Hook

Hook Is the rendering in the Auth. Vers. of the following terms in the original. See FISH-HOOK; see FLESH-HOOK; see PRUNING-HOOK. The idea of a thorn enters into the etymology of several of them, probably because a thorn, hooked or straight, was the earliest instrument of this kind. Tacitus thus describes the dress of the ancient Germans. "A loose mantle fastened with a clasp, or, when that cannot be had, with a thorn" (Germ. 17). See THORN.

1. חָח, chach (lit. a thorn), a ring inserted in the nostrils of animals, to which a cord was fastened in order to lead them about or tame them (2Ki 19:28; Isa 37:29; Eze 29:4; Eze 38:4; compare Job 40:24); also a "chain" for a captive (Eze 19:4,9), and "bracelets" for females (Ex 25:22, where others a nose-ring, others a clasp for fastening the dress). In the first two of the above passages, Jehovah 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 the nostrils (Shaw, Travels, p. 167-8, 2nd ed.). Such a ring is oftentimes placed through the nose of a bull, and is likewise used in the East for leading about lions, camels, and other animals. A similar method was adopted for leading prisoners, as in the case of Manasseh, who was led with rings (2Ch 33:11). An illustration of this practice is found in a bas-relief discovered at Khorsabad (Layard, 2, 376; see also the cut under EYE). The term מוֹקֵשׁ is used in a similar sense in Job 40:24 (A.V. "bore his nose with a gin." margin). Another form of the same term, חוֹח(A.V. "thorn"), is likewise properly a ring placed through the mouth of a large fish, and attached by a cord (אִגמֹן) to a stake for the purpose of keeping it alive in the water (Job 41:2); the word meaning the cord is rendered "hook" in the A.V. See below.

2. The cognate word חִכָּה, chakkah', means a fishhook (Job 41; Job 1, "angle;" Isa 19:8; Hab 1:15). This passage in Job has occasioned the following speculations (see, for instance, Harris's Nat. Hist. of the Bible, art. Leviathal, London 1825). It has been assumed that Bochart has completely proved the Leviathan to mean the crocodile (Rosenmüller on Bochart, 3, 737, etc., 769, etc., Lips. 1796). Herodotus has then been quoted, where he relates that the Egyptians near Lake Maeris select a crocodile, render him tame, and suspend ornaments to his ears, and sometimes gems of great value; his fore feet being adorned with bracelets (2, 69); and the mummies of crocodiles, having their ears thus bored, have been discovered (Kenrick's Egypt of Herodotus, p. 97, London 1841). Hence it is concluded that this passage in Job refers to the facts mentioned by Herodotus; and, doubtless, the terms employed, especially by the Sept. and Vulg., and the third and following verses, favor the supposition, for there the captive is represented as suppliant and obsequious, in a state of security and servitude, and the object of diversion, "played with" as with a bird, and serving for the sport of maidens. Herodotus is further quoted to show that in his time the Egyptians captured the crocodile with a hook (ἄγκιστρον),with which (ἐξελκύσθη εἰς τῆν γῆν) he was drawn ashore; and accounts are certainly given by modern travelers of the continuance of this practice (Maillet, Descrip. d'Egypte, 2, 127, ed. Hag., 1740). But does not the entire description go upon the supposition of the impossibility of so treating Leviathan? Supposing the allusions to be correctly interpreted, is it not as much as to say, "Canst 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 formerly supposed the Delphinus orca communis or common grampus, found in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and also in the Nile. (See his examination of Bochart's reasonings, etc., in Translation and Notes on Job, p. 197 and 529-539, London 1837). So the above term in Ezekiel 29: "I will put my hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause thee to come up out of the midst of thy rivers," where the prophet 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. 8, 25) states, that the Tentyritee (inhabitants of Egypt) followed the crocodile, swimming after it in the river, sprung upon its back, thrust a bar into its mouth; which being held by its two extremities, serves as a bit, and enables them to brace it on shore (comp. Eze 29:3-4). Strabo relates that the; Tentyritae displayed their feats before the Romans (17 560, ed. Casaub.). See LEVIATHAN.