HOOK, HOOKS. The following Hebrew words are so rendered in the A. V.: nn nmn, riD, ninrn, wrIDE3, l'n, The idea of a thorn enters into the etymology of several of them, probably because a thorn, hooked Ox straight, was the earliest instrument of this kind. Tacitns thus dcscribcs thc drcss of the ancient Ger mans, Sagum, fibula, aut si desit, spina consertum ; a. loose mantle, fastened with a clasp, or, when that cannot be had, with a thorn ' (Germ. 17).
1. nn ; 2 Kings xix. 28 ; Sept. ra liyeeterrpa ; Vulg. circulum. In tile parallel passage (Is. xxxvii. 29) the Sept. reads, Inudv, muzzle, halter, or noose, etc. Jehovah here intimates his absolute control over Sennacherib, by an allusion to the practice of leading buffaloes, camels, dromedaries, etc., by means of a cord, or of a cord attached to a ring, passed through tl.e nostrils (Shaw's Travels, pp. 167-68, 2d ed.) ; Job xli. [xl. 25], Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook? (nzn occurs Is. xix. S, and Hall i. 15; driutarpov, haunts) or his tongue with a cord whicb thou lettest down ?' Sept. ec-yularpco ; Vulg. hamo. Assuming that by Leviathan the crocodile is intended, Herodotus 70) is quoted to show that in bis time the Egyptians captured the crocodile with a hook (eityletarpop), with which (eEeN.K60-07, es 1+) he was drawn ashore ; and accounts are cer tainly given by modern travellers of the continuance of this practice (Maillet, Descrip. d'Egypte, tom. ii. p. 127, ed. Hag. 1740). But does not the entire description go upon the supposition of the impossi bility of so treating Leviathan ? Supposing the allusions to be correctly interpreted, is it not as much as to say, ` Can,t thou treat him as thou canst treat the crocodile and other fierce creatures?' Dr. Lee has, indeed, given reasons which render it doubtful, at least, whether the leviathan does mean the crocodile in this passage ; or whether it does not mean some species of whale, as was for merly supposed ; the Delphinus orca communis, or common grampus, found in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and also in the Nile. (See his examina tion of Bochart's reasonings, etc., in Translation and Notes an yob, pp. 197 and 529-539, Lond. iS37) [LEvIATHAN]. Ezek. xxix. 4 (WWI ; Sept. 7ra-yt5cts ; Vulg. franum), where the pro pliet foretells the destruction of Pharaoh king of Egypt, by allusions to the destruction, possibly, of a crocodile, the symbol of Egypt. Thus Pliny. (Hist. Nat. viii. 25) states, that the Tentyritm (in habitants of Egypt) followed the crocodile, swim ming after it in the river, sprung upon its back, thrust a bar into its mouth, which, being held by its two extremities, serves—ut fi-auris lerram agant—as a bit, enables them to force it on shore (comp. Ezek. xxix. 3, 4). Strabo relates that the Tentyritor displayed their feats before the Romans (xvii. p. 56o, ed. Casaub.) But see Dr. Lee on
this passage, ut supra.
2. tml (Exod. xxvi. 32, 37 ; xxxviii. 19), hooks,' al racbaXiSes, capita, capita columnamun ; where the Sept. and Jerome seem to have under stood the capitals of the pillars ; and it has been urged that this is more likely to be the meaning than hooks, especially as 1775 shekels of silver were used in making these tm, for the pillars, over laying the chapiters, and filleting them (ch.
xxxviii. 28) ; and that the hooks are really the tprrip, tathes (Exod. xxvi. 6, ri, 33, 37 ; xxxix. 33). Yet the Sept. also renders nni, 'rings.' or clasps' (ENod. xxvii. ro, ir, and ci-pd, Xac, Exod. xxxviii. 17, 19); and from a compari son of these two latter passages, it would seem that these hooks, or rather tenlers, rose out of the chapiters or heads of the pillars.
3. 11D (I Sam. ii. 13, 14), flesh-hook,' Kpeci -ypa, fizscinula, and the TN911D, the flesh-hooks' (Exod. xxvii. 3, and elsewhere). This was evi dently, in the first passage, a trident, a kind of fork, of three teeth,' for turning the sacrifices on the fire, and for collecting fragments, etc.
4. nlintu 4, and elsewhere), beat their spears into pruning-hooks' (Sperava, falces). The Roman poets have the same metaphor (Martial, xiv. 34, Falx ex ense'). In Mic. iv. 3, in ligones, weeding-hooks, or shovels, spades, etc. Joel re verses the metaphor pruning-hooks' into spears (iii. to, 4.9nes); and so Ovid (Fasti, i.. 697, in pila lis-ones).
5. n,ntv (Ezek. xl. 43), hooks,' which Ge senius explains stalls in the courts of the Temple, where the sacrificial victims were fastened : our translators give in the margin endirons, or the two hearth-stones.' The Sept. seems equally at a loss, Kat iraXcuo-r0 e.;ovcrt ^yeia-os ; as also Jerome, who renders it labia. Schleusner pronounces ,ya cos to be a barbarous woid formed from pm, and understands epistylium, a little pillar set on another, and capitellum, columned. The Chaldee renders r5pnr, short posts in the house of the slaughterers on which to suspend the sacrifices. 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 law 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 pillars ' (see vers. 41, 42 ; Works, vol. 1, ch. xxxiv., Lond. 1684-5-6).
6. in (Amos iv. .2), take you away with hooks,' tfirXcur, contis, 'poles' or spears.' In the same verse 7. rmi nrvio, ,fish-hooks,' cis X/pnras inraKcao