Thicket (Hastings' Dictionary)

See Fokest. THIGH (to:, Mpisl-Tbe girding of the sword vpon the thiqh is referred to in Ex 32-'' Jg i (Ehud girded his swuid upon \ns right thigh, whence, being left-handed, he could most con- veniently draw it, v.'^'). Ps 45», Ca 3«. Jacobs thigh was dislocated by his opponent in wrest ing, so that next day he limped upon it, Gn 32-»i-»' [J]. In an editorial note this circumstance is assigned as the basis of the Jewish custom of dechnmg to eat of 'the sinew that shrank,' v.'=<=»'. See art.

Food, vol. ii. p. 39«. In the jealousy ordeal one of the effects looked for in the event ot a wife a guilt was the falling away (Vrj) of her thigh, Nu 51:1. la. 27 rp]. see Dilliii. ad loc. In the ivitsf in praise of theShulammite it is said, ; the roundmgs of thy thighs (T?r 'R'^n) are like .Jewels, Ca/. Smiting upon the tliigh appears in Jer 31" and Ezk 21" as a token ot '-""'^'eiTiation. tor the phrase ' wnite them hip upon thigh (p^i* do^k nsn ij-i-'?!;), see art. Hip. .

"Special attention is due to a set of passages in which the thigh appears fs the seat of P™=reative power. In Gn 46-^ Ex 1» [both P], Jg S* a man t THINK THISTLES, THORNS 751 descendants are spoken of as proceedinf; from liis tliii,'h {'ix •><■■)■ Cf. W. R. Smith, Kins/,i/,, 34, Ji^- 380. This throws lij;ht upon the phuing of the hand under the thigh [ = the genital organ] in taking an oatli, Gn 2-1, " 47-'* [all J].

The sacred- ness attributed to tliis organ in primitive times (see Holzinger or Gunkel on Gn 24-) would give special solemnity to an oath of this kind. More- over, seeing tliat ' it is from the thigh that one's descendants come, to take an oath w-ith one's hand upon the thigh could be etjuivalent to calling upon the.«e descendants to mamtain an oath wliioh has been taken, and to revenge one which has been broken ' (Dillmann).

It is not clear how we should understand Rev 19" ' He hath on his mantle and on his thigh [ivl rb IfxdTLov Ka.1 itrl ritv ^-qpbv airroo) a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.' The Ka.1 may be epexegetical, when the meaning would be that the name is written on His mantle where this falls U]ion His thigh (so DUsterdieck, B. Weiss, Holtz- mann). Spitta suggests that iinpt>^ [this is its only occurrence in NT] may be the name of an article of uniform, perhaps the sword-belt. J. A.

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