xviii :4; xix :2 ; Tim. v :to; Odyss. iv, 49; xvii, 88; vi, 215); received a supply of needful food for himself and beast (Gen. xviii :5 ; xix :3 ; xxiv :25; Exod. :2o; Judg. xix :20 ; Odyss. iii, 464); and enjoyed courtesy and protection from his host (Gen. xix :5; Josh. ii :2; Judg. xix :23). The case of Sisera, decoyed and slain by Jael (Judg..iv :18, sq.), was a gross infraction of the rights and du ties of hospitality. On his departure the traveler was not allowed to go alone or empty-handed ( Judg. xix :5; Iliad, vi, 217). As the free practice of hospitality was held right and honorable, so the neglect of it was considered discreditable (Job xxxi :32; Odyss. xiv, 56); and any interference with the comfort and protection which the host afforded was treated as a wicked outrage (Gen.
xix :4, sq.) (5) Enmities. Though the practice of hospi tality was general, and its rites rarely violated, yet national or local enmities did not fail sometimes to interfere; and accordingly travelers avoided those places in which they had reason to expect an unfriendly reception. So in Judg. xix:12, the 'certain Levite' spoken of said, 'We will not turn aside hither into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of Israel.' The quarrel which arose between the Jews and Samaritans after the Babylonish captivity destroyed the relations of hospitality between them. Regarding each other as heretics, they sacrificed every better feeling. It was only in the greatest extremity that the Jews would partake of Samaritan food (Lightfoot, p.
993), and they were accustomed, in consequence of their religious and political hatred, to avoid passing through Samaria in journeying from one extremity of the land to the other. The animosity of the Samaritans towards the Jews appears to have been somewhat less bitter; but they showed an adverse feeling towards those persons who, in going up to the annual feast at Jerusalem, had to pass through their country (Luke ix:53).
(6) National Festivals. At the great national festivals hospitality was liberally practiced so long as the state retained its identity. On these festive occasions no inhabitant of Jerusalem considered his house his own ; every home swarmed with strangers; yet this unbounded hospitality could not find accommodation in the houses for all who stood in need of it, and a large proportion of vis itors had to he content with such shelter as tents could afford (Helon, Pilgrim. i, 228, sq.) J. R. B.
HOST (host). 1. In a social sense, Xen'os (Gr. E/pos1, literally a stranger, e. one who receives and entertains hospitably (Rom. xvi:23), where "and of the whole Church" is added. (See HOSPITALITY).
2. In a military sense it means an army. HOSTAGE (136s'taj), (Heb. 71;72;:), tah-ar-oo baw', suretyship), one delivered into the hand of another as security for the performance of a pledge or encf,agement. (2 Kings xiv:14.)