HOUGH.The hough (modern spelling hock) of a quadruped is the joint between the knee and the fetlock in the hind leg; in man the back of the knee joint, called the ham. To hough is to cut the tendon of the hough, to hamstring. The subst. occurs in 2Es_15:36 the camels hough (AVm [Note: Authorized Version margin.] pastern or litter). The verb is found in Jos_11:6; Jos_11:9, 2Sa_8:4, 1Ch_18:4 always of houghing horses. Tindale translates Gen_49:6 In their selfe-will they houghed an oxe, which is retained in AVm [Note: Authorized Version margin.] , and inserted into the text of RV [Note: Revised Version.] in place of they digged down a wall.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
hok. See HOCK.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Hough
(ִֵקּר, akker', Piel of עָקִר, to extirpatee), a method employed by the ancient Israelites to render useless the captured horses of an enemy (Jos_11:6; comp. Gen_49:6), as they were not allowed or able to use that animal (so also 2Sa_8:4; 1Ch_18:4). It consisted in hamstringing, i.e. severing the tendon Achilles of the hinder legs (Sept. νευροκοπεῖν; compare akar; Syr. the same, Barhebr. p. 220). The practice is still common in Arab warfare (Rosenmüller, Instituturis Moham. circa bellum, § 17). SEE HORSE.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.