HAWK

נץ , from the root נצה , to fly , because of the rapidity and length of flight for which this bird is remarkable, Lev. xi, 16; Deut. xiv, 15; Job xxxix, 26. Naz is used generically by the Arabian writers to signify both falcon and hawk; and the term is given in both these senses by Men in ski. There can be little doubt that such is the real meaning of the Hebrew word, and that it imports various species of the falcon family, as jer-falcon, goshawk, and sparrow-hawk. As this is a bird of prey, cruel in its temper, and gro in its manners, it was forbidden as food, and all others of its kind, in the Mosaic ritual. The Greeks consecrated the hawk to Apollo; and among the Egyptians no animal was held in so high veneration as the ibis and the hawk. Most of the species of hawk, we are told; are birds of pa age. The hawk, therefore, is produced, in Job xxxix, 26, as a specimen of that astonishing instinct which teaches birds of pa age to know their times and seasons, when to migrate out of one country into another for the benefit of food, or a warmer climate, or both. The common translation does not give the full force of the pa age: “Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom?” The real meaning is, “Doth she know, through thy skill or wisdom, the precise period for taking flight, or migrating and stretching her wings toward a southern or warmer climate?” The pa age is well rendered by Sandys:-- A Biblical and Theological Dictionary, by Richard Watson “Doth the wild haggard tower into the sky, And to the south by thy direction fly?” Her migration is not conducted by the wisdom and prudence of man, but by the superintending and upholding providence of the only wise God. HAY, חציר . In the two places where this word occurs, Prov. xxvii, 25, and Isaiah xv, 16, our translators have very improperly rendered it “hay.” But in those countries they made no hay; and, if they did, it appears from inspection that hay could hardly be the meaning of the word in either of those texts. The author of “Fragments,” in continuation of Calmet, has the following remarks: “There is a gro impropriety in our version of Prov. xxvii, 25: ‘The hay appear eth, and the tender gra showeth itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered.’ Now, certainly, if the tender gra is but just beginning to show itself, the hay, which is gra cut and dried after it has arrived at maturity, ought by no means to be a ociated with it, still le ought it to be placed before it. And this leads me to observe, that none of the dictionaries which I have seen seem to me to give the accurate import of the word, which, I apprehend, means the first shoots , the rising , budding , spires of gra . So, in the present pa age, גלה חציר , ‘the tender shoots of the gra rise up; and the buddings of gra ,’ gra in its early state, as is the peculiar import of רשא , ‘appear; and the tufts of gra ,’ proceeding from the same root, ‘collect themselves together, and, by their union, begin to clothe the mountain tops with a pleasing verdure.’” Surely, the beautiful progre of vegetation, as described in this pa age, must appear too poetical to be lost; but what must it be to an eastern beholder! to one who had lately witne ed all surrounding sterility, a gra le waste!