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•HUSHAI quick, “the Archite,” “the king’s friend” (1 Chronicles 27:33). When David fled from Jerusalem, on account of the rebellion of Absalom, and had reached the summit of Olivet, he there met Hushai, whom he sent back to Jerusalem for the purpose of counteracting the influence of Ahithophel, who had joined the ranks of Absalom (2 Samuel 15:32, 37; 16:16-18). It was by his advice that Absalom refrained from immediately pursuing after David. By this delay the cause of Absalom was ruined, for it gave David time to muster his forces.
•HUSK In Numbers 6:4 (Hebrews zag) it means the “skin” of a grape. In 2 Kings 4:42 (Hebrews tsiqlon) it means a “sack” for grain, as rendered in the Revised Version. In Luke 15:16, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, it designates the beans of the carob tree, or Ceratonia siliqua. From the supposition, mistaken, however, that it was on the husks of this tree that John the Baptist fed, it is called “St. John’s bread” and “locust tree.” This tree is in “February covered with innumerable purple-red pendent blossoms, which ripen in April and May into large crops of pods from 6 to 10 inches long, flat, brown, narrow, and bent like a horn (whence the Greek name keratia, meaning ‘little horns’), with a sweetish taste when still unripe. Enormous quantities of these are gathered for sale in various towns and for exportation.” “They were eaten as food, though only by the poorest of the poor, in the time of our Lord.” The bean is called a “gerah,” which is used as the name of the smallest Hebrew weight, twenty of these making a shekel.
•HYMN occurs only Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16. The verb to “sing an hymn” occurs Matthew 26:30 and Mark 14:26. The same Greek word is rendered to “sing praises” Acts 16:25 (R.V., “sing hymns”) and Hebrews 2:12. The “hymn” which our Lord sang with his disciples at the last Supper is generally supposed to have been the latter part of the Hallel, comprehending Psalm 113-118. It was thus a name given to a number of psalms taken together and forming a devotional exercise.