in order to lead them about or tame them (2Ki 19:28; Isa 37:29; Eze 29:4; Eze 38:4; compare Job 40:24); also a "chain" for a captive (Eze 19:4,9), and "bracelets" for females (Ex 25:22, where others a nose-ring, others a clasp for fastening the dress). In the first two of the above passages, Jehovah intimates his absolute control over Sennacherib by an allusion to the practice of leading buffaloes, camels, dromedaries, etc., by means of a cord, or of a cord attached to a ring, passed through the nostrils (Shaw, Travels, p. 167-8, 2nd ed.). Such a ring is oftentimes placed through the nose of a bull, and is likewise used in the East for leading about lions, camels, and other animals. A similar method was adopted for leading prisoners, as in the case of Manasseh, who was led with rings (2Ch 33:11). An illustration of this practice is found in a bas-relief discovered at Khorsabad (Layard, 2, 376; see also the cut under EYE). The term מוֹקֵשׁ is used in a similar sense in Job 40:24 (A.V. "bore his nose with a gin." margin). Another form of the same term, חוֹח(A.V. "thorn"), is likewise properly a ring placed through the mouth of a large fish, and attached by a cord (אִגמֹן) to a stake for the purpose of keeping it alive in the water (Job 41:2); the word meaning the cord is rendered "hook" in the A.V. See below.
2. The cognate word חִכָּה, chakkah', means a fishhook (Job 41; Job 1, "angle;" Isa 19:8; Hab 1:15). This passage in Job has occasioned the following speculations (see, for instance, Harris's Nat. Hist. of the Bible, art. Leviathal, London 1825). It has been assumed that Bochart has completely proved the Leviathan to mean the crocodile (Rosenmüller on Bochart, 3, 737, etc., 769, etc., Lips. 1796). Herodotus has then been quoted, where he relates that the Egyptians near Lake Maeris select a crocodile, render him tame, and suspend ornaments to his ears, and sometimes gems of great value; his fore feet being adorned with bracelets (2, 69); and the mummies of crocodiles, having their ears thus bored, have been discovered (Kenrick's Egypt of Herodotus, p. 97, London 1841). Hence it is concluded that this passage in Job refers to the facts mentioned by Herodotus; and, doubtless, the terms employed, especially by the Sept. and Vulg., and the third and following verses, favor the supposition, for there the captive is represented as suppliant and obsequious, in a state of security and servitude, and the object of diversion, "played with" as with a bird, and serving for the sport of maidens. Herodotus is further quoted to show that in his time the Egyptians captured the crocodile with a hook (ἄγκιστρον),with which (ἐξελκύσθη εἰς τῆν γῆν) he was drawn ashore; and accounts are certainly given by modern travelers of the continuance of this practice (Maillet, Descrip. d'Egypte, 2, 127, ed. Hag., 1740). But does not the entire description go upon the supposition of the impossibility of so treating Leviathan? Supposing the allusions to be correctly interpreted, is it not as much as to say, "Canst thou treat him as thou canst treat the crocodile and other fierce creatures?" Dr. Lee has, indeed, given reasons which render it doubtful, at least, whether the leviathan does mean the crocodile in this passage, or whether it does not mean some species of whale, as was formerly supposed the Delphinus orca communis or common grampus, found in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and also in the Nile. (See his examination of Bochart's reasonings, etc., in Translation and Notes on Job, p. 197 and 529-539, London 1837). So the above term in Ezekiel 29: "I will put my hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause thee to come up out of the midst of thy rivers," where the prophet foretells the destruction of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, by allusions to the destruction, possibly, of a crocodile, the symbol of Egypt. Thus Pliny (Hist. Nat. 8, 25) states, that the Tentyritee (inhabitants of Egypt) followed the crocodile, swimming after it in the river, sprung upon its back, thrust a bar into its mouth; which being held by its two extremities, serves as a bit, and enables them to brace it on shore (comp. Eze 29:3-4). Strabo relates that the; Tentyritae displayed their feats before the Romans (17 560, ed. Casaub.). SEE LEVIATHAN.
