length of flight for which this bird is remarkable, Lev. xi, 16; Deut.
xiv, 15; 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, goshawk, 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 hawk, 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 toward 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, חציר. In the two places where this word occurs, Prov. xxvii, 25,
and Isaiah xv, 16, our translators have very improperly rendered it
“hay.” But in those countries they made no hay; 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, has the following remarks: “There is a gross impropriety in our
version of Prov. 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_,
_budding_, _spires of grass_. So, in the present passage, גלה חציר, ‘the
tender shoots of the grass rise up; and the buddings of grass,’ grass in
its early state, as is the peculiar import of רשא, ‘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!
HAZAEL. Elisha coming to Damascus, the capital of Syria, Benhadad, the
reigning monarch, being then indisposed, sent Hazael, who was one of his
principal officers, to wait upon the prophet, and consult him as to the
issue of his disorder, 2 Kings viii, 7–13. The prophet told Hazael that
certainly his master might recover, because his complaint was not
mortal; yet he was very well assured that he would not recover; and,
looking him steadfastly in the face, Elisha burst into tears. Surprised
at this conduct, Hazael inquired the cause. “Because I know,” said the
prophet, “the evil that thou wilt do to the children of Israel: their
strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay
with the sword, and wilt dash their infants against the stones, and rip
up their women with child.” Hazael indignantly exclaimed, “Is thy
servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?” Elisha merely
answered, “The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria,”
2 Kings viii, 7–13. On his return home, Hazael concealed from his master
Benhadad the prophet’s answer, and inspired him with hopes of recovery;
but on the following day, he took effectual means to prevent it, by
stifling the king with a thick cloth dipped with water; and, as Benhadad
had no son, and Hazael was a man much esteemed in the army, he was,
without difficulty declared his successor, A. M. 3120. Hazael soon
inflicted upon Israel all the cruelties which Elisha had foretold. For
when Jehu broke up the siege of Ramoth-Gilead, and came with his army to
Samaria, Hazael took advantage of his absence to fall upon his
territories beyond Jordan, destroying all the land of Gilead, Gad,
Reuben, and Manasseh, from Aroer to Bashan, 2 Kings x, 32. Some years
passed after this before Hazael undertook any thing against the kingdom
of Judah, it being remote from Damascus; but in the reign of Joash, the
son of Jehoahaz, A. M. 3165, he besieged the city of Gath, and, having
taken it, marched against Jerusalem, 2 Kings xii, 17, 18. But Joash,
conscious of his inferiority, bribed him at the price of all the money
he could raise, to evacuate Judea, with which he for the moment
complied; yet, in the following year, the army of Hazael returned,
entered the territories of Judah, and the city of Jerusalem, slew all
the princes of the people, and sent a valuable booty to their royal
master, 2 Kings xiii, 22; 2 Chron. xxiv, 23.
HEAD. This word has several significations, beside its natural one,
which denotes the head of a man. It is sometimes used in Scripture for
the whole man: “Blessings are upon the head of the just,” Prov. x, 6;
that is, upon their persons. God says of the wicked, “I will recompense
their way upon their head,” Ezek. ix, 10. It signifies a chief or
capital city: “The head of Syria is Damascus,” Isaiah vii, 8. It denotes
a chief or principal members in society: “The Lord will cut off from
Israel head and tail. The ancient and honourable he is the head,” Isaiah
ix, 14, 15. “The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the
serpent,” Gen. iii, 15; that is, Christ Jesus, the blessed seed of the
woman, shall overthrow the power, policy, and works of the devil. The
river in paradise was divided into four heads or branches. In times of
grief, the mourners covered their heads: they cut and plucked off their
hair. Amos, speaking of unhappy times, says, “I will bring baldness upon
every head,” Amos viii, 10. In prosperity, they anointed their heads
with sweet oils: “Let thy head lack no” perfumed “ointment,” Eccles. ix,
8. To shake the head at any one, expresses contempt: “The virgin, the
daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the
daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee,” Isaiah xxxvii, 22.
Head is taken for one that hath rule and preëminence over others. Thus
God is the head of Christ; as Mediator, from him he derives all his
dignity and authority. Christ is the only spiritual head of the church,
both in respect of eminence and influence; he communicates life, motion,
and strength to every believer. Also the husband is the head of his
wife, because by God’s ordinance he is to rule over her, Gen. iii, 16;
also in regard to preëminence of sex, 1 Peter iii, 7, and excellency of
knowledge, 1 Cor. xiv, 35. The Apostle mentions this subordination of
persons in 1 Cor. xi, 3: “But I would have you know, that the head of
every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head
of Christ is God.” “The stone which the builders rejected was made the
head of the corner,” Psalm cxviii, 22. It was the first in the angle,
whether it were disposed at the top of that angle to adorn and crown it,
or at the bottom to support it. This, in the New Testament, is applied
to Christ, who is the strength and beauty of the church, to unite the
several parts of it, namely both Jews and Gentiles together.
