TO HISS, is a kind of insult and contempt: All they, who shall see the destruction 1 Kings ix. 8.of this Temple, shall be astonished, and shall hiss, and say, How comes it that the Lord hath treated thus this City? And Job, speaking of the wicked under humiliation, Job xxvii. 23.says, that they shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place. I will make this City the subject of ridicule Jer. xix. 8.and scorn; I will make it desolate and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss, because of all the plagues thereof. Jeremiah repeats this very expression in several other places. See Jerem. xlix. 17. l. 13. Lam. ii. 15, 16. See likewise Ezek. xxviii. 36. Zeph. ii. 15.
To Hiss, to call any one with hissing, is a mark of power and authority. The Lord says, that in his anger, he shall hiss, and call the enemy against Jerusalem: He will hiss unto them from the end of the earth. He Isa. v. 26. Isai. vii. 18.will bring them with an hiss from the very extremities of the earth. And in another place, The Lord shall hiss for the fly, and shall bring it to him, that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. The two flies which God will bring thus with a hiss, are the Kings of Egypt and Assyria. They shall come with their troops into the territories of Israel, and shall disperse themselves over the whole country. Theodoret and St. Cyril of Alexandria writing upon Isaiah, remark, that in Syria and Palestine, they who looked after bees, drew them out of their hives, carried them into the fields, and brought them back again with the sound of a flute, and the noise of hissing. Zachary, speaking of the return from the Babylonish Zach. x. 8.captivity, says, That the Lord will gather the House of Judah, as it were, with an hiss, and bring them back into their country; which shews the ease and authority with which he will perform this great work; Sibilabo eis, & congregabo illos.