3. In these parts of the world, the fashion is in a state of almost daily fluctuation, and different fashions are not unfrequently seen contending for the superiority; but in the east, where the people are by no means given to change, the form of their garments continues nearly the same from one age to another. The greater part of their clothes are long and flowing, loosely cast about the body, consisting only of a large piece of cloth, in the cutting and sewing of which very little art or industry is employed. They have more dignity and gracefulness than ours, and are better adapted to the burning climates of Asia. From the simplicity of their form, and their loose adaptation to the body, the same clothes might be worn, with equal ease and convenience, by many different persons. The clothes of those Philistines whom Samson slew at Askelon required no altering to fit his companions; nor the robe of Jonathan, to answer his friend. The arts of weaving and fulling seem to have been distinct occupations in Israel, from a very remote period, in consequence of the various and skilful operations which were necessary to bring their stuffs to a suitable degree of perfection; but when the weaver and the fuller had finished their part, the labour was nearly at an end; no distinct artizan was necessary to make them into clothes; every family seems to have made their own. Sometimes, however, this part of the work was performed in the loom; for they had the art of weaving robes with sleeves all of one piece: of this kind was the coat which our Saviour wore during his abode with men. The loose dresses of these countries, when the arm is lifted up, expose its whole length: to this circumstance the Prophet Isaiah refers: “To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” that is, uncovered: who observes that he is about to exert the arm of his power?
4. The chosen people were not allowed to wear clothes of any materials or form they chose; they were forbidden by their law to wear a garment of woollen and linen. This law did not prevent them from wearing many different substances together, but only these two; nor did the prohibition extend to the wool of camels and goats, (for the hair of these animals they called by the same name,) but only to that of sheep. It was lawful for any man who saw an Israelite dressed in such a garment to fall upon him and put him to death. In the opinion of Maimonides, this was principally intended as a preservative from idolatry; for the Heathen priests of those times wore such mixed garments of woollen and linen, in the superstitious hope, it was imagined, of having the beneficial influence of some lucky conjunction of the planets or stars, to bring down a blessing upon their sheep and their flax. The second restraint referred to the sexes, of which one was not to wear the dress appropriated to the other. This practice is said to be an abomination to the Lord; which plainly intimates that the law refers to some idolatrous custom, of which Moses and the prophets always spoke in terms of the utmost abhorrence. Nothing, indeed, was more common among the Heathen, in the worship of some of their false deities, than for the males to assist in women’s clothes, and the females in the dress appropriated to men; in the worship of Venus, in particular, the women appeared before her in armour, and the men in women’s apparel; and thus the words literally run in the original Scriptures, “Women shall not put on the armour of a man, nor a man the stole of a woman.” Maimonides says he found this precept in an old magical book, “That men ought to stand before the star of Venus in the flowered garments of women, and women to put on the armour of men before the star of Mars.” But whatever there may be in these observations, it is certain that, if there were no distinction of sexes made by their habits, there would be danger of involving mankind in all manner of licentiousness and impurity.
5. The ancient Jews very seldom wore any covering upon the head, except when they were in mourning, or worshipping in the temple, or in the synagogue. To pray with the head covered, was, in their estimation, a higher mark of respect for the majesty of heaven, as it indicated the conscious unworthiness of the suppliant to lift up his eyes in the divine presence. To guard themselves from the wind or the storm, or from the still more fatal stroke of the sun-beam, to which the general custom of walking bare headed particularly exposed them, they wrapped their heads in their mantles, or upper garments. But during their long captivity in Babylon, the Jews began to wear turbans, in compliance with the customs of their conquerors; for Daniel informs us, that his three friends were cast into the fiery furnace with their hats, or, as the term should be rendered, their turbans. It is not, however, improbable, that the bulk of the nation continued to follow their ancient custom; and that the compliance prevailed only among those Jews who were connected with the Babylonish court; for many ages after that, we find Antiochus Epiphanes introducing the habits and fashions of the Grecians among the Jews; and as the history of the Maccabees relates, he brought the chief young men under his subjection, and made them wear a hat, or turban. Their legs were generally bare; and they never wore any thing upon the feet, but soles fastened in different ways, according to the taste or fancy of the wearer.
HADAD, son to the king of East Edom, was carried into Egypt by his father’s servants, when Joab, general of David’s troops, extirpated the males of Edom. Hadad was then a child. The king of Egypt gave him a house, lands, and every necessary subsistence, and married him to the sister of Tahpenes, his queen. By her he had a son, named Genubath, whom Queen Tahpenes educated in Pharaoh’s house with the king’s children. Hadad being informed that David was dead, and that Joab was killed, desired leave to return into his own country. Pharaoh wished to detain him, but at last permitted his return to Edom. Here he began to raise disturbances against Solomon; but the Scripture does not mention particulars. Josephus says, that Hadad did not return to Edom till long after the death of David, when Solomon’s affairs began to decline, by reason of his impieties. He also observes, that, not being able to engage the Edomites to revolt, because of the strong garrisons which Solomon had placed there, Hadad got together such people as were willing, and carried them to Razon, then in rebellion against Hadadezer, king of Syria. Razon received Hadad with joy, and assisted him in conquering part of Syria, where he reigned, and from whence he insulted Solomon’s territories.
HAGAR. After ten years’ residence in the land of Canaan, Abram, by the persuasion of his wife, who had been barren heretofore, and now despaired of bearing children herself when she was seventy-five years old, took, as a second wife, or concubine, her handmaid, Hagar, an Egyptian. When Hagar conceived, she despised her mistress, who dealt hardly with her, Abram giving her up to his wife’s discretion; so that she fled toward Egypt from the face of her mistress, but was stopped in her flight by the angel of the Lord, who foretold that she should bear a son called Ishmael, because the Lord heard her affliction, and that his race should be numerous, warlike, and unconquered; a prediction, as seen under the articleArabia, remarkably fulfilled to the present day. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael. When Isaac was weaned, Ishmael, the son of Hagar, who was now about fifteen years of age, offended Sarah by some mockery or ill treatment of Isaac; the original word signifies elsewhere, “to skirmish,” or “fight,” 2 Samuel ii, 14; and St. Paul represents Ishmael as “persecuting” him, Gal. iv, 29. Sarah therefore complained to Abraham, and said, “Cast out this bond-woman and her son, for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight, because of his son Ishmael;” but God approved of Sarah’s advice, and again excluded Ishmael from the special covenant of grace: “For in Isaac shall thy seed be called: nevertheless, the son of the bond-woman will I make a nation also, because he is thy seed.” God renewed this promise also to Hagar, during her wanderings in the wilderness of Beersheba, when she despaired of support: “Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hands, for I will make him a great nation. And God was with the lad, and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and became an archer. And his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.” SeeAbrahamandIshmael.
We do not know when Hagar died. The rabbins say she was Pharaoh’s daughter; but Chrysostom asserts that she was one of those slaves which Pharaoh gave to Abraham, Gen. xii, 16. The Chaldee paraphrasts, and many of the Jews, believe Hagar and Keturah to be the same person; but this is not credible. Philo thinks that Hagar embraced Abraham’s religion, which is very probable. The Mussulmans and Arabians, who are descended from Ishmael, the son of Hagar, speak mightily in her commendation. They call her in eminency, Mother Hagar, and maintain that she was Abraham’s lawful wife; the mother of Ishmael, his eldest son; who, as such, possessed Arabia, which very much exceeds, say they, both in extent and riches, the land of Canaan, which was given to his younger son Isaac.
