A clear example of the ancient dative him ( = 'for him') remains in 1 K 13'" 'And he said unto his sons. Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass.' Other instances are 2 K 10' ' they . . . sent him them to Jezreel ' ; Sir 8'- ' Lend not unto him that is mightier than thyself ; for if thou lendest him, count it but lost ; and with /no, IK 13' ' pray for me, that my hand may be re- stored me ajjain.' But these inst-ances are scarcely obsolete. In Ps 7" we read, ' He hath jjrepared for him the instruments of death.' Coverdale'a tr° was ' He hath prepared him the weapens of death.' This became in Psalter of 1539 ' He hath prepared hym the instruments of death,' and it re- mained in 1G40, but in 1(562 it was changed to ' for him,' because (as Earle shows) ' prepared him ' must be ' prepared for himself ' (sibt), which is clearly wrong.
Him is occasionally used reflexively : 2 K 13" ' And Elisha said unto him. Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows'; Mt 9*'' ' But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said. Daughter, bo of ^ood comfort ' {i-maTpa(pcli, edd. irrpa<^fis, RV ' turning'): so with you. Hug 1" ' Ve clothe you, but there is none warm'; and with ' them, 2 K l''-'" 'they built them high places in all their cities.' Examples are frequent in Shaks., as Macbeth, V. iv. 4 —
' Let every ■oldier hew him down % bougli.*
And himself ioT he himself, which occurs in Mt 8" ' Himself took our infirmities and bare our sick-
3;r3
HEAD
HEAD
nessss,' may bo illustrated by Two Gent, of Verona, HI. 1. 143—
* llimseU would lodge where eeniielesa they &re l>iiig.*
On his as> the sign of the poss. case see His ; and on his for its see ITS. J. Hastings.
HEAD is the translation in OT of duT (in 1 Ch 10'" n^ij'j *skuU'; in 1 S l'J'« 20'- "• '», IK 19» rtfi;"!? the place where or the object on which the head is laid ; in Aram, portions of Dn c'kt) and in NT of KtipaXii. Tlie word is used very frequently both in a literal and a metaphorical sense.
(a) Of men ((Jn Jil'", Lv 8", Ca 8», Mt S", Mk 6« Lk 7" etc. etc.); opposed to 'foot' or used alon" with it in such expressions as ' from head to foot (Lv 13", cf. Is 1') : the son of the Sliunammite cries, from the etTects of sun-stroke, ' My head, my head ' (2 K 4>»).
(6) Of animals (Gn 3"), the serpent's head to be bruised [? see Dillm. nd lor.] by the seed of the woman, Ex 12' the head of the paschal lamb. Job 4(P' [Kng. 41'] of the crocodile. A 'dog's head' is an expression of contumely, 2 S 3*.
(c) In a transferred sense, of inanimate objects, e.g. the tower of Habel whose top (o.-ii) was to reach to heaven Gn 1 1*, Jacob's ladder 28'-, and frequently of mountains Ex IT'"- 19™ etc. We read of the head of Jacob's bed Gn 47" (cf. He 11*" where ^ttI t6 iKpov T^s jid^dov airroO is borrowed from the LXX, which must have read .to'? ' staff instead of noo ' bed.'
Similar to this is the usage of ' head ' to denote the beginning or source of something, e.g. in Gn 2'° the river wliich issued from the Garden of Eden was parted into four ' heads,' i.e. stream-beginnings (Dillm.), each of which became a river with a separate course (cf. the use of pnt in Is 51*", Ezk 16'^ 21^', where it means the beginning of roads and streets).
{d) Another very common metaphorical sense of ' head ' or ' heads ' is to denote t/ieprincipnl person or persons in a community (e.g. Ex 6'*- '■" 18^, Nu 1«- ft V \0> 13» 17» 25^- " 30', Dt 1" 5=^ 28'='- «, Jos 22", 1 Ch 5**, Is 9'*- " (where ' head ' and ' tail ' are opposed). Allied to this is the NT reference to the man as head of the woman Eph 5^, and to Christ as head of the Church Eph 4'» o-^, Col 1'* 2'» (where also the idea of the head as a vital part is prob- ably included), and as head over all principalities and powers Col 2'*.
' Heads ' are used in apocalyptic literature to denote kings or empires (cf. the golden head of the image seen in Nel'uchadrezzar s dream, Dn 2*-, •which represented that king and his dynasty ; the four-headed beast of 7' ; the beast ^vith seven heads and ten boms of Rev 13', with one of the heads wounded to death, v.', on all of which see Daniel, Revelation, and Bruston, Etudes tur Daniel et F Apocalypse).
The circumstance that the head is a principal Beat of life explains the words of Achish to David, 'I will make thee keeper of mine head '(IS 28'), i.e. body-guardsman ; cf. Ps 140' ' Thou hast covered (npi^p) my head in the day of battle' ; Dn 1'° 'endanger my head.' The head of an enemy might be cut oil" and exhibited as a trophy, or as a proof of death, Jg 7^, 1 S IT*- " 31», 2 S 4' 20="-, 2 K lO"*-. Swearing by the head is mentioned as a Jewish practice in Mt S?^. The character of the head as a \-ital part accounts also for certain super- stitions connected with the head of a sacrificial victim. While in Ex 12* it is expressly enjoined that the head and viscera of the paschal lamb are to be eaten, a dill'erent practice was widely followed amongst Orientals. Tne same taboo attached to the head as to the blood. Among the Egyptians the head * of the victim was thrown into the Nile, • Which wa« repanled u a special seat of the soul.