Horn

Horn, (‫ קֶ ֶרן‬ke′ren, identical in root and signif. with the Latin cornu and Engl. horn; Gr.
κέρας)
is used in Scripture with a great latitude of meaning.
I. Literally (Josh. 6:4, 5; compare Exod. 19:13; 1 Sam. 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39; Job 42:14).—
Two purposes are mentioned in the Scriptures to which the horn seems to have been applied. As
horns are hollow and easily polished, they have in ancient and modern times been used for
drinking-vessels and for military purposes. They were especially convenient for holding liquids (1
Sam. 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39), and were even made instruments of music (Josh. 6:5).
1. Trumpets were probably at first merely horns perforated at the tip, such as are still used upon
mountain-farms for calling home the laborers at meal-time. If the A. V. of Josh. 6:4, 5 (“rams’
̇ ‫ )קֶ ֶרן‬were correct, this would settle the question [see RAM’S HORN]; but the fact
horns,” ‫הּיובֵ ל‬
seems to be that ‫ יֹובֵ ל‬has nothing to do with ram, and that ‫קֶ ֶרן‬, horn, serves to indicate an
instrument which originally was made of horn, though afterwards, no doubt, constructed of
different materials (comp. Varro, L. L. v, 24, 33, “cornua quod ea quæ nunc sunt ex ære tunc
fiebant e cornu bubuli”). See CORNET. The horns which were thus made into trumpets were
probably those of oxen rather than of rams: the latter would scarcely produce a note sufficiently
imposing to suggest its association with the fall of Jericho. See TRUMPET.
2. The word “horn” is also applied to a flask, or vessel made of horn, containing oil (1 Sam.
16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39), or used as a kind of toilet-bottle, filled with the preparation of antimony
with which women tinged their eyelashes (Keren-happuch = paint-horn, name of one of Job’s
daughters, Job 42:14). So in English drinking-horn (commonly called a horn). In the same way the
Greek κέρας sometimes signifies bugle, trumpet (Xenoph. An. ii, 2, 4), and sometimes drinking-
horn (vii.2, 23). In like manner the Latin cornu means trumpet, and also oil-cruet (Horace, Sat. ii,
2, 61), and funnel (Virgil, Georg. iii, 509). See also INK-HORN.
II. Metaphorically.—These uses of the word are often based upon some literal object like a
horn, and at other times they are purely figurative.
1. From similarity of Form.—To this use belongs the application of the word horn to a trumpet
of metal, as already mentioned. Horns of ivory, that is, elephants’ teeth, are mentioned in Ezek.
27:15, either metaphorically, from similarity of form, or, as seems more probable, from a vulgar
error. See IVORY. But more specific are the following metaphors:
(1.) The altar of burnt-offerings (Exod. 27:2) and the altar of incense (Exod. 30:2) had each at
the four corners four horns of shittim-wood, the first being overlaid with brass, the second with
gold (Exod. 37:25; 38:2; Jer. 17:1; Amos 3:14). Upon the horns of the altar of burnt-offerings was
to be smeared with the finger the blood of the slain bullock (Exod. 29:12; Lev. 4:7–18; 8:15; 9:9;
16:18; Ezek. 43:20). By laying hold of these horns of the altar of burnt-offering the criminal found
an asylum and safety (1 Kings 1:50; 2:28), but only when the crime was accidental (Exod. 21:14).