HAGARENES, the descendants of Ishmael: called also Ishmaelites and Saracens, or Arabians, from their country. Their name, Saracens, is not derived, as some have thought, from Sarah, Abraham’s wife, but from the Hebrewsarak, which signifies “to rob” or “to steal;” because they mostly carry on the trade of thieving: or from Sahara, the desert; Saracens, inhabitants of the desert. But some writers think Hagarene importssouth, conformably to the Arabic; hence Hagar, that is,the southern woman; and Mount Sinai is called Hagar, that is, the southern mountain, Gal. iv, 25. But there seems also to have been a particular tribe who bore this name more exclusively, as the Hagarenes are sometimes mentioned in Scripture distinct from the Ishmaelites, Psalm lxxxiii, 6; 1 Chron. v, 19.
HAGGAI was one of the Jews who returned with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem in consequence of the edict of Cyrus; and it is believed that he was born during the captivity, and that he was of the sacerdotal race. His prophecy consists of four distinct revelations, all which took place in the second year of Darius, king of Persia, B. C. 520. The prophet reproves the people for their delay in building the temple of God, and represents the unfruitful seasons which they had experienced as a divine punishment for this neglect. He exhorts them to proceed in the important work; and by way of encouragement predicts, that the glory of the second temple, however inferior in external magnificence, shall exceed that of the first; which was accomplished by its being honoured with the presence of the Saviour of mankind. He farther urges the completion of the temple by promises of divine favour, and under the type of Zerubbabel he is supposed by some to foretel the great revolutions which shall precede the second advent of Christ. The style of Haggai is in general plain and simple; but in some passages it rises to a considerable degree of sublimity.
HAIR. The eastern females wear their hair, which the prophet emphatically calls the “instrument of their pride,” very long, and divided into a great number of tresses. In Barbary, the ladies all affect to have their hair hang down to the ground, which, after they have collected into one lock, they bind and plait with ribands. Where nature has been less liberal in its ornaments, the defect is supplied by art, and foreign is procured to be interwoven with the natural hair. The Apostle’s remark on this subject corresponds entirely with the custom of the east, as well as with the original design of the Creator: “Does not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given her for a covering,” 1 Cor. xi, 14. The men in the east, Chardin observes, are shaved; the women nourish their hair with great fondness, which they lengthen by tresses, and tufts of silk down to the heels. But among the Hebrews the men did not shave their heads; they wore their natural hair, though not long; and it is certain that they were, at a very remote period, initiated in the art of cherishing and beautifying the hair with fragrant ointments. The head of Aaron was anointed with a precious oil, compounded after the art of the apothecary; and in proof that they had already adopted the practice, the congregation were prohibited, under pain of being cut off, to make any other like it, after the composition of it, Exod. xxx, 32, 33. The royal Psalmist alludes to the same custom in the twenty-third Psalm: “Thou anointest my head with oil.” We may infer from the direction of Solomon, that the custom had at least become general in his time: “Let thy garments be always white, and let thy head lack no ointment,” Eccles. ix, 8. After the hair is plaited and perfumed, the eastern ladies proceed to dress their heads, by tying above the lock into which they collect it, a triangular piece of linen, adorned with various figures in needlework. This, among persons of better fashion, is covered with asarmah, as they call it, which is made in the same triangular shape, of thin flexible plates of gold or silver, carefully cut through, and engraven in imitation of lace, and might therefore answer toהשהרנים, the moonlike ornament mentioned by the prophet in his description of the toilette of a Jewish lady, Isaiah iii, 18. Cutting off the hair was a sign of mourning, Jer. vii, 29; but sometimes in mourning they suffered it to grow long. In ordinary sorrows they neglected their hair; and in violent paroxysms they plucked it off with their hands.
John Baptist was clothed in a garment made of camel’s hair, not with a camel’s skin, as painters and sculptors represent him, but with coarse camlet made of camel’s hair. The coat of the camel in some places yields very fine silk, of which are made stuffs of very great price; but in general this animal’s hair is hard, and scarcely fit for any but coarse habits, and a kind of hair cloth. Some are of opinion that camlet derives its name from the camel, being originally composed of the wool and hair of camels; but at present there is no camel’s hair in the composition of it, as it is commonly woven and sold among us.
HAM, or CHAM,חם, son of Noah, and brother to Shem and Japheth, is believed to have been Noah’s youngest son. Ham, says Dr. Hales, signifiesburntorblack, and this name was peculiarly significant of the regions allotted to his family. To the Cushites, or children of his eldest son, Cush, were allotted the hot southern regions of Asia, along the coasts of the Persian Gulf, Susiana or Chusistan, Arabia, &c; to the sons of Canaan, Palestine and Syria; to the sons of Misraim, Egypt and Libya, in Africa. The Hamites, in general, like the Canaanites of old, were a sea-faring race, and sooner arrived at civilization and the luxuries of life than their simpler pastoral and agricultural brethren of the other two families. The first great empires of Assyria and Egypt were founded by them; and the republics of Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage, were early distinguished for their commerce: but they sooner also fell to decay; and Egypt, which was one of the first, became the last and “basest of the kingdoms,” Ezek. xxix, 15; and has been successively in subjection to the Shemites, and Japhethites; as have also the settlements of the other branches of the Hamites. SeeCanaan.
HAMAN, son of Hammedatha, the Amalekite, of the race of Agag; or, according to other copies, son of Hamadath the Bugean or Gogean, that is, of the race of Gog; or it may be read, Haman the son of Hamadath, whichHaman was Bagua or Bagoas, eunuch, that is, officer to the king of Persia. We have no proof of Haman’s being an Amalekite; but Esther iii, 1, reads of the race of Agag. In the apocryphal Greek, Esther ix, 24, and the Latin, Esther xvi, 10, he is called a Macedonian,animo et gente Macedo. King Ahasuerus, having taken him into favour, promoted him above all the princes of his court, who bent the knee to him (probably prostrated themselves wholly before him, as to a deity) when he entered the palace: this Mordecai the Jew declined, for which slight, Haman plotted the extirpation of the whole Jewish nation; which was providentially prevented. He was hanged on a gibbet fifty cubits high, which he had prepared for Mordecai; his house was given to Queen Esther; and his employments to Mordecai. His ten sons were likewise executed. SeeEsther.
HAMATH, a city of Syria, capital of a province of the same name, lying upon the Orontes, Joshua xiii, 5; Judges iii, 3; 2 Kings xiv, 25; 2 Chron. vii, 8. The king of Hamath cultivated a good understanding with David, 2 Sam. viii, 9. This city was taken by the kings of Judah, and afterward retaken by the Syrians, and recovered from them by Jeroboam the Second, 2 Kings xiv, 28.
