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    NAAM-ZUZIMS by A. R. Fausset To the Students of the Words, Works and Ways of God: N NAAM 1 Chronicles 4:15.

    NAAMAH = sweetness. 1. Lamech’s daughter by Zillah ( Genesis 4:22). The refinement and luxury of Cain’s descendants appear in the names of their wives and daughters; as Naamah, Adah = beauty, Zillah = shadow. Naamah is associated with her brother Tubal-cain, the first worker in brass and iron. 2. The Ammonitess mother of Rehoboam ( 1 Kings 14:21,31; Chronicles 12:13), one of Solomon’s “strange women” ( 1 Kings 11:1).

    The Vat. Septuagint makes Naamah daughter of Ana = Hanun, son of Nahash; thus David’s war with Hanun terminated in a re-alliance, and Solomon’s marriage to Naamah would be about two years before David’s death, for Rehoboam the offspring of it was 41 on ascending the throne, and Solomon’s reign was 40 years. 3. A town in the low hill country of Judah (the shephelah): Joshua 15:41.

    NAAMAN 1. A son, i.e. grandson, of Benjamin ( Genesis 46:21; Numbers 26:40; 1 Chronicles 8:4); reckoned in the Genesis genealogy as a “son” because he became head of a distinct family, the Naamites. Came down to Egypt with Jacob. 2. Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5). Identified by Jewish tradition (Josephus, Ant. 8:15, section 5) with the archer ( 1 Kings 22:34) who drew his bow at a venture, and wounding Ahab mortally was Jehovah’s instrument in “giving deliverance to Syria.” Benhadad therefore promoted him to be captain of the Syrian host and the lord in waiting nearest his person, on whose arm the king leant in entering Rimmon’s temple (compare Kings 7:2,17). “But (for all earthly greatness has its drawbacks) he was a leper,” afflicted with white leprosy ( 2 Kings 5:27). (For the rest see ELISHA ). The case of Naaman was designed by God to shame Israel out of their half-heartedness toward Jehovah by a witness for Him the most unlikely. God’s sovereign grace, going beyond Israel and its many lepers to heal the Gentile Naaman, Jesus makes to be His justification for His not doing as many miracles in His own country as He had done in Capernaum, an earnest of the kingdom of God passing from Israel to the Gentiles; Luke the physician ( Luke 4:23-27) appropriately is the evangelist who alone records it.

    NAAMATHITE Zophar the Naamathite ( Job 2:11; 11:1). From some Arabic place.

    Fretelius says there was a Naamath in Uz.

    NAARAH 1 Chronicles 4:5,6.

    NAARAI 1 Chronicles 11:37. Called “Paarai the Arbite” in 2 Samuel 23:35.

    Keil thinks the latter form, Kennicott the former, the correct one.

    NAARAN A city, the eastern limit of Ephraim ( 1 Chronicles 7:28). Probably =\parNAARATH or Naarah, a southern landmark of Ephraim ( Joshua 16:7), between Ataroth and Jericho, in one of the torrent beds leading down from the Bethel highlands to the Jordan valley.

    NABAL Of see MAON : 1 Samuel 25, compare 1 Samuel 23:25. (See DAVID ).

    A sheepmaster on the border of Judah which took its name from the great “Caleb” (3) ( 1 Samuel 30:14), next the wilderness. His history, as also that of Boaz, Barzillai, Naboth, is a sample of a Jew’s private life ( Samuel 25:2,4,36).

    NABOTH = fruit (Gesenius); preeminence (Furst). 1 Kings 21; 2 Kings 9:21-26. (See AHAB , see ELIJAH ). Septuagint ( 1 Kings 21:1) omit “which was in Jezreel,” and read instead of “the palace” “the threshing floor of Ahab king of Samaria.” This locates Naboth’s vineyard on the hill of Samaria, close by the threshing floor, hard by the gate of the city; but Hebrew text is probably right. David’s offer to Araunah ( 2 Samuel 24:21-24) and Omri’s purchase from Shemer illustrate Ahab’s offer to Naboth. Naboth was “set on high,” i.e. seated on a conspicuous place before all the people.

    Ahab’s blood in retribution was washed from the chariot in the pool of Samaria, where harlots were bathing (so translated instead of “and they washed the armour”), while dogs licked up the rest of the blood ( Kings 22:38); the further retribution was on his seed Joram (2 Kings 9).

    NACHON’S THRESHING FLOOR Where Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark when the oxen shook it, and God smote him for his rashness, on its way from Kirjath Jearim or Baale (Abinadab’s house in Gibeah) to Zion ( 2 Samuel 6:6).CHIDON in Chronicles 13:9. David therefore named it “Perez Uzzah,” the breach of Uzza. Keil derives Nachon from nachah “the stroke,” answering to Chidon, from chid “destruction.” The threshing floor was named not from its owner but from the disaster there. Obed Edom’s house was near.

    NACHOR, NAHOR Joshua 24:2; Luke 3:34. 1. Abraham’s grandfather. 2. Abraham’s brother. (See ABRAHAM ). Nahor was his elder brother; married Milcah his niece, Haran’s daughter, who bore eight sons ( Genesis 11:26-29; 22:20-24). His concubine Reumah bore Zebah and Maachah (whose descendants David came in contact with: 1 Chronicles 18:8; 19:6), Gaham and Thahash. Bethuel his son was Rebekah’s father.

    She formed a tie between Abraham’s seed and the original Mesopotamian family. Laban and Jacob’s connection renewed it, then it closes. Laban, with polytheistic notions, distinguishes between his god “the god of Nahor” and “the God of Abraham,” Jacob’s God ( Genesis 31:3,5,19,29,42,49, 53; Joshua 24:2), “the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac.” El Naura is a town on Euphrates above Hit.

    NADAB = willing. 1. Aaron’s oldest son by Elisheba ( Exodus 6:23; Numbers 3:2).

    With Aaron and Abihu and 70 elders he had the privilege of nearer access to Jehovah at Sinai than the mass of the people, but not so near as Moses ( Exodus 24:1). Struck dead for kindling (probably under intoxication) the incense with “strange fire,” not taken from the perpetual fire on the altar ( Leviticus 6:13; 10:1-10). (See AARON and see ABIHU ). 2. Jeroboam’s son, who walked in his father’s evil way; reigned two years, 954-952 B.C. (1 Kings 25:25-31). Slain, in fulfilment of Ahijah the Shilonite’s prophecy, by the conspirator Baasha, while besieging Gibbethon of Dan ( Joshua 19:44; 21:23). Probably the neighbouring Philistines had seized Gibbethon when the Levites generally left it, to escape from Jeroboam’s apostasy to Judah. By a retributive coincidence it was when Israel was besieging Gibbethon, 24 years after, that the same destruction fell on Baasha’s family as Baasha had inflicted on Nadab ( 1 Kings 16:9-15). 3. 1 Chronicles 2:28. 4. 1 Chronicles 8:30; 9:36.

    NAGGE 1. Luke 3:25 Greek, Hebrew Nogah. One of Christ’s ancestors. 2. The same name was borne by a son of David ( 1 Chronicles 3:7).

    NAHALAL, NAHALOL, NAHALLAL Joshua 19:15; 21:35; Judges 1:30. A city of Zebulun, given to the Merarite Levites. Now Malul in the Esdraelon plain; four miles W. of Nazareth. Being in the plain Israel could not drive out of it the Canaanites with their chariots, which could act on the level ground.

    NAHALIEL = torrent of God. A station of Israel toward the close of their journey to Canaan ( Numbers 21:19), N. of Arnon, the next stage but one to Pisgah. Probably the wady Encheyle with the letters transposed; it runs into Mojeb, the ancient Arnon.

    NAHUM 1 Chronicles 4:19.

    NAHAMANI Nehemiah 7:7.

    NAHARAI, NAHARI Joab’s armour-bearer of Beeroth ( 1 Chronicles 11:39; 2 Samuel 23:37).

    NAHASH = serpent. 1. King of Ammon. Offered the citizens of Jabesh Gilead a covenant only on condition they should thrust out their right eyes, as a reproach upon all Israel (1 Samuel 11). Saul, enraged at this cruel demand, summoned all Israel, slew, and dispersed the Ammonite host. Among the causes which led Israel to desire a king had been the terror of Nahash’s approach ( Samuel 12:12). So successful had he been in his marauding campaigns that he self confidently thought it impossible any Israelite army could rescue Jabesh Gilead; so he gave them the seven days’ respite they craved, the result of which was their deliverance, and his defeat by Saul. If he perished, then the Nahash who befriended David was his son. That father and son bore the same name makes it, likely that Nahash was a common title of the kings of Ammon, the serpent being the emblem of wisdom, the Egyptian Kneph also being the eternal Spirit represented as a serpent. Jewish tradition makes the service to David consist in Nahash having protected David’s brother, when he escaped from the massacre perpetrated by the treacherous king of Moab on David’s family, who had been entrusted to him (22:3,4). Nahash the younger would naturally help David in his wanderings from the face of Saul, their common foe. Hence at Nahash’s death David sent a message of condolence to his son. (See HANUN ). The insult by that young king brought on him a terrible retribution (2 Samuel 10). Yet we read Nahash’s son Shobi ( 2 Samuel 17:27-29) was one of the three trans-jordanic chieftains who rendered munificent hospitality to David in his hour of need, at Mahanaim, near Jabesh Gilead, when fleeing from Absalom. No forger would have introduced an incident so seemingly improbable at first sight. Reflection suggests the solution. The old kindness between Nahash and David, and the consciousness that Hanun his brother’s insolence had caused the war which ended so disastrously for Ammon, doubtless led Shobi gladly to embrace the opportunity of showing practical sympathy toward David in his time of distress. 2. Father of the sisters Abigail and Zeruiah, whose mother on Nahash’s death married Jesse, to whom she bore David (17:25). 1 Chronicles 2:16 accordingly names Abigail and Zeruiah as “David’s sisters,” but not as Jesse’s daughters. Nahash is made by Stanley the king of Ammon, which is not impossible, considering Jesse’s descent from Ruth a Moabitess, and also David’s connection with Nahash of Ammon; but is improbable, since if the Nahash father of Abigail were the king of Ammon it would have been stated. Jewish tradition makes Nahash = Jesse. But if so, how is it that only in 2 Samuel 17:25 “Nahash” stands for Jesse, whereas in all other places “Jesse” is named as David’s father.

    NAHATH 1. Genesis 36:13; 1 Chronicles 1:37. 2. 1 Chronicles 6:26. 3. 2 Chronicles 31:13.

    NAHBI The spy, of Naphtali ( Numbers 13:14).

    NAHSHON, NAASHON Son of Amminadab, prince of Judah; assisted Moses and Aaron at the first numbering in the wilderness ( 1 Chronicles 2:10; Exodus 6:23; Numbers 1:7). His sister Elisheba married Aaron. Salmon his son married Rahab after the fall of Jericho. First in the encampment, the march, as captain of Judah ( Numbers 2:3; 10:14; 7:12), and in offering for dedicating the altar; but third in order at the census ( Numbers 1:1-7); died in the wilderness ( Numbers 26:64,65). The sixth in descent from Judah, inclusive; David was fifth after him ( Ruth 4:18-20; Matthew 1:4; Luke 3:32; 1 Chronicles 2:10-12).

    NAHUM = consolation and vengeance, to Israel and Israel’s foe respectively. The two themes alternate in Nahum 1; as the prophecy advances, vengeance on Assyria predominates. Country. “The Elkoshite” ( Nahum 1:1), from Elkosh or Elkesi a village of Galilee pointed out to Jerome (Preface in Nahum). Capernaum, “village of Nahum,” seemingly takes its name from Nahum having resided in the neighbourhood, though born in Elkosh. The allusions in Nahum indicate local acquaintance with Palestine ( Nahum 1:4,15; 2:2) and only general knowledge of Nineveh ( Nahum 2:4-6; 3:2,3). This confutes the notion that the Alkush (resembling the name Elkosh), E. of the Tigris and N. of Mosul, is Nahum’s place of birth and of burial, though Jewish pilgrims visit it as such.

    DATE. Hezekiah’s time was that in which trust in Jehovah and the observance of the temple feasts prevailed as they did not before or after.

    So in Nahum 1:7,15, “Jehovah is a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth (with approval) them that trust in Him ... O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts.” Moreover Nahum has none of the reproofs for national apostasy which abound in the other prophets. Nahum in Elkosh of Galilee was probably among those of northern Israel, after the deportation of the ten tribes, who accepted Hezekiah’s earnest invitation to keep the Passover at Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 30). His graphic description of Sennacherib and his army ( 2 Chronicles 1:9-12) makes it likely he was near or in Jerusalem at the time. Hence, the number of phrases corresponding to those of Isaiah ( Nahum 1:8,9, compare Isaiah 8:8; 10:23; Nahum 2:10 with Isaiah 24:1; 21:3; Nahum 1:15 with Isaiah 52:7). The prophecy in Nahum 1:14, “I will make it (namely, ‘the house of thy gods,’ i.e. Nisroch) thy grave,” foretells Sennacherib’s murder 20 years after his return from Palestine, “as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god” ( Isaiah 37:38). He writes while Assyria’s power was yet unbroken ( Nahum 1:12; 2:11-13; 3:1, “the bloody city, full of lies ... the prey departeth not”: Nahum 3:15-17). The correspondence of sentiments in Nahum with those of Isaiah and Hezekiah implies he wrote when Sennacherib was still besieging and demanding the surrender of Jerusalem ( Nahum 1:2 ff, with 2 Kings 19:14,15; Nahum 1:7 with 2 Kings 18:22; 19:19,31; 2 Chronicles 32:7,8; Nahum 1:9,11 with 2 Kings 19:22,27,28; Nahum 1:14 with 2 Kings 19:6,7; Nahum 1:15 and Nahum 2:1,2 with 2 Kings 19:32,33; Nahum 2:13, “the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard,” namely, Rabshakeh the bearer of Sennacherib’s haughty message, with 2 Kings 19:22,23). The historical facts presupposed in Nahum are Judah’s and Israel’s humiliation by Assyria ( Nahum 2:2); the invasion of Judah ( Nahum 1:9-11); the conquest of No-Amon or Thebes in Upper Egypt, probably by Sargon (Isaiah 20) who, fearing lest Egypt should join Palestine against him, undertook an expedition against it, 717-715 B.C. ( Nahum 3:8-10). Tiglath Pileser and Shalmaneser had carried away Israel. Judah was harassed by Syria, and oppressed by Ahaz’s payments to Tiglath Pileser (2 Chronicles 28; Isaiah 8,9). As Nahum refers in part prophetically to Sennacherib’s (Sargon’s successor) last attempt on Judah ending in his host’s destruction, in part as matter of history ( Nahum 1:9-13; 2:13), he must have prophesied about 713-710 B.C., 100 years before the event foretold, namely, the overthrow of Nineveh by the joint forces of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar in the reign of Chyniladanus, 625 or else 603 B.C. The name “Huzzab” ( Nahum 2:7) answers to Adiabene, from the Zab or Diab river on which that region lay; a personification of Assyria, and seems to be an Assyrian word. So the original words, minzaraik , taphsarika , for crowned or princes ( Nahum 3:17) and “captains” or satraps (also in Jeremiah 51:27); contact with Assyria brought in these words. Nahum 2:18, “the faces gather blackness,” corresponds to Isaiah 13:8; Joel 2:6; Joel is probably the original. Nahum 1:6 with Joel 2:7; Amos 2:14; Nahum 1:3 with Joel 2:13; the mourning dove, Nahum 2:7, with Isaiah 38:14; the first ripe figs, Nahum 3:12, with Isaiah 28:4; Nahum 3:13 with Isaiah 19:16; Nahum 3:4 with Isaiah 23:15; Nahum 2:4,5,14 with Isaiah 22:7; 36:9; Micah 1:13; 5:10. The Assyrians, by just retribution, in turn should experience themselves what they caused to Israel and Judah (compare also Nab. 1:3 with Jonah 4:2; Nahum 1:13 with Isaiah 10:26,27; Nahum 1:8 with Isaiah 10:21,22; 8:8; Nahum 1:9,11 with Isaiah 37:23; Nahum 3:10 with Isaiah 13:16; Nahum 2:2 with Isaiah 24:1; Nahum 3:5 with Isaiah 47:2,3; Nahum 3:7 with Isaiah 51:19). Plainly, Nahum is the last of the prophets of the Assyrian period. Jeremiah borrows from, and so stamps with inspiration, Nahum ( Jeremiah 10:19 compare Nahum 3:19; Jeremiah 13:26 compare Nahum 3:5; Jeremiah 50:37; 51:30, compare Nahum 3:13). Nahum is seventh in position in the canon, and seventh in date.

    Subject matter. “The burden of Nineveh.” The three chapters form one consecutive whole, remarkable for unity of aim. Nahum encourages his countrymen with the assurance that, alarming as their position seemed, assailed by the mighty foe which had already carried captive the ten tribes, yet that not only should the Assyrian fail against Jerusalem, but Nineveh and his own empire should fall; and this not by chance, but by Jehovah’s judgment for their iniquities.

    STYLE. Clear and forcible. Several phases of an idea are presented in the briefest sentences; as in the sublime description of God in the beginning, the overthrow of Nineveh, and that of No Amon. Melting softness and delicacy alternate with rhythmical, sonorous, and majestic diction, according as the subject requires; the very sound of the words conveys to the ear the sense ( Nahum 2:4; 3:3). Paronomasia or verbal assonance is another feature of likeness to Isaiah, besides those already mentioned ( Nahum 1:3,6,10; 2:2,3,11; 3:2).

    NAIL 1. Deuteronomy 21:12, “pare her (a captive woman’s) nails,” namely, in order that she might lay aside all belonging to her condition as an alien, to become a wife among the covenant people. Margin: “suffer to grow,” the opposite sense, will refer to her seclusion a month in mourning with shaven head and unpared nails. The former seems preferable, answering to her “putting the raiment of her captivity from her.” 2. Mismerim , masmerim , masmerot . Isaiah 41:7: “fastened (the idol) with nails” to keep it steady in its place! Jeremiah 10:4; 1 Chronicles 22:3; 2 Chronicles 3:9, where the “fifty shekels of gold” were to gild the nails fastening the sheet gold on the wainscoting; Ecclesiastes 12:11, “words of the wise are as nails fastened (by) the master of assemblies,” rather “the masters” or “associates in the collection (of the canonical Scriptures), i.e. authors of the individual books, are as nails driven in.” (Hengstenberg). Scripture has a power penetrating as a nail the depths of the soul, worldly literature reaches only the surface. So Revelation 1:16; Hebrews 4:12; though the associated sacred writers are many, yet they “are given from One Shepherd,” Jesus ( Ephesians 4:11), the Inspirer of the word, from whom comes all their penetrating power ( 2 Timothy 3:16). A canon whereby to judge sermons: they are worth nothing unless, like Scripture, they resemble goads and nails. The hearers too, instead of being vexed, should feel thankful when by the word they are “pricked in their heart” ( Acts 2:37; Ephesians 6:17; Psalm 45:3). 3. The large pin ( Judges 4:21,22; 5:26) by which the tent cords were fastened, giving shape and security to the tent. Jael drove it into Sisera’s temples. The tabernacle curtains were fastened with brass pins ( Exodus 27:19). In Zechariah 10:4, “out of him (Judah) shall come forth the nail,” namely, the large peg inside the Eastern tent, on which is hung most of its valuable furniture. Judah shall be under a native ruler, not a foreigner; the Maccabees primarily, Judah’s deliverers from the oppressor Antiochus Epiphanes: antitypically Messiah of the tribe of Judah. On Messiah hang all the glory and hope of His people. The “nail,” as expressing firmness, stands for a secure abode ( Ezra 9:8), “grace hath been showed from the Lord ... to give us a nail in His holy place” So Isaiah 22:23-25, “I will fasten him (Eliakim) as a nail in a sure place ... and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue (high and low), all vessels of small quantity ... cups ... flagons (compare Song 4:4; Kings 10:16,17,21). The nail fastened in the sure place (Shebna) shall be ... cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off,” i.e. all Shebna’s offspring and dependants and all his emoluments and honours shall fall with himself, as the ornaments hanging upon a peg fall when it falls. Vessels of glory hanging on Christ vary in capacity; but each shall be filled as full of bliss as the respective capacity admits ( Luke 19:17,19).

    The print of the nails in Jesus’ hands and feet were Thomas’ test of the reality of the resurrection ( John 20:25). In Christ’s person “nailed to the cross,” the law ( Romans 3:21; 7:2-6; Colossians 2:14) and the old serpent ( John 3:14; 12:31,32) were nailed to it. A mode of canceling bonds in Asia was by striking a nail through the writing (Grotius).

    NAIN The scene of Christ’s raising the widow’s son ( Luke 7:12). Now Nein on N.W. verge of jebel ed Duhy (Little Hermon) where it slopes down to Esdraelon plain. The rock W. of the village abounds in cave tombs, also in the E. side. Eighteen miles from Capernaum, where Jesus had been the preceding day. Josephus (Ant. 20:5, section 1) notices Nain as on the way from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very way Jesus was going.

    NAIOTH =“dwellings.” So the Hebrew margin or Qeri; but the kethib or text has Nevaioth. At or near (not “in” as KJV) Ramah. The dwellings of a college of prophets, under Samuel ( 1 Samuel 19:18-23; 20:1). Thither David fled from Saul, and probably assumed their garb to escape discovery. Now probably Beit Haninah at the head of the wady Haninah; immediately to the E. of neby Samwil, the ancient Ramah of Samuel.

    NAME In the Bible expressing the nature or relation for the most part. According as man has departed more and more from the primitive truth, the connection between names and things has become more arbitrary. In Genesis on the contrary the names are nearly all significant. Adam’s naming the animals implies at once his power of speech, distinguishing him above them, and his knowledge of their characteristics as enabling him to suit the name to the nature. God, in calling His people into new and close relationship with Himself, gives them a new name. see ABRAM becomes Abraham; Sarai, Sarah; see JACOB , see ISRAEL . So the name was given the child at the time of circumcision, because then he enters into a new covenant relationship to God ( Luke 1:59; 2:21). So spiritually in the highest sense God’s giving a new name implies His giving a new nature; Revelation 2:17; 3:12, Christ will give some new revelation (“new name”) of Himself hereafter to His saints, which they alone are capable of receiving, when He and they with Him shall take the kingdom. Christians receive their new name at baptism, indicating their new relation. They are “baptized into (eis onoma ) the name of (the revealed nature, 2 Peter 1:4, into living union with) the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” in their manifested relations and offices toward us ( Matthew 28:19). In Isaiah 65:15, “ye shall leave your name for a curse unto My chosen, for the Lord shall call His servants by another name”: instead of a “curse,” as the name of Jew had been, the elect Jews shall have a new name, God’s delight, “Hephzibah,” and married to Him, “Beulah,” instead of “forsaken” and “widow” ( Isaiah 62:2-4). The “name” of Jehovah is His revealed character toward us. Exodus 34:5-7: “Jehovah proclaimed the name of Jehovah ... Jehovah Elohim , merciful and gracious,” etc. So Messiah, Jesus, Immanuel, the Word, indicate His manifested relations to us in redemption ( Revelation 19:13); also Isaiah 9:6, “His name shall be called Wonderful,” etc. ( 1 Timothy 6:1; John 17:6; 26; Psalm 22:22). Also His gracious and glorious attributes revealed in creation and providence ( Psalm 8:1; 20:1,7). Authority ( Acts 4:7). Profession of Christianity ( Revelation 2:13). Manifested glory ( Philippians 2:9). (See GOD , see JEHOVAH ).

    NAOMI =“sweetness”. Mother-in-law of Ruth. Ruth 1:20,21: “call me not Naomi, call me Mara (bitterness), for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” Elimelech’s wife; lost her two sons and husband in Moab. (See BOAZ ). see RUTH her daughter in law returned with her to Israel, and married Boaz.

    NAPHISH =“refreshment”. The last but one of Ishmael’s sons ( Genesis 25:15; Nephish, 1 Chronicles 1:31; 5:19-23). Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh made war with Naphish’s tribe and were conquerors.

    NAPHTALI =“my wrestling”. Jacob’s fifth son, second by Bilhah, Rachel’s maid. Genesis 30:8, Rachel said, “with wrestlings of God (i.e. earnest prayer, as her husband does in Genesis 32:24-28; he had reproved her impatience, telling her God, not he, is the giver of children: Genesis 30:1,2; so she wrestled with God) have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed,” i.e. succeeded in getting from God a child as my sister.

    Thus allied to Dan ( Genesis 35:25). He had four sons at the descent to Egypt ( Genesis 46:24). At the census of Sinai Naphtali’s tribe numbered 53,400 able for war ( Numbers 1:43). At the borders of Canaan the tribe of Naphtali had fallen to 45,400 ( Numbers 26:48-50).

    On march Naphtali was north of the tabernacle, next Dan his kinsman, and Asher ( Numbers 2:25-31), together forming “the camp of Dan,” hindmost or rearward of all the camps ( Numbers 10:25). Naphtali had its portion between the coastland strip of Asher and the upper Jordan. Dan shortly after sent a number from his less desirable position next the Philistines to seek a settlement near his kinsman Napthtali in the far north.

    Zebulun was on S. of Naphtali; trans-jordanic Manasseh on the E. The ravine of the Leontes (Litany) and the valley between Lebanon and Antilebanon was on the N. Thus, Naphtali had the well watered district about Banias and the springs of the Jordan.

    Jacob in his dying prophecy says, “Naphtali is a hind let loose, he giveth goodly words.” The targums of Pseudo-Jonathan and Jerusalem say Naphtali first told Jacob Joseph was alive. “Naphtali (say the targums) is a swift messenger, like a hind that runneth on the mountains, bringing good tidings.” Joshua ( Joshua 20:7) calls it “Mount Naphtali” from the mountainous parts of its possessions. Shelucha, “let loose,” is cognate to sheluchim, “the apostles,” who on Galilee mountains “brought good tidings” of Jesus ( Isaiah 52:7). Habakkuk 3:19, “the Lord will make my feet like hinds’ feet,” has in view Jacob’s prophecy as to Naphtali.

    Temporally Naphtali disports gracefully and joyously in its fertile allotment, as a hind at large exulting amidst grass; it shall be famous too for eloquence. The “bind” symbolizes a swift warrior ( 2 Samuel 2:18; Chronicles 12:8). Barak with 10,000 men of Naphtali, at Deborah’s call, fought and delivered Israel from Jabin of Canaan. His war-like energy and his and Deborah’s joint song are specimens of the prowess and the eloquence of Naphtali (Judges 4--5); Naphtali and Zebulun “jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field” (verse 18). So they helped Gideon against Midian ( Judges 6:35; 7:23). Moses’ blessing on Naphtali is ( Deuteronomy 33:23), “Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of Jehovah, possess thou the sect (yam ) and the sunny district” (not as KJV “the W. and the S.,” for its lot was N. but its climate in parts was like that of the S.), namely, the whole W. coast of the sea of Galilee, “an earthly paradise” (Josephus, B.J. 3:3, section 2), and lake Merom (Huleh). The district is still called Belad Besharah, “land of good tidings.” The climate of the lower levels is hot and suited for tropical plants, so that fruits ripen earlier than elsewhere ( Joshua 19:32, etc.). “The soil is rich, full of trees of all sorts, so fertile as to invite the most slothful to cultivate it” (Josephus); but now the population of this once thickly peopled, flourishing region, is as scanty as its natural vegetation is luxuriant. Its forests and ever varying scenery are among the finest in Palestine (Van de Velde, 1:170,293; 2:407). Naphtali failed to drive out the Canaanites ( Judges 1:33). Pagan neighbours soon made it and northern Israel “Galilee of the Gentiles.” Tiglath Pileser swept away its people to Assyria; Benhadad of Syria had previously smitten all Naphtali ( 1 Kings 15:20; 2 Kings 15:29). But where the darkness was greatest and the captivity first came, there gospel light first shone, as foretold of Zebulun and Naphtali ( Isaiah 9:1,2; Matthew 4:16).

    Naphtali shall have its 12,000 elect ones sealed ( Revelation 7:6), and its allotment in restored Israel ( Ezekiel 48:3,4,34).

    NAPHTUHIM A Mizraite tribe ( Genesis 10:13; 1 Chronicles 1:11) coming in order after the Lehabim or Libyans. Niphaiat is Coptic for the country W. of the Nile. on Egypt’s N.W. borders, about the Mareotic lake. The Na-petu. the people called “the Nine Bows,” are mentioned in the Egyptian monuments (G. Rawlinson). Gesenius from Plutarch (de Isaiah 355) thinks the Naphtuhim were on the W. coast of the Red Sea, sacred to the goddess Nepthys wife of Typhon. Knobel derives Naphtuhim from the deity Phthah.

    NARCISSUS Romans 16:11. A house holder at Rome, of whose family some were known to Paul as being Christians.

    NATHAN =“given by God”. 1. The prophet who gave David God’s assurance of the perpetuity of his seed and throne (notwithstanding temporary chastening for iniquity). God by Nathan commended David’s desire to build the temple, but reserved the accomplishment for his son Solomon, the type of Him who should build the true temple (2 Samuel 7; 1 Chronicles 17). Nathan speaking first of himself had said, “do all that is in thine heart” (compare 1 Kings 8:18). God sometimes grants His children’s requests in a form real, but not as they had proposed. His glory proves in the end to be their truest good, though their wishes for the time be crossed. Nathan convicted David of his sin in the case of Uriah by the beautiful parable of the poor man’s lamb ( 2 Samuel 12:1-15,25; Psalm 51). Nathan conveyed Jehovah’s command to David, to name Solomon” Jedidiah,” not as a mere appellation, but an assurance that Jehovah loved him. Nathan was younger than David, as he wrote with Ahijah the Shilonite and Iddo the seer” the acts of Solomon first and last” ( 2 Chronicles 9:29). To Nathan David refers as having forbidden his building the temple on account of his having had “great wars” ( <142201> Chronicles 22:1-10; 28:2). Nathan secured the succession of Solomon by advising Bathsheba to remind David of his promise ( 1 Chronicles 22:9, etc.), and to inform him of Adonijah’s plot, and by himself venturing into the king’s presence to follow up Bathsheba’s statement. Nathan by David’s direction with Zadok the priest brought Solomon to Gihon on the king’s own mule, and anointed him king ( 1 Kings 1:10-38). “Azariah son of Nathan was over the officers, and Zabud son of Nathan was the king’s friend” under Solomon ( 1 Kings 4:5; 1 Chronicles 27:33; Samuel 15:37). A similarity between the apologue style of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 9:14-16 and Nathan’s in 2 Samuel 12:1-4 may be due to Nathan’s influence. Nathan along with Gad wrote “the acts of David first and last” ( 1 Chronicles 29:29). Nathan is designated by the later and higher title “the prophet,” but” Gad and Samuel the seer” (compare Samuel 9:9). His histories were doubtless among the materials from which the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles were compiled. His grave is shown at Halhul near Hebron. 2. Son of David and Bathsheba ( 1 Chronicles 3:5; 14:4; 2 Samuel 5:14). Luke traces Christ’s see GENEALOGY to David through Nathan (3:31); as Matthew gives the succession to the throne, so Luke the parentage of Joseph, Jeconiah’s line having failed as he died childless. “The family of the house of David and the family of the house of Nathan” represent the highest and lowest of the royal order; as “the family of the house of Levi and the family of Shimei” represent the highest and lowest of the priestly order ( Zechariah 12:12,13). 3. Father of Igal, one of David’s heroes, of Zobah, 2 Samuel 23:36, but in 1 Chronicles 11:38 “Joel, brother of Nathan” Kennicott prefers “brother.” 4. A head man who returned with Ezra on his second expedition, and whom Ezra despatched from his encampment at the river Ahava to the Jews at Casiphia, to get Levites and Nethinim for the temple ( Ezra 8:16). Perhaps the same as the son of Bani who gave up his foreign wife (10:39). 5. Son of Attai of Judah ( 1 Chronicles 2:36).

    NATHANAEL =“God given.” Hebrew Nethaneel. Of Cana in Galilee ( John 1:47; 21:2). Three or four days after the temptation, Jesus when intending to “go forth into Galilee findeth Philip and saith, Follow Me.” Philip, like Andrew finding his own brother Simon ( John 1:41), and the woman of Samaria ( John 4:28,29) inviting her fellow townsmen, having been found himself by Jesus, “findeth” his friend Nathanael, and saith, “we have found (he should have said, we have been found by: Isaiah 65:1; Philippians 3:12 ff, Song 1:4) Him of whom the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph” (he should have said the Son of God). (For the rest see BARTHOLOMEW ). Tradition makes Nathanael to have been the bridegroom at the marriage of Cana, to which he belonged.

    NATHAN-MELECH A eunuch or chamberlain in Josiah’s court, by whose chamber at the entering in of Jehovah’s house, in the suburbs, were the horses sacred to the sun; these Josiah took away and burned the sun chariots with fire ( Kings 23:11).

    NAUM Luke 3:25.

    NAZARETH, NAZARENE In a basin among hills descending into Esdraelon from Lebanon, and forming a valley which runs in a wavy line E. and W. On the northern side of the valley the rounded limestone hills rise to 400 or 500 ft. The valley and hill sides abound in gay flowers as the hollyhock growing wild, fig trees, olives, and oranges, gardens with cactus hedges, and grainfields.

    Now en Nazirah on a hill of Galilee ( Mark 1:9), with a precipice nigh ( Luke 4:29); near Cane ( John 2:1,2,11). Its population of 4,000 is partly Muslim, but mainly of Latin and Greek Christians. It has a mosque, a Maronite, a Greek, and a Protestant church, and a large Franciscan convent. The rain pouring down the hills would sweep away a house founded on the surface, and often leaves the streets impassable with mud.

    So the houses generally are of stone, founded, after digging deep, upon the rock ( Luke 6:47). On a hill behind is the tomb of neby Ismail, commanding one of the most lovely prospects in the world, Lebanon and snowy Hermon on the N., Carmel and the Mediterranean and Acca on the W., Gilead and Tabor on the S.E., the Esdraelon plain and the Samaria mountains on the S., and villages on every side; Cana, Nain, Endor, Jezreel (Zerin), etc. Doubtless in early life Jesus often stood on this spot and held communion with His Father who, by His Son, had created this glorious scene.

    Nazareth is never named in Old Testament. It was there Gabriel was sent from God to announce to the Virgin her coming conception of Him who shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of whose kingdom there shall be no end ( Luke 1:26-33). After His birth and the sojourn in Egypt Joseph and Mary took the child to their original home in Nazareth, six miles W. of Mount Tabor ( Matthew 2:23; Luke 2:39; 4:16). As “John the Baptist; was in the desert until the day of his showing unto Israel,” so Messiah was growing up unknown to the world in the sequestered town among the mountains, until His baptism by the forerunner ushered in His public ministry. As Jews alone lived in Nazareth from before Josephus’ time to the reign of Constantine (Epiphanius, Haer.), it is impossible to identify the sacred sites as tradition pretends to do, namely, the place of the annunciation to Mary, with the inscription on the pavement of the grotto, “Hic Verbum caro factum est,” the mensa Christi, and the synagogue from whence Jesus was dragged to the brow of the hill. Of all Rome’s lying legends, none exceeds that of Joseph’s house (santa casa) having been whisked from Nazareth to Loretto in the 13th century; in spite of the bull of Leo X endorsing the legend, the fact remains that the santa casa is of a dark red stone, such as is not found in or about Nazareth, where the grey white limestone prevails, and also the ground plan of the house at Loretto is at variance with the site of the house at Nazareth shown by the Franciscans within their convent walls. Jesus taught in the synagogue of Nazareth, “His own country” ( Matthew 13:54), and was there “thrust out of the city and led unto the brow of the hill whereon if was built, to be cast down headlong,” but “passing through the midst of them He went His way” ( Luke 4:16-30). The hill of precipitation” is not the one presumed, two miles S.E. of Nazareth. The present village is on the hill side, nearer the bottom than the top. Among the rocky ledges above the lower parts of the village is one 40 ft. high, and perpendicular, near the Maronite church: this is probably the true site. It is striking how accurately Luke steers clear of a mistake; he does not say they ascended or descended to reach the precipice, but “led” Jesus to it. He does not say the “city” was built on the brow of the hill, but that the precipice was “on the brow,” without stating whether it was above (as is the case) or below the town. A forger could hardly go so near a topographical mistake, without falling into it. “Jesus of Nazareth” was part of the inscription on the cross ( John 19:19). It is the designation by which He revealed Himself to Saul ( Acts 22:8). Nazareth bore a bad name even in Galilee (for Nathanael who said “can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” was of Galilee), which itself, because of its half pagan population and rude dialect, was despised by the people of Judea. The absence of “good” in Nazareth appears from the people’s willful unbelief in spite of Jesus’ miracles, and their attempt on His life ( Matthew 13:54-58), so that He left them, to settle in Capernaum ( Matthew 4:13). “The fountain of the Virgin” is at the N.E. of the town.

    NAZARENE.

    Matthew, 2:23, writes “Jesus came and dwelt in Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which is spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene”; not “by the prophet,” but “by the prophets,” meaning no particular quotation but the general description of Messiah in them as abject and despised ( Isaiah 53:2,3). The Nazarene people were proverbially so. “Called,” as in Isaiah 9:6, expresses what He should be in His earthly manifestation; not that the prophets gave Him the literal name, though His contemporaries did. Matthew plays on similar sounds, as Micah on Achzib ( Micah 1:14) and Ekron ( Micah 2:4). The Nazarene dweller (Natsri ) was, as all the prophets foretold, a pain sufferer (natsari from the Aramaic tsear , pain); the Aramaeans pronounced the Hebrew “a” as “o,” from whence arose the Greek form Nazoraios . (Biesenthal, Jewish Intelligence, December, 1874). The nickname “Nazarene” agreed with His foretold character as: (1) despised in man’s eyes, (2) really glorious. Men in applying the name unconsciously and in spite of themselves shed glory on Him; for Nazarene is related to neetser , a “branch,” Messiah’s distinctive title, indicating His descent from royal David yet His lowly state ( Isaiah 11:1); the same thought and image appear in the term tsemach ( Jeremiah 23:5; 33:15; Zechariah 3:8; 6:12). Also Naziraios , applied to a Nazarite by vow in Old Testament (from the Hebrew root nezer “dedication,” “the high priest’s mitre,” and “sovereignty”), indirectly refers to Christ under His New Testament distinct designation “Nazarene” and [Nazoraios ], i.e. belonging to Nazarene. Samson the Nazarite, “separated” or “dedicated unto God,” typically foreshadowed Him ( Judges 13:5; 16:30), separated as holy unto God, and separated as an “alien” outcast by men ( Psalm 69:8). Though the reverse of a Nazarite in its outward rules ( Matthew 11:18), He antitypically fulfilled the spirit of the Nazarite vow and ritual. Had the prophets expressly foretold He should be of Nazareth, it would not have been so despised; nor would the Pharisees, who were able from Micah 5 to tell Herod where Messiah’s birthplace was -- Bethlehem (Matthew 2) -- have been so ignorant of the prophecy of His connection with Nazareth as to say, “out of Galilee ariseth no prophet” ( John 7:52). (See NAZARITE ).

    NAZARITE properly,NAZIRITE; Hebrew nazir Elohim , “one separated to God,” Greek, [naziraios ]. (See NAZARENE ). Nezer is also a crows or diadem on the head; and the hair, the natural crown ( Jeremiah 7:29). Joseph in Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:16, is nezir , one “separated” from his brethren, at the same time “separated” to God and to be lord of Egypt, typifying the two sides of Jesus’ realizing the designation given Him, “Nazarene,” in accordance with general prophecy ( Matthew 2:23). In Leviticus 25:5,11, “neither gather the grapes of thy ‘Nazarite’ (undressed) vine,” the figure is taken from the “unshorn” locks of the Nazarite, “separated” (by being unpruned) from common use in the sabbatical and the jubilee years. In Leviticus 15:31 nazar expresses separation” from uncleanness.

    The rule of the Nazarite is given Numbers 6:2; “when either man or woman shall separate themselves to ... vow of a Nazarite” implies, it was no new institution, but one now regulated by divinely given rules.

    Voluntary vows accorded with legalism. Noah’s excess in wine, Joseph’s untrimmed hair separating him from the closely polled Egyptians, the distinction of clean and unclean, and the connection of death with sin known long before, suggested voluntary vows prompted by religious zeal, to which now was afforded legal sanction. Man or woman might ordinarily of their own free will take the vow. In special cases God imposed the vow through the parent. The Pentateuch lays down the rule only for a “Nazarite of days” as the Mishna terms it; “the Nazarite for perpetuity” appears only in the Scripture history. Samson ordained to be a Nazarite from the womb ( Judges 13:5,6; 16:17). Samuel in a great degree (but not as to abstinence from wine) was the same ( 1 Samuel 1:11), by Hannah before his birth “given unto the Lord all the days of his life ... no razor coming upon his head.” Also John the Baptist, “drinking neither wine nor strong drink ... filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb,” but not letting the hair grow ( Luke 1:15). The three were called of God to be instruments of a revival in great crises of Israel and the church. The seeming violation of the Nazarite law in Samson’s contact with the dead shows that the spirit of the law herein rises above the letter; the object of his mission justified the deviation from rule even without ceremonial purification.

    In three things the Nazarite separated himself from ordinary men, though otherwise freely mixing with them: 1. Abstinence from wine, strong drink (including date and palm wine), and the grape in whatever form; so the high priest and priests when performing official functions ( Leviticus 10:9). 2. Not cutting the hair during the vow; it symbolized physical strength and youthful manhood, and thus the man’s whole powers dedicated to the service of God; answering to the high priest’s” crown (neetser ) of the anointing oil of his God” ( Leviticus 21:12). 3. Noncontact with a corpse even of a nearest relative; so the high priest ( Leviticus 21:11,12). Samuel’s Nazarite prerogative, with God’s extraordinary call, seem to have given him a sacerdotal character. The Nazarites did not form an ascetic fraternity, but followed observances typifying restraint of self will and fleshly appetite and separation unto God; Romans 12:1,2, expresses the corresponding obligation of our Christian life to “present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,” etc. Accidental defilement entailed loss of the previous time and recommencing the days of his dedication, shaving the head and the ordinary purification enjoined for others Numbers 6:9-12; 19:11,12), besides a trespass offering peculiar to his case. In concluding his term of days he offered a sin offering, a burnt offering (implying whole self dedication), and a peace offering (thanksgiving) with unleavened bread.

    That the three offerings might represent the one reality, namely, his realizing in himself penitent faith in God’s atoning mercy covering sin, whole self-surrender to God, and thankfulness to Him, the three animals were of one species, a lamb of the first year, an ewe, a ram. His shorn hair was put on the fire of the altar, in order that, although human blood must not be offered, something of the Nazarite’s body, and that representing his manly strength, should be offered. “Separation unto Jehovah ( Numbers 6:2) is the radical idea. Whereas the Nazarite marked this by abstaining from wine, the Christian seals his consecration by obeying Christ’s invitation, “drink ye all of this.” Lightfoot (Exercit. Luke 1:15) leans to the Jews’ identification of the vine with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the N. vow with Adam’s state before he fell.(?)

    Paul’s shaving his head at Cenchreae was not a strict Nazarite’s vow, otherwise he would have offered his hair with the sacrifices at the temple door; but a modified Nazarite vow, usual then in respect to deliverances from sickness or other calamity ( Acts 18:18). In Acts 21:24-27 a strict Nazarite vow is referred to on the part of four poor men. Paul as a charity defrayed the charges of their offerings to show his respect for the law. God by Amos ( Amos 2:11,12) complains, “I raised up of your young men for Nazarites.” It was part of Israel’s high privilege that there were, of the class most addicted to self-indulgence, youths who by solemn vow abstained from wine and all defilements. God left nothing undone to lead Israel to holiness. “Her Nazarites were purer than snow ... whiter than milk ... more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphires” ( Lamentations 4:7). God made their body not less, but more, fair by abstinence. Similarly, Daniel ( Daniel 1:8-15); David ( 1 Samuel 16:12; 17:42), type of Messiah (Song 5:10). But Israel so despised God’s favors to tempt the Nazarite to break the vow; “ye gave the Nazarite wine to drink.” Though not cut off from the social world, the Nazarite would feel in spirit reminded by his peculiar dedication, which was a virtual protest against the self indulgence and self seeking of the world, that he was not of the world. Our rule is similar ( John 17:15,16).

    NEAH On the boundary of Zebulun ( Joshua 19:13).

    NEAPOLIS 1. In Macedonia, the port of Philippi, ten miles off, where first in Europe Paul landed ( Acts 16:11). The Turkish Kavalla. The mountains, including Mount Symbolum, form a noble background. Among the remains are those of Roman work in the substructions of a massive aqueduct, built on two tiers of arches, and carrying water from twelve miles’ distance along the sides of Symbolum over the valley between the promontory and the mainland into Kavalla. The harbour has good anchorage. Dion Cassius (Hist. Romans 47:35) mentions Neapolis as opposite Thasos, which is the position of Kavalla. 2. = Shechem in Old Testament, Sychar in New Testament Now Nablus, corrupted from Neapolis.

    NEARIAH 1. 1 Chronicles 3:22,23. 2. 1 Chronicles 4:42.

    NEBAI Nehemiah 10:19.

    NEBAIOTH An Arab pastoral tribe, associated with Kedar ( Isaiah 60:7). Nebaioth was the older of the two, Ishmael’s firstborn ( Genesis 25:13).

    Forefather of the Nabateans of Arabia Petraea mentioned at the close of the fourth century B.C. as extending from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, Petra being their capital. In 310 B.C. they were strong enough to resist Antigonus (Diodorus Siculus, 2:732,733). In the first century B.C. they flourished under their “illustrious” (Josephus, Ant. 13:13, section 3; 15, section 2) king Aretas, who was chosen also king of Damascus; his successors assumed the name as an official designation ( 2 Corinthians 11:32). Coins are extant of the dynasty which ended A.D. 105, their Nabathaean kingdom being incorporated with Rome as the province” Arabia.” Josephus (Ant. 1:12, section 4) regards “Nabateans” as synonymous with “Arabs,” and says that “Ishmael’s twelve sons inhabit all the regions from the Euphrates to the Red Sea” (compare Genesis 25:18). Many think the rock inscriptions of Sinai to be Nabatean, and to belong to the centuries immediately before and after Christ. Forster (One Primeval Lang.) thinks them Israelite. The name “Nabatean,” as applied to a people S. and E. of Palestine, is unknown to the Arab writers, yet it is on native coins, it must therefore have been lost long before any Arab wrote on geography or history. But the Arab writers use Nabat for Babylonians not Arabians. M. Quatremere from them shows that these Nabateans inhabited Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and Tigris; they were Syro Chaldaeans, and were celebrated among the Arabs for agriculture, magic, medicine, and astronomy.

    Four of their works remain: the book on agriculture, that on poisons, that of Tenkeloosha the Babylonian, and that of the secrets of the sun and moon. Chwolson (Remains of ancient Babyl. Literature in Arabic Translations) thinks that “the book of Nabat agriculture,” commenced by Daghreeth, continued by Yanbushadth and finished by Kuthamee, according to the Arab translator, Ibn Wahsheeyeh, the Chaldaean of Kisseen, was so commenced 2500 B.C., continued 2100, and ended under the sixth king of a Canaanite dynasty mentioned in the book, i.e. 1300 B.C.

    But the mention of names resembling Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, and of Hermes, Agathodaemon, Tammuz, and the Ionians, and the anachronisms geographical, linguistic, historical, and religious, point to a modern date even as late as the first century A.D. The Greeks and Romans identified the Nabateans as Arabs, and though the Nabateans of Petra were pastoral and commercial whereas the Nabathaeans of Mesopotamia were, according to the books referred to above, agricultural and scientific, it is probable they were both in origin the same people.

    Scripture takes no notice of the Nabathaeans unless “the rams of Nebaioth” ( Isaiah 60:7) refer to them, though so often mentioning Edom. The Nabathaeans must therefore have come into celebrity after the Babylonian captivity. Pliny (v. 11) connects the Nabateans and Kedreans as Isaiah connects Nebaioth and Kedar.

    NEBALLAT A town of Benjamin ( Nehemiah 11:34). Perhaps now Bir Nebala E. of Gibeon (el Jib).

    NEBAT Father of Jeroboam, an Ephrathite, or Ephraimite, of Zereda in the Jordan valley. Died before his son came into notice ( 1 Kings 11:26).

    NEBO (1) 1. A town of Moab, taken possession of by Reuben. Also the Mount of Moab, from which Moses viewed Canaan ( Deuteronomy 32:49; 34:1).

    Pisgah was a ridge of the Abarim mountains, W. from Heshbon. Nebo was a part of Pisgah named from the town, NEBO close by. Isaiah 15:2, “Moab shall howl at (al ) Nebo.” ( Jeremiah 48:1; Numbers 32:3,38; 33:47). As Israel’s encampment was “before Nebo,” i.e. to the E. of Nebo, probably Nebo was on Pisgah’s western slope. The peakless, horizontal straightness of the ridge caused the parts to be distinguished only by the names of adjoining villages. As Nebo “faced Jericho,” and “the ravine of Moses’ burying place in Moab faced Beth-Peor,” Attarus suggested by Seetzen is too far S., and jebel el Jilad too far N. to correspond. Grove suggests jebel Nebbah, S. of wady Hesban. 2. “The other (town) NEBO” was W. of Jordan, in Benjamin ( Ezra 2:29; 10:43; Nehemiah 7:33). Perhaps Beit Nubah.

    NEBO (2) The idol of Babylon and Assyria. Nabiu (Hamitic Babylonian), Nabu (Semitic Babylonian). Related to Hebrew nabi , “inspired,” “prophet.”

    Described as “the far hearing,” “he of intelligence, who teaches.” The cuneiform arrow head is his emblem; hence named Tir, “arrow.”

    Answering the Egyptian “Thoth,” the Greek “Hermes,” “Mercury,” the “inspired” interpreter or nabiy of the gods, designated in one place “inventor of the writing of the royal tablets.” Presided over learning and letters. Pul, from some special connection with Babylon (Ivalush III) gave Nebo a prominence in Assyrian worship which he had not before. A statue of Nebo with the god’s epithets written across the body, set up at Calah by Pul, is in the British Museum. Babylon from early ages held Nebo among the chief gods. At Birs Nimrud (Borsippa) was his ancient temple, which Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt. He also called his seaport on the Persian gulf Teredon, i.e. given to Tir = Nebo. The names Nabo-nassar, Nabo-polassar, Nebu-chadnezzar, Nabo-nadius, show Nebo was their guardian god. The tower of Nebo had the form of the seven spheres. Nebo’s sphere has the blue sacred to him. But “Nebo stoopeth,” i.e. is prostrate, “a burden to the weary beast” of the conqueror who carried the idol away; so far was Nebo from saving Babylon ( Isaiah 46:1; 1 Samuel 5:3,4; Psalm 20:8).

    NEBUCHADNEZZAR; NEBUCHADREZZAR In the monuments Nabu-juduri-utsur, the middle syllable being the same as Kudur = Chedor-laomer. Explained by Gesenius “the prince favored by Nebo”; Oppert, “Nebo, kadr = power, and zar = prince”; Rawlinson, “Nebo his protector (participle from naatsar ‘protect’) against misfortune” (kidor “trouble”). His father Nabo-polassar having overthrown Nineveh, Babylon became supreme. Married his father’s Median ally, Cyaxares’ daughter, Amuhia, at the time of their alliance against Assyria 625 B.C. (Abydenus in Eusebius, Chronicles Can., i. 9). Possibly is the Labynetus (Herodotus i. 74) who led the Babylonian force under Cyaxares in his Lydian war and whose interposition at the eclipse (610 B.C.) concluded the campaign. Sent by Nabopolassar to punish Pharaoh Necho, the conqueror of Josiah at Megiddo. Defeated Necho at Carchemish (605 B.C.) and wrested from him all the territory from Euphrates to Egypt ( Jeremiah 46:2,12; 2 Kings 24:7) which he had held for three years, so that “he came not again any more out of his land.” Became master of Coelo-Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine. Took Jerusalem in the third year of Jehoiakim, and “carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of his god (Merodach), part of the vessels of the house of God” ( Daniel 1:1,2; 2 Chronicles 36:6). Daniel and the three children of the royal seed were at that time taken to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar mounted the throne B.C., having rapidly re-crossed the desert with his light troops and reached Babylon before any disturbance could take place. He brought with him Jehovah’s vessels and the Jewish captives. The fourth year of Jehoiakim coincided with the first of Nebuchadnezzar ( Jeremiah 25:1). In the earlier part of the (year Nebuchadnezzar smote Necho at Carchemish, Jeremiah 46:2). The deportation from Jerusalem was shortly before, namely, in the end of Jehoiakim’s third year; with it begins the Babylonian captivity, 605 B.C. ( Jeremiah 29:1-10). Jehoiakim after three years of vassalage revolted, in reliance on Egypt ( 2 Kings 24:1).

    Nebuchadnezzar sent bands of Chaldees, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites against him ( 2 Kings 24:2). Next, Phoenicia revolted. Then in person Nebuchadnezzar marched against Tyre. In the seventh year of his reign he marched thence against Jerusalem; it surrendered, and see JEHOIAKIM fell, probably in battle. Josephus says Nebuchadnezzar put him to death (Ant. 10:6, section 3). Jehoiakim after a three months’ reign was carried away to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar with the princes, warriors, and craftsmen, and the palace treasures, and Solomon’s gold vessels cut in pieces, at his third advance against Jerusalem ( 2 Kings 24:8-16). Tyre fell 585 B.C., after a 13 years’ siege. Meantime Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar’s sworn vassal, in treaty with Pharaoh Hophra (Apries) revolted ( Ezekiel 17:15). Nebuchadnezzar besieged him 588-586 B.C., and in spite of a temporary raising of the siege through Hophra ( Jeremiah 37:5-8) took and destroyed Jerusalem after an 18 months’ siege (2 Kings 25). Zedekiah’s eyes were put out after he had seen his sons slain first at Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar “gave judgment upon him,” and was kept a prisoner in Babylon the rest of his life. (See GEDALIAH , see NEBUZARADAN , see JERUSALEM ). Phoenicia submitted to him (Ezekiel 26--28; Josephus, Ap. 1:21), and Egypt was punished ( Jeremiah 46:13-26; Ezekiel 29:2-10, Josephus, Ant. 10:9, section 7).

    Nebuchadnezzar is most celebrated for his buildings: the temple of Bel Merodach at Babylon (the Kasr), built with his Syrian spoils (Josephus, Ant. 10:11, section 1); the fortifications of Babylon, three lines of walls ft. broad, 300 ft. high, enclosing 130 square miles; a new palace near his father’s which he finished in 15 days, attached to it were his “hanging gardens,” a square 400 ft. on each side and 75 ft. high, supported on arched galleries increasing in height from the base to the summit; in these were chambers, one containing the engines for raising the water to the mound; immense stones imitated the surface of the Median mountain, to remind his wife of her native land. The standard inscription (“I completely made strong the defenses of Babylon, may it last forever ... the city which I have glorified,” etc.) accords with Berosus’ statement, and nine-tenths of the bricks in situ are stamped with Nebuchadnezzar’s name. Daniel ( Daniel 4:30) also records his boast, “is not this great Babylon which I have built by the might of my power and for the honour of my majesty?”

    Sir H. Rawlinson (Inscr. Assyr. and Babyl., 76,77) states that the bricks of 100 different towns about Bagdad all bear the one inscription, “Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon.” Abydenus states Nebuchadnezzar made the nahr malcha, “royal river,” a branch from the Euphrates, and the Acracanus; also the reservoir above the city Sippara, miles round and 120 ft. deep, with sluices to irrigate the low land; also a quay on the Persian gulf, and the city Teredon on the Arabian border. The network of irrigation by canals between the Tigris and Euphrates, and on the right bank of the Euphrates to the stony desert, was his work; also the canal still traceable from Hit at the Euphrates, framing 400 miles S.E. to the bay of Grane in the Persian gulf. His system of irrigation made Babylonia a garden, enriching at once the people and himself. The long list of various officers in Daniel 3:1-3,27, also of diviners forming a hierarchy ( Daniel 2:48), shows the extent of the organization of the empire, so that the emblem of so vast a polity is “a tree ... the height reaching unto heaven, and the sight to the end of all the earth ... in which was meat for all, under which the beasts ... had shadow and the fowls dwelt in the boughs and all flesh was fed of it” ( Daniel 4:10-12). In Daniel 2:37 he is called “king of kings,” i.e. of the various kingdoms wheresoever he turned his arms, Egypt, Nineveh, Arabia, Phoenicia, Tyre.

    Isaiah’s patriotism was shown in counseling resistance to Assyria; Jeremiah’s (Jeremiah 27) in urging submission to Babylon as the only safety; for God promised Judah’s deliverance from the former, but “gave all the lands into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands, and the beasts of the field also, to serve him and his son and his son’s son.” The kingdom originally given to Adam ( Genesis 1:28; 2:19,20), forfeited by sin, God temporarily delegated to Nebuchadnezzar, the “head of gold,” the first of the four great world powers (Daniel 2 and Daniel 7). As Nebuchadnezzar and the other three abused the trust, for self not, for God, the Son of Man, the Fifth, to whom of right it belongs, shall wrest it from them and restore to man his lost inheritance, ruling with the saints for God’s glory and man’s blessedness ( Psalm 8:4-6; Revelation 11:15-18; Daniel 2:34,35,44,45; 7:13-27).

    Nebuchadnezzar was punished with the form of insanity called lycanthropy (fancying himself to be a beast and living in their haunts) for pride generated by his great conquest and buildings (Daniel 4). When man would be as God, like Adam and Nebuchadnezzar he sinks from lordship over creation to the brute level and loses his true manhood, which is likeness to God ( Genesis 1:27; 2:19; 3:5; Psalm 49:6,10-12; 82:6,7); a key to the symbolism which represents the mighty world kingdoms as “beasts” (Daniel 7). Angel “watchers” demand that every mortal be humbled whosoever would obscure God’s glory. Abydenus (268 B.C.) states: “Nebuchadnezzar having ascended upon his palace roof predicted the Persian conquest of Babylon (which he knew from Daniel 2:39), praying that the conqueror might be borne where there is no path of men and where the wild beasts graze”; a corruption of the true story and confirming it. The panorama of the world’s glory that overcame Nebuchadnezzar through the lust of the eye, as he stood on his palace roof, Satan tried upon Jesus in vain ( Matthew 4:8-10). In the standard inscription Nebuchadnezzar says, “for four years in Babylon buildings for the honour of my kingdom I did not lay out. In the worship of Merodach my lord I did not sing his praises, I did not furnish his altar with victims, nor clear out the canals” (Rawlinson, Herodotus, ii. 586). It was “while the word was in the king’s mouth there fell a voice from heaven ... thy kingdom is departed from thee” (compare Herod, Acts 12:19,20). His nobles cooperated in his being “driven from men” ( Daniel 4:33); these same “counselors and lords sought unto him,” weary of anarchy after the “seven times,” i.e. a complete sacred cycle of time, a week of years, had passed over him, and with the glimmer of reason left he “lifted up his eyes unto heaven,” instead of beast like turning his eyes downward (compare Jonah 2:1,2,4), and turned to Him that smote him ( Isaiah 9:13), and “honoured Him” whom before he had robbed of His due honour. <19B612> Psalm 116:12,14; Mark 5:15,18,19; compare on the spiritual lesson Job 33:17,18; 1 Samuel 2:8; Proverbs 16:18. Messiah’s kingdom alone will be the “tree” under whose shadow all nations, and even the dumb creatures, shall dwell in blissful harmony ( Ezekiel 17:23; Matthew 13:32; Isaiah 11:6-9).

    Nitocris was probably his second queen, an Egyptian (for this ancient name was revived about this time, as the Egyptian monuments prove), for he lived 60 years after his marriage to his first queen Amuhia (625 B.C.).

    Herodotus ascribes to Nitocris many of the works assigned by Berosus to Nebuchadnezzar. On his recovery, according to the standard inscription, which confirms Scripture, he added “wonders” in old age to those of his earlier reign. He died 561 B.C., 83 or 84 years old, after reigning 43 years.

    Devotion to the gods, especially Bel Merodach, from whom he named his son and successor Evil Merodach, and the desire to rest his fame on his great works and the arts of peace rather than his warlike deeds, are his favorable characteristics in the monuments. Pride, violence and fury, and cruel sternness, were Nebuchadnezzar’s faults ( Daniel 2:12; 3:19; Kings 25:7; 24:8).

    Not to Daniel but to Nebuchadnezzar, the first representative head of the world power who overcame the theocracy, the dreams were given announcing its doom. The dream was the appropriate form for one outside the kingdom of God, as Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh (Genesis 41). But an Israelite must interpret it; and Nebuchadnezzar worshipped Daniel, an earnest of the future prostration of the world power before Christ and the church ( Revelation 3:9; 1 Corinthians 14:25; Philippians 2:10; 1 Corinthians 6:2; Luke 19:17). The image set up by Nebuchadnezzar represented himself the head of the first world power, of whom Daniel had said “thou art this head of gold.” Daniel was regarded by Nebuchadnezzar as divine, and so was not asked to worship it ( Daniel 2:46). The 60 cubits’ height includes together the image, 27 cubits (40 1/2 ft.), and the pedestal, 33 cubits (50 ft.). Herodotus, i. 183, similarly mentions Belus’ image in the temple at Babylon as 40 ft. high. Oppert found in the Dura (Dowair) plain the pedestal of what must have been a colossal statue. Nebuchadnezzar is the forerunner of antichrist, to whose “image” whosoever will not offer worship shall be killed ( Revelation 13:14).

    NEBUSHASBAN Derived from Nebo; an officer of Nebuchadnezzar at the taking of Jerusalem; he was Rabsaris, i.e. chief of the eunuchs (as Ashpenaz, Daniel 1:3), as Nebuzaradan was Rab-tabbachim, i.e. chief of the body guard, and Nergal Sharezer was Rabmag, i.e. chief of the priests ( Jeremiah 39:13).

    NEBUZARADAN From Nebo, the idol; zar , “prince”; and adan or ‘adown , “lord” (Gesenius); but Furst, from dana (Sanskrit), “cut off.” “Captain of the guard,” literally, “chief of the slaughterers”; next to the royal person ( 2 Kings 25:8-18; Jeremiah 39:9-13). Assumed the chief command on arriving after the siege of Jerusalem. Directed what was to be done with the plunder and captives (see CAPTIVITY ). Took the chief Jews for judgment to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. Visited Jerusalem four years later, and took away more captives ( Jeremiah 52:30). By Nebuchadnezzar’s direction, Nebuzaradan “looked well to Jeremiah,” gave him his choice of going to Babylon or staying, then sent him with victuals and a present, to be protected by Gedaliah the governor left over Judah, after having first told the Jews “Jehovah hath done according as He hath said, because ye have sinned against Jehovah” ( Jeremiah 39:11-14; 40:2-5). The pagan knew, through Jeremiah, it was Jehovah’s doing; compare the prophecy, Deuteronomy 29:24,25. How humiliating to the Jews to be admonished of their sin by a Gentile ruler!

    NECK ”Lay down necks,” i.e. risked their lives ( Romans 16:4). Psalm 18:40, “Thou hast given ... necks of enemies,” i.e. made them turn their backs in flight before me (Keil); so Exodus 23:27, or enabled me to put my foot on their necks, subjecting them utterly to me; as Joshua 10:24; 11:8,12; <19B005> Psalm 110:5. Isaiah 8:8, “he shall overflow, he shall reach even to the neck”: when the waters reach the neck a man is near drowning; Sennacherib’s overflowing hosts reached so far, but Jerusalem the head was not overflowed ( Isaiah 30:28; Habakkuk 3:13). The “stiff neck” is an image from oxen unpliant and casting the “yoke” off the neck ( Acts 7:51; Matthew 11:29). Contrast the yoke men must wear who reject Christ’s easy yoke ( Deuteronomy 28:48).

    NECROMANCERS Evokers of the spirits of the dead ( Deuteronomy 18:11). (See DIVINERS ).

    NEDABIAH 1 Chronicles 3:16,18. Brother of Salathiel or Shealtiel; son, i.e. grandson, of Jeconiah. Zedekiah, Jeconiah’s son (not the Zedekiah his uncle, last king: 2 Kings 24:17), died “childless” ( Jeremiah 22:30).

    Assir, another son, left only a daughter who, according to the law of heiresses ( Numbers 27:8), married into her paternal tribe, namely, Neri, sprung from Nathan, David’s son (Keil). Lord A. Hervey makes Nedabiah, etc., sons of Neri in lineal descent, the list in Chronicles only giving the order of succession.

    NEGINAH Hebrew neginath (singular). Title of Psalm 61. The construct form; translated therefore “upon the instrumental music of David.” As Habakkuk 3:19 “to the chief singer on my stringed instruments”; also Amos 6:5, “invent instruments of music like David.”NEGINOTH (plural), the general name for all stringed instruments ( 1 Samuel 18:6,10; 19:9; 16:16-18,23; Psalm 33:2, 92:3; 68:25; 150:4), played with the hand or a plectrum or quill; from nigeen , “performed music.”

    Psalm 4’s title: for “on” translated ([...]) “to be accompanied with stringed instruments” (Hengstenberg); chapters 6, 54, 55, 67, 76. But Delitzsch: “Neginah denotes not a particular stringed instrument, but the music on such instruments (often a taunting song in Hebrew, Psalm 69:12; Job 30:9); Neginoth is the music formed by numerous notes running into one another, not various instruments.” In Habakkuk 3:19 the direction is the prophet’s to the precentor or “chief singer,” how the ode was to be performed in the temple liturgy. He had a stringed instrument of his own (“my”) of a form adapted to accompany his subject; or rather (Hengstenberg) the “my” is Israel’s sacred national temple music. As Shigionoth in the beginning marks the melody erratic and enthusiastically irregular as suited to the subject, so Neginoth at the close directs as to the instrument to be used (compare Isaiah 38:20).

    NEHELAMITE A title from the father or the country, Shemaiah ( Jeremiah 29:24,31,32). Halam means a “dream”; Jeremiah glances at the “dreamer” scornfully ( Jeremiah 29:8).

    NEHEMIAH (See EZRA , see MALACHI ). 1. Son of Hachaliah, seemingly of Judah, as his kinsman Hanani was so ( Nehemiah 1:2); and Jerusalem was “the place of his fathers’ sepulchres” ( Nehemiah 2:3). Probably he was of David’s lineage, as his name varied appears in it, “Naum” ( Luke 3:25), and his kinsman’s name too, Hananiah, son of Zerubbabel ( 1 Chronicles 3:19); his “fathers’ sepulchres” would be those of David’s royal line. Cupbearer of Artaxerxes (Longimanus) according to his own autobiography, at Susa or Shushan, the principal Persian palace; Ecbatana was the royal summer residence, Babylon the spring, Persepolis the autumn, and Susa the winter. In Artaxerxes’ 20th year Hanani with other Jews came from Jerusalem, reporting that the remnant there were in great affliction, the wall broken down, and the gates burned. Sorrow at the news drove him to fasting in expression of sadness, and prayer before the God of heaven, who alone could remedy the evil. His prayer ( Nehemiah 1:4-11) was marked by importunate continuity, “day and night” (compare Isaiah 62:6,7; Luke 18:7), intercession for Israel, confession of individual and national sin, pleading that God should remember His promises of mercy upon their turning to Him, however far cast out for transgression; also that He should remember they are His people redeemed by His strong hand, therefore His honour is at stake in their persons; and that Nehemiah and they who pray with him desire to fear God’s name ( Isaiah 26:8; contrast Psalm 66:18; compare Daniel 9, Leviticus 26:33-39; Deuteronomy 4:25-31); lastly he asks God to dispose Artaxerxes’ heart to “mercy” ( Proverbs 21:1). “Let Thine ear ... Thine eyes be open ... hear the prayer,” is an allusion to Solomon’s prayer ( 1 Kings 8:28,29). After four months ( Nehemiah 1:1; 2:1), from Chisleu to Nisan, of praying and waiting, in Artaxerxes’ 20th year Nehemiah with sad countenance ministered as his cupbearer. The king noticed his melancholy ( Proverbs 15:13) and asked its cause. Nehemiah was “sore afraid,” but replied it was for the desolation of the city “the place of his fathers’ sepulchres.”

    Artaxerxes said, “for what dost thou ... request?” Nehemiah ejaculated his request to God first, then to the earthly king. There seemed no interval between the king’s question and Nehemiah’s answer, yet a momentous transaction had passed between earth and heaven that decided the issue in behalf of Nehemiah ( Isaiah 65:24). Artaxerxes, “according to the good hand of Nehemiah’s God upon him,” granted him leave to go to Jerusalem for a time, and letters to the provincial governors beyond the Euphrates to convey him forward, and to Asaph to supply timber for the palace gates, etc.

    As “governor” (pechah , also tirshatha’ ) he had an escort of cavalry, and so reached Jerusalem, where he stayed inactive three days, probably the usual term for purification after a journey. Notwithstanding see EZRA’S commission in Artaxerxes’ seventh year (457 B.C.), after the dead period from the sixth of Darius to that year, a period in which there is no history of the returned Jews ( Ezra 6:15--7:1, etc.) and only the history of the foreign Jews in Esther, and notwithstanding the additional numbers and resources which Ezra had brought, Nehemiah now, in Artaxerxes’ 20th year, in his secret ride of observation by night found Jerusalem in deplorable plight ( Nehemiah 2:12-16; compare Isaiah 64:9-12). The account is given in the first person, which often recurs; he forms his secret resolution to none but God in whose strength he moved. How the greatest movements for good often originate with one individual! He next enlisted in the restoration the nobles, priests, and rulers. But his continual dependence was “the hand of his God good upon him” ( Nehemiah 2:8,18), a phrase common to Ezra also ( Ezra 7:6,9,28; compare 5:5), and marking their joint fellowship in God. Where a good work is there will be opposition; so Sanballat the Horonite, and the slave Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian mocked the work, and alleged it was rebellion against the king; Nehemiah told them he would persevere in reliance upon “the God of heaven,” but “ye have no right in Jerusalem.”

    Psalm 123 was eventually written at this time in reference to their “scorn” while “at ease themselves”; Nehemiah’s “hear, O our God, for we are despised” ( Nehemiah 4:3,4) answers to Israel’s “unto Thee lift I up mine eyes, our soul is filled with the contempt,” etc. His great work was the restoration of the city walls as the first step toward civil government, the revival of the national spirit, and the bringing back of the priests and Levites to reside with a feeling of security for their persons and for the tithes and offerings. Messiah’s advent was associated by Daniel ( Daniel 9:25-27) with the command to “restore and build Jerusalem”; and Jeremiah too had foretold “the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner, and the measuring line shall go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb ... to Gath” ( Jeremiah 31:39). Each repaired over against his house (Nehemiah 3), teaching that in the spiritual building we must each begin with our own home and neighbourhood and circle; then charity beginning at home will not end there. “Shallum repaired, he and his daughters” (3:12; compare Romans 16:1,3-5,6,12).

    Even Eliashib the half hearted high priest repaired. The Tekoite “nobles (alone) put not their necks to the work of their Lord” (compare Judges 5:23); but generally “the people had a mind to work” ( Nehemiah 4:6), so that soon “all the wall was joined.” The 42 stations of restoration (chapter 3) answer to the 42 stations of Israel’s pilgrim march in the desert (Numbers 33). Sanballat’s party then “conspired to fight against Jerusalem and hinder it.” Nehemiah used means, “setting a watch day and night,” at the same time “praying unto our God” to bless the means. He had not only to contend with adversaries plotting to attack when the Jews should “not know nor see,” but with his own men complaining “the strength of the bearers is decayed, and there is much rubbish, so that we are not able to build” ( Nehemiah 4:8-11). Moreover, the Jews dwelling among the adversaries again and again kept him in alarm with warnings, “from all places (from whence) ye shall return unto us (i.e. from whence ye can come out to us) they will set upon you.” L. De Dieu takes asher not “from whence” but “truly” (as in 1 Sam 15:20): “yea, from all places, truly (yea) return to us,” leaving off your work, for the foes are too many for you; counsel of pretended friends (compare Nehemiah 4:12 with Nehemiah 6:17-19). But Nehemiah, by setting the people by families with weapons in the lower as well as the higher places of the wall, and encouraging them to “remember the Lord,” baffled the enemy; thenceforward half wrought and half held the weapons, the builders and the bearers of burdens wrought with one hand and with the other held a weapon. Nehemiah had the trumpeter next him to give alarm, so as to gather the people against the foe wherever he should approach; none put off their clothes all the time ( Nehemiah 4:23).

    Nehemiah also remedied the state of debt and bondage of many Jews by forbidding usury and bond service, and set an example by not being chargeable all the twelve years that he was governor, as former governors had been, on the Jews; “so did not I,” says he, “because of the fear of God” (Nehemiah 5). Nay, more, he daily entertained 150 Jews, besides those that came from among the pagan. His prayer often repeated is “think upon me, my God, for good according to all that I have done for this people” ( Nehemiah 5:19; 13:14; compare Hebrews 6:10; Acts 10:4; Matthew 10:42). While he pleads his efforts, not feigning a mock humility, he closes with “remember me, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of Thy mercy” ( Nehemiah 13:22,31), the publican’s and the dying thief’s prayer. Sanballat in vain tried to decoy him to a conference (Nehemiah 6). Nehemiah replied, “I am doing a great work, I cannot come down” ( Luke 9:62). Then Shemaiah, suborned by Sanballat, tried to frighten him to flee into the temple, where he was detained by a vow ( 1 Samuel 21:7), in order to delay the work and give an appearance of conscious guilt on the part of Nehemiah; but neither he nor the prophetess Noadiah could put him in fear, “should such a man as I (the governor who ought to animate others) flee!” Fearing God ( Nehemiah 6:9,14; 5:15) I have none else to fear ( Isaiah 28:16). His safeguard was prayer; “strengthen my hands, my God, think Thou upon” my enemies ( Nehemiah 6:9,14). So David repelled the false friends’ counsel to “flee” ( Psalm 11:1). Nehemiah’s foes were “much cast down when they perceived that this work was wrought of our God.” <19C602> Psalm 126:2 is Israel’s song at the time: “then said they among the pagan, the Lord hark done great things Jot them ... turn again our captivity (reverse our depression by bringing prosperity again) as the streams of the S. (as the rain streams in the Negeb or dry S. of Canaan return, filling the wadies and gladdening the parched country); they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” The Jews kept the Passover “with joy” on the dedication of God’s house, the foundation of which had been laid amidst “loud weeping” mingled with shouts of joy ( Ezra 3:11-13; 6:22). Psalm 125 belongs to the same period, encouraging the godly to persevere, “for they that trust in Jehovah shall be as Mount Zion which cannot be removed,” for they have “Jehovah round about” them “as the mountains are round about Jerusalem,” and “the sceptre (rod) of the wicked (Persia, the world power then) shall not (always) remain upon the lot of righteous” Israel, lest, patient faith giving way ( Psalm 73:13), God’s people should relieve themselves by unlawful means ( Isaiah 57:16); “putting forth the hands” is said of presumptuous acts, as in Genesis 3:22. “Turners aside unto their own crooked ways” were those who held correspondence with Tobiah, as Shemaiah and the nobles of Judah ( Nehemiah 6:10-14,17-19; 13:4, Eliashib).

    The wall having been built and the doors set up (Nehemiah 7), Nehemiah gave charge of Jerusalem to Hanani and Hananiah, “a faithful man who feared God above many,” and set “every one in his watch over against his house.” Next he found a register of the genealogy of those who first returned from Babylon, 42,360, and took the census; see Ezra 2, which is drawn from the same document. Nehemiah took the register in a later form than that given by Ezra, for the number of those who could not prove their pedigree is reduced by subsequent searches from 652 in Ezra 2:60 to 642 in Nehemiah 7:62. The tirshatha in Ezra 2:63 is Zerubbabel years before, in Nehemiah Nehemiah himself. The items vary, the sum total 42,360 is the same, Ezra 2:64; Nehemiah 7:66; Ezra has 200, Nehemiah 245, singers, the number being augmented by his time. In offerings, the drams of gold in sum are 61,000 in Ezra, but in Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 7:70-72) 20,000 from the chief fathers, 20,000 from the people, and 1,000 from the tirshatha. Only 100 priests’ garments were needed in “setting up the house of God” at its foundation ( Ezra 2:68,69); but at its dedication after complete renovation 530 were given by the tirshatha and 67 by the people ( Nehemiah 7:70,72). The occasions of Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 are palpably distinct, though each embodied from a common document sanctioned by Haggai and Zechariah (Zerubbabel’s helpers) as much as suited their distinct purposes. Ezra’s reading of the law to the assembled people followed: Nehemiah 8 (he had just returned from Persia with Nehemiah), 445 B.C. Nehemiah comforted them when weeping at the words of the law: “weep not, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” ( Isaiah 61:3; Matthew 5:4; Psalm 51:12,13); “send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared” ( Luke 14:13); and the keeping of the feast of tabernacles more formally according to the law than the earlier one in Ezra 3:4 at the setting up of the altar, indeed with greater enthusiasm of all as one man (not excepting 1 Kings 8:2,65) than had been since Joshua’s days, reading the law not merely the first and eighth days (as enjoined in Lev 23:35,36), but every day of the feast ( Nehemiah 8:18). The 119th Psalm doubtless was written (probably by Ezra) at this time, expressing such burning love to the law throughout. A fast followed. The law awakened a sense of sin (Nehemiah 9); so first they put away strangers, as Israel must be a separate people, and read the law a fourth of the day, and another fourth confessed sin and worshipped, the Levites leading; then they made a covenant to walk in God’s law, not to intermarry with pagan, to keep the sabbath, and to pay a third of a shekel each for the service of God’s temple, to bring the firstfruits and firstborn, and not to “forsake the house of our God,” (Nehemiah 10) the princes, Levites, and priests sealing it. The reason for taking the census in Nehemiah 7:4,5, etc., now appears, namely, to arrange for so disposing the people who were “few” in the “large” but scantily built city as to secure its safety and future growth in houses (Nehemiah 11). Of the census the heads of Judah and Benjamin dwelling at Jerusalem are given, also of priests and Levites there; but merely the names of the villages and towns through the country (Nehemiah 11, compare Chronicles 9). Then the heads of the courses of priests, and the corresponding names at the time of the return from Babylon, with a few particulars of the priests’ and Levites’ genealogy ( Nehemiah 12:1-26).

    The rulers were to dwell at Jerusalem; of the people one of ten by lot were to dwell there and nine in other cities (Nehemiah 11). In Nehemiah 12 the high priests are given from the national archives down to see JADDUA , and the Levites down to his contemporary see DARIUS the Persian, Codomanus.

    The dedication of the walls by Nehemiah, the princes, priests, and Levite singers in two companies, followed ( Nehemiah 12:27-47); 2 Maccabees alleges that the temple too was now dedicated after its repair by funds gathered from the people. This will explain Nehemiah’s contributions including “priests’ garments” ( Nehemiah 7:70) after the census, besides other gifts. Finally, in Artaxerxes’ 32nd year (434 B.C.) Nehemiah severed from Israel all the mixed multitude (Nehemiah 13), Ammonites and Moabites, and boldly cast out Tobiah from the chamber in the temple which Eliashib his connection had assigned him, and restored to it, after its cleansing, the temple vessels, meat offerings, and frankincense which had been previously kept there. Firmly he reproved the rulers for breaking their covenant ( Nehemiah 10:39 ff), saying “why is the house of God forsaken?” and insisting that the Levites’ portions should be given them, for the neglect of this duty had driven the Levites to their country fields.

    Nehemiah caused Judah to bring the tithes to the temple treasuries (in which see MALACHI supported him, Malachi 3:8), and appointed Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and the Levite Pedaiah, as “faithful” treasurers, to distribute unto their brethren. Also he “testified against” those selling victuals and treading winepresses, and contended with the nobles for trafficking with Tyrian and other waresmen on the sabbath, one great cause of God’s past judgment on the nation ( 2 Chronicles 36:21; Leviticus 26:34,35,43). So, he closed the gates from sabbath eve to the end of the sabbath, and drove away the merchants lodging outside the wall.

    His last recorded act is his contending with, cursing, smiting, and plucking the hair off, some of those who formed intermarriages with pagans, the source of Solomon’s apostasy, and his chasing away Joiada’s son, Eliashib’s grandson, for marrying the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite.

    Zeal for the purity of God’s worship, priesthood, and people, makes the act praiseworthy as one of faith, whatever exception may be taken to the manner. The Antitype combined holy firmness and rigor of act with calm dignity of manner ( John 2:13-17; Psalm 59:9; Matthew 21:12,13). The language of Malachi ( Malachi 2:4,5,10-12), Nehemiah’s supporter, is in undesigned harmony with Nehemiah 13:27,29, “transgress against our God in marrying strange wives,” “defiled ... the covenant of the priesthood.”

    After Artaxerxes’ 32nd year we know no more of Nehemiah. Like Moses, he left a splendid court, to identify himself with his countrymen in their depression. Disinterestedly, patriotic, he “came to seek the welfare of the children of Israel” ( Nehemiah 2:10). Courageous and prompt as a soldier in a crisis requiring no ordinary boldness, at the same time prudent as a statesman in dealing alike with his adversaries and with the Persian autocrat, rallying about him and organizing his countrymen, he governed without fear or partiality, correcting abuses in high places, and himself setting a bright example of unselfishness and princely liberality, above all walking in continual prayerfulness, with eyes ever turned toward God, and summing up all his work and all his hope in the humble prayer at the close, “remember me, O my God, for good.” 2. A chief who returned with Zerubbabel ( Ezra 2:2). 3. Son of Azbuk, ruler of half Bethzur, repaired the wall ( Nehemiah 3:16).

    NEHEMIAH, BOOK OF The book is not an appendix to Ezra as its distinct title proves, “the words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah,” nor would the same author give two lists of those returned from Babylon (Ezra 2; Nehemiah 7), and yet leave seeming discrepancies in details. In Nehemiah 8; Nehemiah 9; and Nehemiah 10, the prominence of Ezra is probably the cause why Nehemiah uses the third person of himself, instead of the first which he uses elsewhere. The “we” and “our” in Nehemiah 9 and Nehemiah 10, as to sealing the covenant, identifies the writer as an eye witness, yet not singled out for notice from the rest. The prayer in Nehemiah 9 is in style such as Ezra “the ready scribe in the law of Moses” would compose. The close fellowship of Nehemiah and him would naturally in these passages produce the similarity of phraseology ( Ezra 4:18; 6:22, with Nehemiah 8:8,17). Nehemiah 12:10,11,22,23 mentions Jaddua and Darius the Persian; it is probably the addition of those who closed the Old Testament canon, testifying the continuance to their time of the ordinances and word of God. It is even possible that Nehemiah lived long enough to record there being an heir presumptive to the high priesthood, Jaddua, then an infant.

    The register of Levites in “the book of Chronicles” reached only down to “Johanan son of Eliashib,” Nehemiah 12:23. The two “and’s” in Nehemiah 12:22 show “and Jaddua” is a later addition. Nehemiah was governor for 12 years ( Nehemiah 12:14), then in Artaxerxes’ 32nd year returned to his post as “cupbearer”; he “at the end of days” (margin, so 1 Samuel 27:7 “a full year,” margin “a year of days”) after a full year obtained leave to return; “all this time,” namely, a year, Nehemiah was not at Jerusalem, and Eliashib introduced the abuses ( Nehemiah 13:1,4-6 ff). How long Nehemiah stayed this second time is not recorded. “On that day” does not refer to the dedication, but to Nehemiah’s return: Nehemiah 13:6,7. It is a general expression, not strictly chronological.

    Nehemiah’s description of Artaxerxes’ character as amiable ( Nehemiah 2:1-8) accords with Plutarch (Vit. Artax., namely, Longimanus), “the first of the Persian monarchs for mildness and magnanimity.” Diodorus Siculus ( Nehemiah 11:71, section 2) says the Persians celebrated the equity and moderation of his government. The mention of the building of the city “walls” in the adversaries’ letter to Artaxerxes Pseudo Smerdis does not justify Smith’s Bible Dictionary in the conjecture that this letter ( Ezra 4:12, etc.) was written under Nehemiah’s government, and is in its wrong place in Ezra, for it is an exaggeration of the adversaries, the truth being that only the temple walls, which might be regarded as a city wall on that side of the city, and the walls of private houses, were then being built.

    In style the book of Nehemiah resembles Chronicles and Ezra, proving that it is of the age it purports to be. The word metsiltaim , “cymbals,” occurs in the three and nowhere else. So igartha , “a letter,” in the three and Esther.

    Birah said of the palace or temple in the four and Daniel. “The God of the heavens,” in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel. Peculiar to Nehemiah are certain words and meanings: sabar B, “to view” (2:13,15); meah , “the hundredth part” interest ( Nehemiah 5:11); guwph (hiphil ), “shut” ( Nehemiah 7:3); moal , “lifting up” ( Nehemiah 8:6); miqerah , “read” (ver. 8); huyedot , “psalms of thanksgiving” ( Nehemiah 12:8); tahalukaah , procession” ( Nehemiah 12:31); otsrah ( Nehemiah 13:13), “treasurers.” Aramaisms also agree with the age when Nehemiah wrote. (See CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT ) Nehemiah and Malachi, under Ezra, the arranger and finisher of the canon, added their inspired writings as a seal to complete the whole. The Book of Nehemiah bears on it the impress of the author’s earnest piety and intense patriotism. And though the opening words, “Dibhree Nehemiah,” could mean “the affairs of Nehemiah,” yet the fact that the first person is used in Nehemiah 1--7:5 and mostly Nehemiah 11:1--12:47 and Nehemiah 13 renders it more likely that the heading is “the words of Nehemiah.” Probably, as compiler as well as author of the whole, he inserted from public documents Nehemiah 8:1--10:39, for here the third person is used; also Nehemiah 12:26,27.

    But that as a whole the work is that of Nehemiah is almost a moral certainty.

    NEHILOTH Title of Psalm 5, Gesenius explains, “upon the flutes,” from chalil a perforated instrument, chaalal = “to bore”; a direction “to the chief musician” that it was to be sung to wind instruments in the temple service; compare Psalm 87:7, “players on instruments,” i.e. flute or pipe players (cholelim , Gesenius), “dancers” (Hengstenberg, from chuwl ).

    Hengstenberg on Psalm 5 title objects, el (“upon”) is never used to introduce the instruments. The title enigmatically and poetically expresses the subject. Septuagint translated “concerning the heiress”; so Vulgate. She is the church, possessing the Lord as her “inheritance” ( Psalm 16:5), or possessed by Him as “His inheritance” ( Deuteronomy 32:9). The plural “upon the inheritances” marks the plurality of members in the church; or else “upon the lots,” namely, the twofold inheritances, blessing from God to the righteous, misery to the wicked.

    NEHUM Nehemiah 7:7.REHUM in Ezra 2:2.

    NEHUSHTA Elnathan’s daughter, Jehoiakim’s wife, Jehoiachin’s mother ( 2 Kings 24:8).

    NEHUSHTAN = brazen. 2 Kings 18:4, “a piece of brass.” The contemptuous name (so the Septuagint, Vulgate, etc.) given to the brazen serpent when Hezekiah broke it in pieces because it was made an idol of, Israel burning incense to it because of its original use in the typical miracle ( Numbers 21:8,9; John 3:14). The Targum of Jonathan, the Peshito Syriac, and Buxtorf less forcibly make Nehushtan the name by which the brass serpent had been generally known. A prescient protest against relic worship.

    NEIEL A landmark on Asher’s border ( Joshua 19:27). Now perhaps Mi’ar on a mountain brow, half way between Cabul and Jefat (Jiphthahel).

    NEKEB On Naphtali’s boundary ( Joshua 19:33). Tsiadathah in the Gemara Jerusalem Talmud. Jonathan targum and Jerome join Nekeb with the preceding Adami-han-Nekeb.

    NEKODA Ezra 2:48,60-62.

    NEMUEL 1. Numbers 26:9. 2. Numbers 26:12;JEMUEL in Genesis 46:10.

    NEPHEG 1. Exodus 6:21. 2. David’s son, born in Jerusalem ( 2 Samuel 5:14,15).

    NEPHEW Often used in the old English sense “grandson” ( 1 Timothy 5:4; Judges 12:14; Isaiah 14:29; Job 18:19).

    NEPHILIM (See NOAH ).

    NEPHISHESIM, NEPHUSIM, NAPHISI Nehemiah 7:52.

    NEPHTOAH The source of the waters of Nephtoah was a landmark between Judah and Benjamin ( Joshua 15:8,9; 18:15). N.W. of Jerusalem, in a line with the Hinnom valley and Kirjath Jearim, S.W. of Benjamin. Now probably Ain Lifta, two miles and a half from the city, and six from Kuriet el Enab (formerly Kirjath Jearim, but others say Emmaus and place Kirjath Jearim on the mount on the N. of which now Chesla is found; and identify Ain Karim with N.E. of wady Haninah; see Imperial Bible Dictionary).

    NER Son of Jehiel, father of Kish, grandfather of Saul; also father of Ner, Saul’s uncle ( 1 Chronicles 8:33; 1 Samuel 14:50). Kish in 1 Chronicles 9:35,36, is an elder Kish, brother of Ner; or else is enumerated with Jehiel’s “sons” (though really his grandson), because he was head of a house of fathers. Gibeon was the family abode. Jehiel’s wife Maachah seemingly was descendant of Caleb by Ephah his concubine, and heiress of the estate in Gibea or Gibeon ( 1 Chronicles 2:46,48,49; 8:29; 9:35; 14:16; Lord A. Hervey in Smith’s Bible Dictionary).

    NEREUS A Christian at Rome whom Paul salutes ( Romans 16:15). Of Philologus’ and Julia’s household, Origen guesses. Tradition makes him to have been beheaded at Terracina under Nero, and his ashes deposited in the church of Nereo and Archilleo at Rome.

    NERGAL A Hamite name = “great hero.” Some of the Assyrian kings pretended descent from him. In the monuments he is called “the great brother,” “the storm ruler,” “king of battle,” “the strong begetter”; “god of the chase,” which is his special attribute. Nimrod deified, “the mighty hunter before the Lord,” from whom naturally the kings of Babylon and Nineveh would claim descent. Cutha or Tiggaba (Nimrod’s city in Arab tradition) is in the inscriptions especially dedicated to him. In accurate conformity with this the men of Cutha ( 2 Kings 17:30) planted by the Assyrian king as colonists in Samaria “made Nergal their god.” Nergal appears in the compound Nergal-sharezer ( Jeremiah 39:3,13). A human headed lion with eagles’ wings was his symbol. His Semitic name Aria (which when transposed is Nir) means “lion”; Greek Ares; Mars is his planet. Nerig is still its Mendaean name, and the Mendaeans call the third day of the week from him. The lion as lord of the forest was a fit symbol of the god of the chase. Tiglath Pileser (1150 B.C.) attributes to his gift the arrows wherewith he slew wild beasts; so Assur-dani-pal or Sardanapalus. Pul sacrificed to Nergal in Cutha, and Sennacherib built a temple to him in Tarbisa near Nineveh.

