the day in insignificant chirpings, and take up their contemptible lodging at night on a blade of grass! See LOCUST. GREYHOUND. ZIrzir. Occurs Prov. xxx. 31, only; from a root which signifies straight or slender. Critics have variously interpreted the word here used. In the Chaldee paraphrase and Vulgate it is called "a cock," by R. David a "a hunting dog," by R. Levi a "leopard," and by others "the zebra." The Hebrew words ' ZIRZIR MOTERAJIM, signify something girt about the loins, and so may well be applied to a harnessed horse 49, which is a very stately and majestic creature in his going, and is called " the goodly horse in the battle." Zech. x. 4. "Et nova velocem cingula lædat equum." OVID de remed. .ARYEBETH ארנבת HARE. This name is derived, as Bochart and others suppose, from ARAH, to crop, and 2 NIB, the produce of the ground; these animals being remarkable for devouring young plants and herbage. This animal resembles the rabbit, but is larger, and somewhat longer in proportion to its thickness 50 "The hare in Syria," says Dr. Russel, Aleppo, V. ii. p. 154, is distinguished into two species, differing considerably in point of size. The largest is the Turkman-hare, and chiefly haunts the plains; the other is the common hare of the desert. Both are abundant." It was pronounced unclean by the Levitical law, probably from its habits of lasciviousness 51 That the animal here designated was the hare, is plain from the circumstance that the Jews abstained from eating it, as we learn from Plutarch, Sympos. iv. 9. 5, and Clemens Alexandrinus, Pædag. 1052. Mr. Harmer, however, suggests difficulties in this appropriation; and says I can never persuade myself that the two Hebrew words in Leviticus, shaphan and arnebeth, mean two animals so nearly resembling each other, as the hare and the rabbit, that even modern naturalists put them under the single name 'lepus,' which in common Latin means the hare exclusively. Our 49 See Junius and Tremellius, Piscator, Glassius, Bochart, Buxtorf, and Schultens. 50 Concerning the distinction between the hare and the rabbit, see Philosophical Transactions, Vol. Ixii. p. 4. 51" Cur immundis accenseretur, rationes physicas potuit habere Moses. Medicorum certe principes Galenus, Eetius, Rhasis, et Damir, hos sequutus, lepo rina carne scribunt crassum sanguinem et melancholicum gigni." Bochart, Hieroz. Tom. ii. p. 403. 52 Cæsar, de Bell. Gal. I. v. p. 171, observes, that the ancient inhabitants of Britain abstained from eating the hare. translation is evidently suited to our circumstances in England, where hardly any other of the wild quadrupeds of the smaller sort are eaten, but hares and rabbits, rather than to Asiatic customs, and the beasts that reside in the Arabian deserts." The difficulty on this animal is, that Moses says the arnabeth chews the cud, which our hares do not: but Aristotle takes notice of the same circumstance, and affirms that the structure of its stomach is similar to that of ruminating animals 53. The animal here mentioned may then be a variety of the species. Interpreters in general suppose the hare to be here intended; called by the Arabs at this day Arneb, Erneb, and Eraneb. The LXX however translate AaruTous, which Aristotle, 1. i. c. 1, and Pliny, l. viii. c. 55, and x. 63, seem to describe differently from the hare. HART. AJAL; Arab. igial. Occ. Deut. xii. 15; xiv. 5; Psalm, xlii. 1; Isai. xxxv. 6. The stag or male deer 54. Dr. Shaw considers its name in Hebrew as a generic word including all the species of the deer kind; whether they are distinguished by round horns, as the stag; or by flat ones, as the fallow deer; or by the smallness of the branches, as the roe. See DEER. Mr. Good observes 55 that "the hind and roe, the hart and the antelope were held, and still continue to be, in the highest estimation in all the Eastern countries, for the voluptuous beauty of their eyes, the delicate elegance of their form, or their graceful agility of action. The names of these animals were perpetually applied, therefore, to persons, whether male or female, who were supposed to be possessed of any of their respective qualities. In 2 Sam. i. 19, Saul is denominated "the roe of Israel;" and in verse 18 of the ensuing chapter, we are told that " Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe." A phraseology perfectly synonymous with the epithet "swift-footed," which Homer has so