HAND sometimes denotes the vengeance of God: “The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod,” after they had taken the ark, 1 Samuel v, 6, 7. To pour water on any one’s hands, signifies to serve him, 2 Kings iii, 11. To wash one’s hands, denotes innocence: Pilate washed his hands to denote his being innocent of the blood of Jesus, Matthew xxvii, 24. To kiss one’s hand, is an act of adoration, 1 Kings xix, 18. “If I beheld the sun when it shined, and my mouth hath kissed my hand,” Job xxxi, 27. To fill one’s hands, is to take possession of the priesthood, to perform the functions of that office; because in this ceremony, those parts of the victim which were to be offered, were put into the hand of the newly created priest, Judges xvii, 5, 12; 1 Kings xiii, 33. To lean upon any one’s hand, is a mark of familiarity and superiority. The king of Israel had a confident on whom he thus leaned, 2 Kings vii, 17. The king of Syria leaned on the hand or arm of Naaman when he went up to the temple of Rimmon, 2 Kings v, 18. To lift up one’s hand, is a way of taking an oath which has been in use among all nations. To give one’s hand, signifies to grant peace, to swear friendship, to promise entire security, to make alliance, 2 Kings x, 15. The Jews say, they were obliged to give the hand to the Egyptians and Assyrians, that they might procure bread, 2 Macc. xiii, 22; that is, to surrender to them, to submit. To stretch out one’s hand, signifies to chastise, to exercise severity or justice, Ezek. xxv, 7. God delivered his people with a high hand, and arm stretched out; by performing many wonders, and inflicting many chastisements, on the Egyptians. To stretch out one’s hand, sometimes denotes mercy: “I have spread out my hands,” entreated, “all the day unto a rebellious people,” Isaiah lxv, 2. Hand is also frequently taken for the power and impression of the Holy Spirit felt by a prophet: “The hand of the Lord was on Elijah,” 1 Kings xviii, 46. It is said that God gave his law by the hand of Moses, that he spoke by the hand of prophets, &c; that is, by their means, by them, &c. The right hand denotes power, strength. The Scripture generally imputes to God’s right hand all the effects of his omnipotence: “Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy,” Exodus xv, 6. The Son of God is often represented as sitting at the right hand of his heavenly Father: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand,” Psalm cx, 1; thou hast done thy work upon earth, now take possession of that sovereign kingdom and glory which by right belongeth unto thee; do thou rule with authority and honour, as thou art Mediator. The right hand commonly denotes the south, as the left does the north; for the Hebrews speak of the quarters of the world, in respect of themselves, having their faces turned to the east, their backs to the west, their right hands to the south, and their left to the north. For example: “Doth not David hide himself with us in strong holds, in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?” in Hebrew, “on theright handof Jeshimon.” The accuser was commonly at the right hand of the accused: “Let Satan stand at his right hand,” Psalm cix, 6. And in Zech. iii, 1, Satan was at the right hand of the high priest Joshua, to accuse him. Often, in a contrary sense, to be at one’s right hand signifies to defend, to protect, to support him: “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved,” Psalm xvi, 8. To turn from the law of God, neither to the right hand nor to the left, is a frequent Scripture expression, the meaning of which is, that we must not depart from it at all. Our Saviour, in Matt, vi, 3, to show with what privacy we should do good works, says that our left hand should not know what our right hand does. Above all things, we should avoid vanity and ostentation in all the good we undertake to do, and should not think that thereby we merit any thing. Laying on hands, or imposition of hands, is understood in different ways both in the Old and New Testament. It is often taken for ordination and consecration of priests and ministers, as well among the Jews as Christians, Num. viii, 10; Acts vi, 6; xiii, 3; 1 Tim. iv, 14. It is sometimes also made use of to signify the establishment of judges and magistrates, on whom it was usual to lay hands when they were entrusted with these employments. Thus, when Moses constituted Joshua his successor, God appointed him to lay his hands upon him, Numbers xxvii, 18. Jacob laid his hands on Ephraim and Manasseh, when he gave them his last blessing, Gen. xlviii, 14. The high priest stretched out his hands to the people, as often as he recited the solemn form of blessing, Lev. ix, 22. The Israelites, who presented sin offerings at the tabernacle, confessed their sins while they laidtheir hands upon them, Lev. i, 4. This testified that the person acknowledged himself worthy of death, that he laid his sins upon the sacrifice, that he trusted in Christ for the expiation of his sins, and that he devoted himself to God. Witnesses laid their hands upon the head of the accused person, as it were to signify that they charged upon him the guilt of his blood, and freed themselves from it, Deut. xiii, 9; xvii, 7. Our Saviour laid his hands upon the children that were presented to him, and blessed them, Mark x, 16. And the Holy Ghost was conferred on those who were baptized by the laying on of the hands of the Apostles, Acts viii, 17; xix, 6.
HANNAH. SeeSamuel.
HARAN, the eldest son of Terah, and brother to Abraham and Nahor. He was the father of Lot, Milcah, and Iscah, Gen. xi, 26, &c. Haran died before his father Terah.
2.Haran, otherwise called Charran, in Mesopotamia, a city celebrated for having been the place to which Abraham removed first, after he left Ur, Gen. xi, 31, 32, and where Terah was buried. Thither it was likewise that Jacob repaired to Laban, when he fled from Esau, Gen. xxvii, 43; xxviii, 10, &c. Haran was situated in the north-western part of Mesopotamia on a river of the same name running into the Euphrates. Mr. Kinneir says, that Haran, which is still so called, or rather Harran, is now peopled by a few families of wandering Arabs, who have been led thither by a plentiful supply of good water from several small streams. It is situated in 36° 52´ north latitude, and 39° 5´ east longitude; in a flat and sandy plain. Some think that it was built by Terah, or by Haran, his eldest son.
HARE,ארנבת, Arabicarneb, Lev. xi, 6; Deut. xiv, 7. This name is derived, as Bochart and others suppose, fromארה,to crop, andניב,the produce of the ground; these animals being remarkable for devouring young plants and herbage. This animal resembles the rabbit, but is larger, and somewhat longer in proportion to its thickness. The hare in Syria, says Dr. Russel, is distinguished into two species, differing considerably in point of size. The largest is the Turkman hare, and chiefly haunts the plains; the other is the common hare of the desert: both are abundant. The difficulty as to this animal is, that Moses says thearnabethchews the cud, which our hares do not: but Aristotle takes notice of the same circumstance, and affirms that the structure of its stomach is similar to that of ruminating animals. The animal here mentioned may then be a variety of the species.
HAROSHETH OF THE GENTILES, a city supposed to be situated near Hazor, in the northern parts of Canaan, called afterward Upper Galilee, or Galilee of the Gentiles, for the same reason that this place probably obtained that title, namely, from being less inhabited by Jews, and being near the great resorts of the Gentiles, Tyre and Sidon. This is said to have been the residence of Sisera, the general of the armies of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned at Hazor.
HARP, a stringed musical instrument. The Hebrew wordkinaor, which is translated “harp” in our English version, very probably denoted all stringed instruments. By the Hebrews, the harp was called thepleasantharp; and it was employed by them, not only in their devotions, but also at their entertainments and pleasures. It is probable, that the harp was nearly the earliest, if not the earliest, instrument of music. David danced when he played on the harp: the Levites did the same. Hence it appears, that it was light and portable, and that its size was restricted within limits which admitted of that service, and of that manner of using it.
HART,איל, Deut. xii, 15; xiv, 5; Psalm xlii, 1; Isaiah xxxv, 6, the stag, or male deer. Dr. Shaw considers its name in Hebrew as a generic word including all the species of the deer kind; whether they are distinguished by round horns, as the stag; or by flat ones, as the fallow deer; or by the smallness of the branches, as the roe. Mr. Good observes that the hind and roe, the hart and the antelope, were held, and still continue to be, in the highest estimation in all the eastern countries, for the voluptuous beauty of their eyes, the delicate elegance of their form, or their graceful agility of action. The names of these animals were perpetually applied, therefore, to persons, whether male or female, who were supposed to be possessed of any of their respective qualities. In 2 Sam. i, 19, Saul is denominated “the roe of Israel;” and in the eighteenth verse of the ensuing chapter, we are told that “Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe:” a phraseology perfectly synonymous with the epithetswift-footed, which Homer has so frequently bestowed upon his hero Achilles. Thus again: “Her princes are like harts which find no pasture; they are fled without strength before their pursuers,” Lam. i, 6. “The Lord Jehovah is my strength; he will make my feet like hinds’ feet; he will cause me to tread again on my own hills,” Hab. iii, 19. SeeHind.
HARVEST. Three months intervened between the seed time and the first reaping, and a month between this and the full harvest. Barley is in full ear all over the Holy Land, in the beginning of April; and about the middle of the same month, it begins to turn yellow, particularly in the southern districts; being as forward near Jericho in the latter end of March, as it is in the plains of Acre a fortnight afterward. The reaping continues till the middle of Sivan, or till about the end of May or beginning of June, which, as the time of wheat harvest, finishes this part of the husbandman’s labours.