    NERGAL-SHAREZER (See NERGAL and see BABYLON ). Sharezer, in Zend, would mean “prince of fire.” Two are mentioned ( Jeremiah 39:3,13) as accompanying Nebuchadnezzar at the capture of Jerusalem, and as releasing Jeremiah: one has the title (for it is not a distinct person) Rubmag, “chief priest.” On Babylonian bricks he is called Nergal-shar-uzar, Rubuemga; the same as Neriglissar (Josephus, Ap. 1:20) who murdered his brother-in-law, Evil Merodach, Nebuchadnezzar’s son, and succeeded to the throne as having married Nebuchadnezzar’s daughter. Intemperance, lawlessness, and his elevation of Jehoiachin above the other kings at Babylon, disgusted the Babylonians, so that they deposed Evil Merodach. Nergal-sharezer reigned three or four years, 559-556 B.C., and was succeeded by his son Laborosoarchod, who was murdered after reigning nine months. The palace of Nergal-sharezer is the only large building discovered on the Euphrates’ right bank. The bricks state he was “son of Belzikkariskun, king of Babylon,” possibly the “chief Chaldaean” (Berosus) who kept the throne for Nebuchadnezzar at Nabopolassar’s death, until his arrival at Babylon.

    NERI Contracted from Neriah, “Jehovah is my lamp”; son of Melchi, and father of Salathiel ( Luke 3:27). Of Nathan’s line; but when Jeconiah’s issue failed Salathiel succeeded as heir of Solomon’s throne, and is therefore reckoned in the genealogy as Jeconiah’s son, as inheriting his status and prerogatives ( 1 Chronicles 3:17; Matthew 1:12).

    NERIAH Jeremiah 51:59; 32:12NERI, 36:4; 43:3.

    NEST Hebrew ken . The see KENITE is represented as “putting his nest (ken , playing on the name) in a rock” ( Numbers 24:21,22). So Edom, Obadiah 1:3,4: “thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock ... though thou set thy nest among the stars” (in thy ambitious pride regarding thy lofty dwelling as raised beyond the reach of injury; type of antichrist: Isaiah 14:13; Daniel 8:10; 11:37), i.e. Petra, in the wady Musa, Edom’s capital cut in the rocks. So Moab ( Jeremiah 48:28), “like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth,” i.e. the blue rock dove which tenants the clefts and caves on the wall-like eastern sides of the Dead Sea, also on the western sides; abundant at Mar Saba, where the monks are employed in feeding them. So the bride in the clefts of Christ, the smitten Rock (Song 2:14; Psalm 27:5; Isaiah 33:16).

    Contrast the clefts in which the proud sinner like Edom hides ( Jeremiah 49:16). The compartments in Noah’s ark are literally “nests” or berths ( Genesis 6:14). (See BIRD on Psalm 84:3). In Isaiah 10:14 Assyria boasts, “my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people,” implying the ease with which he pillaged the most precious treasures, not his own, as a boy robbing a helpless bard’s nest; “none moved the wing or peeped (chirped)” as a parent bird does when its young are stolen; none dare resist me even with a word.

    NET 1. Diktuon (from dikoo “to throw”); let down, cast, and drawn to shore ( Luke 5:2-6; John 21:6-11; Matthew 4:18-22). 2. Amfibleestron , “a cast net,” from amfiballoo “cast about,” “cast hither and there” ( Matthew 4:18; Mark 1:16). The Egyptians make it a tent over their sleeping place to ward off insects (Herodotus ii. 95). 3. Sageene , from sattoo “to load” ( Matthew 13:47), “a net ... cast into the sea ... gathered (together) of every kind,” a sweepnet or dragnet ( Habakkuk 1:14 michmereth ), or drawnet “seine,” that takes in the compass of a small bay. (See BIRD ). In Proverbs 1:17 explain” surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird,” because the bird sees the net and is on its guard; so youths warned by God’s word raise their souls heavenward, on the wings of the fear, faith, and love of God, as the bird flies upward; and therefore escape the net which the tempters fancy they are going to entrap the “innocent” in, but in which really “their own blood and their own lives” are taken ( Proverbs 1:11,18). The tempters think that their intended victims are “innocent in vain” (so translated for “without cause”), i.e. that their innocence will not save them; but it is themselves who “spread the net in vain” ( Psalm 7:15,16; 9:15; Revelation 16:6).

    A net is also the image of God’s vengeance, which surprises in a moment and inextricably the sinner, when he least expects ( Lamentations 1:13; Ezekiel 12:13; Hosea 7:12). In 1 Kings 7:17 netted checker work about a pillar’s capital.

    NETHANEEL =NATHANAEL in the New Testament = God-given. 1. Prince of Issachar at the exodus, son of Zuar. On the E. of Israel on march, and next Judah (Num 1:8; 2:5; 7:18,23; 10:15). 2. 1 Chronicles 2:14. 3. 1 Chronicles 15:24. 4. 1 Chronicles 24:6. 5. 1 Chronicles 26:4. 6. 2 Chronicles 17:7. 7. Under Josiah gave liberal offerings for the solemn Passover ( Chronicles 35:9). 8. A priest of Pashur’s family who married a foreign wife ( Ezra 10:22). 9. Representative of Jedaiah in the days of Joiakim, son of Jeshua ( Nehemiah 12:21). 10. A Levite, of the sons of Asaph; performed with the musical instruments of David, at the dedication of the wall ( Nehemiah 12:36).

    NETHANIAH = Jehovah-given. 1. 1 Chronicles 25:2,12. 2. 2 Kings 25:23; Jeremiah 40:8. 3. Jeremiah 36:14. 4. 2 Chronicles 17:8.

    NETHINIM = “given.” Nehemiah 11:21; Ezra 2:43; 7:24; 8:17,20; Chronicles 9:2. Servants of the temple (Josephus uses of them the name given to the slaves attached to the Greek temples, hiero douloi , Ant. 11:5, section 1). So the see LEVITES were “given” (nethunim ) unto Jehovah instead of the firstborn, and by Jehovah “given” to Aaron (see Numbers 3:9; 8:16-19). Nethinim occurs only in the later books: Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. To the Levites 320 of the Midianite captives were given, and 32 to the priests (31:40,42,47). To these slaves doubtless the Levites and priests assigned the more laborious work of the tabernacle service. The Gibeonites similarly, having obtained by craft a covenant from Joshua ( Joshua 9:9,27), “because of the name” and “fame of Jehovah, Israel’s God,” were made “hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and altar.” The Nethinim were their successors; a larger number of servants of the sanctuary being needed when David was reorganizing the worship, he and the princes “appointed” (Hebrew, “gave”) Nethinim for the service of the Levites ( Ezra 8:20), probably from the prisoners taken in war, upon their embracing the worship of Jehovah. The foreign or Canaanite names confirm this view: “Mehunim, Nephusim, and the children of Sisera” ( Ezra 2:43-54). So “Solomon’s servants” ( Ezra 2:55; Nehemiah 7:60), those “left of the Amorites, Hittites ... upon whom he levied a tribute of bond service” ( 1 Kings 9:20). The rabbis represent them as having no right of intermarriage with Israelites (Gemara Babyl., Jebam. ii. 4, Kiddusch. iv. 1, Carpsov. App. Crit. de Neth.); below the children of mixed marriages (mamzerim ), but above proselytes fresh from paganism and emancipated slaves. But when the see LEVITES were slow in coming forward at the return from Babylon, only under Zerubbabel as contrasted with 4,289 priests ( Ezra 2:36-58) and none under Ezra until especially called ( Ezra 8:15,17,20), the Nethinim became more conspicuous, 392 under Zerubbabel, 220 under Ezra, “all expressed by name,” registered after the Levites ( 1 Chronicles 9:2) and admitted to join the covenant ( Nehemiah 10:28, compare Deuteronomy 29:11). Exempted from taxation by Artaxerxes ( Ezra 7:24). Ophel and the Levite cities were their dwelling place, and they had their own rulers ( Ezra 2:70; Nehemiah 11:21). Josephus (B.J. ii. 17, section 6) mentions a feast of carrying wood, xylophoria, in which all the people brought wood for the sacrifices of the year, probably relieving the Nethinim; its beginning may be traced in Nehemiah 10:34.

    NETOPHAH = “dropping.” A town coupled with Bethlehem in Nehemiah 7:26, also in 1 Chronicles 2:54; therefore near it. Two of David’s heroes ( <132701> Chronicles 27:1,13,15), captains of two of the 12 monthly military courses, wereNETOPHATHITES ( 2 Samuel 23:28,29). “Villages of Netophathites” were Levite singers’ residences ( 1 Chronicles 9:16; Nehemiah 12:28). The Targum ( 1 Chronicles 2:54; Ruth 4:20; Ecclesiastes 3:11) states that they slew the guards whom Jeroboam stationed on the roads to Jerusalem, to intercept the firstfruits from the villages to the temple. The fast on the 23rd Sivan, still in the Jewish calendar, commemorates Jeroboam’s opposition. Between Bethlehem and Anathoth.

    Noticed as “in the wilderness” of Judah in the Acta Sanctorum. Answering to the ruin Metoba. N.E. of Bethlehem on the edge of the Mar Saba desert.

    NETTLE charul . Job 30:7, “brambles” (Umbreit). But the bushmen of whom Job speaks “gathered together under the (tall) nettles” to boil them for potherbs (see Job 30:4). The root chaaral “to burn” also favors the Urtica; wrens, “burning” or “stinging nettle.” Royle, from the Arabic khardul, our charlock, argues for the wild mustard. Also qimowsh , Isaiah 34:13.

    NEW MOON (See MONTH ). On it work was suspended ( Amos 8:5), the temple was opened for worship ( Isaiah 66:23), and in northern Israel the godly repaired to the prophets for religious instruction ( 2 Kings 4:23). The trumpets were blown, in token of gladness, at the sacrifices peculiar to the clay ( Numbers 10:10; Psalm 81:3); but there was no “holy convocation” as on the sabbath. The seventh new moon of the religious year was the feast of trumpets and began the civil year.

    NEW TESTAMENT (See BIBLE , see CANON , see INSPIRATION ). hee kainee diatheekee . See Hebrews 9:15-17; 8:6-13. The Greek term diateeeekee combines the two ideas “covenant” and “testament,” which the KJV gives separately, though the Greek is the same for both. “Covenant” expresses its obligatory character, God having bound Himself by promise ( Galatians 3:15-18; Hebrews 6:17,18). “Testament” expresses that, unlike other covenants, it is not a matter of bargaining, but all of God’s grace, just as a testator has absolute power to do what he will with his own. Jesus’ death brings the will of God in our favor into force. The night before His death He said “I appoint unto you by testamentary disposition (diatitheemi ) a kingdom” ( Luke 22:29). There was really only one Testament -- latent in the Old Testament, patent in the New Testament. The disciples were witnesses of the New Testament, and the Lord’s Supper was its seal. The Old and New Testament Scriptures are the written documents containing the terms of the will.

    TEXT. The “Received Text” (i.e. the Textus Receptus or TR) is that of Robert Stephens’ edition. Bentley (Letter to Wake in 1716 A.D.) said truly, “after the Complutenses and Erasmus, who had very ordinary manuscripts, the New Testament became the property of booksellers. R.

    Stephens’ edition, regulated by himself alone, has now become as if an apostle were its compositor. I find that by taking 2,000 errors out of the Pope’s Vulgate (i.e. correcting by older Latin manuscripts the edition of Jerome’s Vulgate put forth by Sixtus V, A.D. 1590, with anathemas against any who should alter it ‘in minima particula,’ and afterwards altered by Clement VIII (1592) in 2,000 places in spite of Sixtus’ anathema) and as many out of the Protestant pope Stephens’ edition, I can set out an edition of each (Latin, Vulgate, and Greek text) in columns, without using any book under 900 years old, that shall so exactly agree word for word, and order for order, that no two tallies can agree better. ... These will prove each other to a demonstration, for I alter not a word of my own head.” The first printed edition of the Greek Testament was that in the Complutensian Polyglot, January, 10, 1514 A.D. Scripture was known in western Europe for many ages previously only through the Latin Vulgate of Jerome. F. Ximenes de Cisneros, of Toledo, undertook the work, to celebrate the birth of Charles V. Complutum (Alcala) gave the name.

    Lopez de Stunica was chief of its New Testament editors. The whole Polyglot was completed the same year that Luther affixed his 95 theses against indulgences to the door of the church at Wittenberg. Leo X lent the manuscripts used for it from the Vatican. It follows modern Greek manuscripts in all cases where these differ from the ancient manuscripts and from the oldest Greek fathers. The Old Testament Vulgate (the translation which is authorized by Rome) is in the central column, between the Greek Septuagint and the Hebrew (the original); and the editors compare the first to Christ crucified between the impenitent (the Hebrew) and the penitent (the Greek) thief! Though there is no Greek authority for 1 John 5:7, they supplied it and told Erasmus that the Latin Vulgate’s authority outweighs the original Greek! They did not know that the oldest copies of Jerome’s Vulgate omit it; the manuscript of Wizanburg of the eighth century being the oldest that contains it.

    Owing to the Complutensian Greek New Testament not being published, though printed, until the Polyglot was complete, Erasmus’ Greek New Testament was the first published, namely, by Froben a printer of Basle, March 1516, six years before the Complutensian. The providence of God at the dawn of the Reformation thus furnished earnest students with Holy Scripture in the original language sanctioned by the Holy Spirit. Erasmus completed his edition in haste, and did not have the scruples to supply, by translating into Greek front the Vulgate, both actual hiatuses in his Greek manuscripts and what he supposed to be so, especially in the Apocalypse, for which he had only one mutilated manuscript To the outcry against hint for omitting the testimony of the three heavenly witnesses he replied, it is not omission but non-addition; even some Latin copies do not have it, and Cyril of Alexandria showed in his Thesaurus he did not know it; on the Codex Montfortianus (originally in possession of a Franciscan, Froy, who possibly wrote it, now in Trinity College, Dublin) being produced with it, ErasmusINSERTED it. So clumsily did the translator of the Vulgate Latin into Greek execute this manuscript that he neglects to put the necessary Greek article before “Father,” “Word,” and” Spirit.” Erasmus’ fifth edition is the basis of our “Received Text.” In 1546 and 1549 R. Stephens printed two small editions at Paris, and in 1550 a folio edition, following Erasmus’ fifth edition almost exclusively, and adding in the margin readings from the Complutensian edition and from 15 manuscripts collected by his son Henry, the first large collection of readings. The fourth edition at Geneva, 1551, was the first divided into modern verses. Beza next edited the Greek New Testament, generally following Stephens’ text, with a few changes on manuscript authority. He possessed the two famous manuscripts, namely, the Gospels and Acts, now by his gift in the university of Cambridge; “Codex Bezae” or “Cantabrigiensis,” D; and the epistles of Paul, “Codex Clermontanus” (brought from Clermont), now in the Bibliotheque du Roi at Paris; both are in Greek and Latin. The Elzevirs, printers at Leyden, published two editions, the first in 1624, the second in 1633, on the basis of R. Stephens’ third edition, with corrections from Beza’s. The unknown editor, without stating his critical principles, gravely declares in the preface: “texture habes ab omnibus receptum, in quo nihil immutatum aut corruptum damus”; stranger still, the public for two centuries has accepted this so-called “Received Text” as if infallible. When textual criticism was scarcely understood, theological convenience accepted it as a compromise between the Roman Catholic Complutensian edition and the Protestant edition of Stephens and Beza. Mill (1707) has established Stephens’ as the Received Text in England; on the continent the Elzevir is generally recognized. Thus, an uncritical Greek text of publishers has been for ages submitted to by Protestants, though abjuring blind assent to tradition, and laughing at the claim to infallibility of the two popes who declared each of two diverse editions of the Vulgate to be exclusively authentic. (The council of Trent, 1545, had pronounced the Latin Vulgate to be the authentic word of God).

    Frequent handling and transmission soon destroyed the originals. If the autographs of the inspired writers had been preserved, textual criticism would not have been necessary. But the oldest MSS, existing, Codex Sinaiticus (‘aleph) Codex Vaticanus (B), Codex Alexandrinus (A), are not older than the fourth century. Parchment was costly ( 2 Timothy 4:13).

    Papyrus paper which the sacred writers used ( 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:13) was fragile. No superstitious or antiquarian interest was felt in the autographs which copies superseded. The Diocletian persecution (A.D. 303) attacked the Scriptures, and traditores (Augustine, 76, section 2) gave them up. Constantine ordered 50 manuscripts to be written on fair skins for the use of the church. God has not seen fit (by a perpetual miracle) to preserve the text from transcriptional errors. Having by extraordinary revelation once bestowed the gift, He leaves its preservation to ordinary laws, yet by His secret providence furnishes the church, its guardian and witness, with the means to ensure its accuracy in all essentials ( Romans 3:2). Criticism does not make variations, but finds them, and turns them into means of ascertaining approximately the original text. More materials exist for restoring the genuine text of New Testament than for that of any ancient work. Whitby attacked Mill for presenting in his edition 30,000 various readings found in manuscripts. Collins, the infidel, availed himself of Whitby’s unsound argument that textual variations render Scripture uncertain. Bentley (Phileleutherus Lipsiensis), reviewing Collins’ work, shows if ONLY ONE manuscript had come down there would have been no variations, and therefore no means of restoring the true text; but by God’s providence MANY manuscripts have come down -- some from Egypt, others from Asia, others from the western churches. The numbers of copies and the distances of places prove that there could be no collusion nor interpolation of all the copies by ANY ONE of them. Moreover, by the mutual help of the various copies, all the faults may be mended -- one copy preserving the true reading in one place, another in another. The ancient versions too, the ante-Jerome Latin, Jerome’s Vulgate, the Syriac (second century), the Coptic, and the Thebaic or Sahidic (third century), as well as the citations in Greek and Latin fathers, additionally help toward ascertaining the true text. The variety of readings, so far from making precarious, makes the textALMOST CERTAIN. The worst manuscript extant contains all the essentials of Christianity. Bentley collated the Alexandrinus manuscript, and was deeply interested to find that Wetstein’s collation of the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus of Paris (C) confirmed the Alexandrinus readings. Comparative criticism begins with Bentley. He found the oldest manuscripts of Jerome’s Vulgate differ widely from the Clementine, and agree both in the words and in their order (which Jerome preserved in his translated “because even the order of the words is a mystery”: Ep. ad Pamm.) with the oldest Greek manuscripts The citations of the New Testament by fathers are then especially valuable as evidences, when a father cites words expressly, or a special word which agrees with ancient manuscripts and versions, for such could hardly come from transcribers.

    Bentley obtained a collation of the Codex Vaticanus from Mico, an Italian, which his nephew T. Bentley verified in part. Woide transcribed it, and H.

    Ford edited it in 1799.

    The Latin version before Jerome’s having become variously altered in different copies caused the need for his translation from the original Greek of manuscripts current at Rome (and in a few passages probably from Origen’s Greek manuscripts in the Caesarean library), at Damasus’ suggestion. He acknowledges he did not emend all that he could have. And in his commentaries, he appeals to manuscripts against what he had adopted at Rome. Origen’s readings show a text agreeing with manuscripts A, B, C (usually considered Alexandrian) rather than with the Western and Latin authorities. The Alexandrian and the western authorities coming from different quarters are independent witnesses. Bengel (1734) laid down the principle, “the hard is preferable to the easy reading,” the copyist would more probably originate an easy than a hard reading. He observed differences in classes of manuscripts and versions. The Alexandrian manuscripts, few but far weightier, represent the more ancient ones; the far more numerous Byzantine manuscripts the more recent, family or class.

    The Byzantine or Constantinopolitan mutually concur, because copied from one another; the Alexandrian have some mutual discrepancies which render their concurrence in many more passages against the received text the weightier, because they prove the absence of collusion and mutual copying. The Greek fathers prior to Jerome’s Vulgate in quoting the Greek Testament agree with the readings in the oldest manuscripts, as does the Vulgate.

    Griesbach (1774) affirmed the sound rule, “no reading, however good it seems, ought to be preferred to another unless it has at least some\parANCIENT testimonies.” Also, coeteris paribus, “the shorter is preferable to the longer reading,” for copyists tend to add rather than omit; notes in the margin, such as the parallel words of the same incident in different Gospels, creep into the text, and texts, like snowballs, grow in transmission. Lachmann first cast aside the received text as an authority entirely, and reconstructed the text as transmitted by our most ancient authorities, namely, the oldest Greek manuscripts: A, B, C, D, Delta (Claromontanus), E, G, H, P, Q, T, Z; citations in Origen; the ante-Jerome Latin in the oldest manuscripts: a, b, c, d, e, Laudianus, Actuum, f Claromontanus Paul. Epp., f f Sangermanensis Paul. Epp., g Bornerianus Paul. Epp., h Primasius in the Apocalypse; Jerome’s Vulgate in the oldest manuscripts: Fuldensis, and its corrections by Victor of Capua, and Amiatinus or Laurentianus; readings in Irenaeus, Cyprian, Hilary of Poictiers, and Lucifer of Cagliari.

    Wiseman suggested that the “Old Latin” (ante-Jerome) version was made in Africa, of which “the Italian version” (Augustine de Doctr. Christ., 2:15) was a particular recension current in upper Italy. To Lachmann’s authorities other ancient versions besides the Latin ones need to be added; also the oldest manuscripts need accurate collation. Cardinal Mai’s edition of the Vaticanus manuscript is not altogether reliable. Tischendorf has added to our Greek manuscripts Codex Sinaiticus (‘aleph), which he found on Mount Sinai in 1844 and rescued from papers intended to light the stove in the convent of Catherine. Only in 1859 did he obtain the whole -- the Septuagint, the whole New Testament, the whole Epistle ascribed to Barnabas, and a large part of the Shepherd of Hermas (on vellum). It was first deposited in St. Petersburg, having been presented to Alexander II of Russia, who had 300 copies, in four folio volumes, printed at his own expense in 1862. In 1863 the popular edition was published, containing the New Testament, Barnabas, and Hermas; Scrivener has published a cheap collation of it. Lachmann is wrong in slavishly adhering to the principal authorities when agreeing in an unquestionable error; still “the first Greek Testament printed wholly on ancient authority, irrespective of modern traditions, is due to C. Lachmann” (Tregelles, “Printed Text of Greek Testament,” an admirable work).

    Tischendorf followed, adding however many manuscripts and versions of later date to the older authorities (including the two old Egyptian and the two Syriac versions). Rightly, in parallel passages (e.g. the synoptical Gospels) he prefers those testimonies in which accordance is not found, unless there be good reason to the contrary, for copyists tried to bring parallel passages into accordance. Also in discrepant readings he prefers that one which may have been the common starting point to the rest. Also those which accord with New Testament Greek and with the writer’s particular style. It retains the Alexandrian forms of Greek words, though seeming barbarous, for this style of Greek was common in the New Testament era to Palestine, Egypt, and Libya, and appears in the Septuagint. As leempsetai for leepsetai ; vowels changed, katherizo for katharizo ; augment doubled, or omitted; rho (r) not doubled, as erantisen ; unusual forms, epesa , anathema for anatheema , etc. While maintaining the paramount weight of ancient authorities, he admits more modern ones in case of conflicting evidence. Alexandria was in the early ages the center for publishing Greek manuscripts; hence, our oldest manuscripts were copied there, though the originals were written elsewhere. The oldest manuscripts are written in uncial (capital) letters; the modern ones in cursive or small letters. Besides the versions above mentioned the Gothic of Ulphilas (fourth century), the Aethiopic, and the Armenian are important. These all were translated surely from the Greek itself; we are not sure of the rest.

    THE ORDER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS. The fragment of Muratori’s see CANON , Melito, Irenaeus, and Origen, arrange the Gospels as we have them. Acts follow. Then Paul’s epistles in Eusebius, in the Latin church, and in Jerome’s Vulgate (oldest manuscripts) But the uncial manuscripts A, B, C, also Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, and the council of Laodicea (A. D. 364) place the general or universal epistles before Paul’s. A, B, C also place epistle to Hebrews after 2 Thessalonians.

    Codex Sinaiticus (‘aleph) puts Hebrews after 2 Thessalonians, Acts after Philemon, the universal (general) epistles after Paul’s letters and the Book of Acts.

    OLDEST MANUSCRIPTS. ‘aleph, B, fourth century; A, C, Q, T, fragments, fifth century; D, P, R, Z, E2, D2, H3, sixth century; theta, seventh century; E, L, lambda, xi, B2, eighth century; F, K, M, X, T, delta, H2, G2=L2, F2, G2, K2, M2, ninth century; G, H, S, V (E3), tenth century. In the Gospels ‘aleph, A, B, C, D, and the fragments Z, J, N, gamma, P, Q, T, are of primary authority; the uncial manuscripts are of secondary authority, and mostly agreeing with these, are L, X, delta; there are cursive manuscripts -- 1, 33, 69 -- which support the old manuscripts. In Acts, the oldest manuscripts are ‘aleph, A, B, C, D, E; G, H, and the F(a) fragment have a text varying from the oldest manuscripts; the cursives 13 and 31 agree with the oldest manuscripts. In the universal epistles ‘aleph, A, B, C, G; the uncial J differs from these oldest manuscripts. In the Pauline epistles ‘aleph, A, B, C, D (and E Sangermanensis, its copy), and H; the cursives 17 and 37 agree with the oldest manuscripts. In Revelation ‘aleph, A, C; B Basilianus (not Codex Vaticanus), a valuable but later uncial; cursives and 38 agree often with the oldest manuscripts.

    PRIMARY AUTHORITIES. Codex Sinaiticus (‘aleph), see above. The Codex Alexandrinus (A) given by Cyril Lucar, patriarch of Constantinople, to Charles I, 1628; now in the British Museum; it contains the Old Testament, the Septuagint, and begins the New Testament with Matthew 25:6, and lacks John 6:50--8:52; the New Testament part was published in facsimile by Woide in 1786.

    Codex Vaticanus (B) contains the Old Testament and the New Testament (down to Hebrews 9:14; the remainder, to end of Revelation, was added in the 15th century. Also, the original does not have epistles to Timothy, Titus, Philemon. There are four collations: by Bartolocci, 1669, in manuscript, in Bibliotheque du Roi, Paris; that by Mico for Bentley, 1720, published 1799; that by Birch, except Luke and John, 1798; that by Mai, published 1858 4to, 1859 8vo; was still not accurate. It was originally written in the middle of the fourth century in Egypt; its text agrees with Alexandrian authorities.

    Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, or palimpsest (C); the Syrian Ephraem wrote 38 tracts on the parchment, after sponging out the old writing, to save writing materials. It was scarce even then. Peter Allix, a French pastor, 17th century, detected the Old and New Testament uncials underneath. C.

    Hase, 1834, restored the writing by chemicals. Wetstein collated it. Written in Egypt early in fifth century, corrected in sixth, and again in ninth century, to agree with Constantinopolitan text. Brought to Florence at the fall of the Greek empire; thence Catherine de Medici brought it to the Bibliotheque du Roi, Paris. It lacks 2 Thessalonians, 2 John 1, and several passages. Tischendorf edited it 1843.

    Bezae Cantabrigiensis (D), Beza having presented it 1581. It was brought from Greece to the monastery of Irenaeus at Lyons; at the sack of Lyons Beza found it in 1562. It comes from the sixth century. Kipling edited it 1793. It contains the Gospels and Acts with a Latin version. Mutilated and interpolated; the interpolations are easily distinguished from the original.

    Its text is mostly like the ancient Latin versions. It has peculiarities that were probably not in the sacred originals. Nevertheless, it still supports Codex Vaticanus (B) in readings which have been proved to be independently ancient.

    Codex Dublin (Z) rescriptus fragment of Matthew. Barrett had it correctly engraven, facsimile, 1787. In 1801 he, when eyesight was failing, gave the text in ordinary Greek letters on each opposite page, full of errors which the accompanying uncials confuted. Tregelles by chemicals discovered additional portions and restored the whole. It comes from the sixth century.

    Codex Cottonianus (J), in the British Museum. Fragments of Matthew and John. Published by Knittel in 1762.

    Codex Caesareus Vindobonensis (N), a fragment of the same manuscript:

    Luke 24. Vaticanus (gamma), fragment of the same manuscript: part of Matthew.

    Codex Guelpherbytani (P, Q), two fragmentary rescriptae, sixth century: P, the Gospels; Q, Luke and John: in the ducal library at Wolfenbuttel.

    Codex Borgianus, a fragment of John with a Coptic version, fifth century; published by Giorgi at Rome, 1789.

    SECONDARY AUTHORITIES. L., Bib. Reg. Paris., of the Gospels; text related to B; Tischendorf edited it. Monacensis (X), fragment of the four Gospels. San Gallensis (delta), in the library of Gall, Greek and Latin four Gospels. Delta and G, Boernerianus, of Paul’s epistles, are severed parts of the same book.

    Manuscripts of Acts, besides ‘aleph, A, B, C, D. E, Laudianus, Greek and Latin; Laud gave it to Bodleian Library, Oxford; brought from Sardinia; Hearne edited it 1715; sixth century (Tischendorf). F(a), fragm. in Scholia of Old Testament manuscript in Bened. Library, Germain; seventh century.

    G, Bibl. Angelicae at Rome; ninth century. So H, Mutinensis.

    Manuscripts of the universal epistles, besides ‘aleph, A, B, C, G.

    Mosquensis (J) contains of them all. In Paul’s epistles it is marked K. It differs from the ancient authorities, and sides with the Constantinopolitan.

    Manuscripts of Paul’s epistles besides ‘aleph, A, B, C, D (delta in Lachmann), Claromontanus, Greek and Latin, in Royal Library, Paris; came from Clermont, Beza had owned it; all Paul’s epistles except a few verses; Tischendorf published it, 1852; sixth century. H, Coislinianus, at Paris; fragment of Paul’s epistles; brought from Mount Athos; Montfaucon edited it in 1715; though Constantinopolitan in origin it agrees with the ancient authorities, not the Byzantine and received text; sixth or seventh century, but its authority is that of the best text of Caesarea in the beginning of the fourth century; the transcriber’s note is, “this copy was collated with a copy in Caesarea belonging to the library of S. Pamphilus and written with his own hand.” F, G, agree with the oldest manuscripts F, Angiensis, Greek and Latin, bequeathed by T. Bentley to Trin. Coll., Cambridge, agrees in most readings with Boernerianus G. Epistle to Hebrews is wanting in both. The Latin in F is the Vulgate, in G the old Italian or ante-Jerome Latin. C.F. Matthaei published it in 1791. Both come from the ninth century.

    Manuscripts of Revelation besides ‘aleph, A, C. B, Basilianus, in the Vatican, eighth century; Tischendorf edited it.

    MANUSCRIPTS IN CURSIVE LETTERS. From the 10th to 16th century. of the Gospels, 200 of Acts and universal epistles, 300 of Paul’s epistles, 100 of Revelation; besides 200 evangelistaria, and 70 lectionaria or portions divided for reading as lessons in church. Scrivener makes the total -- 127 uncials, 1461 cursives.

    ANCIENT VERSIONS. (1) The ante-Jerome Latin. Translated from oldest Greek manuscripts, a text related to D, and of a different family from the Alexandrian manuscripts. It adheres to the original Greek tenses, cases, etc., in violation of Latin grammar. A Jew probably was the translator (Ernesti, Inst. 2:4, section 17). The copies, though varying, have a mutual resemblance, indicating there was originally one received Latin version.

    From their agreement with the citations of African fathers, Tertullian and Cyprian, Wiseman infers the archetypal text originated in northern Africa, from whence it passed to Italy (second century) when Irenaeus’ translator knew it. Variations arose in different copies; alluding to these Augustine said, “the Italian (i.e. a particular revision of the old Latin version current in upper Italy) is to be preferred to the rest.” He distinguishes between “emended copies,” (i.e. brought from Africa to Italy, and there emended from Greek manuscripts also improved in Latinity,) and “nonemended copies,” i.e. retaining the text of their African birthplace unaltered. The purest text is in Codex Vercellensis and Codex Veronensis, a and b, transcribed by Eusebius the martyr, fourth century, published by Blanchini, Evang. Quadr., at Rome, 1749. Colbertinus Evang., c, 11th century, but agreeing with oldest text; Sabatier published at Paris, 1751. Cantabrigiensis of the Gospels, Acts, and 3 John, d; accompanies D, but is not translated from it. Palatinus of the Gospels, e; in Libr. Vienn.; fourth or fifth century; Tischendorf edited it, Lips., 1847. Laudianus, of Acts; in E, e.

    Claromontanus, the Latin version in D of Paul’s epistles, Sangermanensis, the Latin in E of Paul’s epistles. Boernerianus in G, of Paul’s epistles. Also Corbeiensis (ff in Tisch.) of universal Epistles; Martianay edited it at Paris, 1695; very ancient. (2) The same version revised in upper Italy appears with a Byzantine tendency in Codex Brixianus, f. (3) The Old Latin appears more accordant with the Alexandrian old Greek manuscripts in Bobbiensis, k, containing a fragment of the New Testament.

    Tischendorf edited it at Vienna in 1847.

    THE VULGATE OF JEROME (i.e. the version which supplanted all former versions in the then common tongue, Latin, and came into common use), made A.D. 383; see above. The copies of the old Latin had fallen into mutual discrepancies. Jerome, collating the Latin with Greek manuscripts considered by him, the greatest scholar of the Latin church, ancient at the end of the fourth century, says he “only corrected those Latin passages which altered the sense, and let the rest remain.” He rejects certain interpolated Greek manuscripts, “a Luciano et Hesychio nuncupatos,” on the ground that the versions made in various languages before the additions falsify them, suggesting the use of the oldest versions, namely, to detect interpolations unknown in the Greek text of their day. The texts of Sixtus V (1590) and Clement VIII (1592), authorized with anathemas, differ widely from Jerome’s true text as restored by the Amiatinus manuscript or Laurentianus, which was transcribed by Servandus, abbot of Monast.

    Amiata, 541; now in Laurentian Lib., Florence. Tischendorf published it 1850. Fuldensis manuscript of whole New Testament, the four Gospels harmonized, with preface by Victor of Capua.

    EGYPTIAN VERSIONS. (1) The Coptic or Memphitic, of Lower Egypt, third century; D.

    Wilkins edited it, Oxford, 1716. (2) Sahidic or Thebaic, of Upper Egypt; Woide, or rather his successor H. Ford, edited it in the New Testament from Codex Alexandrinus, 1799. (3) Basmuric, a third Egyptian dialect.

    ETHIOPIC. Said to be by Frumentius, who introduced Christianity into Ethiopia in fourth century; Pell Platt edited it; previously Bode gave a Latin version of it in 1753.

    SYRIAC VERSIONS. (1) Cureton published the Syriac manuscripts brought by Dr. Tattam from the Natrian monastery, Lower Egypt, now in the British Museum.

    These differ widely from the common (as in Rich’s manuscript 7157 in British Museum, much altered by transcribers) Peshito, i.e. pure Syriac, version, called so from its chose adherence to the original Greek; second century. (2) The Harclean, a later Syriac version by Polycarp, suffragan to Philoxenus, bishop of Hierapolis, 508; White published it as “the Philoxenian.”

    The Armenian, by Mesrobus, early in the fifth century, made from Greek manuscripts; brought from Alexandria and from Ephesus. Zohrab edited it at Venice, 1805.

    The Gothic, by Ulphilas, from the Greek; fourth century. Gabelentz and Loebe edited it, 1836. Versions later than sixth century are valueless as witnesses to the ancient text.

    Citations in Greek and Latin fathers down to Eusebius inclusive; important in fixing the text of the fourth and previous centuries, only in cases where they must be quoting from manuscripts and not from memory. Origen quotes almost two thirds of New Testament except James, 2 Peter, 2 and John, and Revelation. Adamantius’ (= Origen) copies appealed to by Jerome (on Matthew 24:36; Galatians 3:1) were written probably by Origen; Pamphilus’ copy was from Origen’s text.

    Textual variations and ancient manuscripts of Origen who died in A.D., and of Tertullian in 220 A.D., testify that the text varied in different copies and versions even then. The earliest Christians, being filled themselves with the Spirit, and having enjoyed intercourse with the apostles, were less tenacious of the letter of Scripture than the church had found it necessary to be ever since. The internal evidence of the authority of the New Testament, and its public reading in church, and its universal acceptance by Christians and heretics alike as the standard for deciding controversies, indicate the reverence felt for it from the first. But the citations of the Gospels in Justin Martyr, and previously in the apostolic fathers, show that besides the written word the oral word was still in men’s memories; also frequent transcription, the Harmonies (Ammonius in third century made a Diatessaron, weaving the four Gospels into one) trying to bring all four into literal identity by supplying omissions in one from another, marginal notes creeping into the text; variation gradually arising in distant regions, “the indolence of some transcribers, and corrections by others by way of addition, or taking away as they judged fit” (Origen in Matthew 8), all caused copies to differ in different places. Providentially early versions of diverse regions afford means of detecting variations.

    Citations in fathers often support the versions’ readings against the interpolated texts, so that if even there were no Greek manuscripts to support the versions’ readings the evidence would still be on the side of these. But we have manuscripts habitually supporting the readings which are independently proved the original ones by the testimony of both versions and patristic citations. Therefore the manuscripts above, though few, are proved to be the safest guides to the ancient text. The accordance of versions from various regions in the disputed passages proves their trustworthiness at least in these. Further, the older the copies of the version (as the Amiatinus of Vulgate and the Curetonian of the Syriac), the greater their agreement with our ancient manuscripts. So in patristic citations, it is just in those passages where the copyists could not have altered the readings to the modern ones without altering the whole context that the testimony of fathers agrees with the text of the few ancient Greek manuscripts in opposition to the numerous modern ones. Thus a trustworthy text is secured by a threefold cord, a testimony internal and external: (1) oldest manuscripts, (2) oldest versions supporting the manuscripts readings independently, (3) earliest patristic citations agreeing with both.

    The true classification of manuscripts (Tregelles) is into ancient and modern, or rather those presenting what is independently proved to be the ancient text (including a few modern manuscripts, as the cursive 1 in the Gospels and 33 throughout) and those presenting the modern text with which the modern versions accord. “Recension” ought to be restricted to those attempts to correct the ancient text out of which modern readings arose. Rude Hellenistic gave place to the politer Greek of Constantinople in the numerous copies made there, and this tendency continued to act on the Byzantine manuscripts down to its fall. Mohamedanism checked the multiplication of copies in Africa and Syria, Greek ceased to be current in the west. Thus, the Alexandrian and the western text manuscripts remained as they were, while the Byzantine were becoming more and more molded into a uniform modern text.

    Eusebian canons. Eusebius of Caesarea composed ten canons which afford us means of detecting later additions.

    I. A table in parallel columns of portions common to the four evangelists.

    II. Those common to Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

    III. Those common to Matthew, Luke, and John.

    IV. Matthew, Mark and John.

    V. Matthew and Luke.

    VI. Matthew and Mark.

    VII. Matthew and John.

    VIII. Luke and Mark.

    IX. Luke and John.

    X. Those peculiar to each of the four.

    Each Gospel was divided, by numbers in the margin, into the portions of which it consisted; Matthew has 355, Mark 233. With these numbers was also that of the canon to which each belonged. Thus, in Mark’s “resurrection” ( Mark 16:2-5) the number was 231, and I. the canon mark, showing the paragraph is in all four evangelists. In canon I. the three parallel paragraphs would be marked by their respective numbers: Matthew 28:1-4 by 352; Luke 24:1-4 by 336; John 20:11,12 by 211. They appear in Jerome’s Vulgate.

    Criticism, punctuation, orthography. Where oldest manuscripts, versions, and citations concur, the reading is certain; conjecture must not say what the text ought to be, but accept it as it is: still palpable errors must be rejected. Where the trustworthy witnesses differ, our knowledge of the origin of various readings, and of the kind of errors to which copyists were liable, must be used. Griesbach’s rule holds good, “the shorter is preferable to the longer,” and Bengel’s, “the harder is preferable to the easier reading.” But where the shorter is due to the recurrence of the same word or syllable at the end or beginning of two clauses, the copyist’s eye passing over, the fuller is the original reading. Liturgical use occasioned the insertion of the doxology in the Lord’s prayer, Matthew 6:13; and probably Acts 8:37. Tregelles’ Greek Testament is superior to Lachmann’s Greek Testament in appealing to more witnesses, and to Tischendorf’s in more leaning on ancient authorities. Iota, now subscribed, was at first postscribed, but was omitted before the date of our oldest manuscripts except its postscription rarely in the Sinaiticus manuscript.

    Stops were not in the originals, but were inserted by transcribers. In many old manuscripts pauses are marked by a dot, or blank between two words.

    Stichometry subsequently served the same end, i.e. divisions into lines ([stichoi]) written like blank verse, marking both pauses of sentences and divisions of the words; the letters running together in Greek manuscripts.

    The comma was invented in the eighth century, the semicolon in the ninth.

    In A.D. 496 Paul’s epistles were divided into chapters with titles, perhaps by Theodore of Mopsuestia. Euthalius divided them and Acts into lections or lessons and stichoi or lines. Hugo of Cher originated our modern chapters; R. Stephens, traveling on horseback, our verses. Accents are not found in manuscripts before the eighth century; breathings marks and apostrophes came a little earlier.

    LANGUAGE. That of the New Testament is Hellenistic, i.e. Hebrew idiom and conceptions clothed in Greek expression, Eastern thoughts joined to western words (see GRECIAN ). Greek activity and freedom were combined with Hebrew reflective depth and divine knowledge. The Septuagint Greek translated of Old Testament in Alexandria considerably molded the Greek dialect of the Jews in Asia, Palestine, and Egypt. At the same time the harsher Alexandrian forms of the Septuagint were smoothed down among Greek speaking Jews of other places than Egypt. The New Testament Greek in oldest manuscripts retains many of the rougher forms, but not all of them; it has also many Latinisms. Words with new senses, chreematizoo , sunistemi , hina , hotan , are with the present and even imperfect and aorist indicative. Hebrew idioms, as “multiplying I will multiply.” Words already current in lower senses are consecrated to express Christian truths: “faith” (pistis ), justify (dikaioo ), sanctify (hagiazoo ), grace (charis ), redeem (lutrousthai ), edify (oikodomein , literally, to build up), reconcile (katallassein ), etc. (See JOHN , style, on the construction of the sentences; on the sense of the title New Testament see COVENANT ). Kainee expresses “new” in the sense of something different from the “old” and superseding it, not merely “recent” (nea ). (See GOSPEL CANON , see BIBLE on other aspects of New Testament) Tregelles (Horne, 106) exhibits “the genealogy of the text” thus. The manuscripts placed together are those related in character of text; those placed under others show still more and more of the intermixture of modernized readings.

    D ‘aleph B Z C L xi 1 33 P Q T R A X (delta) 69 K M H E F G S U, etc.

    NEZIAH children of. Ezra 2:54.

    NEZIB = garrison. A city in the shephelah or lower hills of Judah ( Joshua 15:43). Between Eleutheropolis and Hebron. Now Beit Nusib or Chirbeh Nasib, on an elevation at the S. of wady es Sur, in the region of the hills between the mountains and the plain. The accuracy of Scripture in its geographical hints is remarkable.

    NIBHAZ The Avites’ idol introduced into Samaria by the Assyrian colonists planted there ( 2 Kings 17:31). Botta represents a bitch suckling a puppy on a slab at the entrance of a temple at Khorsabad. A colossal figure of a dog was formerly between Berytus and Tripoli. So the rabbis derive N. from nabach , “to bark”; a dogheaded human figure, like the Egyptian Anubis.

    NIBSHAN One of the six cities of Judah in the midbar , “wilderness,” the low district adjoining the Dead Sea.

    NICANOR One of the seven ordained for ministration of alms. “of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom,” but also preachers of the gospel ( Acts 6:1-10; 8:5).

    NICODEMUS A ruler of the Jews, a master (“teacher”) of Israel, and a Pharisee. John ( John 3:1-10) alone mentions him. John knew the high priest ( John 18:15), so his knowledge of Nicodemus among the high priest’s associates is natural. John watched with deep interest his growth in grace, which is marked in three stages ( Mark 4:26-29). (1) An anxious inquirer. The rich were ashamed to confess Jesus openly, in spite of convictions of the reality of His mission; so Joseph of Arimathea “a disciple, but secretly for fear of the Jews” ( John 19:38). The poor “came” by day, but Nicodemus “by night.” By an undesigned coincidence marking genuineness, Jesus’ discourse is tinged, as was His custom ( John 6:26,27; 4:7-14,35), with a coloring drawn from the incidents of the moment: “this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,” etc.; “every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light ... but he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God” ( John 3:19-21). Nicodemus was now a timid but candid inquirer; sincere so far as his belief extended. Fear of man holds back many from decision for Christ ( John 7:13; 9:22; 12:42,43; 5:44; Proverbs 29:25; contrast Isaiah 51:7,8; 66:5; Acts 5:41). Where real grace is, however, Jesus does “not quench the smoking flax.” Many of Nicodemus’ fellow rulers attributed Jesus’ miracles to Beelzebub; Nicodemus on the contrary avows “ we (including others besides himself) know Thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles which Thou doest, except God be with him.” Nicodemus was probably one of the many who had “seen His miracles on the Passover feast day, and believed (in a superficial way, but in Nicodemus it ultimately became a deep and lasting faith) when they saw” ( John 2:23,24); but “Jesus did not commit Himself unto them ... for He knew what was in man,” as He shows now in dealing with Nicodemus. Recognition of the divine miracle. working Teacher is not enough for seeing the kingdom of God, Jesus with a twice repeated Amen solemnly declares; there must be new birth from above (margin John 3:3,5,7), “of water (the outward sign) and of the Spirit” (the essential thing, not inseparably joined to the water baptism: Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38 (see BAPTISM )), so that, as an infant just born, the person is a “new creature”; compare Naaman the type, Kings 5:14; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ezekiel 36:25,26. For, being fleshly by birth, we must continue fleshly until being born of the Spirit we become spiritual ( John 3:6). Nature can no more east out nature than Satan cast out Satan. Like the mysterious growth of the child in the womb, and like “the wind” whose motions we cannot control but know only its effects, “the sound,” etc., so is the new birth ( John 3:8; Ecclesiastes 11:5; 1 Corinthians 2:11). Such was the beginning and growth of the new life in Nicodemus ( Mark 4:27). Regeneration and its fruits are inseparable; where that is, these are ( 1 John 3:9; 5:1,4). Nicodemus viewed Jesus’ solemn declaration as a natural man, “how can these things be?” ( John 3:4,9; compare 6:52,60; 1 Corinthians 2:14). Yet he was genuinely open to conviction, for Christ unfolds to him fully His own divine glory as having “come down from heaven,” and as even then while speaking to him “being in heaven” in His divine nature; also God’s love in giving His Son, and salvation through the Son who should be lifted up, as the brazen serpent was, to all who look to Him in faith, and condemnation to unbelievers. (2) A sincere but as yet weak believer. The next stage in Nicodemus’ spiritual history appears John 7:45-53. Naturally timid, Nicodemus nevertheless remonstrates with bigots. The Pharisees, chagrined at the failure of their officers to apprehend Jesus, said, “why have ye not brought Him?” They replied, “never man spoke like this man.” The Pharisees retorted, “are ye also deceived? surely none of the rulers or the Pharisees have believed on Him, have they? (Greek) But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.” Here one who, as they thought, should have stood by them and echoed their language, ventures to cast a doubt on their proceedings: “doth our law judge any before it hear him and know what he doeth?” (compare Leviticus 19:15; Exodus 23:1). Indignantly they ask, “art thou also of Galilee? ... out of Galilee hath arisen (Greek) no prophet.” Spite made them to ignore Jonah and Nahum. John marks the spiritual advance in Nicodemus by contrasting his first coming “by night” ( John 7:50). He now virtually confesses Jesus, though in actual expression all he demands is fair play for an injured Person. As before he was an anxious inquirer, so now he is a decided though timid believer. (3) The third stage is ( John 19:39) when he appears as a bold and strong believer, the same Nicodemus (as John again reminds us) as “came at the first to Jesus by night.” When even the twelve shrank from the danger to be apprehended from the mob who had clamored for Jesus’ crucifixion, and whose appetite for blood might not yet be sated, and when Christ’s cause seemed hopeless, the once timid Nicodemus shows extraordinary courage and faith Christ’s crucifixion, which shook the faith of others, only confirms his. He remembers now Jesus had said He “must be lifted up,” like the brazen “serpent,” that all believers in Him might have eternal life. So Nicodemus had the honour of wrapping His sacred body in linen with 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes, in company, with Joseph of Arimathea. Christ’s resurrection richly rewarded the faith of him who stumbled not at His humiliation. Compare on the spiritual lesson Matthew 12:20; Zechariah 4:10; Proverbs 4:18. Like Mary who “anointed Christ’s body to the burying,” “what Nicodemus did is and shall be spoken of for a memorial of him wheresoever the gospel is preached throughout the whole world.” Where real desire after the Saviour exists, it will in the end overcome the evil of the heart, and make a man strong in faith through the Holy Spirit. The Talmud tells of a Nicodemus ben Gorion who lived until the fall of Jerusalem, a Pharisee, wealthy, pious, and of the Sanhedrin; bearing originally a name borne by one of the five rabbinical disciples of Christ (Taanith, f. 19, Sanhedrin f. 43); and that his family fell into squalid poverty.

    NICOLAITANS Revelation 2:6,14,15. Irenaeus (Haer. 1:26, section 3) and Tertullian (Praescr. Haeret. 46) explain, followers of Nicolas one of the seven ( Acts 6:3,5) as there was a Judas among the twelve; confounding the later Gnostic Nicolaitans with those of Michaelis explains Nicolas (conqueror of the people) is the Greek for the Hebrew Balsam (“destroyer of the people,” bela’ am ); as we find both the Hebrew and Greek names, Abaddon, Apollyon; Satan, devil. A symbolical name. Lightfoot suggests a Hebrew interpretation, nikola , “let us eat”; compare 1 Corinthians 15:32. Not a sect, but professing Christians who, Balsam like, introduce a false freedom, i.e. licentiousness. A reaction from Judaism, the first danger of the church. The Jerusalem council ( Acts 15:20,29), while releasing Gentile converts from legalism, required their abstinence from idol meats and concomitant fornication. The Nicolaitans abused Paul’s doctrine of the grace of God into lasciviousness; such seducers are described as followers of Balsam, also in 2 Peter 2:12,13,15-19; Jude 1:4,7,8,11 (“the son of Bosor” for Beor, to characterize him as “son of carnality”: bosor = flesh). They persuaded many to escape obloquy by yielding as to “eating idol meats,” which was then a test of faithfulness (compare 1 Corinthians and 1 Corinthians 10:25-33); they even joined in the “fornication” of the idol feasts, as though permitted by Christ’s “law of liberty.” The “lovefeasts” ( Jude 1:12) thus became pagan orgies. The Nicolaitans combined evil “deeds” which Jesus “hates” with evil “doctrine.”

    NICOLAS Of the seven. Probably having no connection with the Nicolaitans, though Epiphanius (adv. Haer. i. 2, section 25) represents him as sinking into corrupt doctrine and practice. Clemens Alex. (Strom. iii. 4) says that Nicolas, when reproached by the apostles with jealousy, offered his wife to any to marry, but that Nicolas lived a pure life and used to quote Matthias’ saying, “we ought to abuse (i.e. mortify) the flesh.” No church honours Nicolas, but neither do they honor four others of the seven men.

    Confounders of Nicolas with the Nicolaitans probably originated these legends.

    NICOPOLIS = “city of victory”. In Epirus, founded by Augustus to celebrate his victory at Actium. On a peninsula W. of the bay of Actium. Titus 3:12 was written from Corinth in the autumn, Paul then purposing a journey through Aetolia and Acarnania into “Epirus,” there “to winter”; a good center for missionary tours N. to Illyricum ( Romans 15:19) and Dalmatia ( Timothy 4:10).

    NIGER Surname of Simeon, second of the five teachers and prophets of the Antioch church ( Acts 13:1). = black. Probably an African proselyte, because he is associated with Lucius of Cyrene in Africa. His Hebrew name, Simeon, shows his Hebrew extraction.

    NIGHT (See DAY ). Figuratively: (1) the time of distress ( Isaiah 21:12). (2) Death, the time when life’s day is over ( John 9:4). (3) Children of night, i.e. dark deeds, filthiness, which shuns daylight ( Thessalonians 5:5). (4) The present life, compared with the believer’s bright life to come ( Romans 13:12).

    NIGHT HAWK Leviticus 11:16; Deuteronomy 14:15. Tachmas, “the violent one.”

    Rather “the owl.” Bochart and Gesenius take it “the male ostrich” and bath hayanah (KJV “owl”) “the female ostrich.” But the Septuagint and the Vulgate translated it “owl.” The Arabic chamash is “to tear a face with claws.” The “oriental owl” (Hasselquist), “the nightjar,” appearing only in twilight, and passing and repassing round a tree to catch large insects; hence regarded with superstitious awe. The white barn owl (Strix flammea) may be the one meant, since it has gleaming blue eyes, corresponding to the Septuagint Greek glaux, whereas others have yellow or orange-colored eyes.

    NILE Not so named in the Bible; related to Sanskrit Nilah, “blue.” The Nile has two names: the sacred name Hapi, or Hapi-mu, “the abyss of waters,” Hp- ro-mu, “the waters whose source is hidden”; and the common name Yeor Aor, Aur (Atur): both Egyptian names. Shihor, “the black river,” is its other Bible name, Greek Melas or Kmelas, Latin Melo, darkened by the fertilizing soil which it deposits at its overflow ( Jeremiah 2:18). The hieroglyphic name of Egypt is Kam, “black.” Egyptians distinguished between Hapi-res, the southern Nile of Upper Egypt, and Hapi-meheet, the northern Nile of Lower Egypt. Hapi-ur, “the high Nile,” fertilizes the land; the Nile low brought famine. The Nile god is painted red to represent the inundation, but blue at other times. An impersonation of Noah (Osburn).

    Famine and plenty are truly represented as coming up out of the river in Pharaoh’s dream (Genesis 41). Therefore they worshipped it, and the plague on its waters (see EGYPT , see EXODUS ) was a judgment on that idolatry ( Exodus 7:21; <19A529> Psalm 105:29). The rise begins at the summer solstice; the flood is two months later, after the autumnal equinox, at its height pouring through cuttings in the banks which are higher than the rest of the soil and covering the valley, and lasting three months. ( Amos 8:8; 9:5; Isaiah 23:3).

    The appointed S.W. bound of Palestine ( Joshua 13:3; 1 Chronicles 13:5; 2 Chronicles 9:26; Genesis 15:18). 1 Kings 8:65 “stream” (nachal , not “river”). Its confluent is still called the Blue river; so Nilah = “darkblue,” or “black.” The plural “rivers” is used for the different mouths, branches, and canals of the Nile. The tributaries are further up than Egypt ( Psalm 78:44; Exodus 7:18-20; Isaiah 7:18; 19:6; Ezekiel 29:3; 30:12). “The stream (nachal ) of Egypt” seems distinct ( Isaiah 27:12), now “wady el Arish” (where was the frontier city Rhino-corura) on the confines of Palestine and Egypt ( Joshua 15:4,47, where for “river” should stand “stream,” [nachal ]). Smith’s Bible Dictionary suggests that [nachal ] is related to the Nile and is that river; but the distinctness with which [nachal ] is mentioned, and not as elsewhere Sihor, or “river,” Ye’or , forbids the identification. “The rivers of Ethiopia” ( Isaiah 18:1,2), Cush, are the Atbara, the Astapus or Blue river, between which two rivers Meroe (the Ethiopia meant in Isaiah 18) lies, and the Astaboras or White Nile; these rivers conjoin in the one Nile, and wash down the soil along their banks from Upper Egypt, and deposit it on Lower Egypt; compare “whose land (Upper Egypt) the rivers have spoiled” or “cut up” or “divided.”

    The Nile is called “the sea” ( Isaiah 19:5), for it looks a sea at the overflow; the Egyptians still call it El Bahr “the sea” ( Nahum 3:8). Its length measured by its course is probably 3,700 miles, the longest in the world. Its bed is cut through layers of nummulitic limestone (of which the pyramids of Ghizeh are built, full of nummulites, which the Arabs call “Pharaoh’s beans”), sandstone under that, breccia verde under that, azoic rocks still lower, with red granite and syenite rising through all the upper strata at the first cataract. Sir Samuel Baker has traced its (the White Nile’s) source up to the Tanganyika, Victoria, and Albert Nyanza lakes, filled with the melting snows from the mountains and the periodical equatorial heavy rains. The Hindus call its source Amana, the name of a region N.E. of the Nyanza. The shorter confluent, the Blue river, is what brings down from the Abyssinian mountains the alluvial soil that fertilizes Egypt. The two join at Khartoom, the capital of Soodan, the black country under Egypt’s rule. The Atbara falls into the main stream further N. The river thenceforth for 2,300 miles receives no tributary. Through the breaking down of a barrier at Silsilis or at the first cataract, the river is so much below the level of the valley in lower Nubia that it does not overflow on the land. On the confines of Upper Egypt it forms two cataracts, the lower near Syene. Thence it runs 500 miles onward. A short way below Cairo and the pyramids it parts into two branches, bounding the Delta E. and W. and falling into the Mediterranean. Always diffusing its waters, and never receiving any accession of water from sky or tributary, its volume at Cairo is but half what it is at the cataract of Syene. The water is sweet, especially when turbid. Stagnant waters left by the overflow in Nubia’s sandy flats are carried into the Nile by the new overflow, thus the water is at first a green shiny color and unwholesome for two or three days. Twelve days later it becomes red like blood, and is then most wholesome and refreshing; and all living beings, men, beasts, birds, fish, and insects are gladdened by its advent.

    Egypt having only a little rain ( Zechariah 14:17,18) depends on the Nile for its harvests; see in Deuteronomy 11:10-12 the contrast to the promised land, where the husbandman has to look up to heaven for rain instead of looking down, irrigating the land. with watercourses turned by the foot as in Egypt (a type of the spiritual state of the two respectively), and where Jehovah’s eyes are upon it from the beginning to the end of the year. The waters reach their lowest in nine months groin their highest point in the autumn equinox; they remain stationary for a few days and then begin to rise again. If they reach no higher than 22 ft. at the island Rhoda, between Cairo and Ghizeh, where a nilometer is kept, the rise is insufficient; if 27, good; if more, the flood injures the crops, and plague and murrain ensue. The further S. one goes, the earlier the inundation begins; at Khartoom as early as April. The seven years’ famine under Joseph is confirmed by the seven years’ famine in the reign of Fatimee Khaleefeh El-Mustansir bi-’llah, owing to the failure of water. The universal irrigation maintained, even during the low season of the Nile, made the results of failure of its waters more disastrous then than now. The mean rise above the lowest level registered at Semne, near the second cataract, in Moeris’ reign, 2000 B.C., was 62 ft. 6 inches, i.e. 23 ft. inches above the present rise which is 38 ft. 8 inches (Lepsius in the Imperial Dictionary) The average rate of deposit in Egypt now is four and a half inches in the century. But other causes were at work formerly; the danger of inferences as to man’s antiquity from such data is amusingly illustrated by Homer’s (Philippians Transac. 148) inference from pottery found at a great depth that man must have lived there in civilization 13,000 years ago, which Bunsen accepted! Unfortunately for the theory the Greek honeysuckle was found on some of it. The burnt brick still lower, on which he laid stress, was itself enough to have confuted him, for burnt brick was first introduced into Egypt under Rome (see Quarterly Revue, April, 1859).

    Champollion holds no Egyptian monument to be older than 2,200 B.C.

    In Upper Egypt bore yellow mountains, a few hundred feet high, and pierced with numerous tombs, bound the N. on both sides; this gives point to Israel’s sneer, “because there were no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?” ( Exodus 14:11). In Lower Egypt the land spreads out on either side of the Nile in a plain bounded E. and W. by the desert. At the inundation the Nile rushes along in a mighty torrent, made to appear more violent by the waves which the N. wind, blowing continually then, raises up ( Jeremiah 46:7,8). Two alone of the seven noted branches of the mouth (of which the Pelusiac was the most eastern) remain, the Damietta (Phanitic) and Rosetta (Bolbitine) mouths, originally artificial (Herodotus ii. 10), fulfilling Isaiah 19:5 and probably Isaiah 11:11-15; Ezekiel 30:12. The Nile in the numerous canals besides the river itself formerly “abounded with incredible numbers of all sorts of fish” (Diodorus Siculus i.; Numbers 11:5). These too, as foretold ( Isaiah 19:8-10), have failed except about lake Menzaleh. So also the papyrus reeds, from whence paper receives its designation, flags, reeds, and the lotus with its fragrant and various colored flowers, have almost disappeared as foretold ( Isaiah 19:6,7), the papyrus boats no more skim its surface ( Isaiah 18:2).

    NIMRAH = leopard, or clear water. 1. Numbers 32:3,36, a city in “the land of Jazer and of Gilead.” (See BETHNIMRAH ). NOW Nimrun; E. of Jordan, E.N.E. from Jericho. The name is from leopards infesting the thick wood between the inner and outer banks of the Jordan, which overflows at times into that intermediate space and drives the wild beast out of its lair ( Jeremiah 49:19; 50:44). In Isaiah 15:6 “the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate ... there is no green thing”; even the city Nimrah, whose name means “limpid waters,” which came down from the mountains of Gilead near Jordan, is without water, so that herbage is gone ( Jeremiah 48:34), i.e. “the well watered pastures of Nimrah shall be desolate.” 2. Another Nimrah is in Moab, near the wady Beni Hammed, E. of the Dead Sea near its southern end, Khirbet en (ruins of) Nemeireh. 3. The plural,NIMRIM, thus would comprise both the N. of Gad and the N. of Moab. see BETHNIMRA is perhaps = see BETHABARA beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing ( John 1:28); for the pure water of Bethnimra, its situation in the center of “the region round about Jordan,” and its accessibleness from “Jerusalem and Judaea” all accord. Tradition makes it the scene of Israel’s “passage” over Jordan; this would cause Bethabara (house of passage) to be substituted for Bethnimra. The Septuagint has Bethanabra, a link between the two names. see BETHBARA is distinct ( Judges 7:24).

    NIMROD Cush’s son or descendant, Ham’s grandson ( Genesis 10:8). “Nimrod began to be a mighty one in the earth,” i.e. he was the first of Noah’s descendants who became renowned for bold and daring deeds, the Septuagint “giant” (compare Genesis 6:4,13; Isaiah 13:3). “He was a mighty hunter before Jehovah,” so that it passed into a proverb or the refrain of ballads in describing hunters and warriors, “even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before Jehovah.” Not a mere Hebrew superlative, but as in Genesis 27:7 “bless thee before Jehovah,” i.e. as in His presence, Psalm 56:13 “walk before God.” Septuagint translated “against Jehovah”; so in Numbers 16:2 lipneey , “before,” means opposition. The Hebrew name Nimrod means “let us rebel,” given by his contemporaries to Nimrod as one who ever had in his mouth such words to stir up his band to rebellion. Nimrod subverted the existing patriarchal order of society by setting up a chieftainship based on personal valor and maintained by aggression. The chase is an image of war and a training for it. The increase of ferocious beasts after the flood and Nimrod’s success in destroying them soon gathered a band to him. From being a hunter of beasts he became a hunter of men. “In defiance of Jehovah,” as virtually” before Jehovah” ( Proverbs 15:11) means, Nimrod, a Hamite intruded into Shem’s portion, violently set up an empire of conquest, beginning with Babel, ever after the symbol of the world power in its hostility to God. From that land he went forth to Asshur and builded Nineveh. The later Babylonians spoke Semitic, but the oldest inscriptions are Turanian or Cushite. Tradition points to Babylon’s Cushite origin by making Belus son of Poseidon (the sea) and Libya (Ethiopia): Diodorus Siculus i. 28. Oannes the fish god, Babylon’s civilizer, rose out of the Red Sea (Syncellus, Chronog. 28). “Cush” appears in the Babylonian names Cissia, Cuthah, Chuzistan (Susiana). Babylon’s earliest alphabet in oldest inscriptions resembles that of Egypt and Ethiopia; common words occur, as Mirikh, the Meroe of Ethiopia, the Mars of Babylon. Though Arabic is Semitic, the Mahras’ language in southern Arabia is non-Semitic, and is the modern representative of the ancient Himyaric whose empire dates as far back as 1750 B.C. The Mahras is akin to the Abyssinian Galla language, representing the Cushite or Ethiopic of old; and the primitive Babylonian Sir H. Rawlinson from inscriptions decides to resemble both. The writing too is pictorial, as in the earliest ages of Egypt. The Egyptian and Ethiopic hyk (in hyk-sos, the shepherd kings), a “king,” in Babylonian and Susianian is khak. “Tyrhak” is common to the royal lists of Susiana and Ethiopia, as “Nimrod” is to those of Babylon and Egypt. Ra is the Cushite supreme god of Babylon as Ra is the sun god in Egypt. (See BABEL ).

    Nimrod was the Bel, Belus, or Baal, i.e. lord of Babel, its founder.

    Worshipped (as the monuments testify) as Bilu Nipra or Bel Nimrod, i.e, the god of the chase; the Talmudical Nopher, now Niffer. Josephus (Ant. 1:4) and the tortures represent him as building, in defiance of Jehovah, the Babel tower. If so (which his rebellious character makes likely) he abandoned Babel for a time after the miraculous confusion of tongues, and went and founded Nineveh. Eastern tradition pictures hint a heaven- storming giant chained by God, among the constellations, as Orion, Hebrew Keciyl , “fool” or “wicked.” Sargon in an inscription says: “350 kings of Assyria hunted the people of Bilu-Nipru”; probably = the Babylon of Nimrod, nipru meaning hunter, another form of Nebrod which is the Septuagint form of Nimrod. His going to Assyria ( Genesis 10:10,11,12) accords with Micah’s designating Assyria “the hind of Nimrod” ( Micah 5:6). Also his name appears in the palace mound of Nimrud. The fourfold group of cities which Nimrod founded in Babylonia answer to the fourfold group in Assyria. So Kiprit Arba, “king of the four races,” is an early title of the first monarchs of Babylon; Chedorlaomer appears at the head of four peoples; “king of the four regions” occurs in Nineveh inscriptions too; after Sargon’s days four cities had the pre-eminence (Rawlinson, 1:435,438,447).

    The early seat of empire was in the southern part of Babylonia, where Niffer represents either Babel or Calneh, Warka Erech, Mugheir Ur, Senkereh Ellasar. The founder (about 2200 B.C.) or embellisher of those towns is called Kinzi Akkad, containing the name Accad of Genesis 10:1. Tradition mentions a Belus king of Nineveh, earlier than Ninus; Shamas Iva (1860 B.C.), son of Ismi Dagon king of Babylon, founded a temple at Kileh Shergat (= Asshur); so that the Scripture account of Babylon originating the Assyrian cities long before the Assyrian empire of the 13th century B.C. is confirmed. (Layard, Nineveh 2:231). Sir H.

    Rawlinson conjectures that Nimrod denotes not an individual but the “settlers,” and that Rehoboth, Calah, etc., are but sites of buildings afterward erected; but the proverb concerning Nimrod and the history imply an individual; the Birs (temple) Nimrud, the Sukr (dam across the Tigris) el Nimrud, and the mound Nimrud, all attest the universal recognition of him as the founder of the empire.

    NIMSHI Grandfather of Jehu, and father of Jehoshaphat ( 2 Kings 9:2). “Son” means grandson or descendant ( 1 Kings 19:16).

    NINEVEH (See ASSYRIA ). Nimrod builded Nineveh ( Genesis 10:11); Herodotus (i. 7) makes Ninus founder of Nineveh. and grandson of Belus founder of Babylon; which implies that it was from Babylon, as Scripture says, that Nineveh’s founder came. Nin is the Assyrian Hercules. Their mythology also makes Ninus son of Nimrod. see JONAH is the next Scripture after Genesis 10 that mentions Nineveh. Sennacherib after his host’s destruction “went and dwelt at Nineveh” ( 2 Kings 19:36). Jonah ( Jonah 3:3) describes it as an “exceeding great city of three days’ journey” round (i.e. 60 miles, at 20 miles per day) with 120,000 children “who knew not their right hand from their left” ( Jonah 4:11), which would make a population in all of 600,000 or even one million. Diodorus Siculus (ii. 3), agreeing with Jonah’s “three days’ journey,” makes the circumference miles, pastures and pleasure grounds being included within, from whence Jonah appositely ( Jonah 4:11) mentions “much cattle.” G. Smith thinks that the ridges enclosing Nebi Yunus and Koyunjik (the mounds called “tels” opposite Mosul) were only the walls of inner Nineveh, the city itself extending beyond to the mound Yarenijah. The parallelogram in Assyria covered with remains has Khorsabad N.E.; Koyunjik and Nebi Yunus (Nineveh in the narrow sense) near the Tigris N.W.; Nimrud and Athur between the Tigris and Zab, N.W.; and Karamles at a distance inward from the Zab S.E. From Koyunjik to Nimrud is 18 miles; from Khorsabad to Karamles 18; from Koyunjik to Khorsabad 13 or 14; from Nimrud to Karamles 14. The length was greater than the breadth; so Jonah 3:4 “entered into the city a day’s journey.” The longer sides were 150 furlongs each, the shorter 90 furlongs, the whole circuit 480 or 460 miles. Babylon had a circuit of only 385 miles (Clitarchus in Diod. ii. 7, Strabo xvi. 737).

    The walls were 100 ft. high, with 1,500 towers, and broad enough for three chariots abreast. Shereef Khan is the northern extremity of the collection of mounds on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and is five and a half miles N. of Koyunjik. There is also an enclosure, 5,000 yards in circuit, once enclosed by a moat at Selamivah three miles N. of Nimrud. Nimrud in inscriptions is called Kalkhu = Calah in Genesis 10:11; Khorsabad is called Sargina from Sargon. At Kileh Sherghat is the presumed original capital,” Asshur,” 60 miles S. of Mosul, on the right or western bank of the Tigris.

    Sennacherib first made Nineveh the capital.

    Nineveh was at first only a fort to keep the Babylonian conquests around.

    It subsequently, with Rehoboth, Ir, Calah, and Resen, formed one great city, “Nineveh” in the larger sense. Thothmes III of Egypt is mentioned in inscriptions as capturing Nineveh. Phraortes the Mede perished in attempting to do so (Herodotus i. 102). Cyaxares his successor, after at first raising the siege owing to a Scythic invasion (Herodotus i. 103,106) 625 B.C., finally succeeded in concert with the Babylonian Nabopolassar, 606 B.C., Saracus the last king, Esarhaddon’s grandson, set fire to the palace and perished in the flames, as Ctesias states, and as the marks of fire on the walls still confirm. So Nahum 3:13,15, “fire shall devour thy bars.” Charred wood, calcined alabaster, and heat splintered figures abound. Nahum (Nahum 2) and Zephaniah ( Zephaniah 2:13-15) foretold its doom; and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 31) shortly after attests the completeness of its overthrow, as a warning of the fatal issue of pride, Isaiah 10:7-14: Diodorus (ii. 27) says there was a prophecy that Nineveh should not fall until the river became its enemy. The immediate cause of capture was the city walls destruction by a sudden rise in the river.

    So Nahum ( Nahum 1:8; 2:6,8) foretold “with an over running flood He will make an utter end of the place;” “the gates of the rivers shall be opened and the palace shall be dissolved,” namely, by the inundation; “Nineveh is of old like a pool of water (though of old defended by water around), yet (its inhabitants) shall flee.” There was a floodgate at the N.W. angle of the city, which was swept away; and the water pouring into the city “dissolved” the palace foundation platform, of sundried bricks.

    Nineveh then totally disappears from history; it never rose again. Nahum ( Nahum 1:10; 3:11) accords with Diodorus Siculus that the final assault was made during a drinking bout of king and courtiers: “while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry ... Thou shalt be drunken,” etc. The treasures accumulated by many kings were rifled, as Nahum foretells; “take ye the spoil of silver ... gold, for there is none end of the store;” the people were “scattered upon the mountains” ( Nahum 3:18). He calls it “the city of bloods,” truly ( Nahum 3:1); the wall carvings represent the king in the act of putting out his captives’ eyes, and dragging others by a hook through the lips and a cord. Other cities have revived, but Nahum foretells “there is no healing of thy bruise” ( Nahum 3:19). Lucian of Samosara near the Euphrates asserts none in his day even knew where Nineveh stood. Its former luxury is embodied in the statue of Sardanapalus as a dancer, which he directed (Plutarch says) to be erected after his death, with the motto “eat, drink, enjoy lust ... the rest is nothing!”

    The language of its inscriptions is Semitic, for the main population was a colony of Asshur, son of Shem; and besides the prevalent Semitic a Turanian dialect has been found on tablets at Koyunjik, derived from its original Cushite founder Nimrod of Babylon and his band. At Nimrud the oldest palaces are in the N.W. grainer, the most recent at the S.E. The table of Karnak in Egypt (1490 B.C.) connects Niniu (Nineveh) with Naharaima = Naharaim = Mesopotamia. Sir H. Rawlinson published an Assyrian canon from the monuments. The first kings reigned when the early Chaldee empire had its seat in lower Mesopotamia. Asshur-bil-nisis, Buzur Ashur, and Asshur Vatila from 1653 to 1550 B.C., when Purnapuriyas and Durri-galazu were the last of the early Chaldaean monarchy.

    Then Bel Sumill Kapi founds a dynasty after a chasm of two centuries. “Bellush, Pudil, and Ivalush” are inscribed on bricks at Kileh Sherghat, 1350-1270 B.C. Shalmaneser I, son of Ivalush I, is mentioned on a genealogical slab as founder of Nimrud. Tiglath-i-nin his son inscribes himself” conqueror of Babylon”; Sargon finally conquered it. Tiglath-inin’s successor Ivalush II (1250 B.C.) enlarged the empire and closes the dynasty. By a revolution Nin pala Zira ascends the throne, “the king of the commencement” as the Tiglath Pileser cylinder calls him. Then Asshurdahil, Mutaggil Nebo, Asshur-ris-ilim (conqueror of a Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon), Tiglath Pileser I (subdued Meshech), Asshur-belkala; a blank of two centuries follows when David’s and Solomon’s extensive dominion has place. Asshur-iddin-akhi begins the next dynasty (950-930 B.C.).

    Asshur-danin-il and Iralush III follow; then Tiglath-i-nin; Asshur-idanni-pal next after ten victorious campaigns built a palace at Calah, 360 ft. long by 300 broad, with man lions at the gateways, and by a canal brought the Zab waters to Calah; he was “lord from the upper Tigris to Lebanon and the great sea.” His son Shalmaneser II took tribute from Tyre and Sidon and fought Benhadad and Hazael. A picture represents him receiving from Jewish captives tribute of Jehu king of Israel, gold, pearl, and oil. He built the central palace of Nimrud, opened by Layard. The black marble obelisk (the British Museum) records his exploits and Jehu’s name. Then Shamas- Iva, Iralush IV and his wife Semiramis, a Babylonian princess, Shalmaneser III, Asshur-danin-il II, Asshur-lush. Then Tiglath Pileser II, probably Pul, usurps the throne by revolution, for he does not mention his father as others do, 744 B.C. Under him “Menahem” appears in inscriptions, and “tribute from the house of Omri” i.e. Samaria ( 2 Kings 15:19,29). Ahaz enlisted him as ally against Samaria and Damascus; Tiglath Pileser conquered them and received tribute from Jahu-khazi = Ahaz. An inscription in the British Museum records Rezin’s death (Rawlinson’s Monarchies, 2:398,399). Tiglath Pileser built a new palace at Nimrud.

    Then Shalmaneser IV (not in the canon) ( 2 Kings 17:3,4) assailed Samaria, upon Hoshea’s leaguing with So of Egypt, and withholding tribute. In a chamber at Koyunjik was found among other seals now in British Museum the seal of So or Sabacho and that of Sennacherib affixed to a treaty between them, of which the parchment has perished. Sargon (meaning king de facto) usurped the throne and took Samaria (he says in inscriptions) in his first year; he built the palace at Khorsabad. see SENNACHERIB his son succeeded 704 B.C. and reigned 24 years. He built the palace at the S.W. corner of Koyunjik, covering 100 acres almost, excavated by Layard. Of it 60 courts, halls (some 150 ft. square), and passages (one 200 ft. long) have been discovered. The human headed lions and bulls at its many portals are some 20 ft. high. Esarhaddon succeeded, as he styles himself “king of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Meroe, and Ethiopia;” = see ASNAPPER ; he imprisoned see MANASSEH . He built a temple at the S.W. corner of Nimrud, and a palace at Nebi Yunus. Asshurbani- pal succeeded, a hunter and warrior; his library of clay tablets, religious, legal, historical, and scientific, is in British Museum. He built a palace at Koyunjik, near Sennacherib’s. His son, the last king, Asshuremid- ilin or Asshur-izzir-pal (= Saracus or Sardanapalus), built the S.E. edifice at Nimrud.

    The palace walls were from five to fifteen feet thick, erected on an artificial platform 30 to 50 ft. above the surrounding level, and paneled with slabs of coarse alabaster sculptured and inscribed. The plaster above the alabaster wainscoting was ornamented with figures; the pavement was of alabaster or flat kiln-burnt bricks resting on bitumen and fine sand. The Nimrud grand hall is only 35 ft. broad (though 160 ft. long), to admit of roofing with the short beams to be had. The ceilings were gaily colored. The portals were guarded by colossal human headed bulls; thence was an ascent to a higher platform, and on the top a gateway, sometimes 90 ft. wide, guarded also by winged bulls; inside was the great door, opening into a sculpture adorned passage; then the inner court, then the state apartments.

    There may have been an upper story of sun-dried bricks and wood, for there are no stone or marble columns or burnt brick remains. The large halls may have been roofless, a ledge projecting round the four sides and supporting an awning as shelter against rain and sun. However Zephaniah 2:14 mentions “the cedar work,” cedars from Lebanon may have reached from wall to wall with openings for light. The chambers were built round the central hall.

    In Nahum 2:3 translated “the chariots (shall be furnished) with fire flashing scythes,” literally, “with the fire of scythes” or “iron weapons.” No traces of such scythe-armed chariots are found in Assyria; either then it applies to the besiegers, or “the chariots shall come with the glitter of steel weapons.” The “red shield” ( Nahum 2:3) accords with the red painting of the shields and dresses in the sculptures. The king, with beardless eunuch behind holding an umbrella and the winged symbol of Deity above, appears in various carvings; he was despotic. Kitchen operations, husbandry and irrigation implements are represented also.

    Religion. The man bull and man lion answer to Nin and Nergal, the gods of war and the chase. Nisroch the eagle-headed god and Dagon the fishheaded god often appear in the sculptures. The sacred tree answers to Asheerah, “the grove” ( 2 Kings 21:7). The chief gods were Asshur, Bel, Beltis or Myletta, Sin the moon, Shamash (Hebrew shemesh ) the sun, Vul or Iva the thunder wielder, Nin, etc. “Witchcrafts” and “whoredoms” in connection with Nineveh’s worship are denounced by Nahum 3:4. The immense palaces, the depositories of the national records, were at once the gods’ temple and the king’s abode, for he was the religious head of the nation and the favorite of the gods.

    Language and writing. Clay cylinders pierced through so as to turn round and present their sides to the reader, bricks, and slabs are the materials inscribed on. The wedge (cuneus from whence “cuneiform”) in various forms and directions, upright, horizontal, and diagonal, is the main element of the 250 distinct alphabetical characters. This mode of writing prevailed for 2000 years B.C. in Assyria, Babylonia, and eastern Persia. The alphabet is syllabic. Determinatives are prefixed to some words, as | prefixed marks the word as a man’s name; |-- marks the plural; || marks the dual. It is related to Hebrew, thus, u “and” is the Hebrew ve ; ki is in both “if”; anaku = Hebrew ‘anoki “I”; ‘atta’ in both is “thou”; ‘abu = ‘ab (Hebrew), “father”; nahar in both is a “river.” Feminine nouns end in -it or -at; Hebrew end with -ith. Sh is the shortened relative pronoun “who, which,” as in later Hebrew; mah in both asks a question. The verb as in Hebrew is conjugated by pronominal suffixes. The roots are biliteral, the Hebrew both biliteral and triliteral. Mit , “to die”; Hebrew muth . Sib , “to dwell”; Hebrew yashab . Tiglath means “adoration.” Pal , “son,” the Aramaic bar ; sat “king”; ris, Hebrew rosh , “head.” The northwestern palace of Nineveh has the longest inscription; it records concerning Sardanapalus II.

    Sennacherib’s inscription concerning Hezekiah, on two man-headed bulls from Koyunjik, is the most interesting. Bas-reliefs of the siege of see LACHISH accompany it. By a tentative process recurring proper names were first deciphered by Grotefend, Rawlinson, Hincks, Fox Talbot, Oppert, etc., as in Darius’ inscription at Behistun. Parallel parts of the same inscription in snorter language (as the hieroglyphics and Greek on the Rosetta stone enabled Champollion to discover the former) verified the results, and duplicate phrases brought, out the meaning of words.

    TOMBS. Chaldaea is as full of tombs as Assyria is void of them. Probably Chaldaea was the burial place of the Assyrian kings; Arrian (Exped. Alex. 7:22) states that their tombs were in the marshes S. of Babylon.

    ART,COMMERCE. Egyptian art is characterized by calm repose, Assyrian art by energy and action. Egyptian architecture is derived from a stone prototype, Assyrian from a wooden one, in agreement with the physical features of the respective countries. Solomon’s temple and palace, with grand hall and chambers, paneled with slabs sculptured with trees, the upper part of the walls painted in various colors, the winged cherubim carved all round, the flowers and pomegranates, correspond to the Nineveh palaces in a great measure. Silk, blue clothes, and embroidered work were traded in by Nineveh’s merchants ( Ezekiel 27:23,24; Nahum 3:16).

    The Chaldaean Nestorians in the Kurdistan mountains and the villages near Mosul are the sole representatives of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.

    NISROCH The god of Nineveh, in whose temple Sennacherib was assassinated by his sons ( 2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 37:38). From nisr Arabic (Hebrew nesher , “eagle”), with the intensive och, “the great eagle.” The eagle headed human figure that overcomes the lion or bull, depicted in colossal size upon the walls and the portals, and in the groups upon the embroidered robes; a type of the supreme God. Philo Bybl. in Eusebius, Praepar. Evang. i. 10 says first Zoroaster taught that Ormuzd the Persian god was symbolized by the eagle’s head. The constellation Aquila represented it. Nisroch may be a corruption for Asarak, Assar (related to Asshur), an Assyrian god met with in many Assyrian proper names.

    Septuagint in many copies have for N. Asorach, Esorach, for which Josephus (Ant. 10:1, section 5) has Araskes. Sir H. Rawlinson says “Asshur had no temple in Nineveh in which Sennacherib could have been worshipping.” Jarchi explains Nisroch “a beam of Noah’s ark.” Nisroch is apparently the eagle headed winged figure, with cone in one hand and basket in the other, taken from the N.W. palace, Nimrud. G. Rawlinson says Nisr is not found with this meaning, and Nisroch nowhere in the inscriptions; Nisroch he regards as a corruption.

    NITRE (See FULLER ). Proverbs 25:20, “as vinegar upon nitre so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.” To the feelings of the heavy at heart songs are as grating and irritative as acid poured on alkali. Nitre is carbonate of soda or potash; mixed with oil it was used as “soap” (borit ): Jeremiah 2:22.

    NO = No Amon (margin, Nahum 3:8), rather than “populous No.” So Jeremiah 46:25, “the multitude,” rather “Amon of No.” So Ezekiel 30:14-16. Named from Amen, Thebes’ chief god (from whence the Greeks call it “the city of Zeus” or “Diospolis”). Appearing in many kings’ names, as Amenophis. Connected by some with Ham, Noah’s son, or Aman “the nourisher,” or Hamon “the sun god,” or Amon “the artificer.” Septuagint translated “the portion of Amon.” Inscriptions call him Amon-re, “Amon the sun.” A human figure with ram’s head, seated on a chair (see AMEN ).

    Nahum describes Thebes as “situate among the rivers” (including the canals watering the city) on both sides of the Nile, which no other town of ancient Egypt is. Ezekiel’s prophecy that it should be “rent asunder” is fulfilled to the letter, Amen’s vast temple lying shattered as if by an earthquake (30:16). Famed in Homer’s Iliad (ix. 381) for its “hundred gates,” but as no wall appears traceable either the reference is to the propylaea or portals of its numerous temples (Diod. Sicul., but warriors would not march through them), or else the surrounding mountains (100 of them pierced with catacombs and therefore called Beeban el Meluke, “the gates of the kings”) which being mutually detached form so many avenues between them into the city. But the general usage of walling towns favors the view that the walls have disappeared. Her “rampart was the sea, and her wall from (or, as Maurer, consisted of) the sea,” namely, the Nile ( Isaiah 19:5). Homer says it possessed 20,000 war chariots, which Diodorus Siculus confirms by saying there were 100 stables along the river capable of accommodating 200 horses each. Sargon after destroying Samaria attacked Hoshea’s ally, So or Sabacho II, and destroyed in part No-Amon or Thebes (Isaiah 20). “The monuments represent Sargon warring with Egypt and imposing tribute on the Pharaoh of the time, also Egypt as in that close connection with Ethiopia which Isaiah and Nahum imply” (G.

    Rawlinson).

    No is written Ni’a in the Assyrian inscriptions. Asshur-bani-pal twice took Thebes. “No,” if Semitic, is related to naah, “abode,” “pasture,” answering to Thebes’ low situation on a plain. The sacred name was Ha-Amen, “the abode of Amen”; the common name was Ap or Ape, “capital.” The feminine article prefixed made it Tape, Thape, Coptic Thabu, Greek Thebes. No hieroglyphics are found in it earlier than the sixth dynasty, three centuries later than Menes, a native of This in the Thebaid, the founder of Memphis. Diodorus states the circuit was 140 furlongs. Strabo (xvii. 47) describes the two colossal figures, “each a single stone, the one entire, the upper part of the other from the chair fallen, the result of an earthquake ( Ezekiel 30:16). Once a day a noise as of a slight blow issues from that part of the statue which remains still in the seat and on its base”: the vocal Memnon. The Nile’s deposit has accumulated to the depth of seven feet around them. It is two miles broad, four long; the four landmarks being Karnak and Luxor on the right bank, Quurnah and Medinet Haboo on the left. Temples and palaces extended along the left bank for two miles. First the Maneptheion palace or temple of Seti Oimenepthah of the 19th dynasty, a mile from the river. A mile S. is the so named Memnonium of Amenophis III, called Miamun or “Memnon,” really the Ramesseium of Rameses the Great, with his statue of a single block of syenite marble,75 ft. high, 887 tons weight, the king seated on his throne.

    The vocal Memnon and its fellow are a quarter of a mile further S.

    Somewhat S. of this is the S. Ramesseium, the magnificent palace temple of Rameses III, one of the ruins of Medinet Haboo. The columns are seven feet diameter at the base and 23 ft. round. Within the second and grand court stood a Christian church afterward. The right bank has the facade of Luxor facing the river. The chief entrance looks N. toward Karnak, with which once it was joined by an avenue more than a mile long, of sphinxes with rams’ heads and lions’ bodies (one is in the British Museum). Colossal statues of Rameses the Great are one on each side of the gateway. In front stood a pair of red granite obelisks, one of which now adorns the Place de la Concorde, Paris. The courts of the Karnak temple occupy 1,800 square feet, and its buildings represent every dynasty from Ptolemy Physcon, B.C., 2000 years backward. It is two miles in circumference. The grand hall has twelve central pillars,66 ft. high, 12 ft. diameter. On either side are seven rows, each column 42 ft. high, nine feet diameter. There are in all 134 pillars in an area 170 ft. by 329. The outer wall is 40 ft. thick at the base and 100 high. On it is represented Shishak’s expedition against Jerusalem and “the land of the king of Judah “under Rehoboam ( Kings 14:25; 2 Chronicles 12:2-9). It records also Tirhakah the Ethiopian’s exploits.

    In the 12th and 13th dynasties of Manetho, first, Theban kings appear.

    When the nomads from the N.E., the Hyksos or shepherd kings, invaded Egypt and fixed their capital at Memphis, a native dynasty was maintained in Thebes. Ultimately, the Hyksos were expelled and Thebes became the capital of all Egypt under the 18th dynasty, the city’s golden era. Thebes then swayed Libya and Ethiopia, and carried its victorious arms into Syria, Media, and Persia. It retained its supremacy for 500 years, to the close of the 19th dynasty, then under the 20th dynasty it began to decline. Sargon’s blow upon Thebes was inflicted early in Hezekiah’s reign. Nahum ( Nahum 3:8,10) in the latter part of that reign speaks of her being already “carried away into captivity, her young children dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets, lots cast for her honourable men, and all her great men bound in chains,” notwithstanding her having Ethiopia, Egypt, Put, and Lubim as “her strength and it was infinite,” and makes her a warning to Nineveh. A still heavier blow was dealt by Nebuchadnezzar, as Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 46:25,26) foretells: “Behold I will punish Anjou No and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and their kings. Afterward it shall be inhabited.”

    This last prophecy was fulfilled 40 years after Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Egypt, when under Cyrus it threw off the Babylonian yoke. So Ezekiel 29:10-15, “I will make ... Egypt ... waste ... from the tower of Syene (N.) even unto Ethiopia (the extreme S.) ... Yet at the end of 40 (the number expressing affliction and judgment, so the 40 days of the flood rains) years will I ... bring again the captivity of Egypt.” The Persian Cambyses gave the finishing blow to No-Amon’s greatness, leveling Rameses’ statue and setting fire to the temples and palaces. In vain the Ptolemies tried subsequently to restore its greatness. It now consists of Arab huts amidst stately ruins and drifting sands.

    NOADIAH 1. Ezra 8:33: weighed the temple gold and silver vessels brought from Babylon. 2. The prophetess, suborned by Sanballat and Tobiah to frighten Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 6:14; compare Ezekiel 13:17).

    NOAH Son of see LAMECH , grandson of Methuselah; tenth from Adam in Seth’s line. In contrast to the Cainite Lamech’s boast of violence with impunity, the Sethite Lamech, playing on Noah’s (= rest) name, piously looks for comfort (nachum ) through him from Jehovah who had “cursed the ground.” At 500 years old Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The phrase, “these are the generations of Noah” ( Genesis 6:9) marks him as the patriarch of his day. The cause of the flood is stated Genesis 6:1-3, etc. “The sons of God (the Sethites, adopted by grace, alone keeping themselves separate from the world’s defilements, ‘called by the name of Jehovah’ as His sons: Genesis 4:26 margin, or as KJV; while the Cainites by erecting a city and developing worldly arts were laying the foundation for the kingdom of this world, the Sethites by unitedly ‘calling on Jehovah’s name’ founded the church made up of God’s children, Galatians 3:26) saw the daughters of men (Cainites) and they took them wives of all which they chose” (fancy and lust, instead of the fear of God, being their ruling motive). When “the salt of the earth lost its savour” universal corruption set in. Jude 1:6,7, does not confirm the monstrous notion that “the sons of God” mean angels cohabiting carnally with women. The analogy to Sodom is this, the angels’ ambition alienating their affections from God is a spiritual fornication analogous to the Sodomites’ “going after strange flesh”; so covetousness is connected with whoremongering, as spiritually related ( Ephesians 5:5). The book of Enoch takes the carnal cohabitation view; but because Jude 1:accords with it in sonic particulars it does not follow he accords with it in all. The parallel 2 Peter 2:4 refers to the first fall of the apostate angels, not to Genesis 6:2. The Israelites were “sons of God” ( Deuteronomy 32:5; Hosea 1:10); still more “sons of Jehovah” the covenant God ( Exodus 4:22; Deuteronomy 14:1; Psalm 73:15; Proverbs 14:26). “Wives” and “taking wives,” i.e. marriage, cannot be predicated of angels, fornication and going after strange flesh; moreover Christ states expressly the “angels neither marry nor are given in marriage” ( Matthew 22:30; Luke 20:35,36). “Unequal yoking” of believers with unbelievers in marriage has in other ages also broken down the separation wall between the church and the world, and brought on apostasy; as in Solomon’s case (compare Nehemiah 13:23-26; Corinthians 6:14). Marriages engrossing men just before the flood are specified in Matthew 24:38; Luke 17:27. Mixed marriages were forbidden ( Exodus 34:16; Genesis 27:46; 28:1). “There were giants in the earth in those days”: nephilim , from a root to fall, “fallers on others,” “fellers,” tyrants; applied in Numbers 13:33 to Canaanites of great stature. Smith’s Bible Dictionary observes, if they were descendants of the Nephilim in Genesis 6:4 (?) the deluge was not universal. Distinct from these are the children of the daughters of men by the sons of God, “mighty men of old, men of renown.” “The earth was corrupt before God, and filled with violence through them” ( Genesis 6:11,13). So God’s long suffering at last gave place to zeal against sin, “My Spirit shall not always strive with (Keil, rule in) man,” i.e. shall no longer contend with his fleshliness, I will give him up to his own corruption and its penalty ( Romans 1:24,26-28), “for that he also (even the godly Sethite) is flesh,” or as Keil, “in his erring he is fleshly,” and so incapable of being ruled by the Spirit of God; even the godly seed is apostate and carnal, compare John 3:6.

