HOTHAM

on the full force of their language as affording a key to the reconstruction of the popular beliefs which seem to lie behind it. It should be noted that Wis 13^ protests against any idea that the heavenly bodies are animate, and it has been suggested that Ezekiel's avoidance of the phrase 'Lord of hosts' may be due to a fear of seeming to lend any countenance to star-worship.

C. W. Emmet.

HOTHAM.— 1. AnAsherite(lCh7S2). 2. Father of two of David's heroes (1 Ch 11").

HOTHIE.— A son of Heman (1 Ch 25')-

HOUGH. — The hough (modern spelling 'hock') of a quadruped is the joint between the knee and the fetlock in the hind leg; in man the back of the knee Joint, called the ham. To ' hough ' is to cut the tendon of the hough, to hamstring. The subst. occurs in 2 Es 15" 'the camel's hough' (AVm 'pastern or litter'). The verb is found in Jos IV- », 2 S 8S 1 Ch 18' always of houghing horses. Tindale translates Gn 49« 'In their self e- will they houghed an oxe,' which is retained in AVm, and inserted into the text of RV in place of 'they digged down a wall.'

HOUR.— See Time.

HOUSE. — The history of human habitation in Pales- tine goes back to the undated spaces of the palEeohthic or early stone age (see especially the important chapter on ' Prehistoric Archaeology ' in Vincent, Canaan d'apris V exploration recente, 1907, pp. 373 ff.). The excavations and discoveries, of the last few years in particular, have introduced us to the pre-historic inhabitants whom the Semitic invaders, loosely termed Canaanites or Amorites, found in occupation of the country somewhere in the third millennium before our era (circa B.C. 2500). The men of this early race were still in the neohthlo stage of civilization, their only implements being of polished flint, bone, and wood. They lived for the most part In the natural Mmestone caves in which Palestine abounds. In the historical period such underground caves (for descriptions and diagrams of some of the more celebrated, see Schumacher, Across the Jordan, 135-146; Bliss and Macallster, Excavations in Palestine, 204^270) were used by the Hebrews as places of refuge In times of national danger (Jg 6^, 1 S 13°) and reUgious persecution (2 Mao 6", He 11"). But it is not with these, or with the tents in which the patriarchs and their descend-ants lived before the conquest of Canaan, that this article has to deal, but with the houses of clay and stone which were built and occupied after that epoch.

1. Materials. — The most primitive of all the houses for which man has been Indebted to his own inventive-ness is that formed of a few leafy boughs from the primeval forest, represented In Hebrew history to this day by the booths of OT (see Booth). Of more perma-nent habitations, the earliest of which traces have been discovered are probably the mud huts, whose founda-tions were found by Mr. MacaUster in the lowest stratum at Gezer, and which are regarded by him as the work of the cave-dwellers of the later stone age (PBFSt, 1904, 110). Clay in the form of bricks, either sun-dried or, less frequently, baked in a kiln (see BnrcK), and stone (Lv 14'™-, Is 9" etc.), have been in all ages the building materials of the successive Inhabitants of Palestine. Even in districts where stone was available the more tractable material was often preferred. Houses built of crude brick are the 'houses of clay,' the unsubstantial nature of which is emphasized in Job 4"'-, and whose walls a thief or another could easily dig through (Ezk 12*, Mt 6"»'-).

The excavations have shown that there is no uniformity, even at a given epoch, in the size of bricks, which are both rectangular and square in shape. The largest, apparently, have been found at Taanach, roughly 21 Inches by 16i, and 4f inches in thickness. At Gezer a common size is a square brick 15 inches in the side and 7 inches'thick (.PEFSt, 1902, 319). In the Mishna the standard size is a square brick 9 inches each way (Erubin, i. 3).

HOUSE

The stone used for house building varied from common field stones and larger, roughly shaped, quarry stones to the carefully dressed wrought stone (gazith, 1 K 5" RV) or ' hewn-stone, according to measure, sawed with saws' (7»), such as was used by Solomon In his building operations. Similarly rubble, wrought stone, and brick are named in the Mishna as the building materials of the time (Baba bathra, I. 1). For mortar clay was the usual material, although the use of bitumen [wh. see] (Gn 11^ RVm, EV 'slime') was not unknown. 'Wood as a building material was employed mainly tor roofing, and to a less extent for Internal decoration (see below).

2. General plan of Hebrew houses. — The recent ex-cavations at Gezer and elsewhere have shown that the simplest type of house In Palestine has scarcely altered in any respect for four thousand years. Indeed, its construction is so simple that the possibihty of change is reduced to a minimum. In a Syrian village of to-day the typical abode of the fellah consists of a walled enclosure, within which Is a small court closed at the farther end by a house of a single room. This is fre-quently divided Into two parts, one level with the entrance, assigned at night to the domestic animals, cows, ass, etc.; the other, about 18 in. higher, occupied by the peasant and his family. A somewhat better class of house consists of two or three rooms, of which the largest Is the family Uving and sleeping room, a second is assigned to the cattle, while a third serves as general store-room (AV closet).

The Canaanite houses, which the Hebrews inherited (Dt 6'") and copied, are now known to have been arranged on similar Unes (see the diagram of a typical Canaanite house in Gezer, restored by Mr. Macallster In his Bible Sidelights from Gezer [1906], fig. 25). As in all Eastern domestic architecture, the rooms were built on one or more sides of an open court (2 S 17'', Jer 32^ etc.). These rooms were of small dimensions, 12 to 15 feet square as a rule, with which may be compared the legal definition of 'large' and 'small' rooms in the late period of the Mishna. The former was held to measure 15 ft. by 12, with a height, following the model of the Temple (1 K 6^0, equal to half the sum of the length and breadth, namely, 13ift.; a 'small' room measured 12 ft. by 9, with a height of lOi ft. (.Baba baihra, vl. 4).

Should occasion arise, through the marriage of a son or otherwise, to enlarge the house, this was done by building one or more additional rooms on another side of the court. In the case of a 'man of wealth' (1 S 9' RVm), the house would consist of two or even more courts, in which case the rooms about the 'inner court' (Est 4") were appropriated to the women of the family. The court, further, often contained a cistern to catch and retain the precious supply of water that fell in the rainy season (2 S 17"). For the question of an upper storey see § 4.

3. Foundation and dedication rites. — In building a house, the first step was to dig out the space required for the foundation (cf. Mt V^"), after which came the ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone, the 'comer stone of sure foundation ' of Is 28" (see, further, Corneb-Stone) . The ' day of the foundation ' (2 Ch 8"), as we learn from the poetic figure of Job 38™-, was, as it Is at the present day, one of great rejoicing (ct. Ezr 3") .

With the exception of a passage to be cited presently, the OT is silent regarding a foundation rite on which a lurid Ught has been cast by the latest excavations In Palestine. It is now certain that the Canaanites, and the Hebrews after them, were wont to consecrate the foundation of a new building by a human sacrifice. The precise details of the rite are still uncertain, but there is already ample evidence to show that, down even to ' the latter half of the Hebrew monarchy ' (PBFSt, 1903, 224), it was a frequent practice to bury infants, whether alive or after previous sacrifice is still doubtful, in large jars 'generally under the ends of walls, — that Is, at the corners of houses or chambers or just under the door

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