CORD. This word occurs in the A. V. as the translation of-1. 53R (Josh. ii. 15; Esth. i. 6 ; Job xxxvi. 8 ; xli. 1. [xl. 25] ; Ps. cxl. 6 ; Prov. v. 22 ; Eccl. xii. 6 ; Is. v. I8,_• xxxiii. 20 ; Jer. xxxviii. 6, 13 ; Ezek. xxvii. 24; Hos. xi. 4; Mic. ii. 5), a word which properly signifies a string or rope, and is elsewhere in the A. V. translated tacklings' (Is. xxxiii. 23), ropes' (I Kings xx. 31, 32), sorrows' (Ps. xviii. 4, 5), a line' for measuring (Amos vii. 17, joined with min, Zech. ii. 5 [ii. 1], etc.) 2. (Job xxx. II), a word properly designating that which is used to bind ; hence t2+6 ?nro, new cords' (Judg. xvi. 7, green withs,' A. V.) ; it is used also for the string of a bow (Ps. xi. 2). 3. -or? (Exod. xxxv. 18; Num. iii. 37 ; Is. liv. 2 ; Jer. x. 20), also rendered string' of a bow (Ps. xxi. 12). 4. iv. 12), also rendered 'line' of thread (Josh. ii. 18), thread' (Gen. xiv. 23 ; Judg. xvi. 12 ; Song iv. 3) ; line' for measuring (I Kings vii. 15). 5. r131) (Judg. xv. 13 ; Ps. ii. 3 ; xviil. 27 ; ex:0x.
4), rendered also rope' (Judg. xvi. I I, 12 ; V. 18), bond' (Job xxxix. 10), wreathen chains' (Exod. xxviii. 24, comp. ver. 14). 6. axotplop (John ii. 15), `ropes' (Acts xxvii. 32).
Besides their literal meanings, these words are used in various figurative acceptations in Scripture. Thus we have the cords of sin' (Prov. v. 22), `cords of vanity' (Is. v. 18), cords of death' and of hell' (Ps. xviii. 4, 5), cords of affliction' (Job xxxvi. 8), bands of love' (Hos. xi. 4), as emblematical expressions of the attractive or con trolling power of these qualities or objects. The expression cords of a man' (Hos. xi. 4) may mean either inducements such as a man would use,' or inducements such as would avail with a man • ' from the contrast to the heifer' of x. 1, which needs to be drawn by outward force, the latter seems the preferable explanation. In Job iv. 21,
their cord' (A. V. excellency) means the soul or life, with allusion to the cord of a tent, the re moval of which causes it to collapse and fall down (Lebensfaden Hitzig, innre sense Ewald, la corde de leur tente Renan); and in Eccl. xii. 6, the same fact is represented by another allusion drawn from cords, the snapping asunder of the silver cord by which a lamp is suspended, so that it falls and is destroyed. The loosing of the cord' (Job xxx. is), if we read inn+ as in the text, will mean the giving licence to,' i.e., the enemies of the speaker would throw off restraint and afflict him ; or if we follow the k'ri, and read "UV, it will mean the re laxing of strength, i.e., God would weaken and afflict the speaker ; in the former case the meta phor is taken from reins (comp. laxare habenas), in the latter from a bowstring. From the use of the measuring line in defining property, `cord' or ' line ' came to be used in the sense of inheritance or defined territory (Deut. iii. 4 ; A. V. region ; Josh. xvii. 14, A. V. portion ; Ps. xvi. 6; Ezek. xlvii. 13) ; to cast a cord' (Mic. ii. 5) to denote the determining of a property. To put ropes on the head (, Kings xx. 31) was a token of submis sion.
Of what materials cords or ropes were made among the Hebrews we cannot certainly say, except that some of the articles so named were composed of gold and silver threads (comp. Exod. xxviii. 14, 22, 24 ; xxxix. 3, 15, try ; EccL xii. 6). Those in common use were probably made of flax or rushes (comp. axotvlop, and the use of irmN, Job xli. 2) ; bowstrings were probably made of the entrails of animals ; perhaps strips of hide, or the fibre of plants may have been used, as was the case among the Egyptians (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. in. 143, 210).—W . L. A.