Hormah is mentioned, Jos 12", along with Arad as one of tlie 31 royal cities taken by Josliua, in 15'" as 'one of the uttermost cities . . . tow.ard the border of Edom in the South,' and in 1!)', 1 Ch 4*' as part of the inheritance of Simeon. In 1 S SO*' it occurs after the cities of the Kenites (cf. the same connexion in Jg 1'°- ").
The position of Hormah depends npon that assigned to Kadesh, and two identifications have been proposed : that of Robinson, who identities it with es-Sufah, a pass through the mountains on one of the roads from Petra to Hebron ; ami that of Rowlands and Palmer, who propose Sebaita as its site, in the AVad)- cl-.\byadli, about 25 miles in N. N.E. direction fmin '.\iu Kadis. Both identili- cations are made with Zephath, which is mentioned only Jg 1", and assume that the old Canaanite name has survived — an assumption not without tlilliculty, in face of the evidence of the OT that the ]>lace was known as Hormah. Either site is appropriate according to the theory adopted as to tlie position of Kadc.sli. If the ii.entilications of Ziklag and Jerahmecl (1 S 30^) be accepted aa being in the neighbourhood of Sebaita, they would increase the probability in favour of that .site. Its distance from Arad may be urged as nn objection, but we do not know the extent of the territory belonging to the king of Arad, nor does it state in Nu 21--' that the cities were in his territory. See Robinson, liRl" ii. 181 : Palmer, Desert of the Exodus, 374 ff.; and art. Kadi:.sii.
A. T. CnAPM.w.
HORN (pp, ic/pos) has, besides its usual meaning, three other signilications in the Bible. 1. .\ kind of bugle or comet (from L. rerun) for military purposes (.los 6'), which see under Tltl'MPET. 2. \i\ emblem of strength or power deriveil from the otl'ensive weapons of some aniiuaU. As the word is always used in the sing., it is very likely that the special animal from which this use of it
J
♦ 16
HORNET
HORROR
came was the one-horned rhinoceros, or the fabu- Unis unicorn whicli still appears on the insijjnia of British arms. This emblematical sense of power is thejnrincijial use made of this word in both OT and Ivf. 1 hus the liorn is said to be ' exalted ' (Ps 89") when the figure represents the show of great power, or ' broken ' (Jer 48'^) when the idea 19 that of its destruction. The same metaphor is sometimes used in tlie sense of arrogance : ' Lift not up the horn . . . sjjcak not with a still" neck' (I's 75*" KV) ; compare the contrary e-xpression of humiliation : ' I have sewed sackcloth upon mv skin, and have laid my horn in the dust' (Job 16'° KV). Another form of the ligvirative sense is when it repre.sents kinfjs (in the Books of Dn and Kev), who wielded the ^jowev of a whole nation. There is no real connexion between any of these iiietaphoric uses and the Ashteroth - karnaim^ the two-homed Astarte (Gn 14°) — who, in Flicen. mythology, was the goddess of the Moon, and on whose head the crescent is represented in some of her statues. Alexander the Great is also called in the Koran (18. 82), and by Arab, writers, 'the two-homed,' most probably in reference to the two rams' horns seen in some of his coins curling backwards above his ears, which he adopted in honour of Amnion the Egyptian god, to whom the ram was sacred. An equally erroneous idea has been long entertained about the silver horn worn on the liead by women of the Lebanon about iifty years ago, which was simply an exaggerated piece of head-dress for supporting the veil to cover the head and face, and had no reference to symbolized power. See DRE.SS in vol. i. p. 627", where the horn IS figured. 3. The horns of the altar were four projecting points on its comers — sometimes seen un heathen structures of this kind. They were jirobably ornamental, but among the .lews they were smeared with the blood of sacrificial victims (Ex 29'-'), and may have been used for binding the animal until tne time came for its slaugliter (Ps lis", where, however, the text is corrupt). Criminals enjoyed immunity of danger to tlieir lives from an avenger so long as they took hold of these horns (1 K 1°°), just as in the Middle Ages Christian churches and altars were resorted to for the same purpose. See Altar, vol. i. i). 77*.
J. \V0UTA1!ET.
HORNET {nipy zir'Ah,<r<l>riKla,crabro).—The liornet is mentioned thrice in the Hex. (Ex 23-^, Dt 7*", Jos 24'-). The first two passages contain the general promise that God would send the hornet before the Isr. to drive out their enemies. In tlie last it is said that God did send the hornet before tliem to drive out the two kings of the Araorites. (For ^100 here we should certainly read twelve. So LXX, SiiSexa. See Dillm. ad. loc). We have no details of a pest of hornets in Scripture. It is, however, not impossible that such a pest may have aided in the work. Otlier insects, as ants and locusts, have, at times, vast desolating power. The author of Wisdom (12''"') takes the passage literally. Hornets multiply at times in large numbers, and tliere are records in profane history of plagues of tliem. There are four species in the Holy Land, two of which construct nests of papier machf in bushes and trees, and two undergroumi or in cavities of the rocks. Their sting is exceeding!}' painful, and that of large numbers at once may be fatal (cf. Driver on Dt 7*^). Many have tliouglit tliat the meaning of hornets in these passages is figurative, and equivalent to the ' terror ' (Ex 23"). They argue from the Lat. astrus, a (jailfly, which, from the terror and madness it inspired in cattle, gave its name to those mental conditions. Whether we adopt the literal or the metaphorical sense, the object is to represent that the agency of appre- hension and terror prepared the way for the un-