LESSON XVI.
From the root המּהhmh has also been derived the Arabic word [حَمَّانٌhaman] haman, and the Syriac ܚܳܡܳܢ' haman, and adopted by the Hebrews in the word חַמָןḥamān haman, which Castell translates “images,” dedicated to the worship of the sun, the worship of fire, heat, &c.
The Hebrew use of this word will be found in a plural form in Lev. xxvi. 30, thus: “And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images,” hammanekem. 2 Chron. xiv. 3 (the fourth of the Hebrew text:) “And brake down the images,” חַמָנִ֑יםḥamānîm hammanim; also xxxiv. 4, 7: “And the images, (חַמָּנִיםḥammānîm hammanim) that were on high above them, he cut down,” “and had beaten the graven images (חַמָנִ֖יםḥamānîm hammanim) into powder.” Isa. xvii. 8: “Either the groves or the images,” חַמָנִֽיםḥamānîm hammanim; also xxvii. 9: “The groves and images (חַמָנִֽיםḥamānîm hammanim) shall not stand up.” Ezek. vi. 4, 6: “Your altars shall be desolate, and your images (חַמָּ֣נֵיכֶ֔םḥammānêkem hammanekem) shall be broken,” “and your images (חַמָּ֣נֵיכֶ֔םḥammānêkem hammanekem) may be cut down.” We have no possible word to express literally this term, but the hammanekens, or little HAMS, or fire-houses, the objects of religious adoration, were conical towers, from fifty to one hundred feet high, and fifteen to twenty feet in diameter at the base, and gradually decreasing upward, with a small door or opening fifteen or twenty feet above the base, and four smaller ones near the apex, looking towards the cardinal points.
The moderns have no certain knowledge of their particular use, yet all believe that in them was attempted to be kept the perpetual or holy fire, and perhaps into them was thrust the infant sacrificed to the god. May we not suppose that Daniel and his brethren would have informed us, had it been necessary for us to know more? Spencer, Heb. Laws, lib. ii. cap. 25, § 3, says of these edifices: “They were of a conical form and of a black colour.” It seems to us this identifies these edifices with the round towers of Persia and elsewhere, remains of many of which were anciently found in Ireland. The curious about this matter are referred to Gesenius’s Thesaurus, p. 489; also Lee’s Lex. p. 297, where he quotes Henrici Arentii Hamaker Miscellanea Phœnicia, pp. 49, 54; also Diatribe Philologico-Critica aliquot monumentorum Punicorum; Selden, de Diis Syris, ii. cap. 8, and the authors severally cited by them. Upon a full consideration of the subject, Dr. Lee says—“Upon the whole, I am disposed to believe that the term הָםhām (haman) is rather derived from הָםhām Ham, the father of Canaan, of Mitsraim, &c., Gen. x. 6–20; and hence by the latter worshipped as presiding angel of the sun, under the title of Ἄμουν, Greek Ἄμμων (Ammon), which is probably our very word.” If so, then his very name became significant of the worship of fire, and even expressive of the fire-temples themselves.
By some fanciful relation, not relevant to our subject, between the fire or sun worshippers and astronomy, when the sun was in aries (the ram), the god Ham, Ammon, Hammon, or Jupiter Hammon, was represented with a ram’s head for his crest; with this crest became associated the idea of the god, and hence chonchologists, even to this day, call certain shells, that are fancied to resemble the ram’s horn, Ammonites, giving further evidence, even now, of how deeply seated was the association between the earlier descendants of Ham and the fire worship of their day.
The long and fanciful story of Io, changed by Jupiter into a white cow; of her flight from the fifty sons of Egyptus; of her becoming the progenitor of the Ionians; the Egyptians claiming her under the name of Isis; of her marriage with Osiris, who became at length Apis and Serapis, worshipped in the image of a black bull with a white spot in his forehead, and many such tales, are all legitimately descended from his family peculiarities, their relative condition in the world, and the fact that Ham became the imaginary deity of his descendants.