These horns are said to have served as a means for binding the animal destined for sacrifice (Psa.
118:27), but this use Winer (Handwörterb.) denies, asserting that they did not and could not answer
for such a purpose. These altar-horns are, of course, not to be supposed to have been made of horn,
but to have been metallic projections from the four corners (γωνίαι κερατοειδεῖς, Josephus, War,
v, 5, 6). See ALTAR.
A. V. Authorized Version
(2.) The peak or summit of a hill was called a horn (Isa. 5:1, where hill=horn in Heb.; comp.
κέρας, Xenophon, An. v, 6, 7, and cornu, Stat. Theb. v, 532; Arab. “Kurûn Hattîn,” Robinson, Bibl.
Res. ii, 370; German Schreckhorn, Wetterhorn, Aarhorn; Celt. cairn).
In Isa. 5:1, the emblematic vineyard is described as being literally “in a horn the son of oil,”
meaning, as given in the English Bible, “a very fruitful hill”—a strong place like a hill, yet
combining with its strength peculiar fruitfulness.
(3.) In Hab. 3:4 (“he had horns coming out of his hand”) the context implies rays of light
(comp. Deut. 23:2).
The denominative ‫“=קָ ַרן‬to emit rays,” is used of Moses’s face (Exod. 34:29, 30, 35): so all
the versions except Aquila and the Vulgate, which have the translations κερατώδης ἦν, cornuta
erat. This curious idea has not only been perpetuated by paintings, coins, and statues (Zornius,
Biblioth. Antiq. i, 121), but has at least passed muster with Grotius (Annot. ad loc.), who cites
Aben-Ezra’s identification of Moses with the horned Mnevis of Egypt, and suggests that the
phenomenon was intended to remind the Israelites of the golden calf! Spencer (Leg. Hebr. iii, Diss.
i, 4) tries a reconciliation of renderings upon the ground that cornua=radii lucis; but Spanheim
(Diss. vii, 1), not content with stigmatizing the efforts of art in this direction as “præpostera
industria,” distinctly attributes to Jerome a belief in the veritable horns of Moses. See NIMBUS.
2. From similarity of Position and Use.—Two principal applications of this metaphor will be
found—strength and honor. Of strength the horn of the unicorn [see UNICORN] was the most
frequent representative (Deut. 32:17, etc.), but not always; comp. 1 Kings 22:11, where probably
horns of iron, worn defiantly and symbolically on the head, are intended. Expressive of the same
idea, or perhaps merely a decoration, is the Oriental military ornament mentioned by Taylor
(Calmet’s Frag. cxiv), and the conical cap observed by Dr. Livingstone among the natives of S.
Africa, and not improbably suggested by the horn of the rhinoceros, so abundant in that country
(see Livingstone’s Travels, p. 365, 450, 557; comp. Taylor, l. c.). Among the Druses upon Mount
Lebanon the married women wear silver horns on their heads. The spiral coils of gold wire
projecting on either side from the female head-dress of some of the Dutch provinces are evidently
an ornament borrowed from the same original idea. But it is quite uncertain whether such dresses
were known among the covenant people, nor do the figurative allusions in Scripture to horns render
it in the least degree necessary to suppose that reference was made to personal ornaments of that
description. (See below.)
l. c. loc. cit. = the passage quoted.

