Bell

Bell (פִּעֲמוֹן, paamon', something struck; Sept. ῥοϊvσκος; Vulg. tintinnabulum; Ex 28:33-34; Ex 39:25-26; also מֵצַלָּה, metsillah', tinkling; Sept. χαλίνος; Zec 14:20).

I. The first bells known in history are those small golden bells which were attached to the lower part of the blue robe (the robe of the ephod) which formed part of the dress of the high-priest in his sacerdotal ministrations (Ex 28:33-34; comp. Ecclus. 45, 11). They were there placed alternately with the pomegranate-shaped knobs, one of these being between every two of the bells. The number of these bells is not mentioned in Scripture; but tradition states that there were sixty-six (Clem. Alex. Stromata, p. 563), or, according to the Jews, seventy-two (Jarchi, in loc.) We need not seek any other reason for this rather singular use of bells than that which is assigned: "His sound shall be heard when he goeth into the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not" (Ex 28:35); by which we may understand that the sound of the bells manifested that he was properly arrayed in the robes of ceremony which he was required to wear when he entered the presence-chamber of the Great King; and that as no minister can enter the presence of an earthly potentate abruptly and unannounced, so he (whom no human being could introduce) was to have his entrance harbingered by the sound of the bells he wore. This sound, heard outside, also notified to the people the time in which he was engaged in his sacred ministrations, and during which they remained in prayer (Lu 1:9-10). No doubt they answered the same purpose as the bells used by the Brahmins in the Hindoo ceremonies, and by the Roman Catholics during the celebration of mass (comp. Lu 1:21). To this (lay bells are frequently attached, for the sake of their pleasant sound, to the anklets of women. See ANKLET. The little girls of Cairo wear strings of them round their feet (Lane, Mod. Egypt. 2, 370), and at Koojar Mungo Park saw a dance "in which many performers assisted, all of whom were provided with little bells fastened to their. legs and arms." "BELLS OF THE HORSES" are mentioned in Zec 14:20, and may have been such as were attached to the bridles or foreheads, or to belts around the necks of horses trained for war, that they might thereby be accustomed to noise and tumult, and not by their alarm expose the riders to danger in actual warfare. Hence a person who had not been tried or trained up to any thing was by the Greeks called ἀκωδώνιστος, "one not used to the noise of a bell," by a metaphor taken from horses. The mules employed in the funeral pomp of Alexander had at each jaw a golden bell. It does not appear, however, that this was a use of horse-bells with which the Jews were familiar. The Hebr. word is almost the same as מצַלתִּיַם, metsiltayim, "a pair of cymbals;" and as they are supposed to be inscribed with the words "Holiness unto the Lord," it is more probable that they are not bells, but "concave or flat pieces of brass, which were sometimes attached to horses for the sake of ornament" (Jahn, Bibl. Arch. § 96). Indeed, they were probably the same as the שִׂהֲרֹנַים, saharonim', "ornaments;" Sept. μηνίσκοι (Isa 3:18; Jg 8:21), lunulae of gold, silver, or brass used as ornaments, and hung by the Arabians round the necks of their camels, as we still see them in England on the harness of horses. They were not only ornamental, but useful, as their tinkling tended to enliven the animals; and in the caravans they thus served the purpose of our modern sheep-bells. The laden animals, being without riders, have bells hung from their necks, that they may be kept together in traversing by night the open plains and deserts, by paths and roads unconfined by fences and boundaries, that they may be cheered by the sound of the bells, and that, if any horse strays, its place may be known by the sound of its bell, while the general sound from the caravan enables the traveler who has strayed or lingered to find and regain his party, even in the night (Rosenmuller, Morgenl. 4, 441). That the same motto, Holiness to the Lord, which was upon the mitre of the highpriest, should, in the happy days foretold by the prophet, be inscribed even upon the bells of the horses, manifestly signifies that all things, from the highest to the lowest, should in those days be sanctified to God (Hackett's Illustra. of Script. p. 77). See BRIDLE.