Much evidence may be had proving that Ham became inseparably associated with, and in fact the very father of, idolatry, and of all those enormities growing out of it; enormities with which idolatry has ever been attended, and which time and the history of man for ever give proof to be a total preventive of all physical and moral elevation and improvement; and which, like other breaches against the laws of God, have, at all times, among all men, for ever been accompanied by both physical and moral degradation. But the descendants of Ham gave his name to their country. [Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ] Chemi was the Coptic name for Egypt, which the Septuagint translates into Χαμ Cham. Plutarch styles Egypt Χημία Chemia, from the Coptic Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ Chemi, and, as if he wished to give some account of its origin, adds, θερμή γὰρ ἐστὶν καὶ ὕγρα, “for it is hot and humid;” showing that the Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ Chemi of the Copts signified the same as the Ham of the Hebrews. But the Coptic word Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ Chemi, Χημι and Χημε of Plutarch, also signified the adjective black. See Gibbs’s Hebrew Lexicon, under the word חָםḥām Ham; and with this signification the word Ham is used in Ps. lxxviii. 51: “The chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:” Septuagint, Χαμ, Cham, from the Coptic Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ chemi, black. cv. 23: “And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham,” חָםḥām Ham: Septuagint, Χαμ, Cham, from the Coptic Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ chemi, black. 27: “And wonders in the land of Ham:” Septuagint, Χαμ Cham, from the Coptic Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ chemi, black. cvi. 22: “Wondrous works in the land of Ham:” Septuagint, Χαμ Cham, from the Coptic Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ chemi, black. The idea is, the land of the black people.
In this sense also the word is used in Gen. xiv. 5: “And smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham.” The Septuagint translates this passage into Καὶ ἔθνη ἰσχυρά ἅμα αὐτοῖς, as though the בְּהָ֑םbĕhām be Ham was a pronoun, and which seems to have been the view of several ancient translators. But such certainly was not the view of the translators of the received version; nor of Martindale, and others from whom he compiled. He says of this passage—“2. Ham, crafty, or heat; the country of the Zuzims, the situation of which is not known:” p. 326. We certainly agree with the Septuagint that זוּזִיםzûzîm Zuzim was a significant term, and perhaps well enough explained by ἔθνη ἰσχυρὰ, for which a suitable translation would seem to be wicked, perverse, strong, numerous, or stubborn heathen. They were probably the זַמְזֻמֲיםzamzumăym Zamzummims of Deut. ii. 20.
The word בְּהָ֑םbĕhām be Ham, unless a pronoun as above, against which much can be said, is evidently used as in the Psalms quoted. In all these cases Ham is used somewhat as a synonyme of כּוּשׁkûš Cush; and when applied to a country generally, meant whatever country was occupied by the descendants of Ham. The sense of the sentence, and Zuzims in Ham, will then be, and the stubborn heathen in Ethiopia, or, the perverse tribes of Cush, or the wicked nations of Ham; all meaning the black tribes, descendants of Ham, or some one of them, when particularity is intended, as probably in this case; and let it be noticed, that Martindale, p. 241, gives “blackness” as his first definition of Cush. The descendants of Ham applying his name to themselves and country, they being black, it necessarily became significant of that colour. We have Germans, Swedes, English; but if we say “Negroes,” or if we say Africans, we mean black men, because those words, as now used, mean men of colour; and in a sense analogous, the word Ham seems to have been used in the passages quoted.
This view of the word Ham we think elucidates the history of Esther and that of Haman הָמָ֥ןhāmān the son of Hamadatha—Agagite, ha Agagi. The word is a patronymic of אַגָגʾagāg Agag,—hence he was an Amalekite: “Agag, the king of Amalek”—“Agag, the king of the Amalekites.” 1 Sam. xv. 20, 32. “Now there was one Haman, the son of Amadatha, by birth an Amalekite.” Josephus, book ii. cap. vi. 5. This shows the cause of the extraordinary hatred that existed between her people and his. His very name shows that he was a descendant of Ham, and we think also proves that the Amalekites were black; and which fact is confirmed by 1 Sam. xv. 6: “And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart; get ye down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them,”—evincing the fact that by mere inspection he could not distinguish the one from the other. We have before shown that the Kenites were black. The argument follows, that the Amalekites were also.