HEAR, HEARING. This word is used in several senses in Scripture. In its
obvious and literal acceptation, it denotes the exercise of that bodily
sense of which the ear is the organ; and as hearing is a sense by which
instruction is conveyed to the mind, and the mind is excited to
attention and to obedience, so the ideas of attention and obedience are
also grafted on the expression or sense of hearing. God is said,
speaking after the manner of men, to hear prayer, that is, to attend to
it, and comply with the requests it contains: “I love the Lord, because
he hath heard,” hath attended to, hath complied with, “the voice of my
supplication,” Psalm cxvi, 1. On the contrary, God is said not to hear,
that is, not to comply with, the requests of sinners, John ix, 31. Men
are said to hear, when they attend to, or comply with, the request of
each other, or when they obey the commands of God: “He who is of God
heareth,” obeyeth, practiseth, “God’s words,” John viii, 47. “My sheep
hear my voice,” and show their attention to it, by following me, John x,
27. “This is my beloved Son: hear ye him,” Matt. xvii, 5. This seems to
be an allusion to Deut. xviii, 15, 18, 19: “The Lord shall raise up unto
you a prophet; him shall ye hear;” which is also expressly applied in
Acts iii, 22. The other senses which may be attached to the word “hear,”
seem to rise from the preceding, and may be referred to the same ideas.
HEART. The Hebrews regarded the heart as the source of wit,
understanding, love, courage, grief, and pleasure. Hence are derived
many modes of expression. “An honest and good heart,” Luke viii, 15, is
a heart studious of holiness, being prepared by the Spirit of God to
receive the word with due affections, dispositions, and resolutions. We
read of a broken heart, a clean heart, an evil heart, a liberal heart.
To “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the
children to their fathers,” Mal. iv, 6, signifies to cause them to be
perfectly reconciled, and that they should be of the same mind. To want
heart, sometimes denotes to want understanding and prudence: “Ephraim is
like a silly dove, without heart,” Hosea vii, 11. “O fools, and slow of
heart,” Luke xxiv, 25; that is, ignorant, and without understanding.
“This people’s heart is waxed gross, lest they should understand with
their heart,” Matt. xiii, 15; their heart is become incapable of
understanding spiritual things; they resist the light, and are proof
against all impressions of truth. “The prophets prophesy out of their
own heart,” Ezekiel xiii, 2; that is, according to their own
imagination, without any warrant from God.
The heart is said to be dilated by joy, contracted by sadness, broken by
sorrow, to grow fat, and be hardened by prosperity. The heart melts
under discouragement, forsakes one under terror, is desolate in
affliction, and fluctuating in doubt. To speak to any one’s heart is to
comfort him, to say pleasing and affecting things to him. The heart
expresses also the middle part of any thing: “Tyre is in the heart of
the seas,” Ezekiel xxvii, 4; in the midst of the seas. “We will not fear
though the mountains be carried into the heart (middle) of the sea,”
Psalm xlvi, 2.
The heart of man is naturally depraved and inclined to evil, Jer. xvii,
9. A divine power is requisite for its renovation, John iii, 1–11. When
thus renewed, the effects will be seen in the temper, conversation, and
conduct at large. Hardness of heart is that state in which a sinner is
inclined to, and actually goes on in, rebellion against God.
HEATH, ערער, Jer. xvii, 6; 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 _œrœr_. 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 ערוער, which the Septuagint translators have read ערור, for they
render it ὄνος ἄγριος, _wild ass_; and, as this seems best to agree with
the flight recommended in the passage, it is to be preferred. See WILD
ASS.
HEAVEN, the place of the more immediate residence of the Most High, Gen.
xiv, 19. The Jews enumerated three heavens: the first was the region of
the air, where the birds fly, and which are therefore called “the fowls
of heaven,” Job xxxv, 11. It is in this sense also that we read of the
dew of heaven, the clouds of heaven, and the wind of heaven. The second
is that part of space in which are fixed the heavenly luminaries, the
sun, moon, and stars, and which Moses was instructed to call “the
firmament or expanse of heaven,” Gen. i, 8. The third heaven is the seat
of God and of the holy angels; the place into which Christ ascended
after his resurrection, and into which St. Paul was caught up, though it
is not like the other heavens perceptible to mortal view.
