HOSTS, LORD OF.— See Lord of Hosts.
HOTHAM (co'in 'seal').—!. An Asherite, 1 Ch 7'^. 2. Father of two of David's heroes, 1 Cli 11". In this latter instance AV has incorrectly Hotban. See Genealogy.
HOTHIR (T.i^i).— A son of Heman, 1 Ch 25^ See Genealogy, III. 23 n.
HOUGH — The ' hough ' (mod. speUing hock) of a
• 'That the stars were dinne beings was, says Aristotle, a traditional belief among the Greeks ; and he even accommo- dated it to his own philosophy {Metaph. xil. (A) viii, 26-30, 10746, 1 ff. : cf. Phys. u. 4, lOlio, 33 ; d« Cat i. 2, 269a, 30 ff. ; Met. VI. (E) i. IS, 1026a, 18, where they are called ri f«.,ipi. rJ. ei!tn, with Schwegler's note ; Eth. Nic. W. 7, 11416 a, i^f^n
HOUR
HOUSE
431
quadruped is the joint between tlie knee and tlie fetlock in the hind leg; in iiiiin the back of the knee joint, called the ham. To hough is to cut the tendon of the hough, to hamstrin". The subst. occurs in 2Es lo'" ' unto the camel's hough ' (usque ad suffra- gineni eameli, AVm 'pastern (/r litter'). The vb. IS found Jos 1 1«- ", 2 S 8*, 1 Ch IS-" of houghing horses (iBV in I'iel). Tind, translates On 49" ' In their selfewill tliev houghed an oxe,' which is retained in AVm, and aceei)ted by KV for AV text ' they digged down a wall' (.see Spurrell). In his Dlnry (Wodrow, p. 12:i), Melvill says of 'Mr Jhone Caldcleuche, a daft wousten man,' that he ' hosted that he wald houche Mr Andro [Melvill], with mikle mair daft talk,' where the word is .shown in its later and more general sense of doing one a serious injury. J. Hastings.
HOUR See Time.
HOUSE (n-j [etym. uncertain ; Ges. derives from a root=' spend the night'], ofico!, oiVia, r/omn.i). — This article deals with the fixed dwellings of man in Syria and Egypt, exclusive of tents and tem- porary dwellings, which are treated of under other hesidings (Cave, Palace, Temple, Tent) ; but, in a hot climate, where life is .spent in a great measure in the open air under the shade of trees, rocks, and in bootlis in connexion with permanent habitations, it is not practicable entirely to divide the several subjects. It will be found that the dif- ference to be met with in the habits of the people is not .so much between those who live in perma- nent and in temporary dwellings, as between those who live in fixed abodes and in movable habitations.
The dwellers in towns and villages have fixed »bodes, though often of a very frail character ; while the nomadic tribes, roving over the country in quest of pasture for their herds and flocks, require habitations which, though they can be readily packed up .ami carried away, are often of a very permanent texture.
Permanent fixed dwellings existed from the very earliest times (On 4" 10"'- [botli, however, pro- historical] 12" [Hyksos period ■;]!, and in the days of Abraham cities of considerable anticiuity were already in existence in Palestine and Egypt (' Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egj'pt,' Nu 13^, which, however, may refer only to the rebuilding by Kamses II., cf. Sayce, IIcAl 190 f. ). F^vidence to the same etl'ect is supplied by the Hahylonian (Nippur) and Egyptian discoveries as well as by Bli.^s's excavations at Lachish.
Although the family of Lot, on separating from Abraham, dwelt in the cities of the plain (Gn 13'-), yet the Hebrews throughout their sojourn in Canaan, until going down info Egypt, were dwellers in tents (Gn Ui" 20^ 31^ 35-') : in Egypt they lived in houses (Ex 12'- "), and on entering the Promised Land, after forty years' camping in the wilderness, took possession of the towns and cities built by the Canaanites (DtC""-) : they thus had no opportunity of establishing any distinctive style of architecture, as did the Egyp- tians, ."V.ssyrians, and Greeks, and there is no class of buildings which can be described as cliaracter- idtically Hebrew, unless iierhaps the synagogues, which do not appear to liave been numerous in Palestine till after the time of John Hyrcanus (B.C. 1.3.5). The houses of the Hebrews, therefore, were the houses of the [)eople of the land where they dwelt, an<l we have thus to seek for them in Syria and Egypt.
^\ I' have the following records for our use, viz. : The pictures on the monuments of Egj'pt and A.ssyria, the ruins remaining on the ground, the descriptions given in the liible and by early wri'^rs, and the modem dwellings themselves.
In drawing inferences as to the arrangement ■< of houses in ancient times from the system adopted in modern dwellings, we must mate due allowance for the more jealous .seclusion of Moslem women at the present day, and also for the present method of sitting with the legs tucked up, which necessitates taking otf the out-door shoe. There was far more social equality of the two sexes among the Hebrews in ancient times than there is now among the Mo.slems. This allected all the household arrangements, and did not re- quire the careful seclusion of the women's apart- ments, which complicates the construction of modern houses. Hebrew women, instead of being immured in a harem, mingled freely with the other sex in carrying out their social duties. They attended the Hocks (Gn 29"), prepared the meal (Gn 18"), invited guests (Jg 4"*), and even on occasion criticized the conduct of their husband (1 S 25-"). They conversed with strangers in a public place with propriety (Gn 24'-" 29"'-), and took part in public atlairs of any special kind (1 S 18", which would suggest that they sat in an aijora). This freedom of action naturally influenced the arrangements of the apartments in the house, and caused them to dill'cr from those of the present day. The custom of sitting on a divan with the legs tucked up instead of sitting on a chair or stool also afi'ects greatly all household arr.angements, even to cere- monials and cleanliness, as may be seen at present in the life of the Chinese, who use chairs, and the Japanese, who sit on divans or couches. Another matter not to be lost sight of in considering the nature of the houses in early days, is the patri- archal customs of the Hebrews, and the improba- bility of their having many wants, accustomed aa they were to living so much in tents.