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•COAL It is by no means certain that the Hebrews were acquainted with mineral coal, although it is found in Syria. Their common fuel was dried dung of animals and wood charcoal. Two different words are found in Hebrew to denote coal, both occurring in Proverbs 26:21, “As coal [Hebrews peham; i.e., “black coal”] is to burning coal [Hebrews gehalim].” The latter of these words is used in Job 41:21; Proverbs 6:28; Isaiah 44:19. The words “live coal” in Isaiah 6:6 are more correctly “glowing stone.” In Lamentations 4:8 the expression “blacker than a coal” is literally rendered in the margin of the Revised Version “darker than blackness.” “Coals of fire” (2 Samuel 22:9, 13; Psalm 18:8, 12, 13, etc.) is an expression used metaphorically for lightnings proceeding from God. A false tongue is compared to “coals of juniper” (Psalm 120:4; James 3:6). “Heaping coals of fire on the head” symbolizes overcoming evil with good. The words of Paul (Romans 12:20) are equivalent to saying, “By charity and kindness thou shalt soften down his enmity as surely as heaping coals on the fire fuses the metal in the crucible.”
•COAT the tunic worn like the shirt next the skin (Leviticus 16:4; Cant. 5:3; 2 Samuel 15:32; Exodus 28:4; 29:5). The “coats of skins” prepared by God for Adam and Eve were probably nothing more than aprons (Genesis 3:21). This tunic was sometimes woven entire without a seam (John 19:23); it was also sometimes of “many colours” (Genesis 37:3; R.V. marg., “a long garment with sleeves”). The “fisher’s coat” of John 21:7 was obviously an outer garment or cloak, as was also the “coat” made by Hannah for Samuel (1 Samuel 2:19). (See DRESS.)
•COAT OF MAIL the rendering of a Hebrew word meaning “glittering” (1 Samuel 17:5, 38). The same word in the plural form is translated “habergeons” in 2 Chronicles 26:14 and Nehemiah 4:16. The “harness” (1 Kings 22:34), “breastplate” (Isaiah 59:17), and “brigandine” (Jeremiah 46:4), were probably also corselets or coats of mail. (See ARMOUR.)
•COCKATRICE the mediaeval name (a corruption of “crocodile”) of a fabulous serpent supposed to be produced from a cock’s egg. It is generally supposed to denote the cerastes, or “horned viper,” a very poisonous serpent about a foot long. Others think it to be the yellow viper