2. It is an opinion not destitute of probability, that the construction
of the tabernacle, in which Jehovah dwelt by a visible symbol, termed
“the cloud of glory,” was intended to be a type of heaven. In the
holiest place of the tabernacle, “the glory of the Lord,” or visible
emblem of his presence, rested between the cherubims; by the figures of
which, the angelic host surrounding the throne of God in heaven was
typified; and as that holiest part of the tabernacle was, by a thick
vail, concealed from the sight of those who frequented it for the
purposes of worship, so heaven, the habitation of God, is, by the vail
of flesh, hidden from mortal eyes. Admitting the whole tabernacle,
therefore, in which the worship of God was performed according to a
ritual of divine appointment, to be a representation of the universe, we
are taught by it this beautiful lesson, that the whole universe is the
temple of God; but that in this vast temple there is “a most holy
place,” where the Deity resides and manifests his presence to the
angelic hosts and redeemed company who surround him. This view appears
to be borne out by the clear and uniform testimony of Scripture; and it
is an interesting circumstance, that heaven, as represented by “the
holiest of all,” is heaven as it is presented to the eye of Christian
faith, the place where our Lord ministers as priest, to which believers
now come in spirit, and where, they are gathered together in the
disembodied state. Thus, for instance, St. Paul tells the believing
Hebrews, “Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to
the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written,”
or are enrolled, “in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new
covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things
than the blood of Abel,” Heb. xii, 22–24. Here we are presented with the
antitype of almost every leading circumstance of the Mosaic
dispensation. Instead of the land of Canaan, we have heaven; for the
earthly Jerusalem, we have the heavenly, the city of the living God; in
place of the congregation of Israel after the flesh, we have the general
assembly and church of the first-born, that is, all true believers “made
perfect;” for just men in the imperfect state of the old dispensation,
we have just men made perfect in evangelical knowledge and holiness;
instead of Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, we have Jesus the
Mediator of the new and everlasting covenant; and instead of the blood
of slaughtered animals, which was sprinkled upon the Israelites, the
tabernacle, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, to make a typical
atonement, we have the blood of the Son of God, which was shed for the
remission of the sins of the whole world; that blood which doth not,
like the blood of Abel, call for vengeance but for mercy, which hath
made peace between heaven and earth, effected the true and complete
atonement for sin, and which therefore communicates peace to the
conscience of every sinner that believes the Gospel.
3. Among the numerous refinements of modern times that is one of the
most remarkable which goes to deny the locality of heaven. “It is a
state,” say many, “not a place.” But if that be the case, the very
language of the Scriptures, in regard to this point, is calculated to
mislead us. For that God resides in a particular part of the universe,
where he makes his presence known to his intelligent creatures by some
transcendent, visible glory, is an opinion that has prevailed among Jews
and Christians, Greeks and Romans, yea, in every nation, civilized or
savage, and in every age; and, since it is confirmed by revelation, why
should it be doubted? Into this most holy place, the habitation of the
Deity, Jesus, after his resurrection, ascended; and there, presenting
his crucified body before the manifestation of the divine presence,
which is called “the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,” he offered
unto God the sacrifice of himself, and made atonement for the sins of
his people. There he is sat down upon his throne, crowned with glory and
honour, as king upon his holy hill of Zion, and continually officiates
as our great High Priest, Advocate, and Intercessor, within the vail.
There is his Father’s house, into which he is gone before, to prepare
mansions of bliss for his disciples; it is the kingdom conferred upon
him as the reward of his righteousness, and of which he has taken
possession as their forerunner, Acts i, 11; Heb. vi, 19, 20.
4. Some of the ancients imagined that the habitation of good men, after
the resurrection, would be the sun; grounding this fanciful opinion on a
mistaken interpretation of Psalm xix, 4, which they rendered, with the
LXX and Vulgate, “He has set his tabernacle in the sun.” Others, again,
have thought it to lie beyond the starry firmament, a notion less
improbable than the former. Mr. Whiston supposes the air to be the
mansion of the blessed, at least for the present; and he imagines that
Christ is at the top of the atmosphere, and other spirits nearer to or
more remote from him according to the degree of their moral purity, to
which he conceives the specific gravity of their inseparable vehicles to
be proportionable. Mr. Hallet has endeavoured to prove that they will
dwell upon earth, when it shall be restored to its paradisaical state.
