In the general acceptation of this word, as we now use it, it is universally, I believe, considered as a mark of reproach or contempt. And we find, that it was so used from the earliest ages. The patriarch Job, (Job 27:23) saith, that the hypocrite shall be so confounded, that men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place. And the Lord declared, that if the people departed from following him, he would cause the house which Solomon had built for the Lord to become a proverb and a bye-word, and men should hiss at it as they passed by. (1 Kings 9:7-8) But, beside this acceptation of the word, certain it is, that it is also used in a favourable point of view, and sometimes means the call of the Lord to his ministers and messengers, for the performing his sovereign will and pleasure. Thus the Lord saith, that he will "lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them, that is, will call them from the end of the earth." (Isaiah 5:26) So again the bee of Egypt, and the bee of Assyria, meaning the armies of those nations, the Lord saith, he will hiss for: that is, will call them. (Isaiah 7:18) But the ultimate object of this hissing of the Lord, in his sovereign command, is, to bring on the perpetual reproach of the ungodly. "I will make this city desolate, and an hissing: every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and hiss because of the plagues thereof." (Jeremiah 19:8)