    God still gave a respite of 120 years to mankind. Noah alone found grace in His sight; of him and Enoch alone it is written, “they walked with God.”

    Noah was “just and perfect (sincere in aim, whole-hearted: Matthew 5:48; Genesis 17:1; Philippians 3:15) in his generations,” among the successive generations which passed during his lifetime. God renews His covenant of grace to mankind in Noah’s person, the one beacon of hope amidst the ruin of the existing race ( Genesis 6:18). He was now years old, because he entered the ark at 600 ( Genesis 7:6). He was when he begat his three sons, subsequently to God’s threat ( Genesis 5:32 in time is later than Genesis 6:3). In the 120 years’ respite Noah was “a preacher of righteousness,” “when the long suffering of God was continuing to wait on to the end (apexedecheto , and no ‘once’ is read in the Alexandrinus, the Vaticanus, and the Sinaiticus manuscripts) in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,” the limit of His long suffering ( 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 11:7). “Warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with reverential (not Slavish) fear (eulabetheis , contrasted with the world’s sneering disbelief of God’s word and self deceiving security) prepared an ark by faith (which evidenced itself in acting upon God’s word as to the things not yet seen) to the saving of his house (for the believer tries to bring ‘his house’ with him: Acts 16:15,31,33,34; 10:2), by the which he condemned the world (since he believed and was saved, so might they; his salvation showed their condemnation just: John 3:19) and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” In Ezekiel 14:14 Noah, etc., are instanced as saved “by their righteousness,” not of works, but of grace ( Romans 4:3). The members of his family alone, his wife, three sons and their wives, were given to him amidst the general wreck. The ark which Noah built by God’s order was like a ship in proportions, but with greater width ( Genesis 6:14,15). The Hebrew teebah is the same as Moses’ see ARK of bulrushes ( Exodus 2:3): an Egyptian word for a “chest” or “coffer,” fitted for burden not for sailing, being without mast, sail, or rudder. Of “gopher,” i.e. cypress wood, fitted for shipbuilding and abounding in Syria near Babylon, the region perhaps of Noah. With “rooms,” literally, nests, i.e. berths or compartments, for men and animals. Pitched with “bitumen” making it watertight. The length 300 cubits (i.e., the cubit = 21 inches, 525 ft.), the width was 50 cubits (i.e. 87 ft. 6 inches), the height was 30 cubits (i.e. ft. 6 inches). The “Great Eastern” is longer but narrower. Peter Jansen in 1609 built a vessel of the same proportions, but smaller, and it was found to contain one-third more freight than ordinary vessels of the same tonnage, though slow. Augustine (de Civ. Dei, 15) notices that the ark’s proportions are those of the human figure, the length from sole to crown six times the width across the chest, and ten times the depth of the recumbent figure measured from the ground. Tiele calculated there was room for 7,000 species; and J. Temporarius that there was room for all the animals then known, and for their food. “A window system” (Gesenius) or course of windows ran for a cubit long under the top of the ark, lighting the whole upper story like church clerestory windows. A transparent substance may have been used, for many arts discovered by the Cainites ( Genesis 4:21,22) and their descendants in the 2,262 years between Adam and the flood (Septuagint; Hebrew 1656 years) were probably lost at the deluge. The root of tsohar “window” implies something shining, distinct from challon , a single compartment of the larger window (7:6); and “the windows of heaven,” ‘arubbowt , “networks” or “gratings.” Noah was able to watch the bird’s motions outside so as to take the dove in; this implies a transparent window. One door beside the window course let all in. As under Adam ( Genesis 2:19,20) so now the lower animals come to Noah and he receives them in pairs; but of clean animals seven pairs of each kind, for sacrifice and for subsequent multiplication of the useful species, the clean being naturally distinguished from the unclean, sheep and (used for milk and wool) from carnivorous beasts of prey, etc. The physical preservation of the species cannot have been the sole object; for if the flood were universal the genera and species of animals would exceed the room in the ark, if partial there would be no need for saving in the ark creatures of the limited area man then tenanted, for the flooded area might easily be stocked from the surrounding dry land after the flood. The ark typified the redemption of the animal as well as of the human world. The hopes of the world were linked with the one typical representative human head, Noah ( Genesis 5:29). Death existed in the animal world before man’s creation, for man’s fall foreseen and the world reflected the sad image of the fall that was to be; moreover, the pre-existing death and physical evil had probably a connection with Satan’s fall. The regeneration of the creature (the animal and material world) finally with man, body as well as soul, is typified by Noah and the animals in the ark and the renewed earth, on which they entered ( Romans 8:18-25; Revelation 21:1; 2 Peter 3:13; Matthew 19:28). The deluge began on the 17th day of the second month, i.e. the middle of November, the beginning of the rainy season, Tisri the first month beginning at the autumnal equinox. It lasted 150 days, i.e. five months of 30 days each; and the ark rested on Ararat the 17th of the seventh month ( Genesis 7:11,12,24; 8:4). The year thus was then 360 days, the old Egyptian year, which was corrected by the solar year, which also the Egyptians knew. “The fountains of the deep breaking up and the windows of heaven being opened” is phenomenal language. “The Lord shut Noah in,” as it shall be in the last days ( Isaiah 26:20); so Israel on the night of the slaying of the firstborn ( Exodus 12:22,23; Psalm 31:20; 83:3; 27:5). The simplicity of the history, the death of all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, and the six times mention of the rescue of the favored few, impress one with the feeling of the completeness of the desolation and the special grace which saved the eight. The “40 days and 40 nights of rain” were part of the 150; forty is the number significant of judgment and affliction; as Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness; Moses’, Elijah’s, and our Lord’s 40 days of foodlessness. The Speaker’s Commentary considers the Ararat meant to be southern Armenia (as in 2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 37:38; the only other passages having the word), not the mountain 17,000 ft. above the sea, for 15 cubits water above it would submerge the whole earth. Noah successively sent, to ascertain the state of the earth, at intervals of seven days, a raven which rested on the ark but never entered it, wandering up and down and feeding on the floating caresses (emblem of the restless worldly spirit), and a dove, which finding no rest for the sole of her foot returned and Noah put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark (emblem of the soul first drawn by Jesus to Himself: John 6:44; 10:28,29); next she brought a fresh olive leaf (emblem of peace and the Holy Spirit, the earnest of our inheritance: Ephesians 1:13,14), which can live under a flood more than most trees; Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. 4:8) and Pliny (H.N. 50) mention olives in the Red Sea. At the third sending she returned no more (the emblem of the new heavens and earth which shall be after the fiery deluge, 2 Peter 3:1-13; Romans 8:21, when the ark of the church to separate us from the world shall be needed no more, Revelation 21:1-22); contrast Isaiah 57:20 with Matthew 3:16; 11:29. Noah did not leave the ark until God gave the word; as Jesus waited in the tomb until with the third messenger of day the Father raised Him ( Ephesians 1:20).

    Noah’s first act was a sacrifice of thanksgiving; “and Jehovah smelled a savour of rest,” in consonance with Noah’s name meaning rest, and promised, in consideration of man’s evil infirmity, not to curse the ground any more nor to smite every living thing as He had done, but to cause seedtime and harvest, day and night, not to cease.

    In the three great ethnological divisions, Semitics, Aryans (Indo- Europeans), and Turanians, the tradition of the flood exists. The Aryan has the Greek accounts of Ogyges’ and Deucalion’s floods, on account of men’s deterioration in the brazen age (Pindar, Ol. 9:37). As Deucalion threw the bones Of mother earth behind his back, and they became men, so the Tamanaki on the Orinoco represent the surviving man to have thrown the palm fruit. (Ovid, Metam. 1:240; Apollodorus, i.) Lucian (de Syra Des, 12,13) says it destroyed all mankind. Hindu tradition says Manu was ordered by a great fish to build a ship secured to the horn of Brahma in a fish form to escape the deluge, and was at last landed on a northern mountain. The Phrygian Annakos who lived more than 300 years in Iconium (Enoch, whose years were 365) foretold the deluge. A medal of Apamea, a pagan monument, in Septimius Severus’ reign represented the current tradition namely, a floating ark, two persons within, two going out of it; a bird is on the ark, another flying to it with a branch; No is on some coins: evidently borrowed from the Hebrew record. The Chinese Fahe, the founder of their civilization, escapes from the flood, and is the first man with his wife, three sons and three daughters, in the renovated world (Hardwick, “Christ and other Masters,” 3:16). The Fiji islanders (Wilkes’ Expl. Exped.) believe in a deluge from which eight were saved in a canoe (Hardwick, 3:185). The aborigines of America were of one stock, the Turanian; the Mexicans (the Aztecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Plascaltecs, and Mechoacans) represent a man (Coxcox) and woman in a barque, a mountain, the dove, and the vulture. The Cherokee Indians believe a dog incited one family to build a boat wherein they were saved from the flood which destroyed all people.

    In the royal library of the old palace of Nineveh were found about 20,000 inscribed clay tablets, now in the British Museum. Mr. G. Smith has deciphered the account of the flood in three distinct copies, containing duplicate texts of an ancient original. The copies are of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal’s time, i.e. 660 B.C. The original, according to the tablets, belonged to the city of Erech, and was in Semitic Babylonian. The variant readings in the three copies have crept into the text in the lapse of ages.

    The Assyrian copyists did not always know the modern representatives of the ancient forms of the characters in the original, so have left some in their obsolete hieratic form. The scribe has recorded the divisions of lines in the original. What were originally explanatory glosses have been incorporated in the text. The Assyrians used commonly to copy Babylonian classics.

    Assurbanipal was closely connected with Erech, it alone remaining loyal when the rest of Babylonia revolted; to it therefore he restored the idol Nana, which the Elamites carried away 1635 years before (2295 B.C.). Mr.

    Smith thinks the original text was about 1700 B.C. Izdubar (Nimrod according to Smith) the hero, a sage, asks Sisit or Hasisadra (Greek Xisuthrus), an immortal, son of Ubaratutu, how he became so; in reply he narrates the story of the flood, and assigns his own piety as the cause of his translation. The gods revealed to him their decree: “make a great ship ... for I will destroy the sinners and life ... cause to go in the seed of life, all of it to preserve them. The ship ... cubits shall be the measure of its length, and ... cubits the amount of its breadth and height. Into the deep launch it. ... I said, this that thou commandest me I will perform. I brought on the fifth day ... in its circuit 14 measures ... its sides 14 measures ... over it a roof ... I poured over the outside three measures of bitumen ... I poured over the inside three measures of bitumen ... I caused to go up into the ship all my male and female servants, the beasts, the animals of the field ....

    Shamas spoke, I will cause it to rain from heaven heavily, enter ... the ship, shut thy door ... I entered ... shut my door ... to guide the ship to Buzursadiribi the pilot I gave. The bright earth to a waste was turned. The flood destroyed all life from the face of the earth ... Ishtar ... the great goddess said, the world to sin has turned. Six days and nights the storm overwhelmed, on the seventh the storm was calmed. I opened the window, I sent forth a dove .... it searched a rest which it did not find, and returned.

    I sent forth a swallow and it returned. I sent forth a raven and it did not return. I poured out a libation, I built an altar on the peak of the mountain (Mizir, the Ararat of the Bible; in Assyrian geography the precipitous range overlooking the valley of the Tigris N.E. of Mosul, Arabic Judi, Assyrian Guti). When his judgment was accomplished, Bel went up to the midst of the ship and took my hand and brought me out ... my wife ... he purified the country, he established in a covenant, ... then dwelt Sisit at the mouth of the rivers. Sisit said, the chief who grasps at life, the like way a storm shall be laid upon him.” This account agrees with the Bible in making the flood a divine punishment for sin, and threatening the taking of life for life.

    The oldest Babylonian traditions center around the Persian gulf, accordingly the tradition assumes a form suiting a maritime people.

    Surippak in the Babylonian king Hammurabi’s inscriptions 1600 B.C. is called “the city of the ark.” The “ark” becomes a “ship,” it is launched into the sea in charge of a pilot. Berosus’ fragment preserves a similar Chaldean story: “Xisuthrus, warned by Kronos of a coming flood, wrote a history of the beginning, course, and end of all things, and buried it in the city of the sun, Sippara; built a vessel five stadia long and two broad, and put on board food, birds, and quadrupeds, wife, children and friends. After the flood abated Xisuthrus sent out birds which not finding food or rest returned. Again he sent, and they returned with mud on their feet. The third time they returned no more. The vessel being stranded on a mountain, Nizir, E. of the Tigris, he quitted it, built an altar, and sacrificed to the gods and disappeared.

    The rest went to Babylon from Armenia, where part of the vessel remains in the Corcyrean (Kurdistan) mountains; they dug up the writings at Sippara, and built temples and cities, and Babylon became inhabited again” (Cory’s Anc. Fragm. 26-29).

    No record of the flood appears in the Egyptian monuments, but Plato (Timaeus, 21) testifies that the Egyptians believed that catastrophes from time to time by God’s anger had visited all lands but Egypt; the last was a deluge submerging all lands but Egypt, 8,000 years before Solon’s visit to Amosis, no rain falling in Egypt. The various yet mainly agreeing accounts imply the original unity of mankind diverging from one common center after the flood, and carrying to their various lands the story which has by corruption assumed various shapes. The Bible narrative unites details scattered up and down in various traditions but nowhere else combined: (1) The divine warning in the Babylonian, Hindu, and Cherokee accounts. (2) The care for animals in the Babylonian, Indian, and Polynesian versions. (3) The eight saved in the Fiji and Chinese stories (the latter specifying a man, his wife, three sons and their wives). (4) The birds sent forth before leaving the ark, in the Babylonian. (5) The dove, in the Greek and the Mexican. (6) The olive branch, in the Phrygian legend. (7) The building of the altar afterward, in the Babylonian and the Greek account. (8) The bitumen, in the Erech version; also shutting the door; the cause, sin; the seven days, the dove returning, the raven not so; the mountain; the Deity bringing out from the ark and establishing a covenant; the retribution for taking life.

    The Bible account cannot be derived from anyone of these traditions, while they all can flow from it.

    Probably Shem related the event as it would strike an eye witness, “all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered ... 15 cubits upward,” as doubtless they ascertained by a plumbline. If Babylonia were the region of Noah few hills were in view and those low, possibly the Zagros range. Deuteronomy 2:25; Genesis 41:57; 1 Kings 18:10, show the limited sense of “all the high hills under the whole heaven.” A flood destroying all the existing race of man, and those animals alone in the limited region, as yet occupied by man, and covering the visible horizon, satisfies the requirements of Scripture. Thus geological, physical, and zoological (namely, the distribution of animals, each continent having for ages before the flood its own peculiar species, and the numbers being vast) objections are solved. Not that there is insufficiency of water to submerge the earth, nay the water is to the land as three-fifths to two-fifths; a universal flood might have been for 150 days, and yet leave no trace discernible now. But the other difficulties make a partial one probable. The geological diluvium is distinct from the historical. The diluvium or drift in many places, consisting of sand, pebbles, organic remains, and rock fragments, was produced by violent eruptions of water at various times, not the comparatively tranquil flood of Scripture. Traces of man are supposed to be found during the formation of the drift, but that formation was apparently the work of ages, and these before Noah, not of a temporary submersion. Moses implies the ark did not drift far from where it was first lifted up, and grounded about the same place. The flood rose by degrees, not displacing the soil, nor its vegetable tribes as the olive, nor rendering the ground unfit for cultivating the vine. Hence the nonappearance of traces of the flood accords with the narrative. But the elevation of mountains followed by floods submerging whole regions is traceable, and further confirms the account of Noah’s flood. Depression of the large tracts occupied by the existing race of men would open the fountains of the deep, so that the land would be submerged. Psalm 29:10 translated “Jehovah sat (so sit, Psalm 9:4,7,8; Joel 3:12) at the flood”; mabbul , Noah’s deluge; as King and Judge vindicating His people and destroying their ungodly foe, “and therefore Jehovah will sit King for ever.” Their foes now are what “the flood” was then ( Isaiah 28:2; 59:19; Jeremiah 46:7,8; 47:2). Jehovah will not let them overwhelm His people, as He did not let it overwhelm Noah. “As God swore the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth,” so He swears He will, after His mercy returns to Israel, “no more be angry with nor rebuke her” ( Isaiah 54:9). Christ stamps the history as true, declaring that the world’s unpreparedness for His second coming, through engrossment in business and pleasure, shall be such as it was in Noah’s days before the flood ( Matthew 24:37; Luke 17:26). Peter ( 2 Peter 3:3-13) confutes the scoffers of the last days who deny the Lord’s coming to judgment on the plea “all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,” but the same objection might have been urged before the flood against its possibility. Yet the earth was deluged by that water out of which it had originally risen; (ver. 6) “by which (plural Greek) heavens and earth, in respect to the waters which flowed together from both, the then world perished, in respect to its occupants, men and animals, and its existing order” (kosmos ); for “the fountains of the great deep were broken up” from the earth below, and “the windows of heaven above were opened. So “the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word (which first made the existing order of men and animals, and then destroyed them) are kept in store, reserved unto fire (stored up within our earth, and the action of which appears in our igneous reeks once in a state of fusion, also in the sun our central luminary) against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

    Noah as second head of mankind receives God’s blessing (Genesis 9), the first part of it the repetition of that on Adam ( Genesis 1:28), “be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth,” which blessing had been marred by man’s sin. Terror, not as in Eden love, should subject the lower animals to man, God’s vicegerent. Vegetable diet had heretofore been the sole one sanctioned ( Genesis 1:29), as it is still in some Eastern countries.

    Whether men restricted themselves from flesh or not, previous to the flood, is unknown. Now first its use was explicitly conceded, man’s needs often finding insufficient food from the ground under the curse; thus Lamech’s prophecy was fulfilled ( Genesis 5:29), Noah his son becoming head of the regenerated world under more favorable circumstances. But flesh with the life or blood in it was not to be eaten, both for humanity’s sake, and also as typifying His blood shedding in whom is our life ( Leviticus 17:10,11; Acts 15:29). Moreover, henceforth (though formerly having let Cain live) God requires man’s blood of the shedder, whether man or beast ( Exodus 21:28; Psalm 9:12). As the priesthood belonged to all Israel, before it was delegated to Aaron’s family as Israel’s representative, so the judicial and magisterial authority belonged to mankind, and was subsequently delegated to particular magistrates as mankind’s representatives. The security of the natural world from destruction by flood is guaranteed by God’s promise, and that of the social world by God’s making human life inviolable on the ground of man’s bearing God’s image.

    These three precepts, abstinence from blood, murder punishable by death ( Romans 13:1-4, etc.), the civil authority, have four more added by inference, constituting the “seven precepts of Noah”: abstinence from blasphemy, incest and unchastity, theft, and idolatry. As Noah the head of the new family of man represents all peoples, God takes the rainbow, a natural phenomenon (see BOW ), seen by all everywhere, as pledge of His covenant with mankind; so when covenanting with one nation in Abraham’s person, He made circumcision, an arbitrary sign, His seal.

    As Scripture records Noah’s piety so also his sin. Wine making was probably one of the discoveries of the ingenious but self indulgent Cainites.

    Noah, having planted a vine (Armenia being celebrated for vines), through sinful ignorance and infirmity suffered himself to be overcome by wine. The saint’s sin always brings its chastisement. He exposed his person; his shame stirred up see HAM ’S (see CANAAN ) mocking undutifulness and dislike of his father’s piety. Canaan shared Ham’s guilt, and by undutifulness should wound his father as the latter had wounded Noah. God overruled, as always, this fall of Noah to His glory, His righteousness becoming known by Noah’s prophecy, reaching to the last ages. Ham, who despised his duty as a son, hears his son’s doom to be a slave. The curse fell on Ham at the sorest point, namely, in his son’s person. Canaan became “slave of Shem’s” descendant, Israel. Tyre fell before Greece, Carthage before Rome, and Africa for ages has been the land of slaves. (See JAPHETH on his foretold “dwelling in the tents of Shem.”) “Blessed be Jehovah (the covenant fulfilling) God of Shem” marks that to Israel, Shem’s representative, Jehovah should especially reveal Himself as their God, and through Israel ultimately to “the whole earth” ( Psalm 72:18,19; Isaiah 2:2-5; Romans 11:12-32). Noah lived after the flood 350 years. Noah was the second father and federal representative head of man- kind; alone after the flood, as Adam was alone in Eden. The flood brought back man to his original unity. The new world emerging from the water was to Noah what Eden had been to Adam. Noah’s vine was the counterpart to the two trees of Eden: a tree of life in the moderate use of its fruit, a tree of knowledge of evil, shame, and death in excess, which, lust persuaded him as in Eve’s case, would raise him to expanded knowledge and bliss.

    NOB A sacerdotal city in Benjamin, on a height near Jerusalem; the last stage of Sennacherib’s march from the north on Jerusalem, from whence he could see and “shake his hand against Zion” ( Isaiah 10:28-32). The high priest see AHIMELECH ’S (see DOEG , see DAVID ) residence in Saul’s time, near Anathoth and Gibeah of Saul. The scene of Saul’s murder of the priests and smiting of the townspeople, on Doeg’s information that Ahimelech had given David shewbread ( 1 Samuel 20:1-19; 21:1-9; 22:9-19). Inhabited again on the return from Babylon ( Nehemiah 11:31-35). E. of the north road, opposite Shafat, is a tell with cisterns hewn in the rock and traces of a town (Courier, Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement). From the hill-top is a full view of Zion, though Moriah and Olivet are hid by an intervening ridge. “The hill of God” ( 1 Samuel 10:5,10), where the Spirit came on Saul on his way from Bethlehem after Samuel’s anointing, was probably Nob, the seat then of the tabernacle, and meaning “prophecy.” Shafat is Arabic for “view,” answering to Josephus’ Greek name Scopus. Nob may be related to Nabat, “to view.” namely, the point from whence the full view of Zion breaks on the traveler from the N.

    Mizpeh is mentioned in Joshua (18:26) and in Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 3:7) in connection with Gibeon. At Mizpeh probably the tabernacle was erected on its removal from Shiloh. Mizpeh, “watchtower,” corresponds to Nob “a high place commanding a view.” They never are named in the same passage as distinct. They both are mentioned in connection with the royal town Gibeon. Gilgal was the first temporary abode of the tabernacle, then Shiloh for more than three centuries and a half, then the Nob or high place of Gibeon, finally Jerusalem. Warren (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement) objects to Nob’s being identified with Nebi Samwil that the latter is four miles and a half from Jerusalem, and separated from it by the deep ravine, wady Beit Hanina; the Assyrian king marching (Isaiah 10) from Geba to Jerusalem would be more likely to find Nob on his way, at that Scopus (near the city) from whence Titus looked down upon Jerusalem, rather than turning away four miles and a half to Nebi Samwil.

    Warren makes Nob distinct from Gibeon (el Jib), from which latter Nebi Samwil is one mile and a quarter distant. (See MIZPEH ).

    NOBAH 1. An Israelite of Manasseh the conqueror of Kenath and its dependent villages E. of Jordan ( Numbers 32:42). 2. The town so named by Nobah instead of its former name, Kenath ( Judges 8:11). The old name is revived in Kenawat in the Lejah or Trachonitis. But Ewald identified Nobah with Nawa on the Damascus road, 16 miles E. from the N. end of the sea of Tiberias.

    NOBLEMAN basilikos ( John 4:46-53). Rather royal courtier; perhaps at Herod Antipas’ court. Conjectured to be Chuza’s husband ( Luke 8:3).

    NOD = “wandering”. E. of Eden. Cain’s place of flight.

    NODAB An Arab tribe warred with by Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh ( Chronicles 5:19-22). Sprung probably from Ishmael (1:31; Genesis 25:15).

    NOGAH 1 Chronicles 3:7; 14:6.

    NOHAH 1 Chronicles 8:2.

    NOPH, MOPH (See MEMPHIS ). In Egypt ( Isaiah 19:13; Jeremiah 2:16; Ezekiel 30:13,16; Hosea 9:6).

    NOPHAH Numbers 21:30. Mentioned in the Amorites’ triumphal song, after recounting the conquest of Heshbon from Moab. Ewald locates Nobah near Heshbon ( Numbers 32:35,42) and identifies Nophah with it.

    NOSE JEWEL (See FOREHEAD ). A ring of gold or silver from one to three inches diameter, with beads or jewels strung on it, passed through the right nostril ( Ezekiel 16:12). “I put a jewel on thy forehead,” rather “a ring in the nose” ( Isaiah 3:21). Women in the East wore also rings or jewels hanging from the forehead on the nose; “I put the ring upon her face” ( Genesis 24:22,47).

    NUMBER After the captivity the Hebrews used the alphabet letters for numbers, ‘aleph=1; beth=2, etc.; yodh=10; qoph=100, etc. The final letters expressed 500 to 900; ‘aleph + a line over it=1000. Our manuscripts all write numbers at full length. But the variations make it likely that letters (which copyists could so easily mistake) originally were written for numbers: compare 2 Kings 24:8 with 2 Chronicles 36:9; Isaiah 7:8, where 65 is in one reading, 16 and 5 in another. 1 Samuel 6:19 has 50,070, but Syriac and Arabic 5070 ( 1 Kings 4:26 with 2 Chronicles 9:25).

    Numbers also have often a symbolical rather than a mere arithmetical value. But straining is to be avoided, and subtle trifling. The author’s sense, history, the context, and the general analogy of the Scripture scheme as a whole are to be examined, in order to decide whether a figure is employed in a merely ordinary sense, or in an ordinary and symbolical, or in an exclusively symbolical sense. Zechariah and Daniel dwell upon seven; Daniel and Revelation use several numbers to characterize periods, rather than indicate arithmetical duration. Science reveals in crystallization and chemical combinations what an important part number plays in the proportion of combining molecules of organic and inorganic life.

    Two notes intensification ( Genesis 41:32), requital in full ( Job 42:10; Jeremiah 16:18; Isaiah 61:7; Revelation 18:6); the proportions of the temple were double those of the tabernacle; two especially symbolizes testimony ( Zechariah 4:11; 11:7; Isaiah 8:2; Revelation 11:3), two tables of the testimony ( Exodus 31:18), two cherubim over the ark of the testimony. God is His own witness; but that witness is twofold, His word and His oath ( Hebrews 6:13,17), Himself and His Son ( John 8:18).

    Three, like seven, is a divine number. The Trinity ( Revelation 1:4; 4:8); three great feasts ( Exodus 23:14-17; Deuteronomy 16:16); the threefold blessing ( Numbers 6:14,24); the thrice holy ( Isaiah 6:3); the three hours of prayer ( Daniel 6:10; Psalm 55:17); the third heaven ( 2 Corinthians 12:2). Christ is “the Way, the Truth, the Life,” “Prophet, Priest, and King.” The threefold theophany ( Genesis 18:2; 1 Samuel 3:4,6,8; Acts 10:16).

    The number 3 1/2, one-half of 7, is a period of evil cut short, shortened for the elect’s sake ( Matthew 24:22; James 5:17, three years’ and a half drought in Israel; Luke 4:25; Revelation 11:2,3,9; 12:6). Daniel 7:25; 12:7, “time, times, and a half,” “1,260 days,” “three days and a half.”

    The 42 months (30 days in each) answer to the 1,260 days; three years and a half = 1,260 days (360 in each year). Probably the 1,260 years of the papal rule date from A.D. 754, when his temporal power began, and end 2014 (see ANTICHRIST ). At the close of spurious Christianity’s long rule open antichristianity and persecution will prevail for the three years and a half before the millennium. Witnessing churches will be followed by witnessing individuals, even as the apostate church will give place to the personal man of sin ( Daniel 7:25; Revelation 11:2,3). The 2,300 ( Daniel 8:14) years may date from Alexander’s conquests (323 B.C.), and end about the same time as the 1,260, namely, 1977. The ( Daniel 12:11,12) and 1,335 days correspond to 1290, during which Antiochus Epiphanes profaned the temple, from the month Ijar, 145th year of the era of the Seleucidae, to Judas Maccabeus’ restoration of worship, the 25th day of the ninth month Chisleu, 148th year (1 Macc. 1:54; 4:52- 56); in 45 days more Antiochus died, ending the Jews’ calamities; in all 1,335. Again, 1,260, 1,290 and 1,335 may be counted from Mahomet’s retirement to the cave, A.D. 606-610, and his flight from Mecca, 622: these figures added may mark the closing epochs of Mahometan power.

    Again, the 2,300 may be the years between 480 B.C., the time of Xerxes’ invasion of Greece ( Daniel 11:2), and A.D. 1820, when Ali Pasha cast off the yoke of the Porte and precipitated the Greek revolution. Thirdly, the 2,300 may date from Antichrist’s profanation ( Daniel 9:27). After the 1,260 days Jesus in person will deliver the Jews; during the 30 more their consciences are awakened to penitent faith, making 1,290; in 45 more Israel’s outcasts are gathered, and the united blessing descends. These all are conjectures. Evidently these numbers symbolize the long “Gentile times” from the overthrow of Judah’s kingdom by Babylon, and of Jerusalem by Titus, down to the restoration of the theocracy in Him “whose right it is” ( Ezekiel 21:27). The seven times of Israel’s punishment ( Leviticus 26:18,21,24) are the times of the Gentile monarchies; the seven times of antichrist’s tyranny in the Holy Land will be the recapitulation and open consummation of what is as yet “the mystery of iniquity.” The three and a half during which the two witnesses prophesy in sackcloth is the sacred seven halved, for the antichristian world powers’ time is broken at best, and is followed immediately by judgment on them. It answers to the three years and a half of Christ’s witness for the truth, when the Jews disowned and the God-opposed world power crucified Him ( Daniel 9:27). He died in the midst of the last of the 70 weeks; the three and a half which seemed the world’s triumph over Him was immediately followed by their defeat in His resurrection ( John 12:31). The world powers never reach the sacred fullness of seven times 360, i.e. 2,520, though they approach it in the 2,300 ( Daniel 8:14). The 42 months answer to Israel’s 42 sojournings in the desert ( Numbers 33:1-50), contrasted with the sabbatic rest of Canaan. Three and a half represents the church’s time of toil, pilgrimage, persecution. Three and a half is the antagonism to seven.

    Four symbolizes worldwide extension. The four winds and quarters of the earth ( Revelation 7:1; Daniel 7:2). The four living creatures or cherubim with four wings and four faces ( Ezekiel 1:5, etc.; Revelation 4:6, in contrast to the four beasts, Daniel 7; Daniel 2:40 the four kingdoms); Eden’s four streams ( Genesis 2:10; Ezekiel 40:47). Four expresses the spread of God’s kingdom over the earth. As Christ’s seamless vest marks its unity, so the rending of the outer garment into four by the four Roman soldiers symbolizes its ultimate worldwide extension ( John 19:23,24).

    The numbers especially symbolical are 3, 4, 7, 10, 12, 40; 6 is so because coming short of the sacred 7, 8 as coming after 7 and introducing a new series or era. Three and a half is seven broken in two. The Bible begins with seven days, and ends with a succession of sevens. Seven represents rest and release from toil, also a divine work, in judgment or mercy or revelation ( Genesis 4:24; 41:3,7; Matthew 18:22; Exodus 7:25). Leviticus 26:18, “I will punish you seven times more for your sins,” Leviticus 26:21,24,28; Isaiah 4:1; 11:15; 2 Samuel 24:13. Daniel 4:16,25, “seven times shall pass over thee” (Nebuchadnezzar). Revelation 15:1, “the seven last plagues.” divine fullness and completeness is the thing signified; as Revelation 1:4, “the seven spirits ... before His throne” are the one Holy Spirit in His manifold fullness; Isaiah 11:2,3 corresponds. So in offerings and divine rites: Leviticus 12:2,5; 13:4,6,21,26,31,33,50,54; 14:7,8,9,16,27,38,51; 15:13,19,28; 16:14,19; Numbers 12:14; 2 Kings 5:10,14. The seven days’ grace ( Genesis 7:1-10); and at the taking of Jericho ( Joshua 5:13--6:20); the antitype, spiritual Babylon, shall fall at the sounding of the seventh trumpet ( Revelation 11:13,15; 14:8). The sevenfold candlestick ( Exodus 25:37), the seven churches corresponding ( Revelation 1:12,20), the seven deacons (Acts 6), the sevenfold ministry (Romans 12; Corinthians 12). Seven prayers are given in full in the Old Testament (See PRAYER ). Seven petitions of the Lord’s prayer in the New Testament The seven beatitudes (Matthew 5; Psalm 12:7). Satan mimics the divine seven ( Proverbs 6:16; 26:25): Mary Magdalene’s seven devils ( Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2); the unclean spirit returning with seven ( Matthew 12:45); the seven Canaanite nations subdued by Israel ( Deuteronomy 7:1; Acts 13:19); the dragon with seven heads and seven crowns ( Revelation 12:3; Numbers 23:1).

    Eight begins a new era and life after the seven has been completed ( Exodus 22:30; Leviticus 9:1; 22:27). Lepers are reinstated on the eighth day ( Leviticus 14:10; 15:13,29). Circumcision on the eighth day begins a new life in the covenant. The eighth day after the seven of the feast of tabernacles ( Leviticus 23:36). From the eighth day, when the firstfruit sheaf was waved, the seven sevens were counted; and on the 50th day or Pentecost (the eighth day after seven) a new era began ( Leviticus 23:11,15,16; Acts 2:1). Leviticus 25:8,9, type of the eternal sabbath, the new era of a regenerated world ( Romans 8:21; Isaiah 61:1; Acts 3:21); the Lord’s day, the eighth after the seventh, ushers in the new Christian era. The eight saved souls left the ark on the eighth day, after the last seven of anxious waiting, the representative heads of regenerated mankind. Of man in his fallen state Ecclesiastes ( Ecclesiastes 1:15) writes, “that which is crooked cannot be made straight,” but what is “impossible with man is possible with God” ( Luke 18:27); at Messiah’s coming “the crooked shall be made straight” ( Isaiah 40:4); “that which is wanting (compare Daniel 5:27) cannot be numbered,” i.e. what is wholly wanting, man’s state, cannot be numbered, but believers are “complete in Christ” ( Colossians 2:10).

    Ten represents perfected universality. The “thousand” years ( Revelation 20:2) is ten raised to the third power, i.e. the world (10) pervaded by the divine (3). The Ten Commandments contain the whole cycle of God’s moral requirements. The tithe represented the whole property as belonging to God ( Genesis 14:20). Genesis has the formula ten times, “these are the generations” ( Genesis 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10,27; 25:12,19; 36:1; 37:2). The Ten Commandments of the Decalogue logically follow; God’s fingers wrote it. Our fingers are ten ( Exodus 31:18; Psalm 8:1). The ten plagues were the entire round of judgments from God’s hand. The tabernacle, temple, and New Jerusalem have ten as the prevailing figure in measurements. In the New Testament the ten lepers, ten talents, ten cities in reward for ten pounds gained, ten virgins. Antichrist too has his ten, comprising the whole cycle of the world power: ten nations opposed to Abraham’s seed ( Genesis 15:19); ten toes on Nebuchadnezzar’s image to be stricken by the stone ( Daniel 2:41); ten horns on the fourth beast ( Daniel 7:7, 20,24; Revelation 12:3; 13:1; 17:3,7,12, “ten kings”); ten days of Smyrna’s tribulation, the complete term of the world power’s persecution of the church ( Revelation 2:10). In combination with 7,10 appears in the 70 nations (Genesis 10), the 70 who went down to Egypt ( Genesis 46:27), the 70 palms at Elim, the 70 elders of Israel ( Exodus 24:1; Numbers 11:16), the 70 disciples, the 70 years’ captivity ( Jeremiah 25:11). Daniel’s 70 sevens, weeks ( Daniel 9:24).

    Seventy-fold ( Genesis 4:24; Matthew 18:22). As 3 1/2 is related to 7, so 5 is related to 10; 5 is the penal number ( Exodus 22:1; Leviticus 5:16; Numbers 18:16); the fifth kingdom punishes with destruction the four world kingdoms (Daniel 2).

    Twelve is the church number. The 12 tribes; 12 Elim wells; 12 stones in the high priest’s breastplate; 12 shewbread loaves; 12 patriarchs; 12 apostles; 12 foundation stones; 12 gates; 12,000 furlongs of New Jerusalem; angels ( Revelation 21:16-21; 12:1). Twelve squared and multiplied by 1,000, the symbol of the world divinely perfected, gives 144,000, the sealed Israelites ( Revelation 7:4). The 24 elders are the 12 heads of the Old Testament and the 12 of the New Testament churches combined, “elders” is the term for ministers; the 24 courses of priests anticipate the final combination of the two, Jews and Gentiles, made one new man in Christ ( Revelation 4:4). Seven times twelve is connected with the Lamb’s bride. Six is to twelve as three and a half to seven. Six symbolizes the world given over to judgment. The judgments on the world are complete in six; by the fulfillment of seven the world kingdoms become Christ’s. Hence there is a pause between the sixth and seventh seals, the sixth and seventh trumpets. As 12 is the church’s number, so six (its half) symbolizes the world kingdom broken. Six, the world number, is next to the sacred seven which it mimics ( Revelation 13:1) but can never reach.

    The raising of the six from units to tens, and from tens to hundreds (666), indicates that the beast, notwithstanding his progression to higher powers, can only rise to greater ripeness for judgment. Thus, 666, the number of the beast ( Revelation 13:18), the judged world power, contrasts with the 144,000 sealed and transfigured ones. (See ANTICHRIST ).

    Forty symbolizes probation, punishment, chastisement, and humiliation.

    The 40 days’ rain of the flood ( Genesis 7:4,12,17); Moses’ 40 years in Egypt, and 40 in Midian. Times of temptation and trial: 40 days on the mountain ( Exodus 24:18); a second 40 after Israel’s sin of the calf ( Deuteronomy 9:18,25); 40 years in the desert wanderings ( Numbers 14:34), the penal issue of the 40 days’ probation in searching Canaan (13:26; Psalm 95:10; also Judges 13:1); 40 days and nights of Elijah ( 1 Kings 19:8); Jonah’s 40 days’ warning to Nineveh ( Jonah 3:4); 40 days of Christ’s temptation ( Matthew 4:2). Also a time of probation by tranquil prosperity ( Judges 3:11; 5:31; 8:28).

    Ezekiel (4:4-6) lay on his right side 40 days a day for a year, which with the 390 on his left side makes the 430 of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt ( Exodus 12:40,41; Galatians 3:17). God will bring them back to a bondage as bad as that in Egypt, but shortened by the 40 years’ sojourn in the desert for discipline. Also Ezekiel 29:11,12.

    NUMBERS, BOOK OF The book takes its name from the numberings (Numbers 1 and Numbers 26). The Hebrews name it from its first word waedaber , or its first distinctive word Bemidbar . It narrates Israel’s stay in the desert from the law giving at Sinai ( Leviticus 27:34) to their mustering in Moab’s plains before entering Canaan. The parts are four: (1) Preparations for breaking up the camp at Sinai to march to Canaan (Numbers 1--10:10). (2) March from Sinai to Canaan’s border; repulse by the Amorites ( Numbers 10:11--14:45). (3) Selected incidents and enactments during the 38 years’ penal wandering ( Numbers 15:1--19:22). (4) Last year in the desert, the 40th year after the exodus ( Numbers 20:1--36:13). Israel’s first encampment near Kadesh was at Rithmah (from retem , the broom) in midsummer, in the second year after the exodus; there for 40 days they awaited the spies’ report ( Numbers 13:20,25,26; 33:18,19, from verses 20 to 36 are the stages of penal wandering). On the first month of the 40th year they are at Kadesh once more. The tabernacle and Moses remained at Kadesh on the first occasion, while Israel attempted to occupy Canaan too late ( Numbers 14:44). For a long period (“many days”) they stayed still here, after failure, in hope God would yet remit the sentence ( Deuteronomy 1:45,46). Then they “compassed Mount Seir (the wilderness of Paran) many days,” until that whole generation died ( Deuteronomy 2:1). The 17 stations belong to that dreary period ( Numbers 33:19-36).

    The people spread about the ridges of Paran, while the tabernacle and camp moved among them from place to place. At the second encampment at Kadesh they stayed three or four months ( Numbers 20:1 with Numbers 1:22-28; 33:38). Miriam died, and was buried there. The people mustering all together exhausted the natural water supply; the smiting of the rock, and the sentence on Moses and Aaron followed ( Numbers 20:2 ff; 12, 13); from Kadesh Israel sent the message to Edom (14, etc.). On the messengers’ return Israel left Kadesh for Mount Hor, where Aaron dies; then proceeded by the marches in Numbers 33:41-49 round Edom to Moab. The camp and tabernacle, with the priests and chiefs, during the wanderings, were the nucleus and rallying point; and the encampments named in Numbers 33:18-36 are those at which the tabernacle was pitched. Kehelathah (“assembling”: ver. 22) and Makheloth (“assemblies”) were probably stages at which special gatherings took place.

    During the year’s stay at Sinai the people would disperse to seek food: so also during the 38 years’ wandering. They bought provisions from neighbouring tribes ( Deuteronomy 2:26-29). Fish at Ezion Geber ( Numbers 33:35) was obtainable. Caravans passed over the desert of wandering as the regular route between the East and Egypt. The resources of the region sufficed in that day for a comparatively large population whose traces are found. The excessive hardships detailed Deuteronomy 1:19; 8:15, belong to the closing marches of the 40th year through the Arabah, not to the whole period ( Numbers 21:4). Between the limestone cliffs of the Tih on the W. and the granite range of Seir on the E. the Arabah is a mountain plain of loose sand and granite gravel, with little food or water, and troubled with sand storms from the gulf.

    CHRONOLOGY. Numbers begins with the first day of the second month of the second year after they left Egypt ( Numbers 1:1). Aaron’s death occurred in the first day of the fifth month of the 40th year ( Numbers 33:38), the first encampment in the final march to Canaan ( Numbers 20:22). Between these two points intervene 38 years and three months of wandering ( Deuteronomy 2:14; Numbers 14:27-35). Moses recapitulated the law after Sihon’s and Og’s defeat in the beginning of the eleventh month of the 40th year ( Deuteronomy 1:3,4). Thus six months intervene between Aaron’s death and Deuteronomy; in them the events of the fourth part of the Book of Numbers ( Numbers 20:1 to the end) occurred, excepting Arad’s defeat. The first month mourning for Aaron occupies, Numbers 20:29; part of the host in this month avenged Arad’s attack during Israel’s journey from Kadesh to Mount Hor. Arad’s attack would be while Israel was near, nor would be wait until Israel withdrew 60 miles S. to Mount Hor ( Numbers 20:23,25). His attack was evidently when the camp moved from Kadesh, which was immediately S. of Arad.

    He feared their invasion would be “by way of the spies,” namely, from the same quarter as before ( Numbers 14:40-45; 21:1), so he took the offensive. The war with Arad precedes in time Numbers 20, Aaron’s burial at Mount Hor, and is the first of the series of victories under Moses narrated from this point. (See HORMAH ). Next, from Mount Hor Israel compassed Edom by way of the Red Sea ( Numbers 21:4), a 220-mile journey, about four weeks, to the brook Zered ( Numbers 21:12), the first westward flowing brook they met, marking therefore an epoch in their march. Then follows Sihon’s and Og’s overthrow at Jahaz and Edrei, about the middle of the third of the six months. Their defeat caused Balak to summon Balaam to curse Israel from “Pethor, which was on the river (Euphrates) in his native land” (so, Numbers 22:5), at least 350 miles distant. Two months suffice for his ambassadors to go and return twice, and for Balaam’s prophesying (Numbers 22--24). Israel probably was meanwhile securing and completing the conquest of Gilead and Bashan.

    Six weeks thus remain for Midian’s seduction of Israel, the plague (Numbers 25), the second numbering on the plains of Moab (Numbers 26), and the attack on Midian (Numbers 31), God retributively scourging the tempters by their own victims: “beside those (kings) that fell in the battle they put to death the kings of Midian (five, namely) Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba” ( Numbers 31:8), “Balaam also they slew” judicially, not in battle. So Moses’ death is foreannounced as to follow the vengeance upon Midian ( Numbers 31:2). Deuteronomy is his last testimony, just after the war, and before his death in the eleventh month of the 40th year.

    AUTHOR AND DATE. The catalog of stages from Egypt to Moab ( Numbers 33:2) is expressly attributed to Moses. The living connection of special enactments with incidents which occasioned them proves that this characteristic mixture of narrative and legislation comes from a contemporary annalist. Leviticus completed the Sinai legislation, but the stay in tents in the wilderness required supplementary directions not originally provided, as Numbers 19:14, also Numbers 5; 9:6-14; Numbers 19 ( Numbers 19:11 the plague after Korah’s rebellion necessitating ordinances concerning defilement by contact with the dead), Numbers 30; Numbers 36, the law of heiresses marrying in their tribe, being at the suit of the Machirite chiefs, as the law of their inheriting was issued on the suit of Zelophehad’s daughters (Numbers 27), and that was due to Jehovah’s command to divide the land according to the number of names, by lot ( Numbers 26:52-56). So the ordinances Numbers 15:4, etc., 22,24,32. The author’s intimate knowledge of Egypt appears in the trial of jealousy ( Numbers 5:11), the purifications of the priests ( Numbers 8:7, etc.), the ashes of the red heifer (Numbers 19); all having an affinity to, though certainly not borrowed from, Egyptian rites. So the people refer to their former Egyptian foods ( Numbers 11:5,6). The building of Hebron seven years before Zoan (Tanis: probably connected here because both had the scale builder, one of the Hyksos, shepherd kings of Egypt, who originally perhaps came from the region of the Anakim), the N.E. frontier town of Egypt ( Numbers 13:22). References to the exodus from Egypt ( Numbers 3:13; 14:19; 15:41).

    The regulations for encamping and marching (Numbers 2; 9:16; etc., 10:1- 28), and Moses’ invocation ( Numbers 10:35,36). The directions for removing the tabernacle (Numbers 3 and Numbers 4). The very inconsistency seeming between Numbers 4:3,23,30, fixing the Levites’ limit of age to 30, and Numbers 8:24 appointing the age 25 (the reason being, the 30 was temporary, the number of able-bodied Levites between 30 and 50 sufficing for the conveyance of the tabernacle in the wilderness; but, when Israel was in Canaan, the larger number afforded by the earlier limit 25 to 50 was required: David enlarged the number, as the needs of the sanctuary service required, by reducing the age for entrance to 20 ( Chronicles 23:24-28), younger men being able then for the work, carrying the tabernacle being no longer needed). The tabernacle is presupposed near, which is true only while Israel was in the wilderness; “Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites” ( Numbers 21:13), could only be written in Moses’ time; the Amorites were not yet supplanted by the two and a half tribes: Numbers 32. Gad held Dibon when Numbers 32:34 was written, but subsequently Joshua ( Joshua 13:9- 15,17) assigned it to Reuben. In Numbers 34 more territory is assigned to Israel than they permanently occupied, and less than they for a time held (namely, Damascus, in the reigns of David, Solomon, and Jeroboam II).

    Hardly anyone but Moses could have written the pleadings and God’s communications in Numbers 14:11-16, presuming they are historical, and they are inseparably connected with the history and legislation. Moses made his memoranda at intervals during the 38 years of wandering; hence arises the variety of style in different parts. He used also existing materials, as in Numbers 21:14,17,27-30, “the book of the wars of the Lord” (the writers piously and truly call them “Jehovah’s wars,” not Israel’s; compare Exodus 17:14,16), a collection of sacred odes commemorating Israel’s triumphs, from Egyptian days downward, including the passage of Arnon, the Song of the Well, the Conquest of Sihon, and the story and prophecies of Balaam, perhaps found in writing among the spoils of Midian when Balaam was slain ( Numbers 31:8). In Numbers 21:14 read as margin “Vaheeb in Suphah,” i.e. He, the Lord, conquered “Vaheeb in Suphah,” i.e.

    Saphia; Vaheeb was Moab’s boundary on the S. as Arnon was its boundary in the N. Gesenius however for “in Suphah” translated “in a whirlwind (the Lord conquered) Vaheeb,” so the Hebrew is, Job 21:18. In Numbers 12:3 “Moses was very meek above all the men upon the face of the earth,” he writes not by his own but the Spirit’s prompting ( Numbers 11:17).

    He records his own faults as candidly, simply, and self ignoringly ( Numbers 20:10-12; Exodus 4:24; Deuteronomy 1:37; compare the Antitype, Matthew 11:29). Moses’ “meekness” is mentioned to show why he did not vindicate himself; therefore God vindicated him.

    Traces of independent accounts interwoven together ( Numbers 13:30, etc., Numbers 14:11-25,38,39), repetitions, and lack of consecutiveness, are observed. They are such as would result from separate memoranda put together; but the Spirit has guided the writer and compiler. The words “while the children ... were in the wilderness” ( Numbers 15:32) do not prove they were no longer there, but that the sabbath ordinance ( Exodus 31:14) now violated was in force already, whereas other ordinances were to come in force only “when Israel should come into the land” ( Numbers 15:2, etc., 18, etc.). “Prophet” applied to Moses ( Numbers 11:29; 12:6) was a usual term then ( Genesis 20:7; Exodus 7:1), but fell into disuse in the time of the judges when there were strictly no “prophets,” directly inspired ( 1 Samuel 3:1); hence, “seer” was the term for those consulted in difficult eases ( 1 Samuel 9:9). Samuel restored the name and reality of “prophet”; so “seer” is found afterwards only in 2 Samuel 15:27; 2 Chronicles 16:7,10. The organic connection of Numbers with the Pentateuch, of which it forms part, involves the Mosaic authorship of the former if Moses was author of the rest of the Pentateuch.

    The followers of Israel were numbered with the holy seed, those born in the house or bought of a stranger ( Genesis 17:12,13). A mixed multitude went with them at the exodus ( Exodus 12:38; Numbers 11:4). Children begotten of Egyptians entered the congregation in the third generation ( Deuteronomy 23:7,8). So the Egyptian servant Jarha’s descendants ( 1 Chronicles 2:34,35) appear among Judah’s descendants.

    These considerations will account for the multiplication from 70, at Jacob’s going to Egypt, to two million. Formerly, the forests in Arabia attracted rain, and so the Sinai desert afforded food more than now. Remains of mines, numerous inscriptions, and other proofs exist of a considerable population having lived there once. But independent of natural supplies Israel was fed by miracle. The first census gave a total of 603,550, the second census 601,730. The main decrease was in Simeon, owing to their prominence in the idolatry and owing to the plague consequently falling heaviest on them ( Numbers 25:6,14). An objection is started because of the disproportion between 22,273, the firstborn, and 603,550 men of war ( Numbers 3:43; 1:46). But the firstborn meant are those born at and after the Passover on the eve of the exodus ( Numbers 13:2,11,12), which was the ground of God’s claim on them; the 603,550 include none of them, the 273 above the Levites’ 22,000 had to be redeemed at five shekels each. In Numbers 9:1 the regular Passover in the first month, fourteenth day, is mentioned ( Numbers 1:1); but Numbers 9:11 the supplementary Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month. The lambs were slain, as at the first institution, in groups of families in private, not at the sanctuary door as subsequently in Canaan ( Numbers 9:3,12; Deuteronomy 16). Considering how many would not be clean, the number of communicants was probably 700,000; 50,000 lambs would suffice, allowing 14 persons for each lamb ( Exodus 12:4).

    NUN Sprung from Ephraim; father of Joshua ( 1 Chronicles 7:20-27).

    NURSE Anciently a position of honour; so see DEBORAH (seen), Genesis 24:59; 35:8; Ruth, 4:16. Figuratively; Moses was “as a nursing father bearing the sucking child” ( Numbers 11:12). So Isaiah 49:23. So Paul, “we were gentle” (so the Alexandrinus manuscript and the Ephraemi Rescriptus (C), epioi , but the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus ‘infants,’ neepioi ) among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her own (Greek) children” ( Thessalonians 2:7).

    NUT (1) Botnim , pistachio tree fruit. Sent as a present to Joseph in Egypt from Jacob in Canaan ( Genesis 43:11). As the pistachio did not grow in Egypt, it would be especially acceptable. The tree is from 15 to 30 ft. high, the male and female flowers grow on separate trees. The name of Betonim, a town in Gad, is derived from it ( Joshua 13:26). The fruit is the size of an olive, bulging on one side, hollow on the other; red pulp encases a shell, the kernel of which is green, sweet, and oily. (2) Egowz : Song 6:11, “the garden of nuts.” i.e. walnuts.

    NYMPHAS A disciple at Laodicea, whom Paul salutes “and the church which is in his house” ( Colossians 4:15). An assembly of Christians met in his house.

    So delta, G, f, g, the Vulgate (see NEW TESTAMENT ). But the Sinaiticus and the Alexandrinus and the Ephraemi Rescriptus manuscripts read “which is in their house,” the Vaticanus manuscript has “her house,” making Nymphas a woman.

    O OAK eeyl , from uwl “strong,” as the Latin robur. The terebinth or turpentine tree. Eloth, Elim, etc., take their name hence; so for “teil tree” ( Isaiah 6:13; 1:29), and for “elms” ( Hosea 4:13), eelah ; allon is the “oaks”; also eelon is “the oak.” The Quercus psedo-coccifera is the most abundant in Palestine, covering Carmel with dense brushwood eight to twelve feet high. Its roots are dug up as fuel in the valleys S. of Lebanon, where the living tree is no longer to be seen. Abram’s oak near Hebron is of this species, still flourishing in the midst of a field, the stock 23 ft. in girth, and the branch spreading over a circle 90 ft. in diameter. It is probably sprung from some far back offshoot of the original grove under which he pitched his tent ( Genesis 13:18), “Abram dwelt at the oaks of Mamre in Hebron.” The Quercus aegilops, or prickly cupped Valonia oak, is found on the hills E. of Nazareth and Tabor. The Quercus infectoria or dyeing oak is seldom higher than 30 ft., growing on the eastern sides of Lebanon and the hills of Galilee; its gall-nuts, formed by the puncture of an insect, contain tannin and gallic acid used for dyeing and ink. Dr. Hooker conjectures the two aegilops to represent the “oaks of Bashan” ( Isaiah 2:13). Deborah was buried under an oak ( Genesis 35:8). So Saul ( Samuel 31:13). Idolaters sacrificed under oaks ( Isaiah 1:29). Under one Joshua set up a pillar at Shechem to commemorate the nation’s covenant with God ( Joshua 24:26). The “tree” in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 4) is ‘ilan , any strong tree.

    OATH Hebrews 6:16: “an oath for confirmation is the end of strife (contradiction).” Therefore, Christianity sanctions oaths, but they are to be used only to put an end to contradiction in disputes and for confirmation of solemn promises. God, in condescension to man’s mode of confirming covenants, confirmed His word by oath; by these “two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” And “because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself”: also Hebrews 7:28.

    Jesus Himself accepted the high priest’s adjuration ( Matthew 26:63).

    Paul often calls God to witness the truth of his assertions ( Acts 26:29; Romans 1:9; 9:1; 2 Corinthians 1:23; 11:31; Galatians 1:20; Philippians 1:8). So the angel, Revelation 10:6. The prohibition “swear not at all” ( Matthew 5:34; James 5:12) refers to trivial occasions, not to oaths on solemn occasions and before magistrates. In every day conversation your simple yea or nay suffices to establish your word. The Jews held oaths not binding if God’s name did not directly occur (Lightfoot, Hor. Heb.). “Thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths” meant in the Jews’ view, which Christ combats, if not sworn to the Lord the oath is not binding. Jesus says on the contrary, every oath by the creature, heaven, earth, etc., is by the Creator whether His name be mentioned or not, and is therefore binding. In the perfect Christian state all oaths would be needless, for distrust of another’s word and untruth would not exist. Meantime, they are needed on solemn occasions. But men do not escape the guilt of “taking God’s name in vain” by avoiding the name itself, as in the oaths, “faith!” “gracious!” “by heaven,” etc.

    The connection in James 5:12 is, Swear not through impatience to which trials may tempt you ( James 5:10,11); in contrast stands the proper use of the tongue, James 5:13. To appeal to a pagan god by oath is to acknowledge his deity, and is therefore forbidden ( Joshua 23:7; Jeremiah 5:7; 12:16; Amos 8:14), as in swearing to appeal to God is recognizing Him ( Deuteronomy 6:13; Isaiah 19:18; 65:16). An oath even to a pagan king is so binding that Jehovah’s chief reason for dethroning Zedekiah and giving him over to die in Babylon was his violating his oath to Nebuchadnezzar ( Ezekiel 17:13-20; Chronicles 36:13).

    Jewish criminal procedure admitted the accused to clear himself or herself by oath ( Numbers 5:19-22; 1 Kings 8:31); our Lord, Matthew 26:63. Oath gestures were “lifting up the hand” ( Deuteronomy 32:40; Genesis 14:22; Isaiah 3:7; Ezekiel 20:5,6). Witnesses laid their hands on the head of the accused ( Leviticus 24:14). Putting the hand under the thigh of the superior to whom the oath was taken in sign of subjection and obedience (Aben Ezra): Genesis 24:2; 47:29; or else because the hip was the part from which the posterity issued (46:26) and the seat of vital power. In making (Hebrew cutting) a see COVENANT the victim was divided, and the contracting parties passed between the portions, in token that the two became joined in one. In Genesis 15:8-17 Abram was there, and God signified His presence by the burning lamp which passed between the pieces ( Jeremiah 34:18). Compare Judges 19:29; 1 Samuel 11:7, where a similar slaughter of the oxen of any who should not follow Saul is symbolized. The false witness was doomed to the punishment due to the crime which he attested ( Deuteronomy 19:16-19). Blasphemy was punishable with death ( Leviticus 24:11,16). The obligation in Leviticus 5:1 to testify when adjured (for “swearing” translated “adjuration,” ‘alah ) was that on which our Lord acted before Caiaphas ( Matthew 26:63). Alah , from ‘Eel “God,” is used for “imprecations” ( Numbers 5:23). “Shaba,” from sheba’ “seven” the sacred number, is the general word “swear”; compare the seven ewe lambs given by Abraham to Abimelech in covenanting ( Genesis 21:30).

    OBADIAH = worshipper of Jehovah; Arabic: Abdallah. 1. One of Israhiah’s “five” sons, of Issachar ( 1 Chronicles 7:3). But as four only are mentioned, Kennicott with four manuscripts omits “and the sons of Israhiah,” thus making him brother not father of Obadiah, and both sons of Uzzi. Syriac and Arabic have our text, but “four.” 2. 1 Chronicles 8:38; 9:44. 3. 1 Chronicles 9:16; Nehemiah 12:24,25. 4. 1 Chronicles 3:21. 5. 1 Chronicles 12:8,9. 6. 2 Chronicles 17:7. 7. Ezra 8:9. 8. Nehemiah 10:5. 9. Over Ahab’s house. A kind of lord high chamberlain or mayor of the palace ( 1 Kings 18:3). As there were saints in Nero’s palace ( Philippians 1:13; 4:22), so they were in wicked Ahab’s palace. Had not his value as a servant made him necessary to Ahab, his piety would have destroyed him. The pressure of the drought in the third year was such that Ahab could trust none so well as Obadiah to search throughout the land for water to preserve his “beasts,” his stud of “horses and mules.” Ahab cared more for these than for his perishing subjects! In a corrupt court, in spite of the persecuting idolatrous queen Jezebel, “Obadiah feared Jehovah,” not merely a little but “greatly.” So much so that he dared to hide from her fury 100 prophets, feeding them by fifty in a cave (compare on love to the Lord’s brethren, Matthew 25:40). Ahab went in one direction in search of water, Obadiah another by himself. The latter was startled by the sudden appearance of Elijah, who had disappeared since his first announcement of the drought coming at his word ( 1 Kings 17:1). Obadiah knew him and reverently fell on his face saying, “art thou that my lord Elijah?” The suddenness of his appearing and Obadiah’s past avoidance of direct contact with him for prudence sake made him ask in order to be sure he was not making a mistake. Elijah told him to tell Ahab of his presence. Obadiah in distrustful fear (for Scripture records the failings as well as the graces of its heroes, for our learning) regarded the message as tantamount to his destruction, supposing the Spirit would carry Elijah elsewhere and so Ahab, disappointed of his victim, would wreak his vengeance on Obadiah.

    No boastful spirit, but a desire to deprecate Elijah’s exposing him to death, prompted his mention of his services to the cause of God. He could truly say what ought to be a motto for the young, “I fear Jehovah from my youth” (compare 2 Timothy 3:15). Elijah’s assurance that he would show himself to Ahab sufficed to dispel his fears and to re-establish his faith. After his return to Ahab we hear of him no more. Godliness is a hardy plant that can live amidst the frosts of persecution and the relaxing warmth of a corrupt court, and not merely in the conservatory of a pious family ( 1 Corinthians 10:13; Isaiah 27:3; 1 Peter 1:5). 10. The prophet. Many conjecture Obadiah to be the same as (6), but that is too early a date. His prophetic theme is Edom; and Edom’s revolt under Joram, Jehoshaphat’s son, is recorded 2 Chronicles 21:10. He stands fourth of the minor prophets in the Hebrew canon, fifth in the Septuagint Jerome makes him contemporary with Hosea, Joel, and Amos. This is more likely than that he was a contemporary of Jeremiah, and that he refers to Edom’s cruelty to the Jews at Jerusalem’s capture by the Chaldees in Chronicles 21:11-16,20 (compare Lamentations 4:21,22; Ezekiel 25:12-14,35; <19D707> Psalm 137:7). The prophecy of Obadiah is too terse and fresh and compact a whole to have been copied from Jeremiah. It must be Jeremiah who copies from Obadiah and stamps him as inpired; compare Obadiah 1:5 with Jeremiah 49:9; Obadiah 1:6 with Jeremiah 49:10; Obadiah 1:8 with Jeremiah 49:7. What is disjointed in Jeremiah is progressive and consecutive in Obadiah. Jeremiah would be more likely to copy from an old prophet than from a contemporary. The capture of Jerusalem alluded to by Obadiah is probably that by the Philistines and Arabs under Joram ( 2 Chronicles 21:8-10,16,17), when Edom, who had just before revolted from under Judah and had been punished by Joram, in revenge gave an earnest of that unbrotherly cruelty which he in a still worse degree showed at Jerusalem’s capture by Nebuchadnezzar. Amos 1:6,11, and Joel 4:19, refer to the same capture by Philistines and Arabs. It cannot be that by Israelites under Pekah in Amaziah’s reign, for Obadiah calls the captors “strangers” and “foreigners” ( Obadiah 1:11). He evidently belongs to the same prophetic cycle as Joel and Amos, and so is connected with them in the canon. Joel drew the outline which succeeding prophets fill in (compare Obadiah 1:10 with Joel 3:19; Amos 1:11; Obadiah 1:11 with Joel 3:3,5,17, where the language is the same, “strangers,” “cast lots,” “the day of the Lord,” Obadiah 1:15; Joel 3:14. The same retribution in kind, Obadiah 1:15; Joel 3:4,7; Obadiah 1:17 also with Joel 3:17; verse 18 with Joel 2:3,5; verse 21 with Amos 9:12). Joel probably was in Joash’s reign, Obadiah in Amaziah’s, Amos in Uzziah’s. Amaziah slew of Edom in the valley of Salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war ( 2 Kings 16:7), an earnest of Edom’s foretold doom ( Obadiah 1:1, etc.).

    CONTENTS. (I.) The doom of Edom (1-9). (II.) Cause of that doom (10-16). (III.) Re-establishment of Israel in their rightful possessions.

    Expanding southward, westward, eastward, and northward, they shall acquire additionally Edom, Philistia, and northern Canaan to Zarephath (Sarepta near Sidon). Benjamin’s acquiring Gilead implies that the transjordanic tribes will acquire new possessions. (See EDOM for the fulfillment). “Saviours shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s”; no longer under the usurping prince of this world. In the millennial kingdom to come there will be a “prince” not a “king” ( Ezekiel 44:3; 44:7); “saviours” or “deliverers” like the “judges,” bringing in sabbattic rest. The Maccabees (Judah’s deliverers from Antiochus Epiphanes) who conquered Edom were types. “To judge Esau” means to punish, as 1 Samuel 3:13. Edom typifies Israel’s and God’s last foes ( Isaiah 63:1-4). The Mount of Esau shall be abased before Mount Zion. Messiah will assume the kingdom with His transfigured saints, the Antitype to all former “saviours.” They shall “judge the world,” and as king priests shall be mediators of blessing to the nations in the flesh. ( Daniel 2:44; 7:14,27; Zechariah 14:9; Luke 1:33; Revelation 11:15; 19:6, “Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”) Obadiah quotes here Psalm 22:28, “the kingdom is the Lord’s.” 11. 1 Chronicles 27:19. 12. 2 Chronicles 34:12.

    OBAL Joktan’s son ( Genesis 10:28).EBAL in 1 Chronicles 1:22. Bochart conjectures that the troglodyte Aralitae of eastern Africa represent Obal.

    OBED 1. Son of Boaz and Ruth ( Ruth 4:17); father of Jesse, David’s father ( 1 Chronicles 2:12; Matthew 1:5; Luke 3:22). Hannah in her song ( 1 Samuel 2:5,7,10, “they that were hungry ceased ... the barren hath borne seven ... the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich”) apparently alludes to Ruth’s experience as reproduced in her own. Ruth poor and gleaning in the grain becomes wife of Boaz, the “mighty man of wealth.”

    From her springs “the Anointed King” Messiah, of whom Hannah sings.

    The famine which drove Elimelech’s sons to Moab was not long before, due in part to Philistine inroads (compare 1 Samuel 4). The women congratulated Naomi on Obed’s birth: “the Lord hath not left thee without a kinsman (goel = redeemer), that his name may be famous in Israel, and he shall be ... a nourisher of thine old age, for thy daughter in law, which is better to thee than sorest sons, hath borne him” ( Ruth 4:14,15). 2. 1 Chronicles 2:37,38. 3. 1 Chronicles 11:47. 4. 1 Chronicles 26:7. 5. Father of Azariah ( 2 Chronicles 23:1).

    OBED EDOM 1. 2 Samuel 6:11. (On his title “the see GITTITE ”). Gath-rimmon was a city of the Levite Kohathites in Dan ( Joshua 21:24). He was a Kohathite and distinguished by his title “Gittite” from Obed Edom, son of Jeduthun, a Merarite ( 1 Chronicles 16:38). Lived near Perez Uzzah, on the way from Kirjath Jearim to Jerusalem. After Uzzah’s stroke David in fear took the ark aside to the house of Obed Edom. Instead of the Levites bearing the ark (as was commanded, Numbers 7:9), David had put it in a cart, in the Philistine fashion ( 1 Samuel 6:8). His turning aside from the direct way to go to Obed Edom’s house is accounted for by his sudden fear owing to the punishment of Uzzah’s presumption; he goes to a Kohathite Levite, one of the family especially appointed to bear the ark on their shoulders, and deposits the ark with him, conscious that he himself might have been punished for irregularity. Accordingly, in 1 Chronicles we find the ark was no longer taken in a cart, but borne on the Levites’ shoulders, with Obed Edom “a doorkeeper for the ark,” and it is emphatically said it was “as Moses commanded, according to the word of Jehovah” (1 Chronicles15:15,18,24). The minute propriety of these details establishes the truthfulness of the narrative of the divine visitation on Uzzah. The Lord blessed Obed Edom and all his household in consequence during its three months’ stay with him; so David brought it up front Obed Edom’s house with joy. While the ark brought a plague every one was glad to be rid of it; but when it brought a blessing to Obed Edom, they wished for it. Many will own a blessing ark; he is an Obed Edom indeed that will own a persecuted, tossed, banished ark (Trapp). “God blessed him” with eight sons who were temple porters ( 1 Chronicles 26:1-5,8). Obed Edom and his sons guarded the S. temple gate and the house Asuppim, i.e. of gatherings, a store of the temple goods near the S. gate in the outer court ( 1 Chronicles 26:15). Obed Edom was doorkeeper for the ark ( 1 Chronicles 15:24). Those whom the Lord hath blessed, and who have received God’s ark into their home and heart, are best fitted to serve in the sanctuary and to open the kingdom of heaven ministerially. The site of his house is still pointed out, a very green plateau, Kuryet es saideh “the abode of the blessed,” on the way from Kirjath Jearim to Jerusalem, a little beyond Khirbet el Uz (Perez Uzzah). In 1 Chronicles 16:38 Obed Edom the singer appears distinct from Obed Edom the “porter” or gatekeeper ( 1 Chronicles 16:4,5,38). Obed Edom and his colleagues could not possibly at the same time as porters precede, and as singers come after, the priests and the ark. 2. (See 1). A Merarite Levite of the second degree ( 1 Chronicles 16:38). 3. A Levite in Amaziah’s time, having charge of the vessels of God’s house, taken captive with the king by Joash king of Israel at Bethshemesh battle ( 2 Chronicles 25:23,24). Probably sprung from “Obed Edom the Gittite.” The blessed of the Lord shall dwell in the Lord’s house forever.

    OBIL An Ishmaelite, appropriately herd of David’s camels ( 1 Chronicles 27:30). Abal is Arabic for “camel keeper”.

    OBOTH A stage in Israel’s journey, on the border of Edom and Moab ( Numbers 21:10; 33:43). N. of Punon, E. of the northern part of Edom. Now the halting place el Ahsa on the pilgrim route between Damascus and Mecca.

    Oboth means “holes dug for water”; plural of Ob or obah, Arabic weibeh.

    Ahsa is also a plural meaning the same. The wady el Ahsa runs N.W. into the Dead Sea, and is the boundary between the provinces Jebal and Kerak, as anciently between Edom and Moab.

    OCRAN Numbers 1:13.

    ODED 1. Father of Azariah the prophet under Asa ( 2 Chronicles 15:1); in Chronicles 15:8 “of Oded the prophet” must be an interpolation, for “the prophecy” in the Hebrew is absolute, not in the construct state as it would necessarily be if the words were genuine; besides not Oded but Azariah was “the prophet,” the Alexandrinus manuscript and Vulgate read in Chronicles 15:8 “Azariah son of Oded.” 2. A prophet of Samaria under Pekah. When the Israelites led away 200,000 Jews captive to Samaria, “Oded went out before the host and said, Because Jehovah was angry with Judah, He hath delivered them into your hands, and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up into heaven (calling for divine vengeance on yourselves); and now ye purpose to keep the children of Judah bondmen ... but are there not with you, even with you, sins against Jehovah? (compare Matthew 7:1-5; James 2:13).

    Now ... deliver the captives again,” etc. It was a bold venture so to reprove to the face men flushed with triumph. But God often blesses an effort more than one durst expect. Certain chiefs of Ephraim, touched by his appeal, said, “ye shall not bring in the captives here,” etc. Then they took and clothed the naked, and shod them, and gave them to eat and drink, and anointed them (oil is refreshing and herding in the sultry East), and carried all the feeble upon donkeys (compare Luke 10:34) and brought them to Jericho ( Romans 12:20).

    OFFICER In New Testament used to translated hufretes “minister” ( Matthew 5:25), and practor “exacter” or “officer of the court,” only in Luke 12:58.

    OG] An Amorite king of Bashan, ruling 60 cities, including Ashteroth Karnaim and Edrei ( Joshua 13:12; 12:4; Genesis 14:5). After conquering Sihon’s land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, Israel marched by way of see BASHAN (see ARGOB ) which is N. of the Jabbok. Og met them and perished with all his people at Edrei, and Israel took his land ( Numbers 21:33-35). Og was of a different race, namely, “of the remnant of the giants,” the Rephaim before the Amorites came ( Deuteronomy 3:13).

    The Amorites by intermarriage with the Rephaim were in “height like that of the cedars and strong as the oaks” ( Amos 2:9). Og’s bedstead was in Rabbath of Ammon when Moses wrote Deuteronomy 3:1-11. Either the Ammonites, like the Bedouin, followed in the wake of Israel’s armies as pillagers, and so got possession of it; or Israel sent it to Ammon as a pledge of their having no hostile intentions, the Lord having forbidden them to disturb Ammon, and as a visible token of Israel’s power in having overcome such mighty kings as Sihon and Og. It was nine cubits long and four broad. “Of iron,” perhaps the black basalt of the country, which is called by the Arabs “iron,” having 20 percent of that metal. His body was of course shorter. Knobel thinks Og’s “bier” is meant, a sarcophagus of black basalt. His corpse may have been carried, in this view, to the territory of the friendly Ammonites. So Dr. Geddes conjectures Og, after his defeat, fled to Rabbath where he died and was buried in this coffin. After traversing the smooth pasture land, Israel suddenly came on the marvelous rock barrier of Argob, an oval basalt island,60 miles by 20 miles, “all the girdle (Hebrew) of Argob” (the stony country), rising abruptly 30 ft. from the surrounding Bashan plains. The rocky fastnesses, on which Og’s cities were, almost impregnable, compensated by security for their inconveniences. Had Og remained in them, Israel could not have dislodged him. God therefore saw it needful to encourage Israel in facing such a foe, “fear him not”; and God sent hornets which, as well as infatuation, drove Og into the open field where he was overthrown ( Joshua 24:12). God’s special interposition for Israel against Og is the theme of praise ( <19D511> Psalm 135:11; 136:20).

    OHAD Genesis 46:10; Exodus 6:15.

    OHEL 1 Chronicles 3:20.

    OIL Its three principal uses among the Hebrews were: (1) To anoint the body so as to mollify the skin, heal injuries, and strengthen muscles ( <19A415> Psalm 104:15; 109:18; 141:5; Isaiah 1:6; Luke 10:34; 2 Chronicles 28:15; Mark 6:13; James 5:14) (see ANOINT ). (2) As we use butter, as food ( Numbers 11:8; 1 Kings 17:12; Chronicles 12:40; Ezekiel 16:13,19; Hosea 2:5). (3) To burn in lamps ( Exodus 25:6; Matthew 25:3). Type of the Holy Spirit’s unction ( 2 Corinthians 1:21; 1 John 2:20,27) and illumination ( Zechariah 4:11,12). The supply of grace comes not from a dead reservoir of oil, but through living “olive trees.” Ordinances and ministers are channels, not the grace itself; Zechariah 4:14, “anointed ones,” Hebrew sons of oil; Isaiah 5:1, “very fruitful hill,” Hebrew “horn of the son of oil.” The Lord Jesus has the fullness of grace from the double olive tree of the Holy Spirit, so as to be at once our priest and king; He is the tree, ministers the branches, “emptying the golden oil out of themselves” for the supply of the church and to the glory of the Author of grace. In the sanctuary oil served the three purposes: (1) anointing the priests and holy things, (2) as food in the bloodless offerings (minchah ), (3) it kept alive the lights in “the pure candlestick,” “the lamp of God” ( 1 Samuel 3:3) in the holy place. Messiah is the Antitype “anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows” ( Hebrews 1:9; Psalm 45:7); not only above us, the adopted members of God’s family, but above the angels, partakers with Him, though infinitely His inferiors, in the holiness and joys of heaven. His anointing with “the oil of exulting joy” took place not at His baptism when He began His ministry for us, but at His triumphant completion of His work, at His ascension ( Ephesians 4:8; Psalm 68:18), when He obtained the Holy Spirit without measure ( John 3:34), to impart to us in measure. The oil of gladness shall be in the fullest sense His “in the day of His espousals, in the day of the gladness of His heart” (Song 3:11; Revelation 19:7). Guests were anointed with oil at feasts; so He anoints us, Psalm 23:5. The offering of oil on the altar was the offerer’s acknowledgment that all his spiritual gifts were from Jehovah. The “beaten oil” for the sanctuary light was made from olives bruised in a mortar. So Messiah’s bruising preceded His pouring out the Spirit on us ( Exodus 25:6; 27:20). The olives were sometimes “trodden” ( Micah 6:15), or “pressed” in a “press,” making the fats overflow ( Joel 2:24; 3:13; Haggai 2:16). The oil was stored in cellars, in cruses ( 1 Kings 17:14). Solomon supplied Hiram with “20,000 baths of oil” ( 2 Chronicles 2:10), “20 measures of pure oil” ( 1 Kings 5:11). Oil was exported to Egypt as the special produce of Palestine ( Hosea 12:1). Meat offerings were mingled or anointed with oil ( Leviticus 7:10,12); but the sin offering and the offering of jealousy were without oil (5:11; Numbers 5:15). The oil indicated” gladness”; its absence sorrow and humiliation ( Isaiah 61:3; Joel 2:19; Psalm 45:7).

    OIL TREE ‘eets shemen ( Isaiah 41:19), but in KJV Nehemiah 8:15 “pine branches.” Probably the zackum or Balanites Aegyptiaca is meant. Distinct from the zayit , “olive tree.” The zackum is a small tree abundant in the Jordan plain. It is found all the way from India to Syria, Abyssinia, and the Niger. The zackum oil is highly esteemed by the Arabs as a remedy for wounds.

    OINTMENT See ANOINT .

    OLD TESTAMENT The conscientious preservation of the discrepancies of parallel passages (as Psalm 14 and Psalm 53; Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22; Isaiah 36--39; and Kings 18--20; Jeremiah 52 and 2 Kings 24--25; Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7), notwithstanding the temptation to assimilate them, proves the accuracy of Ezra and his associates in transmitting the Scriptures to us. The Maccabean coins and the similar Samaritan character preserve for us the alphabetical characters in which the text was written, resembling those in use among the Phoenicians. The targums, shortly before Christ, introduced the modern Aramaic or square characters now used for Hebrew. Keil however attributes these to Ezra. No vowel points were used, but in the later books matres lectionis or vowel letters. The words were separated by spaces, except those closely connected. Sections, parshioth, are marked by commencing a new line or by blank spaces. The greater parshioth are the sabbath lessons marked in the Mishna, and perhaps dating from the introduction of the square letters; distinct from the verse divisions made in Christian times. Pesukim is the term for “verses.”

    The Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch are the oldest documents with which to criticize our Hebrew text. Gesenius has shown the inferiority of the Samaritan text to our Hebrew Pentateuch: (1) it substitutes common for unusual grammatical forms; (2) it admits glosses into the text; (3) it emends difficult passages, substituting easier readings; (4) it corrects and adds words from parallel passages; (5) it interpolates from them; (6) it removes historical and other difficulties of the subject matter; (7) Samaritanisms in language; (8) passages made to agree with the Samaritan theology.

    However, as a help in arriving at the text in difficult passages, it has its use.

    The Samaritan text agrees with the Septuagint in more than one thousand places where both differ from the Masoretic, yet their independence is shown in that the Septuagint agree with the Masoretic in a thousand places, and both herein differ from the Samaritan text. A revised text existed probably along with our Hebrew one in the centuries just before Christ, and was used by the Septuagint. The Samaritans altered it still more (Gesenius); so it became “the Alexandrian Samaritan text.” The Samaritans certainly did not receive their Pentateuch from the Israelite northern kingdom, for they have not received the books of Israel’s prophets, Hosea, Jonah, Amos. Being pagan, they probably had the Pentateuch first introduced among them from Judah by Manasseh and other priests who joined them at the time of the building of the Mount Gerizim temple.

    Josephus (contra Apion i. 8) boasts that through all past ages none had added to, or taken from, or transposed, aught of the sacred writings. The Greek translation of Aquila mainly agrees with ours. So do the targums of Onkelos and Jonathan. Origen in the Hexapla, and especially Jerome, instructed by Palestinian Jews in preparing the Vulgate, show a text identical with ours in even the traditional unwritten vowel readings. The learning of the schools of Hillel and Shammai in Christ’s time was preserved, after Jerusalem’s fall, in those of Jabneh, Sepphoris, Caesarea, and Tiberias. R. Judah the Holy compiled the Mishna, the Talmud text, before A. D. 220. The twofold Gemara, or commentary, completed the Talmud; the Jerusalem Gemara of the Jews of Tiberias was written at the end of the fourth century; the Babylonian emanated from the schools on the Euphrates at the end of the fifth century. Their assigning the interpretation to the targumist, as distinguished from the transcriber, secured the text from the conjectural interpolations otherwise to be apprehended. The Talmudic doctors counted the verses in each book, and which was the middle verse, word, and letter in the Pentateuch, and in the psalms, marking it by a large letter or one raised above the line ( Leviticus 11:42; Psalm 80:14). The Talmudists have a note, “read, but not written,” to mark what ought to be read though not in the text, at 2 Samuel 8:3; 16:23; Jeremiah 31:38; 50:29; Ruth 2:11; 3:5,17; also “written but not (to be) read,” 2 Kings 5:18; Deuteronomy 6:1; Jeremiah 51:3; Ezekiel 48:16; Ruth 3:12. So the Masoretic Qeri’s (marginal readings) in Job 13:15; Haggai 1:8. Their scrupulous abstinence from introducing what they believed the truer readings guarantees to us both their critical care in examining the text and their reverence in preserving it intact. They rejected manuscripts not agreeing with others (Taanith Hierosol. 68, section 1). Their rules as to transcribing and adopting manuscripts show their carefulness.

    The soph-pasuk (:) marking the verse endings, and the maqqeph (hyphen), joining words, were introduced after the Talmudic time and earlier than the accents. The maqqeph embodies the traditional authority for joining or separating words; words joined by it have only one accent. Translate therefore Psalm 45:4 without “and,” “meekness-righteousness,” i.e. righteousness manifesting itself in meekness. The Masorah, i.e. tradition (first digested by the doctors in the fifth century), compiled in writing the thus accumulated traditions and criticisms, and became a kind of “fence of the law.”

    In the post-Talmudic period THE MASORAH (Buxtorf, Tiberias) notes: (1) as to the verses, how many are in each book, the middle verse in each; how many begin with certain letters, or end with the same word, or had a certain number of words and letters, or certain words a number of times; (2) as to the words, the Qeri’s (marginal readings) and kethib’s (readings of the text); also words found so many times in the beginning, middle, or end of a verse, or with a particular meaning; also in particular words where transcribers’ mistakes were likely, whether they were to be written with or without the vowel letters; also the accentuation; (3) as to the letters, how often each occurred in the Old Testament, etc., etc. The written Masorah was being formed from the sixth century to the tenth century. Its chief value is its collection of Qeri’s, of which some are from the Talmud, many from manuscripts, others from the sole authority of the Masoretes. The Bomberg Bible contains 1171. The small number in the Pentateuch,43, is due to the greater care bestowed on the law as compared with the other Scriptures. The Masorah is distinguished into magna and parva (an abridgment of the magna, including the Qeri’s and printed at the foot of the page). The magna is partly at the side of the text commented on, partly at the end. Their inserting the vowel marks in the text records for us the traditional pronunciation. The vowel system was molded after the Arabian system, and that after the Syrian system. The acceders in their logical signification were called “senses”; in their musical signification, “tones.” They occur in the Masorah, not in the Talmud. The very difficulties which are left unremoved, in explaining some passages consistently with the accents and the vowel points, show that both embody, not the Masoretes’ private judgment, but the traditions of previous generations. Walton’s Polyglot gives readings also of the Palestinian and of the Babylonian Jews; the former printed first in the Bomberg Bible by R.

    Jacob ben Chaim, 216 in all, concerning the consonants, except two as to the mappik. Aaron ben Asher, a Palestinian, and R. Jacob, a Babylonian Jew, having collated manuscripts in the 11th century, mention 864 different readings of vowels, accents, and makkeph, and (Song 8:6) the division of a word. Our manuscripts generally agree with Ben Asher’s readings. The Masorah henceforward settled the text of Jewish manuscripts; older manuscripts were allowed to perish as incorrect.

    Synagogue rolls and manuscripts for private use are the two classes known to us. Synagogue rolls contain separately the Pentateuch, the [haphtaroth] (literally, “dismissals,” being read just before the congregations departed) or sections of the prophets, and the [megilloth], namely, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther: all without vowels, accents, and sophpasuks. The Sopherim Tract appended to the Babylonian Talmud prescribes as to the preparation of the parchment for these rolls, and the ceremonial required in writing them. They are not sold; it is supposed that only vitiated copies, rejected by the synagogue, have gotten into Christian hands. The Spanish writing is rounder and modern, the German and Polish writing is more angular, designated the tam (“perfect”) and the [welsh] (“foreign”) respectively. Private manuscripts are in book form, the inner margin being used for the Masorah Parva, the upper and lower margins for the Masorah and rabbinical comments. Sections and verses are marked.

    One wrote the consonants, another the vowels and accents in a fainter ink, another the Masorah. Most manuscripts are of the 12th century. Kennicott assigns No. 590 of his collation to the 10th century. DeRossi assigns to A.D. 1018, and his own (No. 634) to the eighth century. The Spanish manuscripts, like the Masorah, place Chronicles before the hagiographa; the German manuscripts, like the Talmud, place Jeremiah and Ezekiel before Isaiah; and Ruth, separate from the other [megilloth], before Psalms. Of the 581 manuscripts collated by Kennicott, 102 have the whole Old Testament.

    Pinner found at Odessa manuscripts (presented by a Karaite of Eupatoria in 1839 to the Odessa Hist. and Antiq. Society), one of which, brought from Derbend in Daghestan, appears from the subscription older than A.D. 580.

    If this is correct, it is the oldest extant. Another, a manuscript of the prophets, inscribed A.D. 916, has vowels and accents differing from the ordinary form, and placed above the letters. The China manuscripts resemble the European; so the manuscript brought by Buchanan from Malabar. The manuscript in a cave under the synagogue of Aleppo bears inscription: “I Moses ben Asher wrote this cycle of Scripture with all correctness, as the good hand of God was upon me ... in the city of Tiberias. Amen. Finished 827 years after the destruction of the second temple.”

    The Psalter, with Kimchi’s commentary, was the first printed Hebrew scripture, at Bologna, in A.D. 1477; at Soncino the first whole Hebrew Bible, one of which edition is in Exeter College, Oxford. In 1494 Gersom printed at Brescia the edition from which Luther made his German translated Bomberg at Venice printed in 1518 the first edition with Masorah, targums, and rabbinical comments; Felix del Prato, a converted Jew, being editor. Bomberg at Venice printed the second rabbinical Bible, four vols. fol., 1525, with the text corrected from the Masorah by R. Jacob ben Chaim, a Tunisian Jew. Jos. Athias, a rabbi and printer at Amsterdam, compared previous editions with a manuscript, A.D. 1299, and a Spanish manuscript 900 years old, and printed an edition 1661 with preface by Leusden, professor at Utrecht. Van der Hooght’s edition, 2 vols. 8vo, 1705, which is our textus receptus, rests on Athias’.

    Kennicott’s Dissertations on the Printed Text, 1753 and 1759, drew from the English public 10,000 British pounds to secure a collation of manuscripts throughout Europe. He and Brans of Helinstadt collated Jewish and 16 Samaritan manuscripts (half of them throughout, the rest only in select passages), and 40 printed editions. The result was printed with Van der Hooght’s text, 1776-80. DeRossi at Parma gave from ancient versions various readings ofSELECT PASSAGES, and from the collation on them of 617 manuscripts, and 134 besides, which Kennicott had not seen; four vols. 1784-1788, a fifth vol. 1798. The variations were trifling, chiefly of vowel letters; so that we have the assurance that our Old Testament text is almost as pure as attainable. The ancient versions alone need more careful scrutiny. Jerome’s Vulgate is the best critical help on disputed passages. Aquila’s, Symmachus’, and Theodotion’s versions are only fragments. The Syriac leans on the Septuagint. The targums are only paraphrases; still, they, if all agreeing together for a reading, furnish a strong presumption in its favor. The Septuagint confirms a reading if otherwise rendered probable, but not by itself alone. Smith’s Bible Dictionary. conjectures on Psalm 76:10, from the Septuagint, techageka for tachgor , “the remainder of wrath shall keep holiday to Thee.” But the Hebrew text is susceptible of the KJV if the cognate Arabic is an authority.

    Or else the Hebrew literally, is “Thou girdest Thyself with the remainder of the foe’s wrath,” i.e., even to its last remains (compare Psalm 75:8) it serves as a weapon to gird Thyself with for their destruction (Hengstenberg); or, “those left of the foe, who vented their wrath against Thee, Thou girdest Thyself with, making them acknowledge and praise Thy power” (Maurer): Psalm 75:11; Isaiah 49:18; Psalm 68:30.

    The Septuagint is two centuries later than the last book of Old Testament It is only in the period immediately following the closing of the Old Testament canon that its few corruptions have arisen, for subsequently the jealous care of its purity has been continually on the increase. The Septuagint translators neither knew enough Hebrew for rightly fulfilling their task, nor used what they knew to the best purpose. Transcription subsequently has much corrupted their version, it being in great demand and often therefore transcribed hastily without the scrupulous care with which the Hebrew text was most carefully guarded. The New Testament quotes mainly the Septuagint Old Testament, but corrects it by the Hebrew when needful ( Matthew 21:5; 9:13; 4:15,16; John 19:37; Corinthians 3:19; 15:54; Luke 22:37; Romans 9:33). The Septuagint alone is quoted throughout Epistle to the Hebrews, except for Hebrews 10:30.

    A specimen of corrections from the Qeri in conjunction with the Septuagint is Isaiah 9:3, “its” for “not”; but the difficulty of the reading favors the text, “Thou hast multiplied the nation and (soon after) not increased the joy”; for the increase of the true Israel by Gentile converts to Christianity was soon followed by the growth of corruption and antichrist; but he in turn is to be destroyed, as Midian was by Gideon, to the “joy” of the elect nation. In Psalm 22:16 Aquila (A.D. 133), a Jew, reads “they disfigured,” confirming the reading in KJV, “they pierced my hands,” in opposition to “they enclosed as a lion my hands,” etc. So the Septuagint, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, Vulgate. The little Masorah admits that the Hebrew, which in Isaiah 38:13 means “as a lion,” has a different sense here. The Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch agree in the easier reading of Deuteronomy 32:5, “they (belong) not to Him, children of spot” (defilement); compare Ephesians 5:7; but the Hebrew text is intelligible, “they are not His children, but their blemish,” i.e. the disgrace of God’s children. For “after the commandment” ( Hosea 5:11) the Septuagint, Syriac, and targums read “vanity,” Jerome “filthiness.” But the “commandment” which Ephraim “walked after” is Jeroboam’s ( 1 Kings 12:28-33; 2 Kings 10:28-33; Micah 6:16).