The passages of Scripture, however, on which he grounds his hypothesis,
are capable of another and very different interpretation. After all, we
may observe, that the place of the blessed is a question of
comparatively little importance; and we may cheerfully expect and pursue
it, though we cannot answer a multitude of curious questions, relating
to various circumstances that pertain to it. We have reason to believe
that heaven will be a social state, and that its happiness will, in some
measure, arise from mutual communion and converse, and the expressions
and exercises of mutual benevolence. All the views presented to us of
this eternal residence of good men are pure and noble; and form a
striking contrast to the low hopes, and the gross and sensual
conceptions of a future state, which distinguish the Pagan and
Mohammedan systems. The Christian heaven may be described to be a state
of eternal communion with God, and consecration to hallowed devotional
and active services; from which will result an uninterrupted increase of
knowledge, holiness, and joy, to the glorified and immortalized assembly
of the redeemed.
HEBER, or EBER, the father of Peleg, and the son of Salah, who was the
grandson of Shem, one of Noah’s sons, was born A. M. 1723; B. C. 2281.
From him some have supposed that Abraham and his descendants derived the
appellation of Hebrews. But others have suggested, with greater
probability, that Abraham and his family were thus called, because they
came from the other side of the Euphrates into Canaan; Heber signifying
in the Hebrew language _one that passes_, or, _a passage_, that is, of
the river Euphrates. According to this opinion, Hebrew signifies much
the same as foreigner among us, or one that comes from beyond sea. Such
were Abraham and his family among the Canaanites; and his posterity,
learning and using the language of the country, still retained the
appellation originally given them, even when they became possessors and
settled inhabitants.
2. HEBER the Kenite, of Jethro’s family, husband to Jael, who killed
Sisera, Judges iv, 17, &c.
HEBREW OF THE HEBREWS, an appellation which the Apostle Paul applies to
himself, Phil. iii, 5, concerning the meaning of which there has been
some difference of opinion. Godwin, in his “Moses and Aaron,”
understands by this expression, a Hebrew both by father’s and mother’s
side. But if it meant no more than this, there was little occasion for
the Apostle’s using it immediately after having declared that he was “of
the stock of Israel, and the tribe of Benjamin,” which, on Godwin’s
supposition, is the same as a Hebrew of the Hebrews; for the Jews were
not allowed to marry out of their own nation. Beside, it is not likely
that St. Paul would have mentioned it as a distinguishing privilege and
honour, that his parents were not proselytes. It is more probable that a
Hebrew of the Hebrews signifies a Hebrew both by nation and language,
which many of Abraham’s posterity, in those days, were not; or one of
the Hebrew Jews who performed their public worship in the Hebrew tongue;
for such were reckoned more honourable than the Jews born out of Judea,
and who spoke the Greek tongue. See HELLENISTS.
HEBREW LANGUAGE, called also absolutely Hebrew, is the language spoken
by the Hebrews, and in which all the books of the Old Testament are
written; whence it is also called the holy or sacred language. It is
said to have been preserved in the midst of the confusion at Babel, in
the family of Heber, or Eber, who, as it is alleged, was not concerned
in the building of Babel, and, consequently, did not share in the
punishment inflicted on the actual transgressors. The Jews, in general,
have been of opinion, that the Hebrew was the language of Heber’s
family, from whom Abraham sprung. On the other hand, it has been
maintained that Heber’s family, in the fourth generation after the
dispersion, lived in Chaldea, where Abraham was born, Gen. xi, 27, 28,
and that there is no reason to think they used a different language from
their neighbours around them. It appears, moreover, that the Chaldee,
and not the Hebrew, was the language of Abraham’s country, and of his
kindred, Gen. xxiv, 4; xxxi, 46, 47; and it is probable that Abraham’s
native language was Chaldee, and that the Hebrew was the language of the
Canaanites, which Abraham and his posterity learned by travelling among
them. It is surprising that this adoption of the Phenician language by
the patriarchs should have escaped the notice of several intelligent
readers of the Bible. Jacob and Laban, it is clear, by the names they
gave to the cairn, or memorial of stones, spoke two different dialects;
and it is nearly equally evident, that the language of Laban was the
dialect of Ur of the Chaldees, the original speech of the Hebrew race.
As the patriarchs disused the true Hebrew dialect, it is manifest that
they had conformed to the speech of Canaan; and that this conformity was
complete, is proved by the identity between all the remains of
Canaanitish names. At the same time, it must be remarked, that the
Phenician and the Chaldean were merely different dialects of the same
primitive language which had been spoken by the first ancestors of
mankind.