Consequently, they do not become “holy ones” or “saints” by decree of a man or an organization, but by God, who brings them into covenant relationship with himself through the blood of Jesus Christ. The term “holy ones” applies to all those thus brought into union and joint heirship with Christ, not to a mere few considered to have exceptional holiness. It is also applied in the Bible to them from the beginning of their sanctified course on earth, not being deferred until after their death. Peter says they must be holy because God is holy. (1 Pet. 1:15, 16; Lev. 11:44) All the spiritual brothers of Christ in the congregations are frequently called “holy ones.”—Acts 9:13; 26:10; Rom. 1:7; 12:13; 2 Cor. 1:1; 13:13.

As the “wife” of Christ, the entire congregation is represented as wearing bright, clean, fine linen, which stands for the “righteous acts of the holy ones.” (Rev. 19:7, 8) Against these, while they are on earth, Satan the Devil’s symbolic political “wild beast” is seen in vision waging war. (Rev. 13:3, 7) Thereby the endurance of the holy ones is severely tested, but they conquer by observing the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.—Rev. 13:10; 14:12.

Their hope

In a parallel vision Daniel saw a wild beast making war upon God’s holy ones, followed by a court scene in which the “Ancient of Days” gave judgment in their favor and the holy ones themselves took possession of the indefinitely lasting kingdom, “the kingdom and the rulership and the grandeur of the kingdoms under all the heavens” being given to them.—Dan. 7:21, 22, 27.

These “holy ones” do not exercise kingly authority while on earth, but must await their being united with Christ in the heavens. (Eph. 1:18-21) They must first be ‘conquerors.’ (Rev. 3:21; compare Revelation 2:26, 27; 3:5, 12.) They are to act as priests and to rule as kings with Christ during his 1,000-year reign. (Rev. 20:4, 6) The apostle Paul states that the holy ones will judge the world, also being given the privilege of judging angels.—1 Cor. 6:2, 3.

ATTACK ON “CAMP OF THE HOLY ONES”

At Revelation 20:7-9 Satan the Devil is foretold to lead the nations in war against the “camp of the holy ones and the beloved city” after the end of the thousand years of Christ’s reign. This account follows the vision of their resurrection to heavenly thrones, described in verses 4 and 6. The “nations,” being on earth, could not, of course, literally reach the “holy ones” reigning on heavenly thrones. The prophecy evidently refers to an earthly rebellion against the sovereignty of God’s kingdom over earth, which, in effect, is an attack on the “holy ones.”—See HOLINESS.

HOLY PLACE

A term applied in several ways in the Scriptures. (1) In general, it could be applied to the camp of Israel, the people of God, and to Jerusalem and the holy places within it; also, it was specifically used in reference to (2) the sanctuary, including the courtyard and the entire tent of meeting or the later temple; (3) only the two compartments of the tabernacle or temple building itself; (4) the first interior room of the tabernacle, as distinguished from the Most Holy compartment. In each appearance of the expression “holy place” the application intended can be determined from the context.

1. The camp of Israel (Deut. 23:14); later, the land of Palestine and the city of Jerusalem in particular. God’s sanctuary was located there, his name was placed there and his people were counted holy. (Ezek. 21:2) The entire camp was to be kept holy and, later, the entire land that God gave to his people. Hence, anyone offering up a sacrifice to a false god or carrying on any unclean practices defiled God’s sanctuary or holy place located in their midst.—Lev. 20:3; compare Leviticus 18:21, 30; 19:30; Numbers 5:2, 3; Jeremiah 32:34; Ezekiel 5:11; 23:38.

2. The tent of meeting and, later, the temple. The entire arrangement, including the courtyard of the tabernacle and the temple courts, was a holy place. (Ex. 38:24; 2 Chron. 29:5; Acts 21:28) The primary items located in the courtyard were the altar of sacrifice and the copper basin. These were holy objects. Only those persons ceremonially clean could enter into the tabernacle courtyard at any time; likewise, no one could go into the temple courts in an unclean state. For example, a woman in the unclean state could not touch any holy thing or come into the holy place. (Lev. 12:2-4) Evidently even a state of continued uncleanness on the part of the Israelites was considered as defiling the tabernacle. (Lev. 15:31) Those presenting offerings for cleansing from leprosy brought their sacrifice only as far as the gate of the courtyard. (Lev. 14:11) No unclean person could partake of a communion sacrifice at the tabernacle or the temple, on pain of death.—Lev. 7:20, 21.

