Kneeling down to drink (from their hands) was the attitude adopted by a portion of Gideon’s warriors on the occasion of the famous test, Jg 7°-® (where see Moore’s note). One of the stages in the measurement of the depth of the river which Ezekiel saw issuing from the temple was that ‘ the waters were to the knees’ (Ezk47*). Delilah made Samson sleep 727202 Jg 16”; the Shunammite’s son sat upon his mother’s knees till he died, 2K 4%; children were dandled upon the knees, Is 66%.
Gn 48 (E), ‘And Joseph brought them out from between his knees’ (1772 O¥> Op& 4py NsV), is not perfectly clear, but the meaning probably is that Joseph took his sons away from Jacod’s knees, before himself bowing down to receive the bless- ing (ν.}5 connects directly with ν. 3 in E’s narra- tive, the intervening vv." being from J).
In Gn 30% (E) Rachel gives Bilhah to Jacob ‘that she may bear upon my knees’ (*973°72 Ἴ25}}; im 50% (also E) the children of Machir the son of Manasseh were born upon Joseph’s knees (1); now ΞΊΦΟΣ); Job (813) asks, ‘Why did the knees
(98 “HOW Wir). In the first two passages at least + there appears to be an allusion to the custom of placing newly-born infants on the father’s (or grandfather's) lap as a token of his recognition or adoption of them (cf. Hom. Od. xix. 401). Rachel thus undertakes to acknowledge Bilhah’s children as her own, and Joseph recog- nizes Machir’s children as his descendants (see
*The other conjugations have the sense of ‘bless’ (Pel), *bless oneself’ (Niph. and Hithp.), ‘be blessed’ (Pual), The pass. ptep. Qal 777 also occurs 71 times wilh the meaning of * blessed.’
+ In Job 813 Dillmann finds nothing more than a placing of
the newly-born child on the knee of the mi iwif father,
without any symbolical meaning (but see Dahm x)
ee |
Β KNIFE
Dillm. on all these three passages; also art. BIRTH in vol. i. p. 300"; Ploss, Das Weib®, ii. 1177 εἰ ; Stade, ΖΗ ΤῊΣ vi. (1886), 143 ff.).
Kneeling as an attitude in worship is repeatedly mentioned in Scripture, 1 K 8°%=2 Ch 618 (Solomon at dedication of the temple); 1 K 1918 (‘the knees which have not bowed to Baal’; ef. Ro 11); Ezr 9° (Ezra in confessing the iniquity of the foreign marriages) ; Is 4559 (‘to me every knee shall bow’ ; ef. Ro 144, Ph 2”, on which last see Lightfoot’s note); Dn 6! (when Daniel prayed three times a day); Ac7® (the dying St. Stephen) ; 9” (St. Peter before the raising of Doreas); 20° (St. Paul pray- ing with the elders of Ephesus); 21° (a similar scene at Tyre); Eph 3% (St. Paul’s prayer for the ‘Ephesians.’). A variation from this attitude is found in 1 K 18%, where Elijah in praying for rain ape his face between his knees’ (1.292 113 135 08).
e same mental feeling underlies the adoption of kneeling in addressing an entreaty to a fellow- creature, or in doing homage to a superior, 2 Καὶ 118 (Ahaziah’s officer in entreating Elijah to spare his life) ; Mt 174 (the father of the ἀν ἘΝ: boy came kneeling to Jesus [γονυπετῶν a’rév]); Mk 119 (the leper); 107 (the rich young ruler); Mt 27” (the oldies mocked Jesus by kneeling down before Him [γονυπετήσαντες ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ, cf. Mk 15” τιθέντες γόνατα προσεκύνουν αὐτῷ]. In Lk 58 Simon Peter falls down upon his knees (προσέπεσεν τοῖς γόνασιν) as he eries, ‘Depart from me: for I ama sinful man, O Lord.’
For the doubtful ‘ Bow the knee’ of Gn 418 see ABRECH. J. A. SELBIE.
KNIFE (2799, nb=s>).—Knives were originally of flint or sharp stone (Ex 4” 7s, Jos δ5 ons nian).
Flint knives have been found in a cave at Antelias, near Beirfit, amongst bones and char- coal; and also in a calcareous deposit on the old road along the sea-coast near the Nahr el-Kelb. It is said that flint knives are still used by the Bedawin of the Syrian desert. The knives gener- ally used in Syria are sheath-knives, and are stuck in the girdle. They are from 8 to 10 in. long, including the handle. They are used for every purpose for which a knife is required, and are formidable weapons. W. CARSLAW.
KNOCK.—See Hous, vol. ii. p. 435.
KNOP (a variant of knob and of knap [in knap- weed], Old English enaep) is used by our translators to render 1. 1n=2 kaphtor, the spherical ornament on the stem and arms of the golden lampstand in the tabernacle (Ex 25%*-% nd parll. pass. 3717-*), The Greek translators have σφαιρωτήρ, the Vulgate spherula, Luther Knauf (a kindred word). The ‘knops’ are easily recognizable in the familiar re- presentation of the later ‘ candlestick’ on the arch of Titus. For their relation to the rest of the ornamentation see TABERNACLE (sec. dealing with the golden candlestick). A similar knop is seen on the stem of the chalice which appears on the obverse of certain Jewish coins (see MONEY).
The same word, kaphtor, occurs in two other passages of the OT, viz. Am 9! (AV ‘smite the tintel of the door,’ marg. ‘chapiter’ [so RV] or ‘knop’), and Zeph 24(AV ‘the upper lintel,’ marg. ‘knops or chapiters’; the last is the rendering of RV). In the former passage the reference is clearly to the capitals or chapiters of the pillars in the schismatic temple of J” at Bethel, in the latter to those of the columns in the ruined city of Nineveh. The feature common to these capitals and the knops of the lampstand was doubtless the circular or rather spherical form (cf. the spherical capitals of the two pillars Jachin and Boaz, 1 K 7"; see art. CHAPITER).