North country, the

An expres- sion, occurring nine times in AV, and used vaguely to denote the distant regions N. and NE. of Palestine, including at least the N. parts of Babylonia, and sometimes almost idealized as the home of Israel’s foes. In Jer 6" it is the quarter from which Jer. expects the foe—whether Scythians or Babylonians (see LOT 237 f.)

—to advance against Judah; 10%, as also Zec 6%*®8, the reference is most probably to Babylonia; 23° 31° it is the quarter whence the exiled Israelites will be restored ; 4610 Carchemish (v.?), on the upper course of the Euphrates, nearly N.N.E. of Palestine, is alluded to as ‘in the north country’; and 50° the foes of Babylon are to assemble from the ‘north iter In Jer 3°16", Zec 2° the Heb. is also the same (AV, RV ‘land of the north’).

Naturally, the expression cannot be dissociated from ‘ the north’ alone, which, esp. in Jeremiah, is constantly spoken of as the uarter whence evil or invasion arises (Jer 1 45 6! 13” 15}? [prob.], 25° 46%-* 472; and against Babylon, 50% “ 51: comp. Is 145}, of the invading Assyrians; and Ezk 26’, where Neb. is brought ‘from the north’); Jer 3'8 (cf.

31:3), 16% 23° 318, Zec 2°, just quoted, show also that it was regarded as the region in which Israel was exiled, and from which it was to be restored. In Zeph 2% the ‘north’ includes Assyria and Nineveh (actually N.E. of Judah). In point of fact, Babylon is almost in the same latitude as Samaria; but Assyr. and Bab. invaders usually entered Palestine from the north ; and hence even the latter were pictured as having their home in that direction.

That the foes of Babylon should themselves also come from the N. (Jer 50% * 41 51) was naturally no difficulty ; the expression was a wide and vague one. In Ezk 385.}5 395 the hosts of ‘Gog’ (whom the prophet imagines as invading in vast numbers the restored Israel) are brought up from ‘the recesses of the north’ (ΔῸΣ ‘op; the same expression in Is 14", Ps 48°) ; the thought may have been suggested to Ezekiel by the irruptions of Scythian hordes into Asia, which had recently taken place (Herod.

i. 103 ff.) In Is 41 (spoken in Babylonia), Cyrus is spoken of as ‘stirred up from the north’; in Dn 11®7™ 12. 15. 40. 44 the ‘king of the north’ denotes the king for the time being of Antioch (opp. to the ‘ king of the South,’ te. of Egypt). S. R. Driver. NOSE, NOSTRILS (nx ‘aph, Arab. anf; orn} Job 41” [Heb."*) only ; 3, tré in AV of Job 39% ‘nostrils,’ is given correctly in RV ‘snorting ’).

— The expansion of the nostrils and the forcible NOSE-JEWEL 560 ejection of the breath expressed energy and indignation, Job 39”, Ps 18". On the other hand, NUMBER RV ‘in no wise’); Jn 12% ‘Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing?’ (οὐκ dpedetre οὐδέν) ; 1 Ti 44 ‘ For the residence of the breath in so small a space | every creature of God is good and nothing to be taught the insignificance of human life, Is 2”.

In Ezk 8” allusion is made to the custom in sacrificial Baal-worship of putting the branch to the nose. A somewhat similar practice prevails at Jewish ceremonies of circumcision, where per- haps, on account of the natural repugnance to pain and the sight of blood, those present are supplied with small slips of aromatic myrtle. See, further, art. BRANCH. In Ly 21" one of the deformities from which the priest must be free was the blemish translated ‘ flat-nosed’ (099).

So EVV following LXX (xodo- bp(pe)v), Pesh., Vulg., and Jewish commentators. river- White (‘ Leviticus’ in PB) tr. ‘mutilated in the face,’ and remark ‘the word is more prob- ably a general term, the cognate verb in Arabic meaning to pierce or perforate, especially to mutilate (by ditting) the nose, ear, or lip.’ G. M. MACKIE.