3. The Most Holy, the innermost compartment. At Leviticus 16:2 it is called “the holy place [Heb., qoʹdesh, holy] inside the curtain.” Paul apparently had this compartment in mind when he spoke of Jesus’ entry into heaven, saying that he did not enter into a “holy place [Gr., haʹgi·a, holies] made with hands.” (Heb. 9:24) At Hebrews 10:19 Paul speaks of “the holy place” (NW); “the holiest” (AV) (Gr., ton ha·giʹon, the holies).

4. The first, larger compartment, the Holy Place or the Holy, as distinguished from the innermost compartment, the Most Holy. (Ex. 26:33) This compartment was two-thirds the total length of the structure. (1 Ki. 6:16, 17; 2 Chron. 3:3, 8) Inside the Holy Place were located the golden lampstand on the S side of the room (Ex. 25:31-40; 40:24, 25), the golden altar of incense at the W end in front of the curtain to the Most Holy (Ex. 30:1-6; 40:26, 27) and the table of showbread on the N side. (Ex. 25:23-30; 40:22, 23; Heb. 9:2, 3) Along with these were the accompanying golden utensils, such as bowls, snuffers, and so forth. In the temple’s Holy Place were the golden altar, the ten tables of showbread and ten lampstands. The lampstands and tables were placed five on the right and five on the left.—1 Ki. 7:48-50; 2 Chron. 4:7, 8, 19, 20.

When inside the Holy Place the priest would see, through the panel frames of the walls, and on the ceiling, the colorful embroidered cherubs of the tabernacle’s inner covering. (Ex. 26:1, 15) Suspended from four golden pillars was the curtain to the Most Holy, likewise embroidered with cherubs. (Ex. 26:31-33) The screen to the tabernacle entrance was also of colorful material. (Ex. 26:36) In the temple, the walls of this room had carvings of cherubs, palm-tree figures, gourdshaped ornaments and garlands of blossoms, all covered with gold.—1 Ki. 6:17, 18, 22, 29.

The high priest was responsible to make perfumed incense smoke on the golden altar in the tabernacle morning by morning, and to dress and light the seven lamps of the lampstand. (Ex. 30:1, 6-8) He was also to make atonement for the altar of incense (cleansing it) with blood once a year. (Ex. 30:10) On this day, the annual Day of Atonement, when the high priest entered with the blood of the sacrificial animals, no other priest was allowed to be in the tent of meeting.—Lev. 16:17.

SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE

Inasmuch as the place where God dwells is a sanctuary, a holy place, the Christian congregation is likened to a holy place, the temple of God. (1 Cor. 3:17; Eph. 2:21, 22) The arrangement that God set up for man’s atonement through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is called “the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands.” Christ entered “once for all time into the holy place and obtained an everlasting deliverance for us,” writes the apostle Paul. (Heb. 9:11, 12) On going into heaven and appearing before Jehovah, Christ entered into what was pictured by the innermost compartment of the tabernacle, namely, the Most Holy. (Heb. 9:24, 25) Thus the tabernacle and its services served as “a typical representation and a shadow of the heavenly things.”—Heb. 8:5.

Christian underpriests

While on earth, the followers of Jesus Christ are spoken of as “being built up a spiritual house for the purpose of a holy priesthood,” and as constituting “a royal priesthood.” (1 Pet. 2:5, 9) As the underpriests served in the courtyard and also in the Holy Place, so these Christian priests of God serve before his symbolic altar and also in the symbolic Holy Place. The priests of Israel had to be clean, washing themselves with water from the copper basin in the courtyard, when preparing to serve in the Holy Place. (Ex. 40:30-32) So, too, those Christians who have been declared righteous are said to be “washed clean.” (1 Cor. 6:11) The Israelite priests were surrounded by the figures of the cherubs on the tabernacle curtains as they carried out their duties there. This calls to mind the statement of the apostle to those declared righteous that, while yet on earth, “[God] seated us together in the heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:4-6) As these Christians of the “royal priesthood” serve, they offer sacrifices of praise (Heb. 13:15) and prayers to God (related to the incense; Rev. 8:4), eat the spiritual food God provides (as he provided the showbread for the priests; Mark 2:26), and enjoy light from God’s Word of truth (as from the lampstand; Ps. 119:105). The apostle Paul points out that they have the hope, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, of entering into the real “Most Holy,” heaven itself.—Heb. 6:19, 20; 9:24; 1 Pet. 1:3, 4.—See HOLY CONTRIBUTION; MOST HOLY.

HOLY SPIRIT

See SPIRIT.

HOMAM

(Hoʹmam) [possibly from a Hebrew verb meaning to make a noise, move noisily, confuse, discomfit]. Son of Horite Sheik Lotan; the same as Hemam.—Gen. 36:20-22; 1 Chron. 1:39; see HEMAM.

