HOOK
328
HOOK
absolute control over Sennacherib by an allusion to the practice of leading buffaloes, camels, tb-omedaries, etc., by means of a cord, or of a cord attached to a ring, pass- ed through the nostrils (Shaw, Travels, p. 167-8, 2d ed.). Such a rmg is oftentimes placed through the nose of a bull, and is likewise used in the East for leading about lions, camels, and other animals. A similar meth- od was adopted for leatling prisoners, as in the case of Manasseh, who was led with rings (2 Cliron. xxxiii, 11). An illustration of this practice is found in a bas-relief discovered at Khorsabad (Layard, ii, 376 ; see also the cut mider Eyk). The term 'Cpi'Ci is used in a similar
Ancient Assyrian Hook of Bronze (belonf^ini:, as Layard thinks, N'iii. und Bab. p. ITS, to some part of a chariot or horse-trappings).
sense in Job xl, 24 (A.T. "bore his nose with a gin." margin). Another form of the same term, riin (A. V. " thorn"), is likewise properly a rinff placed through the mouth of a large fish, and attached by a cord d^?!??) to a stake for the purpose of keeping it alive in the water (Job xli, 2) ; the word meaning the cord is rendered " hook" in the A. V. See below.
2. The cognate word H3I1, chakkah', means a Jish- hook (Job xli, i, " angle ;" Isa. xix, 8 ; Hab. i, 15). This passage in Job has occasioned the following specida- tions (see, for instance, Harris's Nat. Jlist. of the Bible, art. Leviathan, Lond. 1825). It has been assumed that Bochart has completely proved the Leviathan to mean the crocodile (RosenmliUer on Bochart, iii, 737, etc., 769, etc., Lips. 1796). Herodotus has then been quoted, where he relates that the Egyptians near Lake Moeris select a crocodile, render him tame, and suspend orna- ments to his cars, and sometimes gems of great value ; his fore feet being adorned with bracelets (ii, 69) ; and the mummies of crocodiles, having their ears thus bored, have been discovered (Kenrick's Egypt of Herodotus, p. 97, Lond. 1841). Hence it is concluded that this pas- sage in Job refers to the facts mentioned b}^ Herodotus ; and, doubtless, the terms employed, especially by the Sept. and Vulg., and the third and following verses, fa- vor the supposition, for there the captive is represented as suppliant and obsequious, in a state of security and servitude, and the object of diversion, "played with" as •with a bird, and serving for the sport of maidens. He- rodotus is further quoted to show that in his time the Egj'ptians captured the crocodile with a hook (ayiciff- rpov), with which (tEtXKvaOr] tig rijv yjjv) he was drawn ashore; and accounts are certainly given by modem travelers of the continuance of this practice (JNIaillet, Descrip. d'Egypte, ii, 127, ed. Hag., 1740). But does not the entire description go upon the supposition of the im- possibility of so treating Leviathan ? Supposing the al- lusions to be correctly interpreted, is it not as much as to say, ' Canst thou treat him as thou canst treat the crocodile and other fierce creatures?" Dr. Lee has, in- deed, given reasons which render it doubtful, at least, whether the leviathan docs mean the crocodile in this passage, or wliether it does not mean some species of whale, as was formerly supposed — the Delphinus orca convivinis. or common grampus, found in the INIediter- ranean, the Red Sea, and also in the Nile. (See his ex- amination of Bochart's reasonings, etc., in Ti-anslation mul Notes on Job, p. 197 and 529-539, Lond. 1837). So the above term in Ezek. xxix, " I will put my hooks in thy jaws, and I will couse thee to come vp out of the midst of thy rivers," where the prophet foretells the destruc- tion of Pharaoh, king of Egj^it, by allusions to the de- struction, possibly, of a crocodile, the symbol of Egypt. Thus Pliny {Hist. Nat. viii, 25) states, that the Tentyri- t£e (inhabitants of Egj'pt) followed the crocodile, swun-
ming after it in the river, sprung upon its back, thrust a bar into its mouth, which being held by its two ex- tremities, serves as a bit, and enables them to force it on shore (comp. Ezek. xxix, 3, 4). Strabo relates that the Tentj'ritae displayed their feats before the Romans (xvii, 5G0, ed. Casaub.). See Leviatiiax.
3. 1^, vav, a jieg or pin, upon which the curtains of the Tabernacle were hmig, springing out of the capitals (Exod. xxvi, 32, etc.). The Sept. and Jerome seem to have understood the capitcds of the pillars ; and it has been urged that this is more likely to be the meanmg than hooks, especially as 1775 shekels of silver were used in making these C^l for the pillars, overlaying the chapiters, and filleting them (ch. xxxviii, 28), and that the hooks are really the D^D'^p, taches (Exod. xxvi, 6, 11, 33, 35 ; xxxix, 33). Yet the Sept. also renders ni","!, KpiKoi, rings or clasps (Exod. xxvii, 10, 11, and uyKv\ai, Exod. xxxviii, 17, 19) ; and from a comparison of these two latter passages, it would seem that these hooks, or rather tenters, rose out of the chapiters or heads of the pillars. The word seems to have given name to the letter 1 in the Hebrew alphabet, possibly from a simi- larity of the form in which the latter appears in the Greek Digamma, to that of a hook. ]Mr. Paine {Solo- mon's Temple, etc., p. 25) regards these " hooks" as hav- ing been rather ^jw* driven into the heads of the pillars, and thus projecting upward from them like a small tenon, upon which the silver rods were sliiiped by means of a small hole or eye in the latter. This would serve to keep the pillars together. See Tabernacle.