WATCH (i*t:;), denoting, 'to cut into,' thence to impress on the mind," to observe," to watch ;' or the original meaning of which is to look out,' thence to watch ;' as in English, to keep a look-out,' is a nautical phrase for to watch.' Watching must have bcen coeval with danger, and danger arose as soon as man became the enemy of man, or had to guard against the attacks of wild animals. Accordingly we find traces of the practice of watching in early portions of the Hebrew annals. Watching must have been carried to some degree of completeness in Eg,ypt, for we learn from Exod. xiv. 24 that the practice had, at the time of the Exodus, caused the night to be divided into dif ferent watches or portions, mention being made of the morning watch.' Compare I Sam. xi 1. In the days of the Judges (vii. 19) we find the middle watch' mentioned. See Luke xii. 38. At a later period Isaiah plainly intimates (xxi. 5, 6) that there was a watch-tower in Jerusalem, and that it was customary on extraordinary occasions to set a watchman. Watchmen were, however, even at an earlier day, customarily employed in the me tropolis, and their post was at the gates (2 Sam. xviii. 24, seq. ; 2 Kings ix. 17, seq. ; Ps. cxxvii. ; Prov. viii. 34), where they gave signals and information, either by their voice or with the aid of a trumpet .(Jer. vi. 17; Ezek. xxxiii. 6). At
night watchmen were accustomed to perambulate the city (Cant. iii. 3 ; v. 7). In the N. T. we find mention made of the second, the third, and the fourth watch (Luke xii. 38 ; Matt. xiv. 25). The space of the natural night, from the setting to the rising of the sun, the ancient Jews divided into three equal parts of four hours each. But the Romans, imitating the Greeks, divided the night into four watches (vigi lice), and the Jews, from the time they came under subjection to the Romans, following this Roman custom, also divided the night into four watches, each of which consisted of three hours : these four periods Mark (xiii. 35) has distinguished by the terms c4e, p.ro-ovhx-rcov, dXeco-po(pcovia,irpcot (Buxtorf, Lex. Talmzrd. ; Fis cherus, _Praha. de Vitiis Lex. N. Tat.) The terms by which the old Hebrew division of the night was characterised are-1. The first watch.' Vt41 nrceN, beginning of the watches (Lam. ii. 19) ; The middle watch,' rulynri 1-111=8 (Judg. vii. 19) ; 3. The morning watch,' ninn: ipzri (Dent. xiv. 24 ; Sam. xi. r). The first extended from sunset to our ten o'clock; the second from ten at night till two in the morning, and the third from that hour till sunrise (Ideler, Chronol. 4S6).— J . R. B.