is as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet are descending to death,” says the wise man. Her smooth, honeylike words and actions lead the man right up to the immoral act so that “all of a sudden he is going after her, like a bull that comes even to the slaughter.”—Prov. 5:3-5; 7:21, 22.

HONEY OF FRUITS

The Hebrew word d^evashʹ can refer also to the juice or syrup of fruits—figs, dates, and so forth. Often the context enables the reader to determine whether or not bee honey is meant. Evidently the syrup of fruits is what is prohibited from being offered on the altar at Leviticus 2:11, because of its tendency to ferment. That bee honey is not meant here is indicated by the next verse, which included the prohibited “honey” as firstfruits. Most of the honey used by the Israelites was wild honey, not a cultivated crop as in the case of grapes, figs, dates and other fruits. For the same reason the “honey” offered as firstfruits when Hezekiah motivated the people to support the priesthood was undoubtedly the juice or syrup of fruits.—2 Chron. 31:5.

A LAND OF MILK AND HONEY

The description of Palestine as “a land flowing with milk and honey,” often repeated in the Scriptures, is apt, for not only was the product of bees abundant, but also the syrup of fruits. (Ex. 3:8; Lev. 20:24; Deut. 11:9; Josh. 5:6, and other references) The latter is apparently referred to as being an item of trade exchanged for Tyre’s merchandise.—Ezek. 27:2, 17; see BEE.

HOOK

A curved or sharply angled piece of metal or other material, sometimes barbed.

Fishhooks were known to ancient fishermen. (Hab. 1:14, 15; Isa. 19:1, 6-8; Matt. 17:24-27) Butcher hooks are also mentioned in the Bible. (Amos 4:2) Gold hooks were used in the tabernacle to fasten together the two large sections of the embroidered linen covering, and copper hooks for the two sections of the goat’s hair covering. (Ex. 26:1, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11; 36:13, 18; 39:33) The curtain between the Holy and the Most Holy was hung on hooks, evidently of gold (Ex. 26:31-33) as was also the screen to the tabernacle entrance.—Ex. 26:36, 37.

Hooks were employed for leading animals, particularly wild beasts. (Ezek. 19:3, 4, 6, 9) Human captives were sometimes led by hooks either in the lips, nose or tongue. An Assyrian pictorial representation shows the king holding three captives by cords fastened to hooks in their lips while he blinds one of them with a spear. It was, therefore, understandable to King Sennacherib of Assyria when Jehovah spoke figuratively to him through the prophet Isaiah: “I shall certainly put my hook in your nose and my bridle between your lips, and I shall indeed lead you back by the way by which you have come.”—2 Ki. 19:20, 21, 28; Isa. 37:29.

While an ordinary fishhook could never hold mighty Leviathan (evidently the crocodile) (Job 41:1), a large hook might be put through its jaws. The historian Herodotus stated that the Egyptians used a hook to capture the crocodile and draw it out of the water. (Book II, sec. 70) Jehovah figuratively spoke to Pharaoh of Egypt, in whom Israel had foolishly trusted for support against Babylon: “I will put hooks in your jaws . . . And I will bring you up out of the midst of your Nile canals . . . And I will abandon you to the wilderness, . . . And all the inhabitants of Egypt will have to know that I am Jehovah, for the reason that they proved to be, as a support, a reed to the house of Israel.” (Ezek. 29:1-7) Jehovah also foretold that he would put hooks in the jaws of “Gog of the land of Magog” and would bring him forth to the final attack upon God’s people and to his own execution.—Ezek. 38:1-4; 39:1-4.

HOOPOE

[Heb., du·khi·phathʹ].

The identification of this bird with the “lapwing,” as in the Authorized Version (Lev. 11:19; Deut. 14:18), is no longer followed by modern translations. The translators of the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate understood it to be the “hoopoe” (eʹpops, LXX; upupa, Vg), and the Syrian and Arabic names for the hoopoe (Syr., qaqupha; Arab., hudhudu) also confirm this identification.

Some believe the Hebrew name for the hoopoe (du·khi·phathʹ) is intended to represent the peculiar, somewhat dovelike cry of the bird, as is clearly the case with its name in the other languages mentioned. Others would derive the name from the Hebrew word meaning “to pound, beat,” noting the hoopoe’s practice of drumming its beak on the ground.

About the size of a slender pigeon, the hoopoe is a somewhat cinnamon-colored bird, distinctively marked with alternate broad bars of white and black along its wings and back. Its most conspicuous feature is a crest of plumes, each feather ending in a white border tipped with black, the crest running from the base of the long, slender curved bill all the way to the back of the bird’s head. When expanded, the crest forms a handsome semicircular crown, and the bird raises and lowers it like a fan. But though colorfully and conspicuously dressed, the hoopoe is notably unclean in home and habits. Its diet of insects is obtained by probing with its sharp bill not only in the ground but also in dunghills and other filth. The nest, consisting of a hole in some bank, hollow tree, or wall, gives off a disagreeable odor produced by secretions of the bird’s oil glands, and also becomes foul-smelling due to the bird’s failure to clean the nest of excrement. Thus, while not a bird of prey nor an eater of carrion, the hoopoe was included among the birds listed as unclean for food in the Mosaic law.—Lev. 11:13, 19; Deut. 14:12, 18.

The hoopoe also has an unsavory connection with superstition and magical practices. Its head was anciently used in witches’ charms and representations thereof were often carved on the top of diviners’ rods. By the Arabs the bird was considered as endowed with the ability to locate underground water, evidently due to its manner of stalking about and bending its head downward while opening and closing its crest, actually done in search of food.

Found throughout southern Asia and Africa and parts of Europe, the hoopoe migrates to Palestine about the first of March and remains until the approach of winter, when it heads southward to Egypt and other parts of northern Africa.

[Picture on page 786]

Hoopoe, a colorful bird with unclean habits

HOPE

1. Trust, reliance. 2. a. Desire accompanied with expectation of what is desired or belief that it is attainable. b. One on whom hopes are centered. c. A source of hopeful expectation; promise. d. Something that is hoped for; an object of hope.

NO REAL HOPE WITHOUT GOD

True hope, as spoken of in the Bible, is superior to mere desire, which may have no foundation or prospect of fulfillment. It is also better than mere expectation, because that which is expected is not