Nocturns is the name of a night service of prayer anciently held. In the Romish Breviary the Psalter is divided into portions consisting of nine psalms, each of which portion is called a nocturn. These were de- signed to be read at the nightly assemblies with other services, appointed in order for the various nights. The nocturnal services themselves were derived from the earliest periods of Christianity. We learn from Pliny, as well as from Justin MartjT, and other writers of the first three centuries, that the Christians in those times of persecution were in the practice of holding their as- semblies in the night. Tertullian mentions nocturne convocationes, which are generally supposed to mean the prayers before day, a kind of ordinary vigils or night- assemblies, held before it was light. The nightly assem- blies of Christians were common at that time, probably because they feared opposition in daytime. Pliny, in his letter to Trajan, says, '"The sum of their crime or error was, that they were accustomed to meet before it was light, and to sing a h\'mn to Christ, as to God." Afterwards, when persecution ceased, these nocturnal meetings were continued, partly to keep up the spirit of devotion in the ascetics, or such as had betaken them- selves to a stricter life; partly to give opportunity to men in business to observe a seasonable time for devo- tion ; and partly to counteract the seductive arts of the Arians, who adopted these nightly meetings, and by their popular psalmody on such occasions promoted the spread of their heresy. In most ancient times the noc- turns were accompanied by the celebration of the Lord's Supper, and this custom also was observed in later times. The nocturns now form part of the Matins (q.v.). See Farrar, Eccles. Diet. s. v. ; Eden, Theol. Diet. s. v. ; Pal- mer, Origines Liturgicce, i, 262 ; Proctor, Commentary on Book of Common Pi-ayer.
Nod (Heb. id. ^^i, fight [see below]; Sept. Noi^), the land east of Eden to which Cain fled after the mur- der of his brother (Gen. iv, 16). The name is plainly akin with the verb iiud, 113, to fee ; and means simply the land of exile or fight. It were, therefore, fruitless to seek for a country of this name in Asia, and its posi- tion must depend entirely upon that of Eden, which is uncertain. Yon Bohlen, however, would follow an in- timation of IMichaelis. and understand it as a name of India (Gen. p. 59). (Calmct, s. v. ; Schmidt, Bibl. Geo- graph. p. 42, 447 ; Rosenmiiller, A Iterlhiim. I, i, 215 sq. ; Tuch, Gen. p. 111.) — Winer, ii, 166. See Cain.
No'dab (Heb. Nodab', ^'113, nobility; Sept. Nw- Caj3cuoi; Yulg. Xodab\ the name of an Arab tribe
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meiUioned only in 1 Chron. v, 10, in the account of the war of the Ueubenites, the GaJites, and the half of the tribe of Manasseh against the Hagarites (ver. 9-22) : '• And they made war with the Hagarites, with Jetur, and Nephish, and NodaJJ" (ver. 19). In Gen. xxv, 15, and 1 Chron. i, 31, Jetur, Naphish, and Kcdemah are the last three sons of Ishmael, and it has been there- fiire supposed that Nodab also was one of his sons. But we have no other mention of Nodab, and it has been surmised, in the absence of additional evidence, that he was a grandson or other descendant of the patriarch, and that the name, in the time of the record, was that of a tribe sprung from such descendant. The Hagar- ites, and Jetur, Nephish, and Nodab, were pastoral peo- ple, for the Keubenites dwelt in their tents throughout all the east [land] of Gijead (ver. 10), and in the war a great multitude of cattle— camels, sheep, and asses- were taken. A hundred thousand men were taken prisoners or slain, so that the tribes must have been very numerous ; and the Israelites " dwelt in their steads until the captivity." If the Hagarites (or Hagareues) were, as is most probable, the people who afterwards inhabited Hejer [see Hagarknes], they were driven soutliwards into the north-eastern province of Arabia, bordering the mouths of the Euphrates and the low tracts surrounding them (Smith). See Ituraea; Je- Tuii; Naphish. Calmet (after Jerome, Qucest. Ileh. in Lib. 1 Paralip.) has suggested that Nodab is another name for Kedejiaii, and this appears to derive some probability from the fact that the list in Genesis men- tions in order '-Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah;" while in Chronicles we have "Jetur, Nephish, and Nodab." Forster, who adopts this view, advances another argu- ment in its favor. He says, " This Ishmaelitish tribe, agreeable to a very general Arab usage, being desig- nated, in the one instance by its patronymic, in the other by its nom de f/nerre. For, 1. The signification of the word Nodab, in the Arabic idiom, is ' the vibra- tion of a spear;' 2. The natives of the coast of the Persian Gulf, in the vicinity of Kadema, were famous for the manufacture of spears; and, 3. Nodab is ex- pressly mentioned b}' the author of the Kamus, a writer of the 15th century, as a then existing Arab tribe" (^Geogr. of A rabia, i, 314 sq.). This reasoning is scarcely conclusive ; but there is at least some prob- ability in the theory (Kitto). See Arabia; Ishmael.