2. The reapers in Palestine and Syria make use of the sickle in cutting down their crops, and, according to the present custom in this country, “fill their hand” with the corn, and those who bind up the sheaves, their “bosom,” Psalm cxxix, 7; Ruth ii, 5. When the crop is thin and short, which is generally the case in light soils, and with their imperfect cultivation, it is not reaped with the sickle, butplucked up by the root with the hand. By this mode of reaping, they leave the most fruitful fields as naked as if nothing had ever grown on them; and as no hay is made in the east, this is done, that they may not lose any of the straw, which is necessary for the sustenance of their cattle. The practice of plucking up with the hand is perhaps referred to in these words of the Psalmist, to which reference has already been made: “Let them be as the grass upon the house tops, which withereth afore it groweth up; wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.” The tops of the houses in Judea are flat, and, being covered with plaster of terrace, are frequently grown over with grass. As it is but small and weak, and from its elevation exposed to the scorching sun, it is soon withered. A more beautiful and striking figure, to display the weak and evanescent condition of wicked men, cannot easily be conceived.
3. The reapers go to the field very early in the morning, and return home betimes in the afternoon. They carry provisions along with them, and leathern bottles, or dried bottle gourds, filled with water. They are followed by their own children, or by others, who glean with much success, for a great quantity of corn is scattered in the reaping, and in their manner of carrying it. The greater part of these circumstances are discernible in the manners of the ancient Israelites. Ruth had not proposed to Naomi, her mother-in-law, to go to the field, and glean after the reapers; nor had the servant of Boaz, to whom she applied for leave, so readily granted her request, if gleaning had not been a common practice in that country. When Boaz inquired who she was, his overseer, after informing him, observes, that she came out to the field in the morning; and that the reapers left the field early in the afternoon, as Dr. Russel states, is evident from this circumstance, that Ruth had time to beat out her gleanings before evening. They carried water and provisions with them; for Boaz invited her to come and drink of the water which the young men had drawn; and at meal-time, to eat of the bread, and dip her morsel in the vinegar. And so great was the simplicity of manners in that part of the world, and in those times, that Boaz himself, although a prince of high rank in Judah, sat down to dinner in the field with his reapers, and helped Ruth with his own hand. Nor ought we to pass over in silence the mutual salutation of Boaz and his reapers, when he came to the field, as it strongly marks the state of religious feeling in Israel at the time, and furnishes another proof of the artless, the happy, and unsuspecting simplicity, which characterized the manners of that highly favoured people. “And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless thee,” Ruth ii, 4.
4. It appears from the beautiful history of Ruth, that, in Palestine, the women lent their assistance in cutting down and gathering in the harvest; for Boaz commands her to keep fast by his maidens. The women in Syria shared also in the labours of the harvest; for Dr. Russel informs us, they sang theziraleet, or song of thanks, when the passing stranger accepted their present of a handful of corn, and made a suitable return. It was another custom among the Jews to set a confidential servant over the reapers, to see that they executed their work properly, that they had suitable provisions, and to pay them their wages: the Chaldees call himrab, the master, ruler, or governor of the reapers. Such was the person who directed the labours of the reapers in the field of Boaz. The right of the poor in Israel to glean after the reapers was secured by a positive law, couched in these words: “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy land; neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard: thou shalt leave them to the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God,” Lev. xix, 9. It is the opinion of some writers, that, although the poor were allowed the liberty of gleaning, the Israelitish proprietors were not obliged to admit them immediately into the field, as soon as the reapers had cut down the corn, and bound it up in sheaves, but when it was carried off: they might choose, also, among the poor, whom they thought most deserving, or most necessitous. These opinions receive some countenance from the request which Ruth presented to the servant of Boaz, to permit her to glean “among the sheaves;” and from the charge of Boaz to his young men, “Let her glean even among the sheaves;” a mode of speaking which seems to insinuate that though they could not legally hinder Ruth from gleaning in the field, they had a right, if they chose to exercise it, to prohibit her from gleaning among the sheaves, or immediately after the reapers.
HATE. To hate is not always to be understood rigorously, but frequently signifies merely a less degree of love. “If a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated,” Deut. xxi, 15; that is, less beloved. Our Saviour says that he who would follow him must hate father and mother; that is, he must love them less than Christ, less than his own salvation, and not prefer them to God. “Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated;” that is, have deprived of the privileges of his primogeniture, through his own profanity; and visited him with severe judgment on account of his sins.
HAURAN. The tract of country of this name is mentioned only twice in Scripture, Ezek. xlvii, 16, 18. It was probably of small extent in the time of the Jews; but was enlarged under the Romans, by whom it was called Auranitis. At present it extends from about twenty miles south of Damascus to a little below Bozra, including the rocky district of El Ledja, the ancient Trachonitis, and the mountainous one of the Djebel Haouran. Within its limits are also included, beside Trachonitis,Ituræa or Ittur, now called Djedour, and part of Batanæa or Bashan. It is represented by Burckhardt as a volcanic region, consisting of a porous tufa, pumice, and basalt, with the remains of a crater on the Tel Shoba, on its eastern side. It produces, however, crops of corn, and has many patches of luxuriant herbage, which are frequented in the summer by the Arab tribes for pasturage. It abounds, also, with many interesting remains of cities, scattered over its surface, with Grecian inscriptions. The chief of these are Bozra, Ezra, Medjel, Shoba, Shakka, Souerda, Kanouat, Hebran, Zarle, Oerman, and Aatyl; with Messema, Berak, and Om Ezzeitoun, in the Ledja.
HAVILAH, the son of Cush, Genesis x, 7. There must have been other, and perhaps many, Havilahs beside the original one, a part of the numerous and wide-spread posterity of Cush. By one and the first of these, it is probable that the western shores of the Persian Gulf were peopled; by another, the country of Colchis; and by another, the parts about the southern border of the Dead Sea and the confines of Judea, the country afterward inhabited by the Amalekites.
HAWK,נץ, from the rootנצה,to fly, because of the rapidity and length of flight for which this bird is remarkable, Lev. xi, 16; Deut. xiv, 15; Job xxxix, 26.Nazis used generically by the Arabian writers to signify both falcon and hawk; and the term is given in both these senses by Meninski. There can be little doubt that such is the real meaning of the Hebrew word, and that it imports various species of the falcon family, as jer-falcon, goshawk, and sparrow-hawk. As this is a bird of prey, cruel in its temper, and gross in its manners, it was forbidden as food, and all others of its kind, in the Mosaic ritual. The Greeks consecrated the hawk to Apollo; and among the Egyptians no animal was held in so high veneration as the ibis and the hawk. Most of the species of hawk, we are told; are birds of passage. The hawk, therefore, is produced, in Job xxxix, 26, as a specimen of that astonishing instinct which teaches birds of passage to know their times and seasons, when to migrate out of one country into another for the benefit of food, or a warmer climate, or both. The common translation does not give the full force of the passage: “Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom?” The real meaning is, “Doth she know, through thy skill or wisdom, the precise period for taking flight, or migrating and stretching her wings toward a southern or warmer climate?” The passage is well rendered by Sandys:--
“Doth the wild haggard tower into the sky,And to the south by thy direction fly?”
“Doth the wild haggard tower into the sky,And to the south by thy direction fly?”
“Doth the wild haggard tower into the sky,And to the south by thy direction fly?”
“Doth the wild haggard tower into the sky,
And to the south by thy direction fly?”
Her migration is not conducted by the wisdom and prudence of man, but by the superintending and upholding providence of the only wise God.
