Cord

CORD, Funiculus is often used for Inheritance, I will give thee the land Psal. cv. 11. Ezek. xlvii. 13.of Canaan the Cord of thine inheritance. Joseph hath a double Cord, a double Portion: Which expression had its Original from their custom of measuring land with a Cord; so Joshua distributed to every Tribe a certain number of Cords or Acres, Ps. xv. 6.&c. Funes ceciderunt mihi in præclaris, my Lot is fallen in an excellent Country.

The cords of hell compassed me about; or 2 Sam. xxii. 6.as the Hebrew reads it, the cables of Hell, of the Grave, closed me in. He alludes to the Fillets which were bound about dead Bodies: He farther calls them in the same place, the bands of death. The Septuagint, instead of cables of Hell, have translated it in Psalm xviii. 6. the pains of death. S. Peter says, 2 Pet. ii. 4.that God dragg’d the rebellious Angels into Hell with the Cables of Hell, thereby meaning Cords of such a solidity and strength, as nothing is capable of resisting.

cxix. 61.The Cords of Sinners, funes peccatorum circumplexi sunt me, are the snares with which they catch weak and innocent People. The Cords of Sins mentioned by the wise Man, Prov. v. 22. are the consequences of crimes and bad habits: Sin never goes unpunished, either in this World or the other; and the bad habits which are contracted, are as it were indissoluble bands, from which it is almost impossible to secure ourselves.

Baruch vi. 43.Baruch speaks of a very extraordinary custom among the Babylonians. The women with cords about them sitting in the ways, burn bran for perfume: but if any of them drawn by some that passeth by lie with him; she reproacheth her fellow that she was not thought as worthy as herself, nor her cord broken. He alludes to the ceremony mentioned by Herodotus¹; the Babylonian Women, says he, have a custom of prostituting themselves once in their lives, in honour of Melitta: they stand near the Temple of the Goddess with Cords about their heads, as marks of their devoting themselves: They are separated from one another by lines; into these separations Strangers enter, carry off those whom they like best, and break the Cords which hang about their heads.

To stretch a cord or line about a city, signifies to ruin, to destroy it intirely, to level it with the ground. Jeremiah, Lament. ii. 8. The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughters of Zion; he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying.

The Cords extended in setting up Tents, do likewise furnish several Metaphors; for example, the Cords of Jerusalem shall not be broken, nor the If. xxxiii. 20, 23.nails which fasten them be pull’d out. And in another place, Thy cords are loose, they could not well strengthen their mast. And Jeremiah ch. x. v. 20. My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken.

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