[120] Hudud, pl. of Hadad, restrictive ordinances, or statutes, of God respecting things lawful and things unlawful. The Hudud of God are of two kinds: First, those ordinances respecting eatables, drinkables, marriage, etc., what are lawful thereof and what are unlawful. Second, castigations, or punishments, prescribed, or appointed, to be inflicted upon him who does that which he has been forbidden to do. The first kind are called Hudud because they denote limits which God has forbidden to transgress; the second, because they prevent one’s committing again those acts for which they are appointed as punishments, or because the limits thereof are determined. See Lane’s Arabic Dictionary in Loco.
[121] Cf. also W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 167, and D. B. Stade’s Biblische Theologie des Alten Testaments, pp. 111 and 290.
[122] R. Smith, ibid, p. 49; cf. Ex. 3: 5, “And he said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground”; and Josh. 5: 15, “And the captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua: Loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.”
In idolatrous days the Arabs did not wear any clothing in making the circuit of the Kaaba. In Islam, the orthodox way is as follows: Arrived within a short distance of Mecca, the pilgrims put off their ordinary clothing and assume the garb of a hajjee. Sandals may be worn but not shoes, and the head must be left uncovered. In Mandeanism, each person as he or she enters the Miškana, or tabernacle, disrobes, and bathes in the little circular reservoir. On emerging from the water, each one robes him or herself in the rasta, the ceremonial white garment.—The London Standard, Oct. 19, 1894. Prayer Meeting of the Starworshippers.
[123] Cf. R. Smith, ibid, p. 185, and Stade, ibid, p. 111 seq.
[124] Weil’s translation, p. 39.
[125] Cf. R. Smith, ibid, pp. 203-212; S. I. Curtiss’ Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, pp. 84-89; Stade, ibid, p. 114, seq.; see also II Sam. 5: 24, and John 5: 2, 3.
The original idea might have been that the waters, the stones, and the trees themselves were divinities. In Jud. 5: 21, we have the statement: “The river Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon.” Now Kais was the name of an Arabian god in Pre-Islamic time. In Num. 5: 17 seq., an accused woman is tested by a sacred water. In Deut. 32: 4, “He is the rock,” “rock” is as much a term for God as El, or elohim; cf. verses 15, 18, 30, 31; II Sam. 23: 3. In Ps. 18: 2, the word rock is used of God, “the Lord is my rock.” Jacob took the stone which he had put under his head as a pillow, and raised it up as a pillar, poured oil upon it and called it the “house of God,” Gen. 28: 18, 19, 22. “The sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees” (II Sam. 5: 24), for which David was to wait, was nothing less than the divine voice speaking to David in accordance with ancient conceptions.
[126] Layard: Nineveh and Its Remains, vol. I, p. 280.
[127] Dancing might have been also a religious ceremony in the Pre-Kanaanitic religion of Israel.