HAY,חציר. In the two places where this word occurs, Prov. xxvii, 25, and Isaiah xv, 16, our translators have very improperly rendered it “hay.” But in those countries they made no hay; and, if they did, it appears from inspection that hay could hardly be the meaning of the word in either of those texts. The author of “Fragments,” in continuation of Calmet, has the following remarks: “There is a gross impropriety in our version of Prov. xxvii, 25: ‘The hay appeareth, and the tender grass showeth itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered.’ Now, certainly, if the tender grass is but just beginning to show itself, the hay, which is grass cut and dried after it has arrived at maturity, ought by no means to be associated with it, still less ought it to be placed before it. And this leads me to observe, that none of the dictionaries which I have seen seem to me to give the accurate import of the word, which, I apprehend, meansthe first shoots,the rising,budding,spires of grass. So, in the present passage,גלה חציר, ‘the tender shoots of the grass rise up; and the buddings of grass,’ grass in its early state, as is the peculiar import ofרשא, ‘appear; and the tufts of grass,’ proceeding from the same root, ‘collect themselves together, and, by their union, begin to clothe the mountain tops with a pleasing verdure.’” Surely, the beautiful progress of vegetation, as described in this passage, must appear too poetical to be lost; but what must it be to an eastern beholder! to one who had lately witnessed all surrounding sterility, a grassless waste!
HAZAEL. Elisha coming to Damascus, the capital of Syria, Benhadad, the reigning monarch, being then indisposed, sent Hazael, who was one of his principal officers, to wait upon the prophet, and consult him as to the issue of his disorder, 2 Kings viii, 7–13. The prophet told Hazael that certainly his master might recover, because his complaint was not mortal; yet he was very well assured that he would not recover; and, looking him steadfastly in the face, Elisha burst into tears. Surprised at this conduct, Hazael inquired the cause. “Because I know,” said the prophet, “the evil that thou wilt do to the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their infants against the stones, and rip up their women with child.” Hazael indignantly exclaimed, “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?” Elisha merely answered, “The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria,” 2 Kings viii, 7–13. On his return home, Hazael concealed from his master Benhadad the prophet’s answer, and inspired him with hopes of recovery; but on the following day, he took effectual means to prevent it, by stifling the king with a thick cloth dipped with water; and, as Benhadad had no son, and Hazael was a man much esteemed in the army, he was, without difficulty declared his successor, A. M. 3120. Hazael soon inflicted upon Israel all the cruelties which Elisha had foretold. For when Jehu broke up the siege of Ramoth-Gilead, and came with his army to Samaria, Hazael took advantage of his absence to fall upon his territories beyond Jordan, destroying all the land of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh,from Aroer to Bashan, 2 Kings x, 32. Some years passed after this before Hazael undertook any thing against the kingdom of Judah, it being remote from Damascus; but in the reign of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, A. M. 3165, he besieged the city of Gath, and, having taken it, marched against Jerusalem, 2 Kings xii, 17, 18. But Joash, conscious of his inferiority, bribed him at the price of all the money he could raise, to evacuate Judea, with which he for the moment complied; yet, in the following year, the army of Hazael returned, entered the territories of Judah, and the city of Jerusalem, slew all the princes of the people, and sent a valuable booty to their royal master, 2 Kings xiii, 22; 2 Chron. xxiv, 23.
HEAD. This word has several significations, beside its natural one, which denotes the head of a man. It is sometimes used in Scripture for the whole man: “Blessings are upon the head of the just,” Prov. x, 6; that is, upon their persons. God says of the wicked, “I will recompense their way upon their head,” Ezek. ix, 10. It signifies a chief or capital city: “The head of Syria is Damascus,” Isaiah vii, 8. It denotes a chief or principal members in society: “The Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail. The ancient and honourable he is the head,” Isaiah ix, 14, 15. “The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent,” Gen. iii, 15; that is, Christ Jesus, the blessed seed of the woman, shall overthrow the power, policy, and works of the devil. The river in paradise was divided into four heads or branches. In times of grief, the mourners covered their heads: they cut and plucked off their hair. Amos, speaking of unhappy times, says, “I will bring baldness upon every head,” Amos viii, 10. In prosperity, they anointed their heads with sweet oils: “Let thy head lack no” perfumed “ointment,” Eccles. ix, 8. To shake the head at any one, expresses contempt: “The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee,” Isaiah xxxvii, 22.
Head is taken for one that hath rule and preëminence over others. Thus God is the head of Christ; as Mediator, from him he derives all his dignity and authority. Christ is the only spiritual head of the church, both in respect of eminence and influence; he communicates life, motion, and strength to every believer. Also the husband is the head of his wife, because by God’s ordinance he is to rule over her, Gen. iii, 16; also in regard to preëminence of sex, 1 Peter iii, 7, and excellency of knowledge, 1 Cor. xiv, 35. The Apostle mentions this subordination of persons in 1 Cor. xi, 3: “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.” “The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner,” Psalm cxviii, 22. It was the first in the angle, whether it were disposed at the top of that angle to adorn and crown it, or at the bottom to support it. This, in the New Testament, is applied to Christ, who is the strength and beauty of the church, to unite the several parts of it, namely both Jews and Gentiles together.
HEAR, HEARING. This word is used in several senses in Scripture. In its obvious and literal acceptation, it denotes the exercise of that bodily sense of which the ear is the organ; and as hearing is a sense by which instruction is conveyed to the mind, and the mind is excited to attention and to obedience, so the ideas of attention and obedience are also grafted on the expression or sense of hearing. God is said, speaking after the manner of men, to hear prayer, that is, to attend to it, and comply with the requests it contains: “I love the Lord, because he hath heard,” hath attended to, hath complied with, “the voice of my supplication,” Psalm cxvi, 1. On the contrary, God is said not to hear, that is, not to comply with, the requests of sinners, John ix, 31. Men are said to hear, when they attend to, or comply with, the request of each other, or when they obey the commands of God: “He who is of God heareth,” obeyeth, practiseth, “God’s words,” John viii, 47. “My sheep hear my voice,” and show their attention to it, by following me, John x, 27. “This is my beloved Son: hear ye him,” Matt. xvii, 5. This seems to be an allusion to Deut. xviii, 15, 18, 19: “The Lord shall raise up unto you a prophet; him shall ye hear;” which is also expressly applied in Acts iii, 22. The other senses which may be attached to the word “hear,” seem to rise from the preceding, and may be referred to the same ideas.
HEART. The Hebrews regarded the heart as the source of wit, understanding, love, courage, grief, and pleasure. Hence are derived many modes of expression. “An honest and good heart,” Luke viii, 15, is a heart studious of holiness, being prepared by the Spirit of God to receive the word with due affections, dispositions, and resolutions. We read of a broken heart, a clean heart, an evil heart, a liberal heart. To “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers,” Mal. iv, 6, signifies to cause them to be perfectly reconciled, and that they should be of the same mind. To want heart, sometimes denotes to want understanding and prudence: “Ephraim is like a silly dove, without heart,” Hosea vii, 11. “O fools, and slow of heart,” Luke xxiv, 25; that is, ignorant, and without understanding. “This people’s heart is waxed gross, lest they should understand with their heart,” Matt. xiii, 15; their heart is become incapable of understanding spiritual things; they resist the light, and are proof against all impressions of truth. “The prophets prophesy out of their own heart,” Ezekiel xiii, 2; that is, according to their own imagination, without any warrant from God.
The heart is said to be dilated by joy, contracted by sadness, broken by sorrow, to grow fat, and be hardened by prosperity. The heart melts under discouragement, forsakes one under terror, is desolate in affliction, and fluctuatingin doubt. To speak to any one’s heart is to comfort him, to say pleasing and affecting things to him. The heart expresses also the middle part of any thing: “Tyre is in the heart of the seas,” Ezekiel xxvii, 4; in the midst of the seas. “We will not fear though the mountains be carried into the heart (middle) of the sea,” Psalm xlvi, 2.