3. וָו, vav, a peg or pin, upon which the curtains of the Tabernacle were hung, springing out of the capitals(Ex 26:32, etc.). The Sept. and Jerome seem to, have understood the capitals of the pillars; and it has been urged that this is more likely to be the meaning than hooks, especially as 1775 shekels of silver were used in making these וָוַים for the pillars, overlaying the chapiters, and filleting them (ch. 38, 28), and that the hooks are really the קרסים, taches (Ex 26:6,11,33,35; Ex 39:33). Yet the Sept. also renders ווים, κρίκοι, rings or clasps (Ex 27:10-11, and ἀγκύλαι, Ex 38:17,19); and from a comparison of these, two latter passages, it would seem that these hooks, or rather tenters, rose out of the chapiters or heads of the pillars. The word seems to have given name to the letter ו in the Hebrew alphabet, possibly from a similarity of the form in which the latter appears in the Greek Digamma, to that of a hook. Mr. Paine (Solomon's Temple, etc., p. 25) regards these "hooks" as having been rather pins driven into the heads of the pillars, and thus projecting upward from them like a small tenon, upon which the silver rods were slipped by means of a small hole or eye in the latter. This would serve: to keep the pillars together. SEE TABERNACLE.
4. צַנָּה, tsinnah' (lit. thorn), Afish-hook (Am 4:2; elsewhere a shield). SEE FISHING, etc.; SEE ANGLE.
In the same verse, סַירוֹת, siroth', "fish-hooks,'" where both Sept. and Vulg. seem to have taken סיר in. the sense of a pot or caldron instead of a fish-hook. SEE CALDRON.
5. מִזלֵג, mazleg' (1Sa 2:13-14), "flesh-hook," and the מִזלגוֹת, "the flesh-hooks" (Ex 27:3, and elsewhere). This was evidently in the first passage a. trident "of three teeth," a kind of fork, etc., for turningthe sacrifices on the fire, and for collecting fragments, etc. SEE FLESH-HOOK.
⇒See also the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.
6. מִזמֵרוֹת, mazmeroth' (Isa 2:4, and elsewhere),. "beat their spears into pruning-hooks" (δρἐπανα, falces). The Roman poets have the same metaphor (Martial, 14:34, "Falx ex ense"). In Mic 4:3, in ligones, weeding-hooks, or shovels, spades, etc. Joel reverses the metaphor "pruning-hooks" into spears (3, 10, ligo-nes); and so Ovid (Fasti, 1, 697, in pila ligones). SEE-PRUNING-HOOK.
7. Doubtful is שׁפִתִּיַם, shephatta'yim, stalls for cattle: ("pots," Ps 48:13), also the cedar beams in the Temple court with hooks for flaying the victims (Eze 40:43). Other meanings given are ledges (Vulg. la- bia), or eaves, as though the word were שׂפָתִיַם pens for keeping the animals previous to their being slaughtered; hearthstones, as in the margin of the A.V.; and lastly, gutters to receive and carry off the blood from the slaughtered animals. Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 1470) explains the term as signifying stalls in the courts of the Temple where the sacrificial victims were fastened: our translators give in the margin "andirons, or the two hearthstones." The Sept. seems equally at a loss, καὶπαλαιστὴν ἕξουσι γεῖσος; as also Jerome, who renders it labia. Schlcusner pronounces γεῖσος to be a barbarous word formed from חיוֹ, and understands epistylium, a little pillar set on another, and capitellum, columned. The Chaldee renders עונקלין, short posts in the house of the slaughterers on which to suspend the sacrifices. Dr. Lightfoot, in his chapter "on the altar, the rings, and the laver," observes, "On the north side of the altar were six orders of rings, each of which contained six, at which they killed the sacrifices. Near by were low pillars set up, upon which were laid overthwart beams of cedar; on these were fastened rows of hooks, on which the sacrifices were hung; and they were flayed on marble tables, which were between these pillars" (see vers. 41, 42; Works, vol. 11, ch. 20, 14, London 1684-5-6). SEE TEMPLE.
8. Obviously an incorrect rendering for אִגמוֹן, ag-mon', a rush-rope, used for binding animals, perhaps by 'means of the ring in their nose (Job 41:2; elsewhere "'rush" or "caldron"). SEE FLAG.
9. Finally, δρεπανηφόρα in 2 Macc. 13:2 is rendered "armed with hooks," referring to the scythe-armed chariots of the ancients. SEE CHARIOT.
