Nun
The fourteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and as such employed in the 119th Psalm to designate the 14th part, each verse of which begins with this letter. It is transliterated in this Dictionary by n. NUN (j:3 ‘fish,’ in 1 Ch 77 ji: Non, LXX Νανή [possibly a puueve error in transcription, NATH for NATN], hence Nave of Sir 46! AV).—The father of Joshua, the successor of Moses, Ex 33", Nu 11%, Jos 1) ete.
On the probability that Nun is a clan rather than a personal name, and on its bearing on totemism, see Gray, Heb. Prop. Names, pp. 96, 102; cf. also W. R. Smith, Kinship, p. 221 f. NURSE (npyo méneketh, nj>k ’Omeneth, τροφός). —1. The term méneketh (root [p3) ‘suck’) desig- nated a foster-mother. Deborah had been aint to Rebekah, and the maternal devotion was maintained throughout her life, Gn 24° 35%. By Miriam’s readiness of resource the mother of Moses became his appointed nurse, Ex 27.
The same meaning of ‘ nurse’ occurs in 2 K 11?, Is 493; cf. the use of τροφός in 1 Th 97, and τροφοφορεῖν in Dt 1%. In the East a child is usually nursed till over two years of age. 2. ’Omeneth (root [j>x] ‘ con- firm,’ ‘support’) is a more general term applying to any female attendant in charge of children. Thus Naomi became nurse to Obed (Ru 4"), and Mephibosheth was five years old when he fell from the arms of his nurse (‘Omeneth) 2S 44. 3.
The ‘nursing-father’ (jok Nu 11%, Is 49%) would be found only in families of rank and wealth. Among the Emirs or leading families of the Lebanon, one of the dependants, usually a po relative, is appointed to this office. He ecomes the constant companion, playmate, and guardian of the heir, carrying him when tired, and giving him later his first lessons in horse- manship and manly sports.
In old age his re- lationship to the family is not forgotten, and care is taken that he shall not suffer want. In Pref.
to AV the translators (apparently regardless of the difference between the nursing-father and the nursing-mother) say: ‘And lastly, that the Church be sufliciently provided for, is so agreeable to good reason and conscience, that those mothers are holder to be lesse cruell, that kill their children as soone as they are borne, then those noursing fathers and mothers (wheresoever they be) that withdraw from them who hang upon their breasts (and upun whose breasts againe themselves doe hange to receive the spirituall and sincere milke of the word) livelyhood and support fit for their estates.
’ And Thomas Fuller is yet bolder when he says: ‘He set before the King the hainousnesse of sacrilodge ; how great 574 NURTURE a sinne it was when Princes, who should be nurs- ing-fathers and suckle the Church, shall suck from it’ (Holy Warre, ii. δ, p. 49). For the ’éménim who acted as tutors (2 K 10) δ, ef. Est 97), see EDUCATION, 1. G. M. MACKIE.