The heart of man is naturally depraved and inclined to evil, Jer. xvii, 9. A divine power is requisite for its renovation, John iii, 1–11. When thus renewed, the effects will be seen in the temper, conversation, and conduct at large. Hardness of heart is that state in which a sinner is inclined to, and actually goes on in, rebellion against God.
HEATH,ערער, Jer. xvii, 6; xlviii, 6. “He shall be like the heath in the desert. He shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land.” The LXX and Vulgate renderoror, “the tamarisk;” and this is strengthened by the affinity of the Hebrew name of this tree with the Turkishœrœr. Taylor and Parkhurst render it, “a blasted tree stripped of its foliage.” If it be a particular tree, the tamarisk is as likely as any. Celsius thinks it to be the juniper; but from the mention of it as growing in a salt land, in parched places, the author of “Scripture Illustrated” is disposed to seek it among thelichens, a species of plants which are the last production of vegetation under the frozen zone, and under the glowing heat of equatorial deserts; so that it seems best qualified to endure parched places, and a salt land. Hasselquist mentions several kinds seen by him in Egypt, Arabia, and Syria. In Jer. xlviii, 6, the original word isערוער, which the Septuagint translators have readערור, for they render it ὄνος ἄγριος,wild ass; and, as this seems best to agree with the flight recommended in the passage, it is to be preferred. SeeWild Ass.
HEAVEN, the place of the more immediate residence of the Most High, Gen. xiv, 19. The Jews enumerated three heavens: the first was the region of the air, where the birds fly, and which are therefore called “the fowls of heaven,” Job xxxv, 11. It is in this sense also that we read of the dew of heaven, the clouds of heaven, and the wind of heaven. The second is that part of space in which are fixed the heavenly luminaries, the sun, moon, and stars, and which Moses was instructed to call “the firmament or expanse of heaven,” Gen. i, 8. The third heaven is the seat of God and of the holy angels; the place into which Christ ascended after his resurrection, and into which St. Paul was caught up, though it is not like the other heavens perceptible to mortal view.
2. It is an opinion not destitute of probability, that the construction of the tabernacle, in which Jehovah dwelt by a visible symbol, termed “the cloud of glory,” was intended to be a type of heaven. In the holiest place of the tabernacle, “the glory of the Lord,” or visible emblem of his presence, rested between the cherubims; by the figures of which, the angelic host surrounding the throne of God in heaven was typified; and as that holiest part of the tabernacle was, by a thick vail, concealed from the sight of those who frequented it for the purposes of worship, so heaven, the habitation of God, is, by the vail of flesh, hidden from mortal eyes. Admitting the whole tabernacle, therefore, in which the worship of God was performed according to a ritual of divine appointment, to be a representation of the universe, we are taught by it this beautiful lesson, that the whole universe is the temple of God; but that in this vast temple there is “a most holy place,” where the Deity resides and manifests his presence to the angelic hosts and redeemed company who surround him. This view appears to be borne out by the clear and uniform testimony of Scripture; and it is an interesting circumstance, that heaven, as represented by “the holiest of all,” is heaven as it is presented to the eye of Christian faith, the place where our Lord ministers as priest, to which believers now come in spirit, and where, they are gathered together in the disembodied state. Thus, for instance, St. Paul tells the believing Hebrews, “Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church ofthe first-bornthe first-born, which are written,” or are enrolled, “in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel,” Heb. xii, 22–24. Here we are presented with the antitype of almost every leading circumstance of the Mosaic dispensation. Instead of the land of Canaan, we have heaven; for the earthly Jerusalem, we have the heavenly, the city of the living God; in place of the congregation of Israel after the flesh, we have the general assembly and church of the first-born, that is, all true believers “made perfect;” for just men in the imperfect state of the old dispensation, we have just men made perfect in evangelical knowledge and holiness; instead of Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, we have Jesus the Mediator of the new and everlasting covenant; and instead of the blood of slaughtered animals, which was sprinkled upon the Israelites, the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, to make atypicaltypicalatonement, we have the blood of the Son of God, which was shed for the remission of the sins of the whole world; that blood which doth not, like the blood of Abel, call for vengeance but for mercy, which hath made peace between heaven and earth, effected the true and complete atonement for sin, and which therefore communicates peace to the conscience of every sinner that believes the Gospel.
3. Among the numerous refinements of modern times that is one of the most remarkable which goes to deny the locality of heaven. “It is a state,” say many, “not a place.” But if that be the case, the very language of theScriptures, in regard to this point, is calculated to mislead us. For that God resides in a particular part of the universe, where he makes his presence known to his intelligent creatures by some transcendent, visible glory, is an opinion that has prevailed among Jews and Christians, Greeks and Romans, yea, in every nation, civilized or savage, and in every age; and, since it is confirmed by revelation, why should it be doubted? Into this most holy place, the habitation of the Deity, Jesus, after his resurrection, ascended; and there, presenting his crucified body before the manifestation of the divine presence, which is called “the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,” he offered unto God the sacrifice of himself, and made atonement for the sins of his people. There he is sat down upon his throne, crowned with glory and honour, as king upon his holy hill of Zion, and continually officiates as our great High Priest, Advocate, and Intercessor, within the vail. There is his Father’s house, into which he is gone before, to prepare mansions of bliss for his disciples; it is the kingdom conferred upon him as the reward of his righteousness, and of which he has taken possession as their forerunner, Acts i, 11; Heb. vi, 19, 20.
4. Some of the ancients imagined that the habitation of good men, after the resurrection, would be the sun; grounding this fanciful opinion on a mistaken interpretation of Psalm xix, 4, which they rendered, with the LXX and Vulgate, “He has set his tabernacle in the sun.” Others, again, have thought it to lie beyond the starry firmament, a notion less improbable than the former. Mr. Whiston supposes the air to be the mansion of the blessed, at least for the present; and he imagines that Christ is at the top of the atmosphere, and other spirits nearer to or more remote from him according to the degree of their moral purity, to which he conceives the specific gravity of their inseparable vehicles to be proportionable. Mr. Hallet has endeavoured to prove that they will dwell upon earth, when it shall be restored to its paradisaical state. The passages of Scripture, however, on which he grounds his hypothesis, are capable of another and very different interpretation. After all, we may observe, that the place of the blessed is a question of comparatively little importance; and we may cheerfully expect and pursue it, though we cannot answer a multitude of curious questions, relating to various circumstances that pertain to it. We have reason to believe that heaven will be a social state, and that its happiness will, in some measure, arise from mutual communion and converse, and the expressions and exercises of mutual benevolence. All the views presented to us of this eternal residence of good men are pure and noble; and form a striking contrast to the low hopes, and the gross and sensual conceptions of a future state, which distinguish the Pagan and Mohammedan systems. The Christian heaven may be described to be a state of eternal communion with God, and consecration to hallowed devotional and active services; from which will result an uninterrupted increase of knowledge, holiness, and joy, to the glorified and immortalized assembly of the redeemed.
HEBER, or EBER, the father of Peleg, and the son of Salah, who was the grandson of Shem, one of Noah’s sons, was born A. M. 1723; B. C. 2281. From him some have supposed that Abraham and his descendants derived the appellation of Hebrews. But others have suggested, with greater probability, that Abraham and his family were thus called, because they came from the other side of the Euphrates into Canaan; Heber signifying in the Hebrew languageone that passes, or,a passage, that is, of the river Euphrates. According to this opinion, Hebrew signifies much the same as foreigner among us, or one that comes from beyond sea. Such were Abraham and his family among the Canaanites; and his posterity, learning and using the language of the country, still retained the appellation originally given them, even when they became possessors and settled inhabitants.
2.Heberthe Kenite, of Jethro’s family, husband to Jael, who killed Sisera, Judges iv, 17, &c.