frequently bestowed upon his hero Achilles. Thus again, Lament. i. 6, "Her princes are like harts which find no pasture; they are fled without strength before their pursuers." And farther, in a passage more similar still to the present, [Cantic. ii. 9,] is that, Habakkuk, iii. 19, "The Lord Jehovah is my strength; he will make my feet like hinds' feet; he will cause me to tread again on my own hills." Our poet, Cantic. ii. 9, assimilating the royal bridegroom to a hart, supposes him to fly forwards from his native mountains, in consequence of his having found favour in the sight of his beloved. Hafiz, in like manner, compares himself to the same order of animals; but adds, that he is compelled to remain on his hills and in his deserts, because the delicate fawn, his mistress, has 53 Hist. Anim. 1. iii. c. 21, de part. anim. 1. iii. c. 15. 54 See Ælian, l. v. for a chapter on the deer of Syria. not taken compassion on him. See the commencement of Gazel vii. which may be thus translated. See HIND. "Tell to that tender fawn, O Zephyr! tell O'er rocks, o'er desert hills, she makes me dwell. HAWK. NETZ; from the root NATASH, to fly, because of the rapidity and length of flight for which this bird is remarkable. Occ. Levit. xi. 16; Deut. xiv. 15; and Job, xxxix. 26. Naz is used generically by the Arabian writers to signify both falcon and hawk; and the term is given in both these senses by Meninski. There can be little doubt that such is the real meaning of the Hebrew word, and that it imports various species of the falcon family, as jer-falcon, gos-hawk, and sparrow-hawk. As this is a bird of prey, cruel in its temper, and gross in its manners, it was forbidden as food, and all others of its kind in the Mosaic ritual. The Greeks consecrated the hawk to Apollo; and among the Egyptians no animal was held in so high veneration as the ibis and the hawk. Most of the species of hawks, we are told, are birds of passage. The hawk, therefore, is produced in Job, xxxix. 26, as a specimen of that astonishing instinct which teaches birds of passage to know their times and seasons, when to migrate out of one country into another for the benefit of food, or a warmer climate, or both. The common translation does not give the full force of the passage; "Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom?" The real meaning is, "Doth she know, through thy skill or wisdom, the precise period for taking flight, or migrating and stretching her wings towards a southern or warmer climate?" The passage is well rendered by Sandys: "Doth the wild haggard tower into the sky, And to the south by thy direction fly?" Her migration is not conducted by the wisdom and prudence of man; but by the superintending and upholding providence of the only wise God. HAY. 7 CHAJIR. In the two places where this word occurs, Prov. xxvii. 25, and Isai. xv. 16, our translators have very improperly rendered it "hay." But in those countries they made no hay 56; and if they did, it appears from inspection, that hay could hardly be the meaning of the word in either of those texts. The author of "Fragments in continuation of Calmet, No. clxxviii." has the following remarks. "There is a gross impro 56 Maundrell's Journey, p. 144, 2d edit. Harmer, Obs. V. i. p. 425. priety in our version of Proverbs, xxvii. 25. The Hay appeareth, and the tender grass showeth itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered. Now, certainly, if the tender grass is but just beginning to show itself, the hay, which is grass cut and dried after it has arrived at maturity, ought by no means to be associated with it, still less ought it to be placed before it. And this leads me to observe that none of the dictionaries which I have seen, seem to me to give the accurate import of the word, which I apprehend means the first shoots, the rising, just budding, spires of grass. So in the present passage a GALEH CHAJIR, the tender risings of the grass are in motion; and the buddings of grass [grass in its early state, as is the peculiar import of NW DESHA] appear; and the tufts of grass (proceeding from the same root) collect themselves together, and, by their union, begin to clothe the mountain tops with a pleasing verdure." Surely, the beautiful progress of vegetation, as described in this passage, must appear too poetical to be lost; but what must it be to an eastern beholder! to one who had lately witnessed all surrounding sterility! a grassless waste! "Consult Joel, ii. 22. Fear not, ye beasts of the field [that the earth shall be totally barren, after the locust had devoured its produce], because the pastures of the wilderness do spring :' put forth the rudiments of future pasturage in token of rapid advance to maturity. See also Deut. xxxii. 