    Interpretation. The literal system prevailed in Palestine, the allegorical in the Alexandria. Philo is an instance of the latter class. Later Jewish writers searched for recondite meanings in the places, construction, and orthography, apart from the logical context. The Kabala (“reception,” “received tradition”) attached symbolical meanings to the number of times a word or letter recurred, or to the number which letters represented. For instance the Hebrew letter [ a ], a, is found six times in the first verse of Genesis and six times in 2 Chronicles 36:23, the last verse of the Hebrew Bible, therefore the world will last 6,000 years. This is the [Gematria] method. By the Notarjekon process new significant words were formed out of the initial or final words of the text, or a word’s letters were made the initials of a new significant series of words. By the [Temurah ] (“change”) process new words were obtained, by anagram (or transposition of letters; whereby they supposed, for instance, that Michael must be the angel meant in Exodus 23:23, because it has the same letters as “my angel” in Hebrew by transposition) or by the Atbash alphabet where the last letter of the alphabet represented a, the last but one b , and so on; thus Sheshach would mean Babel or Babylon. The Christian interpreters soon rejected these subtleties and maintained the historical reality of Old Testament events. Clement of Alexandria laid down the fourfold view of the Old Testament: literal, symbolical, moral, and prophetic (Strom. 1:28). Origen (de Princip. 4:11) his scholar recognizes in it a body, soul, and spirit; the first for the simple, the second for the more advanced, the third for the perfect. Allegory (of which the Song and Galatians 4:21-31 are divinely sanctioned instances) and analogy are pressed too far by him, so much so that he denies the literal sense of Genesis 1--4. Contrast the right use, the moral deduced from the literal sense ( Deuteronomy 25:4 with 1 Corinthians 9:9), and spiritual truths shadowed forth in the literal. ( 1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Hebrews 8:5; Romans 11:4,5; 9:13-21, etc.) Diodore of Tarsus in the fourth century attended only to the letter of Scripture. Theodore of Mopsuestia pursued the grammatical method so exclusively that he rejected rationalistically the Old Testament prophetic references, as if the application to Messiah was only by accommodation. Chrysostom accepted the literal and spiritual, and especially dwelt on the moral sense. Theodoret similarly combined the literal, historical, allegorical, and prophetical. Hilary of Poictiers drew forth the sense that Scripture intended, not what might be forced out of it. Augustine made the literal sense of Scripture history the basis of the mystical, so that the latter should not be “a building resting on air” (Serm. ii. 6). Luther truly says, “the best grammatical (literal) interpreter is also the best theologian.” On the Old Testament Jarchi (A.D. 1105), Aben Ezra (1167), Kimchi (1240), and especially Nicholas of Lyre (1341, in his Postillae Perpetuae) set the example of literal interpretation. It was said, “Si Lyra non lyrasset, Luther non saltasset”; if Lyra had not piped, Luther would not have danced. The moral must rest on the grammatical (literal) historical, and the spiritual on both. These four in some passages co-exist. Others, as the genealogies and many historical details, are links joining together the significant parts. Others are simply moral and spiritual, as Proverbs. Often the moral teaching lies not in separate passages, as, for instance, the speeches of the book of Job, but in the general tenor and issue of the whole, to unfold which the separate passages work together.

    The New Testament is the key to the Old Testament. As Christ and His apostles in the New Testament interpreted many parts and facts of the Old Testament, so we must interpret other parts and facts of the Old Testament which they have left uninterpreted, on analogous principles of interpretation. The New Testament does not note the spiritual meaning of every Old Testament type and history, and the fulfillment of every prophecy; space would not admit of it. That is our part, with prayer for the Holy Spirit. “In Vetere Testamenlo Novum latet, in Novo Vetus patet”; the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament, the Old Testament is revealed in the New ( 2 Corinthians 3:6-18). The whole substance of the Old Testament is in the New Testament, but the details are to be unfolded by prayerful search. The literal interpretation is quite consistent with recognizing metonymies, as “mouth” substituted for “word,” the cause put for the effect; metaphors, as “hardness” said of the heart; parabolic images ( Isaiah 5:1-7; Judges 9:8-15, where the history can be discerned only by recognizing the allegory); personifications; anthropomorphisms, or human conceptions as the “hand,” “fingers,” “wrath,” etc., applied to God; allegory, having no outward reality, as the Song of Solomon is nevertheless the vehicle of representing the historical being, the heavenly Bridegroom, and His church the bride. Again, the prophets depict events as accomplished at once, which in fact were the work of a long period, e.g.

    Babylon’s destruction (Isaiah 13). Each fresh stage in the gradually fulfilled accomplishment is an earliest of a further stage, and at length of the final consummation. Preliminary typical fulfillments do not exhaust but point onward to the exhaustive fulfillment.

    The moral aim is the reason for the disproportionate space occupied by personal biographies of men remarkable for piety or wickedness, and for the gaps which occur in parts of the Old Testament history. Whatever illustrates God’s providence, man’s sinfulness, believers’ frailties, God’s mercy and faithfulness, is narrated at length at the sacrifice of symmetry.

    Important wars and political revolutions are briefly noticed. Those events are made prominent and full which illustrate the onward march of the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit’s inspiration alone could enable the writers to put the events in the due proportion of God’s design. Christ and His apostles bring to light the moral and spiritual truths wrapped up in the Old Testament letter (Matthew 5--7; 19:5,6; 22:32; John 10:34,35; Acts 7:48,49; 1 Corinthians 9:9,10; 2 Corinthians 8:13-15). So in the Old Testament histories ( Luke 6:3; Romans 4; 9:12,13,17; Corinthians 10:6-11; Hebrews 3:7-11; Hebrews 11; 2 Peter 2:15,16; 1 John 3:11-15).

    Scripture does not sanction every act of a believer which it records, even though it expresses no condemnation ( Judges 3:21; 1 Samuel 21:13; 27:8-12). Elisha’s non-condemnation of Naaman’s temporizing with his master’s idolatry for expediency does not sanction it ( 2 Kings 5:18,19); its record of Jephthah’s rash vow gives no approval. The praise of one’s faith does not involve commendation of all his or her recorded acts. The speeches of Job’s friends are recorded; it is our part, by comparing them with God’s revealed will in other parts of Scripture, to ascertain which sentiments are true and which erroneous, and in the end of the book disapproved by God ( Job 42:7). Jacob’s deceits toward his father, and taking advantage of his brother’s recklessness, are not approved of, but his faith at the root is what constituted him heir of the promises. It is God’s design that spiritual truths should not lie always on the surface, but often need reverent, diligent, and prayerful search. This is our probation; it is also an excellence of the Bible, that it presents to us living men as they are, faulty like the best of us (excepting the one faultless model), so that we may copy the good and shun the evil. ”The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” ( Revelation 19:10).

    The Old Testament is one great type and prophecy, which finds and will find its fullest accomplishment in Him ( Luke 24:44; Matthew 26:54; 5:17,18). It cannot be mere accident that the evangelic history runs parallel with the Mosaic; Genesis 3:15 is the germ of all succeeding revelation; its one subject is man in conflict with Satan, Satan’s temporary successes, man’s final victory. In the Case of Jonah the spiritual Antitype confirms the reality of the typical outward fact, the Antitype was even more marvelous than the marvelous type. Moreover the spiritual must rest upon the literal and moral; therefore mere outward fulfillments of prophecy do not suffice; e.g. there must be a further deeper and more spiritual fulfillment of the type, Israel’s sojourn in Egypt, than that of our Lord’s sojourn there; it marks Him as the true Israel with high destiny before Him after His temporary sojourn in this Egypt world. The New Testament quotes Old Testament prophecies as “fulfilled” in certain events, but not necessarily completely, for the same prophecy has progressive fulfillments down to the final one. There is a succession of events, each of which partially fills up but does not cover the whole ground, which shall only be covered when the whole succession shall be filled up; like concentric circles all referable to one center ( Acts 2:17-21). So the same verse has manifold bearings, as Psalm 24:1, quoted for opposite aspects of the same truth ( Corinthians 10:26,28). Jesus and His apostles alone use “fulfill” for the New Testament accomplishment of Old Testament Scripture. Matthew (2:15,18,23) alleges three events in Jesus’ youth as occurring “in order that it (Scripture) might be fulfilled,” for the Old Testament word divinely causes its own fulfillment in the New Testament. Again, the New Testament writers show the Holy Spirit’s inspiration in the liberty they take in altering the Old Testament words for their purpose ( Matthew 26:31, compare Zechariah 13:7; Romans 11:26,27, compare Isaiah 59:20; 2:3; Matthew 8:17; Isaiah 53:4).

    OLIVE Its foliage is the earliest mentioned ( Genesis 8:11). Tradition from Noah’s days has ever made it symbolize peace. It is the emblem of “fatness” in the oldest parable ( Judges 9:8,9). Emblem of the godly ( Psalm 52:5,8), in spirit constantly dwelling “in the house of God”; in contrast to slave-like formalists now sojourning outwardly in it for a time, but not abiding ever ( John 8:34,35; Psalm 15:1; 23:6; 27:4,5; 36:8); the wicked and antichrist shall be “rooted out of (God’s) dwelling place,” literally, 5 (‘ohel ). The Septuagint, Chaldee, Vulgate, and Aben Ezra interpretohel “the tabernacle” ( 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Daniel 11:44,45). The saint’s children are “like olive plants round about his table” ( <19C803> Psalm 128:3). The old olive sends out young suckers which spring up round the parent tree, and which in after ages, when the parent’s strength fails, shelter it on every side from the blast. It is the characteristic tree of Judea on Roman coins, Deuteronomy 8:8. Asher “dipped his foot in oil” ( Deuteronomy 33:24). Emblem of Judah’s adoption of God by grace ( Jeremiah 11:16; Romans 11:17), also of joy and prosperity. The Gentile church is the wild twig “engrafted contrary to nature” on the original Jewish olive stock; it marks supernatural virtue in the stock that it enables those wild by nature to bear good fruit; ordinarily it is only a superior scion that is grafted on an inferior.

    The two witnesses for God (antitypes to Elijah and Moses, Zerubbabel and Joshua, the civil ruler and the priest: Malachi 4:5,6; Matthew 17:11; Acts 3:21; Jude 1:6) are “the two olive trees,” channels of the oil (the Holy Spirit in them) feeding the church ( Revelation 11:3,4; Zechariah 4:11,12). The wood, fine grained, solid, and yellowish, was used for the cherubim, doors, and posts ( 1 Kings 6:23,31-33). The tree was shaken to get the remnant left after the general gathering (by “beating,” Deuteronomy 24:20), Isaiah 24:13; image of Israel’s “remnant according to the election of grace.” The least breeze makes the flowers fall; compare Job 15:33, “he shall cast off his flower as the olive,” i.e. the least blast sweeps away in a moment the sinner’s prosperity.

    The tree poetically is made to cast off its own blossom, to mark that the sinner brings on his own ruin ( Isaiah 3:11; Jeremiah 6:19). It thrives best in a sunny position. A rocky calcareous subsoil suits it; compare “oil out of the flinty rock” ( Deuteronomy 32:13). The trunk is knotty and gnarled, the bark smooth and ash colored. Its growth is slow, but it lives very long. The leaves are grey green, not deciduous, suggestive of tenacious strength.

    OLIVES, MOUNT OF Har-hazzey-thim. E. of Jerusalem ( Ezekiel 11:23), separated from it by “the valley of Jehoshaphat” ( Zechariah 14:4). “The mount of the olive grove” (Elaionos ), Acts 1:12. Arabic jebel es Zeitun. In 2 Samuel 15:30 “the ascent of the olives” (Hebrew). “The mountain facing Jerusalem” ( 1 Kings 11:7); called “the hill of corruption” from Solomon’s high places built to Chemosh and Moloch ( 2 Kings 23:13,14). The road by which David fled from Absalom across Kedron, and passed through trees to the summit, where was a consecrated spot (an old sanctuary to Elohim , like Bethel) at which he worshipped God ( Samuel 15:30,32). Turning the summit he passed Bahurim (16:5), probably near Bethany, then through a “dry and weary (Hebrew hayeephim ) land where no water was,” as he says Psalm 63:1; 2 Samuel 16:2,14 (the same Hebrew), 17:2. In Psalm 42 he was beyond Jordan; in Psalm 63 he is in the wilderness on the near side of Jordan (15:28; 17:21,22). Shimei, scrambling along the overhanging hill, flung down the stones and dust of the rough and parched descent.

    The range has four hills. Josiah defiled Solomon’s idolatrous high places, breaking the “statues,” cutting down the groves, and filling their places with men’s bones. After the return from Babylon the olive, pine, palm, and myrtle branches for booths at the feast of tabernacles were thence procured ( Nehemiah 8:15). The ridge runs N. and S., separating the city which lies on its western side from the wilderness reaching from the eastern side of Olivet to the Dead Sea. At the northern extremity the range bends to the W., leaving a mile of level space between it and the city wall; whereas on the E. the mountain approaches the wall, separated only by a narrow ravine, Kedron, to which the descent from the Golden gate, or the gate of Stephen, is steep, and the ascent from the valley bed up the hill equally so.

    The northern part, probably Nob, Mizpeh, and Scopus (so called from the view it commands of the city), is distinct historically, though geologically a continuation, from “the Mount of Olives.” So too the “mount of evil counsel” on the S. The Latin Christians call the northern part “Viri Galilaei,” being the presumed site of the angels’ address to the disciples at the ascension, “ye men of Galilee,” etc. ( Acts 1:11).

    Olivet (Et Tur), the historical hill so called, separated from Scopus by a depression running across, is a limestone rounded hill, the whole length two miles; the height at the Church of the Ascension on the summit is 2,700 ft. above the Mediterranean, Zion is 2,537 ft. above, Moriah (temple area or Haram) at 2,429 ft., the N.W. corner of the city at 2,581 ft. Thus it is considerably higher than the temple mountain, and even than the socalled Zion. S. of the mount of ascension, and almost a part of it, stands that of the tombs of the prophets; again, S. of that, the mount of offense.

    Of the three paths from the valley to the summit the first follows the natural shape of the ground, the line of depression Between the central and the northern hill. It was evidently David’s route in fleeing. It was also the Lord’s route between Bethany and Jerusalem ( Luke 19:28-37), and that whereby the apostles returned to Jerusalem after the ascension. The second path at 50 yards beyond Gethsemane strikes off directly up the steep to the village. The third turns S. to the tombs of the prophets, and then to the village.

    The reputed sites at the W. of the central mount are: the tomb of the Virgin, then successively up the hill see GETHSEMANE , namely, an olive garden, cavern of Christ’s prayer and agony, rock where the disciples slept, place of Jesus’ capture, spot from whence the Virgin saw Stephen stoned, spot where her girdle dropped at her assumption, spot of Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem ( Luke 19:41), tombs of the prophets, including Haggai and Zechariah (the Jews say; Matthew 23:29), place of the ascension, and church. On the eastern side, descending from the ascension church to Bethany, are the field of the fruitless figtree, Bethphage, Bethany, Lazarus’ house, Lazarus’ tomb, stone on which Christ sat when Martha and Mary came to Him. Gethsemane is doubtless authentic. The empress Helena (A.D. 325) was the first who connected the ascension with Olivet (Eusebius Vit. Const. 3:43, Demonstr. Evang. 6:18); not that she fixed the precise spot but she erected a memorial ascension church with a glittering cross on this conspicuous site near the cave, the reputed place of Christ’s teaching the disciples. The tradition was not an established one until more than 300 years later.

    The real place of ascension was Bethany, on the eastern slope, a mile beyond the traditional site ( Luke 24:50,51; Acts 1:6-11). The “sabbath day’s journey” (about six furlongs) specified for the information of Gentiles not knowing the locality in Acts 1 is from Olivet’s main part and summit (or from Kefr et Tur, Bethphage according to Ganneau: see below), not from the place of actual ascension, Bethany, which is more than twice a sabbath day’s journey. So public a spot as the summit, visible for miles from all points, would ill suit the ascension of Him who after the resurrection showed Himself “not unto all the people but to witnesses chosen before of God” ( Acts 10:41,42). The retired and wooded slopes of Bethany on the contrary were the fit scene of that crowning event. “The Mount of Olives” is similarly used in a general sense for Bethany ( Luke 21:37, compare Matthew 21:17; 26:6). “Bethany” does not mean (as Alford says) the district of Bethany extending to the summit, but the village alone.

    The traditional site of the lamentation over Jerusalem is similarly unreal, for it can only be reached by a walk of hundreds of yards over the breast of the hill, the temple moreover and city being in full view all the time. The real site must have been a point on the road. from Bethany where the city bursts into view. The Lord’s triumphal entry was not by the steep short path of pedestrians over the summit, but the long easy route round the S. shoulder of the southernmost of the three divisions of Olivet; thence two views present themselves in succession; the first of the S.W. part of the city, namely, so called “Zion,” the second, after an interval, of the temple buildings, answering to the two points of the history, the hosannas and the weeping of Jesus. Luke 19:37, “when He was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount,” etc.; Luke 19:41-44, “when He was come near He beheld the city and wept over it.” On the slope the multitude found the palm branches when going to meet the Lord ( John 12:13).

    The catacomb called “the tombs of the prophets,” on the hill S. of the central ascension hill and forming part of it with a slight depression between, is probably that cave where according to Eusebius Jesus taught mysteries to His disciples (Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, 453).

    The mount of offense (Baten el Hawa, Arabic, “bag of the wind”) is the most southern portion of the range. The road in the hollow between it and the hill of “the tomb of the prophets” is the road from Bethany whereby Christ in triumph entered Jerusalem. The identification of “the hill of offense” with Solomon’s “mount of corruption” ( 1 Kings 11:7; Kings 23:13) is a late tradition of the 13th century. Stanley makes the northern hill (Viri Galilaei) to be “the mount of corruption” (why so called is uncertain in that case) because the three sanctuaries were on the right side, i.e. S. of it, namely, on the other three summits. But 2 Kings 23:13 rather means the three high places were on the S. side of “the mount of corruption,” i.e. the S. side or else peak of the Mount of Olives, which from Brocardus’ time (13th century) has been called “the mount of offense” from the Vulgate translated of 2 Kings 23:13. The southern hill is lower and more rugged. The wady en Nar, continuing the Kedron valley eastward to the Dead Sea, is the southern boundary of the southern hill. Its bald surface contrasting with the vegetation of the other hills may have suggested the identification of it as the “mount of corruption.” On its steep western face is the dilapidated village of Silwan (see SILOAM ). On a projecting part of its eastern side, overlooking Christ’s triumphal route, are tanks and foundations, supposed by Barclay (City, etc., 66) to be the site of Bethphage; but the discovery of “an almost square block of masonry or rock, covered with paintings,” not separated from the porous limestone rock of which it forms a part, on the strip to the N. of this road, shows that in the 11th century Christians identified Bethphage with that site. The block is 4 ft. 3 inches by 3 ft. 6 inches, and 3 ft. 10 inches high, and has on the S. side a representation of the raising of Lazarus, on the N. the disciples fetching the donkey; the supposition in the 11th century was that this was the stone on which our Saviour rested while the disciples were absent on their divine errand. Bethphage must have been, as this stone is, not on the road which Jesus was taking, namely, the narrow ridge to the Mount of Olives; otherwise He need not have sent disciples if He would have to pass it Himself; He said to them, “Go to the village over against you” ( Matthew 21:2). Ganneau identifies Bethphage with Kefr et Tur, “the village of the Mount of Olives,” where exist ancient remains; he thinks it marked on the E. the sabbath day’s journey from Jerusalem (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, April 1878).

    The notion that the northern hill (Arabic Karem es Serjad, “the vineyard of the sportsmen”) was the scene of the angels’ address to the apostles after the ascension first came into existence in the 16th century. Its first name in 1250 was “Galilee” (Perdiccas in Reland Pal., 52), either from its having been the lodging place of Galilaeans coming up to Jerusalem or from corruption of an ancient name, perhaps Geliloth, on Benjamin’s southern boundary ( Joshua 18:17). The place of the angels’ address was from the 12th to the 16th century more appropriately assigned to a place in the Church of the Ascension, marked by two columns. Now it is only in the secluded slopes of the northern hill that venerable olives are seen spreading out into a wood; anciently the hills were covered with them. No date palms (from which Bethany took its name) are to be seen for miles. Fig trees are found chiefly on the road side. Titus at the siege stripped the country all round of trees, to construct embankments for his engines.

    Rabbi Janna in the Midrash Tehillim (Lightfoot, 2:39) says that the shechinah (divine presence), after retiring from Jerusalem, dwelt three years and a half on Olivet, to see whether the Jews would repent; but when they would not, retired to its own place. Jesus realized this in His three years’ and a half ministry. “The glory of Jehovah went up from the city and stood upon the mountain on its E. side.” Its return into the house of Jehovah shall be “from the way of the E., by the gate whose prospect is toward the E.” ( Ezekiel 11:23; 43:2,4). “His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the E., and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the E. and to- ward the W., and there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mount shall remove toward the N. and half of it toward the S.” The place of His departure shall be the place of His return, the manner too shall be similar ( Acts 1:11).

    The direction shall be “as the lightning cometh out of the E.” ( Matthew 24:27). The scene of His agony shall be that of His glory, the earnest of which was His triumphal entry from Olivet ( Matthew 21:1-10). It was His favorite resort ( John 8:1).

    Ganneau (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement) identifies Scopus with Mecharif, where is a great well. The Mussulmen place little heaps of stones there as the point from which Jerusalem and the Sakhrah mosque are first observed in coming from Nablus. “Scopus” may comprise the whole chain from Mecharif to Olivet. Conder fixes on a site E. of the great northern road from Jerusalem to Nablus. Jerusalem is wholly hidden from view until the last ridge is reached, from which the road rapidly descends and passes to the Damascus gate; the grey northern wall and the mosque, etc., here burst on the view at a mile and a half distance, as Josephus describes. Before the ridge is a plateau large enough to afford camping ground for the two Roman legions of Titus, and at the same time hidden from view of the city; it has also the military advantages of being directly upon the line of communication, of being difficult to approach from the front, and having good communication with the flanks and rear. Beyond the ridge, three furlongs to the N., the second camp, the fifth legion, could camp on a large plain stretching toward Tel el Ful, close to the great northern road. The name El Mesharif, or “the look out,” Greek Scopos, is still constantly applied to the ridge. Josephus’ “seven furlongs” from the center of the plateau reaches exactly to the large masonry discovered by Major Wilson, and supposed to be part of the third wall, proving Jerusalem extended northwards far beyond its present limits. This again discredits the popular site of the Holy Sepulchre.

    OLYMPAS A Christian at Rome ( Romans 16:15). The addition, “and all the saints which are with them,” implies that each of the five, of whom Olympas is one, was a center round whom others gathered for prayer, edification, and good works.

    OMAR Son of Eliphaz, Esau’s firstborn ( Genesis 36:11-15). Related to the Amir Arabs E. of Jordan, also to amar “to speak,” and emir “a chief.”

    OMEGA Revelation 1:8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” the first and the last letters. Christ “the Beginning and the Ending” comprises all between.

    Genesis and Revelation meet in Him. The last presents man and God reconciled in paradise, as the first presented him innocent and in God’s favor in paradise. I accomplish finally what I begin ( Philippians 1:6).

    Always the same. Before all the church’s foes, Satan, the beast, and the false prophet; and about to be after they are no more as a power ( Hebrews 13:8).

    OMRI = servant of Jehovah. 1. Elah’s captain. Besieged Gibbethon in Dan, the siege had some time before been begun by Nadab ( 1 Kings 15:27). On Elan’s murder at Tirzah by Zimri the army made Omri king, 935 B.C. He took Tirzah, and Zimri after a seven days’ reign perished in the flames. Half the people desired Tibni ( 1 Kings 16:15-27), who according to the Septuagint was helped by his brother Joram, but died defeated. The civil war was of four years’ duration. In 931 B.C. Omri began his sole reign. For six years he reigned at the beautiful Tirzah (Song 6:4). But having proved its inability to resist a siege, he bought for two silver talents from Shemer the hill Shomron or Samaria, six miles from the old capital, Shechem, and distinguished for strength, beauty, and fertility. Here he reigned for six years more, and died in 919 B.C. Determined and unscrupulous he “walked in Jeroboam’s sin of the calf worship, provoking Jehovah God of Israel to anger with vanities.” His “might which he showed” was celebrated in the royal chronicles. To strengthen his dynasty he allied himself to Benhadad I of Damascus, surrendering cities as the price of the alliance ( 1 Kings 20:34), including Ramoth Gilead ( 1 Kings 22:3). (See AHAB). For the same end his son Ahab married the Sidonian king Ethbaal’s daughter Jezebel, which issued in the introduction of Baal worship into Israel.

    Compare Micah 6:16. “the statutes (a firmly established system) of Omri.” His vigour secured the permanence of his dynasty for four reigns, until God by Jehu overthrew it for its guilt.

    Beth Omri, “the house of Omri,” is the regular designation for Samaria in Assyrian monuments, thus confirming 1 Kings 16:24. In the black obelisk even Jehu as king of Israel is called “son of Omri” In the Dibon stone Mesha records that Omri subjected and oppressed Moab until Mesha delivered his country. This agrees with the Hebrew date for Omri, and with the “might” attributed to him ( 1 Kings 16:27). 2. 1 Chronicles 7:8. 3. 1 Chronicles 9:4. 4. 1 Chronicles 27:18.

    ON Son of Peleth, chief of Reuben; took part with Korah, Dathan, etc., against Moses ( Numbers 16:1). Since his name is not repeated, he probably renounced the conspiracy. The rabbis say that his wife saved him.

    ON Heliopolis in the Septuagint. Beth Shemesh (“house of the sun”) in Jeremiah 43:13. “Nebuchadnezzar shall break the standing images of Beth Shemesh in Egypt.” The “standing images” may mean “obelisks,” for which the On sun temple was famed; they stood before the temple gates. “The houses of the gods shall he burn with fire.” Shu the god of light, Tafnet the fire goddess, and Ra the sun god, could not save their own dwellings from the element which they were thought to rule! E. of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, 30 miles N.E. of Memphis, Ephraem Syrus says the statue rose 60 cubits high, the base 10, above was a mitre 1,008 lbs. weight. The obelisk of red granite there now is 68 ft. high above the pedestal, the oldest and one of the finest in Egypt. It was part of the temple of the sun; its sculptured dedication is by Osirtasin I of the 12th dynasty.

    Josephus (Ant 10:9, section 7) says Nebuchadnezzar, the fifth year after Jerusalem’s fall, left the siege of Tyre to march against Egypt. (See HOPHRA ). Ezekiel (30:17) calls it Aven; perhaps a play on the name, meaning vanity, because of its idolatry. Re-Athom is the Egyptian hieroglyphical designation, the sun (Ra) the father of the gods, as Adam or Athom was of mankind. Manetho says Mnevis the bull was first worshipped here under the second king of the second dynasty. Atum is represented as “the setting sun,” the “sun of the nether world” ( Genesis 41:45,50). In Isaiah 19:18, “five cities in Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called the city of destruction” (Ha-Heres). Onias who fled into Egypt, in disappointment at not getting the high priesthood, and rose to rank under Ptolemy Philometor, read “city of the sun” (Ha-Cheres). He persuaded Philometor to let him build a temple (149 B.C.) at Leontopolis in the prefecture (nome) of Heliopolis, on the ground that it would induce Jews to reside there, and that Isaiah almost 600 years before foretold the site. “City of destruction,” if referring to this temple, will mean censure of it, as violating God’s law that sanctioned only the one temple at Jerusalem. Gesenius translated “city of deliverance,” God “sending them a saviour” to “deliver them because of the oppressors” ( Isaiah 19:20). (See IR-HA-HERES ).

    Ha-ra is the Egyptian sacred name, “abode of the sun”; AN is the Egyptian common name; Cyril of Alexandria says On means “the sun”; the hieroglyphic uben, related to aven, means shining. Reputed the oldest capital in Egypt, it and Memphis are mentioned in very early inscriptions as the two seats of justice; Thebes is added in hieroglyphics of the 18th dynasty; “the three seats of justice of both Egypts.” Under the Greek rulers, On, Memphis, and Thebes sent forth ten justices to the surrounding districts. Shu, son of Atum, and Tafnet his daughter, were worshipped, as well as Ra to whom Mnevis was sacred, also Bennu the phoenix, represented by a living bird of the crane kind; the rising from its ashes indicated symbolically a recommencing cycle of time. On was famed for learning. It was the ecclesiastical metropolis of Lower Egypt, where the Greek historians and philosophers obtained their information about Egypt.

    Plato studied under its priests. (See JOSEPH ). Tradition makes On the place visited by Joseph, Mary, and our Lord, and a sycamore is shown under which they rested in their flight ( Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2:15).

    The Septuagint adds On to the cities which Israel built, i.e. fortified, for the Egyptians ( Exodus 1:11).

    ONAM 1. Genesis 36:23. 2. 1 Chronicles 2:26,28.

    ONAN Judah’s second son by the Canaanitess, daughter of Shua ( Genesis 38:4). Slain by Jehovah for the unnatural means which he took to have no issue by his brother Er’s widow, whom he had married according to the custom, to perpetuate the race ( Genesis 38:4-9).

    ONESIMUS = profitable. Philemon’s runaway slave, of Colosse ( Colossians 4:9, “one of you”), in whose behalf Paul wrote the epistle to Philemon: Philemon 1:10-16. Slaves were numerous in Phrygia, from whence Paul dwells on the relative duties of masters and slaves ( Colossians 3:22; 4:1). Paul’s “son in the faith,” begotten spiritually while Paul was a prisoner at Rome, where Onesimus hoped to escape detection amidst its vast population. Onesimus doubtless had heard the gospel before going to Rome, in Philemon’s household, for at Paul’s third missionary tour ( Acts 18:23) there were in Phrygia believers. Once unprofitable, by conversion Onesimus became really what his name implies, “profitable” to his master, to Paul, and to the church of God; “the faithful and beloved brother” of the apostle and of his master; godliness is profitable for both worlds, and makes men so ( 1 Timothy 4:8). Sent with Tychicus his safeguard, and put under the spiritual protection of the whole Colossian church and of Philemon. He probably had defrauded his master, as well as run away (ver. 18); Paul offered to make good the loss. The Apostolic Canons (73) make him to have been emancipated by Philemon. The Apostolic Constitutions (7:46) make him to have been consecrated bishop of Berea by Paul, and martyred at Rome. Ignatius (Ep. ad Ephes. i.) makes an Onesimus the Bishop of the Ephesians.

    Instead of violently convulsing society by stirring up slaves against their masters, Christianity introduces love, a principle sure to undermine slavery at last; “by christianizing the master, Christianity enfranchises the slave” (Wordsworth). Onesimus so endeared himself to Paul by Christian sympathy and by personal services that he calls him “mine own bowels,” i.e. vitals: he bore for him a parent’s intense affection for a child. Paul would gladly have kept him to minister to him, but delicate regard to Philemon’s rights, and self denying love, made him waive his claims on Philemon and Onesimus ( Philemon 1:13,14,19). Onesimus “was parted” from his master “for a season” to become his “forever” in Christian bonds.

    In Philemon 1:20 he plays again on the name, “let me have profit (Greek onaimen ) of thee in the Lord,” “refresh my bowels,” i.e. gratify my feelings by granting this.

    ONESIPHORUS 2 Timothy 1:16-18; 4:19: “the Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus (as Onesiphorus showed mercy), for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain (compare Matthew 25:36,45), but when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy (as he found me) of the Lord in that day; and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus thou knowest very well.” “Salute the household of Onesiphorus” ( 2 Timothy 4:19). Absence from Ephesus probably is the cause of the expression; he had not yet returned from his visit to Rome. If the master were dead the household would not be called after his name. A good man’s household shares in his blessing from God as in his deeds for God. Nowhere does Paul use prayers for the dead; Onesiphorus therefore was not dead. “The household of Stephanas” does not exclude “Stephanas” ( 1 Corinthians 1:16; 16:17) so “the household of Onesiphorus” does not necessarily exclude Onesiphorus.

    ONIONS Hasselquist (Travels, 290) says “they are in Egypt sweet, not nauseous and strong as in other countries .... They eat them roasted, cut into four pieces, with roasted bits of meat (the Turkish kekab); and with this dish they are so delighted that they wish they may enjoy it in paradise.” This gives point to Israel’s regrets ( Numbers 11:5). They were the staple food of the labourers on the pyramids (Herodotus, ii. 125). They contain nitrogen largely, and are considered equivalent in nutriment to four times their weight of any other vegetable. In warm countries they grow to the size of a large orange.

    ONO A town of Benjamin ( 1 Chronicles 8:12). The men of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, 721 in number, returned from Babylon ( Nehemiah 7:37). Its plain is mentioned ( Nehemiah 6:2); identified by some with “the valley of craftsmen” ( Nehemiah 11:35). Kefr Ana and Ania are suggested as representing Ono; but there are objections to both.

    ONYCHA An ingredient of the anointing unguent ( Exodus 30:34). Shechecleth means literally, a shell or scale, the horny cap of a shell. The operculum or cover of the strombus or wing shell, which abounds in the Red Sea, is employed in compounding perfume, and was the medicine named blatta Byzantina or unguis odoratus in the middle ages. Pliny (H. N. 32:46) and Dioscorides (Matthew Med. 2:11) mention a shell, onyx, “both a perfume and a medicine”; “odorous because the shell fish feed on the nard, and collected when the heat dries up the marshes; the best kind is from the Red Sea, whitish and shining; the Babylonian is darker and smaller; both have a sweet odor when burnt, like castoreum.” The onyx “nail” refers to the clawlike shape of the operculum of the strombus genus; the Arabs call this mollusc “devil’s claw.” Shell fish were unclean; hence, Gosse conjectures a gum resin.

    ONYX shoham . Found in the land of Havilah ( Genesis 2:12). Onyx means “nail”; then the agate, resembling in color a man’s nail. Two onyx stones, with six names of Israel’s tribes engraven on each, were on the high priest’s shoulders as “stones of memorial unto Israel” ( Exodus 28:9-12). The onyx was the second stone in the fourth row on his breastplate (ver. 20). Josephus (Ant. 3:7, section 5) calls the shoulder stones “sardonyxes” (compounded of sard or chalcedony and onyx, deep red and milkwhite layers alternating). David’s onyxes “prepared for the house of his God” ( 1 Chronicles 29:2) probably came from Tyre ( Ezekiel 28:13). Tyre’s king, like the high priest with his precious stones, was the type of humanity in its unfallen perfection in Eden; antichrist will usurp the divine King Priest’s office ( Zechariah 6:13; compare Acts 12:21-23). Job ( Job 28:16) calls it “precious,” but not so much so as “wisdom,” priceless in worth. The Arabian sardonyxes have a black ground color, sachma, is Arabic “blackness”; opaque white covers black or blue strata. Sahara in Arabic means to be pale; from whence Gesenius derives shoham. The kinds of onyx and sardonyx vary so as to answer to either derivation. The onyx has two strata, the sardonyx has three.

    OPHEL Hebrew “the Ophel,” i.e. the swelling declivity by which the temple hill slopes off on its southern side as a long round narrow promontory between the mouth of the Tyropeon central valley of the city and the Kedron valley of Jehoshaphat. On its eastern side is the fount of the Virgin; at the bottom is the lower outlet of the same spring, the pool of Siloam. Here was the “great tower” (Eder? Hebrew Micah 4:8) and the Levites’ residence. It was near the water gate ( Nehemiah 3:26,27; 11:21). Jotham “built much on the wall of Ophel” Manasseh “compassed about Ophel” ( Chronicles 27:3; 33:14); on the Ophla, as Josephus calls it (see B.J. 5:4, section 2; 6, section 1, 3). For “the forts” ( Isaiah 32:14). translated Ophel “the mound.” James the Less was called Oblias, explained “bulwark of the people” (Hegesippus, in Eusebius H.E. ii. 23), perhaps originally Ophli-am, from Ophel. He was martyred by being thrown from the temple pinnacle near the boundary of Ophel.

    OPHIR Genesis 10:29. Placed between Sheba and Havilah, Ophir must be in Arabia. Arrian in the Periplus calls Aphar metropolis of the Sabeans.

    Ptolemy calls it Sapphara, now Zaphar. Eleventh of Joktan’s sons.

    Gesenius explains Ophir, if Semitic, “fruitful region.” The Himyaritic ofir means red. The Mahra people call their country “the ofir country” and the Red Sea Bahr Ofir. Aphar means dust. In 1 Kings 9:26-28; 10:11, Solomon’s navy on the Red Sea fetched from Ophir gold and almug trees; and in 10:22, once in three years (which included the stay in Ophir as well as the long coasting voyage) Tarshish ships (i.e. like our term for far voyaging ships, “Indiamen”) brough; “gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.” Mauch, an African traveler, found at latitude 20 degrees, minutes S.l longitude 26 degrees 30 minutes E., ruins resembling Solomon’s temple, which he connects with Ophir. The gold of western Asia was anciently obtained principally from Arabia. Saba in the southwestern part of Yemen is the only other place for gold besides Ophir mentioned in Scripture ( Isaiah 60:6). Strobe, 16:777, 778, 784, Diodorus Siculus, 2:50; 3:44, describe Arabia as rich in gold. No gold is now found there; whether it has been exhausted as in Spain, or we know not the interior sufficiently to be sure there is no gold left. (See PARAN ).

    The “al” in almug or algum is the Arabic article “the,” and mica is “sandalwood” (Gesenius), so that that wood must have come to the Hebrews through Arabic merchants. But Lassen derives it from Sanskrit valgu or valgum, “sandalwood.” The wares and animals, from India or Africa, if such was their source (as the Sanskrit, Tamil, and Malay origin of the words ivory, peacocks, and apes respectively implies), came through Arabia. Ophir probably therefore was the entrepot there. In Palestine and Tyre the articles even of India and Africa would be designated from Ophir, from which they more immediately came. The indigo used in Egyptian dyeing from of old must have come from India; muslins of Indian origin are found with the mummies; Josephus (Ant. 8:6, section 4) connects Ophir with India (Malacca, so Sir J. E. Tennant); Chinese porcelain vases have been found in the tombs of kings of the 18th dynasty, i.e. before 1476 B.C.

    Gold of Ophir was proverbial for fineness ( Psalm 45:9; Job 28:16; 22:24; Isaiah 13:12; 1 Chronicles 29:4; 1 Kings 22:48). The Ishmaelites abounded in gold: Numbers 31:22; Judges 8:24-26; Psalm 72:15 “gold of Sheba (Arabia).” Agatharchides in the second century B.C. (in Photius 250, and Hudson’s Geograph. Minores, 1:60), living in Egypt, and guardian to a Ptolemy in his minority and so familiar with the commerce between Egypt and Arabia, attests that gold was found in Arabia. Two of his statements have been confirmed: (1) that there were gold mines in Egypt, Linant and Bonomi found theta in the Bisharce desert (Wilkinson, Ant. Egypt. 9); (2) that there were large gold nuggets.

    OPHNI A town in the N.E. of Benjamin ( Joshua 18:24.). Possibly founded by a non Israelite tribe. The Gophna of Josephus, said to be only second in importance to Jerusalem (B.J. 3:3, section 5; Ant. 14:11, section 2, 12:2).

    Now Jufna, 2 1/2 miles N.W. of Bethel.

    OPHRAH 1. In Benjamin ( Joshua 18:23; 1 Samuel 13:17). Jerome makes it five miles E. of Bethel. Probably the same as see EPHRON , see EPHRAIM . Taiyibeh is now on its site. 2. Ophrah of the Abiezrites, Gideon’s place of birth ( Judges 6:11,24; 8:32; 9:5), residence, and burial. He put the ephod here which he had adorned with the Midianites’ gold, and to it all Israel resorted in pilgrimage for worship, a spiritual “whoring” ( Judges 8:27). In Manasseh, not far from Shechem ( Judges 9:1,5). Now Erfai (Van de Velde); Erafa (Schwartz). Epher a head of Manasseh probably gave the name ( Chronicles 5:24), migrating there with Abiezer and Shechem ( Numbers 26:30; Joshua 17:2). 3. 1 Chronicles 4:14, “Meonothai begat (or else founded) Ophrah” of Judah.

    ORACLES (1) divine utterances, as those by Urim and Thummim and the ephod of the high priest: 1 Samuel 23:9; 30:7,8. (2) The place where they were given ( 2 Samuel 16:23; 1 Kings 6:16), “the most holy place.” In the New Testament the Spirit-inspired Scriptures ( Romans 3:2; Hebrews 5:12; 1 Peter 4:11) of the Old Testament are so called. Others translated, “let him speak as (becomes one speaking) oracles of God,” which designates the New Testament words (afterward written) of inspired men by the same term as was applied to the Old Testament Scriptures; in the Greek there is no article. The pagan “oracles” ceased when Christianity supplanted paganism. Paul’s casting out “the spirit of pithon” (divination) implies that the ancient oracles were not always imposture, but were sometimes energized by Satanic powers ( Acts 16:16).

    ORATOR (1) Isaiah 3:3, “the eloquent orator”; rather as Vulgate, “skilled in whispering,” i.e. incantation ( Psalm 58:5), lachash . (2) Tertullus, the Jewish accusers’ advocate against Paul ( Acts 24:1).

    Paul as a Roman citizen was tried with Roman judicial forms ( Acts 25:9,10), the Roman lawyer pleading in Latin, as Norman French was formerly the language of law proceedings in England in Norman times.

    OREB = raven. Prince of Midian defeated by Gideon ( Judges 7:25; 8:3). His name, as Zeeb (= wolf), indicates a fierce and ravenous warrior. Slain upon the rock Oreb in the pursuit after the battle, by the men of Ephraim, who intercepted and slew with great slaughter the Midianites after the Jordan fords. This second part of the victory is celebrated Psalm 83:11-14; Isaiah 10:26, “according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb.” Oreb and Zeeb were the prince generals of Midian. Zebah and Zalmunna were their kings ( Judges 8:5,10,12,18,21). “Make them like a wheel, as the stubble before the wind, as the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountain on fire.” The Arabic imprecation illustrates this, “may you be whirled as the ‘akkub before the wind, until you are caught in the thorns or plunged in the sea!” Thomson describes the wild artichoke when dry thus swept before the wind. The chaff from the exposed threshing floor, and the rapidly sweeping flame on a wooded hill in hot countries, are equally expressive images.

    OREB, ROCK OF = raven’s cliff. The scene of Midian’s slaughter by Ephraim ( Judges 7:25; 8:1; Isaiah 10:26). E. of Jordan. Orbo near Bethshean may represent it. Conder identifies it with a sharp conical peak, ‘Ash el Ghorab, “raven’s nest.” Tuwayl el Diab, a wady and mound, answering to the Press of Zeeb, “the wolf,” stands two miles N.W. of ‘Ash el Ghorab. If for “ravens” we understand the men of Oreb to have fed Elijah, ‘Ash el Ghorab is close to wady Kelt, the traditional Cherith.

    OREN 1 Chronicles 2:25.

    ORGAN uwgab from agab “to blow.” (See MUSIC ). A wind instrument, a perforated pipe. Pandean pipe or syrinx (still a pastoral instrument in Syria) as distinguished from the HARP, stringed instruments ( Genesis 4:21; Job 21:12; 30:31; <19F004> Psalm 150:4).

    ORION The constellation ( Job 9:9; 38:31,32; Amos 5:8). Kecil , “a fool” or “wicked one.” The Arabs represent Orion as a mighty man, the Assyrian see NIMROD , who rebelled presumptuously against Jehovah, and was chained to the sky as a punishment; for its rising is at the stormy season.

    Sabaism or worship of the heavenly hosts and hero worship were blended in his person. The three bright stars which form Orion’s girdle never change their relative positions. “Canst thou loose the bands of Orion?” is God’s challenge to self sufficient man; i.e., canst thou loose the bonds by which he is chained to the sky? The language is adapted to the current conceptions (just as we use the mythological names of constellations without adopting the myths), but with this significant difference that whereas those pagan nations represented Orion glorified in the sky the Hebrews view him as a chained rebel, not with belt, but in “bands.” Orion is visible longer and is 17 degrees higher in the Syrian sky than in ours.

    Rabbis Isaac, Israel, and Jonah identified Hebrew Kesil with Arabic Sohail, Sirius, or Canopus.

    ORNAMENT (See DRESS , see EARRINGS , see NOSE JEWEL , see ANKLET , see FOREHEAD ). Song 1:10,11: “thy cheeks are comely with rows” (of pearls), torim , alluding to torah the law ( Ezekiel 16:11). Jehovah adorns His bride with His ordinances ( Proverbs 1:8,9). See Song 7:1, “the rounding (“graceful curve”) of thy thighs is like (the rounding of) the knobs of a necklace.”

    ORNAN = see ARAUNAH . The variety of forms of the name indicate a non- Israelite.

    ORPAH (See NOAMI ; see BOAZ .) Wife of see CHILION . On her husband’s death accompanied Naomi toward Bethlehem a short distance, but, in spite of professions of attachment and tears, she went back to “her people and her gods,” and lost the golden opportunity which Ruth embraced of having Israel’s God for her God. “Orpah kissed her mother in law, but Ruth clave unto her” ( Ruth 1:14, compare Proverbs 17:17; 18:24; compare Demas, 2 Timothy 4:10). Orpah’s name is now dishonoured, and her seed if she had any is consigned to oblivion. Ruth’s Seed -- Jesus Christ -- is the name at which every knee shall bow ( Philippians 2:10).

    OSHEA; HOSEA see JOSHUA ’s original name ( Numbers 13:8). His faith, in contrast to the unbelieving spies, procured for him the addition of Jehovah’s name to his own ( Numbers 14:6-10; Deuteronomy 32:44), meaning “Jah his salvation.”

    OSPRAY; OSPREY ozniah ( Leviticus 11:13; Deuteronomy 14:12). The sea eagle or fish hawk, Pandion haliaetus, the Septuagint. Or the short-toed eagle that feeds upon reptiles. The ossifrage (peres , means “the bone-breaker,” the lamergeyer, Gypaetus (eagle and vulture combined) barbatus, “the bearded vulture.” “Ospray” is a corruption of “ossifrage.” It flies in easy curving lines, and then pounces perpendicularly with unerring aim on a fish.

    OSSIFRAGE (See OSPRAY ; see OSPREY ) The most powerful bird of prey in our hemisphere. He pushes kids, lambs, hares, calves, and even men off the rocks, and takes the bones of animals high up in the air, and lets them fall on stones to crack them and render them more digestible. The vulture proper has a bald head and neck, a provision against the dirting of the feathers of birds which plunge the head into putrefying carcasses. But the ossifrage has its head and neck feathered and a beard of black hair under the beak. The plumage of the head and neck is dirty white, with a black stripe through the eye; the back, wings, and tail are brown, the parts underneath are fawn-colored.

    OSTRICH So translated for “owl” ( Leviticus 11:16), bath haya’anah “daughter of greediness” or “daughter of wailing.” Isaiah 34:13 translated “a dwelling for ostriches,” not “a court for owls” ( Isaiah 43:20, margin).

    Feminine to express the species. Some Arabs eat the flesh. It will swallow almost any substance, iron, stone, etc., to assist the triturating action of the gizzard. The date stone, the hardest of vegetable substances, is its favourite food. Its cry resembles the lion’s, so that Hottentots mistake it. Dr.

    Livingstone could only distinguish them by the fact that the ostrich roars by day, and the lion roars by night. Rosenmuller makes the derivation “daughter of the desert.” ( Micah 1:8), Job 30:29 -- “I am a companion to ostriches” (not “owls”), living among solitudes. In Lamentations 4:3, yeenim , “cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness.” renanim , Job 39:13, “peacocks.” Rather, “the ostrich hen,” literally, “cries,” referring to its dismal night cries, as in Job 30:29. Translated: “the wing of the ostrich hen vibrates joyously. Is it like the quill and feathers of the pious bird (the stork)? (surely not.)” The quivering wing characterizes the ostrich in full course. Its white and black feathers in the wing and tail are like the stork’s feathers; but, unlike that bird, the symbol of parental love, it deserts its young. If the “peacock” (which has a distinct name, tukiyim ) had been meant, the tail, its chief beauty, not the wings, would have been mentioned. Ostriches are polygamous. The hens lay their eggs promiscuously in one nest, a mere hole scratched in the sand, and they cover them with sand a foot deep. The parent birds incubate by turn during the night, but leave them by day to the sun’s heat in tropical countries.

    Hence, arose the notion of her lack of parental love: “which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust.” But in non-tropical countries the female incubates her eggs by day, the male takes his turn on the nest at night. There they watch the eggs so carefully that they will even kill jackals in their defense. Moreover, she lays some of her eggs on the surface around the nest; these seem to be forsaken; “she forgeteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beasts may break them.” They are actually for the nutriment of the young birds. It is a shy bird. The only stupidity in the ostrich which warrants the Arab designation “the stupid bird” at all is its swallowing at times of substances which prove fatal to it, for instance, hot bullets, according to Dr. Shaw (Travels, ii. 345); also its never swerves from the course it once adopts, so that hunters often kill it by taking a shortcut, to which it only runs faster. Livingstone calculates its stride at ft. on an average, and 30 strides in every 10 seconds, i.e. 26 miles an hour. “She is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers,” i.e. to man she seems (Scripture uses phenomenal language, not thereby asserting the scientific accuracy of it) as if she neglected her young; but she is guided by a sure instinct from God, as much as animals whose instincts seem (at first sight) to be more provident. At a slight noise she forsakes her eggs, as if hardened toward her young; but it is actually a mark of young sagacity, since her capture might be the only result of returning. “Her labour (in producing eggs) is in vain, (yet she is) without fear,” unlike other birds who, if one and another egg be removed, will go on laying until the full number is restored. “Because God hath deprived her of wisdom,” etc.: the argument is, her very seeming lack of wisdom is not without the wise design of God, just as in the saint’s trials, which seem so unreasonable to Job, there lies hidden a wise design. Her excellencies, notwithstanding her seeming deficiencies, are enumerated next; “she (proudly) lifteth up herself on high (Gesenius, ‘she lasheth herself’ up to the course by flapping her wings), she scorneth the horse.” The largest and swiftest of cursorial animals. Its strength is immense; the wings are not used for flying, but are spread “quivering” (see above) as sails before the wind, and serve also as oars. The long white plumes in the wing and tail come to us from Barbary; the general plumage is black, the head and neck is bare. Their height is more than eight feet. Zoologically, it approaches the mammalian type. Its habitat is the desert here and there, from the Sahara to the Cape of South Africa, and in the Euphratean plains ( Isaiah 13:21, margin).

    OTHNI From ‘othen , obsolete for “lion.” 1 Chronicles 26:6-8.

    OTHNIEL = lion of God. 1 Chronicles 4:13. Son of see KENAZ (see, on his relation to Caleb or “the Kenizzite”). Caleb’s younger brother ( Joshua 15:17; Judges 1:13; 3:9). First of the judges. Took Kirjath Sepher (Debir), in the mountainous region of Hebron in Judah ( Joshua 14:12-14), and received see ACHSAH , his wife, as the prize. Van de Velde believes “the upper and nether springs” which she received was a spring rising on a hill N. of wady Dilbeh (two hours S.W. of Hebron), and brought down by an aqueduct to the foot of the hill. (But see DEBIR .)

    Othniel delivered Israel from see CHUSHAN RISHATHAIM , and gave “the land rest 40 years.” He had a son, Hathath ( 1 Chronicles 4:13,14), “and see MEONOTHAI ” . In Judges 3:11 it is not asserted that Othniel lived to the end of the 40 years, which would make his life unduly long as the brother of Caleb; but simply, he died after restoring rest to the land. It was in answer to Israel’s cry that Jehovah raised up Othniel as their “saviour” ( <19A713> Psalm 107:13-19; 50:15). “The Spirit of Jehovah” came upon his human spirit, enabling him to accomplish what his natural strength could not. “He judged Israel (not merely settling their internal disputes in justice as civil judge, but restoring their right in relation to their foreign oppressor, for it is added), and went out to war.” “Judging” means lastly restoring Israel to its right attitude toward Jehovah, putting down idolatry ( Judges 2:18,19; 6:25-32). All this needed the sevenfold “spirit of wisdom and understanding,” etc. Isaiah 11:2,3.)

    OVEN tanur . Fixed or portable. The fixed ovens were inside towns. The portable ovens consisted of a large clay jar, three feet high, widening toward the bottom, with a hole to extract the ashes.

    Sometimes there was an erection of clay in the form of a jar, built on the house floor. Every house had one ( Exodus viii. 3 ); only in a famine (lid one suffice for several faro- flies (Leviticus xxvi. 26). Tile heating fuel was dry grass and twigs (Blurt. vt. 30: “grass, which to-day is, to-morrow is cast into the oven”). The loaves were placed inside, and thin cakes outside of it. Image of consuming vengeance ( Malachi 4:1). Psalm 21:9: “Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of Thine anger... burning with Thy hot, wrath in the day of the Lord.” Hosea 7:4,7: “they are all adulterers, as an oven heated by (burning from ) the baker,” i.e. the fire burns of itself, even after tlle baker has ceased to feed it with fuel. “Who teaseth from raising (rather from heating it meeir ) after he hath kneaded the dough until it be leavened:” he omits to feed it only during the short time of the fermentation of the bread. So their lusts were on fire even in the short respite that Satan gives, till his leaven has worked. 2 Peter 2:14, “cannot cease from sin.”

    OWL (See OSTRICH , the true rendering of bath hayanah . Yanshowph , Leviticus 11:17, “the great owl.” From a root, “twilight” (Bochart), or to puff the breath (Knobel). Deuteronomy 14:16; Isaiah 34:11. The horned owl, Bubo maximus, not as Septuagint the ibis, the sacred bird of Egypt. Maurer thinks the heron or crane, from nashaf “to blow,” as it utters a sound like blowing a horn ( Revelation 18:2). Chaldee and Syriac support “owl.” Kos , Leviticus 11:17, “the little owl.” Athene meridionalis on coins of Athens: emblem of Minerva, common in Syria; grave, but not heavy. <19A206> Psalm 102:6, “I am like an owl in a ruin” (Syriac and Arabic versions), expressing his loneliness, surrounded by foes, with none to befriend. The Arabs call the owl “mother of ruins,” um elcharab. The Hebrew means a cup, perhaps alluding to its concave face, the eye at the bottom, the feathers radiating on each side of the beak outward; this appears especially in the Otus vulgaris, the long-cared owl. Kippoz . Isaiah 34:15, “the great owl.” But Gesenius “the arrow snake,” or “the darting tree serpent”; related to the Arabic kipphaz . The context favors “owl”; for “gather under her shadow” applies best to a mother bird fostering her young under her wings. The Septuagint, Chaldee, Arabic, Syriac, Vulgate read kippod , “hedgehog.” The great eagle owl is one of the largest birds of prey; with dark plumage, and enormous head, from which glare out two great eyes. Lilith . Isaiah 34:14, “screech owl”; from layil “the night.” Irby and Mangles state as to Petra of Edom “the screaming of hawks, eagles, and owls, soaring above our heads, annoyed at anyone approaching their lonely habitation, added much to the singularity of the scene.” The Strix flammea, “the barn owl”; shrieking in the quietude of the night, it appalls the startled hearer with its unearthly sounds.

    OX (See BULL ). The law prohibiting the slaughter of clean beasts in the wilderness, except before the tabernacle, at once kept Israel from idolatry and tended to preserve their herds. During the 40 years oxen and sheep were seldom killed for food, from whence arose their lustings after flesh ( Leviticus 17:1-6).

    OZEM 1. 1 Chronicles 2:15. 2. 1 Chronicles 2:25.

    OZIAS Uzziah. Matthew 1:8,9.

    OZNI Numbers 26:16.EZBON: Genesis 46:16.

    P PAARAI The Arbite (i.e. of Arab, in the mountains of Judah; Joshua 15:52): Samuel 23:35. “Naarai son of Ezbai” in 1 Chronicles 11:37, which Kennicott (Diss. 209-211) thinks the true reading.

    PADAN ARAM ”The flat land of Aram,” contrasted with the more mountainous region of the N. and N.E. of Mesopotamia ( Hosea 12:12), “the field (sedeh ) of Aram” ( Genesis 25:20), the same as Aram Naharaim, “Aram of the two rivers,” or see MESOPOTAMIA ( Genesis 24:10). Aram expresses the highland of Syria, contrasted with the lowland of Canaan. The land between Tigris and Euphrates is a vast flat, except where the Sinjar range intersects it. The home of Rebekah, Laban, etc.

    PADON Ezra 2:44.

    PAGIEL Numbers 1:13.

    PAHATH MOAB (“governor of Moab”). Head of a chief house of Judah. Their high rank appears from their being fourth in the two lists ( Ezra 2:6; Nehemiah 7:11). Their chief signed second among the lay princes ( Nehemiah 10:14). Pahath Moab was probably a family of the Shilonites or sons of Shelah of Judah “who anciently had the dominion in Moab” ( Chronicles 4:22; compare 1 Chronicles 4:14 with 1 Chronicles 2:54, Joab). This gives some clue to Elimelech’s migration to Moab (Ruth 1).

    Ophrah ( 1 Chronicles 4:14) is related to Orpah ( Ruth 1:4). The most numerous family (2,818) in the lists, except the Benjamite house of Senaah ( Nehemiah 7:38). Hence they repair two portions of the wall ( Nehemiah 3:11,23). As the Benjamites and Shilonites are together in 1 Chronicles 9:5-7; Nehemiah 11:5-7, so Benjamin and Hashub of Pahath Moab are together in Nehemiah 3:23.

    PALACE Solomon’s palace is illustrated by those of Nineveh and Persepolis lately discovered. The great hall of state was “the house of the forest of (pillars of cedar of) Lebanon,” 150 ft. long (100 cubits) by 75 broad ( 1 Kings 7:2). There were “four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams upon the pillars. It was covered with cedar above upon the beams, that lay on pillars,15 in a row.” Three rows stood free, the fourth was built into the outer wall (Josephus, Ant. 7:5, section 2, 11:5). “There were windows in three rows, and light against light in three ranks”; namely, clerestory windows. The throne was in the center of the longer side.

    The porch of judgment,75 ft. square, was opposite the center of the longer side of the great hall (Josephus, Ant. 7:5, section 1): 2 Kings 7:7. The position of a like hall at Persepolis is the same.

    The porch of pillars,75 ft. by 45 ft. (50 by 30 cubits): 1 Kings 7:6. The ordinary place for the king to receive visitors and to transact business.

    Behind was the inner court ( 1 Kings 7:8) with gardens, fountains, and cloisters, and courts for residence of attendants and guards, and for the women of the harem. On the side of the great court opposite the inner court was the palace of Pharaoh’s daughter. “The foundation” ( 1 Kings 7:10) was an artificial platform of masonry, as at Sennacherib’s palace at Koyunjik and at Baalbek, some stones being 60 ft. long. The halls of the palace were wainscoted with three tiers of polished stone, surmounted by a fourth, elaborately carved with leaves and flowers ( 1 Kings 7:12).

    Above this the walls had plaster with colored arabesque. At Nineveh, on the eight feet high alabaster wainscoting were sculptured men and animals ( Ezekiel 23:14), whereas the second commandment restrained the Jews from such representations. But coloring was used freely for decoration ( Jeremiah 22:14). ”The palace” in Philippians 1:13 is the barrack of the Praetorian guards attached to Nero’s palace on the Palatine hill at Rome. So “Caesar’s household” is mentioned ( Philippians 4:22). The emperor was “praetor” or commander in chief; so the barrack of his bodyguard was the” praetorium.” The “all the praetorium” implies that the whole camp, whether inside or outside the city, is included. The camp of the Praetorians, who became virtual masters of the empire, was outside the Viminal gate.

    Paul was now no longer “in his own hired house” chained to a soldier, by command (probably) of Burrus, one of the two prefects of the praetorium ( Acts 28:16,20,30,31), but in strict custody in the praetorium on Tigellinus becoming prefect. The soldiers relieving one another in guard would naturally spread through the camp the gospel story heard from Paul, which was the occasion of his imprisonment. Thus God overruled what befell him “unto the furtherance of the gospel” ( Philippians 1:12).

    A recent traveler, Dr. Manning, describes a remarkable illustration of the reference to “Caesar’s household”: “in the chambers which were occupied as guard rooms by the Praetorian troops on duty in the palace, a number of rude caricatures are found roughly scratched upon the walls, just such as may be seen upon barrack walls in every part of the world. Among these is one of a human figure nailed upon a cross. To add to the ‘offense of the cross’ the crucified one is represented with the head of an animal, probably that of an ass. Before it stands the figure of a Roman legionary, with one hand upraised in the customary attitude of worship. Underneath is the rude, misspell, ungrammatical inscription, Alexamenos worships his god. It can scarcely be doubted that we have here a contemporary caricature, executed by one of the Praetorian guard, ridiculing the faith of a Christian comrade.”

    PALAL Nehemiah 3:25.

    PALESTINE Peleshet . Four times in KJV, found always in poetry ( Exodus 15:34; Isaiah 14:29,31; Joel 3:4); same as Philistia ( Psalm 60:8; 87:4; 83:7 “the Philistines”). The long strip of seacoast plain held by the Philistines. The Assyrian king Ivalush’s inscription distinguishes “Palaztu on the western sea” from Tyre, Samaria, etc. (Rawlinson, Herodotus 1:467.) So in the Egyptian Karnak inscriptions Pulusata is deciphered. The Scriptures never use it as we do, of the whole Holy Land. (See CANAAN for the physical divisions, etc.) “The land of the Hebrews” Joseph calls it, because of Abraham’s, Isaac’s, and Jacob’s settlements at Mamre, Hebron, and Shechem ( Genesis 40:15). “the land of the Hittites” ( Joshua 1:4); so Chita or Cheta means the whole of lower and middle Syria in the Egyptian records of Rameses II. In his inscriptions, and those of Thothmes III, Tu-netz, “Holy Land,” occurs, whether meaning Phoenicia or Palestine. In Hosea 9:3 “land of Jehovah,” compare Leviticus 25:23; Isaiah 62:4. “The holy land,” Zechariah 2:12; 7:14, “land of desire”; Daniel 8:9. “the pleasant land”; 11:16, 41, “the glorious (or goodly) land”; Ezekiel 20:6,15, “a land that I had espied for them flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.” God’s choice of it as peculiarly His own was its special glory ( <19D213> Psalm 132:13; 48:2; Jeremiah 3:19 margin “a good land, a land of brooks of water (wadies often now dry, but a few perennial), of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills (the deep blue pools, the sources of streams), a land of wheat, barley, vines, figtrees, pomegranates, oil olive, honey (dibs, the syrup prepared from the grape lees, a common food now) ... wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass” ( Deuteronomy 8:7-9). “The land of the Amorite” ( Amos 2:10). “The land of Israel” in the larger sense ( 1 Samuel 13:19); in the narrower sense of the northern kingdom it occurs 2 Chronicles 30:25. After the return from Babylon “Judaea” was applied to the whole country S. and N., and E. beyond Jordan ( Matthew 19:1). “The land of promise” ( Hebrews 11:9). “Judaea” in the Roman sense was part of the province “Syria,” which comprised the seaboard from the bay of Issus to Egypt, and meant the country from Idumea on the S. to the territories of the free cities on the N. and W., Scythopolis, Sebaste, Joppa, Azotus, etc. The land E. of Jordan between it and the desert, except the territory of the free cities Poilu, Gadara, Philadelphia, was “Perea.”

    From Dan (Banias) in the far N. to Beersheba on the S. is 139 English miles, two degrees or 120 geographical miles. The breadth at Gaza from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea is 48 geographical miles; at the Litany, from the coast to Jordan is 20 miles; the average is 34 geographical or English miles. About the size of Wales. The length of country under dominion in Solomon’s days was probably 170 miles, the breadth 90, the area 12,000 or 13,000 square miles. The population, anciently from three to six millions, is now under one million. The Jordan valley with its deep depression separates it from the Moab and Gilead highlands. Lebanon, Antilebanon, and the Litany ravine at their feet form the northern bound.

    On the S. the dry desert of Paran and “the river of Egypt” bound it. On the western verge of Asia, and severed from the main body of Asia by the desert between Palestine and the regions of Mesopotamia and Arabia, it looks on the other side to the Mediterranean and western world, which it was destined by Providence so powerfully to affect; oriental and reflective, yet free from the stagnant and retrogressive tendencies of Asia, it bore the precious spiritual treasure of which it was the repository to the energetic and progressive W. It consists mainly of undulating highlands, bordered E. and W. by a broad belt of deep sunk lowland. The three main features, plains, hills, and torrent beds, are specified ( Numbers 13:29; Joshua 11:16; 12:8). Mount Carmel, rising to the height of above 1,700 ft., crosses the maritime plain half way up the coast with a long ridge from the central chain, and juts out into the Mediterranean as a bold headland. The plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon on its northern side, separating the Ephraim mountains from those of Galilee, and stretching across from the Mediterranean to the Jordan valley, was the great battlefield of Palestine.

    Galilee is the northern portion, Samaria the middle, Judaea the southern.

    The long purple wall of Gilead and Moab’s hills on the eastern side is everywhere to be seen. The bright light and transparent air enable one from the top of Tabor, Gerizim or Bethel at once to see Moab on the E. and the Mediterranean on the W. On a line E. of the axis of the country and running N. and S. lie certain elevations: Hebron 3,029 ft. above the sea; Jerusalem, 2,610; Olivet, 2,724; Neby Samwil on the N., 2,650; Bethel, 2,400; Ebal and Gerizim, 2,700; Little Hermon and Tabor, N. of the Esdraelon plain, 1,900. The watershed sends off the drainage of the country in streams running W. to the Mediterranean and E. to the Jordan, except at the Esdraelon plain and the far N. where the drainage is to the Litany. Had the Jews been military in character, they would easily have prevented their conquerors from advancing up the precipitous defiles from the E., the only entrances to the central highlands of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, from the Jordan valley; as Engedi ( 2 Chronicles 20:1,2,16) and Adummim, the route between Jericho and Jerusalem by which Pompey advanced when he took the capital. The slope from the western valleys is more gradual, as the level of the plain is higher, and the distance up the hills longer, than from the eastern Jordan depression; still the passes would be formidable for any army with baggage to pass. From Jaffa up to Jerusalem there are two roads: the one to the right by Ramleh and the wady Aly; the other the historic one by Lydda and the Bethorons, or the wady Suleiman, and Gibeon. By this Joshua drove the Canaanites to the plains; the Philistines went up to Michmash, and fled back past Ajalon. The rival empires, Egypt and Babylon-Assyria, could march against one another only along the maritime western plain of Palestine and the Lebanon plain leading toward and from the Euphrates. Thus Rameses II marched against the Chitti or Hittites in northern Syria, and see PHARAOH NECHO fought at see MEGIDDO in the Esdraelon plain, the battlefield of Palestine; they did not meddle with the central highlands, “The S. country” being near the desert, destitute of trees, and away from the mountain streams, is drier than the N., where springs abound. The region below Hebron between the hills and the desert is called the Negeb (the later Daroma) from its dryness. Hence Caleb’s daughter, having her portion in it, begged from him springs, i.e. land having springs ( Judges 1:15). The “upper and lower springs” spring from the hard formation in the N.W. corner of the Negeb ( Joshua 15:19); here too Nabal lived, so reluctant to give “his water” ( 1 Samuel 25:11). The verdure and blaze of scarlet flowers which cover the highlands of Judah and Benjamin in spring, while streams pour down the ravines, give place to dreary barrenness in the summit. Rounded low hills, with coarse gray stone, clumps of oak bushes, and the remains of ancient terraces running round them, meet one on each side, or else the terraces are reconstructed and bear olives and figs, and vineyards are surrounded by rough walls with watchtowers. Large oak roots are all that attest the former existence of trees along the road between Bethlehem and Hebron. Corn or dourra fills many of the valleys, and the stalks left until the ensuing seedtime give a dry neglected look to the scene. More vegetation appears in the W. and N.W. The wady es Sumt is named from its acacias. Olives, terebinths, pines, and laurels here and ten miles to the N. at Kirjath Jearim (city of forests) give a wooded aspect to the scenery. The tract, nine miles wide and 35 long, between the center and the sudden descent to the Dead Sea, is desolate at all seasons, a series of hills without vegetation, water, and almost life, with no ruins save Masada and one or two watchtowers. (On the see CAVES .)

    No provision is made in the S. for preserving the water of the heavy winter and spring rains, as in Malta and Bermuda. The valley of Urtas, S. of Bethlehem, abounding in springs, and the pools of Solomon, are exceptions to the general dryness of the S. The ruins on every hill, the remains of ancient terraces which kept the soil up from being washed into the valleys, and the forests that once were in many parts of Judea until invasions and bad government cleared them away, and which preserved the moistness in the wadies, confirm the truth of the Bible account of the large population once maintained in Judah and Benjamin. The springs and vegetation as one advances N. toward Mount Ephraim especially strike the eye. (See FOUNTAINS ; see EN HAKKORE ; see GIHON ; see ENGEDI ; see HAROD ; see ENGANNIM ; see ENDOR ; see JEZREEL .) Such springs as Ain Jalud or Rasel Mukatta, welling forth as a considerable stream from the limestone, or Tel el Kady forming a deep clear pool issuing from a woody mound, or Banias where a river issues roaring from its cave, or Jenin bubbling from the level ground, are sights striking by their rarity.

    Mount Ephraim (jebel Nablus) contains some of the most productive land in Palestine. Fine streams, with oleanders and other flowering trees on their banks, run through the valleys which are often well cultivated. N.W. of Nablus is the large, rich, grain abounding, and partly wooded district toward Carmel, which reaches to where the mountains slope down to Sharon plain under Mount Carmel. Extensive woods there are none, and the olives which are found everywhere but little improve the landscape.

    This absence of woods elsewhere makes their presence on Carmel’s sides, and parklike slopes, the more striking. N. of Esdraelon the Galilee hills abound in timber, the land round Tabor is clad in dark oak, forming a contrast to jebel ed Duhy (Little Hermon) and Nazareth’s white hills. Oaks, terebinths, maples, arbutus, sumach, etc., cover the ravines and slopes of the numerous swelling hills, and supply the timber carried to Tyre for export as fuel to the seacoast towns.

    The hills throughout Palestine are crowned with remains of fenced cities, scarcely a town existed in the valleys. Inaccessibility was their object, for security; also the treacherous nature of the alluvial sand made the lower position unsafe in times of torrent floods from the hills, whereas the rock afforded a firm foundation ( Matthew 7:24-27). Unlike ordinary conquests, the Israelite conquerors took the hills, but the conquered Canaanites kept the plains where their chariots could maneuver ( Judges 1:19-35). Appropriately a highland coloring tinges their literature ( Psalm 72:3,16; Isaiah 2:2; Ezekiel 36:1,; 1 Kings 20:28). The hills were the sites also of the forbidden “high places.” The panoramic views from many hills, trodden by patriarchs, prophets, and heroes, as Olivet, Bethel, Gerizim, Carmel, Tabor, etc., are remarkable for their wide extent, comprising so many places of historic interest at once, owing to the clearness of the air.

    The seacoast lowland between the hills and sea stretches from El Arish (river of Egypt) to Carmel. The lower half, Philistia, is wider; the upper, or Sharon, narrower. This region from the sea looks a low undulating strip of white sand. Attached to the plain is the shephelah or region of lower hills intermediate between the plain and the mountains of Judah. Low calcareous hills, covered with villages and ruins, and largely planted with olives, rise above broad arable valleys. Olive, sycamore, and palm encircle Gaza and Ashdod in the plain along the shore. The soil is fertile brown loam, almost without a stone. Brick made of the loam and stubble being the material of the houses, these have been washed away by rains, so that the ancient villages have left few traces. The plain is one vast grainfield, produced without manure, save that supplied by the deposits washed down by the streams from the hills, without irrigation, and with only the simplest agriculture. Sharon is ten miles wide from the sea to the mountain base; there are no intermediate hills, as the shephelah in Philistia. Its undulations are crossed by perennial streams from the central hills, which instead of spreading into marshes, as now, might be utilized for irrigation. The ancient irrigatory system, with passes cut through the solid wall of cliff near the sea for drainage, is choked up. The rich soil varies from red to black, and on the borders of the marshes and streams are rank meadows where herds still feed, as in David’s days ( 1 Chronicles 27:29). The white sand is encroaching on the coast. In the N. between Jaffa and Caesarea sand dunes are reported to exist, three miles wide, 300 ft. high.

    The Jews, though this region with its towns was assigned to them ( Joshua 15:45-47; 13:3-6; 16:3 Gezer, Joshua 17:11 Dor), never permanently occupied it. The Philistines kept their five cities independent of, and sometimes supreme over, Israel (1 Samuel 5; 21:10; 27:2; Kings 2:39; 2 Kings 8:2,3). The Canaanites held Dor ( Judges 1:27) and Gezer until Pharaoh took it and gave it to his daughter, Solomon’s wife ( 1 Kings 9:16). Lod (Lydda) and Ono were in Benjamin’s possession toward the end of the monarchy and after the return from Babylon ( Nehemiah 11:34; 2 Chronicles 28:18). Gaza and Askelon had regular ports (majumas, Kenrick, Phoen. 27-29). Ashdod was strong enough to withstand the whole Egyptian force for 29 years. Under Rome Caesarea, (now a ruin washed by the sea) and Antipatris in this region were leading cities of the province. Joppa between Philistia and Sharon. is still the seaport for travelers from the W. to Jerusalem, and was Israel’s only harbor. They had no word for harbor, so unversed in commerce were they; yet their sacred poets show their appreciation of the phenomena of the sea ( <19A425> Psalm 104:25,26; 107:23-30). Bedouin marauders and Turkish misrule have closed the old coast route between N. and S., and left the fertile and to be comparatively uncultivated.

    The Jordan valley is the special feature of Palestine. Syria is divided, from Antioch in the N. to Akaba on the eastern extremity of the Red Sea, by a deep valley parallel to the Mediterranean and separating the central highlands from the eastern ones. The range of Lebanon and Hermon crosses this valley between its northern portion, the valley of the Orontes. and its main portion the valley of Jordan (the Arabah of the Hebrews, the Aulon of the Greeks, and the Ghor of the Arabs). Again, the high ground S. of the Dead Sea crosses between the valley of the Jordan and the wady el Arabah running to the Red Sea. The Jordan valley divides Galilee, Ephraim, and Judah from Bashan, Gilead, and Moab respectively. The bottom of Jordan valley is actually more than 2,600 ft. below the level of the Mediterranean, and must have once been far deeper, being now covered with sediment accumulated by the Jordan. The steepness of the descent front Olivet is great, but not unparalleled; the peculiarity which is unique is that the descent is into the bowels of the earth; one standing at the Dead Sea shore is almost as far below the ocean surface as the miner in the lowest depths of any mine. The climate of the Jordan valley is tropical and enervating, and the men of Jericho a feeble race. “The region round about Jordan” was used of the vicinity of Jericho ( Matthew 3:5).

    The Jordan is perennial, but most of the so-called “rivers” are mere winter torrents (nachal ), dry during fully half the year ( Job 6:15-17). The land of promise must have been a delightful exchange for the dreary desert, especially as the Israelites entered it at Passover ( Joshua 5:10,11), i.e. springtime, when the country is lovely with verdure and flowers. There is a remarkable variety of climate and natural aspect, due to the differences of level between the different parts, and also to the vicinity of snowy Hermon and Lebanon on the N. and of the parched desert of the S., and lastly to the proximity of the ever fresh and changing sea. The Jordan valley, in its light fertile soil and torrid atmosphere where breezes never penetrate, somewhat resembles the valley of the Nile ( Genesis 13:10). The contrast between highland and lowland is marked by the phraseology “going up” to Judah, Jerusalem. Hebron; “going down” to Jericho, Gaza, Egypt. “The mountain of Judah,” “of Ephraim,” “of Naphtali,” designate the three great groups of highlands. In these the characteristic names occur, Gibeah, Geba, Gibeon (hill), Ramah, Ramathaim (brow), Mizpeh, Zonhim (watchtower, watchers). The lower hills and southern part of the seacoast plain is the “shephelah”; the northern part Sharon; the Jordan valley Ha-Arabah; the ravines, torrent beds, and small valleys (‘eemeq , nachal , gay ) of the highlands are never confounded. The variations in temperature, from the heat of midday and the dryness of summer to the rain, snow, and frosts of winter, are often alluded to ( Psalm 19:6; 32:4; 147:16-18; Isaiah 4:6; 25:5; Genesis 18:1; 1 Samuel 11:9; Nehemiah 7:3; Jeremiah 36:30). The Bible by its endless variety of such allusions, familiar to the people of the W. and suggested by Palestine which stands between E. and W., partaking of the characteristics of both, suits itself to the men of every land.

    ANTIQUITIES. In contrast to Egypt, Assyria, and Greece, Palestine does not contain an edifice older than the Roman occupation. There are but few remains left illustrating Israelite art. The coins, rude and insignificant, the oldest, being possibly of the Maccabean era, are the solitary exception. The enclosure round Abraham’s tomb at Hebron we know not the date of Solomon’s work still remains in some places. Wilson’s arch (see JERUSALEM ) is probably Solomonic, and the part of the sanctuary wall on E. side. The “beveling,” thought to be Jewish, is really common throughout Asia Minor; it is found at Persepolis, Cnidus, and Athens. The prohibition (1) of making graven images or likenesses of living creatures, and (2) of building any other temple than that at Jerusalem, restricted art.

    Solomon’s temple was built under Hiram’s guidance. The synagogues of the Maccabean times were built in the Greek style of architecture. Tent life left its permanent impression on Israel ( 2 Samuel 20:1; 1 Kings 12:16; 2 Chronicles 10:16; 2 Kings 14:12; Jeremiah 30:18; Zechariah 12:7; Psalm 78:55; 84:1; Isaiah 16:5).

    GEOLOGY. Palestine is a much disturbed mountainous tract of limestone, of the secondary or jurassic and cretaceous period. It is an offshoot from Lebanon, much raised above the sea, with partial interruptions from tertiary and basaltic deposits. The crevasse of the Jordan is possibly volcanic in origin, an upheaval tilting the limestone so as to leave a vast split in the strata, but stopping without intruding volcanic rocks into the fissure. The basins of the sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea resemble craters.

    Others attribute the chasm to the ocean’s gradual action in immense periods. The hills range mainly N. and S. The limestone consists of two groups of strata. The upper is a solid stone varying from white to reddish brown, with few fossils, and abounding in caverns; the strata sometimes level for terraces, oftener violently disarranged, and twisted into various forms, as on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. This limestone is often topped with flint-abounding chalk, as on the western side of the Dead Sea, where it has many salt and sulfurous springs. Dolomite or magnesian limestone, a send-crystalline rock, white or brown with glistening surface, blends with the mass of limestone, near Jerusalem. The lower limestone group has two series of beds: the upper darkish, cavernous, and ferruginous; the lower dark gray, solid, abounding in the fossil cidaris, an extinct echinus, the spines of which are the “olives” of the convents. This is the substratum of the whole country E. and W. of Jordan. The ravine from Olivet to Jericho affords an opportunity of examining the strata through which it cuts. After the limestone had assumed its present outline, lava burst, from beneath and overflowed the stratified beds, as basalt or trap, long before historic times. These volcanic rocks are found in the cis- Jordanic country, only N. of the Samaria mountains, e.g. S.W. of Esdraelon plain and N. of Tabor. The two centers of eruption were: (1) The older about Kuru Hattin, the traditional mount of beatitudes, from whence the lava flowed forming the cliffs at the back of Tiberius; the disintegration of the basalt formed the fertile black soil of the plain of Gennesaret. (2) The more recent, near Safed, where three craters have become the lakes el Jish, Taiteba, and Delata. The earthquake in Uzziah’s time ( Zechariah 14:5), which injured the temple and brought down a mass of rock from Olivet (Josephus, Ant. 9:10, section 4), shows that volcanic action has continued in historic times. From the 13th to the 17th centuries A.D. earthquakes were unknown in Syria and Judaea, but the Archipelago and southern Italy suffered greatly. Since than their activity has been resumed, destroying Aleppo in 1616 and 1822. Antioch in 1737, and Tiberius and Safed in 1837. See Amos 4:11; compare Matthew 27:51; Psalm 46:1,2. The hot salt and fetid springs at Tiberias, Callirrhoe (wady Zerka Main, E. of the Dead Sea), and other places along the Jordan valley, and round the lakes, as Ain Tabighah N.E. of lake Tiberias, the rock salt, niter, and sulphur of the Dead Sea, evidence volcanic agency. The Tiberias hot springs flowed more abundantly and increased in temperature during the earthquake of 1837. W. of the lower Jordan and Dead Sea no volcanic formations appear. The igneous rocks first appear in situ near the water level at wady Hemarah, a little N. of wady Zerka Main N.E. of the Dead Sea. Here and E. of the upper Jordan the most remarkable igneous rocks are found; the limestone lies underneath. The Lejah, anciently see ARGOB or Trachonitis, has scarcely anything exactly like it on the earth. Traces of two terraces appear in the Jordan valley. The upper is the broader and older; the second, 50 to 150 ft. lower, reaching to the channel of the Jordan, was excavated by the river before it fell to its present level, when it filled the space between the eastern and western faces of the upper terrace. The inner side of both terraces is furrowed by the descending rains into conical hillocks. The lower terrace has much vegetation, oleanders, etc. The tertiary beds, marls, and conglomerates prevail round the margin of the Dead Sea; at its S.E. corner sandstone begins and stretches N. to wady Zerka Main.

    The alluvial soil of Philistia is formed of washings from the highlands by winter rains. It is loamy sand, red or black, formed of sandstone disintegrated by the waves and cast on the shore, or, as Josephus (Ant. 15:9, section 6) states, brought from Egypt by the S.S.W. wind. It chokes the streams in places, and forms marshes which might be utilized for promoting fertility. The plain of Gennesaret is richer land, owing to the streams flowing all the year round, and to the decay of volcanic rocks on the surrounding heights. Esdraelon plain is watered by the finest springs of Palestine, and has a volcanic soil. Asphalt or bitumen is only met with in the valley of the Jordan, and in fragments floating on the water or at the shore of the Dead Sea. Bituminous limestone probably exists in thick strata near neby Musa; thence bitumen escapes from its lower beds into the Dead Sea, and there accumulates till, becoming accidentally detached, it rises to the surface. Sulphur is found on the W., S., and S.E. shore of the Dead Sea, a sulfurous crust spreading over the beach. Niter is rare. Rock salt abounds. The Khasm Usdum, a mound at the S. of the Dead Sea, is five miles and a half long by two and a half broad, and several hundred feet high; the lower part rock salt, the upper Sulphate of lime and salt with alumina.

    BOTANY. Palestine is the southern and eastern limit of the Asia Minor flora, one of the richest in the earth, and contains many trees and herbs as the pine, oak, elder, bramble, dogrose, hawthorn, which do not grow further S. and E. owing to the dryness and heat of the regions beyond hilly Judaea. Persian forms appear on the eastern frontier, Arabian and Egyptian on the southern. Arabian and Indian tropical plants of about 100 different kinds are the remarkable anomaly in the torrid depression of the Jordan and Dead Sea. The general characteristics, owing to the geographical position and mountains of Asia Minor and Syria, are Mediterranean European, not Asiatic. Palestine was once covered with forests which still remain on the mountains, but in the lower grounds have disappeared or given place to brush wood. Herbaceous plants deck the hills and lowlands from Christmas to June, afterward the heat withers all. The mountains, unlike our own, have no alpine or arctic plants, mosses, lichens, or ferns. Volney objected to the sacred history on the ground of Judaea’s present barrenness, whereas Scripture represents it as flowing with milk and honey; but this is strong testimony for its truth, for the barrenness is the fulfillment of Scripture prophecies. Besides our English fruits, the apple, vine, pear, apricot, plum, mulberry, and fig, there are dates, pomegranates, oranges, limes, banana, almond, prickly pear, and pistachio nut, etc.; out no gooseberry, strawberry, raspberry, currant, cherry, Besides our cereals and vegetables there are cotton, millet, rice, sugar cane, maize, melons, cummin, sweet potato, tobacco, yam, etc.

    Three principal regions are distinguishable: (1) the western half of Syria and Palestine, resembling the flora of Spain; (2) the desert and eastern half, resembling the flora of western India and Persia; (3) the middle and upper mountain regions, the flora of which resembles that of northern Europe.

    The trans-jordanic region stretching to Mesopotamia is botanically unexplored. (1) In western, Syria and the commonest tree is the Quercus pseudococcifera (see OAK ), then the pistacia, the carob tree (Ceratona siliqua) (see HUSKS ), the oriental plane, the sycamore fig, Arbutus Andrachne, Zizyphus spina Christi (Christ’s thorn), tamarisk, the blossoming oleander along the banks of streams and lakes, gum cistus, the caper plant. The vine is cultivated in all directions; the enormous bunches of grapes at Eshcol are still fatuous; those near Hebron are so long as to reach the ground when hung on a stick resting between two men’s shoulders. (See OLIVE and see FIG thereon.) Of more than 2,000 plants in this botanical division, 500 are British wild flowers. Legum nosae abound in all situations. Of the Compositae, centauries and thistles. The hills of Galilee and Samaria are perfumed with the Labiatae, marjoram, thyme, lavender, sage, etc. Of Cruciferae, the giant mustard and rose of Jericho. Of Umbelliferae, the fennels. Of the Caryophylleae, pinks and sabonaria. Of Boragineae, the beautiful echiums, anchusas, and onosmas. Of Scrophularineae, veronica and vebascum. The grasses seldom form a sward as in humid and colder countries; the pasture in the East is afforded by herbs and herbaceous shrubs. The Arundo donax, Saccharum, Aegyptiacum, and Erianthus Rarennoe are gigantic in size, and bear silky flower plumes of great beauty.

    Of Liliaceae there is a beautiful variety, tulips, fritillaries, and squills. The Violaceae and Resaceae (except the Poterium spinosum) and Lobeliaeceae are scarce, the Geraniaceae beautiful and abundant, also the Campauulaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Convolvuli. Ferns are scarce, owing to the dryness of the climate. The papyrus is the most remarkable of all.

    Once it grew along the Nile, but now it grows nowhere in Africa N. of the tropics. Syria is its only habitat besides, except one spot in Sicily. It forms tufts of triangled smooth stems, six to ten feet high, crowned by atop of pendulous threads; it abounds by the lake of Tiberius. The Cucurbitaceae abound, including gourds, pumpkins, the colocynth apple which yields the drug, and the squirting cucumber. The landscape in spring is one mass of beauty with adonis, the Ranunculus Asiaticus, phloxes, mallows, scabicea, orchis; narcissus, iris, gladiolus, crocuses, colchicum, star of Bethlehem, etc. (2) The difference of the flora of eastern Syria and Palestine from the western appears strikingly in going down from Olivet to the Dead Sea. In the valleys W. and S. of Jerusalem there are dwarf oaks, pistacia, smilax, arbutus rose, bramble, and Cratoegus Aronia; the last alone is on Olivet.

    Not one of these appears eastward. Toward the Dead Sea salsolas, Capparideae, rues, tamarisks, etc., appear. In the sunken valley of the Jordan the Zizyphus spina Christi, the Balanites Aegyptiaca yielding the zuk oil, the Ochradenus baccatus, the Acacia Furnesiana with fragrant yellow flowers, the mistletoe Loranthus acacioe with flaming scarlet flowers, the Alhagi Maurorum the prickly Solanum Sodomoeum with yellow fruit called the Dead Sea apple. On the Jordan banks the Populus Euphratica, found all over central Asia but not W. of Jordan. In the saline grounds Atriplex halimus, statices (sea pinks), salicornias. Other tropical plants are Zygophyllum coccineum, Astragali, Cassias, and Nitraria. In Engedi valley alone Sida nautica and Asiatica, Calotropis procera, Amberboa, Batatas littoralis, Aerva Javanica, Pluchea Dioscoridis, and Salvadora Persica (see MUSTARD ), found as far S. as Abyssinia and E. as India, but not W. or N. of the Dead Sea. In reascending from the N.W. shore on reaching the level of the Mediterranean the Poterium spinosum, anchusa, pink, of the Mediterranean coast, are seen, but no trees until the longitude of Jerusalem is reached. (3) Middle and upper mountains region. Above the height of 5,000 feet the Quercus cerris of S. Europe, the Q. Ehrenbergii or Castanaefolia, Q. Toza, Q. Libani, Q. manifera are found, junipers, and cedars. The dry climate and sterile limestone, and the warm age that succeeded the glacial (the moraines of the cedar valley attesting the former existence: of glaciers), account for the flora of Lebanon being unlike to that of the Alps of Europe, India, and N. America. The most boreal forms are restricted to clefts of rocks or the neighborhood of snow, above 9,000 feet, namely, Drabas, Arenaria, one Potentilla, a Festuca, an Arabis, and the Oxyria reniformis, the only arctic type surviving the glacial period. The prevalent forms up to the summit are astragali, Acantholimon statices, and the small white Nocea.

    ZOOLOGY. Palestine epitomizes the natural features of all regions, mountain and desert, temperate and tropical, seacoast and interior, pastoral, arable and volcanic; nowhere are the typical fauna of so many regions and zones brought together. This was divinely ordered that the Bible might be the book of mankind, not of Israel alone. The bear of Lebanon (Ursus Syriacus) and the gazelle of the desert, the wolf of the N. and the leopard (Leopardus varius in the central mountains) of the tropics; the falcons, linnets, and buntings of England, and the Palestine sun bird (Cinnyris osea), the grackle of the glen (Amydrus Tristramii), “the glossy starling” in the Kedron gorge (whose music rolls like that of the organ bird of Australia, a purely African type), the jay of Palestine, and the Palestine nightingale (Icos xanthopygos), the sweetest songster of the country. Of 322 species of birds noted by Tristram, 79 are common to the British isles, 260 are in European lists, 31 of eastern Africa, 7 of eastern Asia,4 of northern Asia,4 of Russia, 27 peculiar to Palestine. He obtained a specimen of ostrich (Struthio camelus) from the Belka E. of the Dead Sea.

    Jackals and foxes abound, the hyena and wolf are not numerous. (See LION thereon.) Of the pachyderms, the wild boar (Sus scrofa) on Tabor and Little Hermon, also the Syrian hyrax. (See CONEY .) A kind of squirrel (Sciurus Syriacus) on Lebanon, the Syrian and the Egyptian hare, the jerboa (Dipus Aegyptius, the porcupine, the short-tailed field mouse, and rats, etc., represent the Rodentia. The gazelle is the antelope of Palestine.

    The fallow deer is not uncommon. The Persian ibex Canon Tristram found S. of Hebron. (See UNICORN as to the wild ox, urus, or bison.) The buffalo is used for draught and plowing. The ox is small. The sheep is the broad tailed. Of reptiles: the stellio lizard, which the Turks kill as they think that it mimics them saying prayers; the chameleon; the gecko (Tarentola); the Greek tortoise. Of serpents and snakes, the Naia, Coluber, and Cerastes Hasselquistii, etc. Large frogs. Of fish in the sea of Galilee the binny, a bird of barbel, is the most common. The fish there resemble those of the Nile. The land mollusks are very numerous, in the N. the genus Clausilia and opaque bulimi. In the S. and hills of Judah the genus Helix like that of Egypt and the African Sahara. In the valley of Jordan the bulimus. No mollusk can exist in the Dead Sea owing to its bitter saltiness.

    The butterflies of southern Europe are represented in Sharon; the Apollo of the Alps is represented on Olivet by the Parnassius Apollinis. The Thais and Glorious Vanessa abound.

    CLIMATE. January (temperature average 49 degrees F., greatest cold degrees F.) is the coldest month; July and August the hottest (average degrees F.; greatest heat in shade, 92 degrees F.; in sun, 148 degrees F.).

    The mean annual temperature is 65 degrees F. The temperature and seasons resemble California. A sea breeze from the N.W. from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. mitigates the four months’ midsummer heat. The khamsin or sirocco blows in February, March, and April. When it comes from the E. it darkens the air and fills everything with fine dust. Snow often falls in January and February ( Psalm 68:14; Isaiah 55:10; 2 Samuel 23:20); but plants do not need shelter from the frost. The average fall of rain at Jerusalem is 61.6 inches; whereas the London mean is only 25. Rain comes most from S. or S.W. ( Luke 12:54) It begins in October or early in November, and continues to the end of February or middle of March, rarely to the end of April. Not a continuous rain, but a succession of showers or storms with intervals of fine weather for a few weeks in December and January. A drought of three months before harvest is fatal to the crops ( Amos 4:7). None falls from April to October or November. Thus but two seasons are specified, “winter and summer,” “cold and heat,” “seedtime and harvest.” But heavy saturating dews fall in summer, and thick fogs often prevail at night. In Jericho and the Ghor, sunk so deep below the sea level, the heat is much greater, owing to the absence of breeze, the enclosure by heights, the sandy soil, and the earth’s internal heat; the harvest is a month in advance of that of the highland. The seacoast lowland has the heat mitigated by sea breeze, but it is hotter than the uplands.

