HOURS (ourz), (Chald. shaw-aw', proper ly a look; Gr. eva, ho'rah).
The ancient Hebrews, like the Greeks (Homer, //, xxi, 3), were unacquainted with any other means of distinguishing the time of day than the natural divisions of morning, midday, or noon, twilight, and night (Gen. xv :t2; xviii :t ; xix:t, 15, 23).
(1) Early Mention. The earlier mention of hours occurs in Daniel (iii :15; iv:t9; v :5) ; and even in the Septuagint apa invariably signifies a season of the year, as in Homer and Hesiod. As the Chaldeans claimed the honor of inventing this system of notation (Herod. ii, 119), it is most probable that it was during their residence in Babylon that the Jews became familiar with their artificial distribution of the day. At all events no trace of it occurs before the captivity of that people ; while, subsequently to their return to their own land, we find the practice adopted, and, in the time of Christ, universally established, of dividing the day and night respectively into twelve equal portions (Matt. xx :3-5; John xi:9; Acts v :7 ; xix :34).
(2) Jewish Horology. The Jewish horology, however, in common with that of other eastern nations, had this inherent defect, that the hours, though always equal to one another, were une qual in regard to the seasons, and that as their day was reckoned from sunrise to sunset, and not from the fixed period of noon, as with us, the twelve hours into which it was divided varied, of course, in duration according to the fluctuations of summer and winter. The midday, which with us is the twelfth hour, the Jews counted ,their sixth, while their twelfth hour did not arrive till sunset. At the equinoxes, their hours were ex actly of the same length with ours, and the time from which they began to reckon their day at those seasons corresponded precisely with our six o'clock A. M.; their first hour being our seven o'clock, their third (Acts ii :15), our nine, their ninth (Acts our three o'clock P. M., and -their eleventh (Matt. xx :6), our five. This equal ity, however, in the duration of their hours, as well as in their correspondence to ours. was dis turbed as the season approached toward the sum mer or winter solstice. In midsummer, when sun
rise in Judma takes place at five o'clock A. M., and sunset at seven P. M., the Jewish hours were a little longer than ours; and the only one of their hours which answered exactly to ours was the sixth,-or twelve o'clock, while in all the rest there was a considerable difference. Their third hour was shortly befoee our nine, and their ninth a lit tle after our three. In like manner, in winter, when the sun rises at seven and sets at five, the Jewish hour was proportionately shorter than ours, their third hour not occurring till a little after our nine, and their ninth a little before our three. Hence, it is evident that in order to deter mine exactly the duration of Daniel's silence (for instance 'he was astonied one hour,' Dan. iv :19), or the exact time when the darkness at Christ's crucifixion ended, it is necessary to ascertain the particular seasons when these incidents oc curred.
Besides these smaller hours. there was another division of the day into larger hours, IA ith refer ence to the stated periods of prayer, viz., the third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day (Ps. lv:17; Joseph. Anti?. iv, 4, 3).
(3) Divisions of the Night. The night was divided into twelve equal portions or hours, in precisely the sante manner as the day. The most ancient division, however, was into three watches (Antiy. lxiii :6; xc :4) ; the first, or beginning of the watches, as it is called (Lam. ii :t9) ; the mid dle watch (Judg. vii :19), and the morning watch (Exod. xiv :24). When Judwa became a province of Rome, the Roman distribution of the night into four watches was introduced (see COCKCROW ING; DAY) ; to which division frequent allusions occur in the New Testament (Luke xii :38; Matt. xiv :25 ; xiii :35),as well as to that of hours (Matt. xxv :13 ; xxvi :4o ; Mark xiv :37 ; Luke xvit :59 ; Acts xxiii :23 ; Rev. in :3).
The word hour is sometimes used in Scripture to denote some determinate season, as 'mine hour is not yet come,"this is your hour, and the power of darkness,"the hour is coming,' etc. R. J.