ITail [for fastening] is the rendering of two Heb. words in the A. V.
1. "^T}"^. yatked {(rom piercing), -which usually denotes a (wooden) peg, pin, or nail (of any material), as driven into a wall (Ezek. xv, 3; Isa. xxii, 2.5); and more es- pecially a tent-pin driven into the earth by a mallet to fasten the tent (Exod. xxvii, 19; xxxv, 18; xxxviii, 31; Isa. xxxiii, 20; liv, 2). It was one of these pins which Jacl used in fastening to the ground the temples of Sisera (Judg. iv, 21, 22). Hence to drive a pin or to fasten a nail presents among the Hebrews an image of a fixed dwelling, a firm and stable alwde (Isa. xxii, 23). This image is still frequent among the Arabs (see Marac. p. 597 ; lieidav. A pud iS(dium, p. 518). See Tent. In the passages in Exodus these tabernacle- pins are said to have been of copper (see Lightfoot, Spicil. in Exod. § 42 ; Joseph. A nt. v, 5, 4) ; in Judges the material is not mentioned; we should most natural- ly think of some metal, yet the Sept. uses ■Kuaaakov, which suggests that it was a wooden pin. A pin or nail is also, by a further application of the metaphor, applied to a prince, on whom the care and welfare of the state depends (Zech. x, 4), where the term ilSQ, coiiier-stone, is applied to the same person denoted by the word " nail." So also Ezra ix, 8. All these allu- sions refer to large nails, or pins, or cramps, used in ap- plications requiring great strength. See Thomson, Land and Book, iii, 149.
2. "1^0^, masmer' (a point, only in the plur. ; also ni"ipp"C,Jer.x,4; C'^-li2p?2,lChron.xxii,3; ni'lTZp'?, Isa. xli,- 7), is applied to ordinary and ornamental nails. There is in Eccles. xii, 11a very significant proverbial application, " The words of the wise are as nails fast- ened," etc. ; that is, " they sink deep into the heart of man." In this passage the figure is generally under- stood to refer to nails driven into a wall, but which Ginsburg understands of the tent-pins above mention- ed, whose use for holding fast is contrasted with the use of goads for driving cattle forward, the entire verse in his opinion having reference to pastoral life. The golden nails of the Temple are denoted by this word. We are told that David prepared iron for the nails to be used in the Temple ; and as the holy of holies was plated with gold, the nails also for fastening the plates were probably of gold. Their weight is said to have been fifty shekels, equal to twenty-five ounces, a weight ob- viously so much too small, unless mere gilding be sup- posed, for the total weight required, that the Sept. and Vulg. render it as expressing that of each nail, which is equally excessive. To remedy this (lillicnliy. Thenius suggests reading five hundred for fifty shekels ( 1 ( liron. xxii, 3; 2 Chron. iii, 9; Bertheau, On ('ltrwiicl<:s, in Kurzfjff. Ilaudb.').
" Nail," Vulg. pains, is the rendering of iraaaaXoQ in Ecclus. xxvii, 2. In the N. T. we have j/Xoc and vpo- <T7/\ow in speaking of the nails of the Cross (John xx, 25; Col. ii, 14). "SecCuoss.
Nail [of the finger], '{'i'Q'^, t.tippo'ren, so called from scrapinr/), occurs in Deut. xxi, 12, in connection with the verb <Tw^', 'asuh, "to make" (Sept. iripioimxih^, Vulg. cirnnncido, A. V. "pare," but in marg. "dress," "suffer to grow"), which Gesenius cxi)lains "make neat." Much controversy has arisen on tlie meaning of this passage ; one set of interpreters, including Josephus and Philo, regarding the action as indicative of mourning, while others refer it to the deposition of mourning. Some, who would thus l)elong to the latter class, refer it to the practice of staining the nails with henna. The word usah, " make," is used both of " dressing," i. e. mak-
ing clean the feet, and also of " trimming," i. e. combing and making neat the beard, in the case of Mephibosheth (2 Sam. xix, 24). It seems, therefore, on the whole to mean "make suitable" to the particular purpose intend- ed, whatever that may be; unless, as Gesenius thinks, the passage refers to the completion of the female cap- tive's month of seclusion, that purpose is evidently one of mourning — a month's mourning interposed for the purpose of preventing on the one hand too hasty an ap- proach on the part of tlie captor, and on the other too sudden a shock to natural feeling in the captive. Fol- lowing this line of interpretation, the command will stand thus : The captive is to lay aside the " raiment of her captivity," viz. her ordinary dress in which she had been taken captive, and she is to remain in mourning retirement for a month with hair shortened and nails made suitable to the same purpose, thus presenting an appearance of woe to which the nails untrimmed and shortened hair would seem each in their way most suit- able (see Job i, 20). If, on the other hand, we suppose that the shaving the head, etc., indicate the time of re- tirement completed, we must suppose also a sort of Naz- aritic initiation into her new condition, a sup])osition for which there is elsewhere no warrant in the law, be- sides the fact that the '• making," whether paring the nails or letting them grow, is nowhere mentioned as a Nazaritic ceremony, and also that the shaving the head at the end of the month woidd seem an altogether un- suitable introduction to the condition of a bride. We conclude, therefore, that the captive's head was shaved at the commencement of the month, and that during that period her nails were to be allowed to grow in to- ken of natural sorrow and consequent personal neglect. See Joseph. .4;?^ iv, 8-23; Philo, Trepi tpiXav^p. ch. 14, vol. ii, p. 394 (ed. Mangey); Clem. Alex. Strom, ii, ch. 18; iii, ch. 11 ; vol. ii, p. 475, 543 (ed. Potter); Calmet, Patrick. Crit. Sacr. on Deut. xxi, 12 ; Schleusner, Lex. V. T. irtpiorvxi'Cio ; Selden, De Jur. Nat. v, xiii, p. G44 ; Harmer, Ohs. iv, 104 ; Wilkinson, ylnc. Eg. ii, 345 ; Lane, M. E. i, 64; Gesenius, Thes. Hebr. p. 1075; :Michaelis, Laws o/iUoses, art. 88, vol. i, p. 464 (ed. Smith); Numb, vi, 2, 18,— Smith. See Pake.