    The Bible nomenclature of places still exists almost unchanged. Israel accepted it front the Canaanites; as is proved by the correspondence between it as recorded in Joshua and the nomenclature in the lists and conquests of Thothmes III. Thus the modern fellaheen seem to be the mixed descendants of the old Canaanites.

    PALLU Exodus 6:14; Numbers 26:5,8; 1 Chronicles 5:3;PHALLU, Genesis 46:9.

    PALMERWORM gazam . (See LOCUST ). Joel 1:4; 2:25; Amos 4:9.

    PALMTREE tamar . The Phoenix dactylifera, the date palm; for which Palestine was famous, as appears from the many names derived from it. Grows best at “fountains” ( Exodus 15:27; Numbers 33:9 see ELIM , Deuteronomy 2:8 see ELATH . see JERICHO was “the city of palmtrees” ( Deuteronomy 34:3; Judges 1:16; 3:13; 2 Chronicles 28:15). (See HAZEZON TAMAR or see ENGEDI ).BAAL TAMAR ( Judges 20:33).TAMAR the last town of Judaea, by the Dead Sea ( Ezekiel 47:19); Robinson makes its site El-Milh between Hebron and wady Muse. ForTADMOR ( 2 Chronicles 8:4) in 1 Kings 9:18 the best reading is Tamar, “the palm city,” Roman “Palmyra,” on an oasis of the Syrian desert, in the caravan route between Damascus and the Euphrates.BETHANY means “house of dates”; thence the multitude took the palm branches to honor Christ ( John 12:13), and from Olivet the people under Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 8:15) took palms, the tree named in instituting the feast of tabernacles ( Leviticus 23:40). Phoenicia ( Acts 11:19) takes its name from the palm; compare Phenice in Crete, Acts 27:12. From the uprightness and beauty of the palm the name Tamar was applied to women (Song 7:7; Genesis 38:6; 2 Samuel 13:1; 14:27).

    The walls, doors, bases and posts of the temples of Solomon and Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 40:16,22,26,31,34,37; 41:18-20,25,26; 1 Kings 6:29,32,35; 7:36) were decorated with palmtrees in relief. Rigid motionless uprightness is the point of comparison to the pagan idols in Jeremiah 10:4,5. “The righteous shall flourish like the palmtree” ( Psalm 92:12); full of the “oil” of grace ever “fresh” ( Psalm 92:10), looking calmly down on the world below and bearing its precious fruit for generations. The psalm refers to the church in holy convocation on the Sabbath (title). The tabernacle is alluded to, the meeting place between God and His people; the oil-fed candlestick had the form of a tree with flowers and fruits. The palm denotes the saint’s spiritual beauty, ever fresh joy, and fruitfulness; his orderly upright aspect, perpetual verdure, rising from earth toward heaven. Also the elastic fibber sending it upward, however loaded with weights and agitated by winds, symbolizes the believer sitting already in heavenly places, in spite of earthly burdens ( Colossians 3:1,2; Ephesians 2:6; Philippians 3:20; 4:6; Acts 20:23,24). Rough to the touch, encased below in dry bark, but fruitful and green above; so the saint despised below, beautiful above, straitened with many trials here, but there bearing fruit before God unto everlasting life ( 2 Corinthians 4:8-18). The “great multitude of all nations before the Lamb with palms in their hands” are antitypical to that which escorted Christ at His triumphal entry ( Revelation 7:9, etc.). The palm symbolizes their joyful triumph after having come out of “the great tribulation.” The palm was carried with willows and thick trees (rabbinically called lulab ) in the hand at the feast of tabernacles, the thanksgiving for the ingathered fruits, and the commemoration of Israel’s 40 years’ sojourn in tabernacles in the wilderness. The earthly feast shall be renewed in commemoration of Israel’s wilderness-like dispersion and sojourn among the nations ( Zechariah 14:16). The final and heavenly antitype is Revelation 7:9, etc.

    The palm is dioecious, i.e. the male stamens and female pistils are on different trees. Fertilization, or impregnating the female plant with the pollen of the male, is effected by insects or artificially. In Song 7:8 the “daughters of Jerusalem,” no longer content with admiring, resolve, in spite of the height of the fruit at the utmost top of the palm, and the difficulty of climbing the stem, bore for a great height, to “take hold of the boughs” with their crown of fruit ( Psalm 34:8). The palm grows from 30 to 80 feet, does not bear fruit for the first six or seven years, but will bear for a hundred ( Psalm 92:14). Slowly, but steadily and enduringly, the average crop is 100 pounds a year. The Arabs are said to have designations for the palm and to enumerate 360 uses of it. The abortive fruit and date stones ground the camels eat. Of the leaves they make couches, baskets, bags, mats, brushes, fly flaps; from the trunk cages and fences; from the fibber of the leaves, thread for cordage; from the sap collected by cutting the head off, and scooping a hollow in the stem, a spirituous liquor. The pilgrims to Palestine used to bring home palms, from whence they were called “palmers.” Vespasian’s coin bore the palm and Zion as a woman sitting sadly beneath, and the legend “Judaea captive” (see p. 405). Once the prevalent fruit tree, it now is nowhere in Palestine except in the Philistine plain.

    PALSY Paralysis affecting part of the body. The “grievously tormented” ( Matthew 8:6) refers to the convulsions, foamings, and heavy breathings of the sufferer, giving the appearance of torment, whether himself conscious of pain or not.

    PALTI Numbers 13:9.

    PALTIEL Numbers 34:26.

    PALTITE 2 Samuel 23:26. In 1 Chronicles 11:27 “Pelonite,” 1 Chronicles 27:10.

    PAMPHYLIA Southern province of Asia Minor, bounded on the N. by Pisidia, from which it was separated by the Taurus range, W. by Lycia, E. by Cilicia, S. by the Levant. In Paul’s time it with Lycia formed a province under the emperor Claudius. His “peril of robbers” was in crossing Taurus, the Pisidians being notorious for robbery. He visited Pamphylia at his first missionary tour, sailing from Paphos in Cyprus to Perga in Pamphylia on the river Cestrus, where Mark forsook him ( Acts 13:13; 15:38). They stayed only a short time then, but on their return front the interior “they preached the word” ( Acts 14:24,25). Then they “went down (sea being lower than land) to Attalia,” the chief seaport of Pamphylia. The minute accuracy of the geographical order, confirming genuineness, is observable, when, in coasting westward, he is said to “sail over the sea of Cilicia, and Pamphylia.” Also Acts 13:13,14, “from Perga to Antioch in Pisidia,” and Acts 14:24, “after Pisidia ... to Pamphylia,” in returning to the coast from inland.

    PANNAG Grotius identifies with Phoenice or Canaan ( Ezekiel 27:17). “Judah and Israel supplied thy market with wheat” The Septuagint translated “cassia,” Syriac translated “millet.” Pannaga in Sanskrit is an aromatic plant (compare Genesis 43:11).

    PAPHOS A town in the western end of Cyprus, as Salamis was in the E. Paul passed through the isle from Salamis to Paphos ( Acts 13:6-13.) Here Barnabas and Saul were instrumental in converting Sergius Paulus the proconsul, in spite of see ELYMAS ’ opposition. Saul is here called Paul when “filled with the Holy Spirit” he inflicted blindness from “the hand of the Lord” upon the sorcerer, and thenceforth became more prominent than Barnabas.

    Here Aphrodite or Venus was said to have risen from the foam of the sea.

    The harbor and town were at new Paphos, her temple at old Paphos.

    PARABLE Hebrew maashaal , Greek parabolee , a placing side by side or comparing earthly truths, expressed, with heavenly truths to be understood (see FABLE ). The basis of parable is that man is made in the image of God, and that there is a law of continuity of the human with the divine. The force of parable lies in the real analogies impressed by the Creator on His creatures, the physical typifying the higher moral world. “Both kingdoms develop themselves according to the same laws; Jesus’ parables are not mere illustrations, but internal analogies, nature becoming a witness for the spiritual world; whatever is found in the earthly exists also in the heavenly kingdom.” (Lisco.)

    The parables, earthly in form heavenly in spirit, answer to the parabolic character of His own manifestation. Jesus’ purpose in using parables is judicial, as well as didactic, to discriminate between the careless and the sincere. In His earlier teaching, as the Sermon on the Mount, He taught plainly and generally without parables; but when His teaching was rejected or misunderstood, He in the latter half of His ministry judicially punished the unbelieving by parabolic veiling of the truth ( Matthew 13:11-16), “therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing see not ... but blessed are your eyes, for they see,” etc. Also Matthew 13:34,35. The disciples’ question ( Matthew 13:10), “why speakest Thou unto them in parables?” shows that this is the first formal beginning of His parabolic teaching. The parables found earlier are scattered and so plain as to be rather illustrations than judicial veilings of the truth ( Matthew 7:24-27; 9:16; 12:25; Mark 3:23; Luke 6:39). Not that a merciful aspect is excluded even for the heretofore carnal hearers. The change of mode would awaken attention, and judgment thus end in mercy, when the message of reconciliation addressed to them first after Jesus’ resurrection ( Acts 3:26) would remind them of parables not understood at the time.

    The Holy Spirit would “bring all things to their remembrance” ( John 14:26). When explained, the parables would be the clearest illustration of truth. The parable, which was to the carnal a veiling, to the receptive was a revealing of the truth, not immediate but progressive ( Proverbs 4:18).

    They were a penalty era blessing according to the hearer’s state: a darkening to those who loved darkness; enshrining the truth (concerning Messiah’s spiritual kingdom so different from Jewish expectations) from the jeer of the scoffer, and leaving something to stimulate the careless afterward to think over. On the other hand, enlightening the diligent seeker, who asks what means this parable? and is led so to “understand all parables” ( Mark 4:13; Matthew 15:17; 16:9,11), and at last to need no longer this mode but to have all truth revealed plainly ( John 16:25).

    The truths, when afterward explained first by Jesus, then by His Spirit ( John 14:26), would be more definitely and indelibly engraven on their memories. About 50 out of a larger number are preserved in the Gospels ( Mark 4:33). Each of the three synoptical Gospels preserves some parable peculiar to itself; John never uses the word parable but “proverb” or rather brief “allegory,” parabolic saying (paroimia ). Parabolic sayings, like the [paroimia ] in John ( John 10:1,6-18; 16:25; 15:1-8), occur also in Matthew 15:15; Luke 4:23; 6:39; Mark 3:23, “parable” in the sense “figure” or type, Hebrews 9:9; 11:19 Greek Fable introduces brutes and transgresses the order of things natural, introducing improbabilities resting on fancy. Parable does not, and has a loftier significance; it rests on the imagination, introducing only things probable.

    The allegory personifies directly ideas or attributes. The thing signifying and the thing signified are united together, the properties and relations of one being transferred to the other; instead of being kept distinct side by side, as in the parable; it is a prolonged metaphor or extended simile; it never names the object itself; it may be about other than religious truths, but the parable only about religious truth. The parable is longer carried out than the proverb, and not merely by accident and occasionally, but necessarily, figurative and having a similitude. The parable is often an expanded proverb, and the proverb a condensed parable. The parable expresses some particular fact, which the simile does not. In the fable the end is earthly virtues, skill, prudence, etc., which have their representatives in irrational creation; if men be introduced, they are represented from their mere animal aspect.

    The rabbis of Christ’s time and previously often employed parable, as Hillel, Shammai, the Gemara, Midrash (Lightfoot, Hor. Hebrew, Matthew 13:3); the commonness of their use was His first reason for employing them, He consecrated parables to their highest end. A second reason was, the untutored masses relish what is presented in the concrete and under imagery, rather than in the abstract. Even the disciples, through Jewish prejudices, were too weak in faith impartially to hear gospel truths if presented in naked simplicity; the parables secured their assent unawares.

    The Pharisees, hating the truth, became judicially hardened by that vehicle which might have taught them it in a guise least unpalatable. As in the prophecies, so in parables, there was light enough to guide the humble, darkness enough to confound the willfully blind ( John 9:39; Psalm 18:26). A third reason was, gospel doctrines could not be understood fully before the historical facts on which they rested had been accomplished, namely, Jesus’ death and resurrection. Parables were repositories of truths not then understood, even when plainly told ( Luke 18:34), but afterward comprehended in their manifold significance, when the Spirit brought all Jesus’ words to their remembrance. The veil was so transparent as to allow the spiritual easily to see the truth underneath; the unspiritual saw only the sacred drapery of the parable in which He wrapped the pearl so as not to cast it before swine. “Apples of gold in pictures (frames) of silver.”

    The seven in Matthew 13 represent the various relations of the kingdom of God. The first, the relations of different classes with regard to God’s word.

    The second, the position of mankind relatively to Satan’s kingdom. The third and fourth, the greatness of the gospel kingdom contrasted with its insignificant beginning. The fifth and sixth, the inestimable value of the kingdom. The seventh, the mingled state of the church on earth continuing to the end. The first four parables have a mutual connection ( Matthew 13:3,24,31,33), and were spoken to the multitude on the shore; then Matthew 13:34 marks a break. On His way to the house He explains the parable of the sower to the disciples; then, in the house, the tares ( Matthew 13:36); the three last parables ( Matthew 13:44-52), mutually connected by the thrice repeated “again,” probably in private. The seven form a connected totality. The mustard and leaven are repeated in a different connection ( Luke 13:18-21). Seven denotes completeness; they form a perfect prophetic series: the sower, the seedtime; the tares, the secret growth of corruption; the mustard and leaven, the propagation of the gospel among princes and in the whole world; the treasure, the hidden state of the church ( Psalm 83:3); the pearl, the kingdom prized above all else; the net, the church’s mixed state in the last age and the final separation of bad from good.

    The second group of parables are less theocratic, and more peculiarly represent Christ’s sympathy with all men, and their consequent duties toward Him and their fellow men. The two debtors ( Luke 7:41), the merciless servant (Matthew 18), the good Samaritan ( Luke 10:30), the friend at midnight ( Luke 11:5), the rich fool ( Luke 12:16), the figtree ( Luke 13:6), the great supper ( Luke 14:16), the lost sheep, piece of silver, son (Luke 15; Matthew 18:12), the unjust steward ( Luke 16:1), Lazarus, etc. ( Luke 16:19), unjust judge ( Luke 18:2), Pharisee and publican ( Luke 18:9), all in see LUKE , agreeable to his Gospel’s aspect of Christ. Thirdly, toward the close of His ministry, the theocratic parables are resumed, dwelling on the final consummation of the kingdom of God. The pound ( Luke 19:12), two sons ( Matthew 21:28), the vineyard ( Matthew 21:33), marriage ( Matthew 22:2); the ten virgins, talents, sheep and goats (Matthew 25). Matthew, being evangelist of the kingdom, has the largest number of the first and third group. Mark, the Gospel of Jesus’ acts, has (of the three) fewest of the parables, but alone has the parable of the grain’s silent growth ( Mark 4:26). John, who soars highest, has no parable strictly so-called, having reached that close communion with the Lord wherein parables have no place. For a different reason, namely, incapacity to frame them, the apocryphal Gospels have none.

    INTERPRETATION. Jesus’ explanation of two parables, the sower and the tares, gives a key for interpreting other parables. There is one leading thought round which as center the subordinate parts must group themselves. As the accessories, the birds, thorns, heat, etc., had each a meaning, so we must in other parables try to find the spiritual significance even of details. The mistakes some have made are no reason why we should not from Scripture seek an explanation of accessories. The fulfillment may be more than single, applying to the church and to the individual at once, both experimental and prophetic. But (1) The analogies must be real, not imaginary, and subordinate to the main lesson of the parable. (2) The parable in its mere outward form must be well understood, e.g. the relation of love between the Eastern shepherd and sheep ( 2 Samuel 12:3, an Old Testament parable, as the vineyard Isaiah 5 also) to catch the point of the parable of the lost sheep. (3) The context also introducing the parable, as Luke 15:1,2 is the starting point of the three parables, the lost sheep, etc.; so Luke 16:14-18 (compare John 8:9) introduces and gives the key to the parable of the rich man and Lazurus. (4) Traits which, if literally interpreted, would contradict Scripture, are coloring; e.g. the number of the wise virgins and the foolish being equal; compare Matthew 7:13,14. But there may be a true interpretation of a trait, which, if misinterpreted, contradicts Scripture, e.g. the hired laborers all alike getting the penny, not that there are no degrees of rewards ( John 1:8) but the gracious gift of salvation is the same to all; the key is Matthew 19:27-30; 20:16. So the selling the debtor’s wife and children ( Matthew 18:25) is mere coloring from Eastern usage, for God does not consign wife and children to hell for the husband’s and father’s sins.

    PARADISE (See EDEN ). From Sanskrit paradesa,” a foreign ornamental garden” attached to a mansion ( Nehemiah 2:8; Ecclesiastes 2:5 “gardens,” Song 4:13 “orchard,” pardes ). An earthly paradise can never make up for losing a heavenly paradise ( Revelation 2:7; 22:1,2,14). Compare the Holy Land turned from a garden of Eden into a wilderness, with Israel’s wilderness made like Eden the garden of Jehovah ( Numbers 24:6; Joel 2:3; Isaiah 51:3; Ezekiel 36:35; contrast Ezekiel 28:13).

    Paradise is the blessed resting place with Jesus to which the penitent thief’s soul was received until the resurrection of the body ( Luke 23:43). Paul in a trance was caught up even to the third heaven, into paradise ( 2 Corinthians 12:2,4). In Eden Adam and Eve lived solitary, exhibiting the perfection of the individual. The heavenly home shall be not merely a garden, but a city, the perfect communion of saints ( Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21; 22). Earthly cities, Nineveh, Babylon, and Thebes, rested on mere force; Athens and Corinth on intellect, art, and refinement, divorced from morality; Tyre on gain; even Jerusalem on religious privileges more than on love, truth, righteousness, and holiness of heart before God. But the coming city shall combine all that was excellent of the first Eden, with the perfect polity that rests on Christ the chief corner stone, in which symmetry, grace, power, and the beauty of holiness shall shine for ever.

    PARAH A city allotted to Benjamin ( Joshua 18:23). Now Farah, the wady Farah being an offshoot of the wady Suweinit.

    PARAN EL PARAN. The Et Tih (the wanderings) desert, N. of the wilderness of Sinai. Israel passed from the latter into Paran on their way N. toward see KADESH ( Numbers 10:12; 13:26). Paran comprises one third of the peninsula which lies between Egypt and Canaan, the eastern half of the limestone plateau which forms the center of the peninsula. Bounded on the N. by southern Canaan; on the W. by the brook or river of Egypt, parting it from Shur wilderness, the other half of the plateau; on the S. by the great sand belt sweeping across the peninsula in a concave northward line from gulf to gulf, and forming the demarcation between it and Sinai; on the E. by the northern part of the Elanitic gulf, and the Arabah dividing it from the Edom mountains. The Zin (not Sin) wilderness, Canaan’s ( Numbers 34:3) immediate boundary, was its N.E. extremity, from whence Kadesh is spoken of as in Zin wilderness or in Paran ( Numbers 13:26; 20:1.) In 1 Samuel 25:1,2 the southern parts of Canaan are called Paran. The beautiful wady Feiran is probably distinct (Speaker’s Commentary, Numbers 10:12). Phara, a Roman station between the heads of the two gulfs, takes its name from Paran. Paran is a dreary waste of chalk covered with coarse gravel, black flint, and drifting sand, crossed by watercourses and low horizontal hills. Not so wild looking as the Arabah, nor yet relieved by such fertile valleys as lie amidst the granite mountains of Sinai.

    Vegetation would probably cover the level plains, which have red clay soil in parts, but for the reckless destruction of trees for charcoal, so that the winter rains run at once to waste. Ishmael’s dwelling ( Genesis 21:21,14; compare Genesis 14:6). “Mount Paran” in Deuteronomy 33:2 is the range forming the northern boundary of the desert of Sinai. In Deuteronomy 1:1 Paran is either Mount Paran or a city mentioned, by Eusebius and Jerome near the mountain. The Paran of Hadad the Edomite ( 1 Kings 11:18) lay to N.W. or the Egyptian side of Horeb, between Midian and Egypt.

    Capt. Burton has found extensive mineral districts in Midian, the northern Being little worked, the southern with many traces of ancient labor, shafting and tunneling. Silver and copper abound in northern, gold in southern, and turquoise in northern southern, and central Midian. How strikingly accurate are Scripture details! We should never have guessed that a nomadic people like the Midianites would have wrought mines; but research confirms fully the truth of Scripture, which represents them as having ornaments and tablets of gold, and chains for their camels’ necks.

    The spoils from Midian ( Numbers 31:50-53) included gold (of which was offered to Jehovah 16,750 shekels!), silver, brass, iron, tin, and lead.

    The gold taken by Gideon from them was so enormous as to suffice for making a golden ephod ( Judges 8:24-27).

    The Haj route from Egypt by Elath to Mecca still runs through the Paran desert. Hadad would take that road to Egypt, “taking men with them out of Paran” as guides through the desert. Seir (Edom and Teman), Sinai, and Paran are comparatively adjacent, and therefore are associated together in God’s giving the law ( Habakkuk 3:3), as in Deuteronomy 33:2.

    PARBAR 1 Chronicles 26:16,18. A place or outbuilding with” chambers” for laying up temple goods (Keil), on the W. or hinder side of the temple enclosure, the same side as the causeway and gate of Shallechoth, on the S. side of the latter. The Parvarim in 2 Kings 23:11, “suburbs,” were probably on the E. side, where “the horses of the sun” would be kept in full view of the rising sun, not in the deep valley on the W. where Parbar was.

    A portico or porch (Gesenius). The rabbis translate, it “the outside place.”

    Josephus mentions a “suburb” in the valley separating the W. wall of the temple from the city opposite, i.e. the S. end of the Tyroproeon valley, which lies between the wailing place and the modern Zion.

    PARMASHTA Esther 9:9.

    PARMENAS Sixth of the seven ordained Acts 6:5. (See DEACON ).

    PARNACH Numbers 34:25.

    PAROSH Ezra 2:3; Nehemiah 7:8; 8:3; 10:25; 3:25; 10:14.

    PARSHANDATHA Esther 9:7. Persian frashnadata, “given by prayer.”

    PARTHIANS Acts 2:9; i.e. Jews settled in Parthia. Parthia proper lay S. of Hyreania, E. of Media; but in the apostles’ time the Parthian empire stretched from India to the Tigris and from the Kharesm desert to the southern ocean.

    Arsaces (256 B.C.), revolting from the Seleucid successors of Alexander the Great, founded it. Rising out of the ruins of the Persian empire it was the only power that Rome dreaded, the Roman Crassus having been defeated by Parthians at Carrhae (Haran). Selencia was a chief city, also Hecatompylon. Ecbatana was their kings’ summer residence. Mithridates I ruled from the Indian Koosh to the Euphrates. Horsemen and bowmen were their chief force, expert in terribly injuring any enemy who durst follow them in flight. In A.D. 226 the last Arsacid yielded the kingdom to the Persians revolting under Artaxerxes. They were Scythic Tatars of the Turanian race. The arch at Tackt-i-Bostan shows they were not unskillful in art.

    PARTRIDGE kore’ . 1 Samuel 26:20, “a partridge in the mountains.” Jeremiah 17:11, “the partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not” (“sitteth on eggs which it has not laid,” Henderson), typifying the profitlessness of unlawful gain ( Psalm 39:6; 49:16,17; 55:23) in the end. Breeding in the desert mountain regions it makes its rude nest, a hole scratched in the earth and lined with dried leaves, and deposits 15 eggs. Like many of the rasorial birds they lay in one another’s nests, and a different bird hatches from the bird who laid the eggs. This is Jeremiah’s reference, or rather to its nest being on the ground, liable to be trodden under foot or robbed by carnivorous animals, notwithstanding all the beautiful maneuvers of the parent bird to save the brood. Jehoiakim’s covetous grasping acts are here glanced at. [Kore’ ] is from Hebrew “call,” referring to the call of the cock bird, as German rebhuhn is from rufen “to call.” [Kore’ ] imitates the call note of the Caccabis saxatilis, “Greek partridge,” which frequents rocky, brushwood covered, ground. The Ammopedix Heyii is the partridge of the mountains, often hunted from place to place, until being fatigued it is knocked down by the sticks, zerwattys, of the Arabs (Shaw Tray. 1:425); familiar to David in his camping near Adullam cave, and less apt to take wing than the Caccabis saxatilis. So Saul sought, by surprising David in his haunts from time to time, at last to destroy him.

    PARUAH 1 Kings 4:17.

    PARVAIM Whence gold was brought for Solomon’s temple ( 2 Chronicles 3:6).

    From Sanskrit paru “hill,” the two hills in Arabia mentioned by Ptolemy (vi. 7, section 11, Hitzig). Abbreviated front Sepharvaim, which stands in Syriac version and the targum of Jonathan for Sephar (Zaphar a seaport on the coast of Hadramaut; Genesis 10:30, Knobel). From Sanskrit purva,” eastern” (Gesenius, Thessalonians 2:1125).

    PASACH 1 Chronicles 7:33.

    PASDAMMIM 1 Chronicles 11:13. (See EPHESDAMMIM ). The scene of frequent, encounters between Israel and the Philistines.

    PASEAH 1. 1 Chronicles 4:12. 2. Ezra 2:49,PHASEAH Nehemiah 7:51.

    PASHUR (“prosperity everywhere”) (Gesenius). 1. Jeremiah 20:1-6. A priest, Immer’s son, of the 16th order ( Chronicles 9:12), “chief governor in the house of the Lord.” There were in all: 16 of Eleazar’s sons, eight of Ithamar’s, answering ( Luke 22:4) to the captains of the temple ( 1 Chronicles 24:14). Smote and put in the stocks Jeremiah for foretelling Jerusalem’s desolation. On the following day Jeremiah, when brought out of the stocks, foretold that he should be not Pashur but see MAGOR-MISSABIB , a terror to himself and his friends; he and all in his house, and all his friends to whom he had “prophesied lies” ( Jeremiah 5:31; 18:18), should go into captivity and die in Babylon. 2. Jeremiah 21:1,9; 38:1,2-6; 1 Chronicles 24:9,14; Nehemiah 11:12. The house was a chief one in Nehemiah’s time ( Nehemiah 7:41; 10:3; 12:2). He was sent by Zedekiah to consult Jeremiah on the issue of Nebuchadnezzar’s threatened attack, and received a reply foreboding Judah’s overthrow. Subsequently, after the respite caused by Pharaoh Hophra had ended and the Chaldees returned to the siege, Pashur was one who besought the king to kill Jeremiah for weakening the hands of the men of war by dispiriting prophecies, and who cast the prophet into the pit of Malchiah. 3. Jeremiah 38:1.

    PASSOVER (See FEASTS ). Pecach ( Exodus 12:11, etc.). The word is not in other Semitic languages, except in passages derived from the Hebrew Bible; the Egyptian word pesht corresponds, “to extend the arms or wings over one protecting him.” Also she’or , “leaven,” answers to Egyptian seri “seething pot,” seru “buttermilk,” Hebrew from shaar something left from the previous mass. Pass-over is not so much passing by as passing so as to shield over; as Isaiah 31:5, “as birds flying so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem, defending also He will deliver it, passing over He will preserve it” ( Matthew 23:37, Greek episunagon , the “epi” expresses the hen’s brooding over her chickens, the “sun” her gathering them together; Ruth 2:12; Deuteronomy 32:11). Lowth, “leap forward to defend the house against the destroying angel, interposing His own person.” Vitringa, “preserve by interposing.” David interceding is the type ( 2 Samuel 24:16); Jehovah is distiller from the destroying angel, and interposes between him and the people while David intercedes. So Hebrews 11:28; Exodus 12:23. Israel’s deliverance front Egyptian bondage and adoption by Jehovah was sealed by the Passover, which was their consecration to Him. Exodus 12:1-14 directs as to the Passover before the exodus, Exodus 12:15-20 as to the seven days’ “feast of unleavened bread” (leaven symbol(sing corruption, as setting the dough in fermentation; excluded therefore from sacrifices, Leviticus 2:11). The Passover was a kind. of sacrament, uniting the nation to God on the ground of God’s grace to them. The slain lamb typified the “Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” ( John 1:29). The unleavened loaves, called “broad of affliction” ( Deuteronomy 16:3) as reminding them of past affliction, symbolized the new life cleansed from the leaven of the old Egyptian-like nature ( 1 Corinthians 5:8), of which the deliverance from the external Egypt was a pledge to the believing. The sacrifice (for Jehovah calls it “My sacrifice”: Exodus 23:15-18; 34:25) came first; then, on the ground of that, the seven days’ feast of unleavened bread to show they walked in the strength of the pure bread of a new life, in fellowship with Jehovah. Leaven was forbidden in all offerings ( Leviticus 2:4,5; 7:12; 10:12); symbol of hypocrisy and misleading doctrine ( Matthew 16:12; Luke 12:1). The seven stamped the feast with the seal of covenant relationship. The first and seventh days (the beginning and the end comprehending the whole) were sanctified by a holy convocation and suspension of work, worship of and rest in Jehovah, who had created Israel as His own people ( Isaiah 43:1,15-17). From the 14th to the 21st of Nisan. See also Exodus 13:3-10; Leviticus 23:4-14.

    In Numbers 9:1-14 God repeats the command for the Passover, in the second year after the exodus; those disqualified in the first month were to keep it in the second month. Talmudists call this “the little Passover,” and say it lasted but one day instead of seven, and the Hallel was not sung during the meal but only when the lamb was slain, and leaven was not put away. In Numbers 28:16-25 the offering for each day is prescribed. In Deuteronomy 16:1-6 directions are given as to its observance in the promised land, with allusion to the voluntary peace offerings (chagigah , “festivity”) or else public offerings ( Numbers 28:17-24; 2 Chronicles 30:22-24; 35:7-13). The [chadigah ] might not be slain on the Sabbath, though the Passover lamb might. The [chagigah ] might be boiled, but the Passover lamb only roasted. This was needed as the Passover had only once been kept in the wilderness (Numbers 9), and for 38 years had been intermitted. Joshua ( Joshua 5:10) celebrated the Passover after circumcising the people at Gilgal.

    First celebration. On the 10th of Abib 1491 B.C. the head of each family selected a lamb or a kid, a male of the first year without blemish, if his family were too small to consume it, he joined his neighbor. Not less than ten, generally under 20, but it might be 100, provided each had a portion (Mishna, Pes. 8:7) as large as an olive, formed the company (Josephus, B.

    J., 6:9, section 3); Jesus’ party of 13 was the usual number. On the 14th day he killed it at sunset ( Deuteronomy 16:6) “between the two evenings” (margin Exodus 12:6; Leviticus 23:5; Numbers 9:3-5).

    The rabbis defined two evenings, the first the afternoon (proia ) of the sun’s declension before sunset, the second (opsia ) began with the setting sun; Josephus (B. J., 6:9, section 3) “from the ninth (three o’clock) to the 11th hour” (five o’clock). The ancient custom was to slay the Passover shortly after the daily sacrifice, i.e. three o’clock, with which hour Christ’s death coincided. Then he took blood in a basin, and with a hyssop sprig sprinkled it (in token of cleansing from Egypt-like defilements spiritually: 1 Peter 1:2; Hebrews 9:22; 10:22) on the lintel and two sideposts of the house door (not to be trodden under; so not on the threshold: Hebrews 10:29). The lamb was roasted whole ( Genesis 22:8, representing Jesus’ complete dedication as a holocaust), not a bone broken ( John 19:36); the skeleton left entire, while the flesh was divided among the partakers, expresses the unity of the nation and church amidst the variety of its members; so 1 Corinthians 10:17, Christ the antitype is the true center of unity. The lintel and doorposts were the place of sprinkling as being prominent to passers by, and therefore chosen for inscriptions ( Deuteronomy 6:9). The sanctity attached to fire was a reason for the roasting with fire; a tradition preserved in the hymns to Agni the fire god in the Rig Veda. Instead of a part only being eaten and the rest burnt, as in other sacrifices, the whole except the blood sprinkled was eaten when roast; typifying Christ’s blood shed as a propitiation, but His whole man hood transfused spiritually into His church who feed on Him by faith, of which the Lord’s supper is a sensible pledge. Eaten with unleavened bread ( 1 Corinthians 5:7,8) and bitter herbs (repentance Zechariah 12:10).

    No uncircumcised male was to partake ( Colossians 2:11-13). Each had his loins girt, staff in hand, shoes on his feet; and ate in haste (as we are to be pilgrims, ready to leave this world: 1 Peter 1:13; 2:11; Hebrews 11:13; Luke 12:35,36; Ephesians 6:14,15), probably standing. Any flesh remaining was burnt, and none left until morning. No morsel was carried out of the house.

    Jehovah smote the firstborn of man and beast, and so “executed judgment against all the gods of Egypt” ( Exodus 12:12; Numbers 33:3,4), for every nome and town had its sacred animal, bull, cow, goat, ram, cat, frog, beetle, etc. But the sprinkled blood was a sacramental pledge of God’s passing over, i.e. sparing the Israelites. The feast was thenceforth to be kept in “memorial,” and its significance to be explained to their children as “the sacrifice of the Passover (i.e. the lamb, as in Exodus 12:21, ‘kill the Passover,’) to Jehovah” (Hebrew Exodus 12:27). In such haste did Israel go that they packed up in their outer mantle (as the Arab haik or burnous) their kneading troughs containing the dough prepared for the morrow’s provision yet unleavened ( Exodus 12:34). Israel’s firstborn, thus exempted from destruction, became in a special sense Jehovah’s; accordingly their consecration follows in Exodus 13. This is peculiar to the Hebrews; no satisfactory reason for so singular an institution can be given but the Scripture account.

    Subsequently ( Leviticus 23:10-14) God directed an omer or sheaf of firstfruits (barley, first ripe, 2 Kings 4:42), a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering, with meat offerings, on the morrow after the sabbath (i.e. after the day of holy convocation) to be presented before eating bread or parched grain in the promised land ( Joshua 5:11). If Luke 6:1 mean “the first Sabbath after the second day of unleavened bread,” the day on which the firstfruit sheaf was offered, from whence they counted 50 days to Pentecost, it will be an undesigned coincidence that the disciples should be walking through fields of standing grain at that season, and that the minds of the Pharisees and of Jesus should be turned to the subject of grain at that time (Blunt, Undesigned Coincidences, 22). (But see SABBATICAL YEAR .) The consecration of the firstborn in Exodus 13, naturally connects itself with the consecration of the firstfruits, which is its type. Again these typify further “Christ the firstfruits of them that slept”; also the Spirit, the firstfruits in the believer and earnest of the coming full redemption, namely, of the body ( Romans 8:23); also Israel, the firstfruit of the church ( Romans 11:16; Revelation 14:4), and elect believers ( James 1:18). ”The barley was smitten, for the barley was in the ear ... but the wheat was not smitten, for it was not grown up” ( Exodus 9:31,32). The seasons in Judaea and Egypt. were much the same. Therefore in Deuteronomy 16:9 the direction is “seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the grain,” namely, at the Passover when the wave sheaf was offered, the ceremony from which the feast of weeks was measured. By “grain” the barley harvest is meant: had Moses written “wheat” it would have been impossible to reconcile him with himself; but as “corn” means here barley, all is clear, seven weeks still remaining until wheat harvest, when at Pentecost or the feast of weeks the firstfruit loaves were offered (Blunt, Undesigned Coincidences, 1).

    Moreover, the Passover lambs were to be slain at the sanctuary, and their blood sprinkled on the altar, instead of on the lintel and doorposts ( Deuteronomy 16:1-6). The Mishna (Pesachim, 9:5) marks the distinctions between “the Egyptian Passover” and “the perpetual passover.” The lamb was at the first Passover selected on the tenth day of the month (not so subsequently: Luke 22:7-9; Mark 14:12-16); the blood was sprinkled on the lintels and side-posts; the hyssop was used; the meal was eaten in haste; and only for a day was unleavened bread abstained from. The subsequent command to burn the fat on the altar, and that the pure alone should eat ( Numbers 9:5-10; 18:11), and that the males alone should appear ( Exodus 23:17; Deuteronomy 16:16), was unknown at the first celebration; nor was the Hallel sung as afterward ( Isaiah 30:29); nor were there days of holy convocation; nor were the lambs slain at a consecrated place ( Deuteronomy 16:2-7). Devout women, as Hannah and Mary, even in late times attended ( 1 Samuel 1:7; Luke 2:41,42).

    The fat was burned by the priests ( Exodus 23:18; 34:25,26), and the blood sprinkled on the altar ( 2 Chronicles 35:11; 30:16). Joy before the Lord was to be the predominant feeling ( Deuteronomy 27:7). The head of the family or anyone ceremonially clean brought the lamb to the sanctuary court, and slew it, or on special occasions gave it to Levites to slay ( 2 Chronicles 30:17). Numbers at Hezekiah’s Passover partook “otherwise than it was written,” “not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary” ( Numbers 9:5-10). Instead therefore of the father of the family slaying the lamb and handing the blood to the priest, to sprinkle on the altar, the Levites did so; also at Josiah’s Passover ( 2 Chronicles 35:6,11). Hezekiah prayed for the unpurified partakers: “the good Jehovah pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God ... though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.” Hezekiah presumes that those out of Ephraim coming to the Passover were sincere in seeking Jehovah the God of their fathers, though they had been unable to purify themselves in time for the Passover. Sincerity of spirit in seeking the Lord is acceptable to Him, even where the strict letter of the law has been unavoidably unfulfilled ( Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:8; Matthew 9:13).

    Hezekiah kept the Passover as “the little passover” in the second month, for “they could not keep it” at the regular time, “because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the priests gathered themselves to Jerusalem.” They kept other seven days beside the first seven, (1) because Hezekiah had given so many beasts that there was more than they could use during the ordinary seven days; (2) so many priests bad sanctified themselves as to be able to carry on the altar services with such numerous sacrifices. Josiah’s Passover is the next recorded (2 Chronicles 35). Then Ezra’s (6).

    The Pesachim (7:1) say a wooden (pomegranate) spit was thrust lengthwise through the lamb; Justin Martyr says (Trypho, 40) another spit was put crosswise, to which the front feet were attached; so do the modern Samaritans in roasting the Passover lamb; type of the cross, it was roasted thoroughly in an earthen beehive-shaped oven, but not touching the sides, that the roasting might be wholly by fire ( Exodus 12:9; 2 Chronicles 35:6-13). The modern Jews use dry thin biscuits as unleavened bread; a shoulder of lamb thoroughly roasted, instead of a whole one; a boiled egg, symbolizing wholeness; sweet sauce to represent the sort of work in Egypt; a vessel of salt and water (representing the Red Sea) into which they dip their bitter herbs; a cup of wine stands all the night on the table for Elijah ( Malachi 4:5); before filling the guests’ cups a fourth time an interval of dead silence follows, and the door is opened to admit him. The purging away of leaven from the house, and the not eating leavened bread, is emphatically enforced under penalty of cutting off ( Exodus 12:15-20; 13:7). The rabbis say that every corner was searched for leaven in the evening before the 14th Nisan. The bitter herbs (wild lettuces, endive, chicory, or nettles, all articles of Egyptian food: Pesachim 2:6) symbolized Israel’s past bitter affliction, and the sorrow for sin which becomes us in spiritually feeding on the Lamb slain for us ( Luke 22:62). The sauce is not mentioned in the Pentateuch, but in John 13:26; Matthew 26:23.

    Called [haroseth ] in the Mishna: of vinegar and water (Bartenora). Some say it was thickened to the consistency of mortar to commemorate Israel’s brick-making hardships in Egypt. Four cups of wine handed round in succession were drunk at the paschal meal (Mishna, Pes. 10:1,7), which the Pentateuch does not mention; usually red, mixed with water (Pes. 7:13). (See Luke 22:17,20; 1 Corinthians 10:16; and see LORD’S SUPPER .) The second cup was filled before the lamb was eaten, and the son ( Exodus 12:26) asked the father the meaning of the Passover; he in reply recounted the deliverance, and explained Deuteronomy 26:5, which was also connected with offering the firstfruits. The third was “the cup of blessing.” The fourth the cup of the Hallel; others make the fourth, or “cup of the Hallel,” the “cup of blessing” answering to “the cup after supper” ( Luke 22:20). Schoettgen says “cup of blessing” was applied to any cup drunk with thanksgiving (compare <19B613> Psalm 116:13). The Hallel consisted of Psalm 113; 114, sung in the early part of the Passover, before the lamb was carved and eaten; Psalm 115--118, after the fourth cup (the greater Hallel sung at times was Psalm 120--138). So the “hymn” sung by Jesus and His apostles ( Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26).

    The ancient Israelites sat. But reclining was the custom in our Lord’s time ( Luke 22:14; Matthew 26:20; John 21:20 Greek). A marble tablet found at Cyricus shows the mode of reclining at meals, and illustrate, the language of the Syrophoenician woman, “the dogs eat of the crumbs.”

    The inhabitants of Jerusalem accommodated at their houses as many as they could, so that our Lord’s direction to His disciples as to asking for a guestchamber to keep the Passover in was nothing unusual, only His divine prescience is shown in His command ( Matthew 26:18; Mark 14:13-15). Those for whom there was no room in the city camped outside in tents, as the pilgrims at Mecca. In Nero’s reign they numbered, on one occasion, 2,700,000, according to Josephus (B. J. 6:9, section 3); seditions hence arose ( Matthew 26:5; Luke 13:1). After the Passover meal many of the country pilgrims returned to keep the remainder of the feast at their own homes ( Deuteronomy 16:7). The release of a prisoner at the Passover was a Jewish and Roman custom which see PILATE complied with ( Matthew 27:15; John 18:39).

    As to the reconciling of the synoptical Gospels, which identify the last supper with the Passover, and John, who seems to make the Passover a day later, probably John 13:1,2 means “before the Passover (i.e. in the early part of the Passover meal) Jesus gave a proof of His love for His own to the end. And during supper” (ginomenou , the Vaticanus, Sinaiticus manuscripts, even if [genomenou ] be read with the Alexandrinus manuscript it means when supper had, begun to be), etc. Again, John 13:29, “buy those things that we have need of against the feast,” refers to the chagigah provisions for the seven days of unleavened bread. The day for sacrificing the [chagigah] was the 15th, then beginning, the first day of holy convocation. The lamb was slain on the 14th, and eaten after sunset, the beginning of the 15th. Also John 18:28, the rulers “went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover,” means that they might go on keeping the Passover, or that they might eat it even yet, though having suffered their proceedings against Christ to prevent their eating it before, or especially that they might eat the [chagigah ] ( Deuteronomy 16:2; 2 Chronicles 35:7-9); the Passover might be eaten by those not yet cleansed ( 2 Chronicles 30:17), but not so the [chagigah ]. Joseph however did not scruple to enter the praetorium and beg Jesus’ body from Pilate ( Mark 15:43). Had the Passover supper not been until that evening ( John 18:28) they might have been purified in good time for it by ablution; but as the feast had begun, and they were about to eat the [chagigah ] (or the Passover lamb itself, which they ought to have eaten in the early part of the night), they could not. Lastly, John 19:14, “the preparation of the passover,” is explained by Mark 15:42, “the preparation, the day before the subbark” in the Passover week; the day of holy convocation, the 15th Nisan, not “before the Passover.” So John 19:31, “the preparation for the sabbath” began the ninth hour of the sixth day of the week (Josephus, Ant. 16:6, section 2). “That sabbath was a high day,” namely, because it was the day (next after the day of holy convocation) on which the omer sheaf was offered, and from which were reckoned the 50 days to Pentecost. It is no valid objection that our Lord in this view was tried and crucified on the day of holy convocation, for on the “great day of the feast” of tabernacles the rulers sent officers to apprehend Jesus ( John 7:32-45). Peter was seized during the Passover ( Acts 12:3,4). They themselves stated as their reason for not seizing Him during the Passover, not its sanctity, but the fear of an uproar among the assembled multitudes ( Matthew 26:5). On the Sabbath itself not only Joseph but the chief priests come to Pilate, probably in the praetorium ( Matthew 27:62). However, Caspari (Chronicles and Geogr.

    Introduction Life of Christ) brings arguments to prove Christ did not eat the paschal lamb, but Himself suffered as the true Lamb at the paschal feast. (See JESUS CHRIST .) The last supper and the crucifixion took place the same (Jewish) day. No mention is made of a lamb in connection with Christ’s last supper. Matthew ( Matthew 27:62) calls the day after the crucifixion “the next day that followed the day of preparation.” The phrase, Caspari thinks, implies that “the preparation” was the day preceding not merely the Sabbath but also the first day of the Passover feast.

    All the characteristics of sacrifice, as well as the term, are attributed to the Passover. It was offered in the holy place ( Deuteronomy 16:5,6); the blood was sprinkled on the altar, the fat burned ( 2 Chronicles 30:16; 35:11; Exodus 12:27; 23:18; Numbers 9:7; Deuteronomy 16:2,5; 1 Corinthians 5:7). The Passover was the yearly thank offering of the family for the nation’s constitution by God through the deliverance from Egypt, the type of the church’s constitution by a coming greater deliverance. It preserved the patriarchal truth that each head of a family is priest. No part of the victim was given to the Levitical priest, because the father of the family was himself priest. Thus when the nation’s inherent priesthood ( Exodus 19:6) was delegated to one family, Israel’s rights were vindicated by the Passover priesthood of each father ( Isaiah 61:6; 1 Peter 2:5,9). The fact that the blood sprinkled on the altar was at the first celebration sprinkled on the lintel and doorposts of each house attested the sacredness of each family, the spiritual priesthood of its head, and the duty of family worship. Faith moving to obedience was the instrumental mean of the original deliverance ( Hebrews 11:28) and the condition of the continued life of the nation. So the Passover kept in faith was a kind of sacrament, analogous to the Lord’s supper as circumcision was to baptism. The laying up the lamb four days before Passover may allude to the four centuries before the promise to Abram was fulfilled (Genesis 15), typically to Christ’s being marked as the Victim before the actual immolation ( Mark 14:8,10,11). Christ’s blood must be sprinkled on us by the hyssop of faith, else guilt and wrath remain ( Isaiah 53:7; Acts 8:32; 1 Peter 1:18,19). Being first in the religious year, and with its single victim, the Passover stands forth preeminent.

    PATARA A city on the S.W. shore of Lycia, near the left bank of the Xanthus and opposite Rhodes ( Acts 21:1,2). Paul coming from Rhodes at the end of his third missionary journey here found a ship going to Phoenicia, and in it completed his voyage. The seat of a bishopric subsequently. The river and harbor are now becoming choked with sand.

    PATHROS PATHRUSIM. A district (the Pathyrite nome) of Egypt near Thebes; named from a town called by the Egyptians Ha-Hather or with the article Pha- Hat-her, “the abode of Hather” the Egyptian Venus. Originally independent of Egypt, and ruled by its own kings, In the Mosaic genealogy the Pathros were the inhabitants of Upper Egypt; originally in the Bible view a colony of Mizraites from Lower Egypt ( Genesis 10:13,14; 1 Chronicles 1:12). Isaiah ( Isaiah 11:11) foretells Israel’s return from Pathros ( Jeremiah 44:1,15; Ezekiel 29:14.) “Pathros the land of their birth” (margin Ezekiel 30:13-18). The Thebaid was the oldest part of Egypt in civilization and art, and was anciently called “Egypt” (Aristotle): Herod. 2:15. Tradition represented the people of Egypt as coming from Ethiopia, and the first dynasty as Thinite. “Pa-t-res” in Egyptian means the land of the South.

    PATMOS Revelation 1:9. One of the Sporades. A small rugged island of the Icarian Sea, part of the Aegean; 20 miles S. of Samos, 24 W. of Asia Minor, 25 in circumference. The scene of John’s banishment (by Domitian), where he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” The rocky solitude suited the sublime nature of the Revelation. On a hill in the southern half of the island is the monastery of John the divine, and the traditional grotto of his receiving the Apocalypse. In the middle ages called Palmosa from its palms; now there is but one, and the island has resumed its old name Patmo or Patino. It is unvisited by Turks, without any mosque, and saddled with moderate tribute, free from piracy, slavery, and any police but their own.

    PATRIARCHS Heads of races, tribes, clans, and families. Abraham ( Hebrews 7:4), Jacob’s sons ( Acts 7:8,9), David ( Acts 2:29). The” patriarchal system” before Moses developed itself out of family relations, before the foundation of nations and regular governments. The “patriarchal dispensation” is the covenant between God and the godly seed, Seth, Noah, Abraham, and their descendants; the freedom of intercourse with God is simple and childlike, as contrasted with the sterner aspect of the Mosaic dispensation. It is the innocence of childhood, contrasted with the developed manhood of our Christian dispensation. The distinction between the seed of the woman and that of the serpent appears in God’s revealing Himself to the chosen as He did not to the world; hence their history is typical ( Galatians 4:21-31; Hebrews 7:1-7; Matthew 24:37-39; Luke 17:28-32; Romans 9:10-13). Yet God is revealed as God not merely of a tribe, but of all the earth ( Genesis 18:25). All nations were to be blessed in Abraham. The Gentile Pharaoh and Abimelech have revelations. God is called “almighty” ( Genesis 17:1; 28:3; 35:11).

    Melchizedek, of Canaanite Salem, is His king priest, and He punishes Canaanite Sodom and Gomorrah. Authority is grounded on paternal right, its natural ground and source, even as God is the common Father of both patriarch and children. The birthright is the privilege of the firstborn, but requiring the father’s confirmation. Marriage is sacred ( Genesis 34:7,13,31; 38:24). Intermarriage with idolaters is treason to God and the chosen seed ( Genesis 26:34,35; 27:46; 28:1,6-9). The patriarchs severally typify Him in whom all their several graces meet, without blemish.

    PATROBAS A Christian at, Rome ( Romans 16:14) whom Paul salutes. A name borne by a member of Caesar’s household. (Suetonius, Galba 20; Martial Ep. 2:32, section 3; compare Philippians 1:13; 4:22.)

    PAU PAI ( Genesis 36:39; 1 Chronicles 1:50). Capital of Hadar, king of Edom.

    PAUL (See ACTS .) The leading facts of his life which appear in that history, subsidiary to its design of sketching the great epochs in the commencement and development of Christ’s kingdom, are: his conversion (Acts 9), his labours at Antioch (Acts 11), his first missionary journey (Acts 13; 14), the visit to Jerusalem at the council on circumcision (Acts 15), introduction of the gospel to Europe at Philippi (Acts 16),: visit to Athens (Acts 17), to Corinth (Acts 18), stay at Ephesus (Acts 19), parting address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus (Acts 20), apprehension at Jerusalem, imprisonment at Casesarea, and voyage to Rome (Acts 21--27). Though of purest Hebrew blood ( Philippians 3:5), “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, (bearing the name of the eminent man of that tribe, king Saul,) an Hebrew of the Hebrews,” yet his birthplace was the Gentile Tarsus. ( Acts 21:39, “I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city.”) His father, as himself, was a Pharisee ( Acts 23:6). Tarsus was celebrated as a school of Greek literature (Strabo, Geogr. 1:14). Here he acquired that knowledge of Greek authors and philosophy which qualified him for dealing with learned Gentiles and appealing to their own writers ( Acts 17:18-28. Aratus; 1 Corinthians 15:33, Menander; Titus 1:12, Epimenides). Here too he learned the Cilician trade of making tents of the goats’ hair cloth called “cilicium” ( Acts 18:3); not that his father was in straitened circumstances, but Jewish custom required each child, however wealthy the parents might be, to learn a trade. He possessed the Roman citizenship from birth ( Acts 22:28), and hence, when he commenced ministering among Gentiles, he preferred to be known by his Roman name Paul rather than by his Hebrew name Saul. His main education (probably after passing his first 12 years at Tarsus, Acts 26:4,5, “among his own nation.” Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, Sinaiticus manuscripts read “and” before “at Jerusalem”) was at Jerusalem “at the feet of see GAMALIEL ,taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers” ( Acts 22:3). Thus the three elements of the world’s culture met in him: Roman citizenship, Grecian culture, Hebrew religion. Gamaliel had counseled toleration ( Acts 5:34-39); but his teaching of strict pharisaic legalism produced in Saul’s ardent spirit persecuting zeal against opponents, “concerning zeal persecuting the church” ( Philippians 3:6). Among the synagogue disputants with Stephen were men “of Cilcia” ( Acts 6:9), probably including Saul; at all events it was at his feet, while be was yet “a young man,” that the witnesses, stoning the martyr, laid down their clothes ( Acts 6:9; 7:58; Deuteronomy 17:7). “Saul was consenting unto his death” (Acts 6; 7); but we can hardly doubt that his better feelings must have had some misgiving in witnessing Stephen’s countenance beaming as an angel’s, and in hearing his loving prayer for his murderers. But stern bigotry stifled all such doubts by increased zeal; “he made havock of (elumaineto , ‘ravaged as a wild beast’) the church, entering into the houses (severally, or worship rooms), and haling men and women committed them to prison” ( Acts 8:3). But God’s grace arrested Paul in his career of blind fanaticism; “I was had mercy upon, be. cause I did it ignorantly in unbelief” ( 1 Timothy 1:12-16). His ignorance was culpable, for he might have known if he had sought aright; but it was less guilty than sinning against light and knowledge. There is a wide difference between mistaken zeal for the law and willful striving against God’s Spirit. His ignorance gave him no claim on, but put him within the range of, God’s mercy ( Luke 23:34; Acts 3:17; Romans 10:2). The positive ground of mercy is solely God’s compassion ( Titus 3:5).

    We have three accounts of his conversion, one by Luke (Acts 9), the others by himself (Acts 22; 26), mutually supplementing one another. Following the adherents of “the (Christian) way ... unto strange cities,” and “breathing out threatenings and slaughter,” he was on his journey to Damascus with authoritative letters from the high priest empowering him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem all such, trusting doubtless that the pagan governor would not interpose in their behalf. At midday a light shone upon him and his company, exceeding the brightness of the sun; he and all with him fell to the earth ( Acts 26:14; in Acts 9:7 “stored speechless,” namely, they soon rose, and when he at length rose they were standing speechless with wonder), “hearing” the sound of a “voice,” but not understanding (compare 1 Corinthians 14:2 margin) the articulate speech which Paul heard ( Acts 22:9, “they heard not the voice of Him that spoke”) in Hebrew ( Acts 26:14),” Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” (in the person of My brethren, Matthew 25:40). “It is hard for thee to kick against the goads” (not in Acts 9:5 the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus manuscripts, but only in Acts 26:14), which, as in the case of oxen being driven, only makes the goad pierce the deeper ( Matthew 21:44; Proverbs 8:36). Saul trembling (as the jailer afterward before him, Acts 16:30,31) said, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” the usual question at first awakening ( Luke 3:10), but here with the additional sense of unreserved surrender of himself to the Lord’s guidance ( Isaiah 6:1-8). The Lord might act directly, but He chooses to employ ministerial instruments; such was Ananias whom He sent to Saul, after he had been three days without sight and neither eating nor drinking, in the house of Judas (probably a Christian to whose house he had himself led, rather than to his former co-religionists). Ananias, whom he would have seized for prison and death, is the instrument of giving him light and life.

    God had prepared Ananias for his visitor by announcing the one sure mark of his conversion, “behold he prayeth” ( Romans 8:15). Ananias had heard of him as a notorious persecutor, but obeyed the Lord’s direction. In Acts 26:16-18 Paul condenses in one account, and connects with Christ’s first appearing, subsequent revelations of Jesus to him as to the purpose of his call;” to make thee a minister and witness of these things ... delivering thee from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee.” Like Jonah, the outcast runaway, when penitent, was made the messenger of repentance to guilty Nineveh.

    The time of his call was just when the gospel was being opened to the Gentiles by Peter (Acts 10). An apostle, severed from legalism, and determined unbelief by an extraordinary revulsion, was better fitted for carrying forward the work among unbelieving Gentiles, which had been begun by the apostle of the circumcision. He who was the most learned and at the same time humblest ( Ephesians 3:8; 1 Corinthians 15:9) of the apostles was the one whose pen was most used in the New Testament Scriptures. He”saw” the Lord in actual person ( Acts 9:17; 22:14; 23:11; 26:16; 1 Corinthians 15:8; 9:1), which was a necessary qualification for apostleship, so as to be witness of the resurrection. The light that flashed on his eyes was the sign of the spiritual light that broke in upon his soul; and Jesus’ words to him ( Acts 26:18), “to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light” (which commission was symbolized in the opening of his own eyes through Ananias, Acts 9:17,18), are by undesigned coincidence reproduced naturally in his epistles ( Colossians 1:12-14; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 1:18, contrast Ephesians 4:18; 6:12). He calls himself “the one untimely born” in the family of the apostles ( 1 Corinthians 15:8). Such a child, though born alive, is yet not of proper size and scarcely worthy of the name of man; so Paul calls himself” least of the apostles, not meet to be called an apostle” (compare 1 Peter 1:3). He says, God’s “choice” ( Acts 9:15; 22:14), “separating me (in contrast to his having been once a Pharisee, from pharash , i.e. a separatist, but now ‘separated’ unto something infinitely higher) from my mother’s womb (therefore without any merit of mine), and calling me by His grace (which carried into effect His ‘good pleasure,’ eudokia ), revealed His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the pagan,” independent of Mosaic ceremonialism ( Galatians 1:11-20). Ananias, being “a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews there,” was the suitable instrument of giving him bodily and spiritual sight in his transition stage.

    His language accords, “the God of our fathers (compare Paul’s own, Timothy 1:3; Galatians 1:14) hath chosen thee ... that thou shouldest see that Just (righteous, a legal term) One.”

    Saul directly, on his conversion “preached Christ in the synagogues that He is the Son of God,” to the astonishment of his hearers ( Acts 9:20,21); then followed his retirement to Arabia for a considerable part of the whole “three years” between his conversion and his visit to Jerusalem. From Arabia he returned to Damascus, where with his increased spiritual “strength” he confounded the Jews. Then on their watching to kill him lie was “let down by the wall in a basket,” under see ARETAS ( Corinthians 11:32; Galatians 1:15-18). His three years of direction by the Lord alone answer to the about three years’ intercourse of Jesus with His twelve apostles. This first visit to Jerusalem is that mentioned Acts 9:26, at which occurred the vision ( Acts 22:17,18). His “increase in strength” ( Acts 9:22) was obtained in communion with the Lord in Arabia near the scene of giving the law, a fit scene for the revelation of gospel grace which supersedes it ( Galatians 4:25). Ananias his first instructor, esteemed for his legal piety, was not likely to have taught him the gospel’s independence of the Mosaic law. Paul received it by special revelation ( 1 Corinthians 11:23; 15:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:15). The “many days” ( Acts 9:23) answer to “three years” ( Galatians 1:18), as in 1 Kings 2:38,39. In Arabia he had that retirement after the first fervor of conversion which great characters need, preparatory to their life work for God, as Moses in Midian ( Acts 7:20,22). His familiarity with Mount Sinai in Arabia, the scene of the giving of the law, appears in Galatians 4:24,25; Hebrews 12:18; here he was completely severed from his former legalism. Thence He returned to Damascus; then he went to Jerusalem to see Peter. He saw only Peter and James, being introduced by Barnabas not to seek their sanction but to inform them of Jesus’ independent revelation to him ( Acts 9:26-29; Galatians 1:18,19). His Grecian education adapted him for successfully, like Stephen, disputing against the Grecians. He had a vision later than that of Acts 22:17,18, namely, in 2 Corinthians 12:1, etc., six years after his conversion, A.D. 43. Thus Paul was an independent witness of the gospel. When he compared his gospel with that of the apostles there was found perfect harmony ( Galatians 2:2-9). After staying only 15 days at Jerusalem, wherein there was not time for his deriving his gospel commission from Peter with whom he abode, having had a vision that he should depart to the Gentiles ( Acts 22:18,19), and being plotted against by Hellenistic Jews ( Acts 9:29), he withdrew to the seaport Caesarea ( Acts 9:30), thence by sea to Tarsus in Cilicia ( Galatians 1:21), and thence to Syria.

    His journey by sea, not land, accounts for his being “unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea” ( Galatians 1:22), so that he could not have derived his gospel from them. lie puts “Syria” before “Cilicia,” as it was a geographical phrase, the more important being put first. Meantime at Antioch the gospel was preached to Gentile “Greeks” (Hellenas in the Alexandrinus manuscript, not “Grecians,” Acts 11:20) by men of Cyprus and Cyrene scattered abroad at the persecution of Stephen; Barnabas went down then from Jerusalem, and glad in seeing this special grace of God (see CHRISTIANS ), “exhorted them that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.” Desiring a helper he fetched Saul from Tarsus to Antioch, and for a whole year they laboured together, and in leaving for Jerusalem (Paul’s second visit there, not mentioned in Galatians, being ford special object and for but “few days,” Acts 11:30; 12:25) brought with them a token of brotherly love, a contribution for the brethren in Judaea during the famine which was foretold by Agabus and came on under Claudius Caesar ( Acts 11:22-30: A.D. 44).

    Returning from Jerusalem to Antioch, after having fulfilled their ministry, they took with them John Mark as subordinate helper ( Acts 12:25).

    Here (Acts 13) while their minds were dwelling on the extraordinary accession of Gentile converts, “as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them,” namely, to labors among the Gentiles, such as was the specimen already given at Antioch, in which these two had taken such an efficient part. Very striking is the patient humility with which Paul waited for the Lord’s time, as he had already received his call to be “a chosen vessel to bear His name before the Gentiles.” In going forth on his first missionary journey he was subordinate to Barnabas; but after preaching the word in Cyprus, where in the Lord’s name he had smitten with blindness Elymas the sorcerer (even as he had tried to blind spiritually the governor), and when Sergius Paulus who had sent for Barnabas and Saul believed, he thenceforth under the name Paul takes the lead. Peter’s smiting Simon Magus (Acts 8), who sought spiritual powers for gain, corresponds. The unity of God’s dealings with His people is the true explanation of the parallelism between the histories of Paul and Peter, just as profound resemblances of form and typical structure exist between species and genera of both plants and animals which in many respects are widely divergent. Peter heals the man lame from birth at the temple gate, Paul the man impotent in feet from birth at Lystra; both fixed their eyes upon the men. As Peter at midnight was miraculously delivered from Herod’s prison, so Paul at Philippi was loosed from his chains with an earthquake. As Peter raised Dorcas, so Paul Eutychus. Peter’s striking Ananias and Sapphira dead answers to Paul’s striking Elymas blind. As Peter’s shadow healed the sick, so Paul’s handkerchiefs. As Peter confirmed with the laying on of hands the Samaritans, and the Holy Spirit came on them, so Paul the Ephesian disciples of John Baptist (Acts 19).

    Luke marks the transition point between Saul’s past ministrations to Jews and his new ministry among Gentiles, which was henceforth to be his special work, by his Gentile designation, borne from infancy but now first regularly applied to him, Paul. At Perga in Pamphylia see MARK forsook him and Barnabas.

    In Antioch in Pisidia, as in Cyprus, they began their preaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. In Paul’s remarkable address we have a specimen of his mode of dealing with “the Jews ... men of Israel ... and religious proselytes ... ye that fear God.” He bases all on the covenant God made with “our fathers,” brings out God’s “raising up of David to be king, a man after His own heart,” shows that it was “of his seed” that” God according to promise raised unto Israel a Savior Jesus,” applies the message of salvation to them, proves that the rulers in condemning Him in spite of themselves fulfilled the prophecies read every Sabbath concerning Him; for instance the promise of the second psalm, “Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee,” God fulfilled in raising Jesus. These are “the sure mercies” (the holy or gracious promises, osia Greek, chacid Hebrew) of the covenant made with David; hence ( Psalm 16:10) he anticipates “Thou wilt not suffer Thy Holy (Gracious: chacid , ‘in God’s favor’: John 1:14,16, osion ) One to see corruption,” which cannot apply to David (for he saw corruption) and can only apply to Christ. He winds up with the characteristically Pauline doctrine of the epistles to Romans and Galatians: “by Him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” On the other hand a work of wonder and destruction is foretold by the prophets against all “despisers.” After the congregation was broken up many Jews and proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, and heard more of “the grace of God.” But when almost the whole city came together the next Sabbath to hear the word of God, envy of the admission of Gentiles to gospel privileges without being first proselytized to Judaism incited the Jews to blaspheme and to contradict Paul. This caused Paul to wax bolder and say, It was necessary to speak the word first to you, but seeing ye judge yourselves unworthy (it is not God who counted them” unworthy”: Matthew 20:19: 22:8) of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

    This too accords with the prophets ( Isaiah 42:6: 49:6). The Gentiles rejoiced, and many believed; but the Jews influenced their proselyte women of the higher class, and chief men, to drive Paul and Barnabas away.

    The apostles proceeded to Iconium cheered by the joy with which the Holy Spirit filled the disciples. There “long time abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of His grace and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands” ( Acts 14:3). But persecution drove them thence, and they fled to see LYSTRA and Derbe of Lycaonia. Again as at Cyprus Paul’s ministry resembles Peter’s, the cure of’ the impotent man in Lystra corresponding to Peter’s cure of the same disease at the Beautiful gate of the temple (3); indeed the parallelism probably led three very old manuscripts, C, D, E, to insert from Acts 3:8, in Acts 14:10, “I say unto thee in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” etc. His mode of address is happily suited to the heathen of Lystra in turning them from their purpose of sacrificing to him and Barnabas as see MERCURY (for Paul was the chief speaker) and Jupiter respectively.

    Instead of appealing to the Scriptures, he appeals to what they knew, the witness of God in His gifts of “rain and fruitful seasons “; he urges them to “turn from these vanities (dead idols) to serve the living God who made all things,” in undesigned coincidence with Pauline language ( Thessalonians 1:9,10). His address to the pagan Athenians corresponds ( Acts 17:24-29); there he says “God winked at the times of ignorance, but now commandeth all to repent,” as here, “who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways,” and Romans 3:25, “on account of the praetermission (passing by without judicial cognizance) of the past sins in the forbearance of God.” With characteristic fickleness the mob stoned him whom just before they idolized. But he arose and went into the city, and next day to Derbe and to Lystra again, and to Iconium and Antioch, ordaining elders in every church, and confirming the disciples by telling them “that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” From Pisidia they came to Perga and Attalia; thence to Antioch, where they reported at what may be called the first missionary meeting or covention “all that God had done with them, opening the door of faith unto the Gentiles”; and so ended Paul’s first missionary tour.

    Next ( Acts 14:28; Acts 15), during Paul’s stay at Antioch, men from Judaea came teaching that the Gentile converts must be circumcised. He and Barnabas strenuously opposed them, and were selected to go to Jerusalem and lay the question before the apostles and eiders. Paul had also a divine” revelation” ( Galatians 2:2) that he should go, besides his public commission. On their way they announced in Phenice and Samaria the conversion of the Gentiles, “causing great joy unto all the brethren.” At Jerusalem “they declared all things that God had done with them,” the facts and miracles of their mission among the Gentiles in general to the Christian multitude there; “but privately” to the apostles the details of his doctrine, in order to compare it with their teaching, to let them see that he was not “running in vain,” in not requiring circumcision of Gentile converts. Certain Pharisees however rose up, insisting on it, but Paul would not yield “for an hour” (Galatians 2); the council followed, in which Peter silenced arguments by the logic of facts, God having given the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles, who believed through him, even as He did to the believing Jews.

    Why then should the burdensome legal yoke be imposed on them, which God had not made a necessary preliminary to their salvation? Barnabas and Paul confirmed by their experience the fact: of God’s work among the Gentiles. James wound up by showing that Amos’ prophecy ( Amos 9:11,12) of the call of the Gentiles, consequent on the building again of David’s tabernacle, accords with the facts just stated. The decree followed, binding the Gentiles only to abstinence from idol pollutions, fornication, and, in deference to the Jews’ feelings, from things strangled and blood. So Judas Barsabas and Silas, chosen men of their own company, were sent with Paul and Barnabas to carry the decree to Antioch, the apostles having previously “given Paul the right hand of fellowship” as a colleague in the apostleship, and having recognized that the apostleship of the uncircumcision was committed to Paul as that of the circumcision to Peter.

    The realization of the brotherly bond uniting the whole church (circumcision no longer separating the Jew from the Gentile) was further to be kept up by alms for the poor brethren (Galatians 2). The nonreference in Galatians to the decree is (1) because Paul’s design in that epistle was to show Paul’s own independent apostolic authority, which did not rest upon their decision; (2) he argues on principle not authority; (3) the decree did not go the length of his position, it merely did not impose Mosaic ordinances, but, he here maintains the Mosaic institution itself is at an end; (4) the Galatians Judaized, not because they thought it necessary to Christianity, but necessary to higher perfection ( Galatians 3:3; 4:21).

    The decree would not disprove their view. Paul confutes them more directly,” Christ is become of no effect unto you whosoever are justified by the law” ( Galatians 5:4,11). If Paul had proselytized Gentiles as the Jews always received proselytes, namely, with circumcision, persecution would have ceased. But the truth was at stake, and he must not yield ( Galatians 6:13).

    The Judaizers soon followed Paul to Antioch, where Peter had already come. Unable to deny that Gentiles are admissible to the Christian covenant without circumcision, they denied that they were so to social intercourse with Jews; pleading the authority of James, they induced Peter, in spite of his own avowed principles ( Acts 15:7-11) and his practice ( Acts 11:2-17), through fear of man ( Proverbs 29:25), to separate himself from those Gentiles with whom he had heretofore eaten; this too at Antioch, the stronghold of universality and starting point of Paul’s missions to Gentiles. He betrayed his old character, ever the first to recognize and the first to draw back from great truths ( Matthew 14:30). The rest of the Jews there “dissembled” with Peter, and “Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation”; then Paul “before them all withstood to the face” (compare 1 Timothy 5:20) and charged Peter, “seeing that thou a Jew habitually from conviction livest as a Gentile, eating of every food and with every one, how is it that now thou by example virtually compellest the Gentiles to Judaize?” In 2 Peter 3:15 we see how thoroughly their misunderstanding was cleared up, Peter praising the epistles of Paul which condemned him.

    At his second missionary tourBARNABAS, desiring to take see MARK against Paul’s judgment, parted company with him. Their “sharp contention” shows they were not always infallible or impeccable. Silas or Silvanus became Paul’s companion through Syria and Cilicia where he confirmed the churches, his circumcising Timothy at Derbe ( Acts 16:1-3, “whom he would have to go forth with him”), on the ground of his mother being a Jewess, was that by becoming, when principle was not at stake, “to the Jews a Jew, he might gain the Jews.” Titus on the contrary, being a Greek, he would not circumcise “because of false brethren” ( Galatians 2:3,4) who, had he yielded, would have perverted the case into a proof that he deemed circumcision necessary. To insist on Jewish usages for Gentile converts would have been to make them essential to Christianity; to violate them abruptly, before that the destruction of the temple and Jewish polity made them to cease, would have been against Christian charity ( 1 Corinthians 9:22; Romans 14:1-7,13-33). Paul Silas, and Timothy went through Phrygia and Galatia. Bodily infirmity detained him in Galatia ( Galatians 4:13 translated “on account of an infirmity,” the “thorn in the flesh” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10), and was overruled to his preaching the gospel there. The impulsive Galatians “received him as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus,” at first, but with Celtic fickleness heeded other teachers who with Judaizing doctrine supplanted the apostle in their affections (verses 12-29). “Where is your former felicitation of yourselves on having the blessing of my ministry?” Ye once “would have plucked out your eyes and have given them to me” ( Matthew 5:29). Sensitiveness may have led him to overrate his bodily defect; at all events it did not prevent his enduring hardships which few could bear ( 2 Corinthians 10:10; 11:23-33). His “eyes” may have been permanently weakened by the blinding vision ( Acts 22:11), hence the “large letters” (Greek) he wrote ( Galatians 6:11).

    Paul intended to visit western Asia, but was “forbidden by the Holy Spirit.”

    From the border of Mysia he essayed to go N.E. into Bithynia, “but the Spirit of Jesus (the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus manuscripts) suffered them not” ( Acts 16:6,7,10). Passing by Mysia they came to Troas, and here the “man of Macedonia appeared, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us.” At this point Luke the historian intimates his presence by the “we”; “the beloved physician” probably ministered to Paul’s “infirmity” in Galatia. The party from Troas sailed by Samothrace to Neapolis, then proceeded to Philippi. The conversion of see LYDIA was the first in Europe, though she was an Asiatic. Then followed Paul’s casting out the spirit of divination from the damsel, and her master’s violence to Paul because of their loss of gains, under the old plea against saints that they “trouble” the commonwealth ( 1 Kings 18:17); his imprisonment after scourging (referred to 1 Thessalonians 2:2); his feet fastened in the stocks; the midnight cheerful hymns ( Ephesians 5:20; Job 35:10; Psalm 42:8); the earthquake loosing their bonds (so Acts 12:6-10; 5:19); the intended suicide; the jailer’s trembling question, the answer, and his joy in believing, and his fruits of faith, love, washing Paul’s stripes ( John 13:14; Matthew 25:36), and entertaining him. The apostle’s self-respect appears in declining to allow the magistrates to thrust him out privily, after having beaten and imprisoned a Roman citizen uncondemned, for Cicero (in Verrem, 66) informs us it was counted “a daring misdemeanor to bind, a wicked crime to scourge, a Roman citizen.” Upon their beseeching re. quest he went out, and after a visit to the brethren in Lydia’s house he left Philippi (Luke and perhaps Timothy staying behind for a time) for Thessalonica by way of Amphipolis and Apollonia. The fervent attachment of the Philippian church was evinced by their sending supplies for his temporal wants twice shortly after he left them, “in the beginning of the gospel,” to Thessalonica ( Philippians 4:15,16), and a third time by Epaphroditus shortly before writing the epistle ( Philippians 4:10,18; 2 Corinthians 11:9). Few Jews were at Philippi to excite distrust of Paul. There was no synagogue, but a mere oratory or prayer place (proseuchee ) by the river side. Only there no opposition was offered by the Jews. His sufferings there strengthened the union between him and them, as they too suffered for the gospel’s sake ( 1 Thessalonians 2:2).

    At Thessalonica (Acts 17) for three Sabbaths Paul, “as his manner was,” reasoned in the synagogue out of the Scriptures, showing that the Messiah to fulfill them must suffer and rise again, and that Jesus is that Messiah. A multitude of Gentile proselytes and chief women, with some Jews, joined him. In consequence the unbelieving Jews incited the rabble (“fellows of the baser sort,” literally, loungers in the market place, ‘agoraious ’: Acts 17:5, in harmony with 1 Thessalonians 2:14) to assault the house of Jason, Paul’s host. Failing to find Paul they dragged Jason and certain brethren before the rulers, crying “these that have turned the world upside down are come here also” (South quaintly remarks, Considering how the world then stood, with idolatry at the head and truth under foot, turning it upside down was the only way perhaps to restore it to its right position); “these do contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another King, one Jesus.” It is an undesigned coincidence that Jesus’ coming kingdom is the prominent thought in the epistles to the Thessalonians ( Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:10). They perverted the doctrine of Christ’s coming to reign with His saints into treason against Caesar; so in Jesus’ case ( John 18:33-37; 19:12). He writes to them as mostly Gentiles ( 1 Thessalonians 1:9,10); he had worked night and day, not to be chargeable unto them ( 1 Thessalonians 2:9,10; 2 Thessalonians 3:8), and had guarded against the abuse of the doctrine of Christ’s coming ( 1 Thessalonians 4:11,12; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3; 3:5-13). The magistrates contented themselves with taking security of Jason, and the brethren sent away Paul and Silas to Berea by night.

    Here too they entered the Jews’ synagogue. The see BEREANS are praised as “more noble” than the Thessalonians generally, for (1) their ready reception of the preached word, and (2) their searching the Scriptures daily whether it accorded with them. Accordingly many believed, Jews as well as Greeks, men and honourable women. But the Thessalonian Jews followed him, and the brethren sent away Paul by sea, Silas and Timothy staying behind. Some brethren escorted Paul to Athens, then returned with a message from him to Silas and Timothy to join him “with all speed.” He had intended to defer preaching until he had them by his side, but “his spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry,” so he began at once disputing in the synagogue with the Jews and proselytes, and in the market daily with them that met him.

    Among the latter were Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. To the Epicureans, the ancient materialists, who denied a future life and made the supreme good consist in a calm enjoyment of the present, Paul offered “the peace which passeth understanding,” through Him who through self denying agony and death secures life eternal to us. To the Stoics, the ancient pantheists and fatalists, who made man independent on any being but self, he preached self renunciation and reliance on the personal Jesus, and the resurrection through Him. Some said, “what will this babbler (Greek spermologos , ‘seed picker,’ as a bird; so market loungers, ready to pick up droppings from loads of ware; so one babbling what he has picked up from others) say?” Others said, as was the charge against Socrates who similarly used to reason in the market with those he met, “he seemeth a setter forth of strange gods” (namely, God and Jesus, Acts 17:24,31) “because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.” Curiosity and love of novelty were noted characteristics of Athenians. So they took him to Mars’ hill, arranged with benches and steps of stone in the open air.

    They had charged him with setting forth strange gods: he begins by gently retorting, “I perceive in every point of view you are religious to a fault” (deisidaimonestorous , not such censure as “too superstitious” would convey). Taking their “altar to an unknown god” (for such altars were erected in times of plague, when the known gods failed to help) as his text, “what (the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus manuscripts for whom) ye worship confessing your ignorance of, that (the divinity) I declare unto you.” “Whom, ... Him,” would contradict 1 Corinthians 10:20; John 4:22. God may be known. He is the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, has made all men of one blood, assigning them their times and habitations, that they should feel after Him (pseelfeeseian ; as thoughtful pagan will do, but it is only groping in the dark until revelation comes; contrast 1 John 1:1), though He is really near every one of us ( Romans 10:8,9), having our being in Him, as your own poet sings, “we are His offspring.” God has overlooked the times of ignorance (huperidon ; looking on to Christ’s sacrifice which vindicates God’s righteousness in passing by the intermediate transgressions: Romans 3:25), but now commands all everywhere to repent, since He will judge all by that Man whom He hath ordained as the Savior and Judge, raising Him from the dead as the pledge of assurance. At the mention of the resurrection some mocked, others deferred (compare Acts 24:25) the further hearing of the subject. A few believed, including the Areopagite Dionysius and Damaris, a woman.

    Next he came to Corinth, the commercial and stirring capital of Greece, and so more alive to his serious message than the dilettanti philosophers and quidnuncs of Athens. His tentmaking here brought him into close connection with Jews just expelled by Claudius from Rome, Aquila and Priscilla. When Silas and Timothy came from Macedon, Paul was earnestly occupied with the word (see the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus manuscripts Acts 18:5 for “the spirit”), the crisis of their acceptance or else rejection of his message having come. Timothy he bad sent from Athens to Thessalonica ( 1 Thessalonians 3:1,2), Silas elsewhere. Their arrival at Corinth suggested his writing the first epistle to Thessalonians. It and 2 Thessalonians were the only epistles he wrote on this missionary journey, both from Corinth. The epistles to Galatians, Romans, and Corinthians belong to his next journey. The epistles to Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians belong to his first captivity at Rome.

    His versatility appears in his being able to write 1 Thessalonians when earnestly occupied with the Corinthians; and in his writing 1 and Corinthians between the kindred epistles to the Galatians and Romans; if Galatians was written at Ephesus on his first arrival, and not subsequently at Corinth (see GALATIANS ). He attested all his genuine letters with his autograph at the close, to enable the churches to distinguish them from spurious ones ( 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 3:17).

    When the Jews opposed and blasphemed Paul shook his raiment ( Nehemiah 5:13; Acts 13:51), and said, “your blood be upon your own heads ( Ezekiel 33:4), henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.” So he withdrew to the house of a Gentile next the synagogue, Justus. Crispus the ruler of the synagogue believed, and was baptized by Paul himself ( Corinthians 1:14); many Corinthians too were baptized. Paul’s fear of the Jews’ consequent wrath was dispelled by the Lord in a vision: “be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city.” He therefore continued at Corinth a year and a half, teaching. The Jews with one accord set on and brought him before see GALLIO ’S judgment seat, saying, this fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. But Paul experienced God’s faithfulness to His promise that none should beat him, for Gallio without waiting for Paul to plead drave his enemies from the judgment seat and winked at the beating the Greeks gave Sosthenes, the Jews’ ringleader and ruler of the synagogue. Paul’s compassion to his enemy in distress probably won Sosthenes, for we find him associated with Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:1.

    Paul left Corinth to keep the feast (probably Pentecost) at Jerusalem ( Acts 20:16). At Cenchreae he cut off his hair in fulfillment of a vow, made probably in some sickness ( Galatians 4:13) like the Nazarite vow, and ending with a sacrifice at Jerusalem to which he therefore hastened.

    Staying at Ephesus a very brief time, and going forward by Caesarea, he saluted the church at Jerusalem. Thence he went to Antioch, the place of his starting originally with Silas ( Acts 15:35,40).

    Third missionary tour. Acts 18:23--21:17. His aim at this period was to vindicate Christians’ freedom from the law, yet unity through the higher bond of love. Hence he gives prominence to the collections of the Gentile churches for the relief of the poor brethren at Jerusalem ( Galatians 2:10). The epistles of this time, Galatians, Corinthians, and Romans, mainly discuss the relations of the believer to the Jewish law. From Antioch Paul went over all Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples ( Acts 18:23) and ordering the collection ( 1 Corinthians 16:1). Then on reaching Ephesus he wrote epistle to see GALATIANS , else later at Corinth. Ephesus Paul reached from the upper regions (Phrygia: Acts 19:1). Being the metropolis of Asia and the meeting ground of oriental, Jew, Greek, and Roman, Paul stayed at Ephesus two or three years ( Acts 19:10; 20:31), so that he founded in it a mother church for the whole Asian region. Here he met the 12 disciples who had been, like Apollos ( Acts 18:25,26), baptized only unto John’s baptism. On his asking “did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye became believers?” they answered, “we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit is (given).”

    Paul taught them the further truths, baptism into the Lord Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; and in laying hands on them after baptism the Holy Spirit came on them, just as upon the Samaritans when Peter and John laid hands on them ( Acts 8:15,17). The first three months Paul spoke boldly in the synagogue at Ephesus; then, on many hardening themselves in unbelief, he separated the disciples from the synagogue and disputed daily in the school of Tyrannus (whether a “private synagogue,” bet midrash , where he might assemble the believing Jews privately and receive inquiring Gentiles, or more probably the school of a Gentile sophist). This continued for two years, so that all both Jews and Greeks had the opportunity of hearing the word of the Lord Jesus. God wrought special miracles by Paul, so that handkerchiefs and aprons from his body were used to heal the sick and cast out demons. So “the shadow of Peter” ( Acts 5:15), the hem of Christ’s garment ( Matthew 9:20,21). So far from confirming the virtue of “relics,” his case disproves them; they were “special” and extraordinary instances; all miracles having generally ceased, a fortiori, what even then were rarest must have now ceased also. Sorcery abounded at Ephesus; seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, exorcists, having presumed to call over the demon-possessed the name of the Lord Jesus preached by Paul, as a magic formula, two of them ( Acts 19:16, “prevailed against both” in the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus manuscripts) were wounded and driven out of the house by the man, the demon saying, “Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are ye?” ( Matthew 12:27.) Such fear fell on those who, along with Christianity, secretly practiced magic arts that they confessed openly their sin and brought their costly books of incantations (the notorious Ephesia grammata) and burnt them publicly, at the sacrifice of their estimated value, 50,000 drachmas, 1770 British pounds. “So mightily grew the word of God. During the first half of his stay at Ephesus he paid. a second short visit to Corinth, alluded to in 2 Corinthians 1:15,16; 2:1; 12:14,21; 13:1,2. (See CORINTHIANS, FIRST EPlSTLE .) After this visit he wrote a letter alluded to in 1 Corinthians 5:9; 4:18. He purposed in spirit going through Macedon and Achaia (Corinth) to Jerusalem, then to Rome; meanwhile he sent Timothy and Erastus to Macedon, but stayed himself in Ephesus for a season.

    His first epistle to the Corinthians was written while still at Ephesus ( Corinthians 16:8), about the Passover time ( 1 Corinthians 16:7,8), shortly before the outbreak that drove him away at Pentecost time ( Acts 19:23-41), when he had already encountered beast-like “adversaries” ( 1 Corinthians 15:32), a premonitory symptom of the final tumult ( 1 Corinthians 16:9; 2 Corinthians 1:8; Romans 16:4); not after it, for immediately after it he left Ephesus for Macedon. How large his heart was, to be able to enter so warmly into the minute interests of the Corinthian churches in the midst of his engrossing ministry amidst threatening storms at Ephesus. In 1 Corinthians 4:9-13 he sketches the hardships of his apostolic life. His tact in dealing with the questions submitted to him by the Corinthians and those also omitted by them, but known otherwise, as well as his singleness of aim for Christ, shine conspicuously in this epistle. (See DEMETRIUS on the outbreak; also see EPHESUS ; see ASIARCHS ; see ALEXANDER ; see DIANA .) Demetrius’ hypocritical zeal for Diana while his “wealth” (euporia only here “easy means”; equivalent to the ominous 666 (see ANTICHRIST ): 1 Kings 10:14; 2 Chronicles 9:13; Revelation 13:18) was his real concern, the wild and blind excitement of the mob, “the more part not knowing wherefore they were come together,” the unreasoning religious party cry “great is Diana of the Ephesians,” the tact and good sense of the secretary of state (“the town clerk”) in calming the mob while incidentally testifying to Paul’s temperance in assailing the idol of the town, vividly appear in the narrative. It can have been no light impression that Paul’s preaching made, and no small danger he daily incurred.

    From Macedonia (probably Philippi) he wrote see 2 CORINTHIANS . He had a door of preaching opened to him in Troas ( 2 Corinthians 2:12); but his anxiety to meet Titus, who had disappointed him in not coming to Troas, urged him forward to Macedon. Having there met, and heard from him the tidings which he so eagerly longed for, namely, the good effect of his first epistle on the Corinthians, he wrote his second epistle, in which he glances at those Judaizing emissaries (especially one) who had tried to disparage his apostolic authority ( 2 Corinthians 12:11,12; 3:1; 11:4,12- 15) and malign his personal motives ( 2 Corinthians 1:12; 12:17,18); scoffing at his want of courage as evinced by his delay in coming, and at his threats as impotent ( 2 Corinthians 1:17,23), and at his weak personal appearance and simple speech ( 2 Corinthians 10:10). His sensitive, affectionate tenderness appears in the anguish with which he wrote the first epistle, using the authority which some had denied, and threatening soon to enforce it in person ( 2 Corinthians 2:2-4,13; 7:5,8); also in his shrinking from going as soon as he had intended (rather he would wait to see the effect of his letter 2 Corinthians 1:15,16; 2:1), that his visit might be a happy instead of a sorrowful one; and in his triumphant joy at the news of their better state of mind ( 2 Corinthians 2:18,14). His list of hardships in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 shows how much more he endured than the book of Acts records: “of the Jews five times I received 40 stripes save one; thrice was I beaten with rods (whereas elsewhere only one scourging is recorded, that at Philippi); once was I stoned ( Acts 14:19); thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep.” Not one of these sea perils is recorded in Acts; that of Acts 27, was subsequent. The” perils of rivers” (Greek for” waters”) would be in fording them in floods, bridges in mountain roads traversed by torrents being rare. The perils of robbers: the Pisidians ( Acts 13:14), Pamphylians, and Cilicians of the mountains separating the tableland of Asia from the coast were notorious for robbery (Strabo, xii. 6,7). The “thorn in the flesh ( 2 Corinthians 12:7), a messenger of Satan (compare Job 2:7; Luke 13:16) to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations,” was probably some painful, tedious, bodily malady, which shamed him before those to whom he ministered ( Galatians 4:13-15); it followed the revelation wherein he was caught up to the third heaven (see PARADISE ) (perhaps at his second visit to Jerusalem: Acts 22:17). “Thorn” implies bodily pain; “buffet,” shame ( 1 Peter 2:20); after hearing and seeing the joys of holy angels, he is buffeted by an emissary of the evil one. But he was enabled to glory in infirmities, when his thrice offered prayer for the thorn’s removal was answered by Christ’s promise of His all sufficient grace and strength having its perfect manifestation in man’s weakness. God needs our weakness as the arena for displaying His power, not our strength, which is His rival.

    Notwithstanding the continued infirmity, Paul was enabled to sustain manifold wearing hardships.

    Traveling through Macedon, probably as far as to Illyricum ( Romans 15:19), he at least visited Greece and stayed three months ( Acts 20:2,3). From Corinth he wrote the epistle to the see ROMANS . He had longed to see the church which already existed at Rome, and whose faith was celebrated throughout the world, also to impart some spiritual gift to them ( Romans 1:8,11-13). Hereto he had been hindered coming to them; he intends to come, and go on from Rome to Spain ( Romans 15:16,24,28), and so to preach to the Gentiles of the remote West to whom, as to Rome itself, he feels himself a debtor as to the gospel, being the apostle of the uncircumcision, a spiritual priest, offering up the Gentile converts as a sacrifice acceptable unto God ( Romans 1:14,15,16). He must now first go to Jerusalem, to take the offerings of the Macedonian and Achaian Christians for the relief of the poor saints there. Meantime he writes, begging their prayers that he may be delivered from the unbelieving in Judaea ( Romans 15:25-32). The awful unrighteousness of the world, whose capital was Rome, suggested his subject, the righteousness of God, condemning Jew and Gentile alike (Romans 1; 2), but capable of being appropriated by faith in Jesus whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood.

    Before leaving Corinth Luke joined him, as the “us” implies ( Acts 20:1-5). He had intended to sail direct to Syria ( Acts 20:3; 19:2; Corinthians 16:3-7), but to avoid a Jewish plot against him he went through Macedon. Several were appointed with him as the joint bearers of the churches’ contributions for the poor brethren at Jerusalem. These went before by sea to Troas while he and Luke went through Macedonia. From Philippi, after the Passover, in five days Paul and Luke reached Troas, and stayed seven days. At the meeting there “to break bread” (i.e. to keep the lovefeast with which the eucharist was joined) on the first day of the week Paul preached earnestly until midnight, and the youth see EUTYCHUS in deep sleep fell from the third left, and was taken up dead, but was restored by Paul. Preachers ought to be considerate of their hearers, avoiding undue length and lateness! Hearers should avoid Carelessness, inattention, and drowsiness! Paul on returning proceeded to “break bread and eat” the love-feast meal (geusamenos , “having made a meal”), which closed the meeting. Paul made the journey from Troas to Assos by land on foot alone, while the rest went before in ship. At Assos he went on board with them, and by Mitylene, Chios, Samos, and Trogyllium, came to Miletus. Instead of calling to see the chief church of Asia, at Ephesus, which might have made him too late for the Pentecost at Jerusalem, he invited their elders to him at Miletus and gave the striking address recorded in Acts 20:18-35.