HEBREW OF THE HEBREWS, an appellation which the Apostle Paul applies to himself, Phil. iii, 5, concerning the meaning of which there has been some difference of opinion. Godwin, in his “Moses and Aaron,” understands by this expression, a Hebrew both by father’s and mother’s side. But if it meant no more than this, there was little occasion for the Apostle’s using it immediately after having declared that he was “of the stock of Israel, and the tribe of Benjamin,” which, on Godwin’s supposition, is the same as a Hebrew of the Hebrews; for the Jews were not allowed to marry out of their own nation. Beside, it is not likely that St. Paul would have mentioned it as a distinguishing privilege and honour, that his parents were not proselytes. It is more probable that a Hebrew of the Hebrews signifies a Hebrew both by nation and language, which many of Abraham’s posterity, in those days, were not; or one of the Hebrew Jews who performed their public worship in the Hebrew tongue; for such were reckoned more honourable than the Jews born out of Judea, and who spoke the Greek tongue. SeeHellenists.
HEBREW LANGUAGE, called also absolutely Hebrew, is the language spoken by the Hebrews, and in which all the books of the Old Testament are written; whence it is also called the holy or sacred language. It is said to have been preserved in the midst of the confusion at Babel, in the family of Heber, or Eber, who, as it is alleged, was not concerned in the building of Babel, and, consequently, did not share in the punishment inflicted on the actual transgressors. The Jews, in general, have been of opinion, that the Hebrew was the language of Heber’s family, from whom Abraham sprung. On the other hand, it has been maintained that Heber’s family, in the fourth generation after the dispersion, lived in Chaldea, where Abraham was born, Gen. xi,27, 28, and that there is no reason to think they used a different language from their neighbours around them. It appears, moreover, that the Chaldee, and not the Hebrew, was the language of Abraham’s country, and of his kindred, Gen. xxiv, 4; xxxi, 46, 47; and it is probable that Abraham’s native language was Chaldee, and that the Hebrew was the language of the Canaanites, which Abraham and his posterity learned by travelling among them. It is surprising that this adoption of the Phenician language by the patriarchs should have escaped the notice of several intelligent readers of the Bible. Jacob and Laban, it is clear, by the names they gave to the cairn, or memorial of stones, spoke two different dialects; and it is nearly equally evident, that the language of Laban was the dialect of Ur of the Chaldees, the original speech of the Hebrew race. As the patriarchs disused the true Hebrew dialect, it is manifest that they had conformed to the speech of Canaan; and that this conformity was complete, is proved by the identity between all the remains of Canaanitish names. At the same time, it must be remarked, that the Phenician and the Chaldean were merely different dialects of the same primitive language which had been spoken by the first ancestors of mankind.
2. There is no work in all antiquity written in pure Hebrew, beside the books of the Old Testament; and even some parts of those are in Chaldee. The Hebrew appears to be the most ancient of all the languages in the world; at least it is so with regard to us, who know of no older. Dr. Sharpe adopts the opinion, that the Hebrew was the original language; not indeed that the Hebrew is the unvaried language of our first parents, but that it was the general language of men at the dispersion; and, however it might have been improved and altered from the first speech of our first parents, it was the original of all the languages, or almost all the languages, rather dialects, that have since arisen in the world. Arguments have also been deduced from the nature and genius of the Hebrew language, in order to prove that it was the original language, neither improved nor debased by foreign idioms. The words of which it is composed are short, and admit of very little flexion. The names of places are descriptive of their nature, situation, accidental circumstances, &c. The compounds are few, and inartificially conjoined; and it is less burdened with those artificial affixes which distinguish other cognate dialects, such as the Chaldean, Syrian, Arabian, Phenician, &c.
The period, from the age of Moses to that of David, has been considered the golden age of the Hebrew language, which declined in purity from that time to the reign of Hezekiah or Manasseh, having received several foreign words, particularly Aramean, from the commercial and political intercourse of the Jews and Israelites with the Assyrians and Babylonians. This period has been termed the silver age of the Hebrew language. In the interval between the reign of Hezekiah and the Babylonish captivity, the purity of the language was neglected, and so many foreign words were introduced into it, that this period has not inaptly been designated its iron age. During the seventy years’ captivity, though it does not appear that the Hebrews entirely lost their native tongue, yet it underwent so considerable a change from their adoption of the vernacular languages of the countries where they had resided, that afterward, on their return from exile, they spoke a dialect of Chaldee mixed with Hebrew words. On this account it was, that, when the Scriptures were read, it was found necessary to interpret them to the people in the Chaldean language; as, when Ezra the scribe brought the book of the law of Moses before the congregation, the Levites are said to have caused the people to understand the law, because “they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading,” Nehem. viii, 8. Some time after the return from the great captivity, Hebrew ceased to be spoken altogether; though it continued to be cultivated and studied by the priests and Levites, as a learned language, that they might be enabled to expound the law and the prophets to the people, who, it appears from the New Testament, were well acquainted with their general contents and tenor: this last mentioned period has been called the leaden age of the language.
The present Hebrew characters, or letters, are twenty-two in number, and of a square form; but the antiquity of these letters is a point that has been most severely contested by many learned men. From a passage in Eusebius’s Chronicle, and another in St. Jerom, it was inferred by Joseph Scaliger, that Ezra, when he reformed the Jewish church, transcribed the ancient characters of the Hebrews into the square letters of the Chaldeans; and that this was done for the use of those Jews who, being born during the captivity, knew no other alphabet than that of the people among whom they had been educated. Consequently, the old character, which we call the Samaritan, fell into total disuse. This opinion Scaliger supported by passages from both the Talmuds, as well as from rabbinical writers, in which it is expressly affirmed that such characters were adopted by Ezra. But the most decisive confirmation of this point is to be found in the ancient Hebrew coins, which were struck before the captivity, and even previously to the revolt of the ten tribes. The characters engraven on all of them are manifestly the same with the modern Samaritan, though with some trifling variations in their forms, occasioned by the depredations of time.
HEBREWS, sometimes called Israelites, from their progenitor, Jacob, surnamed Israel, and in modern times Jews, as the descendants of Judah, the name of this leading tribe being given to all. SeeJews.
Hebrews, Epistle to the.Though the genuineness of this epistle has been disputed both in ancient and modern times, its antiquityhas never been questioned. It is generally allowed that there are references to it, although the author is not mentioned, in the remaining works of Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, and Justin Martyr; and that it contains, as was first noticed by Chrysostom and Theodoret, internal evidence of having been written before the destruction of Jerusalem, Heb. viii, 4; ix, 25; x, 11, 37; xiii, 10. The earliest writer now extant who quotes this epistle as the work of St. Paul is Clement of Alexandria, toward the end of the second century; but, as he ascribes it to St. Paul repeatedly and without hesitation, we may conclude that in his time no doubt had been entertained upon the subject, or, at least, that the common tradition of the church attributed it to St. Paul. Clement is followed by Origen, by Dionysius and Alexander, both bishops of Alexandria, by Ambrose, Athanasius, Hilary of Poitiers, Jerom, Chrysostom, and Cyril, all of whom consider this epistle as written by St. Paul; and it is also ascribed to him in the ancient Syriac version, supposed to have been made at the end of the first century. Eusebius says, “Of St. Paul there are fourteen epistles manifest and well known; but yet there are some who reject that to the Hebrews, urging for their opinion that it is contradicted by the church of the Romans, as not being St. Paul’s.” In Dr. Lardner we find the following remark: “It is evident that this epistle was generally received in ancient times by those Christians who used the Greek language, and lived in the eastern parts of the Roman empire.” And in another place he says, “It was received as an epistle of St. Paul by many Latin writers in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries.” The earlier Latin writers take no notice of this epistle, except Tertullian, who ascribes it to Barnabas. It appears, indeed, from the following expression of Jerom, that this epistle was not generally received as canonical Scripture by the Latin church in his time: “Licet eam Latina consuetudo inter canonicas Scripturas non recipiat.” [Although the usage of the Latin church does not receive it among the canonical Scriptures.] The same thing is mentioned in other parts of his works. But many individuals of the Latin church acknowledged it to be written by St. Paul, as Jerom himself, Ambrose, Hilary, and Philaster; and the persons who doubted its genuineness were those the least likely to have been acquainted with the epistle at an early period, from the nature of its contents not being so interesting to the Latin churches, which consisted almost entirely of Gentile Christians, ignorant, probably, of the Mosaic law, and holding but little intercourse with Jews.