In the sense of honor, the word horn stands for the abstract (my horn, Job 16:15; all the horns
of Israel, Lam. 2:3), and so for the supreme authority (comp. the story of Cippus, Ovid, Met. xv,
565; and the horn of the Indian sachem mentioned in Clarkson’s Life of Penn). Perhaps some such
idea may be denoted by the horned conical cap peculiar to the regal apparel on the Ninevite
sculptures. It also stands for concrete, whence it comes to mean king, kingdom (Dan. 8:2, etc.;
Zech. 1:18; compare Tarquin’s dream in Accius, ap. Cicero, Div. i, 22); hence, on coins Alexander
and the Seleucidæ wear horns (see cut in vol. i, p. 140), and the former is called in Arab. two-
horned (Kor. xviii, 85 sq.), not without reference to Dan. 8. See GOAT.
sq. sequent. = following.

Out of either or both of these last two metaphors sprang the idea of representing gods with
horns. Spanheim has discovered such figures on the Roman denarius, and on numerous Egyptian
coins of the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines (Diss. v, 353). The Bacchus Ταυροκέρως,
or cornutus, is mentioned by Euripides (Bacch. 100), and among other pagan absurdities Arnobius
enumerates “Dii cornuti” (c. Gent. vi). In like manner river-gods are represented with horns
(“tauriformis Aufidus,” Hor. Od. iv, 14, 25; ταυρόμορφον ὄμμα Κηφισοῦ, Eurip. Ion. 1261). For
various opinions on the ground-thought of this metaphor, see Notes and Queries, i, 419, 456. Manx
legends speak of a tarroo-ushtey, i.e. water-bull (see Cregeen’s Manx Dict.). (See Bochart, Hieroz.
ii, 288; and, for an admirable compendium, with references, Zornius, Bibliotheca Antiquaria, ii,
106 sq.).
Some of these metaphorical applications of the word horn require more special elucidation.
(1.) Symbolical—As horns are the chief source of attack and defence with the animals to which
God has given them, they serve in Scripture as emblems of power, dominion, glory, and fierceness
(Dan. 8:5, 9; 1 Sam. 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39; Josh. 6:4, 5; 1 Sam. 2:1; Psa. 75:5, 10; 132:17; Luke
1:69; Deut. 33:17; Lam. 2:3; Mic. 4:13; Jer. 48:25; Ezek. 29:21; Amos 6:13). In 1 Kings 22:11,
we find a striking display of symbolical action on the part of the false prophet Zedekiah. He made
him horns of iron, and said, “Thus saith Jehovah, With these thou shalt push the Syrians, until thou
have consumed them.” Hence, to defile the horn in the dust (Job 16:2) is to lower and degrade
one’s self, and, on the contrary, to lift up, to exalt the horn (Psa. 75:4; 89:17; 148:14), is poetically
to raise one’s self to eminent honor or prosperity, to bear one’s self proudly (comp. also 1 Chron.
sq. sequent. = following.

25:5). Something like this is found in the classic authors (see Horace, Carm. iii, 21, 18). The
expression “horn of salvation,” which Christ is called (Luke 1), is equivalent to a salvation of
strength, or a Saviour, who is possessed of the might requisite for the work (see Brünnings, De
cornu salutis, Heid. 1743).
Horns were also the symbol of royal dignity and power; and when they are distinguished by
number, they signify so many monarchies. Thus horn signifies a monarchy in Jer. 48:25. In Zech.
1:18, etc., the four horns are the four great monarchies, which had each of them subdued the Jews.
The ten horns, says Daniel, 7:24, are ten kings. The ten horns, spoken of in Rev. 13:1 as having
ten crowns upon them, no doubt signify the same thing, for so we have it interpreted in 17:12. The
king of Persia is described by Ammianus Marcellinus as wearing golden rams’ horns by way of
diadem (69, 1). The effigy of Ptolemy with a ram’s horn, as exhibited in ancient sculpture, is
mentioned by Spanheim, Dissert. de Numism. Hence also the kings of Media and Persia are
depicted by Daniel (8:20) under the figure of a horned ram. See RAM.
When it is said, in Dan. 8:9, that out of one of the four notable horns came forth a little horn,
we are to understand that out of one of the four kingdoms represented by the four horns arose
another kingdom, “which became exceeding great.” This is doubtless Antiochus Epiphanes; others
refer it to one of the first Cæsars; and others refer it to the Turkish empire, and will have Egypt,
Asia, and Greece to be the three horns torn up or reduced by the Turk. See LITTLE HORN.
(2.) Ornamental.—In the East, at present, horns are used as an ornament for the head, and as a
token of eminent rank (Rosenmüller, Morg. iv, 85). The women among the Druses on Mount
Lebanon wear on their heads silver horns of native make, “which are the distinguishing badge of
wifehood” (Bowring’s Report on Syria, p. 8). “These tantours have grown, like other horns, from
small beginnings to their present enormous size by slow degrees, and pride is the soil that
nourished them. At first they consisted merely of an apparatus designed to finish off the headdress
so as to raise the veil a little from the face. Specimens of this primitive kind are still found in
remote and semi-civilized districts. I have seen them only a few inches long, made of pasteboard,
and even of common pottery. By degrees the more fashionable ladies used tin, and lengthened
them; then rivalry made them of silver, and still further prolonged and ornamented them; until
finally the princesses of Lebanon and Hermon sported gold horns, decked with jewels, and so long
that a servant had to spread the veil over them. But the day for these most preposterous appendages
to the female head is about over. After the wars between the Maronites and Druses in 1841 and
1845, the Maronite clergy thundered their excommunications against them, and very few
Christians now wear them. Many even of the Druse ladies have cast them off, and the probability
is that in a few years travellers will seek in vain for a horned lady” (Thomson, Land and Book, i,
101). See HEADDRESS.
Procession of Horned Oriental Women

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Horn, (‫ קֶ ֶרן‬ke′ren, identical in root and signif. with the Latin cornu and Engl. horn; Gr.

l. c. loc. cit. = the passage quoted.

sq. sequent. = following.

sq. sequent. = following.

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