    He reminds them of his manner of ministry among them with many tears, and amidst temptations owing to the Jews’ plots, his keeping back nothing profitable, but without reserve teaching both publicly and from house to house the gospel testimony, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus. “Now,” says he, “I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Spirit witnesseth in every city that bonds and afflictions abide me; but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” This accords with his epistles ( 2 Corinthians 4:1,16; 2 Timothy 4:7; Philippians 2:17). His inspired knowledge (for the words “I know” can hardly be a mere surmise, as Alford thinks from the use of the word in Acts 26:27; Romans 15:29; Philippians 1:19,20) that they all should not see his face again was what most affected them. He visited Miletus and no doubt Ephesus again ( 1 Timothy 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:18; 4:20). His being “pure from the blood of all” he rests on his “not having shunned to declare all the counsel of God”; a warning to ministers against having an esoteric teaching for the few, not imparted to the multitude, and against one-sidedness in teaching. The safeguard lies in taking heed (1) to themselves, (2) to all the flock; none is to be neglected, for the Holy Spirit makes overseers for the purpose of feeding the church of God (the Vaticanus, Sinaiticus manuscripts, but Alexandrinus manuscript “of the Lord”) bought with His own blood. (1) The best manuscript evidence favors the reading “God”; (2) being the more difficult it is less likely to be an interpolation than the easier reading, “Lord”; (3) “the church of God” is a common expression in Paul’s epistles, “church of the Lord” never.

    His prophecy of “grievous wolves not sparing the flock,” and of “men arising of their own selves speaking perverse things, drawing away disciples,” is the germ expanded further in 1 Timothy 4; 2 Timothy 2:17-19; 3; 2 Thessalonians 2; the antichrist in 1 John 2:22,23; 4:1-3; Revelation 11--19. His warning for three years every one, night and day, with tears, accords with his character in the epistles ( Philippians 3:18; 2 Timothy 1:3). So his appeal to their consciousness of his having coveted nothing of theirs, and of his setting them the example of manual labour to support others as well as himself, remembering “it is more blessed to give than to receive” ( 1 Corinthians 4:12; 9:12; Corinthians 7:2; 11:9; 12:14,17; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; Thessalonians 3:8). It was an affecting parting, when after prayer together on bended knee they wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him, and accompanied him to the ship.

    By Cos, Rhodes, Patara, and past Cyprus, Paul sailed to Tyre, where the ship unladed her cargo. Finding disciples there, by a kind of freemasonry of Christianity, he stayed seven days, and was warned by them through the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem. The parting scene would form an exquisite picture. All with wives and children escorted them until they were out of the city; then he and they kneeled down on the shore and prayed. By Ptolemais Paul reached Caesarea, and there abode with Philip the evangelist, whose four prophesying daughters probably repeated the warning. Lastly Agabus from Judaea (compare Acts 11:28), symbolically binding his hands and feet with Paul’s girdle, foretold so should the Jews bind Paul and deliver him to the Gentiles. All then, both his fellow travelers and the Christians of the place, besought him not to go forward. His resolution was unshaken; “what mean ye to weep and break my heart? I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the Lord Jesus” ( Philippians 1:21-23). So Jesus Himself ( Luke 9:51,57,61,62; Isaiah 50:7). At last all recognized it as of God’s ordering, “the will of the Lord be done”; the way of realizing his desire to visit the church at Rome, not what man would have chosen but what proved ultimately best, being God’s appointment ( Philippians 1:12,13).

    After tarrying “many days” in Caesarea, not to be too long at Jerusalem before the feast, as a prudent precaution, Paul went to Jerusalem (his fifth and probably last visit), where see MNASON lodged him. In compliance with the counsel of James and the elders, in order to silence the false charges against him of teaching the JEWS to forsake the law and not to circumcise their children, he next day put himself under the vow with four Nazarites, signifying to the temple priests their intention to fulfill the days of purification, he defraying the charge of their offerings, which was accounted a meritorious act. The process required seven days for completion; toward their close Jews of Asia stirred up the people against him in the temple, saying he had brought Greeks into it, meaning Trophimus, whom they had seen with Paul but not in the temple. They dragged Paul out of the temple, and would have killed him with blows, but “the chief captain” commanding the garrison rescued him, and chained him to two soldiers. His speaking Greek undeceived Lysias, who had guessed him to be the notorious Egyptian insurrection leader of that time (Josephus, Ant. 20:8, section 6; B. J. 2:13, section 5). Being permitted to speak from the stair, Paul delivered his “defence” to the people with admirable tact in Hebrew, the language of their fathers, and selecting such points as vindicated his faithfulness to the God of their fathers: e.g. his rearing under Gamaliel; his Christian instructor Ananias’ devoutness according to the law, and good report of all the Jews; his vision in the temple at Jerusalem, where his own desire was to stay, witnessing for Christ where he had most bitterly persecuted His followers, but the Lord said, “I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles” ( Ephesians 3:7,8).

    The name was enough; the mob was infuriated at the wall of Jewish exclusive privileges being broken down. “Away with such a fellow from the earth,” etc. ( 1 Thessalonians 2:16.) Lysias supposing Paul must have perpetrated some heinous crime would have scourged him, but Paul’s Roman citizenship saved him. Lysias would not give up a Roman citizen to a Jewish court, yet in courtesy he convened their council the following day ( Acts 22:30; 23), to give them the opportunity of hearing and answering his defense, as he had given the same opportunity to the mob.

    Paul, fixing his eyes intently as was his wont (probably from having never recovered the blinding at his conversion: Acts 13:9; Galatians 4:13,15; 2:11; 2 Corinthians 12:7,9; which may account for his not recognizing the high priest), proceeded to say that he had lived a conscientious loyal life before God (pepoliteumai ) as a Jew up to that day ( 2 Timothy 1:3). see ANANIAS commanded the bystanders to smite him on the mouth. Paul said, “God shall smite thee, thou whited sepulchre,” etc. So Jesus, Matthew 23:27; Luke 11:44; but His calm majesty when smitten contrasts with Paul’s natural indignation at hypocrisy and injustice in the seat of judgment ( John 18:22,23). Paul apologized for his strong language on the ground of his not knowing, from imperfect sight or otherwise, that it was the high priest who gave the order. Adroitly Paul enlisted on the side of the truth, against Sadduceanism, a large portion of his audience by saying, “I am a Pharisee ... of the hope of the resurrection I am called in question.” Contrast Jesus’ dealing with the Sadducees, “ye do err greatly, not knowing the Scriptures.” The Lord in vision cheered him that night, as at Corinth ( Acts 18:9), promising he should testify for Him as at Jerusalem so at Rome. More than 40 Jews next day plotted not to eat or drink until they killed Paul, when the chief priests should induce Lysias to bring him again before the council. By his sister’s son Paul heard and communicated the plot to Lysias. The chief captain sent Paul under escort of 200 soldiers,70 horsemen, and 200 bodyguard to Antipatris by night, thence with the 70 horsemen alone to Caesarea, with an explanatory letter to Felix the governor, in which, in fear of consequences, he suppresses his command to scourge Paul, and on the contrary represents his reason for rescuing him “having understood that he was a Roman,” though he did not know that until afterward. see FELIX kept Paul in Herod’s judgment hall until his accusers came; thus Providence overruled his Roman imprisonment to be his safeguard against Jewish plots.

    After five days (Acts 24) Ananias the high priest came from Jerusalem, and through a hired orator accused Paul of being a mover of sedition and ringleader of the Nazarenes, who sought to profane the temple. Tertullus begun his address (which is Latin in its characteristics, according to the usage before Roman magistrates) with a studied exordium of gross flattery: “seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence” (as if Felix were a god, “the providence of Caesar” is found on coins), the reverse being notoriously the case, Felix often receiving plunder from the bands of robbers that pillaged and plundered in Samaria, “exercising the authority of a king with the disposition of a slave in all cruelty and lust” (Tacitus, Annals xii. 54, Hist. 5:9). The only color for Tertullus’ compliment was, Felix had put down some rebels and assassins (Josephus, Ant. 20:8, section 4), himself being worse than they. Paul replied with courtesy to Felix without sacrifice of truth: “forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years (seven) a judge unto this nation (so, well acquainted with Jewish usages), I do the more cheerfully answer for myself.” An alleged offense so recent as “twelve days” ago one so versed in Jewish affairs would easily adjudicate upon. Paul admitted he came to the temple, but it was “for to worship”; the Jews may call it “heresy,” but it is “the God of his fathers he worships, believing the law and the prophets, and that there shall be a resurrection of just and unjust,” and “exercising himself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and men.” So in his epistles: 1 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 1:12; 4:2; Hebrews 13:18. His coming to Jerusalem to bring alms to his nation, and his purification in the temple, proved his loyalty to the faith of Israel. Felix, though “knowing accurately about the (Christian) way,” put them off until Lysias should come; his real motive being hope of a bribe, which Paul’s mention of his bringing “alms and offerings” suggested. Hence he gave Paul’s acquaintances free access to him, as they might provide him with money for a bribe.

    Felix gave Paul another hearing before see DRUSILLA his wife, a Jewess.

    But as Paul reasoned of “righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come” before one unrighteous, lustful, and who durst not face his own conscience (contrast Acts 24:16) much less the judgment to come, Felix “trembled” and sent Paul away for the present. Tacitus (Annals xii. 54) says Felix thought he might do all crimes with impunity; so it was a sharp thrust that reached the conscience of such a reprobate. A “convenient season” Felix never sought for his soul; interviews with Paul to get a bribe he did seek, but Paul was proof against his temptations. So Felix left Paul a prisoner for two years at Caesarea.

    Porcius see FESTUS , succeeding (A.D. 60), was solicited to bring him to Jerusalem, the Jews plotting to kill him in the way, but refused. At the hearing that followed in Caesarea, on Festus’ proposing (in compliment to the Jews) that he should be tried at Jerusalem, Paul appealed to Caesar, a Roman citizen by the Valerian law having the right to appeal from a magistrate to the people or tribunes, and subsequently to the emperor. In order that Festus might have some definite report of the charges against Paul to send with him to Rome, he gave Paul a hearing before see HEROD AGRIPPA and see BERENICE , who came with characteristic pomp (Acts 25, translated Acts 25:19 “questions of their own religious system,” for Festus would not to Agrippa a Jew call his creed a “superstition,” deisidaimonia ; Acts 26). Paul a third time narrates his conversion, dwelling before Herod Agrippa, as one well versed in Jewish questions, on “the hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers” ( Acts 26:6,7), namely, Messiah, and on His resurrection, which Paul attested as an eye witness, not only not prejudiced in His favor but once bitterly hating Him.

    To the Herodian family, tinged with Sadduceeism, the resurrection seemed “incredible”; but why should it be so, seeing that God has actually raised Jesus? The doctrines in the epistles appear here in germ: “the inheritance to the sanctified” ( Ephesians 1:11; Colossians 1:12); Christ “the first” who rose, a pledge of the saints’ resurrection ( 1 Corinthians 15:20; Colossians 1:18); the “Light to the people (Israel) and to the Gentiles” ( Luke 2:32, whose Gospel Paul in part suggested). With the charge of being “beside himself” with zeal compare 2 Corinthians 5:13; 11:16,17; 1 Corinthians 1:23; 2:14. Festus attributed to Paul “much learning,” judging from his acquaintance with Old Testament, and probably from his having had many parchments in prison; croup, subsequently 2 Timothy 4:13. How graceful a turn he gives to his wish that his hearers were “altogether such as he was, except these bonds,” which bound him to the soldier in charge of him, and which he looked at, on his outstretched arms ( Acts 26:1,29). (On his voyage to Rome see EUROCLYDON .) Julius a centurion was his kind and courteous escort. Luke accompanied him. The description of the voyage is proved by experienced Mediterranean seamen to be minutely accurate and true. see ARISTARCHUS also was with him. At Sidon Paul, with Julius’ leave, visited his friends and refreshed himself. At Myra in Lycia, where N. winds off Cilicia and Pamphylia would carry them, they went on board an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy, and slowly coasted against the wind until over againstCNIDUS they ran S. under the lee of see CRETE , passing Salmone headland and so toFAIN HEAVENS (see MELITA for the rest). After a three months’ stay in Malta, Paul sailed in the Castor and Pollux, an Alexandrian ship, to Syracuse, where he stayed three days. Thence in a circuitous course to Rhegium, next day to Puteoli, where brethren entertained him seven days; and so to Rome, the brethren meeting him at see APPII FORUM (43 miles from Rome) and the Three Taverns (ten miles) on the way; so that Paul thanked God and took courage, cheered by the communion of saints. Julius gave Paul up to the captain of the guard (proefectus praetorio, the Praetorian camp outside the Viminal gate), who allowed him to dwell by himself, chained to a soldier.

    His first care was to invite the Jews to a conference, where from morning until evening he expounded and testified the kingdom of God embodied in Jesus, out of the law and the prophets, declaring “for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.” Some believed, some disbelieved; whereupon Paul (at the close of New Testament history) quoted Isaiah 2:9,10 as the Holy Spirit’s testimony against them, which Jesus at the beginning also quoted ( Matthew 13:14,15), and John ( John 12:39-41) concerning Jesus ( Isaiah 6:1,9). So that Father, Son, and Spirit spoke the words.

    The Jews not hearing of Paul before was because, before his appeal, the Judaean Jews did not anticipate his going to Rome, and after it there was no time to communicate concerning him before he arrived. Now he turns to the Gentiles who would more readily hear. For two whole years he received all inquirers and taught concerning the Lord Jesus without impediment. His epistles to see EPHESIANS , see COLOSSIANS , see PHILEMON ; and (toward the dose of the two years) see PHILIPPIANS , were written at this time. (See TIMOTHY ; see TITUS , (epistles) on his subsequent release and second imprisonment st Rome.) Their style is that of an old man; the church organization appears more settled, the symptoms of apostasy more marked. These pastoral epistles evidently were long after the others.

    Eusebius (Chronicles 2083) places his death in the 18th of Nero; Jerome (Script. Ecclesiastes) in the 14th, i.e. four or five years after the first imprisonment. In the interval he realized his purpose of visiting Spain ( Romans 15:28). Clemens Romans (Ep. 1 Corinthians 5) says “before his martyrdom Paul went to the extreme W.” Muratori Fragment says “Spain” (Routh, Reliq. Sacr.). He visited Ephesus, and was some time there again ( 1 Timothy 1:3; 4:13; 2 Timothy 1:18). Also Crete, where he left Titus to organize churches ( Titus 1:5); he intended ( Titus 3:12) to winter at Nicopolis. Also Miletus and Corinth ( Timothy 4:20); Troas 2 Timothy 4:13), where he left his cloak and books (some think his mantle, which be desired to wear as a Roman citizen at Rome; the mantle superseded the toga as the badge of a Roman. But it is a simpler and more touching view that his worn out frame needed the warm cloak against the winter in his dungeon). In 2 Timothy 2:19; 4:6, he appears as in bonds, expecting daily execution, ready, and triumphantly looking for the crown of righteousness, for he is no longer, as at the first imprisonment, treated with respect, but as a felon; the Christians having incurred odium on this false charge of the Neronian conflagration. Luke alone is with him. so he wishes Timothy to come with. out delay and bring Mark ( 2 Timothy 1:15; 4:16,9-12). He has already been once before the authorities, forsaken by all, but strengthened by the Lord’s presence so as to preach fully to all the Gentiles present. Clemens Romans says, “Paul was martyred under the rulers (hegoumenon ) after going to the extreme West.”

    Alford traces Paul’s last journey thus: to Crete ( Titus 1:5), Miletus ( 2 Timothy 4:20), Colosse (fulfilling his intention, Philemon 1:22), Ephesus ( Ephesians 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:18), from which neighborhood he wrote his epistle to Titus; to Troas, Macedon, Corinth ( 2 Timothy 4:20), Nicopolis ( Titus 3:12) in Epirus, where he intended to winter; in this city, being a Roman colony, Paul would be free from tumultuary violence, yet be open to direct attack from adversaries in the metropolis.

    Known at Rome as leader of the Christians, he was probably arrested as implicated in causing the fire which Nero attributed to them; the duumvirs of Nicopolis sent him to Rome. Imprisoned as a common malefactor ( Timothy 2:9), he was deserted by his Asiatic friends except Onesiphorus ( 2 Timothy 1:16). Demas, Cresceus, and Titus left him; Tychicus he had sent to Ephesus; Luke alone stayed with him ( 2 Timothy 4:10-12).

    Then he wrote second epistle to Timothy, while Timothy was at Ephesus ( 2 Timothy 1:18; 2:17; compare Ephesians 1:20), begging him to come before winter, and expecting death as at hand ( 2 Timothy 4:6,13,21). Tychicus was not, as some suppose, the bearer of the second epistle ( 2 Timothy 4:12,16,17), the absence of “to thee” is against it; explain “I need one profitable for the ministry) I had one in Tychicus ( Ephesians 6:21), but (Greek for ‘and,’ Ephesians 6:12) he is gone.”

    His defense was not before the emperor Nero himself, for the latter was in Greece, but before his representative, Hellas Caesareanus, Claudius’ freedman, prefect of Rome and Italy (Dion Cassius, 63:12, said the only difference between him and Caesar was, Caesar aped the minstrels, and the freedman aped the Caesar). If Timothy was not at Ephesus at the time of Paul’s writing second epistle to Timothy, Tychicus may have been its bearer, for then the “to thee” would not be needed. (See TIMOTHY, SECOND EPISTLE .) Dionysius of Corinth (A.D. 170, in Eusebius H.E. 2:25) is the first who says Peter and Paul were martyred about the same time. But Peter labored among the Jews ( Galatians 2:9); Rome was a Gentile church ( Romans 1:13). Peter was at Babylon ( 1 Peter 1:1; 5:13). Paul’s silence negatives Peter’s founding, or long laboring in, the Roman church. Caius the Roman presbyter (A.D. 200) says Paul was martyred on the Ostian way. To avoid the sympathy which his influence had excited (so that he had partisans even in the palace: Philippians 1:13; 4:22) was probably the reason of his execution outside the city by a military escort, with the sword (Oresins, Hist. vii. 7, Tacitus, Annals iv. 11), probably in A.D. 67 or 68, Nero’s last year. His Roman citizenship exempted him from torture and crucifixion, Peter’s mode of death. The Basilica of Paul built by Constantine stands on the road to Ostia.

    The apocryphal “Clementines” at the end of the second century contain a curious attack on his authority (“the inimical man”) and exaltation of Peter and James. It is a rising of the old judaical leaven, impatient of the gospel anti-legalism of Paul.

    DATES. Paul left Caesarea in the autumn of A.D. 60, for that is the date of Festus’ accession. In the spring of 61 he reached Rome, stayed two whole years to the spring of 63; his death was in 67 (Eusebius), or 68 (Jerome).

    He was two years at Caesarea, which dating back gives A.D. 58 as the date of his last visit to Jerusalem at Pentecost. Previously he wintered at Corinth ( Acts 20:2,3). He left Ephesus for Corinth therefore at the end of 57, and his three years’ stay brings us back to 54 for its commencement.

    Previously he was some time at Antioch ( Acts 18:23); a hasty visit to Jerusalem; his second missionary tour, including one year and a half at Corinth; a stay at Antioch; third visit to Jerusalem, generally fixed at a.D. 50 or 51; the “long” stay at Antioch ( Acts 14:28); first missionary tour; stay at Antioch ( Acts 12:25; 13:1). The second visit to Jerusalem synchronizes with Herod Agrippa’s death, A.D. 44. Dating “14 years” ( Galatians 2:1) back from 50 or 51 (his third visit to Jerusalem) brings to 37 or 38 for his conversion, after which he spent three years in Arabia and Damascus down to his first visit to Jerusalem, A.D. 40 or 41. Between this and the second visit (44 or 45) probably he spent two or three years at Tarsus ( Acts 9:30) and one year at Antioch ( Acts 11:26). At Stephen’s martyrdom Paul was “a young man,” perhaps A.D. 33. If he was 30 at conversion he would be at death upward of 60, and through hardships older in constitution than years. Allowing the interval between the first and second imprisonments to be four years, he was now four years older than when he called himself “Paul the aged” ( Philemon 1:9).

    Ardent, tenderly sensitive, courteous, fearless, enduring, full of tact and versatility, intellectual and refined, above all, single in aim, exercising himself always to have a conscience void of offense toward God and man, at the same time becoming all things to all men that by all means he might win some, he not only preached but lived Christ as the source and end of his whole being. In short, his spirit is fully expressed in Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21-23; 2:17; 3:7-14.

    PAVILION Psalm 27:5, sok ; Psalm 18:11; 31:20, a spiritual pavilion, namely, Jehovah’s favor and protection; explained in the parallel, “the secret of Thy presence”; none have access to an eastern king’s pavilion in the “inner court” save those he admits ( Esther 4:11). Thus to be “kept secretly” in Jehovah’s pavilion is to be in His most intimate confidence, and so perfectly secure, to be of His “hidden ones” ( Psalm 83:3; 1 Kings 20:16; 2 Samuel 22:12). Sukkah , sukkot . In Jeremiah 43:10 shaphrur , “Nebuchadnezzar shall spread his royal pavilion (literally, rich ornamental tapestry hanging from above round the throne) over these stones.”

    PEACOCKS tukkiyim . 1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chronicles 9:21; in Job 39:13 for “peacocks” translated “see OSTRICH hen, . Related to Tamil togei “peacock,” Sanskrit, sikhin “crested”; from its singular crown of upright divergent shafts, each tipped with a disc; Pavo cristatus (Linnaeus). Its ocellated train is not the tail, which is short, but the feathers of the loins, rump, and tail coverts, which it can at will erect into a circular spread disc.

    The peacock was unknown to the Assyrians, judging from the monuments; also to the Egyptians; but is mentioned in Aristophanes (Birds, 484), B.C. Probably Solomon first brought it by his Tarshish ships to the West from the East.

    PEARL gabish . Job 28:18. Literally, ice; what is frozen, as in Ezekiel 13:11,13; 38:22 with “stones.” So translated “crystal.” In verse 17, zekukit translated “glass” for “crystal.” The orientals anciently valued the rock crystal for its beauty and pure luster. In the New Testament margaritoee mean “pearls” ( Matthew 13:45,46; 1 Timothy 2:9; Revelation 17:4; 18:12,16; 21:21). In Matthew 7:16, “neither cast your pearls before swine,” the pearls resemble peas or acorns, their natural food; so the swine, finding them not so, turn against the giver and rend him. Saving counsels offered to the swinish sensualist only provoke his filthiness and profanity ( Proverbs 23:9; 9:8). The godly love even the sharp rebuke which heals their souls ( Proverbs 15:31; <19E105> Psalm 141:5; Job 13:23; Isaiah 39:8, Hezekiah; the Virgin, John 2:4,5; Galatians 2:14; 2 Peter 3:16. Peter). He that is filthy must be filthy still. Pearls are accidental concretions within certain molluscs, especially the Avicula margaritifera found in the Indian ocean and Persian gulf and Pacific. Some foreign substance, introduced naturally or artificially, as a sandgrain, an egg, a parasite, or minute shell, forms the nucleus round which the surface of the mantle deposits nacreous or calcareous matter in thin layers, which hardening forms a shelly coat on the inner side of the valves. A pearl is an abnormal shell, reversed, i.e. the lustrous nacreous coat is external.

    PEDAHEL Numbers 34:28.

    PEDAHZUR Numbers 1:10.

    PEDAIAH 1. 2 Kings 23:36. 2. Brother of Salathiel or Shealtiel; father of Zerubbabel who is called “son of Shealtiel” as being heir and successor of Shealtiel his uncle, issue failing in the direct line ( 1 Chronicles 3:17-19; Haggai 1:1; Matthew 1:12). 3. Nehemiah 3:25. 4. Nehemiah 8:4. 5. Nehemiah 11:7. 6. Nehemiah 8:19; 10:14; 13:13. 7. 1 Chronicles 27:20.

    PEEP Not “look” curiously, but “chirp” as young birds ( Isaiah 8:19; 10:14).

    Necromancers made a faint cry come from the ground as of departed spirits. From the Latin pipio. The same Hebrew is translated “chatter” ( Isaiah 38:14).

    PEKAH (See HOSHEA .) Son Of Remaliah. Captain and aide de camp (shalish ) of Pekahiah, king of Israel, whom he murdered, as also his aides de camp Argob and Ariyeh. Became king by the help of 50 Gileadites of the king’s bodyguard; perhaps Pekah was a Gileadite himself; energy for good or evil characterized the hardy highlanders of Gilead, as Jephthah and Elijah. To strengthen his kingdom which had suffered much by civil wars and foreign exactions ( 2 Kings 15:19,20,25-31), and to gain spoil, he joined alliance with Rezin of Damascus against Jotham of Judah ( 2 Kings 15:37,38).

    Jotham’s pious and vigorous reign (2 Chronicles 27) deferred the blow; but when the Weak and worthless see AHAZ (see OBED ; see IMMANUEL ) succeeded Pekah attacked Jerusalem (2 Kings 16; 2 Chronicles 27). He slew 120,000 Jews in one day at the first campaign. But his plot with Rezin to set aside the line of David, and raise “the son of Tabeal” (probably a Syrian favored by a party in Jerusalem: Isaiah 8:6,9,12) to the throne of Judah, was ultimately frustrated according to God’s purpose and word ( Isaiah 7:1-16), for “Immanuel” must succeed as Son and Heir of David, which Pekah’s plot was incompatible with. The project of the two allies was probably to unite the three kingdoms, Syria, Israel, and Judah, against Assyria. Egypt favored the plan ( Isaiah 8:18; 2 Kings 17:4).

    Ahaz’ leaning to Assyria made them determine to depose him for a nominee of their own. But Ahaz at their second inroad applied to Tiglath Pileser, who slew Rezin and carried away the people of Gilead (including the whole territory of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh 1 Chronicles 5:26), Galilee, and Naphtali ( 2 Kings 15:29). In Pekah’s weakened state Hoshea (his “friend”: Josephus, Ant. 9:13, section 1) conspired against and slew him, and after an interregnum of eight years reigned. Thus was fulfilled Isaiah 7:16. Pekah reigned from 757 to 737 B.C. In the Assyrian inscription see MENAHEM is mentioned as the king of Israel whom Tiglath Pileser subdued; possibly a mistake of the engraver, confusing Pekah with the king whom Pal reduced to be tributary.

    PEKAHIAH Menahem’s son and successor, slain by Pekah. Reigned 759-757 B.C.

    PEKOD (visitation). Jeremiah 1. 21. Symbolical name for Babylon as doomed to be visited with judgment. In Ezekiel 23:23 simply a prefecture. Maurer transl, as descriptive epithets subjoined to “all the Chaldaeans,” Pekod (pakid), Shoa, Koa, “prefects, rich, princely.” Otherwise, if a symbolical name here also, Pekod is “inflicter of,” “visiting with, judgment,” namely, upon Judah, “Aholibah.”

    PELAIAH 1. 1 Chronicles 3:24. 2. Nehemiah 8:7; 10:10.

    PELATIAH 1. 1 Chronicles 3:21. 2. 1 Chronicles 4:42. 3. Nehemiah 10:22. 4. One of the 25 princes; ringleader of the scorners “devising mischief.”

    Like Ananias ( Acts 5:5) stricken dead; an earnest of the destruction of the rest, as Ezekiel foretold ( Ezekiel 11:1-13). The prophet fell on his face thereupon saying, “Ah! Lord God! wilt Thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” The people regarded Pelatiah as a mainstay of the city.

    His name suggested hope, from paalat “to escape,” or Yah pileet , “God delivers.” Is that hope to be disappointed? asks Ezekiel; is his death a token that all, even the remnant, shall be destroyed?

    PELEG (“division”). Eber’s son, Joktan’s brother ( Genesis 10:25; 11:16). “In his days the earth was divided.” His name marks an epoch in the world’s history: (1) God’s intimation of His will that the earth was to be divided in an orderly distribution of the various families of mankind, which order the Hamitic Babel builders tried to contravene ( Genesis 11:4), in order to concentrate their power; also the Hamite Canaanites in “spreading abroad” broke the bounds assigned by God, seizing the sacred possession of Shem where Jehovah was to be blessed as “the Lord God of Shem” ( Genesis 9:26,18-20). (2) The division of Eber’s family; the younger branch, the Joktanids, migrating into S. Arabia the elder Peleg remaining in Mesopotamia.

    PELET 1. 1 Chronicles 2:47. 2. Son of Azmaveth (a person, or a place): 1 Chronicles 12:3.

    PELETH 1. Numbers 16:1. 2. 1 Chronicles 2:33.

    PELETHITES (See CHERETHITES .) The two together formed David’s body guard. As Ittai of Gath, so other refugees from Philistine tribes probably joined David. The Egyptian monuments mention Shayretana (= Cherethim, or Cretans) and Pelesatu (= Philistines), whom Rameses III conquered. The Shayretana supplied mercenaries to the Egyptian kings of the 19th and 20th dynasties. Cherethites may be from chaarat “to cut off,” namely, from one’s country; Pelethites from paalat “he fled,” “fugitives,” political refugees. “Philistine” is from phalash “to emigrate.” Gesenius less probably explains” executioners and runners.”

    PELICAN ka’ath . Two species exist in the Levant, Pelican onocratalus and Pelican crispus. Often found on the upper Jordan. The Hebrew name is an imitation of its harsh donkey-like braying note, as onocratalus expresses; or from a root “to throw up,” from its bringing fish back to its mouth from its large pouch beneath the beak. The origin of the fable of its feeding its young with its blood sprang from its pressing its under mandible against its breast to help it to disgorge its pouch’s contents for its young, and from the red nail on the end of the upper mandible coming in contact with the breast. “Pelican of the wilderness” alludes to its seeking uninhabited places as breeding places. Being a water bird, it could not live in a place destitute of water. But midbar means simply an open unenclosed land, as distinguished from a settled agricultural region. Its posture with bill resting on its breast suggests the idea of melancholy solitude ( <19A206> Psalm 102:6; Isaiah 34:11, where ka’ath is “pelican” not “cormorant”). After filling its pouch with fish and mollusks, it retires miles away inland to consume the contents of its pouch.

    PELONITE 1 Chronicles 11:27; 27:10. (See PALTITE ; see HELEZ .) A designation from the place of birth or residence. For “Ahijah the Pelonite” ( Chronicles 11:36) 2 Samuel 23:34 has “Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Shilohite,” the Chronicles reading is probably a corruption of text.

    PENIEL PENUEL = face of God. Name given by Jacob to the place where he saw God face to face and wrestled with Him ( Genesis 32:30; compare 33:10; Judges 8:5,8; 1 Kings 12:25).

    PENINNAH One of Elkanah’s two wives; bore children when see HANNAH was childless ( 1 Samuel 1:2,6,7). As Hannah’s “adversary,” Peninnah “provoked her with provocation for to make her fret.” As Elkanah from year to year gave Hannah a double portion at the sacrificial meal, “so did Peninnah provoke her so that she wept and did not eat.” Elkanah’s love to Hannah drew out Peninnah’s renewed provocations.

    PENNY (See DRAM , see DRACHMA .) The Greek silver coin, (Latin denarius, from whence the French denier,) bearing the head of the reigning Roman emperor, the date of his tribunitian power or consulate, or the number of times he was saluted emperor ( Matthew 22:19-21). A labourer’s day’s wages ( Matthew 20:2,13). The good Samaritan’s gift of twopence for the entertainment of the man at the inn would suffice for two days. In Revelation 6:6 “a measure (‘choenix,’ two or three pints) of wheat for a penny,” implies comparative scarcity when a man’s whole day’s wages would only buy a day’s provisions, instead of, as ordinarily, buying 16 to 20 measures.

    PENTATEUCH (See MOSES ; see LAW ; see GENESIS ; see EXODUS ; see LEVITICUS ; see NUMBERS ; see DEUTERONOMY .) A term meaning “five volumes” (teuchos in Alexandrian Greek meaning a book); applied to the first five books of the Bible, in Tertullian and Origen. “The book of the law” in Deuteronomy 48:61; 29:21; 30:10; 31:26; “the book of the law of Moses,” Joshua 23:6; Nehemiah 8:1; in Ezra 7:6, “the law of Moses,” “the book of Moses” ( Ezra 6:18). The Jews now call it Torah “the law,” literally, the directory. in Luke 24:27 “Moses” stands for his book. The division into five books is probably due to the Septuagint, for the names of the five books, Genesis, Exodus, etc., are Greek not Hebrew.

    The Jews name each book from its first word; the Pentateuch forms one roll, divided, not into books, but into larger and smaller sections Parshiyoth and Sedorim. They divide its precepts into 248 positive, and 365 negative, 248 being the number of parts the rabbis assign the body, 365 the days of the year. As a mnemonic they carry a square cloth with fringes (tsitsit = 600 in Hebrew) consisting of eight threads and five knots, 613 in all. The five of the Pentateuch answer to the five books of the psalter, and the five megilloth of the hagiographa (Song, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther).

    MOSES’AUTHORSHIP. After the battle with Amalek ( Exodus 17:14) “Jehovah said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in the Book,” implying there was a regular account kept in a well known book. Also Exodus 24:4, “Moses wrote all the words of Jehovah”; ( Exodus 34:27) “Jehovah said unto Moses, Write thou these words” distinguished from Exodus 34:28, “He (Jehovah) wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments” ( Exodus 34:1). Numbers 33:2 “Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of Jehovah.” In Deuteronomy 17:18,19, the king is required to “write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests, the Levites”; and Deuteronomy 31:9-11, “Moses wrote this law and delivered it unto the priests, the son of Levi,” who should “at the end of every seven years read this law before all Israel in their hearing”; and Deuteronomy 31:24,” Moses made an end of writing the words of this law in a book,” namely, the whole Pentateuch (“the law,” Matthew 22:40; Galatians 4:21), “and commanded the Levites ... put it in the side of the ark that it may be a witness against thee,” as it proved under Josiah. The two tables of the Decalogue were IN the ark ( 1 Kings 8:9); the book of the law, the Pentateuch, was laid up in the holy of holies, close by the ark, probably in a chest ( 2 Kings 22:8,18,19). The book of the law thus written by Moses and handed to the priests ends at Deuteronomy 31:23; the rest of the book of Deuteronomy is an appendix added after Moses’ death by another hand, excepting the song and blessing, Moses’ own composition.

    Moses speaks of “this law” and “the book of this law” as some definite volume which he had written for his people ( Deuteronomy 28:61; 29:19,20,29). He uses the third person of himself, as John does in the New Testament He probably dictated much of it to Joshua or some scribe, who subsequently added the account of Moses’ death and a few explanatory insertions. The recension by Ezra (and the great synagogue, Buxtori “Tiberius,” 1:10, Tertullian De Cultu Fem. 3, Jerome ad Helvid.) may have introduced the further explanations which appear post Mosaic. Moses probably uses patriarchal documents, as e.g. genealogies for Genesis; these came down through Shem and Abraham to Joseph and Israel in Egypt.

    That writing existed ages before Moses is proved by the tomb of Chnumhotep at Benihassan, of the twelfth dynasty, representing a scribe presenting to the governor a roll of papyrus covered with inscriptions dated the sixth year of Osirtasin II long before the exodus. The papyrus found by M. Prisse in the hieratic character is considered the oldest of existing manuscripts and is attributed to a prince of the fifth dynasty; weighed down with age, he invokes Osiris to enable him to give mankind the fruits of his long experience. It contains two treatises, the first, of pages, the end of a work of which the former part is lost, the second by a prince, son of the king next before Assa, in whose reign the work was composed. The Greek alphabet borrows its names of letters and order from the Semitic; those names have a meaning in Semitic, none in Greek Tradition made Cadmus (= the Eastern) introduce them into Greece from Phoenicia (Herodot. 5:58). Joshua took a Hittite city, Kirjath Sepher, “the city of the book” ( Joshua 15:15), and changed the name to Debir of kindred meaning. Pertaour, a scribe under Rameses the Great, in an Iliadlike poem engraved on the walls of Karnak mentions Chirapsar, of the Khota or Hittites, a writer of books. From the terms for “write,” “book,” “ink,” being in all Semitic dialects, it follows they must have been known to the earliest Shemites before they branched off into various tribes and nations. Moses, Israel’s wise leader, would therefore be sure to commit to writing their laws, their wonderful antecedents and ancestry, and the Divine promises from the beginning connected with them, and their fulfillment in Egypt, in the exodus, and in the wilderness, in order to evoke their national spirit. Israel would certainly have a written history at a time when the Hittites among whom Israel settled were writers.

    Moreover, from Joshua downward the Old Testament books abound in references to the laws, history, and words of Moses, as such, universally accepted. They are ordered to be read continually ( Joshua 1:7,8); “all the law which Moses My servant commanded ... this book of the law” ( Joshua 8:31,34; 23:6). In Joshua 1:3-8,13-18 the words of Deuteronomy 11:24,25; 31:6-12, and Deuteronomy 3:18-20 Numbers 32:20-28, are quoted. Israel’s constitution in church and state accords with that established by Moses. The priesthood is in Aaron’s family ( Joshua 14:1). “Eleazar,” Aaron’s son, succeeds to his father’s exalted position and with Joshua divides the land ( Joshua 21:1), as Numbers 34:17 ordained; the Levites discharge their duties, scattered among the tribes and having 48 cities, as Jehovah by Moses commanded ( Numbers 35:7). So the tabernacle made by Moses is set up at Shiloh ( Joshua 18:1). The sacrifices ( Joshua 8:31; 22:23,27,29) are those enjoined (Leviticus 1; 2; 3). The altar built ( Joshua 8:30,31; Exodus 20:25) is “as Moses commanded ... in the book of the law of Moses.”

    Compare also as to the ark, Joshua 3:3,6,8; 7:6; circumcision, Joshua 5:2; Passover, Joshua 5:10: with the Pentateuch. There is the same general assembly or congregation and princes ( Joshua 9:18-21; 20:6,9; 22:30; Exodus 16:22); the same elders of Israel ( Joshua 7:6; Deuteronomy 31:9); elders of the city ( Deuteronomy 25:8; Joshua 20:4); judges and officers ( Joshua 8:33; Deuteronomy 16:18); heads of thousands ( Joshua 22:21; Numbers 1:16). Bodies taken down from hanging ( Joshua 8:29; 10:27; Deuteronomy 21:23). No league with Canaan (Joshua 9; Exodus 23:32). Cities of refuge (Joshua 20; Numbers 35:11-15; Deuteronomy 4:41-43; 19:2- 7). Inheritance to Zelophebad’s daughters ( Joshua 17:3; Numbers 27; 36).

    So in Judges Moses’ laws are referred to ( Judges 2:1-3,11,12,20; 6:8- 10; 20:2,6,13; Deuteronomy 13:6,12-14; 22:21). The same law and worship appear in Judges as in Pentateuch. Judah takes the lead ( Judges 1:2; 20:18; Genesis 49:8; Numbers 2:3; 10:14). The judge’s office is as Moses defined it ( Deuteronomy 17:9). Gideon recognizes the theocracy, as Moses ordained ( Judges 8:22,23; Exodus 19:5,6; Deuteronomy 17:14,20; 33:5). The tabernacle is at Shiloh ( Judges 18:31); Israel goes up to the house of God and consults the high priest with Urim and Thummim ( Judges 20:23,26-28; Exodus 28:30; Numbers 27:21; Deuteronomy 12:5). The ephod is the priest’s garment ( Judges 8:27; 17:5; 18:14-17). The Levites scattered through Israel are the recognized ministers ( Judges 17:7-13; 19:1,2).

    Circumcision is Israel’s distinguishing badge ( Judges 14:3; 15:18).

    Historical rereferences to the Pentateuch abound ( Judges 1:16,20,23; 2:1,10; 6:13), especially Judges 11:15-27 epitomizes Numbers 20; 21; Deuteronomy 2:1-8,26-34; compare the language Judges 2:1-23 with Exodus 34:13; Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28; 7:2,8; 12:3; Judges 5:4,5 with Deuteronomy 33:2; 32:16,17.

    In the two books of Samuel the law and Pentateuch are the basis. Eli, high priest, is sprung from Aaron through Ithamar ( 1 Chronicles 24:3; Samuel 8:17; 1 Kings 2:27). The transfer from Eli’s descendants back to Eleazar’s line fulfills Numbers 25:10-13. The tabernacle is still at Shiloh, 1 Samuel 2:14; 4:8; the rabbis say it had now become “a low stone wall-structure with the tent drawn over the top,” attached to it was a warder’s house where Samuel slept. The lamp in it accords with Exodus 27:20,21; Leviticus 24:2,3; but ( 1 Samuel 3:3) let go out, either from laxity or because the law was not understood to enjoin perpetual burning day and night. The ark in the tabernacle still symbolizes God’s presence ( 1 Samuel 4:3,4,18,21,22; 5:3-7; 6:19). Jehovah of hosts dwells between the cherubim. The altar, incense, ephod are mentioned; also the burnt offering (‘owlah ), the whole burnt offering (kalil ), peace offerings (shelamim ): 1 Samuel 10:8; 11:15; 13:9; Exodus 24:5. The bloody sacrifice (zebach ) and unbloody offering (minchah ): 1: Sam. 2:19; 3:14; 26:19. The victims, the bullock, lamb, heifer, and ram, are those ordained in Leviticus ( Leviticus 1:24,25; 7:9; 16:2; 15:22). The priest’s perquisites, etc., in Leviticus 6:6,7; Deuteronomy 18:1, etc., Numbers 18:8-19,25,32, are alluded to in 1 Samuel 2:12,13. The Levites alone should handle the sacred vessels and ark ( 1 Samuel 6:15,19). The historical facts of the Pentateuch are alluded to: Jacob’s descent to Egypt, Israel’s deliverance by Moses and Aaron ( 1 Samuel 12:8); the Egyptian plagues ( 1 Samuel 4:8; 8:8); the Kenites’ kindness ( 1 Samuel 15:6). Language of the Pentateuch is quoted ( 1 Samuel 2:22; Exodus 38:8). The request for a king ( Samuel 8:5,6) accords with Moses’ words ( Deuteronomy 17:14); also Deuteronomy 16:19 with 1 Samuel 8:3. The sacrificing in other places besides at the tabernacle was allowed because the ark was in captivity, and even when restored it was not yet in its permanent seat, Mount Zion, God’s one chosen place ( 1 Samuel 7:17; 10:8; 16:2-5).

    Though Samuel, a Levite not a priest ( 1 Chronicles 6:22-28), is said to sacrifice, it is in the sense that as prophet and judge-prince he blessed it ( 1 Samuel 9:13). Whoever might slay it, the priest alone sprinkled the blood on the altar. So Joshua ( Joshua 8:30,31), Saul ( 1 Samuel 13:9,10), David ( 2 Samuel 24:25), Solomon ( 1 Kings 3:4), and the people ( 1 Kings 3:2) sacrificed through the priest.

    Samuel as reformer brought all ordinances of church and state into conformity with the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch and Mosaic ordinances underlie Samuel’s work; but, while generally observing them, he so far deviates as no forger would do. The conformity is unstudied and unobtrusive, as that of one looking back to ordinances existing and recorded long before.

    David’s psalms allude to and even quote the Pentateuch language ( Psalm 1:3, compare Genesis 39:3,23; Psalm 4:5; Deuteronomy 33:19; Psalm 4:6; Numbers 6:26; Psalm 8:6-8; Genesis 1:26,28; Psalm 9:12; Genesis 9:5; 15:5, Exodus 22:25; 23:8; Leviticus 25:36; Deuteronomy 16:19; Psalm 16:4,5,6; Exodus 23:13; Deuteronomy 32:9; Psalm 17:8; Deuteronomy 32:10; Psalm 24:1; Deuteronomy 10:14; Exodus 19:5; 26:6; 30:19,20; Psalm 30 title; Deuteronomy 20:5; Psalm 39:12; Leviticus 25:23; Psalm 68:1,4,7,8,17; Numbers 10:35; Deuteronomy 33:26; Exodus 13:21; 19:16; Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalm 86:8,14,15; Exodus 15:11; 34:6; Numbers 10:10; <19A317> Psalm 103:17,18; Exodus 20:6; Deuteronomy 7:9; <19B004> Psalm 110:4; Genesis 14:18; <19D302> Psalm 133:2; Exodus 30:25,30. When dying he charges Solomon, “keep the charge, as it is written in the law of Moses” ( 1 Kings 2:3). The Pentateuch must have preceded the kingdom, for it supposes no such form of government.

    Solomon’s Proverbs similarly rest on the Pentateuch ( Proverbs 3:9,18; Exodus 22:29; Genesis 2:9. Proverbs 10:18; Numbers 13:32; 14:36. Proverbs 11:1; 20:10,23; Leviticus 19:35,36; Deuteronomy 25:13. Proverbs 11:13 margin; Leviticus 19:16,”not go up and down as a talebearer”). Solomon’s temple is an exact doubling of the proportions of the tabernacle. No one would have built a house with the proportions of a tent, except to retain the relation of the temple to its predecessor the tabernacle ( 1 Kings 6:1, etc.). The Pentateuch must have preceded the division between Israel and Judah, because it was acknowledged in both. Jehoshaphat in Judah used “the book of the law of Jehovah,” as the textbook for reaching the people ( 2 Chronicles 17:9). In 2 Kings 11:12 “the testimony” is put in the hands of Joash at his coronation. Uzziah burning incense contrary to the law incurs leprosy ( 2 Chronicles 26:16-21; Numbers 16:1 etc.).

    Hezekiah kept the commandments which Jehovah commanded Moses ( 2 Kings 18:4,6). He destroyed the relic, the brazen serpent which remained from Moses’ time, because of its superstitious abuse. Jeroboam in northern Israel set up golden calves on Aaron’s model, with words from Exodus 32:28, “behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of Egypt” ( 1 Kings 12:28). Bethel was chosen as where God appeared to Jacob. The feast in the eighth month was in imitation of that of tabernacles in the seventh month ( 1 Kings 12:32,38), to prevent the people going up to sacrifice at Jerusalem ( 1 Kings 12:27); the Levites remaining faithful to the temple, Jeroboam made priests of the lowest people. In and 2, Kings references to the Pentateuch occur ( 1 Kings 21:3; Leviticus 25:23; Numbers 36:8. 1 Kings 21:10; Numbers 35:30; 22:17; 27:17. 2 Kings 3:20; Exodus 29:38, etc. 2 Kings 4:1; Leviticus 25:39. 2 Kings 6:18; Genesis 19:11. 2 Kings 7:3; Leviticus 13:46).

    In Isaiah 5:24; 29:12; 30:9; Hosea 4:6; 2:15; 6:7 margin; 12:3,4; 11:1; 8:1,12; Amos 2:4, references to the law as a historic record and book, and to its facts, occur ( Genesis 25:26; 28:11; 32:24. Amos 2:10; Genesis 15:16. Amos 3:1,14; Exodus 27:2; 30:10; Leviticus 4:7. Amos 2:11,12; Numbers 6:1-21. Amos 4:4,5; Numbers 28:3,4; Deuteronomy 14:28; Leviticus 2:11; 7:12,13; 22:18-21; Deuteronomy 12:6). Plainly Amos’ “law” was the same as ours. Micah 7:14 alludes to Genesis 3:14, and Micah 7:20 to the promises to Abraham and Jacob; Micah 6:4,5, to the exodus under Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, and to Balak’s attempt through Balaam to curse Israel.

    Under Josiah the Passover is held “according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses” ( 2 Chronicles 35:1,6; 2 Kings 23) on the 14th day of the first month. The sacrifices accord with the Pentateuch; priests, “the sons of Aaron,” and Levites kill the Passover and sprinkle the blood. The Passover is traced back to Samuel’s days, there being no such, Passover from that time toJOSIAH eel. The strange fact that the finding of the book of the law by see HILKIAH in the temple so moved Josiah’s conscience, whereas the Pentateuch had all along been the statute book. of the nation, is accounted for by the prevalent neglect of it during the ungodly and idolatrous preceding reigns, especially Manasseh’s long and awfully wicked one. Moses had ordered the book of the law (not merely Deuteronomy) to be put in the side of the ark for preservation ( Deuteronomy 31:26). The autograph from Moses was the “book” found, “the law of Jehovah by. the hand of Moses” ( 2 Chronicles 34:14). Seven hundred years had elapsed, not nearly as long as many manuscripts have been preserved to, us; we have papyri older than Moses, more than 3,000 years ago. The curses in the book read to the king are in Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 27; 28; compare verse 36 with 2 Kings 22:13, where the king is especially mentioned as about to be punished. When the ark was removed ( Chronicles 35:3) during Manasseh’s sacrilegious reign the temple copy or autograph of the law was hid somewhere, probably built into the wall, and discovered in repairing the temple. Josiah, as yet young, and having been kept in ignorance of the law by the idolatrous Amon his father, was still only a babe in knowledge of spiritual truth. The immediate recognition of its authority by Hilkiah the highpriest, the scribes, priests, Levites, elders, and Huldah the prophetess ( 2 Kings 22:8-14; 23:1-4), when found, marks that, however kings, priests, and people had forgotten and wandered from it, they recognized it as the long established statute book of the nation.

    So entirely is Jeremiah, who began prophesying the 13th year of Josiah, imbued with the language of Deuteronomy that rationalists guess him to be its author. The part of Jeremiah 2:1--8:17 is admitted to have been written before the finding of the law by Josiah. In Jeremiah 2:8; 8:8, he alludes to the law as the established statute book. For allusions compare Jeremiah 2:6 with Deuteronomy 8:15; Numbers 14:7,8; 35:33,34; Leviticus 18:25-28; also Jeremiah 2:28, “circumcise ... take away the foreskins of your heart,” with Deuteronomy 32:37,38; 4:4; 10:16; 30:6, a figure nowhere else found in Scripture; Jeremiah 5:15 with Deuteronomy 28:31,49.

    In Ezekiel 22:7-12 there are 29 quotations from the Hebrew words of Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy. In Ezekiel 22:26 four references: Leviticus 10:10; 22:2, etc.; 20:25; Exodus 31:13. So in Ezekiel 16; 18; 20, a recapitulation of God’s loving and long suffering dealings with Israel as recorded in the Pentateuch. Ezra on the return from Babylon read the book of the law of Moses at the feast of tabernacles (as enjoined Deuteronomy 31:10-13) “before the men and women who could understand (Hebrew), and the ears of all were attentive to the book of the law” ( Nehemiah 8:3). Their accepting it even at the cost of putting away their wives (Ezra 10) is the strongest proof of its universal recognition for ages by the nation. For the younger people, who had almost lost Hebrew and spoke Aramaic, Syriac, or Chaldee, he and the Levites read or gave after the Hebrew law a Chaldee paraphrase which they understood ( Ezra 10:8). He arranged the older books of Old Testament, and probably with Malachi fixed the canon, and transcribed the Hebrew or Samaritan character into the modern Chaldee square letters.

    The ancient Jews and Christian fathers knew of see THE SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH . It was first brought to light in modern times (A.D. 1616) by Pietro della Valle, who obtained a manuscript of it from the Samaritans of Damascus. The agreement of this with our Jewish Pentateuch (see BIBLE , see OLD TESTAMENT ) is a sure proof that our Pentateuch is the same as Israel used, for no collusion could have taken place between such deadly rivals as Jews and Samaritans. Manasseh brother of see JADDUA the high priest , having married Sanballat’s (laughter ( Nehemiah 13:28), was expelled and became the first high priest on Mount see GERIZIM in concert with others, priests and Levites, who would not put away their pagan wives (Josephus, Ant. 11:8, section 2,4). Probably he and they brought to Samaria the Samaritan Pentateuch from Jerusalem. As it testifies against their pagan marriages and schismatical worship, the Samaritans would never have accepted it if they had not believed in its genuineness and divine authority. It certainly could not have been imposed on them at a later time than Ezra; so from at least that date it is an independent witness of the integrity of the five books of Moses. This testimony may be much older for probably the Samaritan Pentateuch was carried by the priest sent by Esarhaddon in Manasseh’s reign (680 B.C.) to teach Jehovah’s worship to the Cuthire colonists planted in Samaria ( Kings 17:24,28; Ezra 2--10). The Septuagint Greek translated shows that the Egyptian Jews accepted the Pentateuch. Antiochus Epiphanes directed his fury against the books of the law (1 Macc. 1). The Chaldee paraphrase of Onkelos in our Lord’s time agrees with our Pentateuch.

    New Testament attestation. Our Lord and His apostles in New Testament refer to the Pentateuch as of divine authority and Mosaic authorship ( Matthew 19:4,5,7,8; 4:4,7,10; 15:1-9; Mark 10:5,8; 12:26; Luke 16:29,31, 20:28,37; 24:27,44,45; John 1:17; 5:45,46; 8:5; Acts 3:22; 8:37; 26:22). The two dispensations, separated by 1,500 years, having each its attesting miracles and prophecies since fulfilled and shedding mutual light on one another, could not possibly be impostures.

    The very craving of the Jews after “a sign” indicates the notoriety and reality of the miracles formerly wrought among them ( John 6:13).

    The author of the Pentateuch must have been intimately acquainted with the learning, laws, manners, and religion of Egypt (Spencer, De Leg. Heb.; Hengstenberg, Egypt and Books of Moses). The plagues were an intensification of the ordinary plagues of the country, coming and going miraculously at God’s command by Moses (Bryant, Plag. Egypt.). The making of bricks (generally found to have chopped straw) by captives is represented on the Egyptian monuments ( Exodus 1:14; 5:7,8,18; Brugsch, Hist. d’Egypt., 106). Moses’ ark of papyrus suits Egypt alone ( Exodus 2:3); Isis was borne upon a boat of papyrus (Plutarch de Isaiah et Osiri; Herodotus ii. 37,96). Bitumen was much used, it was a chief ingredient in embalming. The cherubim over the mercy-seat resemble Egyptian sculptures. The distinction clean and unclean was Egyptian, also the hereditary priesthood as the Aaronic. The Egyptian priesthood shaved their whole bodies and bathed continually (Herodotus ii. 37), and wore linen (the sole ancient priesthood that wore only linen except the Levites: Numbers 8:7; Exodus 40:12-15; 28:39-42). Aaron’s anointing in his priestly robes resembles that of the king on Egyptian monuments with royal robes, cap, and crown. The scapegoat answers to the victim on the head of which the Egyptians heaped curses and sold it to foreigners or threw it into the river (Herodotus ii. 39). Answering to the Urim and Thummim on the high priest’s breastplate was the sapphire image of truth which the Egyptian chief priest wore as judge. The temples and tombs have hieroglyphics inscribed on their doorposts, in correspondence to Deuteronomy 11:20. Pillars with inscriptions on the plaster were an Egyptian usage; so Deuteronomy 27:2,3. So the bastinado on the criminal, made to lie down, is illustrated in the Benihassan sculptures ( Deuteronomy 25:2). The unmuzzled ox treading out the grain ( Deuteronomy 25:4). The offerings for the dead forbidden ( Deuteronomy 26:14) were such as were usual in Egypt, a table being placed in the tombs bearing cakes, etc.

    Frequent memorials of Israel’s wilderness wanderings remained after their settlement in Canaan. The tabernacle in all its parts was fitted for carrying.

    The phrases “tents of the Lord,” applied to precincts of the temple; the cry of revolt, “to your tents O Israel”; “without the camp,” for the city, long after the expression was literally applicable, are relics of their nomadic life in the desert. So Psalm 80:1: “Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth! Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up Thy strength, and come,” represents Israel’s three warrior tribes on march surrounding the ark, with the pillar of fire shining high above it. The elders of the synagogue succeeded to the elders or chiefs of the tribes. The ark itself was of acacia (shittim) wood of the Sinaitic peninsula, not of cedar, the usual wood for sacred purposes ill Palestine. The coverings were of goats’ hair, ramskin dyed red in Arab fashion, and sealskins (see BADGER ) from the adjoining Red Sea, and fine Egyptian linen. So the detailed permission to eat the various game of the wilderness, wild goat, roe, deer, ibex, antelope, and chamois, applies not to Canaan; it could only have been enacted in Israel’s desert life previously. The laws and the lawgiver s language look forward to life in Canaan ( Exodus 12:25-27; 13:1-5; 23:20-23; 34:11; Leviticus 14:34; 18:3,24; 19:23; 20:22; 23:10; 25:2; Numbers 15:2,18; 34:2; 35:2-34; Deuteronomy 4:1; 6:10; 7:1; 9:1, etc.). The objection from the author’s knowledge of Canaan’s geography against its Mosaic authorship is answered by Moses’ knowledge of the patriarchs’ wanderings in Canaan. Further, the Egyptians knew Palestine well from the reign of Thothmes I. Moses in his 40 years in Midian and the Sinai wilderness was sure to hear much about Palestine, and probably visited it and sent agents to learn the character of the country, cities, and people.

    The prophecies, as Deuteronomy 12:10, when ye go over Jordan ... and He giveth you rest ... round about,” are just such as would not have been written after the event. For neither at the close of Joshua’s career ( Joshua 23:1), nor under the judges and Samuel (to whom some rationalists assign the Pentateuch), nor in any reign before Solomon, was there a fulfillment which adequately came up to the language. No forger would put into Moses’ month words promising seemingly “rest” immediately after entering Carman, whereas it was not realized for years after.

    The language is archaic, suiting the time of Moses. Archaisms are found in the Pentateuch not elsewhere occurring. The third person pronoun has (unpointed) no variety of gender, the one form serves both for masculine and feminine. So na’ar is both boy and girl in Pentateuch, elsewhere only “boy,” na’arah is “girl.” ‘Eel stands for the later ‘eelleh , “these.” The infinitive of verbs ending in -h ends in -o instead of ot ( Genesis 31:28; 48:11; Exodus 18:18). The third person plural ends in -un instead of -u.

    Words unique to Pentateuch are ‘abiyb , “an ear of grain”; ‘amtachath , “a sack”; bathar , “divide”; bether , “piece”; gozal , “young bird”; zebed , “present”; zabad , “to present”; hermeesh , “a sickle”; mene , “basket”; hayiqum , “substance”; keseb for kebes , “lamb”; masweh , “veil”; ‘ar for ‘ir , “city”; se’er , “blood relation.” Moses mainly moulded his people’s language for ages, so that the same Hebrew was intelligible in Malachi’s time, 1,000 years subsequently; just as the Mecca people still speak the Koran language written 1,200 years ago. Joshua the warrior had not the qualifications, still less had Samuel the knowledge of Egypt and Sinai, to write the Pentateuch.

    The theory of a patchwork of pieces of an Elohist and several Jehovist authors constituting our homogeneous Pentateuch which has commanded the admiration of all ages, and which is marked by unity, is too monstrous to be seriously entertained. In Deuteronomy 17:18,19, “when he (the king) sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites, and he shall read therein all his life,” i.e. he shall have a copy written for him, namely, of the whole Pentateuch. It was as necessary for him to know Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, being that law and history on which Deuteronomy is the recapitulatory comment and supplement, as it was to know Deuteronomy. At the feast of tabernacles every seven years a reading took place, not of the whole Pentateuch, but of lessons selected out of it and representing the whole law which Israel should obey ( Nehemiah 8:18). Latterly only certain parts of Deuteronomy have been read on the first day alone. In Deuteronomy 27:3 Moses charges Israel “thou shalt write upon (great stones plastered) all the words of this law,” namely, not the historical, didactic, ethnological, and non-legislative parts, but the legal enactments of the Pentateuch (the Jews reckoned 613, see above). In Egypt the hieroglyphics are generally graven in stone, the “plaster” being added afterward to protect the inscription from the weather ( Joshua 8:32). The closing words of Numbers 36:13, also of Leviticus 27:34; 25:1; 26:46, and the solemn warning against adding to or taking from Moses’ commands ( Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32), are incompatible with a variety of authors, and imply that Moses alone is the writer of the Pentateuch as a whole.

    A future life not ignored, but suggested. Though Moses did not employ a future state as a sanction of his law, yet he believed it, as the history proves. The Pentateuch contains enough to suggest it to a serious mind.

    All other ancient legislators make a future state of reward and punishment the basis of the sanctions of their law; Moses rests his on rewards and punishments to follow visibly in this life, which proves the reality of the special divine providence which miraculously administered the law. Its one aim was obedience to Jehovah ( Deuteronomy 28:58). Many particulars were impolitic in a mere human point of view: e.g. their peculiar food, ritual, and customs, excluding strangers and impeding commerce; the prohibition of cavalry ( Deuteronomy 17:16); the assembling of the males thrice a year to the sanctuary, leaving the frontier unguarded, the sole security being God’s promise that “no man should desire their land” at those sacred seasons ( Exodus 34:24); the command to leave their lands untilled the seventh year, with the penalty that the land should enjoy its Sabbath during their captivity if they did not allow it rest while dwelling upon it, and with the promise that God would command His blessing in the sixth year, so that the land should bring forth fruit for three years ( Leviticus 25:21; 26:32-35). Nor could human sagacity foresee, as Moses did, that not the hostile nations around them, but one from far, from the ends of the earth, the Romans (led by Vespasian and Hadrian, who both came from commanding Roman legions in Britain) whose language they understood not, whereas they understood most of the dialects around Palestine, should be their final conquerors. Their dispersion in all lands, yet unity and distinctness, and preservation in spite of bitter persecutions for almost 1,800 years, all fulfill Deuteronomy 28:64-68; whereas in former captivities they were conveyed to one place, as in Goshen in Egypt, and in Babylon, so that their restoration as one nation was easy. “A few million, so often subjugated, stand the test of 3,000 revolving years, and the fiery ordeal of 15 centuries of persecution; we alone have been spared by the undiscriminating hand of time, like a column standing amidst the wreck of worlds.” (Transactions of the Parisian Sanhedrim, p. 68.)

    But Moses does not ignore spiritual sanctions to his law, while giving chief prominence to the temporal. The epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 11) distinctly asserts the patriarchs “all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth ... they desire a better country, that is an heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city” ( Hebrews 11:13-16). Man’s creation in God’s image, God directly breathing into him a “living soul” ( Genesis 1:26,27; 2:7-17); his being threatened with double death if he ate the forbidden fruit, and made capable of living forever by eating of the tree of life, and after the fall promised a Deliverer, the sacrifices pointing to One who by His death should recover man’s forfeited life: all imply the hope of future immortality. So Abel’s premature death, the result of his piety, requires his being rewarded in a future life; otherwise God’s justice would be compromised ( Hebrews 11:4). So other facts: Enoch’s translation, Abraham’s offering Isaac, symbolizing Messiah to the patriarch who “desired to see His day, and saw it and was glad” ( John 8:56; Genesis 22); “Moses’ choosing to suffer affliction with God’s people, rather than enjoy sin’s pleasures for a season, and his esteeming Christ’s reproach greater riches than Egypt’s treasures, because he had respect to the recompence of reward” ( Hebrews 11:24-27); God’s declaration after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead, “I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” ( Exodus 3:6), requiring a future eternal recompence in body and soul to make good God’s promise of special favor, so inadequately realized while they were in their mortal bodies ( Matthew 22:29); and Balaam’s prayer ( Numbers 23:10).

    ORDER. The development of God’s grace to man is the golden thread running through the whole, and binding the parts in one organic unity.

    Chronological sequence regulates the parts in the main, as accords with its historical character; so Genesis rightly begins, Deuteronomy closes, the whole. Grace runs through Seth’s line to Noah; thence to Abraham, whose family become heirs of the promise for the world. Israel’s birth and deliverance as a nation occupy Exodus. Leviticus follows as the code for the religious life and worship of the elect people. Numbers takes up the history again, and with renewed legislation leaves Israel at the borders of the promised land. Deuteronomy recapitulates and applies the whole. Blunt (Undesigned Coincidences) notices the incompleteness of the Pentateuch as a history, and consequently the importance of observing the glimpses given by its passing hints. Thus Joseph’s “anguish of soul when he besought” the brothers, unnoticed in the direct story, but incidentally coming out in their confession of guilt ( Genesis 42:21); the overcoming of Jacob’s reluctance to give up Benjamin, briefly told in the direct account as though taking no long time, but incidentally shown to have taken as long time as would have sufficed for a journey to Egypt and back ( Genesis 43:10); the hints in Jacob’s deathbed prophecy of his strong feeling as to Reuben’s misconduct, not noticed in the history ( Genesis 35:22, compare Genesis 49:4); so as to Simeon and Levi ( Genesis 49:6).

    The allusion to Anah ( Genesis 36:24). The introduction of Joshua as one well known in Israel, though not mentioned before ( Exodus 17:9).

    The sending back of Zipporah by Moses ( Exodus 18:2), noticed at Jethro’s taking them to Moses but not previously. The phrases “before the Lord,” “from the presence of the Lord,” marking the spot where sacrifices were brought and where Jehovah signified His presence, probably where the cherubim were, E. of Eden ( Genesis 4:16). The minuteness of details in the Pentateuch marks truth, also the touches of nature: e.g. “the mixed multitude,” half castes or Egyptians, are the first to sigh for Egypt’s cucumbers, etc. ( Numbers 11:4.) Aaron’s cowardly self exculpation, “there came out this calf,” as if the fire was in fault ( Exodus 32:24).

    The special cases incidentally arising and requiring to be provided for in the working of a new system; e.g. the man found gathering sticks on the Sabbath (could an impostor have devised such a trifle?); the request of Zelophehad’s daughters for the inheritance, there being no male heir ( Numbers 15:32; 36:2): matters inconsiderable in themselves, but giving occasion to important laws. The simplicity and dignity throughout, without parade of language, in describing even miracles (contrast Josephus Ant. 2:16 and 3:1 with Exodus 14; 16). Moses’ candor; as when he tells of his own want of eloquence unfitting him to be a leader ( Exodus 4:10,30); his want of faith which excluded him from the promised land, omitted by Josephus ( Numbers 20:12); his brother Aaron’s idolatry ( Exodus 32:21); the profaneness of Nadab and Abihu his nephews (Leviticus 10); his sister’s jealousy and punishment (Numbers 12); his tribe Levi’s spy being faithless as the other nine; his disinterestedness, seeking no dignity for his sons, and appointing Joshua his successor, no relation of his; his prophecies fulfilled in Messiah (Deuteronomy 18) and in the fall of Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 28). The key afforded in the Pentateuch to widely scattered traditions of pagans, as the golden age, the garden of the Hesperides; the fruit tree guarded by the dragon, the deluge destroying all but two righteous persons (Ovid, Met. 1:327), the rainbow a sign set in the cloud (Homer, Iliad xi. 27,28), the seventh day sacred (Hesiod, Erga kai Hem., 770). The onerous nature of the law, restraining their actions at every turn ( Deuteronomy 22:6,9,8,10; Leviticus 17:13; 19:23,27,9,19; 25:13), implies there must have been extraordinary powers in the legislator to command acceptance for such enactments. The main facts were so public, singular, and important, affecting the interests of every order, that no man could have gained credence for a false account of them. The Pentateuch was published and received during, or immediately after, the events, and is quoted by every Jewish writer and sect from Joshua downward. A whole nation so civilized could not have been deceived as to a series of facts so public and important. The details of the tabernacle given so minutely are utterly unfit to convey an idea of magnificence, nay are wearisome, if it were not that they are just what Moses would give, if really the author, and if he detailed the particulars for instructing the artists at the time, and according to the divine model given him ( Exodus 25:8,9,40; 39:42,43). The genealogies of the Pentateuch must have existed at the first distribution of land, for the property was unalienable from the family and tribe. So also the geographical enumerations (Numbers 33--35) have that particularity which is inconsistent with imposture. The author exposes the weak and obscure origin of Israel ( Deuteronomy 26:5); their ungrateful apostasy from Jehovah’s pure worship, to the calf (Exodus 32); their cowardice on the spies’ return (Numbers 13--14; Deuteronomy 9; Deuteronomy 31). No people would have submitted to the jubilee law ( Leviticus 25:4,5; 26:34,35) except both legislator and people were convinced that God had dictated it, and by a peculiar providence would facilitate its execution.

    Miraculous interpositions such as the Pentateuch details alone would produce this conviction. The law was coeval with the witnesses of the miracles; the Jews have always received it as written by the legislator at the time of the facts, and as the sole repository of their religion, laws, and history. No period can be assigned when it could have been introduced, without the greatest opposition, if it were a forgery. None can be pointed out whose interest it was to frame such a forgery. The minute particularity of time, place, person, and circumstance marks an eye witness. The natural and undesigned coincidences between Moses’ address in Deuteronomy and the direct narrative in the previous books, as regards the common facts and the miracles, point to Moses as the author (Graves, Penteuch, 6).

    PENTECOST (“fiftieth”). (See FEASTS .) Exodus 23:16; 34:22; Numbers 28:26-31; Deuteronomy 16:9-14; Leviticus 23:15-22. The first sheaf offered at the Passover and the two leavened loaves at Pentecost marked the beginning and ending of the grain harvest, and sanctified the interval between as the whole harvest or Pentecostal season. The lesson to Israel was, “Jehovah maketh peace in thy borders, He filleth thee with the finest of the wheat” ( <19E714> Psalm 147:14). Pentecost commemorated the giving of the law on Sinai ( Exodus 12:2,19), the 50th day after the exodus, 50th from “the morrow after the sabbath” (i.e. the first day of holy convocation, 15th Nisan); the day after was more fit for cutting the sheaf, the 16th day.

    It was also the birthday of the Christian church ( Acts 2:1; 20:16; Corinthians 16:8) through the Holy Spirit, who writes Christ’s new law on the heart. It was the last Jewish feast Paul observed, and the first which, as Whitsunday, Christians kept. “The feast of weeks” (a week of weeks between Passover and Pentecost), “the day of firstfruits.” The sixth day of Sivan, lasting only one day; but the Jews in foreign countries have added a second day. Each of the two loaves was the tenth of an ephah (about three quarts and a half) of finest wheat flour. Waved Before Jehovah with a peace offering of the two lambs of the first year, and given to the priests.

    Seven lambs of the first year were sacrificed, one bullock and two rams as a burnt offering with meat and drink offering, and a kid sin offering. Each brought a free will offering. The Levite, stranger, fatherless, and widow were invited. As the Passover was a family gathering, Pentecost was a social feast. The people were reminded of their Egyptian bondage and of their duty to obey the law. The concourse at Pentecost was very great (Acts 2; Josephus Ant. 14:13, section 14, 17:10, section 2; B. J. 2:3, section 1). In Exodus 23:16,19, “the first (i.e. chief) of the firstfruits” are the two wave loaves of Pentecost ( Leviticus 23:17). The omer offering at Passover was the prelude to the greater harvest offering at Pentecost, before which no other firstfruits could be offered. The interval between Pentecost and tabernacles was the time for offering firstfruits. The Jews called Pentecost “the concluding assembly of the Passover” (‘atsereth ). If the last supper was on the legal day, the 14th Nisan, and the Sabbath of Jesus’ lying in the grave was the day of the omer, the Pentecost of Acts 2,50 days after, must have been on the Jewish Saturday Sabbath.

    Others make the 13th that of the supper; 14th the crucifixion, the Passover day; 15th the day of Jesus’ sleep, the Saturday Sabbath, the holy convocation; our Sunday, first day, the omer day; 50th day from that would be Pentecost, on our Lord’s day. The tongues symbolized Christianity proclaimed by preaching; the antithesis to Babel’s confusion of tongues and gathering of peoples under one ambitious will. Jerusalem, the mount of the Lord, is the center of God’s spiritual kingdom of peace and righteousness; Babel, the center of Satan’s kingdom and of human rebellion, ignores God the true bond of union, and so is the city of confusion, in the low dead level of Shinar. As Babel’s sin disunited, so by the Spirit of God given on Pentecost believers are one, “keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” ( Ephesians 4:1-16).

    PENUEL (See PENIEL .) Between Jabbok and Succoth ( Genesis 32:22,30,31; 33:17). see GIDEON after Succoth mounted to Penuel ( Judges 8:5-8.)

    It then had a tower. Jeroboam fortified Penuel ( 1 Kings 12:25.) The men of Penuel, like those of Succoth, as living on the great army route between Canaan and the East, would not help Gideon through fear of Midian’s vengeance. Penuel was a frontier fortress built “by the way of them that dwelt in tents” (i.e., their usual route along the course of the Jabbok, where they would have a level way and grass and water, down to the Damieh ford of the Jordan, and so into Canaan). Hence arose Jeroboam’s need of rebuilding the tower which Gideon had broken down long before, and which lay due E. from his capital. Four miles above “Canaan’s ford” are two conical hills called “hills of gold” (Dhahab) from the yellow sandstone; one is on one side, the other on the other side, of the stream. The western one is larger and has more ruins; the ruins on the eastern one are remarkable, a platform running along its precipitous side, strengthened by a wall 20 ft. high and very solid. The work is cyclopean and of the oldest times; and there are no ruins along the Jabbok course for 50 miles save those. The strange aspect of the place harmonizes with the name given after Jacob’s wrestling with the angel of Jehovah, “the Face of God.”

    PEOR The mountain top to which Balak brought Balaam, for his last conjurations, from the lower Pisgah on its S. ( Numbers 23:28.) A little to the N.E. of the Dead Sea. Bethpeer adjoined the ravine (gai ) connected with Israel’s camp and Moses’ burial place ( Deuteronomy 3:29; 4:46; 34:6). The ravine of Bethpeor was that which runs down from near Heshbon eastward past Beth-ram; at its upper end are a town’s ruins, Naur or Taur. “The Peor” faced Jeshimon. (On Peor, contracted for see BAALPEOR ) Numbers 25:18; 31:16; Joshua 22:17.

    PERAZIM Isaiah 28:21, “Jehovah shall rise up as in Mount Perazim,” namely, as He broke forth as waters do, and made a breach (= Perazim) on David’s foes at see BAAL PERAZIM by the valley of’ Rephaim ( 2 Samuel 5:20). So utter and sudden was the rout that the Philistines left their idols behind, and David burned them ( 1 Chronicles 14:11). “Mount” thus connected with “Baal” implies it was an idolatrous high place. Isaiah’s reference to it as type of Jehovah’s most sudden and overwhelming judgments shows how much heavier a blow it was than would appear from the incidental notice of it in 1 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. Josephus (Ant. 7:4, section 1) says not only the Philistines but “all Syria and Phoenicia, and many other warlike nations beside,” made the attack on David.

    PERDITION Not annihilation. For in the case of the lost not only the worm but “their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched”; i.e. both the instrument of punishment, and the object of it, the lost man, die not. Thrice repeated by Christ with awful emphasis ( Mark 9:44,46,48). (See HELL .) Matthew 10:28; 13:50; 3:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; John 3:36; 5:29; Isaiah 66:24 ten “son of perditions” see ANTICHRIST ); applied only to him and Judas, marking the like character and destiny of both ( John 17:12; Acts 1:20; Psalm 69; 2 Thessalonians 2; Revelation 17:10,11); his course is short, from the moment of his manifestation doomed to perdition.

    PERESH 1 Chronicles 7:16.

    PEREZ (See PHAREZ .) An important family of Judah, of whom one was “chief of all the captains of the host for the first month” ( 1 Chronicles 27:3); returned from Babylon; some settled in Jerusalem ( Nehemiah 11:4-6).

    PEREZ-UZZA orUZZAH = “Uzzah’s breaking”. (See PERAZIM .) 1 Chronicles 13:11; 15:13; 2 Samuel 6:8. So David named Nachon’s or Chidoh’s threshing floor, because Jehovah made a breach or breaking forth on Uzzah for his presumptuous rashness in stretching forth his hand to support the shaken ark. Now Khirbet el Uz or Auz, two miles from Kirjath Jearim, on the hill above Chesla (Chesalon), a short way before Kuryet es Saideh, “the blessed city,” i.e. the abode of Obed Edom whom God” blessed.” Uzzah was a Kohathite Levite (Josephus, Ant. 6:1, section 4). The ark was taken to his father Abinadab’s house, as subsequently to Obed Edom’s, just because he was a Levite. Probably the Amminadab of 1 Chronicles 15:10, of Kohath’s family ( 1 Chronicles 6:18); Numbers 4:5,15, shows the Kohathites were to bear but not to touch the ark, which was the office of Aaron’s family. So ministers claiming the sacerdotal priest’s office usurp Christ’s office at their peril.

    PERGA On the river Cestrus, then navigable up to the city; in see PAMPHYLIA .

    The scene of John Mark’s deserting Paul. Its inhabitants retreat during the unhealthy summer heats up to the cool hollows (the Yailahs) in the Pisidian hills. Paul came in May when the passes would be cleared of snow, and would join a Pamphylian company on their way to the Pisidian heights ( Acts 13:13), and would return with them on his way from Antioch in Pisidia ( Acts 14:24,25). He and Barnabas preached here.

    PERGAMOS A city of Mysia, three miles N. of the River Caicus. Eumenes II (197-159 B.c.) built a beautiful city round an impregnable castle on “the pine-coned rock.” Attalus II bequeathed his kingdom to Rome 133 B.C. The library was its great boast; founded by Earaches and destroyed by Caliph Omar.

    The prepared sheepskins were called pergamena charta from whence our “parchment” is derived. The Nicephorium, or thank offering grove for victory over Antiochus, had an assemblage of temples of idols, Zeus, Athene, Apollo, Aesculapius, Dionysus, Aphrodite. Aesculapius the healing god (Tacitus, Ann. 3:63) was the prominent Pergamean idol (Martial); the Pergamenes on coins are called “the principal temple-care-takers (neokoroi) of Asia,” and their ritual is made by Pausanias a standard. The grove of Aesculapius was recognized by the Roman senate under Tiberius as having right of sanctuary. The serpent (Satan’s image) was sacred to him, charms and incantations were among medical agencies then, and Aesculapius was called “saviour.” How appropriately the address to the Pergamos church says, “I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat (throne) is,” etc. Here see ANTIPAS , Jesus’ “faithful martyr,” was slain ( Revelation 2:12-16). “Thou hast them that hold the doctrine of Beldam who taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before ...

    Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication”; this naturally would happen in such an idol-devoted city. The Nicolaitanes persuaded some to escape obloquy by yielding in the test of faithfulness, the eating of idol meats; even further, on the plea of Christian “liberty,” to join in fornication which was a regular concomitant of certain idols’ worship. Jesus will compensate with “the hidden manna” (in contrast to the occult arts of Aesculapius) the Pergamene Christian who rejects the world’s dainties for Christ. Like the incorruptible manna preserved in the sanctuary, the spiritual feast Jesus offers, an incorruptible life of body and soul, is everlasting. The “white stone” is the glistering diamond, the Urim (light) in the high priest’s breastplate; “none” but the high priest “knew the name” on it, probably Jehovah. As Phinehas was rewarded for his zeal against idol compliances and fornication (to which Balaam seduced Israel), with “an everlasting priesthood,” so the heavenly priesthood is the reward of those zealous against New Testament Balaamites. Now Bergamo.

    PERIDA, CHILDREN OF Returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel ( Nehemiah 7:57; Ezra 2:55\parPERUDA).

    PERIZZITE One of the ten doomed tribes of Canaan ( Genesis 15:19-21). Six including Perizzite are enumerated Exodus 3:8,17. The Canaanite and Perizzite are joined in Genesis 13:7. From Joshua 11:3; 17:15, they seem to have occupied the woods and mountains. Bochart (Phaleg. iv. 36) makes them an agrarian race living in villages only, the name signifying rustics, pagani. Bezek was their stronghold, and Adoni-bezek their chief ( Judges 1:4,5), in the S. of Palestine, also on the western sides of Mount Carmel ( Joshua 17:15-18). Reduced to bond service by Solomon ( 1 Kings 9:20; 2 Chronicles 7:7). The Hebrew perezot , “unwalled country villages” or “towns,” were inhabited by peasants engaged in agriculture like the Arab fellahs ( Deuteronomy 3:5; Samuel 6:18; Ezekiel 38:11; Zechariah 2:4).

    PERSIA Ezekiel 27:10, 38:5. “Persia proper” was originally a small territory (Herodot. 9:22). On the N. and N.E. lay Media, on the S. the Persian gulf, Elam on the W., on the E. Carmania. Now Furs, Farsistan. Rugged, with pleasant valleys and plains in the mid region and mountains in the N. The S. toward the sea is a hot sandy plain, in places covered with salt.

    Persepolis (in the beautiful valley of the Bendamir), under Darius Hystaspes, took the place of Pasargadae the ancient capital; of its palace “Chehl Minar,” “forty columns,” still exist. Alexander in a drunken fit, to please a courtesan, burned the palace. Pasargadae, 40 miles to the N., was noted for Cyrus’ tomb (Arrian) with the inscription, “I am Cyrus the Achaemenian.” (See CYRUS .)

    The Persians came originally from the E., from the vicinity of the Sutlej (before the first contact of the Assyrians with Aryan tribes E. of Mount Zagros, 880 B.C.), down the Oxus, then S. of the Caspian Sea to India.

    There were ten castes or tribes: three noble, three agricultural, four nomadic; of the last were the “Dehavites” or Dali ( Ezra 4:9). The Pasargadae were the noble tribes, in which the chief house was that of the Achaemenidae. Darius on the rock of Behistun inscribed: “from antiquity our race have been kings. There are eight of our race who have been kings before me, I am the ninth.” (See ELAM on its relation to Persia.)

    The Persian empire stretched at one time from India to Egypt and Thrace, including all western Asia between the Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian, the Jaxartes upon the N., the Arabian desert, Persian gulf, and Indian ocean on the S. Darius in the inscription on his tomb at Nakhsh-irustam enumerates thirty countries besides Persia subject to him, Media, Susiana, Parthia, Aria, Bactria, Sogdiana, Chorasmia, Zarangia, Arachosia, Sattagydia, Gaudaria, India, Scythia, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, Armenia, Cappadocia, Saparda, Ionia, the Aegean isles, the country of the Scodrae (European), Ionia, the Tacabri, Budians, Cushites, Mardians, and Colchians.

    The organization of the Persian kingdom and court as they appear in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, accords with independent secular historians. The king, a despot, had a council, “seven princes of Persia and Media which see his face and sit the first in the kingdom” ( Esther 1:14, Ezra 7:14).

    So Herodotus (iii. 70-79) and Behistun inscription mention seven chiefs who organized the revolt against Smerdis (the Behistun rock W. of Media has one inscription in three languages, Persian, Babylonian, and Stythic, read by Grotefend). “The law of the Persians and Medes which alters not” ( Esther 1:19) also controlled him in some measure. In Scripture we read of 127 provinces ( Esther 1:1) with satraps ( Esther 3:12; 8:9; Xerxes in boasting enlarged the list; 60 are the nations in his armament according to Herodotus) maintained from the palace ( Ezra 4:14), having charge of the revenue, paid partly in money partly in kind ( Ezra 7:21,22). Mounted posts (unique to Persia and described by Xenophon, Cyr. 8:6,17, and Herodotus, viii. 98), with camels (Strabo 15:2, section 10) and horses pressed into service without pay (angareuein : Matthew 5:41; Mark 15:21), conveyed the king’s orders ( Esther 3:10,12,13; 8:10,14), authenticated by the royal signet (so Herod. iii. 128). A favorite minister usually had the government mainly delegated to him by the king ( Esther 3:1-10; 8:8; 10:2,3). Services were recorded ( Esther 2:23; 6:2,3) and the actors received reward as “royal benefactors” (Herodotus iii. 140); state archives were the source of Ctesias’ history of Persia (Diod.

    Sic. 3:2.) The king lived at Susa ( Esther 1:2; Nehemiah 1:1) or Babylon ( Ezra 7:9; Nehemiah 13:6). In accordance with Esther 1:6, as to “pillars of marble” with “pavement of red, blue, white, and black,” and “hangings of white, green, and blue of fine linen and purple to the pillars,” the remains exhibit four groups of marble pillars on a pavement of blue limestone, constructed for curtains to hang between the columns as suiting the climate. (Loftus’ Chaldeea and Susiana.) One queen consort was elevated above the many wives and concubines who approached the king” in their turn.” To intrude on the king’s privacy was to incur the penalty of death (compare Herodotus, iii. 60-84 with Esther 2:12,15; 4:11-16; 5).

    Parsa is the native name, the modern Parsee; supposed to mean “tigers.”

    Originally simple in habits, upon overthrowing the Medes they adopted their luxury. They had a dual worship, Oromasdes or Ormuzd, “the great giver of life,” the supreme good god; Mithra, the sun, and Home, the moon, were under him. Ahriman, “the death dealing” being, opposed to Oromasdes. Magianism, the worship of the elements, especially fire, the Scythic religion, infected the Persian religion when the Persians entered their new country. Zoroaster (the Greek form of Zerdusht), professing to be Ormuzd’s prophet, was the great reformer of their religious system, the contemporary of Daniel (Warburton 4:180, but according to Markham 1500 B.C., before the separation of the two Aryan races, the Indians and Persians) and acquainted with the Jewish Scriptures, as appears from his account of creation (Hyde 9; 10; 22; 31, Shahristani Relig. Pers.), and from his inserting passages from David’s writings and prophecies of Messiah. He condemns the notion of two independent eternal principles, good and evil, and makes the supreme God Creator of both (and that under Him the angel of light and the angel of darkness are in perpetual conflict) as Isaiah teaches, and in connection with the prophecy of Cyrus the Jews’ deliverer from Babylon: “thus saith Jehovah to His anointed, Cyrus ... I will go before thee, I will break in pieces the gates of brass ... I form the light and create the darkness; I make peace and create evil.” Zoroaster taught that God created the good angel alone, and that the evil followed by the defect of good. He closely imitates the Mosaic revelation. As Moses heard God speaking in the midst of the fire, so Zoroaster pretends. As the divine glory rested on the mercy seat, so Zoroaster made the sacred fire in the Persian temples to symbolize the divine presence. Zoroaster pretended that fire from heaven consumed sacrifices, as often had been the case in Israel’s sacrifices; his priests were of one tribe as Israel’s. In his work traces appear of Adam and Eve’s history, creation, the deluge, David’s psalms. He praises Solomon and delivers his doctrines as those of Abraham, to whose pure creed he sought to bring back the Magian religion. In Lucian’s (De Longaevis) day his religion was that of most Persians, Parthians, Bactrians, Aryans, Sacans, Medes, and Chowaresmians. His Zendavesta has six periods of creation, ending with man as in Genesis. Avesta is the name for Deity. Zend is related to Khandas, “metre,” from the same root as scandere, scald “a poet,” “scan.” Mazdao, his name of Ormuzd, “I am that I am,” answers toJEHOVAH in Exodus 3. He expected a zoziosh or saviour. Fire, originally made the symbol of God, became, as Roman Catholic symbols, at length idolized. The Parsees observe the nirang: rubbing the urine of a cow, she goat, or ox over the face and hands, the second thing a Parsee does in getting up in the morning. The women after childbirth undergo it and have actually to drink a little of it! The Parsees pray 16 times a day. They have an awe of light. They are the only orientals who do not smoke. The priests and people now do not understand one word of the Zendavesta. (Muller.) The Persian language was related to the Indian Sanskrit.

    HISTORY. Achaemenes led the emigrating Persians into their final settlement, 700 B.C. Teispes, Cambyses I. (Kabujiya in the monuments), Cyrus I, Cambyses II, and Cyrus the Great reigned successively. After years’ subjection to the Medes the Persians revolted and became supreme, 558 B.C. Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and restored the Jews ( Isaiah 44:28; 45:1-4; Ezra 1:2-4). His son Cambyses III conquered Egypt (Ahasnerus, Ezra 4:6), but failed in Ethiopia. Then the Magian priest Gomates, pretending to be Smerdis, Cyrus’ son, whom Cambyses had secretly murdered, gained the throne (522 B.C.), and Cambyses III committed suicide. He forbade the Jews building the temple ( Ezra 4:7-22, Artaxerxes). By destroying the Persian temples and abolishing the Oromasdian chants and ceremonies, and setting up fire altars, Pseudo Smerdis aliented the Persians, Darius, son of Hystaspes, of the blood royal, revolted, and slew him after his seven months’ reign. He reverted to Cyrus’ policy, by grant enabling the Jews to complete the temple in his sixth year ( Ezra 6:1-15). Xerxes (Ahasuerus) his son held the feast in his third year at Shushan for “the princes of the provinces,” preparatory to invading Greece. His marriage with Esther in his seventh year immediately followed his flight from Greece, when lie gave himself up to the pleasures of the seraglio. His son Artaxerxes Longimanus befriended Ezra ( Ezra 7:1,11- 28) and Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 2:1-9) in their patriotic restoration of the Jews’ national polity and walls. (See DANIEL ; see CYRUS ; see MEDES ; see PARTHIA ; see AHASUERUS ; see ARTAXERXES .) “Darius the Persian” or Codomanus ( Nehemiah 12:22) was conquered by Alexander the Great ( Daniel 8:3-7).

    PERSIS A Christian woman, saluted and praised by Paul ( Romans 16:12) as having “laboured much in the Lord”; compare Priscilla’ s ministrations as to Apollos ( Acts 18:26).

    PETER (See JESUS CHRIST .) Of Bethsaida on the sea of Galilee. The Greek for Hebrew Kephas , “stone” or “rock.” Simon his original name means “hearer”; by it he is designated in Christ’s early ministry and between Christ’s death and resurrection. Afterward he is called by his title of honour,” Peter.” Son of Jonas ( Matthew 16:17; John 1:43; 21:16); tradition makes Johanna his mother’s name. Brought up to his father’s business as a fisherman on the lake of Galilee. He and his brother Andrew were partners with Zebedee’s sons, John and James, who had “hired servants,” which implies a social status and culture not the lowest. He lived first at Bethsaida, then in Capernaum, in a house either his own or his mother-in-law’s, large enough to receive Christ and his fellow apostles and some of the multitude who thronged about Him. In” leaving all to follow Christ,” he implies he made a large sacrifice ( Mark 10:28). The rough life of hardship to which fishing inured him on the stormy lake formed a good training of his character to prompt energy, boldness, and endurance.

    The Jews obliged their young to attend the common schools. In Acts 4:13, where Luke writes the Jewish council regarded him and John as “unlearned and ignorant,” the meaning is not absolutely so, but in respect to professional rabbinical training “lairs,” “ignorant” of the deeper sense which the scribes imagined they found in Scripture. Aramaic, half Hebrew half Syriac, was the language of the Jews at that time. The Galileans spoke this debased Hebrew with provincialisms of pronunciation and diction. So at the denial Peter betrayed himself by his “speech” ( Matthew 26:73; Luke 22:59). Yet lie conversed fluently with Cornelius seemingly without an interpreter, and in Greek His Greek style in his epistles is correct; but Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus, and Tertullian allege he employed an interpreter for them. He was married and led about his wife in his apostolic journeys ( 1 Corinthians 9:5). The oblique coincidence; establishing his being a married man, between Matthew 8:14, “Peter’s wife’s mother ... sick of a fever,” and 1 Corinthians 9:5, “have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as Cephas?” is also a delicate confirmation of the truth of the miraculous cure, as no forger would be likely to exhibit such a minute and therefore undesigned correspondence of details. Alford translated 1 Peter 5:13 “she in Babylon” (compare Peter 3:7); but why she should be called “elected together with you in Babylon,” as if there were no Christian woman in Babylon besides, is inexplicable. Peter and John being closely associated, Peter addresses the church in John’s province, Asia, “your co-elect sister church in Babylon saluteth you”; so 2 John 1:13 in reply. Clemens Alex. gives the name of Peter’s wife as Perpetua. Tradition makes him old at the time of his death.

    His first call was by Andrew his brother, who had been pointed by their former master John the Baptist to Jesus, “behold the Lamb of God” ( John 1:36). That was the word that made the first Christian; so it has been ever since. “We have found (implying they both had been looking for) the Messias,” said Andrew, and brought him to Jesus. “Thou art Simon son of Jona (so the Alexandrinus manuscript but Vaticanus and Sinaiticus ‘John’), thou shalt be called Cephas” ( John 1:41,42). As “Simon” he was but an hearer; as Peter or Cephas he became an apostle and so a foundation stone of the church, by union to the one only Foundation Rock ( Ephesians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 3:11). Left to nature, Simon, though bold and stubborn, was impulsive and fickle, but joined to Christ lie became at last unshaken and firm. After the first call the disciples returned to their occupation. The call to close discipleship is recorded Luke 5:1-11. The miraculous draught of fish overwhelmed Simon with awe at Jesus’ presence; He who at creation said, “let the waters bring forth abundantly” ( Genesis 1:20), now said, “let down your nets for a draught.” Simon, when the net which they had spread in vain all night now broke with the multitude of fish, exclaimed, “depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” He forgot Hosea 9:12 end; our sin is just the reason why we should beg Christ to come, not depart. “Fear not, henceforth thou shalt catch to save alive (zoogroon ) men,” was Jesus’ explanation of the typical meaning of the miracle. The call, Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20, is the same as Luke 5, which supplements them. Peter and Andrew were first called; then Christ entered Peter’s boat, then wrought the miracle, then called James and John; Jesus next healed of fever Simon’s mother-in-law.