2. The moderns, who, upon grounds of internal evidence, contend against the genuineness of this epistle, rest principally upon the two following arguments, the omission of the writer’s name, and the superior elegance of the style in which it is written. It is indeed certain that all the acknowledged epistles of St. Paul begin with a salutation in his own name, and that, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, there is nothing of that kind; but this omission can scarcely be considered as conclusive against positive testimony. St. Paul might have reasons for departing, upon this occasion, from his usual mode of salutation, which we at this distant period cannot discover. Some have imagined that he omitted his name, because he knew that it would not have much weight with the Hebrew Christians, to whom he was in general obnoxious, on account of his zeal in converting the Gentiles, and in maintaining that the observance of the Mosaic law was not essential to salvation: it is, however, clear, that the persons to whom this epistle was addressed knew from whom it came, as the writer refers to some acts of kindness which he had received from them, and also expresses a hope of seeing them soon, Hebrews x, 34; xiii, 18, 19, 23. As to the other argument, it must be owned that there does not appear to be such superiority in the style of this epistle, as should lead to the conclusion that it was not written by St. Paul. Those who have thought differently have mentioned Barnabas, St. Luke, and Clement, as authors or translators of this epistle. The opinion of Jerom was, that the sentiments are the Apostle’s, but the language and composition that of some one else, who committed to writing the Apostle’s sense, and, as it were, reduced into commentaries the things spoken by his master. Dr. Lardner says, “My conjecture is, that St. Paul dictated the epistle in Hebrew, and another, who was a great master of the Greek language, immediately wrote down the Apostle’s sentiments in his own elegant Greek; but who this assistant of the Apostle was, is altogether unknown.” But surely the writings of St. Paul, like those of other authors, may not all have the same precise degree of merit; and if, upon a careful perusal and comparison, it should be thought that the Epistle to the Hebrews is written with greater elegance than the acknowledged compositions of this Apostle; it should also be remembered that the apparent design and contents of this epistle suggest the idea of more studied composition, and yet, that there is nothing in it which amounts to a marked difference of style: on the other hand, there is the same concise, abrupt, and elliptical mode of expression, and it contains many phrases and sentiments which are found in no part of Scripture, except in St. Paul’s Epistles. We may farther observe, that the manner in which Timothy is mentioned in this epistle makes it probable that it was written by St. Paul. Compare Heb. xiii, 23, with 2 Cor. i, 1, and Col. i, 1. It was certainly written by a person who had suffered imprisonment in the cause of Christianity; and this is known to have been the case of St. Paul, but of no other person to whom this epistle has been attributed. Upon the whole, both the external and internal evidence appear to preponderate so greatly in favour of St. Paul’s being the author of this epistle, that it cannot but be considered as written by that Apostle.
3. “They of Italy salute you,” is the only expression in the epistle which can assist usin determining from whence it was written. The Greek words are, οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰταλίας which should have been translated, “Those from Italy salute you;” and the only inference to be drawn from them seems to be, that St. Paul, when he wrote this epistle, was at a place where some Italian converts were. This inference is not incompatible with the common opinion, that this epistle was written from Rome, and therefore we consider it as written from that city. It is supposed to have been written toward the end of St. Paul’s first imprisonment at Rome, or immediately after it, because the Apostle expresses an intention of visiting the Hebrews shortly: we therefore place the date of this epistle in the year 63.
4. Clement, of Alexandria, Eusebius, and Jerom, thought that this epistle was originally written in the Hebrew language; but all the other ancient fathers who have mentioned this subject speak of the Greek as the original work; and as no one pretends to have seen this epistle in Hebrew, as there are no internal marks of the Greek being a translation, and as we know that the Greek language was at this time very generally understood at Jerusalem, we may accede to the more common opinion, both among the ancients and moderns, and consider the present Greek as the original text. It is no small satisfaction to reflect, that those who have denied either the genuineness or the originality of this epistle have always supposed it to have been written or translated by some fellow labourer or assistant of St. Paul, and that almost every one admits that it carries with it the sanction and authority of the inspired Apostle.
5. There has been some little doubt concerning the persons to whom this epistle was addressed; but by far the most general and most probable opinion is, that it was written to those Christians of Judea who had been converted to the Gospel from Judaism. That it was written, notwithstanding its general title, to the Christians of one certain place or country, is evident from the following passages: “I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner,” Heb. xiii, 19. “Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you,” Heb. xiii, 23. And it appears from the following passage in the Acts, “When the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews,” Acts vi, 1, that certain persons were at this time known at Jerusalem by the name of Hebrews. They seem to have been native Jews, inhabitants of Judea, the language of which country was Hebrew, and therefore they were called Hebrews, in contradistinction to those Jews who, residing commonly in other countries, although they occasionally came to Jerusalem, used the Greek language, and were therefore called Grecians.
6. The general design of this epistle was to confirm the Jewish Christians in the faith and practice of the Gospel, which they might be in danger of deserting, either through the persuasion or persecution of the unbelieving Jews, who were very numerous and powerful in Judea. We may naturally suppose, that the zealous adherents to the law would insist upon the majesty and glory which attended its first promulgation, upon the distinguished character of their legislator, Moses, and upon the divine authority of the ancient Scriptures; and they might likewise urge the humiliation and death of Christ as an argument against the truth of his religion. To obviate the impression which any reasoning of this sort might make upon the converts to Christianity, the writer of this epistle begins with declaring to the Hebrews, that the same God who had formerly, upon a variety of occasions, spoken to their fathers by means of his prophets, had now sent his only Son for the purpose of revealing his will; he then describes, in most sublime language, the dignity of the person of Christ, Heb. i; and thence infers the duty of obeying his commands, the divine authority of which was established by the performance of miracles, and by the gifts of the HolyGhostGhost; he points out the necessity of Christ’s incarnation and passion, Heb. ii; he shows the superiority of Christ to Moses, and warns the Hebrews against the sin of unbelief, Heb. iii; he exhorts to steadfastness in the profession of the Gospel, and gives an animated description of Christ as our high priest, Heb. iv-vii; he shows that the Levitical priesthood and the old covenant were abolished by the priesthood of Christ, and by the new covenant, Heb. viii; he points out the efficacy of the ceremonies and sacrifices of the law, and the sufficiency of the atonement made by the sacrifice of Christ, Heb. ix, x; he fully explains the nature, merit, and effects of faith, Heb. xi; and in the last two chapters he gives a variety of exhortations and admonitions, all calculated to encourage the Hebrews to bear with patience and constancy any trials to which they might be exposed. He concludes with the valedictory benediction usual in St. Paul’s Epistles: “Grace be with you all. Amen.” The most important articles of our faith are explained, and the most material objections to the Gospel are answered with great force, in this celebrated epistle. The arguments used in it, as being addressed to persons who had been educated in the Jewish religion, are principally taken from the ancient Scriptures; and the connection between former revelations and the Gospel of Christ, is pointed out in the most perspicuous and satisfactory manner.