Ptolemy Lagus, gained control of Egypt, to the SW of Palestine. Therefore, with Seleucus Nicator and Ptolemy Lagus the long struggle between the “king of the north” and the “king of the south” began. However, the prophecy concerning the “king of the north” extends from the time of Seleucus Nicator down to the “time of the end.” (Dan. 11:40) Logically, then, the national and political identity of the “king of the north” would change in the course of history. But it would still be possible to determine his identity on the basis of his relationship to the original “king of the north.”—See the book “Your Will Be Done on Earth,” pp. 220-307.

JEHOVAH’S RESIDENCE

“North” also appears in the Scriptures with reference to the place where Jehovah resided representatively with the Israelites.—Ps. 48:1, 2; Isa. 14:13, 14; see MOUNTAIN OF MEETING.

NOSE, NOSTRILS

The part of the face that affords passage for air in respiration and serves as the organ of smell.

When God created Adam, he put in his body the life force (ruʹahh), as many texts indicate. Then he proceeded to “blow into his nostrils the breath [form of n^esha·mahʹ] of life, and the man came to be a living soul.” (Gen. 2:7) The breath being drawn into the body through the nostrils is essential to life; it sustains the life force. At the Flood, “everything in which the breath of the force of life was active in its nostrils, namely, all that were on the dry ground, died.”—Gen. 7:22.

The Hebrew word for nose or nostril (ʼaph) is frequently used to refer to the entire face. Adam was sentenced to earn his livelihood from the ground ‘in the sweat of his face [literally, “nose” or “nostrils”].’ (Gen. 3:19) Lot bowed down with his face (“nose”) to the ground before the visiting angels.—Gen. 19:1.

SENSITIVITY IN SMELLING AND TASTING

The olfactory area is located in the upper part of the nasal cavity, where the olfactory nerves terminate in hairlike endings; also fine endings of the trigeminal nerve are found in this area. The sense of smell in humans is very acute, giving credit to the ability of man’s Creator. According to an article in the Scientific American, in its issue of February 1964: “The sense of smell obviously is a chemical sense, and its sensitivity is proverbial; to a chemist the ability of the nose to sort out and characterize substances is almost beyond belief. It deals with complex compounds that might take a chemist months to analyze in the laboratory; the nose identifies them instantly, even in an amount so small (as little as a ten-millionth of a gram) that the most sensitive modern laboratory instruments often cannot detect the substance, let alone analyze and label it.”

In the same article, an interesting theory was set forth, which has passed several tests with indications that the theory may be close to the actual facts. This theory holds that the odors of different substances are based on the geometrical shape of the molecules of that substance; that there are “primary” odors just as there are primary colors of light (red, green and blue). These primary odors are identified as numbering seven, namely, camphoraceous, musky, floral, pepperminty, ethereal (etherlike), pungent and putrid. The latter two are thought to be exceptions, giving their odor sensations, not because of shape, but because of the electrical charge they carry. The receptors in the nerve endings are thought to be of various shapes, the smell sensation being due to the molecules of the substance fitting into the receptors of the nerves that carry the sensation to the brain for interpretation as a certain odor. Complex odors have molecules that will fit into more than one receptor, depending upon whether or not the molecules lie flat, on the side or endwise. In this way they fit into a number of different receptors, bringing about combinations of the “primary” odors.

The nose also plays a large part in “taste.” There are four primary tastes: sweet, salt, sour and bitter. These the taste buds in the mouth recognize. But much of the flavor in food is enjoyed due to the sense of smell. For example, a person whose nostrils are stopped up finds difficulty in distinguishing between two kinds of food, as most things then taste more or less flat.

BEAUTY

Being located so prominently, a well-formed nose contributes greatly to facial beauty. In The Song of Solomon (7:4) the Shulammite girl’s nose being likened to “the tower of Lebanon” may have reference to the symmetry of her nose as adding dignity and beauty to her face. God required that Israel’s priests, because they were his representatives before the people, be without blemish, one of the requirements being that no priest should have a slit or mutilated nose.—Lev. 21:18.

ILLUSTRATIVE AND FIGURATIVE USES

The word for nose or nostrils (ʼaph) is often used figuratively for anger (because of the violent breathing or snorting of an enraged person). (See ANGER.) It is also employed with reference to Jehovah’s action because of his anger (Ps. 18:8, 15), or when he exerts his powerful active force.—Ex. 14:21; 15:8.

The disgusting idolatry into which Israel fell was a cause for the burning anger of Jehovah against them, which he expressed through the prophet Isaiah, saying: “These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire burning all day long.”—Isa. 65:5.

Proverbs 30:32, 33 states: “If you have acted senselessly by lifting yourself up, and if you have fixed your thought upon it, put the hand to the mouth. For the churning of milk is what brings forth butter, and the squeezing of the nose is what brings forth blood, and the squeezing out of anger is what brings forth quarreling.” This strongly emphasizes the trouble that can be caused by one who speaks wrongly or who harbors up anger or lets it out unrestrained. Here, in a play on words, “anger” is the dual form of the word for “nose.”

NOSE RING

An ornamental ring worn on the nose. It was inserted either through the left or the right side of the nose or through the partition separating the nostrils and was especially worn by women. (Gen. 24:22, 30, 47; Isa. 3:21) Ishmaelite men, however, according to some translations, also wore nose rings.—Judg. 8:24-26.

The Hebrew word for “nose ring” (neʹzem) can also be applied to an earring and, in some cases, there may have been little difference in the forms of these ornaments. Sometimes the context makes it possible to determine whether a nose ring or an earring is meant.—Compare Genesis 24:47 with Genesis 35:4; Ezek. 16:12.

Though nose rings were generally made of gold, other materials, such as silver, were also used. Nose rings might be ornamented with beads, pieces of coral, or jewels, suspended from them as small pendants. The diameter of nose rings varied from one to as much as three inches (2.5 to 7.6 centimeters). Hanging down over the mouth as it did, the nose ring had to be moved when eating.

At Proverbs 11:22 an outwardly beautiful woman who rejects sensibleness is compared to a “gold nose ring in the snout of a pig.”

NUMBER, NUMERAL

The Hebrews used arithmetic, employing the various mathematical operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and so forth, including fractions. (Num. 1:2; Lev. 27:18; 25:8; 6:5; 14:10; 27:30; Num. 15:6) In ancient Hebrew, numbers were spelled out.

Sometime after the exile to Babylon the Jews