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COCK-CROWING In our Lord’s time the Jews had adopted the Greek and Roman division of the night into four watches, each consisting of three hours, the first beginning at six o’clock in the evening (Luke 12:38; Matthew 14:25; Mark 6:48). But the ancient division, known as the first and second cock-crowing, was still retained. The cock usually crows several times soon after midnight (this is the first crowing), and again at the dawn of day (and this is the second crowing). Mark mentions (14:30) the two cock-crowings. Matthew (26:34) alludes to that only which was emphatically the cock-crowing, viz, the second.

COCKLE occurs only in Job 31:40 (marg., “noisome weeds”), where it is the rendering of a Hebrew word (b’oshah) which means “offensive,” “having a bad smell,” referring to some weed perhaps which has an unpleasant odour. Or it may be regarded as simply any noisome weed, such as the “tares” or darnel of Matthew 13:30. In Isaiah 5:2, 4 the plural form is rendered “wild grapes.”

COELE-SYRIA hollow Syria, the name (not found in Scripture) given by the Greeks to the extensive valley, about 100 miles long, between the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon range of mountains.

COFFER the receptacle or small box placed beside the ark by the Philistines, in which they deposited the golden mice and the emerods as their trespass-offering (1 Samuel 6:8, 11, 15).

COFFIN used in Genesis 50:26 with reference to the burial of Joseph. Here, it means a mummy-chest. The same Hebrew word is rendered “chest” in 2 Kings 12:9, 10.

COGITATIONS (or “thoughts,” as the Chaldee word in Daniel 7:28 literally means), earnest meditation.

COIN Before the Exile the Jews had no regularly stamped money. They made use of uncoined shekels or talents of silver, which they weighed out (Genesis 23:16; Exodus 38:24; 2 Samuel 18:12). Probably the silver ingots