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Holy PlaceAid to Bible Understanding
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for all time into the holy place and obtained an everlasting deliverance for us,” writes the apostle Paul. (Heb. 9:11, 12) On going into heaven and appearing before Jehovah, Christ entered into what was pictured by the innermost compartment of the tabernacle, namely, the Most Holy. (Heb. 9:24, 25) Thus the tabernacle and its services served as “a typical representation and a shadow of the heavenly things.”—Heb. 8:5.
Christian underpriests
While on earth, the followers of Jesus Christ are spoken of as “being built up a spiritual house for the purpose of a holy priesthood,” and as constituting “a royal priesthood.” (1 Pet. 2:5, 9) As the underpriests served in the courtyard and also in the Holy Place, so these Christian priests of God serve before his symbolic altar and also in the symbolic Holy Place. The priests of Israel had to be clean, washing themselves with water from the copper basin in the courtyard, when preparing to serve in the Holy Place. (Ex. 40:30-32) So, too, those Christians who have been declared righteous are said to be “washed clean.” (1 Cor. 6:11) The Israelite priests were surrounded by the figures of the cherubs on the tabernacle curtains as they carried out their duties there. This calls to mind the statement of the apostle to those declared righteous that, while yet on earth, “[God] seated us together in the heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:4-6) As these Christians of the “royal priesthood” serve, they offer sacrifices of praise (Heb. 13:15) and prayers to God (related to the incense; Rev. 8:4), eat the spiritual food God provides (as he provided the showbread for the priests; Mark 2:26), and enjoy light from God’s Word of truth (as from the lampstand; Ps. 119:105). The apostle Paul points out that they have the hope, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, of entering into the real “Most Holy,” heaven itself.—Heb. 6:19, 20; 9:24; 1 Pet. 1:3, 4.—See HOLY CONTRIBUTION; MOST HOLY.
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Holy SpiritAid to Bible Understanding
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HOLY SPIRIT
See SPIRIT.
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HomamAid to Bible Understanding
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HOMAM
(Hoʹmam) [possibly from a Hebrew verb meaning to make a noise, move noisily, confuse, discomfit]. Son of Horite Sheik Lotan; the same as Hemam.—Gen. 36:20-22; 1 Chron. 1:39; see HEMAM.
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HomerAid to Bible Understanding
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HOMER
A dry measure corresponding to the cor and equaling ten baths or ten ephahs. (Ezek. 45:11, 14) Based on the estimated volume of the bath measure, the ephah has been reckoned at .62 bushel (22 liters). The homer would therefore equal 6.2 bushels (220 liters) and the half-homer (Hos. 3:2), 3.1 bushels (110 liters). In the wilderness, greedy Israelites gathered miraculously provided quails in such numbers that the “one collecting least gathered ten homers” (62 bushels; 2,220 liters). (Num. 11:32) The Scriptures also mention the homer as a measure for barley, seed and wheat.—Lev. 27:16; Isa. 5:10; Ezek. 45:13.
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Honey, HoneycombAid to Bible Understanding
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HONEY, HONEYCOMB
The word “honey” as used in the Hebrew Scriptures is translated from the words yaʹʽar, noʹpheth, and devashʹ. This latter word may refer, not only to bee honey, but also to the syrup of fruits. In the Greek Scriptures meʹli is used, along with the adjective aʹgri·os, “wild,” to denote the honey of wild bees.
THE HONEYCOMB
The honeycomb is a marvel of engineering, revealing the Creator’s unparalleled wisdom and ability, in putting such “engineering” and construction instinct in the honeybee. The hexagonal shape of the cells is the ideal shape necessary to enable the comb to hold the maximum quantity of honey with the minimum usage of beeswax, of which the cell walls are made. When a comb is being built, beeswax is made by special glands in the bee’s body. It oozes through pores in the body, forming small white flakes that are picked up and carried by the bee’s legs to its jaws, where the wax is chewed, then placed in the part of the honeycomb being constructed. The walls of the comb are only one-eightieth of an inch (.32 millimeter) thick but can support thirty times their weight.
HONEY
Most of the Bible’s references to the honey of bees is to wild honey, such as John the Baptist ate in the wilderness. (Matt. 3:1, 4) Honeybees build their nests in a variety of places, including trees, rocks and, in one case, even in the carcass of a dead animal, which evidently was no longer carrion but had been dried out by the sun. This was the lion’s carcass from which Samson ate honey.—Judg. 14:8, 9.
Bee honey is a sweet, viscid fluid manufactured by bees from the nectar obtained from flowers and fruit. In the process of gathering the nectar and depositing it in the honeycomb, certain chemicals from the bee’s body are added. Some of the water evaporates from the nectar and the chemicals transform the nectar into honey. The color and flavor of honey vary according to the source of nectar. Honey is easily assimilated by the body; the two main sugars it contains (levulose and dextrose) are quickly converted into energy.
A beneficial food
The energy-giving property of honey is illustrated in the case of King Saul’s son Jonathan who, exhausted from battle, tasted some honey. Immediately his eyes “began to beam.” (1 Sam. 14:25-30) This energy food is listed among the provisions God supplied for his people in the wilderness. There, where few trees existed, the people were able to get honey to eat “out of a crag,” that is, from the honeycombs that the bees built in rocky places.—Deut. 32:13.
Curative properties
Honey also has curative properties. It is compared to pleasant sayings and wisdom, not only because of its sweetness and fine taste, but also because of its health-giving qualities. Pleasant sayings are healthful spiritually, just as honey is good for the physical body. The writer of Proverbs says: “Pleasant sayings are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and a healing to the bones.”—Prov. 16:24; 24:13, 14.
Fine words or sayings
The sweetness and enjoyment of eating honey is applied illustratively throughout the Scriptures. Examples are found at Ezekiel 3:2, 3 and Revelation 10:9. Comb honey is often mentioned, for it is considered superior in flavor, sweetness and richness to honey that has been exposed to the air for a time. Emphasizing the goodness and pleasantness of the words spoken by the Shulammite girl, her shepherd lover speaks of them as “comb honey” that keeps dripping from her lips. (Song of Sol. 4:11) Jehovah’s judicial decisions are so fine, healthful and beneficial that they are even “sweeter than honey and the flowing honey of the combs.” (Ps. 19:9, 10) His sayings are ‘smoother to the palate than honey to the mouth.’—Ps. 119:103.
A warning against seeking one’s own glory
While honey is good, overeating of it can cause nausea (Prov. 25:16); this eating of too much honey is compared to people seeking out their own glory.—Prov. 25:27.
A warning against immorality
The temptation to sexual immorality that the “strange woman” can bring to bear by her appeal to a man with her use of charm and smooth words is described at Proverbs, chapters five and seven. It constitutes a fine warning to Christians today. “As a honeycomb the lips of a strange woman keep dripping, and her palate is smoother than oil. But the aftereffect from her is as bitter as wormwood; it
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