2, As the small rain on the first shoots of the grass.' "The same impropriety, but in a contrary order, and where perhaps the English reader would be less likely to detect it, occurs in our version of Isai. xv. 6, ' For the waters of Nimrim [water is a principal source of vegetation] shall be desolate [departed, dead], so that (the 'hay,' in our translation, but the word is y CHAJIR as before) the tender-just sprouting-risings of the grass are withered [dried up]; the [NWT DESHA] tender buddings of the grass are entirely ruined ['faileth']; green it was not [i. e. it never came to greenness, to which state it was prevented from arriving for want of water]. There is no green thing;' in our version. The following verse may be thus translated: Insomuch that the reserve he had made, and the deposit he had placed with great care in supposed security, shall be driven off to the brook of the willows [Hebr. river of the Orebim]. Consult the anxiety of Ahab, who sent all over his kingdom to discover at the brooks grass enough to save the horses alive. [Quere, whether on this occasion he would have sent them to feed at the brooks; or would have had the grass cut and brought to them?] Ahab, it seems, hoped for the possibility of finding grass, i. e. not grass left from a former growth, but chajir, fresh tender shoots of grass just budding, 1 Kings, xviii. 5. "A similar gradation of poetical imagery is used 2 Kings, xix. 26, 'Their inhabitants were of shortened hand; dismayed, ashamed, they were as grass of the field [vegetables in general], as the green buddings [desha]; as the tender risings [chajir] on the house tops; and those too struck by the wind before they advanced in growth to a rising up.' What a climax expressive of imbecility! "Is it not unhappy that in the only two places of the Old Testament where our translators have used the word hay, it should be necessary to substitute a word of a directly contrary meaning, in order to accommodate the true rendering of the passages to the native (eastern) ideas of their authors?" HĂZEL. LUTZ. Occurs only Genesis, xxx. 37. St. Jerom, Hiller, Celsius, and Dr. Shaw say that the almondtree is spoken of here; and that by lauz or luz, the Arabians always mean the almond: he must mean the amygdalus sylvestris, which Rauwolf calls "Lauzi Arabum. Crescit circa Tripolin et Halepum in sepibus. Fructus inserviunt mensis secundis." See ALMOND. .OROR ערער .HEATH Jerem. xvii. 6, and xlviii. 6. "He shall be like the heath in the desert. He shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land." The LXX and Vulgate render oror "the Tamarisk;" and this is strengthened by the affinity of the Hebrew name of this tree with the Turkish ærær 57. Taylor and Parkhurst render it "a blasted tree, stripped of its foliage." If it be a particular tree, the tamarisk is as likely as any. Celsius thinks it to be the juniper; but from the mention of it as growing in a salt land, in parched places, the author of Scripture Illustrated" is disposed to seek it among the lichens, “a species of plants which are the last production of vegetation under the frozen zone, and under the glowing heat of equatorial deserts; so that it seems best qualified to endure parched places, and a salt land. Hasselquist mentions several kinds seen by him in Egypt, Arabia, and Syria." In Jer. xlviii. 6, the original word is y ORUOR, which the Septuagint translators must have read my ORUD, for they render it ovos argos, wild ass; and, as this seems best to agree with the flight recommended in the passage, it is to be preferred. See WILD ASS, p. 29. HEMLOCK. ROSH and W RASH. Occurs Deut. xxix. 18; xxxii. 32; Psal. Ixix. 21; Jer. viii. 14; ix. 15; xxiii. 15; Lam. iii. 5, 19; Hosea, x. 4; and Amos, vi. 12. In the two latter places our translators have rendered the word "hemlock," in the others, "gall." Hiller 58 supposes it the "Centaureum" described by Pliny, N. H. 1. xxv. c. 6; but Celsius 59 shows it to be the hemlock. 57 See Meninski. Lex. 3248. 59 Hierobot. Vol. ii. p. 46. 58 Hierophyt. p. ii. c. xi. § 2. |