Note 145 — Chapter VI · THE RITUAL DANCE ROUND A SACRED OBJECT

Cp. Job xxvi. 10: “He hath worked out a circle (ḥôq ḥāg) upon the face of the waters”; or perhaps better: “He hath circumscribed a boundary....” This illustrates the root meaning of ḥag, “a circle”; and this is the formation of the festival dance. See, further, Driver and Gray, Job, Part II., Philological Notes, pp. 154, 180 (1921); Budde, Hiob, p. 146 (1896); Ball, The Book of Job, p. 322 (1922). See also Prov. viii. 27, and cp. Isa. xix. 17: “And the land of Judah shall be for a reeling (ḥagga’) to Egypt,” i.e. Egypt will become giddy through fear at the sight of Judah, and will thus “reel.” Ḥagga’ “may either be from an original sense of ḥāgag, or it may be equivalent to being excited as at a ḥag” (Oxf. Hebr. Lex.). More probably it is simply a derivative from ḥag, giddiness as a result of going round at the festival dance; it is used in Isa. xix. 17 in a metaphorical way.