HOMER

A dry measure corresponding to the cor and equaling ten baths or ten ephahs. (Ezek. 45:11, 14) Based on the estimated volume of the bath measure, the ephah has been reckoned at .62 bushel (22 liters). The homer would therefore equal 6.2 bushels (220 liters) and the half-homer (Hos. 3:2), 3.1 bushels (110 liters). In the wilderness, greedy Israelites gathered miraculously provided quails in such numbers that the “one collecting least gathered ten homers” (62 bushels; 2,220 liters). (Num. 11:32) The Scriptures also mention the homer as a measure for barley, seed and wheat.—Lev. 27:16; Isa. 5:10; Ezek. 45:13.

HONEY, HONEYCOMB

The word “honey” as used in the Hebrew Scriptures is translated from the words yaʹʽar, noʹpheth, and d^evashʹ. This latter word may refer, not only to bee honey, but also to the syrup of fruits. In the Greek Scriptures meʹli is used, along with the adjective aʹgri·os, “wild,” to denote the honey of wild bees.

THE HONEYCOMB

The honeycomb is a marvel of engineering, revealing the Creator’s unparalleled wisdom and ability, in putting such “engineering” and construction instinct in the honeybee. The hexagonal shape of the cells is the ideal shape necessary to enable the comb to hold the maximum quantity of honey with the minimum usage of beeswax, of which the cell walls are made. When a comb is being built, beeswax is made by special glands in the bee’s body. It oozes through pores in the body, forming small white flakes that are picked up and carried by the bee’s legs to its jaws, where the wax is chewed, then placed in the part of the honeycomb being constructed. The walls of the comb are only one-eightieth of an inch (.32 millimeter) thick but can support thirty times their weight.

HONEY

Most of the Bible’s references to the honey of bees is to wild honey, such as John the Baptist ate in the wilderness. (Matt. 3:1, 4) Honeybees build their nests in a variety of places, including trees, rocks and, in one case, even in the carcass of a dead animal, which evidently was no longer carrion but had been dried out by the sun. This was the lion’s carcass from which Samson ate honey.—Judg. 14:8, 9.

Bee honey is a sweet, viscid fluid manufactured by bees from the nectar obtained from flowers and fruit. In the process of gathering the nectar and depositing it in the honeycomb, certain chemicals from the bee’s body are added. Some of the water evaporates from the nectar and the chemicals transform the nectar into honey. The color and flavor of honey vary according to the source of nectar. Honey is easily assimilated by the body; the two main sugars it contains (levulose and dextrose) are quickly converted into energy.

A beneficial food

The energy-giving property of honey is illustrated in the case of King Saul’s son Jonathan who, exhausted from battle, tasted some honey. Immediately his eyes “began to beam.” (1 Sam. 14:25-30) This energy food is listed among the provisions God supplied for his people in the wilderness. There, where few trees existed, the people were able to get honey to eat “out of a crag,” that is, from the honeycombs that the bees built in rocky places.—Deut. 32:13.

Curative properties

Honey also has curative properties. It is compared to pleasant sayings and wisdom, not only because of its sweetness and fine taste, but also because of its health-giving qualities. Pleasant sayings are healthful spiritually, just as honey is good for the physical body. The writer of Proverbs says: “Pleasant sayings are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and a healing to the bones.”—Prov. 16:24; 24:13, 14.

Fine words or sayings

The sweetness and enjoyment of eating honey is applied illustratively throughout the Scriptures. Examples are found at Ezekiel 3:2, 3 and Revelation 10:9. Comb honey is often mentioned, for it is considered superior in flavor, sweetness and richness to honey that has been exposed to the air for a time. Emphasizing the goodness and pleasantness of the words spoken by the Shulammite girl, her shepherd lover speaks of them as “comb honey” that keeps dripping from her lips. (Song of Sol. 4:11) Jehovah’s judicial decisions are so fine, healthful and beneficial that they are even “sweeter than honey and the flowing honey of the combs.” (Ps. 19:9, 10) His sayings are ‘smoother to the palate than honey to the mouth.’—Ps. 119:103.

A warning against seeking one’s own glory

While honey is good, overeating of it can cause nausea (Prov. 25:16); this eating of too much honey is compared to people seeking out their own glory.—Prov. 25:27.

A warning against immorality

The temptation to sexual immorality that the “strange woman” can bring to bear by her appeal to a man with her use of charm and smooth words is described at Proverbs, chapters five and seven. It constitutes a fine warning to Christians today. “As a honeycomb the lips of a strange woman keep dripping, and her palate is smoother than oil. But the aftereffect from her is as bitter as wormwood; it