HOOK, HOOKS (hiTUIcs).
1. Khawkh (Heb. literally, thorn), a ring, such as we place in the nose of a bull to lead him about (2 Kings xix :28; Is. xxxvii :29).
2. A peg, or pin, upon which the curtains were hung in the tabernacle (See TABERNACLE).
3.. A vine dresser's pruning hook (Is. ii ; xviii :5 ; Mic. iv:3; Joel iii :to).
The passages in Exod. xxvi :32, 37; xxxviii : 19, 'hooks,' the Sept. and Jerome seem to have understood to mean the capitals of the pillars; and it has been urged that this is more likely to be the meaning than lzooks, especially as 1775 shekels of silver were used in making these capita/s, for the pillars, overlaying the chapiters, and filleting them (ch. xxxviii :28) ; and that the hooks are really the taches Exod. xxvi :6, II, 33. 35 ; xxxix :33; (comp. Exod. xxvii : to, it ; xxxviii :17, 19) ; from a comparison of these two latter pas sages it would seem that these hooks, or rather tenters, rose out of the chapiters or heads of the pillars.
In the allusions in Exod. xxvii :3; I Sam. : 13, 14, and elsewhere, we have evidently in the first passage, a trident 'of three teeth,' a kind of fork, etc., for turning the sacrifices on the fire. and for collecting fragments, etc.
In Ezek. x1:43, we have 'hooks,' which Ge senius explains as meaning broad hooks or large pegs in the courts of the Temple, where the sacrificial victims were fastened to be flayed ; our translators give in the margin 'end-irons, or the two hearthstones.' Dr. Lightfoot, in his chapter on 'The Altar, the Rings, and the Laver,' observes : 'On the north side of the altar were six orders of rings, each of which contained six, at which they killed the sacrifices. Near by were /ow pillars set up, upon
which were laid overthwart beams of cedar ; on these were fastened rows of hooks, on which the sacrifices were hung: and they were flayed on marble tables, which were between these pil lars' (See verses 41, 42; Works, vol. it, ch. xxxiv, Lond. 1684-5-6). J. F. D.
FiguratiVe. The passage in 2 Kings xix:28 reads: 'I will put my hook in thy nose.' Sept. 0'6CFCJ -ra dvicur-rp& MOO T °IS uvicrip(r1 'you; Vuig. eireulum in narilnes tuis. In the parallel passage (Is. xxxvii :29) the Sept. reads, 'I will put my muzzle, halter, or noose,' etc. Jehovah here inti mates his absolute control over Sennacherib, bv an allusion to the practice of leading buffaloes, cam els, dromedaries, etc., by means of a cord. or of a cord attached to a ring, passed through the nos trils (Shaw's Travels, pp. 167, 168, 2d ed.) ; Job xli :1, 2, 'Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook ? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down. Canst thou place a reed-cord (ag mon) in his nose, or bore through his cheek with a thorn ? (c/asp, or possibly bracelet, etc.) In Ezek. xxix :4, the statement is made, 'I will put my hooks on thy jaws,' etc., and 'I will cause thee to come up out of the midst of thy rivers.' Here the prophet foretells the destruction of Pha raoh king of Egypt, by allusions to the destruction, possibly, of a crocodile, the symbol of Egypt. (See LEVIATHAN.)