    His call to the apostleship is recorded Matthew 10:2-4. Simon stands foremost in the list, and for the rest of Christ’s ministry is mostly called “Peter.” His forward energy fitted him to be spokesman of the apostles. So in John 6:66-69, when others went back ( 2 Timothy 4:10), to Jesus’ testing question, “will ye also go away P” Simon replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” Compare his words, Acts 4:12. He repeated this testimony at Caesarea Philippi ( Matthew 16:16). Then Jesus said: “blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee ( John 1:13; Ephesians 2:8) but My Father in heaven, and ... thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prewill against it.” Peter by his believing confession identified himself with Christ the true Rock ( 1 Corinthians 3:11; Isaiah 28:16; Ephesians 2:20), and so received the name; just as Joshua bears the name meaning Jehovah Saviour, because typifying His person and offices. Peter conversely, by shrinking from a crucified Saviour and dissuading Him from the cross, “be it far from Thee,” identified Himself with Satan who tempted Jesus to take the world kingdom without the cross ( Matthew 4:8-10), and is therefore called “Satan,” “get thee behind Me, Satan,” etc. Instead of a rock Peter became a stumblingblock (“offense,” scandalous). “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” namely, to open the door of faith to the Jews first, then to Cornelius and the Gentiles ( Acts 10:11-48). Others and Paul further opened the door ( Acts 14:27; 11:20-26). The papal error regards Peter as the rock, in himself officially, and as transmitting an infallible authority to the popes, as if his successors (compare Isaiah 22:22). The “binding” and “loosing” power is given as much to the whole church, layman and ministers, as to Peter ( Matthew 18:18; John 20:23.) Peter exercised the power of the keys only in preaching, as on Pentecost (Acts 2), He never exercised authority over the other apostles. At Jerusalem James exercised the chief authority ( Acts 15:19; 21:18; Galatians 1:19; 2:9). Peter “withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed,” “not walking uprightly in the truth of the gospel,” but in “dissimulation” ( Galatians 2:10-14). (On the miraculous payment of the temple tribute of the half shekel (two drachms) each, see JESUS CHRIST .) Matthew alone ( Matthew 17:24-27) records it, as appropriate to the aspect of Jesus as theocratic king, prominent in the first Gospel. Peter too hastily had answered for his Master as though He were under obligation to pay the temple tribute; Peter forgot his own confession ( Matthew 16:16). Nevertheless, the Lord, in order not to “offend.” i.e. give a handle of reproach, as if lie despised the temple and law, caused Peter the fisherman again to resume his occupation and brought a fish ( Psalm 8:8; Jon. 1:17) with a starer, i.e. shekel, in its mouth, the exact sum required, four drachmas, for both. Jesus said, “for ME and thee,” not for us; for His payment was on an altogether different footing from Peter’s (compare John 20:17). Peter needed a “ransom for his soul” and could not pay it; but Jesus needed none; nay, came to pay it Himself ( John 20:28), first putting Himself under the same yoke with us ( Galatians 4:4,5).

    Peter, James, and John were the favored three alone present at the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the transfiguration, and the agony in Gethsemane. His exaltations were generally, through his self sufficiency giving place to weakness, accompanied with humiliations, as in Matthew 16. In the transfiguration he talks at random, “not knowing what to say ... sore afraid,” according to the unfavourable account given of himself in Mark ( Mark 9:6). Immediately after faith enabling him to leave the ship and walk on the water to go to Jesus ( Matthew 14:29), he became afraid because of the boisterous wind, and would have sunk but for Jesus, who at the same time rebuked his “doubts” and “little faith” ( Psalm 94:18). His true boast, “behold we have forsaken all and followed Thee,” called forth Jesus’ promise, “in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel,” and Jesus’ warning, illustrated by the parable of the labourers in reproof of the hireling spirit, “the last shall be first and the first last ... many be called ... few chosen” ( Matthew 19:27--20:16). Peter, Andrew, James, and John heard the solemn discourse (on the second advent (Matthew 24). At the last supper Peter shrank with a mixture of humility and self will from Jesus’ stooping to wash his feet. Jesus replied, “if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me” (John 13). With characteristic warmth Peter passed to the opposite extreme, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus answered, “he that is bathed (all over, namely, regenerated once for all, leloumenos ) needeth not save to wash (nipsasthai , a part) his feet, but is clean every whit.” Simon in anxious affection asked, “Lord, where guest Thou?” when Jesus said, “where I go, ye cannot come.” Jesus promised Peter should follow Him afterward, though not now. Then followed his protestations of faithfulness unto death, thrice repeated as well as the thrice repeated warnings ( Matthew 26:33-35; Mark 14:29-31,72; Luke 22:33,34; John 13:36-38). Satan would” sift” ( Amos 9:9) all the disciples, but Peter especially; and therefore for him especially Jesus interceded. Mark mentions the twice cockcrowing and Peter’s protesting the more vehemently. Love, anti a feeling of relief when assured he was not the traitor, prompted his protestations. Animal courage Peter showed no small amount of, in cutting off Malthus’ ear in the face of a Reman band; moral courage he was deficient in. Transpose the first and second denials in John; then the first took place at the fire ( Matthew 26:69; Mark 14:66,67; Luke 22:56; John 18:25), caused by the fixed recognition of the maid who admitted Peter ( Luke 22:56); the second took place at the door leading out of the court, where he had withdrawn in fear ( Matthew 26:71; Mark 14:68,69; Luke 22:58; John 18:17); the third took place in the court an hour after ( Luke 22:59), before several witnesses who argued from his Galilean accent and speech, near enough for Jesus to cast that look on Peter which pierced his heart so that he went out and wept bitterly. The maid in the porch knew him, for John had spoken unto her that kept the door to let in Peter ( John 18:16.)

    On the resurrection morning Peter and John ran to the tomb; John outran Peter (being the younger man; John 21:18 implies Peter was then past his prime, also the many years by which John outlived Peter imply the same), but Peter was first to enter. John did not venture to enter until Peter set the example; fear and reverence held him back, as in Matthew 14:26, but Peter was especially bold and fearless. To him Jesus sends through Mary Magdalene a special message of His resurrection to assure him of forgiveness ( Mark 16:7). To Peter first of the apostles Jesus appeared ( Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5). “Simon” is resumed until at the supper (John 21) Jesus reinstates him as Peter, that being now “converted” he may “feed the lambs and sheep” and “strengthen his brethren.”

    Peter in the first 12 chapters of see ACTS is the prominent apostle. His discourses have those undesigned coincidences with his epistles which mark their genuineness. ( Acts 2:20; 2 Peter 3:10. Acts 2:23,24; 1 Peter 1:2,21. Acts 3:18; 1 Peter 1:10,11.) As in the Gospels, so in Acts, Peter is associated with John. His words before the high priest and council ( Acts 4:19,20), “whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard,” and again Acts 5:29, evince him as the rock-man; and after having been beaten in spite of Gamaliel’s warning, Peter’s rejoicing with the other apostles at being counted worthy to suffer for Christ ( Acts 5:41) accords with his precept ( 1 Peter 4:12-16; compare 1 Peter 2:24 with Acts 5:30 end). Peter’s miracle of healing (Acts 3) was followed by one of judgment (Acts 5) (see ANANIAS ). As he opened the gospel door to penitent believers ( Acts 2:37,38), so he closed it against hypocrites as Ananias, Sapphira, and Simon Magus (Acts 8). Peter with John confirmed by laying on of hands the Samaritan converts of Philip the deacon. (See BAPTISM ; see LAYING ON HANDS .) insofar as the bishops represent the apostles, they rightly follow the precedent of Peter and John in confirming after an interval those previously baptized and believing through the instrumentality of lower ministers as Philip. The ordinary graces of the Holy Spirit continue, and are received through the prayer of faith; though the extraordinary, conferred by the apostles, have ceased. Three years later Paul visited Jerusalem in order to see Peter ( Galatians 1:17,18; historeesai means “to become personally acquainted with as one important to know”; Acts 9:26).

    Peter was prominent among the twelve, though James as bishop had chief authority there. It was important that Paul should communicate to the leading mover in the church his own independent gospel revelation; next Peter took visitation tour through the various churches, and raised Aeneas from his bed of sickness and Tabitha from the dead ( Acts 9:32). A special revelation, abolishing distinctions of clean and unclean, prepared him for ministering and see CORNELIUS for seeking the gospel (Acts 10).

    Peter was the first privileged to open the gospel to the Gentiles, as he had before to the Jews, besides confirming the Samaritans. Peter justified his act both by the revelation and by God’s sealing the Gentile converts with the Holy Spirit. “Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as He did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ (the true test of churchmanship), what was I that I could withstand God?” ( Acts 11:17,18.) The Jews’ spite at the admission of the Gentiles moved see HEROD Agrippa I to kill James and imprison Peter for death. But the church’s unceasing prayer was stronger than his purpose; God brought Peter to the house of Mark’s mother while they were in the act of praying for him ( Isaiah 65:24). It was not Peter but his persecutor who died, smitten of God.

    From this point Peter becomes “apostle of the circumcision,” giving place, in respect to prominence, to Paul, “apostle of the uncircumcision.” Peter the apostle of the circumcision appropriately, as representing God’s ancient church, opens the gates to the Gentiles. It was calculated also to open his own mind, naturally prejudiced on the side of Jewish exclusiveness. It also showed God’s sovereignty that He chose an instrument least of all likely to admit Gentiles if left to himself. Paul, though the apostle of the Gentiles, confirmed the Hebrews; Peter, though the apostle of the Jews, admits the Gentiles (see the “first” in Acts 3:26, implying others): thus perfect unity reigned amidst the diversity of the agencies. At the council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) Peter led the discussion, citing the case of Cornelius’ party as deciding the question, for” God which knoweth the hearts bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit even as He did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith,” “but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they”; compare his epistles in undesigned coincidence ( 1 Peter 1:22; 2 Peter 1:9). James gave the decision. Peter neither presided, nor summoned, nor dismissed the council, nor took the votes, nor pronounced the decision; he claimed none of the powers which Rome claims for the pope. (On his vacillation as to not eating with Gentiles, and Paul’s withstanding him at Antioch (Galatians 2), see PAUL .) The Jerusalem decree only recognized Gentiles as fellow Christians on light conditions, it did not admit them necessarily to social intercourse Though Peter and Paul rightly inferred the latter, yet their recognition of the ceremonial law ( Acts 18:18-21; 20:16; 21:18-24) palliates Peter’s conduct, if it were not for its inconsistency (through fear of the Judaizers) which is the point of Paul’s reproof. His “dissimulation” consisted in his pretending to consider it unlawful to eat with Gentile Christians, whereas his previous eating with them showed his conviction of the perfect equality of Jew and Gentile. Peter’s humility and love are beautifully illustrated in his submitting to the reproach of a junior, and seemingly adopting Paul’s view, and in calling him ‘“our beloved brother,” and confirming the doctrine of “God’s longsuffering being for salvation,” from Paul’s epistles: Romans 2:4 ( 2 Peter 3:15,16).

    Peter apparently visited Corinth before the first epistle to the Corinthians was written, for it mentions a party there who said “I am of Cephas” ( Corinthians 1:12). Clemens Romanus (1 Corinthians 4) implies the same, Dionysius of Corinth asserts it, A.D. 180. Babylon, a chief seat of the dispersed Jews, was his head quarters when he wrote 1 Peter 5:13, not Rome as some have argued. (See BABYLON , see MYSTICAL .) The mixture of Hebrew and Nabathaean spoken there was related to his Galilean dialect. The well known progress that Christianity made in that quarter, as shown by the great Christian schools at Edessa anti Nisibis, was probably due to Peter originally. Mark ( Colossians 4:10), Paul’s helper at Rome, from whence he went to Colosse, was with Peter when he wrote 1 Peter 5:13. From Colosse Mark probably went on to Peter at Babylon. Paul wished Timothy to bring him again to Rome during his second imprisonment ( 2 Timothy 4:11). Silvanus, also Paul’s companion, was the bearer of Peter’s epistle ( 1 Peter 5:12).

    All the authority of Acts and epistle to the Romans and 1 and 2 Peter is against Peter having been at Rome previous to Paul’s first imprisonment, or during its two years’ duration (otherwise he would have mentioned Peter in the epistles written from Rome, Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians), or during his second imprisonment when he wrote g Timothy. Eusebius’ statement (Chronicon, 3) that Peter went to Rome A.D. 42 and stayed twenty years is impossible, as those Scriptures never mention him. Jerome (Script. Ecclesiastes, 1) makes Peter bishop of Antioch, then to have preached in Pontus (from 1 Peter 1:1), then to have gone to Rome to refute Simon Magus (from Justin’s story of a statue found at Rome to Semosanctus, the Sabine Hercules, which was confounded with Simon Magus), and to have been bishop there for years (!) and to have been crucified with head downward, declaring himself unworthy to be crucified as his Lord, and buried in the Vatican near the triumphal way. John ( John 21:18,19) attests his crucifixion. Dionysius of Corinth (in Eusebius, H. E. 2:25) says Paul and Peter both planted the Roman and Corinthian churches and endured martyrdom in Italy at the same time. So Tertullian (contra Marcion, 4:5; Praeser. Haeret., 36:38).

    Caius Romans Presb. (in Eusebius, H. E. 2:25) says memorials of their martyrdom were still to be seen on the road to Ostia, and that Peter’s tomb was in the Vatican. He may have been at the very end of life at Rome after Paul’s death, and been imprisoned in the Mamertine dungeon, crucified on the Janiculum on the height Pietro in Montorio, and buried where the altar in Peter’s now is. But all is conjecture. Ambrose (Ep. 33) says that at his fellow Christians’ solicitation he was fleeing from Rome at early dawn, when he met the Lord, and at His feet asked “Lord, where goest Thou?”

    His reply “I go to be crucified afresh” turned Peter back to a joyful martyrdom. The church “Domine Quo Vadis?” commemorates the legend.

    The whole tradition of Peter and Paul’s association in death is probably due to their connection in life as the main founders of the Christian church.

    Clemens Alex. says Peter encouraged his wife to martyrdom, saying “remember, dear, our Lord.” Clemens Alex. (Strom. 3:448) says that Peter’s and Philip’s wives helped them in ministering to women at their homes, and by them the doctrine of the Lord penetrated, without scandal, into the privacy of women’s apartments. (See MARK on Peter’s share in that Gospel.)

    PETER, EPISTLES OF FIRST EPISTLE. Genuineness. Attested by 2 Peter 3:1. Polycarp (in Eusebius 4:14); who in writing to the Philippians (Philippians 2) quotes 1 Peter 1:13,21; 3:9; in Philippians 5; 1 Peter 2:11. Eusebius (H. E. 3:39) says of Papins that he too quotes 1 Peter. Irenaeus (Haer. 4:9, section 2) expressly mentions it; in 4:16, section 5, 1 Peter 2:16.

    Clemens Alex. (Strom. 1:3, 544) quotes 1 Peter 2:11,12,15,16; and p. 562, 1 Peter 1:21,22; and in 4:584, 1 Peter 3:14-17; and p. 585, 1 Peter 4:12-14. Origen (in Eusebius H. E. 6:25) mentions it; in Homily 7 on Joshua (vol. 2:63), both epistles; and in Commentary on Psalms and John 1 Peter 3:18-21. Tertullian (Scorp. 12) quotes 1 Peter 2:20,21; and in 14 1 Peter 2:13,17. Eusebius calls 1 Peter one of “the universally acknowledged epistles. The Peshito Syriac has it. Muratori’s Fragm. of Canon omits it. The Paulicians alone rejected it. The internal evidence for it is strong. The author calls himself the apostle Peter ( 1 Peter 1:1), “a witness of Christ’s sufferings,” and “an elder” ( 1 Peter 5:1). The energetic style accords with Peter’s character. Erasmus remarks this epistle is full of apostolical dignity and authority, worthy of the leader among the apostles.

    PERSONS ADDRESSED. 1 Peter 1:1: “to the elect strangers (pilgrims spiritually) of the dispersion,” namely, Jewish Christians primarily. Peter 1:14. 2:9,10; 4:3, prove that Gentile Christians, as grafted into the Christian Jewish stock and so becoming of the true Israel, are secondarily addressed. Thus the apostle of the circumcision seconded the apostle of the uncircumcision in uniting Jew and Gentile in the one Christ. Peter enumerates the provinces in the order from N.E, to S. and W. Pontus was the country of the Christian Jew Aquila. Paul twice visited Galatia, founding and confirming churches. Crescens, his companion, went there just before Paul’s last imprisonment ( 2 Timothy 4:10). Men of Cappadocia, as well as of “Pontus” and “Asia” (including Mysia, Lydia, Curia, Phrygia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia), were among Peter’s hearers on Pentecost; these brought home to their native lands the first tidings of the gospel. In Lycaonia were the churches of Iconium, founded by Paul and Barnabas; of Lystra, Timothy’s birthplace, where Paul was stoned; and of Derbe, the birthplace of Gains or Caius. In Pisidia was Antioch, where Paul preached (Acts 13) so effectively, but from which he was driven out by the Jews. In Caria was Miletus, where Paul convened the Ephesian elders. In Phrygia Paul preached when visiting twice the neighbouring Galatia. The churches of Laodicea were Hierapolis and Colesse (having as members Philemon and Onesimus, and leaders Archippus and Epaphras). In Lydia was the Philadelphian church favorably noticed Revelation 3:7; that of Sardis the capital; Thyatira; and Ephesus, founded by Paul, laboured in by Aquila, Priscilla, Apollos, and Paul for three years, censured for leaving its first love ( Revelation 2:4). Smyrna received unqualified praise. In Mysia was Pergamos. Troas was the scene of Paul’s preaching, raising Eutychus, and staying with Carpus long subsequently. Into Bithynia when Paul “assayed to go” the Spirit suffered him not; afterward the Spirit imparted to Bithynia the gospel, as 1 Peter 1:1 implies, probably through Peter.

    These churches were in much the same state ( 1 Peter 5:1,2 “feed”) as when Paul addressed the Ephesian elders at Miletus ( Acts 20:17,28, “feed”). Presbyter bishops ruled, Peter exercising a general superintendence. The persecutions to which they were exposed were annoyances and reproach for Christ’s sake, because of their nut joining pagan neighbours in riotous living; so they needed warning lest they should fall. Ambition and lucre seeking are the evil tendencies against Which Peter warns the presbyters ( 1 Peter 5:2,3), evil thoughts and words, and a lack of mutual sympathy among the members.

    OBJECT. By the heavenly prospect before them, and by Christ the example, Peter consoles the partially persecuted, and prepares them for a severer ordeal coming. He exhorts all, husbands, wives, servants, elders, and people, by discharging relative duties to give the foe no handle for reproaching Christianity, rather to attract them to it; so Peter seeks to establish them in “the true grace of God wherein they stand “; but the Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, and Sinaiticus manuscripts read “stand ye,” imperatively ( 1 Peter 5:12), “Grace” is the keynote of Paul’s doctrine which Peter confirms ( Ephesians 2:5,8; Romans 5:2). He “exhorts and testifies” in this epistle on the ground of the gospel truths already well known to his readers by Pupil’s teaching in those churches. He does not state the details of gospel grace, but takes them for granted ( 1 Peter 1:8,18; 3:15; 2 Peter 3:1).

    DIVISIONS. (I) Inscription ( 1 Peter 1:2). (II) Stirs up believers’ pure feeling, as born again of God, by the motive of hope to which God has regenerated us ( 1 Peter 1:3-12), to bring forth faith’s holy fruits, seeing that Christ redeemed us from sin at so costly a price ( 1 Peter 1:13-21). Purified by the Spirit unto love of the brethren, as begotten of God’s abiding word, spiritual priest-kings, to whom alone Christ is precious ( 1 Peter 1:22--2:10). As Paul is the apostle of faith and John of love, so Peter of hope. After Christ’s example in suffering, maintain a good “conversation” (conduct) in every relation ( 1 Peter 2:11--3:14), and a good “profession” of faith, having in view Christ’s once offered sacrifice and His future coming to judgment ( 1 Peter 3:15-- 4:11); showing patience in adversity, as looking for future glorification with Christ (1) in general as Christians ( 1 Peter 4:12-19), (2) each in his own relation ( 1 Peter 5:1-11). “Beloved” separates the second part from the first ( 1 Peter 2:11), and the third from the second ( 1 Peter 4:12). (III) The conclusion.

    Time and place of writing. It was before the systematic persecution of Christians in Nero’s later years. The acquaintance evidenced with Paul’s epistles written previous to or during his first imprisonment at Rome (ending A.D. 63) shows it was after them. Compare 1 Peter 2:13 with Romans 13; 1 Peter 2:18; Ephesians 6:5; 1 Peter 1:2; Ephesians 1:4-7; 1 Peter 1:3; Ephesians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:14; Romans 12:2; 1 Peter 2:6-10; Romans 9:32,33; 1 Peter 2:13; Romans 13:1-4; 1 Peter 2:16; Galatians 5:13; 1 Peter 2:18; Ephesians 6:5; 1 Peter 3:1; Ephesians 5:22; 1 Peter 3:9; Romans 12:17; 1 Peter 4:9; Romans 12:13; Philippians 2:14; Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 4:10; Romans 12:6-8; 1 Peter 5:1; Romans 8:18; 1 Peter 5:5; Ephesians 5:21; Philippians 2:3-8; 1 Peter 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:6; 1 Peter 5:14; 1 Corinthians 16:20. In 1 Peter 5:13 Mark is mentioned as at Babylon; this must have been after Colossians 4:10 (A.D. 61-63), when Mark was with Paul at Rome but intending to go to Asia. It was either when he went to Colosse that he proceeded to Peter, thence to Ephesus, from whence ( Timothy 4:11) Paul tells Timothy to bring him to Rome (A.D. 67 or 68); or after Paul’s second imprisonment and death Peter testified to the same churches, those of Asia Minor, following up Paul’s teachings. This is more likely, for Peter would hardly trench on Paul’s field of labour during Paul’s life. The Gentile as well as the Hebrew Christians would after Paul’s removal naturally look to Peter and the spiritual fathers of the Jerusalem church for counsel wherewith to meet Judaizing Christians and heretics; false teachers may have appealed from Paul to James and Peter. Therefore Peter confirms Paul and shows there is no difference between their teachings. Origen’s and Eusebius’ statement that Peter visited the Asiatic churches in person seems probable.

    PLACE. Peter wrote from Babylon ( 1 Peter 5:13). He would never use a mystical name for Rome, found only in prophecy, in a matter of fact letter amidst ordinary salutations. The apostle of the circumcision would naturally be at Chaldaean Babylon where was “a great multitude of Jews” (Josephus, Ant. 15:2, section 2; 3, section 1). Cosmas Indicopleustes (sixth century) understood the Babylon to be outside the Roman empire. The order in which Peter enumerates the countries, from N.E. to S. and W., is such as one writing from Babylon would adopt. Silvanus, Paul’s companion, subsequently Peter’s, carried the epistle.

    STYLE. Fervor and practical exhortation characterize this epistle, as was to be expected from the warm hearted writer. The logical reasoning of Paul is not here; but Paul’s gospel, as communicated to Peter by Paul ( Galatians 1:18; 2:2), is evidently before Peter’s mind. Characteristic of Peter are the phrases “baptism ... the answer of a good conscience toward God” ( 1 Peter 3:21); “consciousness of God” ( 1 Peter 2:19 Greek), i.e. conscientiousness, a motive for enduring sufferings; “living hope” ( Peter 1:3); “an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away” ( 1 Peter 1:4); “kiss of charity” ( 1 Peter 5:14). Christ is viewed more in His present exaltation and coming manifestation in glory than in His past suffering. Glory and hope are prominent. Future bliss being near, believers are but “strangers” and “sojourners” here. Chastened fervor, deep humility, and ardent love breathe throughout. Exuberant feeling causes the same thought to be often repeated. He naturally quotes the epistle of James as having most weight with the Jewish party to whom especially he ministered. He thus confirms James’ inspired writings: compare 1 Peter 1:6,7; James 1:2,3; 1 Peter 1:24. James 1:10; 1 Peter 2:1; James 1:21; 1 Peter 4:8; James 5:20; Proverbs 10:12; 1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6; Proverbs 3:34. Old Testament quotations are the common ground of both. Susceptibility to outward impressions, liveliness of feeling, and dexterity in handling subjects, disposed him to repeat others’ thoughts.

    His speeches in the independent history, Acts, accord with his language in his epistles, an undesigned coincidence and mark of truth: 1 Peter 2:7, “the stone ... disallowed,” Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 1:12, “preached ... with the Holy Spirit,” Acts 5:32; 1 Peter 2:24, “bare our sins ... on the tree,” Acts 5:30; 10:39; 1 Peter 5:1, “witness of the sufferings of Christ,” Acts 2:32; 3:15; 1 Peter 1:10, “the prophets ... of the grace,” Acts 3:18; 10:43; 1 Peter 1:21, “God raised Him from the dead,” Acts 3:15; 10:40; 1 Peter 4:5, “Him ... ready to judge,” Acts 10:42; 1 Peter 2:24, “that we being dead to sins,” Acts 3:19,26. Also he alludes often to Christ’s language, John 21:15-19: “Shepherd of souls,” 1 Peter 2:25; “feed the flock of God ... the chief Shepherd,” 1 Peter 5:2,4; “whom ye love,” 1 Peter 1:8; 2:7; also 2 Peter 1:14, “shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.” He who in loving impatience cast himself into the sea to meet the Lord is also the man who most earnestly testifies to the hope of His return; he before whom a martyr’s death is in assured expectation is the man who in greatest variety of aspects sets forth the duty, as well as the consolation, of suffering for Christ. As a rock of the church he grounds his readers against the storm of tribulation on the true Rock of ages. (Wiesinger.)

    SECOND EPISTLE. Authenticity and genuineness. “Simon Peter a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ” stands at its heading. He reminds us at the close of his life that he is the Peter who was originally “Simon” before his call. In 2 Peter 1:16-18 he mentions his presence at the transfiguration, and Christ’s prophecy of his death; and 2 Peter 3:15 his brotherhood to his beloved Paul. In 2 Peter 3:1 he identifies himself as author of the former epistle. The second epistle includes in its address the same persons as the first epistle. He presumes their acquaintance with Paul’s epistles, by that time acknowledged as Scripture; 2 Peter 3:15, “the longsuffering of God,” alluding to Romans 2:4. A late date is implied, just before Peter’s death, when Paul’s epistles (including Romans) had become generally circulated and accepted as Scripture. The church in the fourth century had, beside the testimony which we have of its acceptante though with doubts by earlier Christians. other external evidence which, under God’s guiding Spirit, decided them in accepting it. If Peter were not the author the epistle would be false, as it expressly claims to be his; then the canon of the council of Laodicea, A.D. 360) (if the 59th article is genuine) and that of Hippo and Carthage (A.D. 393 and 397) would never have accepted it. Its whole tone disproves imposture. The writer writes not of himself, but “moved by the Holy Spirit” ( 2 Peter 1:21). Shame and suffering were all that was to be gained by a forgery in the first age. There was no temptation then to “pious frauds,” as in after ages. A wide gulf separates its New Testament style from the earliest and best of the post apostolic period. “God has allowed a fosse to be drawn by human weakness around the sacred canon, to protect it from all invasion” (Daille). Hermas (Simil. 6:4, 2 Peter 2:13, and Shep. 3:7; 4:3; 2 Peter 2:15,20) quotes its words. Clemens Romans (ad Cor. 7; 9; 10) alludes to its references to Noah’s preaching and Lot’s deliverance (compare 2 Peter 2:5-7,9).

    Irenaeous (A.D. 178) and Justin Martyr allude to 2 Peter 3:8.

    Hippolytus (de Antichristo) refers to 2 Peter 1:21. But the first writer who expressly names it as “Scripture” is Origen, third century (Hem. on Josh., 4th Hom. on Lev., and 13th on Num.), quoting 2 Peter 1:4; 2:16.

    In Eusebius H. E. 6:24 he mentions that some doubted the second epistle.

    Tertullian, Clemens Alex., Cyprian, the Peshito Syriac (the later Syriac has it), and Muratori’s Fragm. Canon do not mention it. Firmilian of Cappadocia (Ep. ad Cyprian) says Peter’s epistles warn us to avoid heretics; this warning is in the second epistle, not the first. Now Cappadocia ( 1 Peter 1:1; 2 Peter 3:1) is among the countries addressed; so it is from Cappadocia we get the earliest testimony.

    Internally it professes Peter is its writer; Christians of the very country to whose custody it was committed confirm this. (See CANON , and see NEW TESTAMENT .) Though not of “the universally confessed” (homologoumea ) Scriptures, but of “the disputed” (antilegomena ), 2 Peter is altogether distinct from “the spurious” (notha ); of these there was no dispute, they were universally rejected as the Shepherd of Hermas, the Revelation of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas. Cyril of Jerusalem (A.D. 348) enumerates seven universal epistles including 2 Peter. So Gregory of Nazianzum (A.D. 389) and Epiphanius (A.D. 367). The oldest Greek manuscripts (fourth century) contain “the disputed Scriptures.” Jerome (de Viris Illustr.) guessed from a presumed difference of style that Peter, being unable to write Greek, employed a different Greek translator of his Hebrew dictation in the second epistle from the translator of first epistle. So Mark’s Gospel was derived from Peter. Silvanus, the bearer, Paul’s companion, may have been employed in the composition, and Peter with him probably read carefully Paul’s epistles, from whence arise correspondences of style and thought: as 1 Peter 1:3 with Ephesians 1:3; 1 Peter 2:18 with Ephesians 6:5; 1 Peter 3:1 with Ephesians 5:22; 1 Peter 5:5 with Ephesians 5:21.

    STYLE AND THOUGHTS. Both epistles contain similar sentiments. Peter looks for the Lord’s sudden coming and the end of the world ( 2 Peter 3:8-10; 1 Peter 4:5). The prophets’ inspiration ( 1 Peter 1:10-12; 2 Peter 1:19,21; 3:2). New birth by the Divine Word a motive to abstinence from worldly lusts ( 1 Peter 1:22; 2:2; 2 Peter 1:4; also 1 Peter 2:9 margin; 2 Peter 1:3, the rare word “virtue,” 1 Peter 4:17; 2 Peter 2:3). The distinctness of style in the two epistles accords with their distinctness of design. Christ’s sufferings are prominent in Peter, its design being to encourage Christians under sufferings; His glory in the second epistle, its design being to communicate fuller “knowledge” of Him, as the antidote to the false teaching against which Peter forewarns his readers. So His title as Redeemer, “Christ,” is in 1 Peter, “the Lord” in 2 Peter. Hope characterizes 1 Peter, full knowledge 2 Peter. In 2 Peter, where he designs to warn against false teachers, he puts forward his apostolic authority more than in 1 Peter. So contrast Paul in Philippians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1, with 1 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:1. Verbal coincidences, marking identity of authorship, occur ( 1 Peter 1:19 end; 2 Peter 3:14 end; 1 Peter 3:1,5; Peter 2:16: “own,” idiot, 2 Peter 3:17). The Greek article omitted Peter 2:13; 2 Peter 1:21; 2:4,5,7. “Tabernacle,” i.e. the body, and “decease” ( 2 Peter 1:13,15) are the very words in Luke’s narrative of the transfiguration ( Luke 9:31,33), an undesigned coincidence confirming genuineness. The deluge and Noah, the “eighth,” saved are referred to in both epistles. The first epistle often quotes Old Testament, the second epistle often (without quoting) refers to it ( 2 Peter 1:21; 2:5-8,15; 3:5,6,10,13). So “putting away” (apothesis ) occurs in both ( Peter 3:21; 2 Peter 1:14). “Pass the time” (anastrafeste ), 1 Peter 1:17; 2 Peter 2:18; 1 Peter 4:3 “walked in” (peporeumenois ), Peter 2:10; 3:3. “Called you,” 1 Peter 1:15; 2:9; 5:10; 2 Peter 1:3.

    Besides, the verbal coincidences with Peter’s speeches in Acts are more in 2 Peter than in 1 Peter; as (lachousin ) “obtained,” 2 Peter 1:1, with Acts 1:17; 2 Peter 1:6, “godliness,” Acts 3:12 (eusebeia , translated “godliness”); 2 Peter 2:9; Acts 10:2,7, eusebeis in both, “godly”; 2 Peter 2:9, “punished,” Acts 4:21 (the only places where kolazomai , is used); 2 Peter 3:10; Acts 2:20, “day of the Lord,” peculiar to these two passages and 1 Thessalonians 5:2. Jude 1:17,18 attest its genuineness and inspiration by adopting its words, as received by the churches to whom he wrote: “remember the words ... of the apostles of our Lord Jesus, how they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts” ( 2 Peter 3:3). Eleven passages of Jude rest on 2 Peter ( Jude 1:2 on 2 Peter 1:2; Jude 1:4 on 2 Peter 2:1; Jude 1:6 on 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:7 on 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 1:8 on 2 Peter 2:10; Jude 1:9 on 2 Peter 2:11; Jude 1:11 on 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 1:12 on 2 Peter 2:17; Jude 1:16 on 2 Peter 2:18; Jude 1:18 on 2 Peter 2:1 and 2 Peter 3:3.) Jude the fuller in these passages is more likely to be later than 2 Peter, which is briefer; not vice versa.

    Moreover Peter predicts a state of morals which Jude describes as actually existing. The dignity and energy of style accord with the character of Peter.

    THE DATE. Probably A.D. 68 or 69, just before Jerusalem’s destruction, the typical forerunner of the world’s end foretold in 2 Peter 3. The past “wrote” (aorist, 2 Peter 3:15) implies Paul’s ministry had ceased, and his epistles now become universally recognized as Scripture; just before Peter’s own death. Having no salutations, and being directed to no church or group of churches, it took longer time in being accepted as canonical.

    This epistle, little known to Gentile converts, being primarily for Jewish Christians who gradually died out, was likely to have been lost to general reception, but for strong external credentials which it must have had, to have secured its recognition. It cannot have been written at Rome, otherwise it would have secured early acceptance. The distant scene of its composition and of its circulation additionally account for its tardy but at last universal acceptance. The definite address of 1 Peter secured its being the earlier recognized.

    OBJECT. Twofold ( 2 Peter 3:17,18): to guard against “the error” of false teachers, and to exhort to growth in “knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.” The inspired testimony of apostles and prophets is the ground of this knowledge ( 2 Peter 1:12-21). The danger arose of old, and will again arise, from false teachers; as Paul also in the same region testified ( 2 Peter 3:15,16). “The full knowledge of our Lord and Saviour,” whereby we know the Father, partake of the divine nature, escape the world’s pollutions, and enter Christ’s kingdom, is our safeguard. Christ is presented in the aspect of present “power” and future “kingship.” “Lord” occurs in 2 Peter instead of “God” in 1 Peter. This contradicts all theories of those who “deny” His “lordship,” and “coming again,” both which Peter as apostle and eye witness attests; also it counteracts their evil example, blaspheming the truth, despising governments, slaves to covetousness and fleshly filthiness while boasting of Christian freedom, and apostates from the truth. The antidote is the knowledge of Christ as “the way of righteousness.” “The preacher of righteousness,” Noah, and “righteous Lot,” exemplify the escape of the righteous from the doom of the unrighteous. Balaam illustrates the doom of “unrighteousness,” such as characterizes the false teachers. Thus, the epistle is one united whole, the end corresponding to the commencement ( 2 Peter 3:14,18, compare 2 Peter 1:2; “grace” and “peace” being connected with “the knowledge” of our Savior; 2 Peter 3:17 with 2 Peter 1:4,10,12; 3:18 with the fuller 2 Peter 1:5-8; 2:21; 3:13, “righteousness,” with 2 Peter 1:1; 3:1 with 2 Peter 1:13; 3:2 with 2 Peter 1:19).

    Carpocratian and Gnostic heresies were as yet only in germ ( 2 Peter 2:1,2), another proof of its date in apostolic times, not developed as in the post apostolic age. The neglect of the warnings in 1 Peter to circumspectness of walk led to the evils in germ spoken of in 2 Peter as existing already and about to break forth in worse evils. Compare the abuse of “freedom,” 1 Peter 2:16, with 2 Peter 2:19; “pride,” 1 Peter 5:5,6, with 2 Peter 2:18.

    PETHAHIAH 1. 1 Chronicles 24:16. 2. Ezra 10:23; Nehemiah 9:5. 3. Sprung from Zerah of Judah. “At the king’s (Artaxerxes) hand (one of his council) in all matters concerning the people” ( Nehemiah 11:24; Ezra 7:1-20).

    PETHOR A town of Mesopotamia. Balaam’s abode ( Numbers 22:5; Deuteronomy 23:4). Head quarters of the Magi, who congregated in particular spots (Strabo 16:1). From paathar “to open” or “reveal.”

    Phathusae (Zosim. 3:14), S. of Circesium, and Bethauna (Ptolemy, 5:18, section 6), corruptions of Pethor, answer to Ahab, meaning the same in Arabic (Anatha, Ammian. Marcell. 24:1,6); on an island in the river Euphrates, and partly also extending both sides of the river; for ages the seat of an ancient pagan worship; a good center for influencing the Arabs on the E. and the Aramaic tribes W. of the river.

    PEULTHAI Peullethai (Hebrew). 1 Chronicles 26:5.

    PHALEC see PELEG . Luke 3:35.

    PHALTI Son of Laish of Gallim. see MICHAL ’S (see DAVID ) attached second husband, severed from her. Saul had wrested her from David and given her to Phalti to attach him to his house ( 1 Samuel 25:44; 2 Samuel 3:15,16).PHALTIEL also.

    PHARAOH (See EGYPT ; see EXODUS for the list of the Pharaohs.) The official title of the Egyptian kings. The vocalization and diacritic points show the Hebrews read “Par-aoh,” not Pa-raoh. It is not from Ra “the sun,” for the king is called Si-ra, “son of Ra,” therefore he would not also be called “The Ra,” though as an honorary epithet Merneptah Hotephima is so-called, “the good sun of the land.” But the regular title Pharaoh means “the great house” or “the great double house,” the title which to Egyptians and foreigners represented his person. The Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch is strikingly confirmed by the Egyptian words, titles, and names occurring in the Hebrew transcription. No Palestinian Hebrew after the exodus would have known Egyptian as the writer evidently did. His giving Egyptian words without a Hebrew explanation of the meaning can only be accounted for by his knowing that his readers were as familiar with Egyptian as he was himself; this could only apply to the Israelites of the exodus.

    Abraham’s Pharaoh was probably of the 12th dynasty, when foreigners from western Asia were received and promoted. Joseph was under an early Pharaoh of the 13th dynasty, when as yet Pharaoh ruled over all Egypt, or probably under Amenemha III, sixth king of the 12th, who first regulated by dykes, locks, and reservoirs the Nile’s inundation, and made the lake Moeris to receive the overflow. The 12th dynasty, moreover, was especially connected with On or Heliopolis. The Hyksos or shepherd kings, who ruled only Lower Egypt while native kings ruled Upper Egypt, began with the fourth of the 13th dynasty, and ended with Apophis or Apopi, the last of the 17th. Aahmes or Amosis, the first of the 18th, expelled them. He was the “new king who knew not Joseph.” Finding Joseph’s people Israel settled in fertile Goshen, commanding the entrance to Egypt from the N.E., and favored by the Hyksos, he adopted harsh repressive measures to prevent the possibility of their joining invaders like the Hyksos; he imposed bond service on Israel in building forts and stores. Moses as adopted son of the king’s sister apparently accompanied Amenhotep I in his expedition against Ethiopia, and showed himself “mighty in words and deeds” (Acts 7). Under Thothmes I, Moses was in Midian. Thothroes II was the Pharaoh of the exodus, drowned in the Red Sea. Thothmes III broke the confederacy of the allied kings of all the regions between Euphrates and the Mediterranean, just 17 years before Israel’s invasion of Canaan, thus providentially preparing the way for an easy conquest of Canaan; this accounts for the terror of Midian and Moab at Israel’s approach ( Numbers 22:3,4), and the “sorrow and trembling which took hold on the inhabitants of Palestina and Canaan” ( Exodus 15:14-16). (See BITHIAH and see EGYPT on the influence which the Jewess wife (Tei) of Amenhotep III exercised in modifying Egyptian idolatry.) (See JOSIAH ; see NEBUCHADNEZZAR ; see JERUSALEM ; see EGYPT , on Pharaoh Necho II and Pharaoh Hophra.) Herodotus (ii. 159) illustrates Necho’s conquests in Syria and Palestine between 610 and 604 B.C.: “Necho made war by land upon the Syrians, and defeated them in a pitched battle at Magdolus” (Megiddo). Berosus (in Josephus, Apion 1:19) too says that toward the close of Nabopolassar’s reign, i.e. before 605 B.C., Egypt, Syria, and Phoenicia revolted; so he sent his son Nebuchadnezzar to recover those countries. The sacred history harmonizes the two accounts.

    Necho designed to acquire all Syria as far as Carchemish on the Euphrates ( 2 Chronicles 35:20-24). Josiah opposed his design and fell at Megiddo.

    So Necho for a time ruled all Syria, “from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt,” deposed Jehoahaz for Eliakim = Jehoiakim, and levied tribute ( 2 Kings 24:7; 23:31-35). Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho at Carchemish, 606 B.C. ( Jeremiah 46:2), and recovered all that region, so that Necho “came not again any more out of his land.” Necho was sixth king of the 26th (Saitic) dynasty, son of Psammetichus I, and grandson of Necho I. Celebrated for a canal he proposed to cut connecting the Nile and Red Sea. Brugsch (Eg. 1:252) makes his reign from 611 to 595 B.C. PHARAOH HOPHRA succeeded Psamme tichus II, Necho’s successor.

    Herodotus writes Apries. Began reigning 589 B.C., and reigned 19 years.

    Hai-fra-het (Rawlinson Herodot. 2:210, 823). He took Gaza of the Philistines ( Jeremiah 47:1), and made himself master of Philistia and most of Phoenicia; attacked Sidon, and fought by sea with Tyre; and “so firmly did he think himself established in his kingdom that he believed not even a god could east hint down” (Herodotus ii. 161-169). So Ezekiel in harmony with the secular historian describes him as a great crocodile in his rivers, saying, “my river is mine own, and I have made it for myself” ( Ezekiel 29:3). But his troops sent against Cyrene having been routed, the Egyptians, according to Herodotus, revolted and set up Amasis as king; then strangled Hophra, and raised Amasis to the throne. Ezekiel (Ezekiel 29--32) foretold the conquest of Pharaoh and invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. Hophra in 590 or 589 B.C. bad caused the Chaldaeans to raise the siege of Jerusalem, but it was only for a time ( Jeremiah 37:5-7). Jerusalem, under Zedekiah, fell before Nebuchadnezzar, 588 B.C.

    Jeremiah in Egypt subsequently foretold “Jehovah’s giving Hophra into the hand of them that sought his life” ( Jeremiah 44:30; 46:25,26). The civil war between Amasis and Apries would give an opportunity for the invader Nebuchadnezzar (in the 23rd year of his reign: Josephus Ant. 10:11) to interfere and elevate Amasis on condition of his becoming tributary to Babylon. Or else the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar gave an opportunity for the revolt which ended in Hophra’s death and Amasis’ elevation. Berosus alone records Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion, but similarly we find Assyrian monuments recording conquests of Egypt either unnoticed by our historians extant or mentioned only by inferior authorities. National vanity would prevent the Egyptian priests from telling Herodotus of Egypt’s loss of territory in Syria (which Josephus records) and of Nebuchadnezzar’s share in raising Amasis to the throne instead of Hophra The language of Jeremiah 44:30 is exact to the truth: “I will give Pharaoh Hophra into the hands of his enemies, and of them that seek his life,” namely, Amasis and his party; Nebuchadnezzar is not mentioned until the end of the verse.

    In Ezekiel 30:21, “I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt ... it shall not be bound up”; Ezekiel’s prophecy ( Ezekiel 30:13), “there shall be no more a prince of ... Egypt,” implies there should be no more a prince independent and ruling the whole land. Cambyses made Egypt a province of the Persian empire; since the second Persian conquest, 2,000 years ago, there has been no native prince.

    PHAREZ, PHARES PEREZ = breach because he broke forth from the womb before his twin brother Zarah who had first put out his hand. Son of Judah and Tamar his daughter in law ( Matthew 1:3; Luke 3:33; Genesis 38:29). His house retained the primogeniture; it was famous for being prolific, so as to pass into a proverb ( Ruth 4:12; 18-22). After the deaths of Er and Onan childless, Pharez took the rank of Judah’s son, next after Shelah. His sons Hezron and Hamul became heads of two new chief houses. Hezron was forefather of David and Messiah. Caleb’s house too was incorporated into Hezron’s. Under David “the chief of all the captains of the host for the first month was of the children of Pharez” ( 1 Chronicles 27:2,3), famed for valor ( 1 Chronicles 11:11 (see JASHOBEAM , 2 Samuel 23:8).

    Hezron married a second time Muchir’s daughter; so one line of Pharez’s descendents reckoned as sons of Manasseh. Pharez’s house was the greatest of the houses of Judah; 468 valiant men of the children of Pharez alone of Judah dwelt in Jerusalem ( Nehemiah 11:3-6; 1 Chronicles 9:3-6) after the return from Babylon.

    PHARISEES From perishin Aramaic, perashim , “separated.” To which Paul alludes, Romans 1:1; Galatians 1:15, “separated unto the gospel of God”; once “separated” unto legal self righteousness. In contrast to “mingling” with Grecian and other heathen customs, which Antiochus Epiphanes partially effected, breaking down the barrier of God’s law which separated Israel from pagandom, however refined. The Pharisees were successors of the Assideans or Chasidim, i.e. godly men “voluntarily devoted unto the law.” On the return from Babylon the Jews became more exclusive than ever. In Antiochus’ time this narrowness became intensified in opposition to the rationalistic compromises of many. The Sadducees succeeded to the latter, the Pharisees to the former (1 Macc. 1:13-15,41-49,62,63; 2:42; 7:13-17; 2 Macc. 14:6,3,38). They “resolved fully not to eat any unclean thing, choosing rather to die that they might not be defiled: and profame the holy covenant.” in opposition to the Hellenizing faction. So the beginning of the Pharisees was patriotism and faithfulness to the covenant.

    Jesus, the meek and loving One, so wholly free from harsh judgments, denounces with unusual severity their hypocrisy as a class. ( Matthew 15:7,8; 23:5,13-33), their ostentatious phylacteries and hems, their real love of preeminence; their pretended long prayers, while covetously defrauding the widow. They by their “traditions” made God’s word of none effect; opposed bitterly the Lord Jesus, compassed His death, provoking Him to some hasty words (apostomatizein ) which they might catch at and accuse Him; and hired Judas to betray Him; “strained out gnats, while swallowing camels” (image from filtrating wine); painfully punctilious about legal trifles and casuistries, while reckless of truth, righteousness, and the fear of God; cleansing the exterior man while full of iniquity within, like “whited sepulchres” ( Mark 7:6-13; Luke 11:42- 44,53,54; 16:14,15); lading men with grievous burdens, while themselves not touching them with one of their fingers. (See CORBAN .) Paul’s remembrance of his former bondage as a rigid Pharisee produced that reaction in his mind, upon his embracing the gospel, that led to his uncompromising maintenance, under the Spirit of God, of Christian liberty and justification by faith only, in opposition to the yoke of ceremonialism and the righteousness which is of the law (Galatians 4; 5).

    The Mishna or “second law,” the first portion of the Talmud, is a digest of Jewish traditions and ritual, put in writing by rabbi Jehudah the Holy in the second century. The Gemara is a “supplement,” or commentary on it; it is twofold, that of Jerusalem not later than the first half of the fourth century, and that of Babylon A.D. 500. The Mishna has six divisions (on seeds, feasts, women’s marriage, etc., decreases and compacts, holy things, clean and unclean), and an introduction on blessings. Hillel and Shammai were leaders of two schools of the Pharisees, differing on slight points; the Mishna refers to both (living before Christ) and to Hillel’s grandson, Paul’s’ teacher, Gamaliel.

    An undesigned coincidence confirming genuineness is the fact that throughout the Gospels hostility to Christianity shows itself mainly from the Pharisees; but throughout Acts from the Sadducees. Doubtless because after Christ’s resurrection the resurrection of the dead was a leading doctrine of Christians, which it was not before ( Mark 9:10; Acts 1:22; 2:32; 4:10; 5:31; 10:40). The Pharisees therefore regarded Christians in this as their allies against the Sadducees, and so the less opposed Christianity ( John 11:57; 18:3: Acts 4:1; 5:17; 23:6-9). The Mishna lays down the fundamental principle of the Pharisees. “Moses received the oral law from Sinai, and delivered it to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and these to the prophets, and these to the men of the great synagogue” (Pirke Aboth, 1). The absence of directions for prayer, and of mention of a future life, in the Pentateuch probably gave a pretext for the figment of a traditional oral law. The great synagogue said, “make a fence for the law,” i.e. carry the prohibitions beyond the written law to protect men from temptations to sin; so Exodus 23:19 was by oral law made further to mean that no flesh was to be mixed with milk for food. The oral law defined the time before which in the evening a Jew must repeat the Shema, i.e. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord,” etc. ( Deuteronomy 6:4-9.) So it defines the kind of wick and oil to be used for lighting the lamps which every Jew must burn on the Sabbath eve. An egg laid on a festival may be eaten according to the school of Shammai, but not according to that of Hillel; for Jehovah says in Exodus 16:5, “on the sixth day they shall prepare that which, they bring in,” therefore one must not prepare for the Sabbath on a feast day nor for a feast day on the Sabbath. An egg laid on a feast following the Sabbath was “prepared” the day before, and so involves a breach of the Sabbath (!); and though all feasts do not immediately follow the Sabbath yet “as a fence to the law” an egg laid on any feast must not be eaten. Contrast Micah 6:8.

    A member of the society of Pharisees was called chaber ; those not members were called “the people of the land”; compare John 7:49, “this people who knoweth not the law are cursed”; also the Pharisee standing and praying with himself, self righteous and despising the publican ( Luke 18:9-14). Isaiah ( Isaiah 65:5) foretells their characteristic formalism, pride of sanctimony, and hypocritical exclusiveness ( Jude 1:18). Their scrupulous tithing ( Matthew 23:23; Luke 18:12) was based on the Mishna, “he who undertakes to be trustworthy (a pharisaic phrase) tithes whatever he eats, sells, buys, and does not eat and drink with the people of the land.” The produce (tithes) reserved for the Levites and priests was “holy,” and for anyone. else to eat it was deadly sin. So the Pharisee took all pains to know that his purchases had been duly tithed, and therefore shrank from “eating with” ( Matthew 9:11) those whose food might not be so. The treatise Cholin in the Mishna lays down a regulation. as to “clean and unclean” ( Leviticus 20:25; 22:4-7; Numbers 19:20) which severs the Jews socially from other peoples; “anything slaughtered by a pagan is unfit to be eaten, like the carcass of an animal that died of itself, and pollutes him who carries it.” An orthodox Jew still may not eat meat of any animal unless killed by a Jewish butcher; the latter searches for a blemish, and attaches to the approved a leaden seal stamped kashar , “lawful.” (Disraeli, Genius. of Judaism.) The Mishna abounds in precepts illustrating Colossians 2:21, “touch not, taste not, handle not” (contrast Matthew 15:11). Also it (6:480) has a separate treatise on washing of hands (Yadayim ). Translated Mark 7:8, “except they wash their hands with the fist” (pugmee ); the Mishna ordaining to pour water over the dosed hands raised so that it should flow down to the elbows, and then over the arms so as to flow over the fingers. Jesus, to confute the notion of its having moral value, did not wash before eating ( Luke 11:37-40).

    Josephus (Ant. 18:1, section 3, 13:10, section 5) says the Pharisees lived frugally, like the Stoics, and hence had so much weight with the multitude that if they said aught against the king or the highpriest it was immediately believed, whereas the Sadducees could gain only the rich. The defect in the Pharisees which Christ stigmatized by the parable of the two debtors was not immorality but want of love, from unconsciousness of forgiveness or of the need of it. Christ recognizes Simon’s superiority to the woman in the relative amounts of sin needing forgiveness, but shows both were on a level in inability to cancel their sin as a debt. Had he realized this, he would not have thought Jesus no prophet for suffering her to touch Him with her kisses of adoring love for His forgiveness of her, realized by her ( Luke 7:36-50; 15:2). Tradition set aside moral duties, as a child’s to his parents by” Corban”; a debtor’s to his creditors by the Mishna treatise, Avodah Zarah (1:1) which forbade payment to a pagan three days before any pagan festival; a man’s duty of humanity to his fellow man by the Avodah Zarah (2:1) which forbids a Hebrew midwife assisting a pagan mother in childbirth (contrast Leviticus 19:18; Luke 10:27-29). Juvenal (14:102-104) alleges a Jew would not show the road or a spring to a traveler of a different creed.

    Josephus (B.J. 2:8, section 14; 3:8, section 5; Ant. 18:1, section 3) says: “the Pharisees say that the soul of good men only passes over into another body, while the soul of bad men is chastised by eternal punishment.”

    Compare Matthew 14:2; John 9:2, “who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” compare John 9:34, “thou wast altogether born in sins.” The rabbis believed in the pre-existence of souls.

    The Jews’ question merely took for granted that some sin had caused the blindness, without defining whose sin, “this man” or (as that is out of the question) “his parents.” Paul: regarded the Pharisees as holding our view of the resurrection of the dead ( Acts 23:6-8). The phrase “the world to come” ( Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30; compare Isaiah 65:17-22; 26:19) often occurs in the Mishna (Avoth, 2:7; 4:16): this world may be likened to a courtyard in comparison of the world to come, therefore prepare thyself in the antechamber that thou mayest enter into the dining room”; “those born are doomed to die, the dead to live, and the quick to be judged,” etc. (3:16.) But the actions to be so judged were in reference to the ceremonial points as much as the moral duties. The Essenes apparently recognized Providence as overruling everything ( Matthew 6:25-34; 10:29,30). The Sadducees, the wealthy aristocrats, originally in political and practical dealings with the Syrians relied more on worldly prudence, the Pharisees more insisted on considerations of legal righteousness, leaving events to God. The Pharisees were notorious for proselytizing zeal ( Matthew 23:15), and seem to have been the first who regularly organized missions for conversions (compare Josephus, Ant. 20:2, section 3): The synagogues in the various cities of the world, as well as of Judaea, were thus by the proselytizing spirit of the Pharisees imbued with a thirst for inquiry, and were prepared for the gospel ministered by the apostles, and especially Paul, a Hebrew in race, a Pharisee by training, a Greek in language, and a Roman citizen in birth and privilege. In many respects their doctrine was right, so that Christ desires conformity to their precepts as from “Moses’ seat,” but not to their practice (Matt 23:2,3). But while pressing the letter of the law they ignored the spirit ( Matthew 5:21,22,27,38,31,32). Among even the Pharisees some accepted the truth, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, and John 12:42 and Acts 15:5.

    PHARPAR (swift or else crooked). One of the chief rivers of Syria, eight miles from Damascus 2 Kings 5:12); the Awaj, as the Abana is the Baruda. The ridge jebel Aswad separates Pharpar from Damascus. Pharpar rising on the S.E. side of Hermon ends in the bahret Hijaneh, the most southern of the three lakes or swamps of Damascus, due E. 40 miles from its source.

    Smaller than the Barada, and sometimes dried up in its lower course, which the Barada never is.

    PHENICE Acts 27:12. Rather Phoenix (derived from the Greek, “palmtree”); a town and harbour S. of Crete, which as being safer to winter in the master of Paul’s ship made for from Fair Havens, but owing to the tempestuous E.N.E. wind failed to reach. It looked toward the S.W. and N.W. On the S. side of the narrow part of Crete (Strabo x. 4). Situated over against Clauda (Hierocles). Now Lutro, but the description “looking toward S.W. and N.W.” no longer applies. Either great changes have occurred in its curving shore, or translated “looking down the S.W. and N.W.,” i.e. pointing the opposite direction to these winds, namely, N.E. and S.E. (?)

    PHICHOL (“mouth of all”), i.e. grand vizier, through whom all petitions came to the king. Chief captain of Abimelech king of Gerar ( Genesis 21:22; 26:26).

    PHILADELPHIA In Lydia, on the lower slopes of Tmolus, 28 miles S.E. of Sardis; built by Attalus II, Philadelphus, king of Pergamus, who died. 138 B.C. Nearly destroyed by an earthquake in Tiberius’ reign (Tacitus, Annals 2:47). The connection of its church with the Jews causes Christ’s address to have Old Testament coloring and imagery ( Revelation 3:7-18). It and Smyrna alone of the seven, the most afflicted, receive unmixed praise. To Smyrna the promise is, “the synagogue of Satan” should not prevail against her faithful ones; to Philadelphia, she should even win over some of “the synagogue of Satan,” (the Jews who might have been the church of God, but by opposition had become “the synagogue of Satan”) to “fall on their faces and confess God is in her of a truth” ( 1 Corinthians 14:25). Her name expresses “brotherly love,” in conflict with legal bondage. Her converts fall low before those whom once they persecuted ( Psalm 84:10; Acts 16:29-33). The promise, “him that overcometh I will make a pillar,” i.e. immovably firm, stands in contrast to Philadelphia often shaken by earthquakes. Curiously, a portion of a stone church wall topped with arches of brick remains; the building must have been magnificent, and dates from Theodosius. The region being of disintegrated lava was favourable to the vine; and the coins bear the head of Bacchus. This church had but” little strength,” i.e. was small in numbers and poor in resources, of small account in men’s eyes. The cost of repairing the often shaken city taxed heavily the citizens. Poverty tended to humility; conscious of weakness Philadelphia leant on Christ her strength ( 2 Corinthians 12:9); so she “kept His word,” and when tested did “not deny His name.” So “He who hath the key of David, He that openeth and no man shutteth,” “set before” Philadelphia an open door which no man can shut. Faithful in keeping the word of Christ’s patience (i.e. the persevering endurance which He requires) Philadelphia was kept, i.e. delivered, out of the hour of temptation. “Among the Greek churches of Asia Philadelphia is still erect, a column in a scene of ruins, a pleasing example that the paths of honour and safety may be sometimes the same.” (Gibbon.) The Turks call it Allah Shehr, “city of God”; or rather, “beautiful (‘alah ) city.”

    PHILEMON A Christian householder who hospitably entertained the saints ( Philemon 1:7) and befriended them with loving sympathy at Colossae, for Onesimus and Archippus were Colossians ( Colossians 4:9,17; Philemon 1:1,2,10); to whom Paul wrote the epistle. He calls Philemon “brother,” and says “thou owest unto me even thine own self,” namely, as being the instrument of thy conversion ( Philemon 1:19); probably during Paul’s long stay at the neighboring Ephesus ( Acts 19:10), when “all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus.” Colossians 2:1 shows Paul had not in person visited Colosse, though he must have passed near it in going through Phrygia on his second missionary tour ( Acts 16:6). The character which Paul gives Philemon for “love and faith toward the Lord Jesus and all saints,” so that “the bowels of the saints were refreshed by him,” and Paul had “confidence in his obedience that he would do even more than Paul said” is not mere politic flattery to induce him to receive his slave Cnesimus kindly, but is the sincere tribute of the apostle’s esteem. Such Christian masters, treating their slaves as “above servants” ( Philemon 1:16), “brothers beloved both in the flesh and in the Lord,” mitigated the evil of slavery and paved the way for its abolition. In the absence of a regular church building, Philemon opened his house for Christian worship and communion ( Philemon 1:2; compare Romans 16:5). He “feared God with all his house,” like Abraham ( Genesis 18:19), Joshua ( Joshua 24:15), and Cornelius ( Acts 10:2,). The attractive power of such a religion proved its divine origination, and speedily, in spite of persecutions, won the world.

    PHILEMON, EPISTLE TO Anthenticity of. Origen (Hom. 19, Jeremiah 1:185) quotes it as Paul’s.

    Tertullian (Marcion 5:21), “the brevity of this epistle is the cause of its escaping Marcion’s falsifying hands.” Eusebius (E. H. 3:25) ranks it among “the universally acknowledged (homologoumena ) epistles of the canon.”

    Jerome (Prooem. Philemon iv. 442) argues against those who thought its Subject beneath an apostle. Ignatius (Ephesians 2, Magnes. 12) alludes to Philemon 1:20. Compare Polycarp 1 and 6. The catalogues, the Muratori Fragment, the list of Athanasius (Ep. 39), Jerome (Ep. 2 ad Paulin.), the council of Laodicea (A.D. 364), and the third of Carthage (A.D. 397) support it. Its brevity accounts for the few quotations from it in the fathers. Paley (Hor. Paul.) shows its authenticity from the undesigned coincidences between it and the epistle to the Colossians.

    Place and time of writing. The same bearer Onesimus bore it and epistle to Colossians; in the latter ( Colossians 4:7-9) Tychicus is joined with Onesimus. Both address Archippus ( Philemon 1:2; Colossians 4:17).

    Paul and Timothy stand in both headings. In both Paul writes as a prisoner ( Philemon 1:9; Colossians 4:18). Both were written at Rome during the early and freer portion of Paul’s first imprisonment, A.D. 62; in Philemon 1:22 he anticipates a speedy release.

    AIM. This epistle is a beautiful sample of Christianity applied to every day life and home relations and mutual duty of master and servant ( <19A102> Psalm 101:2-7). Onesimus of Colosse, ( Colossians 4:9), Philemon’s slave, had fled to Rome after defrauding his master ( Philemon 1:18). Paul there was instrumental in converting him; then persuaded him to return ( Philemon 1:12) and gave him this epistle, recommending him to Philemon’s favorable reception as henceforth about to be his “forever,” no longer unprofitable but, realizing his name, “profitable to Paul and Philemon” ( Philemon 1:11,15). Not until Philemon 1:10, and not until its end, does the name occur. Paul skillfully makes the favorable description precede the name which had fallen into so bad repute with Philemon; “I beseech thee for my son whom I begat in my bonds, Onesimus.” Trusting soon to be free Paul begs Philemon to prepare him a lodging at Colosse. Paul addresses this epistle also to Apphia, who, from its domestic subject, is supposed to have been Philemon’s wife, and to Archippus, a minister of the Colossian ( Colossians 4:17) church, and supposed to be Philemon’s relative and inmate of his house.

    STYLE. Graceful delicacy and genuine politeness, combined with a natural, easy, free flow of feeling and thought, characterize this elegant epistle.

    Manly and straightforward, without insincere compliment, suppression, or misrepresentation of facts, it at once charms and persuades. Luther says: “it shows a lovely example of Christian love. Paul layeth himself out for poor Onesimus, and with all his means pleadeth his cause with his master, and so setteth himself as if he were Onesimus and had himself done wrong to Philemon. Yet all this doeth he, not with force as if he had a right thereto, but strippeth himself of his right and thus enforceth Philemon to forego his right also: even as Christ did for us with God the Father; for Christ also stripped Himself of His right and by love and humility enforced (?) the Father to lay aside His wrath and power and to take us to His grace for the sake of Christ, who lovingly pleadeth our cause and with all His heart layeth Himself out for us; for we are all His Onesimi.” “Paul was the common friend of the parties at variance; he must conciliate a man who had good reason to be offended; he must commend the offender, yet neither deny nor aggravate the fault; he must assert Christian equality in the face of a system which hardly recognized the humanity of the slave; he could have placed the question on the ground of his own personal rights, yet must waive them to secure an act of spontaneous kindness; his success must be a triumph of love, and nothing be demanded for the sake of the justice which could have claimed everything; he limits his request to a forgiveness of the wrong and g restoration to favor, yet so guards his words as to leave scope for all the generosity which benevolence might prompt toward one whose condition admitted of so much alleviation. Paul has shown in dealing with these contrarieties a tact equal to the occasion” (Smith’s Bible Dictionary). The younger Pliny’s intercession for a runaway (Ep. 9:21) is decidedly inferior. (See PAUL , see ONESIMUS .)

    PHILETUS Coupled with see HYMENAEUS as “erring” (missing the aim: estocheesan ), and holding that “the resurrection is past already” ( Timothy 2:17), as if it were merely the spiritual raising of souls from the death of sin: perverting Romans 6:4; Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:12; compare 1 Corinthians 15:12, etc. So the Seleucians or Hermians taught (Augustine, Ep. 119:55 ad Januar. 4); the germs of Gnosticism, which fully developed itself in the second century.

    PHILIP THE APOSTLE Of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter (by dwelling, apo ; but of Capernaum by birth, ek : Greswell): John 1:44,45. Associated with Andrew; both, alone of the apostles, have Greek names. Jesus Himself called Philip. When “wishing (Greek) to go forth into Galilee. He findeth Philip and saith (with His deeply significant call), Follow Me.” The first instance of Jesus calling a disciple: it was on the morrow after the naming of Peter, and the next but one after Andrew’s and the other disciple’s visit, the fourth day after John the Baptist’s witness concerning Christ ( John 1:19,35,40). The Lord probably knew Philip before, as the latter knew Hint as “son of Joseph” (expressing the ordinary belief), John 1:45.

    Converted himself, Philip sought to convert others; “Philip findeth Nathanael and saith ... We have found Him (implying his sharing with Andrew, whose words he repeats, in the hope of Messiah, John 1:41) of whom Moses in the law did write, Jesus of Nazareth.” Sincere in aim, defective in knowledge; for it was Christ who found him, not he Christ ( Isaiah 65:1); and Jesus was Son of God, not of Joseph His reputed father, husband of Mary. To Nathanael’s objection, “can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip replied with the best argument, experimental proof, “come and see” ( Psalm 66:16; 34:8). Probably they had before communed together of the divine promise of Messiah.

    Philip stands at the head of the second group of the twelve ( Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14); coupled with his friend and convert Nathanael, see BARTHOLOMEW . Clemens Alex. (Strom. 2:25) identifies him with the disciple who said, “suffer me first to go and (wait until my father dies, and) bury my father” ( Matthew 8:21); but Jesus said, “let the dead (in sin) bury their ((literal) dead: follow thou Me” (the same words as at his first call), “go thou and preach the kingdom of God” ( Kings 19:20; Leviticus 10:3,6; Ezekiel 24:16-18). To Philip Jesus put the question concerning the crowd faint with hunger, “from whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? to prove Philip (so Deuteronomy 8:2; Matthew 4:4) for Jesus Himself knew what lie would do” ( John 6:5-9). Philip failed, on being tested, through unbelief; “two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little” ( Numbers 11:21,22). Philip was probably the one whose duty was to provide for the daily sustenance of the twelve; or rather Luke’s ( Luke 9:10) notice that the desert where Jesus fed the multitude “was belonging to Bethsaida” gives us the key to the query being put to Philip; he belonged to Bethsaida ( John 1:44): who then was so likely as Philip to know where bread was to be got? An undesigned coincidence and mark of genuineness. Andrew here ( John 6:8) as in John 1 appears in connection with Philip.

    In John 12:20-22 Greek proselytes coming to Jerusalem for the Passover, attracted by Philip’s Greek name, and his residence in Galilee bordering on the Gentiles, applied to him of the twelve, saying, We would see Jesus. Instead of going direct to Jesus, he first tells his fellow townsman Andrew (a mark of humility and discreet reverence), who had been the first to come to Jesus; then both together tell Jesus. The Lord then spoke of His Father as about to honour any who would serve Jesus, and cried: “Father, glorify Thy name; a voice came, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again”; “He that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me” ( John 12:28,45). This saying sank deep into Philip’s mind; hence when Jesus said, “if ye had known Me ye should have known the Father, henceforth ye know and have seen Him,” Philip in childlike simplicity asked,”Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us” ( John 14:8-11). As he had led Nathanael and the Greeks to “see” Jesus, so now Jesus reveals to Philip himself what, long as ha had been with Jesus, he had not seen, namely, “he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ... I am in the Father, and the Father in Me “( Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15, “the image of the invisible God”; John 1:18). He was probably of the fishing party with his friend and convert Nathanael ( John 21:2). He was in the upper room with the praying disciples after the ascension ( Acts 1:13).

    PHILIP THE EVANGELIST Acts 6. Out of the seven Grecian (as the Greek names of all the seven imply) superintendents of the distribution of alms, appointed in consequence of the complaints of partiality to the Hebrew Christian widows, made by the Grecians or Hellenist Christians. (See DEACON .)

    Philip stands in the list next Stephen, they two being prominent and the only ones noticed subsequently. He like the rest was chosen by the multitude of disciples as “full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.” Philip was among those scattered by the great persecution against the church at Jerusalem (Acts 8). Philip, breaking through Jewish anti-Samaritan prejudice, was the first to follow Jesus’ steps (John 4) and His command ( Acts 1:8) to preach the gospel as a witness in Samaria; so he was virtually a forerunner of Paul “the apostle of the Gentiles” in his field of labour, as Stephen was in his doctrine. Jesus had declared “the fields (in Samaria) are white already to (the spiritual) harvest.” Philip (by an undesigned coincidence marking genuineness) finds it so. “The people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke ( Acts 8:6) ... they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ ... were baptized, both men and women” ( Acts 8:12). The Samaritans were looking for Messiah ( John 4:25), which paved the way; still more the two days of Jesus’ presence and the conversions which He made. John, who had called for fire from heaven to consume them, now joins with Peter in confirming them ( Acts 8:14,17).

    Even Simon Magus believed and was baptized, and continued with Philip wondering at the miracles and signs which were done.

    By the direction of the angel of the Lord Philip went down from Jerusalem to Gaza by the less frequented way, which was the usual one for chariots.

    In one an Ethiopian eunuch or chamberlain of Candace, a” proselyte of righteousness” (not as Cornelius, for whose admission to Christian fellowship a special revelation was needed, a “proselyte of the gate”), was returning from worship at Jerusalem. By the Spirit’s intimation Philip joined him as he read aloud Isaiah 53, and asked “understandest thou what thou reddest?” a question always needed in reading Scripture. The eunuch replied, “how can I, except some man guide me?” (the minister’s office secondarily, but the Holy Spirit’s mainly: John 16:13). Jesus, Philip explains, is the Lamb led to the slaughter. “In His humiliation His judgment (i.e. legal trial) was taken away,” the virtual sense of Isaiah 53:8, “He was taken away by oppression (so in <19A739> Psalm 107:39) and by judgment” (not as KJV “from prison.” for He was never incarcerated), i.e. by an oppressive judicial sentence; He was treated as one so mean that a fair trial was denied Him ( Matthew 26:59; Mark 14:55-59). “Who shall declare His generation?” i.e., who can declare the wickedness of His generation? Philip so preached of the fulfillment of prophecy in Jesus that the eunuch believed and was baptized in a stream on the way. The Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus manuscripts omit Acts 8:37, the confession of Jesus required before baptism, an early Christian usage ( Peter 3:21 end). The Spirit then caught away Philip, as Elijah of old. At Azotus (Ashdod) and the cities along the Philistine sea coast he preached all the way to Caesarea. Here Paul was entertained by him 19 years subsequently. His title now was “evangelist” besides being “of the seven.”

    His four daughters had the gift of prophecy or inspired teaching ( Acts 21:8,9). Here Philip, who had preached to the schismatic Samaritans, the dark African, and the hostile Philistine, would hail the apostle of the Gentiles who was carrying out to its world wide consequences the work initiated by the evangelist deacon. Here too Luke during his residence would hear from his own lips the details which he records concerning Philip.

    PHILIPPI A city of Macedon, in,a plain between the Pangaeus arid Haemus ranges, nine miles from the sea. Paul from the port Neapolis (Kavalla) on the coast ( Acts 16:11) reached Philippi by an ancient paved road over the steep range Symbolum (which runs from the W. end of Haemus to the S. end of Pangaeus) in his second missionary journey, A.D. 51. The walls are traced along the stream; at 350 ft. from it is the site of the gate through which Paul went to the place of prayer by the river’s (Gangites) side, where the dyer see LYDIA was converted, the firstfruits of the gospel in Europe.

    Dyed goods were imported from Thyatira to the parent city Philippi, and were dispersed by pack animals among the mountaineers of Haemus and Pangaeus. The Satriae tribe had the oracle of Dionysus, the Thracian prophet god. The “damsel with the spirit of divination” may have belonged to this shrine, or else to Apollo’s (as the spirit is called “Pythoness,” Greek), and been hired by the Philippians to divine for hire to the country folk coming to the market. She met Paul several days on his way to the place of prayer, and used to cry out on each occasion “these servants of the most high God announce to us the way of salvation.” Paul cast out the spirit; and her owners brought him and Silas before the magistrates, the duumvirs, who inflicted summary chastisement, never imagining they were Romans. Paul keenly felt this wrong ( Acts 16:37), and took care subsequently that his Roman privilege should not be set at nought ( Acts 22:25; 1 Thessalonians 2:2).

    Philippi was founded by Philip of Macedon, in the vicinity of the famed gold mines, on the site “the springs” (Kremides). Augustus founded the Roman “colony” to commemorate his victory over Brutus and Cassius Acts 16:12), 42 B.C., close to the ancient site, on the main road from Europe to Asia by Brundusium, Dyrrachium, across Epirus to Thessalonica, and so forward by Philippi. Philippi was “the first (i.e. farthest from Rome and first which Paul met in entering Macedon) city of the district” called Macedonia Prima, as lying farthest eastward, not as KJV “the chief city.” Thessalonica was chief city of the province, and Amphipolis of the district “Macedonia Prima.” A “colony” (accurately so named by Luke as distinguished from the Greek [apoikia ) was Rome reproduced in miniature in the provinces (Jul. Gellius, 16:13); its inhabitants had Roman citizenship, the right of voting in the Roman tribes, their own senate and magistrates, the Roman law and language. That the Roman “colonia,” not the Greek [apoikia] is used, marks the accuracy of Acts 16:12.

    Paul visited Philippi again on his way from Ephesus into Macedon ( Acts 20:1), and a third time on his return from Greece (Corinth) to Syria by way of Macedon ( Acts 20:3,6). The community of trials for Christ’s sake strengthened the bond which united him and the Philippian Christians ( Philippians 1:28-30). They alone supplied his wants twice in Thessalonica soon after he left them ( Philippians 4:15,16); a third time, through Epaphroditus, just before this epistle ( Philippians 4:10,18; Corinthians 11:9).

    Few Jews were in Philippi to sow distrust between him and them. No synagogue, but merely an oratory (proseuchee ), was there. The check to his zeal in being forbidden by the Spirit to enter Asia, Bithynia, and Mysia, and the miraculous call to Macedon, and his success in Philippi and the love of the converts, all endeared it to him. Yet the Philippians needed to be forewarned of the Judaizing influence which might assail their church at any time as it had crept into the Galatian churches ( Philippians 3:2).

    The epistle ( Philippians 4:2,3), in undesigned coincidence with the history ( Acts 16:13,14), implies that females were among the prominent church members. Its people were poor, but most liberal ( 2 Corinthians 8:1,2); persecuted, but faithful: only there was a tendency to dissension which Paul reproves ( Philippians 1:27; 2:1-4,12,14; 4:2).

    In A.D. 107 the city was visited by Ignatius, who passed through on his way to martyrdom at Rome. Immediately after Polycarp wrote to the Philippians, sending at their request a copy of all the letters of Ignatius which the church of Smyrna had; so they still retained the same sympathy with sufferers for Christ as in Paul’s days. Their religion was practical and emotional, not speculative; hence but little doctrine and quotation of the Old Testament occur in the epistle of Paul to them. The gold mines furnished the means of their early liberality, but were a temptation to covetousness, against which Polycarp warns them. Their graces were doubtless not a little helped by the epistle and the oral teaching of the great apostle.

    PHILIPPIANS, EPISTLE TO THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. The style, thought, and doctrine agree with Paul’s.

    The incidental allusions confirm his authorship. Paley (Hor. Paul. 7) instances the mention of the object of Epaphroditus’ journey to Rome, his sickness; the Philippian contribution to Paul’s wants ( Philippians 1:7; 2:25-30; 4:10-18); Timothy’s having been long with Paul at Philippi ( Philippians 1:1; 2:19); Paul’s being for long a prisoner at Rome ( Philippians 1:12-14; 2:17-28); his willingness to die for Christ ( Philippians 1:23, compare 2 Corinthians 5:8); the Philippians having seen his maltreatment at Philippi ( Philippians 1:29,30; 2:1,2).

    EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. Polycarp (ad Philipp. 3 and 11, A.D. 107); so that Christians who heard Paul’s epistle read for the first time may have spoken with Polycarp. Marcion in Tertullian (A D. 140) acknowledges its authenticity. So the Muratorian Fragment; Irenaeuns (adv. Haer, 4:18, section 4); Clemens Alex. (Paedagog. 1, 1:107); the epistle to the churches of Lyons and Vienne (A. D. 177) in Eusebius (H. E., 5:2); Tertullian (Resurr. Carnis, 23); Origen (Celsus, 1, 3:122); Cyprian (Testim. against the Jews, 3:39).

    OBJECT. To thank them for contributions sent by Epaphroditus, who in returning takes back the epistle. Also to express Christian sympathy, and to exhort to imitation of Christ in humility and lowly love, instead of existing dissensions, as between Euodias and Syntyche ( Philippians 4:2), and to warn against Judaizers. In this epistle alone are no positive censures; no doctrinal error or schism had as yet sprung up.

    DIVISIONS.

    I. Address: his state as a prisoner, theirs, his sending Epaphroditus to them (Philippians 1; 2). Epaphroditus probably was a presbyter of the Philippian church, who cheered Paul in iris imprisonment by bringing the Philippian token of love and liberality. By the fatigues of the journey that “brother, companion in labour, and fellow soldier” brought on himself dangerous sickness ( Philippians 2:25-30). But now being well he “longed” to return to his Philippian flock and relieve them of their anxiety about him.

    So Paul takes the opportunity of sending an epistle by him.

    II. Caution against Judaizers, contrasting his own former legalism with his present following Christ as his all (Philippians 3).

    III. Admonitions to individuals and to the church, thanks for seasonable aid, concluding benedictions (Philippians 4).

    Paul writes from Rome in his first imprisonment ( Acts 28:16,20,30,31).

    Compare Philippians 4:22, “Caesar’s household”; Philippians 1:13, “the see PALACE ” (proetorium, i.e. the barrack of the Proetorian bodyguard attached to “the palace” of Nero). He was in custody of the Praetorian prefect, in “bonds” ( Philippians 1:12-14). It was toward the close of the first imprisonment, for (1) he expects his cause to be immediately decided ( Philippians 2:23). (2) Enough time had elapsed for the Philippians to hear of his imprisonment, to send Epaphroditus, and to hear of his arrival and sickness, and send word to Rome of their distress ( Philippians 2:26). (3) Epistles to the Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon had already been written from Rome; for Luke is no longer with him ( Philippians 2:20), otherwise he would salute them as having formerly laboured among them; but in Colossians 4:14 he was with Paul ( Philemon 1:24). In Ephesians 6:19,20 he is free to preach; but, here in Philippians 1:13-18 he dwells on his “bonds”; not Paul himself but others preach and make his imprisonment known; instead of anticipating release ( Philemon 1:22) he knows not but that death is near. (4) A long time has elapsed since his imprisonment began, for his” bonds” known far and wide have furthered the gospel ( Philippians 1:13). (5) His imprisonment is more rigorous (compare Acts 28:16,30,31 with Philippians 1:29,30; 2:27). In the second year of it (A.D. 62) Burrhue, the Praetorian prefect (“captain of the guard”), died. Nero, having divorced Octavia and married Poppaea a Jewish proselytess (who then caused Octavia to be murdered), promoted Tigellinus, the promoter of the marriage, a wicked monster, to the Praetorian prefecture. Paul was then removed from his hired house into the Praetorium or barrack of the Praetorian guards attached to the palace, for stricter custody. Hence he writes, doubtful of the issue ( Philippians 2:17; 3:11). From the smaller Praetorian bodyguard at the palace the guards, who had been chained to his hand before, would carry the report of his “bonds” and strange story to the general Praetorian camp which Tiberius established N. of the city, outside the walls.

    DATE. He arrived at Rome February A.D. 61. The” two whole years in his own hired house” ( Acts 28:30) ended February A.D. 63. This epistle would be immediately after, spring or summer A.D. 63. God averted the danger. Tigellinus thought Paul beneath his notice. Nero’s favorite, Pallas, brother of Felix, died, and so another source of danger passed away. Alate date is also implied in the mention ( Philippians 1:1) of “bishop presbyters and deacons”; the church had already assumed the order laid down in the pastoral epistles to Timothy and Titus.

    STYLE. Abrupt and fervent, passing from one theme to another in strong feeling ( Philippians 2:18,19-24,25-30; 3:1-15). Nowhere else does he use such warm expressions. He lays aside the official tone, and his title “apostle,” to make them feel he regards them as friends and equals. Like his midnight song of praise in the Philippian prison, this epistle from his Roman confinement has a joyous tone throughout. At Philippians 4:1 he seems at a loss for words to express all the warmth of his love for them: “my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.”

    PHILISTIA (See PALESTINE , which is the same word, and originally meant “the land of the PHILISTINES:” Psalm 60:8; 87:4; 108:9.) (See CAPHTORIM : Amos 9:7, “the Philistines from Caphtor”; Jeremiah 47:4; Deuteronomy 2:23. Genesis 10:14see CASLUHIM , out of whom came Philistine.” Both came from Mizraim, i.e. Egypt. As in Amos and Jeremiah the Philistines are traced to Caphtor, probably the Casluhim and Caphtorim were tribes which intermingled, the Caphtorim having strengthened the Casluchian colony by immigration; so the Philistines may be said to have come from either (Bochart). Philistia is derived from the Ethiopic falasa “to emigrate,” Hebrew palash , “wander.” (In the W. of Abyssinia are the Falashas, i.e., emigrants, probably Israelites from Palestine.) Successive emigrations of the same race took place into Philistia, first the Casluhim, then the Caphtorim from both of which came the Philistines, who seemingly were in subjection in see CAPHTOR (see, the northern delta of Egypt), from whence “Jehovah brought them up” ( Amos 9:7). The objection to the Mizraite origin of the Philistines from their language is answered by the supposition that the Philistine or Caphtorim invaders adopted the language of the Avim whom they conquered ( Deuteronomy 2:23). Their uncircumcision was due to their having left Egypt at a date anterior to the Egyptians’ adoption (Herodotus ii. 36) of circumcision (compare Jeremiah 9:25,26).

    The Cherethites were probably Caphtorim, the modern Copts. Keratiya in the Philistine country, at the edge of the Negeb or “south country,” and now called “castle of the Fenish,” i.e. Philistines, is related to the name Cherethites; so “Philistines” is related to “Pelethites.”

    Their immigration to the neighborhood of Gerar in the south country was before Abraham’s time, for he deals with them as a pastoral tribe there ( Genesis 21:32,84; 26:1,8). This agrees with the statement ( Deuteronomy 2:23) that the Avim dwelt in Hazerim, i.e. in nomadic encampments. By the time of the exodus the Philistines had become formidable ( Exodus 13:17; 15:14). At Israel’s invasion of Canaan they had advanced N. and possessed fully the seacoast plain from the river of Egypt (el Arish) to Ekron in the N. ( Joshua 15:4,47), a confederacy of the five cities (originally Canaanite) Gaza (the leading one), Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron (always put last). Each city had its prince (called seren or sar : Joshua 13:3 “lords”): Amos 1:7,8. The opprobrious name given to the shepherd kings, Philition (Herodotus ii. 12) seems related to Philistine.

    Their plain was famed for its fertility in grain, vines, and olives ( Judges 15:5), so that it was the refuge from times of famine ( 2 Kings 8:2; compare Genesis 26:12). It suited war chariots, while the low hills of the shephelah afforded sites for fortresses. Philistia is an undulating plain, 32 miles long, and from nine to 16 broad, from 30 to 300 ft. above the sea.

    To the E. lie low spurs culminating in hog’s backs running N. and S., and rising in places 1,200 ft. above the sea. To the E. of these the descent is steep, about 500 ft., to valleys E. of which the hill country begins. The sand is gaining on the land, so that one meets often a deep hollow in the sand, and a figtree or apple tree growing at the bottom, or even a house and patch of ground below the sand level. It was the commercial thoroughfare between Phoenicia and Syria on the N. and Egypt and Arabia in the S. Ashdod and Gaza were the keys of Egypt, and the latter was the depot of Arabian produce (Pint., Alex. 25). The term “Canaan” (merchant) applied to the Philistine land ( Zephaniah 2:5) proves its commercial character. They sold Israelites as slaves to Edom and Greece, for which God threatens retribution in kind, and destruction (Amos 1:6-8; Joel 3:3-8). They were skilled as smiths in Saul’s days; at the beginning of his reign they had so subjugated Israel as to forbid them to have any smith (see JONATHAN ; see DAVID ; see ISRAEL ; see MICHMASH ): 1 Samuel 13:19-22. Their images, golden mice, emerods, and armour imply excellence in the arts ( 1 Samuel 6:11; 17:5,6). They carried their idols with them in war ( 2 Samuel 5:21), and published their triumphs in the house of their gods; these were see DAGON ( Judges 16:23) , Ashtaroth ( 1 Samuel 31:9,10), Baalzebub ( 2 Kings 1:2-6), and Derceto (Diod.

    Sic. 2:4). Their god Dagon was half man and half fish; Derceto was the female deity, with the face of a woman and body of a fish; our mermaid is derived from them. They had priests and diviners ( 1 Samuel 6:2), “soothsayers” ( Isaiah 2:6). Their wealth in money was great ( Judges 16:5,18). They had advanced military posts or garrisons in Israel’s land ( 1 Samuel 10:5; 13:3,17); from whence they sent forth spoilers, so that travelers durst not go by the highways ( Judges 5:6), and the Israelites hid from the Philistines in caves, or else fled beyond Jordan ( 1 Samuel 13:6,7).

    Though the Philistine land was allotted to Israel, it was never permanently occupied ( Joshua 13:2; 15:2,12,45-47; Judges 1:18; 3:5,31; 13--16).

    Neither Shamgar nor Samson delivered Israel permanently from the Philistines. The Israelites so lost heart that they in fear of the Philistines bound Samson ( Judges 15:12). The effort to deliver the nation from the Philistines was continued unsuccessfully under Eli (1 Samuel 4), successfully under Samuel ( 1 Samuel 7:9-14); Saul (Israel’s desire for a king was that he might lead them in war: 1 Samuel 8:20), 1 Samuel 13; 14; 17; David (after the disaster at Gilboa: 1 Samuel 31), 2 Samuel 5:17-25, when they dared to penetrate even to the valley of Rephaim, S.W. of Jerusalem, and to Bethlehem ( 1 Chronicles 11:16-18; 14:8-16), taking their images, and pursuing them to Gazer, then taking Gath and so wresting the supremacy from the Philistines (see METHEGAMMAH ) ( <131801> Chronicles 18:1; 2 Samuel 8:1), so that encounters with the Philistines henceforth were in their own land ( 2 Samuel 21:15-22). Solomon had them tributary ( 1 Kings 4:21,24; compare 1 Kings 2:39). The Egyptian Pharaoh took Gezer at the head of the Philistia plain, and gave it as his daughter’s marriage portion to Solomon ( 1 Kings 9:16,17); and Solomon fortified it and Bethhoron, to command the passes from the Philistia plain to the central region. At Israel’s disruption Rehoboam fortified Gath, etc., against the Philistines ( 2 Chronicles 11:8). But the Philistines laid hold of Gibbethon commanding the defile leading from Sharon up to Samaria; Israel had a long struggle for its recovery ( Kings 15:27; 16:15). The tribute had ceased, only some paid presents to Jehoshaphat ( 2 Chronicles 17:11). Under Jehoram they invaded Judah ( 2 Chronicles 21:16,17). Uzziah inflicted a decisive blow on them, dismantling their cities Gath, Ashdod, and Jahneh, and building commanding forts in their land ( 2 Chronicles 26:6; Amos 6:2). But under the weak Ahaz the Philistines recovered, and invaded the cities of the low country and S. of Judah, taking Bethshemesh, Ajalon, Gederoth.

    Shocho, Timnah, and Gimzo: Isaiah 9:12, “the Syrians before (i.e. from the E., which quarter they faced in marking the points of the compass) and the Philistines behind,” i.e. from the W. ( 2 Chronicles 28:18.) Isaiah ( Isaiah 14:29-32) warns Philistia, “rejoice not because the rod of him (Uzziah) that smote thee is broken; for out of the serpent’s (as the Philistines regarded Uzziah) root shall come forth a cockatrice,” i.e. a more deadly adder, namely, Hezekiah ( 2 Kings 18:8), “and the firstborn of the poor (i.e. the most abject poor, Hebraism; the Jews heretofore exposed to Philistia’s invasions and oppression) shall feed in safety.” Hezekiah had Egypt for his ally in resisting Assyria, possibly also in subduing the Philistines. Hence Sargon’s annals (Bunsen, Eg. 4:603) term Gaza and Ashkelon “Egyptian cities.” His general Tartan took Ashdod, as key of Egypt ( Isaiah 20:1-5). The Assyrians fortified it so strongly that it stood a 29 years’ siege under Psammetichus (Herodot. 2:157). Sennacherib took Ashkelon, and gave part of Hezekiah’s land as a reward to Ashdod, Gaza, and Ekron for their submission (Rawlinson 1:477). After the Babylonian captivity ( Ezekiel 25:15-17) the Philistines vented their “old hatred” on the Jews, for which God as He foretold “executed vengeance on them with furious rebukes, and destroyed the remnant,” namely, by Psammetichus, Necho ( Jeremiah 25:20), and Nebuchadnezzar who overran their cities on his way to Egypt (Jeremiah 47), and finally by Alexander the Great, as foretold ( Zechariah 9:5,6, “the king shall perish from Gaza”; Alexander bound Betis the satrap to his chariot by thongs thrust through his feet, and dragged round the city; the conqueror slew 10,000, and sold the rest as slaves: Zephaniah 2:4,5).

    At Medinet Haboo there are sculptures representing Philistine prisoners and warriors and ships attacked by Egyptians (Rosellini). They used sometimes to burn their prisoners alive ( Judges 15:6; Psalm 78:63).

    Their speech differed from the Jews’ language ( Nehemiah 13:23,24). (See PHOENICIA .)

    PHILOLOGUS Romans 16:15. Saluted by Paul. Mentioned in the columbarium “of the freedmen of Livia Augusta” at Rome. Probably of the imperial household, as a Julia (an imperial name) is connected with him. He was the center of a knot of Christians.

    PHILOSOPHY The Greek manifold gropings after truth ( Acts 17:27) and the failure of even the divine law of Moses to appease conscience and give peace were the appointed preparation for the Christian scheme, which secures both to the believer. Holiness toward God, righteousness toward man, and the control of the passions, rest on love, not merely to an abstract dogma, but to the person of Him who first loved us and bought us at the cost of His own blood. Though “foolishness to the Greek, Christ crucified is the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1; 2). Nothing but divine interposition could have given a nation, cradled amidst the superstitions of Egypt and surrounded in maturity by the Canaanite idolaters, and in no way noted for learning and culture, a pure monotheistic religion, bringing man into holy fellowship with the personal loving God and Father. Moses’ ritual trained them for the spiritual religion which was its end. What Greek philosophy in vain tried to effect through the intellect, to know God, one’s self, and our duty to God, man, and ourselves, and to do from the heart what we know, God by His Spirit revealing His Son Jesus Christ in the heart thoroughly effects by the motive of love ( 2 Corinthians 10:4,5; Colossians 2:3).

