body in Jerusalem and a letter was sent out as a means of communication, it was delivered in a direct personal way. (Acts 15:22-31) That was also the case with such inspired letters as the one Paul sent to Christians in Colossae, it being carried by Tychicus and Onesimus.—Col. 4:7-9; see LETTERS.

Jehovah is a communicative God and has recognized the need for his people to have written communication. He himself was responsible for the composition of the Ten Commandments on stone tablets. (Ex. 31:18) By means of divine inspiration a number of faithful Hebrew men (commencing with Moses in 1513 B.C.E.) were moved to write down Jehovah’s communications. Of course, included in the resulting Holy Scriptures are the various inspired letters that supplemented oral communications provided to help establish proper Christian views as to doctrine and deportment.

COMPASS

An instrument used by a carpenter or other craftsman to mark or inscribe a circle or arc on wood or some other material. The compass is also employed in making various geometric figures. Doubtless, compasses of antiquity were quite similar to those in use today and consisted of a pair of pointed legs joined at the top in a way that allowed them to be adjusted to vary the distance between the points. In modern times, a pencil or pen can sometimes be attached to one leg so as to pivot and mark paper or other material when the other, pointed leg, is set in a stationary position. When compasses have two sharp points, one of them can be used to scratch or scribe arcs or circles. Yet, draftsmen sometimes call such compasses “dividers” because the two sharp points can be used to measure off equal spaces on drawings or can be employed to transfer a certain measurement from one place to another. Hence, many artisans and mathematicians use the compass today, and a similar instrument was employed by the early Egyptians and Babylonians in their mathematical calculations.

The only Biblical reference to a compass is at Isaiah 44:13. There the idolatrous wood-carver is said to use the measuring line, red chalk and a wood scraper to fashion an idol. And, “with a compass he keeps tracing it out [evidently to make sure it is well-proportioned], and gradually he makes it like the representation of a man, like the beauty of mankind, to sit in a house.”

COMPENSATION

Under the Law given to Israel through Moses, compensation was demanded where there was injury or loss in any field of human relations. Compensation also had to be made for work done or services rendered. Hired laborers, whether Israelites or alien residents or others, were to be paid their wages on the same day.—Lev. 19:13; Deut. 24:14, 15.

INJURIES TO PERSONS

One who injured another in a quarrel by striking him was required to make compensation to him for time lost from work, until the person was completely healed.—Ex. 21:18, 19.

If, in the process of a fight between men, a pregnant woman was injured or her child(ren) ‘came out,’ but no fatal accident occurred, the guilty man was to have damages imposed on him by the owner of the woman. (In case the husband made an exorbitant claim, the judges would fix the sum to be paid.)—Ex. 21:22.

If a bull was in the habit of goring and its owner had been warned of this fact but did not keep the animal under guard, then, in the event that it gored a slave to death, the slave’s master was to receive a thirty-shekel compensation from the bull’s owner. This applied to foreign slaves, not Hebrews, according to Jewish commentators. If the bull gored a free person, the owner was to die. However, if, in the eyes of the judges, circumstances or other factors allowed for a more lenient penalty, a ransom could be imposed on him. In such a case the owner of the goring bull had to pay whatever amount the judges imposed. Additionally, the owner suffered the loss of the bull, which was stoned to death. Its flesh could not be eaten. (Ex. 21:28-32) This law also evidently applied in the case of other animals able to inflict mortal wounds.

If a man seduced an unengaged virgin, he had to take her as his wife; or if the father flatly refused to give her to him, he had to pay her father the purchase price for virgins (50 shekels), the usual bride price, because her diminished value as a bride would now have to be compensated for.—Ex. 22:16, 17; Deut. 22:28, 29.

SLANDER

A man falsely charging his wife with deceptively claiming to be a virgin at the time of marriage was required to pay her father double the price for virgins (2 x 50 shekels) for bringing a bad name upon a virgin of Israel.—Deut. 22:13-19.

A form of compensation was also involved in the case of a man falsely charging his wife with unfaithfulness. If the charge had been true, she would have suffered the wasting away of her reproductive organs, losing the privilege of childbearing, whereas, when she was found innocent, her husband was required to make her pregnant. Thus she could be blessed with a child.—Num. 5:11-15, 22, 28.

STEALING

Stealing was deterred by the Law. Concerning a thief, it read: “He is to make compensation without fail. If he has nothing, then he must be sold for the things he stole. If there should be unmistakably found in his hand what was stolen, from bull to ass and to sheep, alive, he is to make double compensation.” This included money or other articles as well as animals. If the thief had slaughtered the stolen animal, or had sold it, then he would have to make heavier compensation, namely, for a bull five of the herd, and for a sheep four of the flock. (Ex. 22:1, 3, 4, 7) This law had the effect of protecting and recompensing the victim and made the thief work to pay for his crime, rather than sit in a jail as an economic burden to the community, with the victim uncompensated for his loss.

INJURIES, AND PROPERTY DAMAGES

A man who killed another’s animal was required to pay for it. (Lev. 24:18, 21) When one animal killed another, the live one was sold and the price of both it and the dead animal was equally divided between the owners. However, if the animal was known to be a vicious one, the owner compensated the other by giving the other a live bull and taking the dead and, consequently, much less valuable one.—Ex. 21:35, 36.

The best of one’s own field or vineyard was to be given up as compensation for the damage done by an animal’s trespassing and grazing on another’s field. If one started a fire that got into another person’s field, causing damage, the owner had to be compensated equally. The heavier judgment for damage by the trespassing animal was because animals are easier to control than fire, also because the grazing animal was receiving gain unjustly like a thief; therefore more than equal compensation was required.—Ex. 22:5, 6.

BAILMENTS

When items or goods were left with another for safekeeping and during this time were stolen, the thief, if found, had to make the usual double compensation. Things such as money, articles, and so forth, would not require special care, but only a safe place. In the case of a domestic animal kept for another, the one keeping the animal (bailee) was to exercise the same care that he did for his own flock. Such bailees were usually paid for food the animals needed, and sometimes they were probably paid also for the extra trouble of keeping the animals. If an animal died of itself, was torn by a wild beast or was taken by a band of marauders, the bailee was free from blame. The loss was beyond his control. This might happen to his own animals, but if it was stolen (by someone whom the bailee could have prevented, or through his negligence) the bailee was responsible and was required to make compensation.—Ex. 22:7-13; see Genesis 31:38-42.

A man who borrowed an animal from another person for his own use had to compensate for any damages incurred. (Ex. 22:14) If its owner was with it, no compensation was required, on the principle that the individual would be watching his own property. If it was a hired item, the owner would stand the loss because he supposedly would consider the risk in setting a hiring price.—Ex. 22:15.

COMPULSORY SERVICE

The Hebrew word for “compulsory service” is seʹvel, which has to do with a literal or figurative load, an enforced burden, or burdensome labor. It can apply to corvée, that is, unpaid or partially unpaid work that an authority imposes on certain people, such as residents of a particular area.

The psalmist, in reflecting on the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage, represented Jehovah as saying: “I turned aside his shoulder even from the burden” or “even from compulsory service.” (Ps. 81:6; compare NW, 1957 edition; Ex. 1:11.) King Solomon conscripted men for forced labor for various building projects and placed foremen over them. (1 Ki. 5:13; 9:15, 23) When Solomon observed that the young man Jeroboam was a hard worker, “he proceeded to make him overseer over all the compulsory service of the house of Joseph,” that is, over the men conscripted from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.—1 Ki. 11:26-28.

Associated with the Hebrew word seʹvel is sab·balʹ, meaning burden bearer. After taking a census of the men who were temporary residents in Israel, Solomon put them in service, and seventy thousand of their number became burden bearers. (2 Chron. 2:2, 17, 18) Many years later King Josiah repaired the temple, and “the burden bearers” were among those doing the work.—2 Chron. 34:12, 13.

The Hebrew word tsa·vaʼʹ, which often applies to military service or service in war, also means “compulsory labor,” that is, to pay off debt or guilt. Thus Jerusalem was to be told that her “military service” had been fulfilled and her error had been paid off. (Isa. 40 1, 2) When under test, distressed and pain-wracked Job likened life to hard, fatiguing service or “compulsory labor,” asking: “Is there not a compulsory labor for mortal man on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired laborer?” (Job 7:1) With similar sentiment, he later said to God: “You will make your vexation with me greater; hardship after hardship is with me,” or “one shift of compulsory labor after another is with me.” Job evidently felt that God was adding to his affliction by bringing one new hardship after another upon him. Nevertheless, Job said: “All the days of my compulsory service I shall wait, until my relief comes.”—Job 10:2, 17; 9:1; 14:13-15.

CONANIAH

(Con·a·niʹah) [Jehovah has established].

1. The Levite in charge of the contributions for temple service during Hezekiah’s reign.—2 Chron. 31:4, 12, 13.

2. A Levite chief among those generously contributing sheep, goats and cattle for the great Passover Celebration held in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.—2 Chron. 35:9, 19.

CONCUBINE

Among the Hebrews a concubine occupied a position in the nature of a secondary wife, and was sometimes spoken of as a wife. It appears that concubines were slave girls, one of three kinds: (1) a Hebrew girl sold by her father (Ex. 21:7-9), (2) a foreign slave girl purchased or (3) a foreign girl captured in warfare. (Deut. 21:10-14) Some were the slave girls or handmaids of the free wife, as in the cases of Sarah, Leah and Rachel.—Gen. 16:3, 4; 30:3-13; Judg. 8:31; 9:18.

Concubinage was in existence before the Law covenant and was recognized and regulated by the Law, which protected the rights of both wives and concubines. (Ex. 21:7-11; Deut. 21:14-17) Concubines did not have all the rights in the household that the regular wife had, and a man might have a plurality of wives along with concubines. (1 Ki. 11:3; 2 Chron. 11:21) In cases where the wife was barren she sometimes gave her handmaid to the husband as a concubine, and the child born of the concubine would then be considered as the child of the free wife, her mistress. (Gen. 16:2; 30:3) Sons of concubines were legitimate, not bastards, and could inherit.—Gen. 49:16-21; compare Genesis 30:3-12.

It seems that in the days of the kings one of the first acts of a usurper was to violate the concubines of the king, as did Absalom, who demonstrated the greatest disrespect for David and tried to strengthen his efforts to get the kingship by having relations with the ten concubines of his father David. (2 Sam. 16:21, 22) After King Solomon was enthroned, Adonijah, an older brother of Solomon, who had already made an attempt for the kingship, approached Solomon’s mother, Bath-sheba, saying: “You yourself well know that the kingship was to have become mine,” and then asked her to request of Solomon Abishag the Shunammite, who appears to have been viewed as a wife or a concubine of David. Solomon angrily answered: “Request also for him the kingship,” and then he ordered that Adonijah be put to death, indicating that he construed Adonijah’s request as an effort to get the kingdom.—1 Ki. 1:5-7; 2:13-25.

God did not see fit to restore the original standard of monogamy as he had established it in the garden of Eden until the appearance of Jesus Christ, but he did protect the concubine by legislation. Concubinage logically worked toward a more rapid increase of the population in Israel.—Matt. 19:5, 6; 1 Cor. 7:2; 1 Tim. 3:2; see MARRIAGE.

FIGURATIVE USE

The apostle Paul likens Jehovah to the husband of a free wife, the “Jerusalem above,” who is the “mother” of spirit-begotten Christians, as Abraham was husband to Sarah. He compares the relationship of Jehovah to the nation of Israel represented by its capital city Jerusalem to that of a husband and a concubine. Through the Law covenant Jehovah was ‘married’ to Jerusalem as a “servant girl,” a ‘concubine,’ analogous to the marriage of Abraham to the slave girl and concubine Hagar.—Gal. 4:22-29; compare Isaiah 54:1-6.

CONGREGATION

A group of people gathered together for a particular purpose or activity. The Hebrew word usually rendered “congregation” in the New World Translation is qa·halʹ, which is from a root meaning “assemble together.” It is frequently used for an organized body, being found in the expressions “congregation of Israel” (Lev. 16:17; Josh. 8:35; 1 Ki. 8:14), “congregation of the true God” (Neh. 13:1), “congregation of Jehovah” (Deut. 23:2, 3; Mic. 2:5), and “Jehovah’s congregation.” (Num. 20:4; 1 Chron. 28:8) Qa·halʹ designates various kinds of human gatherings, as for religious purposes (Deut. 9:10; 18:16; 1 Ki. 8:65; Ps. 22:25; 107:32), for dealing with civil affairs (1 Ki. 12:3) and for warfare. (1 Sam. 17:47; Ezek. 16:40) In the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon is identified as the “congregator” (Heb., qo·heʹleth). (Eccl. 1:1, 12) As the king he congregated or assembled the people to the worship of Jehovah, one notable instance being when he gathered his subjects to the newly constructed temple in Jerusalem.—1 Ki. 8:1-5; 2 Chron. 5:2-6.