    After Nebuchadnezzar’s capture of Jerusalem, Thales traveled into Egypt and introduced philosophy thence into his native land, Greece. His theory that water was the first principle of all things, and that God was the Spirit who formed all things out of water, is evidently derived from primitive tradition ( Genesis 1:2). “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Thales brought also from Egypt the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Brucker (Hist. Philos.) infers from the unconnected dogma-like form of the utterances of the seven sages of Greece that their wisdom was the fruit of tradition rather than independent reasonings. It is striking that the higher we trace the religions of the old world the more pure and uncorrupted they are found. The nearer we approach to the sources of Eastern tradition the more conspicuous appears the radiance of the heavenly light of original revelation; we find no mortals yet exalted to divinities, no images in their temples, no impure or cruel rites (Juvenal, Sat. 13:46; Romans 1:21); in the great pyramid on idolatrous symbol appears.

    PHINEHAS An Egyptian name in the time of Rameses II. 1. Eleazar’s son; Aaron’s grandson ( Exodus 6:25). His mother was of Putiel’s daughters. By his zeal in avenging the Lord’s cause on the Simeonitc prince Zimri, and Cosbi his Midianite paramour, Phinehas turned away Jehovah’s wrath, making an atonement for Israel, and was given Jehovah’s covenant of peace, an everlasting priesthood (Numbers 25; <19A630> Psalm 106:30,31). Phinehas, with the holy instruments and trumpets to blow, accompanied the expedition which avenged Jehovah and Israel on Midian ( Numbers 31:6, etc.). Phinehas, as ambassador with ten princes, was delegated by Israel to remonstrate with the two and a half tribes as to the altar the latter built at Jordan; these satisfied the delegates and Israel as to their intentions. Thus was Phinehas a mediator of Israel’s brotherly unity, as before he had vindicated Israel’s purity ( Joshua 22:13-34).

    Lastly Phinehas stood before the ark inquiring of Jehovah for Israel, “shall I go yet again ... against Benjamin my brother?” ( Judges 20:23,28.) The same zeal for the purity yet brotherhood of Israel characterized him now in old age as in his youth. His zeal, i.e. the faith that prompted it, “was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore” (compare Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3). Phinehas had an allotment in Mount Ephraim; here on a hill bearing his name his father Eleazar was buried ( Joshua 24:33). The closing verses, concerning Joshua’s death, etc., are ascribed to Phinehas (Baba barbra, in Fabricius, 893.) Eli of Ithamar’s line interrupted the succession of the line of Phinehas; Zadok resumed it under Solomon. The tomb of Phinehas is shown at Awertah, four miles S.E. of Nablus, in the center of the village, within an area overshadowed by an old vine. 2. Second son of see ELI , killed with see HOPHNI , in battle with the Philistines ( 1 Samuel 1:3); according to the prophecy: 1 Samuel 2:34; 4:4,11,17,19; 14:3. 3. A Levite ( Ezra 8:33).

    PHLEGON A Christian whom Paul salutes ( Romans 16:14).

    PHOEBE The first and one of the foremost of the list of Christians in the last chapter of Romans ( Romans 16:1,2). “A servant (Greek ‘deaconess’) of the church at Cenchrea” (the eastern port of Corinth; where Paul had his head shorn for a vow: Acts 18:18). Pliny’s letter to Trajan (A.D. 110) shows that deaconesses existed in the Eastern churches. Their duty was to minister to their own sex ( 1 Timothy 3:11 translated “deaconesses” literally, “women”). Phoebe was just going to Rome; Paul therefore commends her to their reception as “in the Lord,” i.e. a genuine disciple: as becometh saints to receive saints; and to assist her in whatever she needed their help; for “she had been a succourer (by her money and her efforts) of many and of Paul himself.” The female presbytery of widows above sixty is distinct from the deaconesses ( 1 Timothy 5:9-13). Phoebe was the bearer of this epistle, written from the neighbouring Corinth in the spring of A.D. 58.

    PHOENICE; PHOENICIA The Greek name, “the land of the palm.” Kenrick supposes the term to express the sunburnt color of the people. The native name was Canaan, “lowland,” in contrast to Aram” the highland,” Syria. The woman in Matthew 15:22 said to be “of Canaan” in Mark 7:26 is called “Syrophoenician.” Phoenice proper was the narrow plain stretching from six miles S. of Tyre to two miles N. of Sidon,28 miles in all, and from one to two miles broad, a small land to have wielded so mighty an influence.

    Sidon in the N. is 20 miles from Tyre in the S.; Zarephath lay between.

    Phoenice in the larger sense extended from the same southern boundary 120 miles northward to Antaradus and the island Aradus (see ARVAD , which see), 20 miles broad. Berytus, now Beirut ( Ezekiel 47:16; Samuel 8:8BEROTHAH, Berothai), was 15 geographical miles N. of Sidon.

    Farther north was Byblus (GEBAL, Ezekiel 27:9). Next is Tripolis. Next Arad or Arvad ( Genesis 10:18; Ezekiel 27:8). The soil is fertile except between the river Bostremus and Beirut. Tyre and Sidon were havens sufficient in water depth for the requirements of ancient ships; and Lebanon adjoining supplied timber abundant for shipbuilding. The Phoenicians were the great merchants, sailors, and colonists of the ancient world.

    The language is Semitic (from Shem), and was acquired by the Hamitic settlers in Canaan from the original Semitic occupants; it probably has a Hamitic element too (these Semitics were related by common Noachic descent to the Hamites, hence the languages too are related). Carthage was a Phoenician colony; Plautus in the Poenulus (5:1) preserves a Carthaginian passage; Phoenician is close related to Hebrew which Abram found spoken in Canaan already (compare Abimelech “father of a king,” Melchizedek “king of righteousness.” Kirjath Sapher “city of the book”). Thus Tyre is Hebrew tsor , “rock”; Sidon tsidon , “fishing”; Carthage karthada , “new town”; Byrsa botsrah , “citadel,” Bozrah Isaiah 63:1. Dido, as David, “beloved”; Hasdrubal “his help is Baal”; Hannibal “grace of Baal “; Hamilcar the god “Milcar’s gift.” The oldest Phoenician inscribed coins are from Tarsus. Abram originally spoke the language of Ur of the Chaldees, Aramaic, as did Laban ( Genesis 11:31; 31:47); but soon his descendants, as Jacob, spoke the Canaanite or Phoenician Hebrew as their own tongue, compare Deuteronomy 26:5.

    Accho (Acre), a capital harbor, assigned to Asher, was not occupied by that tribe ( Judges 1:31); but remained in the Canaanites’ possession. So Israel depended on Phoenice for any small commerce the former had with the W. Under Solomon Phoenice is noted for nautical skill, extensive commerce, mechanical and ornamental art (1 Kings 5: 6): “none can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians”; “cunning to work in gold, silver, brass, iron, purple, blue, and crimson,” and “grave grayings” ( Chronicles 2:7). Hiram cast all the temple vessels and the two pillars Boaz and Jachin for Solomon, and the laver or molten sea ( 1 Kings 7:21-23).

    Homer (Iliad 6:289, 23:743; Od. 4:614, 15:417) and Herodotus (1:1, 4:148) confirm Scripture as to their nautical skill, embroidered robes, and silver bowls. Dins (in Josephus, Apion 1:17,18) and Menander (18), their own historians, attest their skill in hawing wood and making metal pillars.

    No artistic excellence, but mechanical processes of art and ornamentation, appear in their extant gems, cylinders, metal bowls plain and embossed (Layard, Nin. and Bah. 155,186,192,606). Solomon allowed the Phoenicians to build ships in Ezion Geber on condition of their instructing his sailors. Together the Phoenicians and Jews voyaged to Ophir, and once in three years further ( 1 Kings 10:11,22; 9:26,27,28; 1 Chronicles 14:1; 2 Chronicles 8:18; 9:10). The Phoenicians after the severance of the ten tribes no longer kept the covenant with Judah. They even sold Jews as slaves to their enemies the Edomites, in violation of “the brotherly covenant” once uniting Hiram and David ( Joel 3:4-8; Amos 1:9,10; Isaiah 23; Ezekiel 28). Israel supplied Phoenice with wheat, honey, oil, and balm ( Ezekiel 27:17; 1 Kings 5:9,11; Ezra 3:7; Acts 12:20): “wheat of Minnith” (an Ammonite city) (see PANNAG ). Palestine’s being the granary of Phoenice explains why the latter alone of the surrounding nations maintained lasting peace with Israel; and this notwithstanding Elijah’s slaughter of the Phoenician Baal’s prophets and priests, and Jehu’s slaughter of Baal’s worshippers. Another reason was their policy of avoiding land wars. The polytheism of Phoenice their next neighbor had a corrupting influence on Israel. It seemed narrow minded to be so exclusive as to maintain that Jehovah of Israel alone was to be worshipped. Hence arose compromises, as Solomon’s sacrificing to his wives’ deities, Ashtoreth of Sidon, etc., and the people’s halting between Jehovah and Baal under Ahab. The northern kingdom near Phoenice was more corrupted than Judah; but Judah copied her bad example ( 2 Kings 17:19; Jeremiah 3:8). The burning of sons to Baal ( Jeremiah 19:5; 32:35) originated in the idea of human life forfeited by sin needing expiation by human life; substitution was the primitive way revealed; fire, the symbol of the sun god, purified in consuming, so was the mode of vicarious sacrifice. But while God requires a faith ready for such an awful sacrifice (Genesis 22), He forbids the human sacrifice, and substitutes animals, with whom in his material nature and animal life man is so closely related. The Carthaginians, when besieged by Agethocles, burnt 200 boys of the aristocracy to Saturn, and after victory the most beautiful captives (Diod. 20:14,65). The men and women “consecrated” to lust in connection with the temples of Astarte deified, as religion, shameless licentiousness ( 2 Kings 23:7; Deuteronomy 23:17,18; 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46; Hosea 4:14; Job 36:14 margin).

    LETTERS. Tradition says Cadmus (= “the Eastern” or “of ancient time”) introduced into Greece the 16 earliest Greek letters. The names of the four Greek letters Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, are without meaning in Greek; but the Hebrew Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, mean respectively ox, house, camel, door; so, in the main, the rest. The original Greek and Phoenician letters resembled one another, though not so the modern Hebrew and later Greek. The Hebrew or Phoenician originally are rude pictures of the objects signified by the names: aleph, of an ox head; gimel, of a camel’s back; daleth, of a tent door; vau, of a hook or peg; lamed, of an ox goad; ayin, of an eye; quoph, of the back of the head; reish or rosh, of a head; tau, of a cross. The -a termination of the Greek letters is the Aramaic status emphaticus; the definite article he, instead of being prefixed was subjoined to the noun; so in Genesis 31:47 the Aramaean (Syrian) Laban adds a to sahaduth “testimony,” Jegar Sahadutha; nine out of the Cadmeian letters are in the Aramaic status emphaticus, i.e. ending in -a.

    This proves that when the Greeks received originally the letters from the East the names by which they learned them were Aramaic. (See WRITING .)

    The Phoenicians traded for tin so far W. as the Scilly islands or Cassiterides (Strabo 3:5, section 11) and the coasts of Cornwall. Their “traveller’s stories” were proverbial, “a Phoenician figment.” Also their fraudulence in bargains, “Syrians against Phoenicians,”i.e, fraud matching fraud; compare “Punica fides. A sarcophagus of king Ashmunazer with Phoenician inscription describing him “possessor of Dor, Joppa, and ample grainlands at the root of Dan,” is in the Louvre, brought by the Duc de Luynes.

    PHRYGIA The W. part of the center of Asia Minor; varying in its definition at different times, and contributing parts to several Roman provinces ( Acts 2:10). Paul passed through Phrygia in his second ( Acts 16:6) and third ( Acts 18:23) missionary journeys. An ethnological not political division. The Taurus range separated Phrygia from Pisidia on the S.; Caria, Lydia, Mysia, Bithynia were on its W. and N.; Galatia, Cappadocia, and Lycaonia on the E. It is a tableland. The Phrygia meant in Scripture is the southern portion (called “greater Phrygia”) of the region above, and contained Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colosse, and Iconium. It was peopled by an Indo Germanic race from Armenia, who formed the oldest population of Asia Minor.

    PHURAH (See GIDEON ). His servant and armor bearer, who accompanied him at midnight to the Midianite camp ( Judges 7:10,11; 1 Samuel 14:1).

    PHUT Third among Ham’s sons ( Genesis 10:6; 1 Chronicles 1:8). The Coptic for Libya is Phaiat. Jerome (Traditional Hebrew) mentions a river of Mauritania and the adjoining region as called Phut. It is generally connected with Egypt and Ethiopia; in Genesis the order is, from the S. advancing northwards, Cush (Ethiopia), Mizraim, Phut (a dependency of Egypt), Canaan ( Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 30:5; Nahum 3:9; Isaiah 66:9 where Phut should be read for Pul). But in Ezekiel 27:10; 38:5, Phut is associated with Persia, Lud, and Ethiopia; however this is no proof of geographical connection, it is merely an enumeration of regions from whence mercenaries came. The people of Phut dwelt close to Egypt and Ethiopia,and served in Egypt’s armies with shield and bow. The Egyptian monuments mention a people, “Pet,” whose emblem was the unstrung bow, and who dwelt in what is now Nubia, between Egypt and Ethiopia. Herodotus (iii. 21,22) narrates that the king of Ethiopia unstrung a bow and gave it to Cambyses’ messengers, saying that when the king of Persia could pull a bow so easily he might come against the Ethiopians with an army stronger than theirs. The see NAPHTUHIM are distinct, living W. of the Delta; the IX Na-petu, or nine bows. Phut is To-pet or Nubia; and To-meru-pet “the island of the bow,” answering to Meroe. The bow of Libya was strung, that of Ethiopia unstrung.

    PHUVAH PUA,PUAH ( Genesis 46:13; Numbers 26:23; 1 Chronicles 7:1).

    PHYGELLUS 2 Timothy 1:15, “all they which are (now) in Asia,” (when they were in Rome) “turned way from me,” ashamed of my chain; in contrast to Onesiphorus, “of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes” (compare Timothy 4:16). Possibly it was at Nicopolis, when he was apprehended, that those of Asia who had escorted him so far turned away. Phygellus was one from whom such cowardly treachery was unexpected.

    PHYLACTERIES totaphoth . (See EARRINGS ) PIBESETH Ezekiel 30:17. A town in Lower Egypt. In hieroglyphics Bahest, Habahest (the abode of Bahest the goddess), Greek Boubastos . On the western bank of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. The temple of the goddess Bubastis (Bahest), of the finest red granite, (of which fine remains exist) Herodotus declared the most beautiful he knew; in the midst of the city, which being raised on mounds overlooked it on every side. The names of Rameses II of the 19th dynasty, etc., are inscribed; also Shishak the conqueror of Rehoboam. Bast is Pesht, the goddess of fire. A lion headed figure accompanies her, the cat was sacred to her. The Greek Artemis corresponds; at Benihassan is her cave temple, with the lioness, “Pesht the lady of the cave.” The annual festival was very popular and licentious (Herodot. 2:59,60,137). The 22nd dynasty consisted of Bubastite kings, beginning about 990 B.C. Ezekiel couples it with Aven (On or Heliopolis) as on the route of an invader from the N.E. marching against Memphis.

    Manetho mentions a chasm opening in the earth and swallowing up many in the time of Boethos or Bochos, first king of the second dynasty, B.C.

    PIECES: OF GOLD 2 Kings 5:5, probably shekels (weight); compare 1 Kings 10:16. PIECE OF SILVER: probably shekels (weight); Genesis 20:16; 37:28; 45:22. In Luke 15:8,9, the Greek see DRACHM , Roman denarius, see PENNY . The 30 pieces paid to Judas were “shekels,” the price of a slave’s life ( Exodus 21:32), 3 British pounds or 4 British pounds: Zechariah 11:12,13.

    PIETY 1 Timothy 5:4, “show piety at home” or “reverential dutifulness toward one’s own house.” The filial relation represents our relation to our heavenly Father.

    PIHAHIROTH Israel encamped “before Pihahiroth between Migdol and the sea” ( Exodus 14:2). Chabas translated a papyrus (Anast. 3:1, section 2), in which the scribe Penbesa describes Rameses’ visit; garlands were sent from Pehir on a river. Pihahiroth is partly Egyptian, partly Semitic. “the house (Pi) of wells, the watering place in the desert.” Israel, after marching from Rameses eastward to Succoth along the old canal, and thence to Etham, were ordered by God to change their direction and go southward to Pihahiroth at, the W. of the Bitter Lakes, dose to Migdol, on its N.W. side, Migdol being on the N.W. of Baal Zephon, all three W. of the Red Sea, and opposite Ayun Musa. Now Ajrud, a fortress with a large well of good water, at the foot of an elevation that commands the plain stretching to Suez four leagues off ( Numbers 33:7,8).

    PILATE PONTIUS. Connected with the Pontian clan (gens), first remarkable in the person of Pontius Telesinus, the great Samnite general. Pilate is probably from [pileus], “the cap of freedom,”which manumitted slaves received; Pilate being perhaps descended from a freedman. Sixth Roman procurator of Judaea, appointed in Tiberius’ 12th year (A.D. 25 or 26). The pagan historian Tacitus (Ann. 15:44) writes: “Christ, while Tiberius was emperor, was capitally executed by the procurator Pontius Pilate.” The procurator was generally a Roman knight, acting under the governor of a province as collector of the revenue, and judge in cases arising under it. But Pontius Pilate had full military and judicial authority in Judas, as being a small province attached to the larger Syria; he was responsible to the governor of Syria. Archelaus having been deposed (A.D. 6), Subinus, Coponius, Ambivius, Rufus, Valerius Gratus, and Pontius Pilate successively were governors (Josephus, Ant. 18:2, section 2). Pilate removed his military head quarters from Caesarea to Jerusalem, and the soldiers brought their standards with the emperor’s image on them. The Jews crowded to Caesarea and besought him to remove them He was about to kill the petitioners after a five days’ discussion, giving a signal to concealed soldiers to surround them; but their resolve to die rather than cease resisting the idolatrous innovation caused him to yield (Josephus, Ant. 18:3, section 1,2; B.J. 2:9, section 2-4). So far did the Jews’ scruples influence the Roman authorities that no coin is stamped with a god or emperor before Nero (DeSaulcy, Numism. 8,9); the “penny” stamped with Caesar’s image in Matthew 22:20 was either a coin from Rome or another province, the shekel alone was received in the temple. Pilate again almost drove them to rebel (1) by hanging up in his residence, Herod’s palace at Jerusalem, gilt shields with names of idols inscribed, which were finally removed by Tiberius’ order (Philo, ad Caium. 38, ii. 589); (2) by appropriating the Corban revenue from redemption of vows ( Mark 7:11) to building an aqueduct. (It is an extraordinary engineering work,30 miles long; the southern source is 15 miles from Jerusalem at wady el Arrub; Ain Kueizibba is its true source; it is carried on a parapet 12 ft. high over wady Marah el Ajjal.) He checked the riot by soldiers with concealed daggers, who killed many of the insurgents and even spectators. (3) He mingled the blood of Galileans witk their sacrifices, probably at a feast at Jerusalem, when riots often occurred, and in the temple outer court ( Luke 13:1-4). Probably the tower of Siloam was part of the aqueduct work, hence its fall was regarded as a judgment; the Corban excluded the price of blood, as Matthew 27:6. It is not improbable that Barabbas’ riot and murder were connected with Pilate’s appropriation of the Corban; this explains the eagerness of the people to release him rather than Jesus; the name may mean “son of Abba,” an honorary title of rabbis, from whence the elders were strongly in his favor. Livy (5:13) mentions that prisoners used to be released at a lectisternium or propitiatory feast in honor of the gods.

    That Jerusalem was not the ordinary residence of Pilate appears from Luke 23:6, “Herod himself also (as well as Pilate) was at Jerusalem at that time.” Caesarea was the regular abode of the Roman governors (Josephus, Ant. 18:4, section 1; 20:4, section 4). The Passover brought Pilate to Jerusalem, as disturbances were most to be apprehended when the people were gathered from the country for the feast. (See JESUS CHRIST on Pilate’s conflict of feelings.) He had a fear of offending the Jews, who already had grounds of accusation against him, and of giving color to a charge of lukewarmness to Caesar’s kingship, and on the other hand a conviction of Jesus’ innocence (for the Jewish council, Pilate knew well, would never regard as criminal an attempt to free Judas from Roman dominion), and a mysterious awe of the Holy Sufferer and His majestic mien and words, strengthened by his wife’s (Claudia Procula, a proselyte of the gate: Evang. Nicod. 2) vision and message. Her designation of Jesus, “that just man,” recalls Plato’s unconscious prophecy (Republic) of “the just man” who after suffering of all kinds restores righteousness. Jesus’ question, “sayest thou this of thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me?” implies suspicion existed in Pilate’s mind of the reality of His being “King of the Jews” in some mysterious sense. When the Jews said “He ought to die for making Himself Son of God” Pilate was the more afraid; Christ’s testimony ( John 18:37) and bearing, and his wife’s message, rising afresh before his mind in hearing of His claim to be “the Son of God” His suspicion betrays itself in the question, “from whence art Thou?” also in his anxiety, so unlike his wonted cruelty, to release Jesus; also in his refusal to alter the inscription over the cross (John 18; 19). (See HEROD ANTIPAS for his share in the proceeding.) Jesus answered not to his question, “from whence art Thou?” Silence emphasized His previous testimony ( John 18:37); but to Pilate’s official boast of his power to release or crucify, Jesus’ answer, “Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above;” answers also “from whence art Thou?” Thy power is derived thence from whence I am.

    Pilate had no quaestor to conduct the trial, being only a procurator; but examined Jesus himself. A minute accuracy, confirming the genuineness of the Gospel narrative; also his having his wife with him, Caecina’s proposal to enforce the law prohibiting governors to bring their wives into the provinces having been rejected (Tacitus, Ann. 3:33,34). Pilate sending up (anepempsen , Luke 23:7) Jesus to Herod is the Roman law term for referring a prisoner to the jurisdiction of the judge of his country. The tesselated pavement (lithostroton ) and the tribunal (bema ) were essential in judging, so that Julius Caesar carried a tribunal with him in expeditions (Josephus, Ant. 20:9, section 1).

    The granting of a guard for the sepulchre ( Matthew 27:65) is the last that Scripture records of Pilate. Having led troops against and defeated the Samaritans, who revolted under a leader promising to show the treasures which Moses was thought to have hid in Mount Gerizim, he was accused before Vitellius, chief governor of Syria, and sent to Rome to answer before Caesar. Caligula was now on the throne, A.D. 36. Wearied with misfortunes Pilate killed himself (Josephus, Ant. 18:4, section 1,2; Eusebius, H. E., ii. 7). One tradition makes Pilate banished to Vienne on the Rhone, where is a pyramid 52 ft. high, called the “tomb of Pontius Pilate.” Another represents him as plunging in despair into the lake at the top of Mount Pilatus near Lucerne. Justin Martyr (Apology i. 76,84), Tertullian (Apol. 21), Eusebius (H. E. 2:2) say that Pilate made an official report to Tiberius of Jesus’ trial and condemnation. “Commentaries (hupomneemata ) of Pilate” are mentioned in a homily attributed to Chrysostom (8 in Pasch.). The Acta Pilati in Greek, and two Latin epistles to the emperor, now extant, are spurious (Fabric. Apoer. 1:237,298; 3:111,456).

    Pilate is a striking instance of the danger of trifling with conscientious convictions, and not acting at once upon the principle of plain duty. Fear of man, the Jews’ accusations, and the emperor’s frown, and consequent loss of place and power, led him to condemn Him whom he knew to be innocent and desired to deliver. His compromises and delays were vain when once the determined Jews saw him vacillating. Fixed principle alone could have saved him from pronouncing that unrighteous sentence which brands his name forever (Psalm 82). His sense of justice, compassion, and involuntary respect for the Holy Sufferer yielded to his selfishness, worldly policy, and cynical unbelief. Pilate was guilty, but less so than the high priest who in spite of light and spiritual knowledge ( John 19:11) delivered Jesus to him.

    PILDASH One of Nahor’s eight sons by Milcah ( Genesis 22:22).

    PILEHA Nehemiah 10:24.

    PILLARS ‘ammud . A chief feature in Eastern building, the flat roofs being supported by pillars. The tent fashion remained even in permanent structures. Open Persian halls have the fronts supported by pillars and shaded by curtains fastened to the ground by pegs or to trees in the court ( Esther 1:6). The heaven is compared to a canopy supported by pillars ( <19A402> Psalm 104:2; Isaiah 40:22). In Psalm 75:3, “the earth ... dissolved, I bear up the pillars of it,” literally,” I have weighed,” i.e. consolidated by exact weight the pillars. I who at creation brought the world from chaos into beautiful order will restore it from its present disorganization. In 1 Samuel 15:12, “Saul set him up a (not ‘place’ but) monument,” literally, hand, probably a pillar ( Genesis 28:18; 35:14). The 12 pillars ranged as boundary stones round the consecrated enclosure represented the 12 tribes, as the “altar” represented Jehovah making covenant with them ( Exodus 24:4; Isaiah 19:19). In 1 Kings 10:12 mis’ad means “a flight of steps” with “rails” or banisters, Matsebah often means a statue or idolatrous image as well as pillar ( Deuteronomy 7:5; 2 Chronicles 14:3; Hos, 3:4). Boaz and Jachin were the two great pillars of the temple ( 1 Kings 7:21). In Song 3:10 the pillars support the canopy over the chariot at the four corners. Pillars with silver sockets supported the veil that enclosed the holy of holies. The ‘amud on which king Joash stood ( 2 Kings 11:14) was not a pillar but a raised platform at the E. gate of the inner court (compare Ezekiel 46:2) for the king’s use on festive occasions [ 2 Kings 23:3), the brazen scaffold of Solomon ( 2 Chronicles 6:13: Keil).

    Pillar is the image of solid firm uprightness, the church’s support ( Galatians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:15). The church is “the pillar of the truth,” as the continuance of the truth (historically) rests on it. The church rests on the truth as it is in Jesus, not the truth on the church. The truth donkey it is in itself needs no prop. The truth as it is acknowledged in the world needs the church as its human upholder under God. The pillar is the intermediate, the “ground” (basis) the ultimate, stay of the building ( Timothy 2:19). Translated as Greek “the firm foundation of (laid by) God (namely, the word of truth 2 Timothy 2:15,18, contrasted with Hymenseus’ word eating as a canker) standeth” fast; the church being the house ( 2 Timothy 2:20) cannot be also the foundation, which would make the house to be founded on the house! The believer shall at last be a pillar immovably firm (unlike earthquake-shaken Philadelphia) and “never more at all go out” (Greek Revelation 3:12), being under “the blessed necessity of goodness.”

    In Judges 9:6 Abimelech is crowned “by the oak (‘elown , not ‘plain’) of the pillar (or memorial) at Shechem,” in the same spot where Joshua held the last national assembly and renewed. Israel’s covenant with Jehovah ( Joshua 24:1,25,26), where also probably Jacob had buried the idol trinkets of his household ( Genesis 35:4).

    PILLED Genesis 30:37,38.PEELED: Isaiah 18:2: stripped, plundered. Ezekiel 29:18: Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers had their shoulders pilled, i.e. the skin torn off in carrying earth for the mounds at the long siege of Tyre.

    PILLOWS Ezekiel 13:18-20: “women sew pillows to all armholes,” rather “to all elbows and wrists.” False prophetesses made cushions to lean on, typifying the tranquillity they foretold to their votaries. Compare Ezekiel 13:16,” which see visions of peace ... and there is no peace.” Perhaps they made their dupes rest on these pillows in fancied ecstasy after making them first stand, from whence the expression is “of every stature” for men of every age. The male prophets “built a wall with untempered mortar” ( Ezekiel 13:10), the women sewed pillows; both alike promising “peace” to the impenitent.

    PILTAI Nehemiah 12:17.

    PINE tidhar , from dahar to revolve. Gesenius makes the oak, implying duration.

    The shemen , in Nehemiah 8:15 is rather the olive or oil tree, as in Isaiah 41:19.

    PINNACLE Matthew 4:5, “the pinnacle of the temple,” the summit of the southern portico, rising 400 cubits above the valley of Jehoshaphat (Josephus Ant. 15:11, section 5, 20:9, section 7). Tregelles translated Daniel 9:27, “upon the wing (kenaph ) of abominations shall be that which causeth desolation,” namely, an idol set up on a wing or pinnacle of the temple by antichrist, who covenants with the restored Jews for the last of the weeks of years ( John 5:43) and breaks the covenant in the midst of the week, causing the daily sacrifices to cease. The pinnacle of the temple restored may be the scene of Satan’s tempting Israel by antichrist as it was of his tempting Jesus. James the Lord’s brother was precipitated from the pinnacle (Eusebius II E. 2:23).

    PINON Genesis 36:41. Eusebius and Jerome (Onomasticon) identify the seat of the tribe with Punon, an Israelite station in the wilderness, and Phoeno between Petra and Zoar, the site of the Roman copper mines.

    PIPE chaliyl , “to bore.” Representing wind instruments, as the harp represents stringed instruments. The pipe single or double, the flute; one of the simplest and oldest of musical instruments, the accompaniment of festivity ( 1 Kings 1:40; Luke 7:32; Isaiah 5:12), religious services ( Samuel 10:5), and processions ( Isaiah 30:29). Also suited by its plaintive softness to mourning ( Matthew 9:23; Jeremiah 48:36). The “shawm” of which the clarionet is an improvement, may be from chaliyl through the French chalumeau, German schalmeie.

    PIRAM Amorite king of Jarmuth at Joshua’s invasion ( Joshua 10:3). Defeated before Gibeon with the other four kings, hid in the cave of Makkedah; hanged, and buried in the cave.

    PIRATHON In Ephraim “in the mount of the Amalekite” (who had an early settlement in the highlands) ( Judges 12:15). The burial place of the judge Abdon, on a height six miles W. of Shechem (Nablus), now Fer’ata; or Fer’aun (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement). Discovered by Hap-Parchi, an old traveler (Asher’s Benj. of Tud. 2:426). David’s eleventh captain for the eleventh month was of Pirathon, Benaiah of Ephraim ( 1 Chronicles 27:14).

    PISGAH A ridge of the Abarim mountains W. from Heshbon. Nebo was a town on, or near, that ridge, lying on its western slope ( Numbers 21:20; 32:3,38; Deuteronomy 32:49; 34:1). From Pisgah, Israel gained their first view of the Dead Sea and Jordan valley; hence Moses too viewed the land of promise. The correct designation for the mount is not “Nebo” (which has become usual for convenience sake) but “the mountain adjoining Nebo.” In Scripture Nebo denotes only the town ( Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 48:1,22). The uniform peakless nature of Pisgah caused its parts to be distinguished only by the names of the adjacent villages. It always has the article “THE Pisgah” E. of Jordan, near “the field of Moab, opposite Jericho.” The field of Zophim was on it (see ASHDOTH-PISGAH ): Deuteronomy 3:17.

    Pisgah is derived from paasag “to divide,” a detached range of Abarim.

    Tristram from a point about 4,500 ft. high, three miles S.W. of Heshbon and one and a half W. of Main, saw to the N. and E. the Gilead hills, and the vast Belka ocean of grain and grass; to the S., Her and Seir of Arabia; to the W., the Dead Sea and Jordan valley and the familiar objects near Jerusalem; and over Jordan, Gerizim’s round top, and further the Esdraelon plain and the shoulder of Carmel; to the N. rose Tabor’s outline, Gilboa and little Hermon (jebel Duhy); in front rose Ajlun’s dark forests, ending in Mount Gilead, behind Es Salt (Ramoth Gilead) The name Pisgah survives only on the N.W. end of the Dead Sea, in the Ras el Feshkah (Hebrew: Rosh ha-Pisgah , “top of Pisgah”). Jebel Siugah (meaning fragment) probably answers to Pisgah. It is “over against Jericho,” and the view corresponds. It is a fragment cut off by declivities on all sides, and separated from Nebo by the wady Haisa.

    PISIDIA In Asia Minor, bounded on the N. by Phrygia, on the W. by Phrygia and Lycia, S. by Pamphylia, E. by Lycaonia and Cilicia. It stretched along the Taurus range. Paul passed through Pisidia twice on his first missionary tour; in going from Perga to Iconium, and in returning ( Acts 13:13,14,51; 14:21,24,25; 2 Timothy 3:11). The wild and rugged nature of the country makes it likely that it was the scene of Paul’s “perils of robbers” and “rivers” ( 2 Corinthians 11:26). Antioch of Pisidia was the scene of Paul’s striking sermon, Acts 13:16-41.

    PISON One of the four heads of Eden’s river ( Genesis 2:11), compassing Havilah. (See EDEN .)

    PISPAH 1 Chronicles 7:38.

    PIT (1) She’ol , hades (see HELL ); the covered, unseen world. (2) Shachath , sunk and lightly covered to entrap animals ( Psalm 9:16; 35:7); typifying hopeless doom ( Job 33:18,24,28,30). (3) Bor , a pit or cistern once full of water, now empty, with miry clay beneath ( Psalm 40:2; Zechariah 9:11); used as dungeon wherein the captive has no water or food; so Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 38:6,9), Isaiah 51:14; hence symbolizing the dishonored grave of the once haughty transgressor, with the idea of condign punishment in the unseen world, shadowed forth by the ignominious state of the body ( Ezekiel 31:14,16; 32:18,24). (See ABYSS on the bottomless pit”: Revelation 9:1,2; 20:1,2.)

    PITCH zepheth (from a root “to flow” ) in its liquid state; chemar (from a root “to bubble up”) solid; kopher , as used in covering (from a root “to cover”) woodwork, to make it watertight ( Genesis 6:14); asphalt, bitumen. The town Is (Hit), eight days’ journey from Babylon, supplied from springs the bitumen which was used as mortar in building that city ( Genesis 11:3; Herodotus i. 179). Athenaeus (2:5) mentions a lake near Babylon abounding in bitumen which floated on the water. Bitumen pits are still found at Hit on the western bank of Euphrates; so tenacious is it “that it is almost impossible to detach one brick from another” (Layard, Nin. and Bab.). Asphalt is opaque, and inflammable, bubbling up liquid from subterranean fountains and hardening by exposure. Pitch or bitumen made the papyrus ark of Moses watertight ( Exodus 2:3). The Dead Sea was called Lacus Asphaltites from the asphalt springs at its southern end, the vale of Siddim ( Genesis 14:3,10). The Salt Sea after Sodom’s destruction spread over this vale. At the shallow southern end of the sea are the chief deposits of salt and bitumen. The asphalt crust on the bed of the lake is cast out by earthquakes and other causes (Josephus B. J. 4:8, section 4; Tac. Hist. 5:6). The inflammable pitch ( Isaiah 34:9) on all the plain, ignited by the lightning, caused “the smoke of the country to go up as the smoke of a furnace” ( Genesis 19:28). Kopher means also a “ransom” or “atonement” ( Job 33:21 margin). As the pitch covered the ark from the overwhelming waters, so the atonement covers the believer in Jesus from the blood of God’s wrath. Kippurim , “atonement” ( Exodus 29:36; Leviticus 23:27), and kapporeth , “mercy-seat,” the covering of the ark and the law inside it ( Romans 3:25; 10:4), are related.

    PITCHER Women’s water jars with one or two handles, carried on the shoulder ( Genesis 24:15-20).

    PITHOM An Egyptian store city built by Israelites for their oppressor ( Exodus 1:11). Identified by Brugsch with the fort of Djar, Pachtum. It existed early in the 18th dynasty, before Thothmes III (the Pharaoh who perished in the Red Sea), and was probably erected by his grandfather Aahmes I. The fort subsequently was called Heroopolis. The Egyptian name is Pe Tum, “the house (temple) of Tum,” the sun god of Heliopolis. Chabas translated an Egyptian record, mentioning a “reservoir (berekoovota, a slightly modified Hebrew word; confirming the Scripture that ascribes the building to Hebrews) at Pithom on the frontier of the desert.” Pithom was on the canal dug or enlarged long before under Osirtasin of the 12th dynasty. Rameses II subsequently fortified and enlarged it and Raamses. Lepsius says the son of Aahmes I was RHMSS. The Rameses, two centuries subsequently, have a final “u,” Ramessu. Brugsch thinks the Israelites started from Raamses, which he thinks to be Zoan or Tauis, and journeying toward the N.E. reached the W. of lake Sirbonit, separated from the Mediterranean by a narrow neck of land. From Mount Kasios here they turned S. through the Bitter Lakes to the N. of the gulf of Suez; then to the Sinai peninsula. In the inscriptions Heracleopolis Parva near Migdol is named Piton “in the district of Succoth” (a Hebrew word meaning tents). The place is also called Pt-Ramses “the city of Ramses.” (Jewish Intelligencer, Jan. 1877.)

    PITHON 1 Chronicles 8:35; 9:41.

    PLAGUE deber , “destruction.” Any sudden, severe, and dangerous disease. Maweth ,” death,” i.e. deadly disease; so “the black death” of the middle ages. Nega’ , “a stroke” from God, as leprosy (Leviticus 13). Mageephah , qeteb , “pestilence” ( Psalm 91:6), “that walketh in darkness,” i.e. mysterious, sudden, severe, especially in the night, in the absence of the light and heat of the sun. Rosheph , “flame,” i.e. burning fever; compare Habakkuk 3:5 margin (See EGYPT and see EXODUS on the ten plagues.) A close connection exists between the ordinary physical visitations of Egypt and those whereby Pharaoh was constrained to let Israel go. It attests the sacred author’s accurate acquaintance with the phenomena of the land which was the scene of his history. “The supernatural presents in Scripture generally no violent opposition to the natural, but rather unites in a friendly alliance with it” (Hengstenberg). A special reason why in this case the natural background of the miracles should appear was in order to show that Jehovah was God of Egypt as much as of Israel, and rules “in the midst of the earth” ( Exodus 8:22) By exhibiting Jehovah through Moses at will bringing on with unusual intensity, and withdrawing in answer to intercession at once and completely, the well known Egyptian periodical scourges which their superstition attributed to false gods, Jehovah was proved more effectively to be supreme than He could have been by inflicting some new and strange visitation. The plagues were upon Egypt’s idols, the Nile water, the air, the frog, the cow, the beetle, etc., as Jehovah saith ( Exodus 12:12), “against all the gods of Egypt will I execute judgment” ( Exodus 18:11; 15:11; Numbers 33:4).

    Ten is significant of completeness, the full flood of God’s wrath upon the God-opposed world power. The magicians initiate no plague; in producing the same plague by their enchantments (which seem real, as demoniacal powers have exerted themselves in each crisis of the kingdom of God) as Moses by God’s word, they only increase the visitation upon themselves.

    The plagues as they progress prove: (1) Jehovah’s infinite power over Egypt’s deified powers of nature. The first stroke affects the very source of the nation’s life, the Nile; then the soil (the dust producing the plague); then the irrigating canals breeding flies. (2) The difference marked between Israel and Egypt; the cattle, the crops, the furnaces (wherein Israel was worn with bondage) represent all the industrial resources of the nation. The stroke on the firstborn was the crowning one, altogether supernatural, whereas the others were intensifications of existing scourges. The firstborn, usually selected for worship, is now the object of the stroke. The difference marked all along from the third plague was most marked in that on the firstborn ( Exodus 11:7). The plague was national, the firstborn representing Egypt: Isaiah 43:3, “I gave Egypt for thy ransom.”

    PLAINS abel = meadow; compareABEL MEHOLAH. Biqu’ah , the great, plain Coele (hollow) Syria between Lebanon and Antilebanon; Bikath Aven, Amos 1:5; “the valley (Biqa’ath ) of Lebanon” ( Joshua 11:17; 12:7), Biqua’ath Mizpeh ( Joshua 11:8); still called el Bekaa, 60 miles long, five broad.

    Also 2 Chronicles 35:22; Genesis 11:2; Nehemiah 6:2; Daniel 3:1. Hac Ciccar, the region round about the Jordan valley ( Genesis 13:10; 19:17,25-29). Ham Mishor ( Deuteronomy 3:10; 4:43), the smooth (from yaashar , straight) downs of Moab stretching from Jordan E. of Jericho into the Arabian desert, contrasting with the rugged country W. of Jordan and with the higher lands of Bashan and Argob. The Belka pasture, regular in its undulations, good in its turf ( 2 Chronicles 26:10).

    Ha ‘Arabah, the Jordan valley and its continuation S. of the Dead Sea. Ha shepheelah, the undulating, rolling, low hills between the mountainous part of Judah and the coast plain of the Mediterranean ( Deuteronomy 1:7, “the vale”; 2 Chronicles 28:18, “the low country”); Seville in Spain is derived from it. ‘Elon ought to be translated “oak” or “oaks” ( Genesis 12:6; 13:18; Judges 4:11; 9:6,37; 1 Samuel 10:3). Emek the valley of Jezreel (Esdraelon), the eastern part, Megiddo the western part, of the one plain.

    PLASTER giyr , siyr . Leviticus 14:42,48; Deuteronomy 27:2,4; Joshua 8:32.

    The inscription at Ebal was cut while the plaster was still moist. In Daniel 5:5 the accuracy of Scripture appears; the Nineveh walls were paneled with alabaster slabs, but no alabaster being procurable at Babylon enamel or stucco (“plaster”) for receiving ornamental designs covers the bricks; on it Belshazzar’s doom was written.

    PLEIADES kimah . Amos 5:8; Job 9:9; 38:31; literally, “the heap (Arabic knot) of stars.” “Canst thou bind (is it thou that bindest) the sweet influences (the Pleiades rise in joyous spring, ma’adanot ; but Gesenius, transposing ma’anadoth , translated ‘bands’) of Pleiades?” Madler of Dorpat discovered that the whole solar system is moving forward round Alcyone, the brightest star in Pleiades. The Pleiades are “bound” together with such amazing attractive energy that they draw our whole planetary system and sun round them at the rate of 422,000 miles a day in the orbit which will take thousands of years before completion.

    POCHERETH, CHILDREN OF Ezra 2:57; Nehemiah 7:59.

    POETRY The peculiarity of the Hebrew poetical age is that it was always historical and true, never mythical, as the early age of national lays in all other nations, as Hindostan, Greece, and Rome. The oldest portions of Old Testament history, namely, the Pentateuch, have the least of the poetical and imaginative element. Elijah, the father of the prophets, was no poet; nor were the prophets poets strictly, except insofar as in their teachings they were lifted up to the poetic modes of thought and expression. The schools of the prophets diffused a religious spirit, lyric instruments were used to accompany their prophesyings; but David it was ( Amos 6:5) who molded lyric effusions of devotion into a permanent and more perfect style. Poetry in other countries was the earliest form of composition, being most easily retained in the memory; and compositions in the early ages were diffused more by oral recitation than by reading, books being scarce and in many places unknown. But the earliest Hebrew Scriptures (the Pentateuch) have less of the poetic element than the later; so entirely has the divine Author guarded against the mythical admixture which is found in early heathen lays.

    HEBREW VERSIFICATION. Oriental poetry embalmed its sentiments in terse, proverbial sentences, called mashal.

    I. Acrosticism or alphabetical arrangement was adopted in combining sentiments, the mutual connection of which was loose (Lamentations 1).

    No traces of it exist before David, who doubtless originated it (Psalm 25; Psalm 34; Psalm 37; Psalm 145). In later alphabetical psalms there is more regularity than in David’s, and less simplicity; as Psalm 111; 112, have every half verse marked by a letter, and Psalm 119 has a letter appropriated to every eight verses.

    II. The same verse in some cases was repeated at regular intervals (Psalm 42; Psalm 107).

    III. Parallelism is the characteristic form of Hebrew poetry. Its peculiar excellence is that, whereas poetry of other nations suffers much by translation, (for the versification depends on the recurrence of certain sounds at regular intervals,) Hebrew poetry suffers but little, for its principle is the parallel correspondence of thoughts, not sounds, thoughtrhythm Ewald designates it; a remarkable proof that from the first the Spirit designed Holy Scripture for nations of every tongue. Rabbi Azariah anticipated Bishop Lowth in the theory of parallelism. Parallelism affords a clue to the meaning of many passages, the sense of a word being explained by the corresponding word in the parallel clause. The Masoretic punctuation marks the metrical arrangement by distinctive accents; the thought in the inspired volume is more prominent than the form.

    The earliest instance of parallelism is in Enoch’s prophecy ( Jude 1:14) and see LAMECH ’S parody of it ( Genesis 4:23,24). The kinds distinguished are: (1) the synonymous parallelism, in which the second repeats the first with or without increase of force ( Psalm 22:27; Isaiah 15:1), sometimes with double parallelism ( Isaiah 1:15); (2) the antithetic, in which the idea of the second clause is the converse of that in the first ( Proverbs 10:1); (3) the synthetic or competing, where there is a correspondence between different sentences, noun answering to noun, verb to verb, member to member, the sentiment in each being enforced by accessory ideas ( Isaiah 55:6,7). Also alternate ( Isaiah 51:19), “desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword,” desolation by famine and destruction by the sword, introverted, where the fourth answers to the first and the third to the second ( Matthew 7:6).

    Epic poetry, as having its proper sphere in a mythical, heroic age, is not found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Nor is the drama; though dramatic elements occur in Job, the Song of Solomon, and some psalms, as Psalm 32, where occur transitions,without introduction, from speaking of God to speaking to God; <19D208> Psalm 132:8-10,14, where the psalmist’s prayer and God’s answer beautifully correspond.

    The whole period before David furnished no psalm to the psalter, except Psalm 90, by Moses, and possibly Psalm 91. The book of the wars of the Lord ( Numbers 21:14,17,27) and the book of Jasher (the upright) or the worthies of Israel (Jeshurun: Deuteronomy 32:15, compare Samuel 1:18; 1 Samuel 18:7) were secular. David’s spiritual songs gained such a hold of the nation that worldly songs thenceforth held a low place ( Isaiah 5:12; Amos 6:5). Israel’s song at the Red Sea (Exodus 15), the priests’ benediction (Num 5:22-26), Moses’ chant at the moving and resting of the ark Numbers 9:35,36), Deborah’s song (Judges 5), and Hannah’s song (1 Samuel 2) laid the foundation for the full outburst of psalmody in David’s days; and are in part appropriated in some of the psalms. The national religious awakening under Samuel, with which are connected the schools of the prophets ( 1 Samuel 10:5-11; 19:19-24) having a lyrical character, immediately prepared the way. David, combining creative poetical genius with a special gift of the Spirit, produced the psalms which form the chief part of the psalter, and on which the subsequent writers of psalms mainly lean. Persecution in part fitted him for his work; as was well said, “where would have been David’s psalms if he had not been persecuted?”

    SACRED SINGERS. When David became king be gave psalmody a leading place in the public liturgy. A sacred choir was formed, himself at its head; then followed the three chief musicians, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun; then Asaph s four sons, Jeduthun’s six, and Heman’s 14. Each of these sons had 12 singers under him, 288 in all. Besides, there were 4,000 Levite singers (1 Chronicles 25); Asaph with his company was with the ark on Zion; Heman and Jeduthun with the tabernacle at Gibeon ( 1 Chronicles 16:37-42).

    MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. Stringed instruments predominated in the sacred music, psalteries and harps; cymbals were only for occasions of special joy ( <19F005> Psalm 150:5). Trumpets with loud hoarse note accompanied the bringing in of the ark ( 1 Chronicles 15:24); also at the temple’s consecration ( 2 Chronicles 5:12); also at the restoration of temple worship under Hezekiah ( 2 Chronicles 29:26,27); also at the founding of the second temple ( Ezra 3:10). David invented, or improved, some of the instruments ( 1 Chronicles 23:5; 2 Chronicles 7:6; Nehemiah 12:36).

    The poetical books are Job, Psalms. Proverbs, and the Song of Solomon.

    Simplicity and freshness are combined with sublimity. “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by” the Hebrew poet, “and His word was upon his tongue” ( 2 Samuel 23:2). Even the music was put in charge of spiritually gifted men, and Heman was “the king’s seer in the words of God” ( <132501> Chronicles 25:1,5). The sacred poet represents the personal experiences of the children of God and of the whole church. Scripture poetry supplies a want not provided for by the law, inspired and sanctioned devotional forms to express in public worship and in private the feelings of pious Israelites.

    The Psalms draw forth front beneath the legal types their hidden essence and spirit, adapting them to the various spiritual exigencies of individual and congregational life. Nature’s testimony to the unseen, God’s glory and goodness, is also embodied in the inspired poetry of the Psalms. The psalter is the Israelite’s book of devotion. enabling him to enter into the spirit of the services of the sanctuary, and so to feel his need of Messiah, whose coming the Psalms announce. Christ in His inner life as the Godman, and in His past, present, and future relations to the church and the world, is the ultimate theme throughout. It furnishes to us also divinely sanctioned language to express prayer and thanksgiving to God. and communion with our fellow saints.

    Besides parallelism, poetic expressions distinguish Hebrew poetry from prose. David’s lament over Jonathan is a beautiful specimen of another feature of Hebrew poetry, the strophe; three strophes being marked by the thrice recurrence of the dirge, sung by the chorus; the first dirge sung by the whole body of singers representing Israel; the second by a chorus of damsels; the third by a chorus of youths ( 2 Samuel 1:17,27).

    The predominant style of lyrical poetry is apparently derived front an earlier terse and sententious kind, resembling that of Proverbs. The Eastern mind embodies thought in pithy maxims; hence maashal , “proverb,” is used for poetry in general. Solomon probably embodied in Proverbs preexisting popular wise sayings, under the Spirit’s guidance. Finally, Hebrew poetry is essentially national, yet universal and speaking to the heart and spiritual sensibilities of universal man. The Hebrew poet sought not self or fame, as the pagan poets, but was inspired by God’s Spirit to meet the want which his own and his nation’s aspirations after God created The selection for the psalter was made not with reference to the beauty of the pieces, but to their adaptation for public worship. Hence several odes of the highest order are not included: Moses’ songs (Exodus 15; 30), Deborah’s (Judges 5), Hannah’s (1 Samuel 2), Hezekiah’s ( Isaiah 38:9-20), Habakkuk’s (Habakkuk 3), and even David’s dirge over Saul and Jonathan.

    POISON chemah , from a root “to be hot” ( Deuteronomy 32:24,33,). Psalm 58:4; 140:3, “of serpents.” In Job 6:4 allusion is made to poisoned arrows, symbolizing the burning pains which penetrated into Job’s inmost parts (“spirit” as contrasted with surface flesh wounds of his body). Pliny (xi. 115) mentions that the Scythians poisoned their arrows with viper’s venom mixed with human blood; a scratch of such arrows proved fatal.

    Also Arab pirates on the Red Sea used poisoned arrows (texicon, or toxicum from toxon a bow, became the term for poison, so common was the usage). The Jews never adopted the barbarous custom. Ro’sh : Deuteronomy 32:32; 29:18; Psalm 69:21; Lamentations 3:19; Amos 6:12. see GALL : Jeremiah 8:14 margin POMEGRANATE rimmon . The tree and the fruit. In Egypt ( Numbers 20:5), and in Palestine ( Numbers 13:23; Deuteronomy 8:8). Rimmon, Gathrimmon, and En-rimmon, were called from the pomegranate. The cheeks (KJV “temples,” i.e. the upper part of the cheek near the temples) of the bride are “like a piece of pomegranate within her locks” (Song 4:3). When cut it displays seeds in rows, pellucid, like crystal, tinged with red. The church’s blush of modesty is not on the surface but within, which Christ sees into (Song 4:13). Her “plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits,” not merely flowers ( John 15:8); Song 8:2, “spied wine of the juice of my pomegranate.” The cup of betrothal He gave her at the last supper, the marriage cup shall be at His return ( Matthew 26:29; Revelation 19:7-9). “Spices” are only introduced in the Song of Solomon when he is present, not in his absence. The pomegranate was carved on the tops of the pillars in Solomon’s temple ( 1 Kings 7:18,20), and on the hem of the robe of the ephod ( Exodus 28:33,34). The fruit is surmounted with a crown-shaped (compare spiritually 2 Timothy 4:8; 1 Peter 5:4; James 1:12) calyx. The name is from pomum granatum “grained apple,” called “Punic” by the Romans as they received it from Carthage. The rind abounds in tannin, which the Moors used in preparing “morocco” leather; the Cordovaners of Spain learned the art from the Moors; hence our word “cordwainers.” The order is the Myrtacae; the foliage dark green, flowers crimson; the fruit (like an orange) ripens in October.

    POMMELS 2 Chronicles 4:12,13. The ball-like tops of the temple pillars; convex projections of the capitals. “Bowls” in 1 Kings 7:41. “Circumvolutions,” the lower part of the capital, on which “lattice work” was set about, as the pomegranates were on the chains or woven work (Keil).

    PONTUS N. of Asia Minor, stretching along the Euxine sea (Pontus, from whence its name). Acts 2:9,10; 18:2; 1 Peter 1:1: which passages show many Jews resided there. Pompey defeated its great king Mithridates, and so gained the W. of Pontus for Rome, while the E. continued under native chieftains. Under Nero all Pontus became a Roman province. Berenice, great granddaughter of Herod the Great, married Poleme II, the last petty monarch. Paul saw her afterward with her brother Agrippa II at Caesarea.

    POOL berakah . Reservoir for water, whether supplied by springs or rain ( Isaiah 42:15). The drying up of the pools involved drought and national distress. The three pools of Solomon near Bethlehem are famous, and still supply Jerusalem with water by an aqueduct ( Ecclesiastes 2:6).

    Partly hewn in the rock, partly built with masonry; all lined with cement; formed on successive levels with conduits from the upper to the lower; with flights of steps from the top to the bottom of each: in the sides of Etham valley, with a dam across its opening, which forms the eastern side of the lowest pool. The upper pool is 380 ft. long, 236 broad at the E., at the W., 25 deep, 160 above the middle pool. This middle pool is long, 250 broad at the E., 160 at the W., 39 deep, 248 above the lower pool. The lower pool is 582 long, 207 broad at the E., 148 at the W., deep. A spring above is the main source (Robinson, Res. 1:348,474).

    POOR The considerate provisions of the law for the poor (based on principles already recognized by the patriarchs: Job 20:19; 24:3,4,9,10; especially Job 29:11-16; 31:17) were: (1) The right of gleaning; the corners of the field were not to be reaped, nor all the grapes to be gathered, nor the olive trees to be beaten a second time; the stranger, fatherless, and widow might gather the leavings; the forgotten sheaf was to be left for them ( Leviticus 19:9,10; Deuteronomy 24:19,21; Ruth 2:2). (2) They were to have their share of the produce in sabbatical years ( Exodus 23:11; Leviticus 25:6). (3) They recovered their land, but not town houses, in the jubilee year ( Leviticus 25:25-30). (4) Usury, i.e. interest on loans to an Israelite, was forbidden; the pledged raiment was to be returned before sundown ( Exodus 22:25-27; Deuteronomy 24:10-13); generous lending, even at the approach of jubilee release, is enjoined: ( Deuteronomy 15:7-11) “thou shalt open thy hand wide to THY poor”; God designs that we should appropriate them as our own, whereas men say “the poor.” (5) Lasting bondservice was forbidden, and manumission, with a liberal present, enjoined in the sabbatical and jubilee years ( Deuteronomy 15:12-15; Leviticus 25:39-42; 47-54); the children were not enslaved; an Israelite might redeem an Israelite who was in bondage to a rich foreign settler. (6) Portions from the tithes belonged to the poor after the Levites ( Deuteronomy 14:28,29; 26:12,13). (7) The poor shared in the feasts at the festivals of weeks and tabernacles ( Deuteronomy 16:11,14; Nehemiah 8:10). (8) Wages must be paid at the day’s end ( Leviticus 19:13); yet partiality in judgment must not be shown to the poor ( Exodus 23:3; Leviticus 19:15).

    In the New Testament Christ lays down the same love to the poor ( Luke 3:11; 14:13; Acts 6:1; Galatians 2:10; James 2:15; Romans 15:26), the motive being “Christ, who was rich, for our sake became poor that we through His poverty might be rich” ( 2 Corinthians 8:9). Begging was common in New Testament times, not under Old Testament ( Luke 16:20,21; 18:35; Mark 10:46; John 9:8; Acts 3:2.) Mendicancy in the ease of the able bodied is discouraged, and honest labour for one’s living is encouraged by precept and example ( 1 Thessalonians 4:11; Ephesians 4:28; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12).

    The prophets especially vindicate the claims of the poor: compare Ezekiel 18:12,16,17; 22:29; Jeremiah 22:13,16; 5:28; Isaiah 10:2; Amos 2:7, “pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor,” i.e., thirst after prostrating the poor by oppression, so as to lay their heads in the dust; or less simply (Pusey) “grudge to the poor debtor the dust which as a mourner he strewed on his head” ( 2 Samuel 1:2; Job 2:12). In Deuteronomy 15:4 the creditor must not exact a debt in the year of release, “save when there shall be no poor among you,” but as Deuteronomy 15:11 says “the poor shalt never cease out of the land,” translated “no poor with thee,” i.e. release the debt for the year except when no poor person is concerned, which may happen, “for the Lord shall greatly bless thee”: you may call in a loan on the year of release, when the borrower is not poor. Others regard the promise, Deuteronomy 15:11, conditional, Israel’s disobedience frustrating its fulfillment. Less costly sacrifices might be substituted by the poor ( Leviticus 5:7,11).

    POPLAR libneh , from laban “to be white,” namely, in wood and the under side of the leaves ( Genesis 30:37; Hosea 4:13). Others, from Septuagint and the Arabic lubnah, make the libnah the storax or styrax, Styrax officinale, a small tree with scented white blossoms and fragrant gum.

    PORATHA orPORUDATHA Esther 9:8.

    PORCH ‘uwlam . 1 Chronicles 28:11, of Solomon’s temple, a vestibule open in front and on the sides. The porch (puloon or proaulion ), Matthew 26:71, is the passage beneath the housefront from the street to the aule or court inside, open to the sky. This passage or porch was closed next the street by a large folding gate with a small wicket for single persons, kept by a porter ( John 18:16,17). The “porches” ( John 5:2) were arches or porticoes opening upon and surrounding the reservoir Solomon’s porch ( John 10:23) was on the E. side of the temple (Josephus, Ant. 20:9, section 7).

    PORTER shoeer : thuroros . A gatekeeper ( 1 Chronicles 9:21), John 10:3 symbolically the Holy Spirit who opens gospel doors ( Acts 14:27; Corinthians 16:9; 2 Corinthians 2:12; Colossians 4:3) and shuts them ( Acts 16:6,7): “by one Spirit we have access through Christ unto the Father” ( Ephesians 2:18). He opens the door of men’s hearts (Rev: 3:20, compare Acts 16:14).

    POST rats , “a runner” ( Esther 3:13,15; 8:14). Couriers from the earliest times ( Job 9:25) carried messages, especially royal despatches. “My days are (not as the slow caravan, but) swifter than a post.” ( 2 Chronicles 30:6,10; Jeremiah 51:31.) Relays of messengers were kept regularly organized for the service (post is from positus, placed at fixed intervals).

    The Persians and Romans impressed men and horses for the service of government despatches; letters of private persons were conveyed by private hands. Louis XI of France first (A.D. 1464) established an approximation to our modern post.

    POTIPHAR From Egyptian Pa-ti, “the given” or devoted to Par or Phar, the (royal) house or palace. “An officer (chamberlain) of Pharaoh, chief of the executioners,” i.e. captain of the bodyguard (KJV), who executed the king’s sentences ( Genesis 37:36; 39:1; 2 Kings 25:8; Jeremiah 39:9; 52:12). The prison in which he confined Joseph was an apartment arched, vaulted, and rounded (ha-sohar) for strength (called a “dungeon,” Genesis 40:15), in the house of the chief of the executioners ( Genesis 40:3). Joseph’s feet at first “they afflicted with fetters, the iron entered into has soul” ( <19A517> Psalm 105:17,18); but Jehovah gave him favor in the sight of “the keeper of the prison,” probably distinct from Potiphar.

    There seems little ground for thinking that Potiphar was succeeded by another “chief of the executioners,” “the keeper of the prison” was entrusted by Potiphar with Joseph. Potiphar scarcely believed his lustful wife’s story, or he would have killed Joseph at once; but instead he put him in severe imprisonment at first, then with Potiphar’s connivance the prison keeper put the same confidence in Joseph as Potiphar himself had put in him when he was free. Egyptian monuments, in harmony with Scripture, represent rich men’s stewards, as Joseph, carefully registering all the produce of the garden and field, and storing it up. (See JOSEPH .)

    POTIPHERAH “Devoted to Ra” the sun god, the priest of On or Heliopolis, the grand scat of sun worship. His daughter Pharaoh gave in marriage to Joseph. The Egyptians and Hebrews were not then so exclusive as afterward; Joseph was now naturalized with an Egyptian name, as viceroy. Asenath probably adopted Joseph’s faith ( Genesis 41:45,50; 43:32; 46:20).

    POTSHERD heres . “Sherd,” anything serered. A piece of earthenware broken. Proverbs 26:23, “burning lips (lips professing burning love) and a wicked heart are like a potsherd (a fragment of common earthenware) silvered over with dross”; implying roughness, dryness, and brittleness. Psalm 22:15, “my strength is dried up like a potsherd” or earthen vessel exposed to heat; the drying up of the vital juices caused Christ’s excessive thirst ( John 19:28). In Job 2:8 not a potsherd but an instrument for scratching is meant. Isaiah 45:9, i.e. whatever good one might promise himself from striving with his fellow creature of earth, to strive with one’s Maker is suicidal madness ( Isaiah 27:4).

    POTTAGE nazid , from zid “to boil.” A dish of boiled food, of common materials, as lentils ( Genesis 25:29: 2 Kings 4:38).

    POTTER’S FIELD Matthew 27:7. (See ACELDAMA , and below, see POTTERY .)

    POTTERY Early known in Egypt. Israel in bondservice there wrought at it ( Psalm 81:6, so the Hebrew in 1 Samuel 2:14); but translated for “pots” the harden baskets for carrying clay, bricks, etc., such as are depicted in the sepulchral vaults at Thebes ( Exodus 5:6-12; 2 Chronicles 16:6). The potter trod the clay into a paste ( Isaiah 41:25), then put it on a wheel, by which he sat and shaped it. The wheel or horizontal lathe was a wooden disc, placed on another larger one, and turned by hand or worked by a treadle ( Jeremiah 18:3); on the upper he molded the clay into shape ( Isaiah 45:9); the vessel was then smoothed, glazed, and burnt. Tiles with painting and writing on them were common ( Ezekiel 4:1). There was a royal establishment of potters at Jerusalem under the sons of Shelab ( 1 Chronicles 4:25), carrying on the trade for the king’s revenue. The pottery found in Palestine is divisible into Phoenician, Graeco-Phoenician, Roman, Christian, and Arabic; on handles of jars occur inscriptions: “to king Zepha .... king Shat” and Melek (Palestine Exploration, Our Work in Palestine). Emblem of man’s brittle frailty, and of God’s potter-like power to shape our ends as He pleases ( Psalm 2:9; Isaiah 29:16; 30:14; Jeremiah 19:11; Lamentations 4:2).

    As Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi 3:1 are thrown together in Mark 1:2,3; also Isaiah 62:11 and Zechariah 9:9 in Matthew 21:4,5; and Isaiah 8:14; 28:16 in Romans 9:33; so Jeremiah 18:3-6,19, and Zechariah 11:12,13 in Matthew 27:9. Matthew presumes his reader’s full knowledge of Scripture, and merges the two human sacred writers, Jeremiah and Zechariah, in the one voice of the Holy Spirit speaking by them. In Matthew and Zechariah alike, the Lord’s representative, Israel’s Shepherd, has a paltry price set upon Him by the people; the transaction is done deliberately by men connected with the house of Jehovah; the money is given to the potter, marking the perpetrators’ baseness, guilt, and doom, and the hand of the Lord overrules it all, the Jewish rulers while following their own aims unconsciously fulfilling Jehovah’s “appointment.”

    POUND (See WEIGHTS .) A Greek pound; a money of account; 60 in the talent; the weight depended on that of the talent. The Attic talent then was usual in Palestine.

    PRAETORIUM (See PALACE , see JUDGMENT HALL .)

    PRAYER (1) Techinnah , from chandra “to be gracious”; hithpael, “to entreat grace”; Greek deesis . (2) Tephillah , from hithpael of paalal , “to seek judgment”; Greek proseuchee . “Prayer,” proseuchee , for obtaining blessings, implying devotion; “supplication,” deesis , for averting evil. “Prayer” the general term; “supplication” with imploring earnestness (implying the suppliant’s sense of need); enteuxis , intercession for others, coming near to God, seeking an audience in person, generally in another’s behalf. Thanksgiving should always go with prayer ( 1 Timothy 2:1; Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6). An instinct of every nation, even pagan ( Isaiah 16:12; 44:17; 45:20; 1 Kings 18:26). In Seth’s days, when Enos (frailty) was born to him, “men began to call upon the name of Jehovah.” The name Enos embodies the Sethites’ sense of human frailty urging them to prayer, in contrast to the Cainites’ self sufficient “pride of countenance” which keeps sinners from seeking God ( Psalm 10:4). While the Cainites by building a city and inventing arts were founding the kingdom of this world, the Sethites by united calling upon Jehovah constituted the first church, and laid the foundation of the kingdom of God. The name of God is His whole self manifestation in relation to man. On this revealed divine character of grace and power believers fasten their prayers ( <19B949> Psalm 119:49; Proverbs 18:10).

    The sceptic’s objections to prayer are: (1) The immutability of nature’s general laws. But nature is only another name for the will of God; that will provides for answers to prayer in harmony with the general scheme of His government of the world. There are higher laws than those observed in the material world; the latter are subordinate to the former. (2) God’s predestinating power, wisdom and love make prayer useless and needless. But man is made a free moral agent; and God who predestines the blessing predestines prayer as the means to that end ( Matthew 24:20). Prayer produces and strengthens in the mind conscious dependence on God, faith, and love, the state for receiving and appreciating God’s blessing ordained in answer to prayer. Moreover prayer does not supersede work; praying and working are complementary of each other ( Nehemiah 4:9). Our weakness drives us to cast ourselves on God’s fatherly love, providence, and power.

    Our “Father knoweth what things we have need Of before we ask Him”; “we know not what things we should pray for as we ought” ( Matthew 6:8; Romans 8:26). Yet “the Spirit helpeth our infirmities,” and Jesus teaches us by the Lord’s prayer how to pray (Luke 11). Nor is the blessing merely subjective; but we may pray for particular blessings, temporal and spiritual, in submission to God’s will, for ourselves. “Thy wilt be done,” and “if we ask anything according to His will” ( 1 John 5:14,15), is the limitation. Every truly believing prayer contains this limitation. God then grants either the petition or something better than it, so that no true prayer is lost ( 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Luke 22:42; Hebrews 5:7). Also “intercessions” for others (the effect of which cannot be merely subjective) are enjoined ( 1 Timothy 2:1). God promises blessings in answer to prayer, as the indispensable condition of the gift ( Matthew 7:7,8).

    Examples confirm the command to pray.

    None prayed so often as Jesus; early in the morning “a great while before day” ( Mark 1:35), “all the night” ( Luke 6:12), in Gethsemane with an “agony” that drew from Him “sweat as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground” ( Luke 22:44); “when He was being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened” ( Luke 3:21); “as He prayed” He was transfigured ( Luke 9:29); “as He was praying in a certain place” ( Luke 11:1) one disciple struck by His prayer said, “Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples” (an interesting fact here only recorded). Above all, the intercession in John 17, His beginning of advocacy with the Father for us; an example of the highest and holiest spiritual communion.

    The Holy Spirit in believers “maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,” and so casts off all that is imperfect and mistaken in our prayers, and answer s the Spirit who speaks in them what we would express aright but cannot ( Romans 8:26,27,34). Then our Intercessor at God’s right hand presents out prayers, accepted on the ground of His merits and blood ( John 14:13; 15:16; 16:23-27). Thus God incarnate in the God-man Christ reconciles God’s universal laws, i.e. His will, with our individual freedom, and His predestination with our prayers. Prayer is presupposed as the adjunct of sacrifice, from the beginning ( Genesis 4:4). Jacob’s wrestling with the divine Angel and prayer, in Genesis 32, is the first full description of prayer; compare the inspired continent on it, Hosea 12:3-6. But Abraham’s intercession for Sodom (Genesis 18), and Isaac’s, preceded ( Genesis 24:63 margin).

    Moses’ law prescribes sacrifice, and takes for granted prayer (except the express direction for prayer, Deuteronomy 26:12-15) in connection with it and the sanctuary, as both help us to realize God’s presence; but especially as prayer needs a propitiation or atonement to rest on, such as the blood of the sacrifices symbolizes. The temple is “the house of prayer” ( Isaiah 56:7). He that hears player ( Psalm 65:2) three manifested Himself. Toward it the prayer of the nation, and of individuals, however distant, was directed ( 1 Kings 8:30,35,38; 46-49; Daniel 6:10; Psalm 5:7; 28:2; 138:2). Men used to go to the temple at regular hours for private prayer ( Luke 18:10; Acts 3:1). Prayer apparently accompanied all offerings, as did the incense its symbol ( <19E102> Psalm 141:2; Revelation 8:3,4; Luke 1:10; Deuteronomy 26:12-15, where a form of prayer is prescribed). The housetop and mountain were chosen places for prayer, raised above the world. The threefold Aaronic blessing ( Numbers 6:24-26), and Moses’ prayer at the moving (expanded in Psalm 68) and resting of the ark ( Numbers 10:35,36), are other forms of prayer in the Mosaic legislation.

    The regular times of prayer were the third (morning sacrifice), sixth, and ninth hours (evening sacrifice): Psalm 55:17; Daniel 6:10; 9:21; Acts 3:1; 10:3; 2:15. “Seven times a day” ( <19B9164> Psalm 119:164), i.e. continually, seven being the number for perfection; compare <19B9147> Psalm 119:147,148, by night. Grace was said before meals ( Matthew 15:36; Acts 27:35).

    Posture. Standing: 1 Samuel 1:26; Matthew 6:5; Mark 11:25; Luke 18:11. Kneeling, in humiliation: 1 Kings 8:54; 2 Chronicles 6:13; Ezra 9:5; Psalm 95:6; Daniel 6:10. Prostration: Joshua 7:6; 1 Kings 18:42; Nehemiah 8:6. In the Christian church kneeling only: ( Acts 7:60) Stephen, ( Acts 9:40) Peter, ( Acts 20:36; 21:5) Paul imitating Christ in Gethsemane. In post apostolic times, standing on the Lord’s day, and from Easter to Whitsunday, to commemorate His resurrection and ours with Him. The hands were lifted up, or spread out ( Exodus 9:33; Psalm 28:2; 134:2). The spiritual songs in the Pentateuch ( Exodus 15:1-19; Numbers 21:17,18; Deuteronomy 32) and succeeding books (Judges 5; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; 2 Samuel 22; Kings 8:23-53; Nehemiah 9:5-38) abound in prayer accompanied with praise. The Psalms give inspired forms of prayer for public and private use.

    Hezekiah prayed in the spirit of the Psalms. The prophets contain many such prayers (Isaiah 12; 25; 26; 37:14-20; 38:9-20; Daniel 9:3-23). The praise and the reading and expounding of the law constituted the service of the synagogue under the sheliach hatsibbur , “the apostle” or “legate of the church.”

    THE LORD’ S PRAYER, couched in the plural, “when ye pray, say, Our Father ... give us ... forgive us ... lead us” shows that forms suit public joint prayer. “Thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet ... shut thy door, pray to thy Father in secret”; in enjoining private prayer Christ gives no form. The Lord’s prayer is our model. The invocation is the plea on which the prayer is grounded, God’s revealed Fatherhood. Foremost stand the three petitions for hallowing God’s name, God’s kingdom coming, God’s will being done below as above; then our four needs, for bread for body and soul, for forgiveness producing a forgiving spirit in ourselves, or not being led into temptation, and for deliverance from evil. The petitions are seven the sacred number ( Matthew 6:5-13). Prayer was the breath of the early church’s life ( Acts 2:42; 1:24,25; 4:24-30; 6:4,6; 12:5; 13:2,3; 16:25; 20:36; 21:5). So in the epistles ( Ephesians 4:14-21; Romans 1:9,10; 16:25-27; Philippians 1:3-11; Colossians 1:9-15; Hebrews 13:20,21; 1 Peter 5:10,11). “With one accord” is the keynote of Acts ( Acts 1:14; 2:1,46; 4:24; 5:12).

    The kind of prayer in each dispensation corresponds to its character: simple, childlike, asking for the needs of the family, in the patriarchal dispensation ( Genesis 15:2,3; 17:18; 25:21; 24:12-14; 18:23-32, which however is a larger prayer, namely, for Sodom; Genesis 20:7,17). In the Mosaic dispensation the range of prayer is wider and loftier, namely, intercession for the elect nation. So Moses ( Numbers 11:2; 12:13; 21:7); Samuel ( 1 Samuel 7:5; 12:19,23); David ( 2 Samuel 24:17,18); Hezekiah ( 2 Kings 19:15-19); Isaiah ( Isaiah 19:4; Chronicles 32:20); Asa ( 2 Chronicles 14:11); Jehoshaphat (2 CHr. 20:6-12); Daniel ( Daniel 9:20,21). Prayer for individuals is rarer:

    Hannah ( 1 Samuel 1:12), Hezekiah ( 2 Kings 20:2), Samuel for Saul ( 1 Samuel 15:11,35). In the New Testament prayer is mainly for spiritual blessings: the church ( Acts 4:24-30), the apostles ( Acts 8:15), Cornelius ( Acts 10:4,31), for Peter ( Acts 12:5), Paul ( Acts 16:25; 2 Corinthians 12:7-9); in connection with miraculous healings, etc., Peter for Tabitha ( Acts 9:40), the elders ( James 5:14-16). So in Old Testament Moses ( Exodus 8:12,30; 15:25), Elijah ( Kings 17:20; 18:36,37), Elisha ( 2 Kings 4:33; 6:17,18), Isaiah ( Kings 20:11).

    Intercessions, generally of prophets or priests, are the commonest prayer in the Old Testament. Besides those above, the man of God ( 1 Kings 13:6), Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 1:6), Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 37:3; 42:4), Job ( Job 42:8). God’s acceptance of prayer is taken for granted ( Job 33:26; 22:27), provided it be prayer of the righteous ( Proverbs 15:8,29; John 9:31), “in an acceptable time” ( Psalm 69:13; Isaiah 49:8; 61:2), in the present day of grace ( 2 Corinthians 6:2). Confession of sin, and the pleading God’s past mercies as a ground of future mercies, characterize the seven (the perfect number) prayers given in full in the Old Testament: of David ( 2 Samuel 7:18,29), Solomon (2 Chronicles 6), Hezekiah (2 Kings 19), Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 32:16), Daniel ( Daniel 9:3), Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1; Nehemiah 9).

    In the New Testament Christ in the body at God’s right hand “for us” is the object toward which faith looks, as formerly the Israelite’s face was toward the temple. He endorses our prayers so that they find acceptance with God.

    Intercessions now should embrace the whole human brotherhood ( Matthew 5:44; 9:38; 1 Timothy 2:2,8).

    Requirements in prayer. Spiritual worship, in spirit and truth, not mere form ( Matthew 6:6; John 6:24; 1 Corinthians 14:15). No secret iniquity must be cherished ( Psalm 66:18; Proverbs 15:29; 28:9; James 4:3; Isaiah 1:15). Hindrances to acceptance are pride ( Job 35:12,13; Luke 18:14), hypocrisy ( Job 27:8-10), doubt, double mindedness, and unbelief ( James 1:6; Jeremiah 29:13; Mark 11:24,25; Matthew 21:22), not forgiving another, setting up idols in the heart ( Ezekiel 14:3). Doing His will, and asking according to His will, are the conditions of acceptable prayer ( 1 John 3:22; 5:14,15; James 5:16); also persevering importunity in prayer for ourselves, taught in the parable of the importunate widow; as importunity in intercession for others, that the Lord would give us the right spiritual food to set before them, is taught in that of the borrowed loaves ( Luke 18:1, etc.; 11:5- 13).

    Modes of prayer. (1) Sighing meditation (hagigiy ), intense prayer of the heart (margin Isaiah 26:16). (2) Cry. (3) Prayer “set in order” (“direct,” ‘atak ), as the wood upon the altar, the shewbread on the table ( Psalm 5:1-3; Genesis 22:9). Prayer is not to be at random; God has no pleasure in the sacrifice of fools ( Ecclesiastes 5:1). The answer is to be “looked for,” otherwise we do not believe in the efficacy of prayer ( Habakkuk 2:1; Micah 7:7). Faith realizes need, and looks to Him who can and will save. This is the reason of Peter’s telling the impotent man, “look on us” ( Acts 3:4); expectancy and faith (so Matthew 9:28). (4) “Pouring out the heart before God”; emptying it of all its contents ( 1 Samuel 1:8,15; Lamentations 2:19; <19E202> Psalm 142:2; 1 Peter 5:7; Psalm 62:1,8, “waiteth,” literally, is silent unto God. (5) Ejaculation, as Nehemiah in an absolute king’s presence, realizing the presence of the higher King ( Nehemiah 2:4), and amidst all his various businesses ( Nehemiah 5:19; 13:14,22,31).

    PREDESTINATION (See ELECTION ). Acts 2:23, 4:28, “whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done” (proorisen ). God has “predestinated” believers “unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.” “He hath chosen us in Christ” out of the rest of the world, “predestinated” us to all things that secure the inheritance for us ( Ephesians 1:4,5,11). “Predestination” refers to God’s decree, embodied in God’s “election” of us out of the mass; His grand end. in it being “the praise of the glory of His grace” ( Ephesians 1:6,12,14). It is by virtue of our union to Christ, “foreordained before the foundation of the world” ( 1 Peter 1:20), that we are “predestinated” ( 2 Timothy 1:9).

    Believers are viewed by God before the world’s foundation as “IN CHRIST” with whom the Father makes the covenant ( Revelation 13:8; 17:8; Ephesians 3:11), “according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In 2 Thessalonians 2:13 the Greek for “chosen” (heilato ) means rather “taken for Himself”; He adopted them in His eternal purpose; “in (Greek) sanctification of (i.e. by) the Spirit” (by consecration to perfect holiness in Christ once for all, next by imparting it to them ever more and more). There was no doubt or contingency with God from the first. All was foreordained. God’s glory and the believer’s salvation are secured unchangeably. All pride on man’s part is excluded; all is of God’s unmerited grace. Yet the will of man is, in the sense of preserving our reponsibility, free. God alone knows how the two harmonize, His predestination and our freedom; it is enough for us they are both distinctly revealed. At the same time fatalism is excluded, for God who predestinated believers to salvation as the end predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His Son as the means. We must make as sure of the means as of the end. Not to have the Spirit of Christ is to be none of His. Yet God’s predestination is not founded on the believer’s character, but the believer’s character results from God’s predestination ( Thessalonians 2:13; Romans 8:9,28-30). God the Father gives us salvation by gratuitous election; the Son earns it by His blood-shedding; the Holy Spirit applies the Son’s merits to the soul by the gospel word (Calvin): Galatians 1:4,15; 1 Peter 1:2; the element IN (Greek) which we are elected is “sanctification of (consecration once for all by) the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (the end aimed at by God as regards us).

    PRIEST Hebrew kohen ; Greek hiereus . There are four characteristics of the priest.

    He was (1) chosen of God; (2) the property of God; (3) holy to God; (4) he offered gifts to God, and took back gifts from God ( Hebrews 5:1-4). Numbers 16:5, “Jehovah’s ... holy ... chosen ... come near”: Numbers 16:40, “offering incense” (symbolizing the people’s prayers, <19E102> Psalm 141:2; Revelation 8:3) is exclusively the priest’s duty ( 2 Chronicles 26:18).

    All Israel was originally chosen as a kingdom of “priests” to the Gentile world ( Exodus 19:6); but Israel renounced the obligation through fear of too close nearness to God. ( Exodus 20:16), and God accepted their renunciation ( Deuteronomy 18:16,17; 5:24-28). Moses became the mediator with God for them. The Aaronic priesthood became the temporary depository of all Israel’s priesthood, until Christ the antitypical High Priest came; and they shall hereafter resume it when they turn to the Lord and shall be “the priests of Jehovah, the ministers of our God” to the Gentile nations in Christ’s millennial kingdom ( Isaiah 61:6; 66:21). All the elect saints (not ministers as such) from Jews and Gentiles are meantime called to be priests unto God ( 1 Peter 2:5,9), and being transfigured shall reign with Christ as king priests ( Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). Israel, the spiritual and the literal, shall resume the priesthood which God from the first designed for His people. Thus there will be a blessed and holy series; Christ the royal High Priest, the glorified saint king-priests, Israel in the flesh mediating as king-priest to the nations in the flesh.

    The notion is contrary to Scripture that Christ is High Priest, and Christian ministers priests. For the other priests were but assistants to the high priest, because he could not do all. The Lord Jesus needed no assistant, so is sole representative of both high priest and priests. Aaron’s priesthood has passed away: Christ’s priesthood, which is after the order of Melchizedek, does “not pass from one to another” ( Hebrews 7:24, aparabaton teen hierosuneen ), for “He ever liveth,” not needing (as the Aaronic priests, through inability to continue through death) to transmit the priesthood to successors ( Hebrews 7:23,25). Christian ministers are never in the New Testament called by the name “priests” (hiereis ), which is applied only to the Aaronic priests, and to Christ, and to all Christians; though it would have been the natural word for the sacred writers as Jews to have used; but the Holy Spirit restrained them from using it. They call ministers diakonoi , hufretai , presbuteroi (presbyters), and leitourgoi (public ministers), but never sa cerdotal , sacrificing priests (hiereis ). The synagogue, not the temple, was the model for organizing the church. The typical teaching of Korah’s punishment is the same; not satisfied with the Levitical ministry, he usurped the sacerdotal priesthood ( Numbers 16:9,10); his doom warns all Christian ministers who, not content with the ministry, usurp Christ’s intransmissible priesthood ( Hebrews 7:24). Unfortunately “priest” is now an ambiguous term, representing presbyter (which the Christian minister is) and sacerdotal priest (which he is not). Priest, our only word for hiereus , comes from presbuteros , the word chosen because it excluded a sacerdotal character. Translated 1 Corinthians 9:13 “they who offer sacrifices live of the temple, and they who wait at the altar are partakers with the altar,” a part going to the service of the altar, the rest being shared by the priests. Numbers 18:8, etc.: “so they who preach the gospel ... live of the gospel,” proving that as sacrificing was the temple priest’s duty, so gospel preaching is the Christian minister’s duty. koheen is from an Arabic root, “draw hear,” or else kaahan “to present” ( Exodus 19:22; 30:20,21). The priest drew near when others stood far off; the priest representing the people before Jehovah, and preparing the way by propitiatory sacrifices for their approach to God, which transgressions debarred them from; “keeping charge of the sanctuary for the charge of Israel” ( Numbers 3:38). Mediation and greater nearness to God is the radical idea in a priest, he presenting the atonement for the congregation and the gifts of a reconciled people ( Numbers 16:5; 17:5), and bringing back from God blessing and peace ( Leviticus 9:22,23; Numbers 6:22-27). In the New Testament on the contrary the separating veil is rent, and the human priesthood superseded, and we have all alike, ministers and laymen, boldness of access by the new and living way, consecrated through Christ’s once torn flesh ( Hebrews 10:19-22; Romans 5:2). The high priest bad access only once a year, on the day of atonement, into the holiest, and that after confessing his own sin as well as the people’s ( Hebrews 7:27), and laying aside his magnificent robes of office for plain linen. kohanim is applied to David’s sons ( 1 Samuel 8:18), probably an honorary, titular priesthood, enabling them to wear the ephod (the badge of a priest, 1 Samuel 22:18) in processions ( 2 Samuel 6:14) and join the Levites in songs and dances. Keil explains it “confidants” with the king, as the priests were with God; 1 Kings 4:5, “the king’s friend.” David’s sons were “at the hand of the king” (margin 1 Chronicles 18:17, compare 1 Chronicles 25:2), presenting others to him, as the priest was mediator presenting others to God. But the use of kohanim in Chronicles 25:16, just before 1 Chronicles 25:18, in a different, i.e. the ordinary sense, forbids this view. The house of Nathan (related to Nethinim, expressing dedication) seems especially to have exercised this quasi-priestly function. Zabud, Nathan’s son, is called cohen in 1 Kings 4:5, “principal officer.” The genealogy, Luke 3, includes many elsewhere priests: Levi, Eliezer, Malchi, Jochanan, Mattathias, Heli (compare Zechariah 12:12). Augustine (Quaest. Divers., 61) writes: “Christ’s origin from David is distributed into two families, a kingly and a priestly; Matthew descending traces the kingly, Luke ascending the priestly, family; so that our Lord Jesus, our King and Priest, drew kindred from a priestly stock (he supposes Nathan married a wife of Aaronic descent), yet was not of the priest tribe.” The patriarchs exercised the priesthood, delegating it to the firstborn or the favored son, to whom was given “goodly raiment” ( Genesis 27:15; 37:3). Joseph was thus the sacerdotal, dedicated (“separated”) one, the nazarite (nazir ) from, or among, his brethren ( Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:16). see MELCHIZEDEK , combining kingship and priesthood in one, as the Arab sheikh does, had no human successor or predecessor as priest of “the Most High God, the Possessor of heaven and earth.” Job ( Job 1:5), Jethro ( Exodus 2:16; 3:1), and Balaam represent the patriarchal priest ( Numbers 23:2).

    At the exodus no priest caste as yet existed. Yet sacrifices continued, and therefore some kind of priest ( Exodus 5:1-3; 19:22). The head of the tribe, or the firstborn as dedicated to Jehovah ( Exodus 13:2; Numbers 3:12,13), had heretofore conducted worship and sacrifice.

    Moses, as Israel’s divinely constituted leader, appointed “young men of the children of Israel to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings of oxen unto Jehovah” ( Exodus 24:5,6,8), and sprinkled the consecrating blood himself on the people. The targums call these young men the firstborn sons; but all that seems to be meant is, Moses officiated as priest, (Aaron not being yet consecrated,) and employed young men whose strength qualified them for slaying the sacrifices. The law did not regard these acts as necessarily priestly; Leviticus 1:5 implies the offerer slew the sacrifice. When the tabernacle was completed, and Aaron and his sons were made priests, Moses by Jehovah’s command performed the priestly functions of setting the shewbread, lighting the lamps, burning incense, and offering the daily sacrifice ( Exodus 40:23-29,31,32). But at the consecration of Aaron and his sons Moses officiated as priest for the last time ( Leviticus 8:14-29; Exodus 29:10-26). The “young men” ( Exodus 24:5; compare Judges 17:7) represented Israel in its then national juven escence. (See HIGH PRIEST and see LEVITES .) The term “consecrate” (qadash ) is appropriated to the priest, as tahar the lower term to the Levites. Their old garments were laid aside, their bodies washed with pure water ( Leviticus 8:6; Exodus 29:4,7,10,18,20; 30:23-33); so all Christians as king priests ( Hebrews 10:22; Ephesians 5:26), and anointed by sprinkling with the perfumed precious oil ( Leviticus 8:4,18,21,23,30), but over Aaron it was poured until it descended to his skirts ( Leviticus 8:12; <19D302> Psalm 133:2); this anointing of the priest (symbolizing the Holy Spirit) followed the anointing of the sanctuary and vessels ( Exodus 28:41; 29:7; 30:30; 40:15). By laying hands on a bullock as sin offering, they typically transferred their guilt to it. Besides, with the blood of the ram of consecration Moses sprinkled the right car (implying openness to hear God’s voice, Isaiah 1.5; Psalm 40:6, Messiah), the right hand to dispense God’s gifts, and the foot always to walk in God’s ways. Finally, Moses “filled their hands” with three kinds of bread used in ordinary life, unleavened cakes, cakes of oil bread, and oiled wafers ( Leviticus 8:2,26; Exodus 29:2,3,23), put on the fat and right shoulder, and putting his own hands under their hands (so the Jewish tradition) made them wave the whole mass to and fro, expressing the nation’s praise and thanksgiving, testified by its gifts. The whole was repeated after seven days, during which they stayed in the tabernacle, separate from the people.

    So essential was this ritual that to “fill the hand” means to consecrate ( Exodus 29:9; 2 Chronicles 13:9 margin). Moses, as representing God, consecrated, exercising for the time a igher priesthood than the Aaronic; so he is called priest ( Psalm 99:6). The consecration was transmitted from father to son without needing renewal. The dress was linen drawers “to cover their nakedness” ( Exodus 20:26; 28:39,40,42), in contrast to the foul indecencies of some Egyptian rites (Herodot. 2:60), and of Baal Poor’s worship. Over the drawers was the cetoneth or close fitting cassock of fine linen, reaching to the feet, woven throughout (compare John 19:23). This was girded round the person with a needlewrought girdle, with flowers of purple, blue, and scarlet, mixed with white.

    Linen was used as least causing perspiration ( Ezekiel 44:18). Their caps of linen were in the shape of a flower cup. When soiled their garments were not washed but torn up for wicks of the lamps (Selden, de Synedr. 13:11). The “clothes of service” ( Exodus 31:10; 35:19; 39:41; 28:35,39; Leviticus 16:4) were not, as Smith’s Dictionary supposes, simpler, but were “garments of office.” They laid aside these for ordinary garments outside the sanctuary ( Ezekiel 42:14). They drank no wine in ministering ( Leviticus 10:9), that they might be free from all undue artificial excitement. No direction is given as to covering the feet. The sanctity of the tabernacle required baring the foot ( Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15). The ephod, originally the high priest’s ( Exodus 28:6-12; 39:2-5), was subsequently assumed by the priests ( 1 Samuel 22:18) and those taking part in religious processions ( 2 Samuel 6:14). Except for the nearest relatives they were not to mourn for the dead ( Leviticus 21:1-5, the highest earthly relationships were to be surrendered for God: Deuteronomy 33:9,10) nor to shave the head as pagan priests did, nor make cuttings in the flesh ( Leviticus 19:28). The priest was to be with. out bodily defect, symbolizing mental and moral soundness ( Leviticus 21:7,14,17-21). The priest was not to marry a woman divorced or the widow of any but a priest. The high priest was to marry a virgin. As the priestly succession depended on the sureness of the genealogy, these genealogies were jealously preserved and referred to in disputed cases ( Ezra 2:62; Nehemiah 7:64); the mothers as well as the fathers were named.

    The priests’ duty was to keep the altar fire ever burning ( Leviticus 6:12,13), symbolizing Jehovah’s never ceasing worship; not like the idol Vesta’s sacred fire, but connected with sacrifices. They fed the golden, candlestick (or lamp) outside the veil with oil, offered morning and evening sacrifices with a meat and drink offering at the tabernacle door ( Exodus 29:38-44; 27:20,21; Lev, 24:2; 2 Chronicles 13:11). They were always ready to do the priestly office for any worshipper ( Leviticus 1:5; 2:2,9; 3:11; 12:6; 1 Samuel 2:13). The priest administered the water of jealousy to the suspected wife and pronounced the curse ( Numbers 5:11-31). Declared clean or unclean, and purified ceremonially, lepers (Leviticus 13; 14; Mark 1:44). Offered expiatory sacrifices for defilements and sins of ignorance (Leviticus 15). The priest as “messenger of Jehovah of hosts” taught Israel the law, and his “lips” were to “keep knowledge” ( Malachi 2:7; Leviticus 10:10,11; Deuteronomy 24:8; 33:10; Jeremiah 18:18; Haggai 2:11; 2 Chronicles 15:3; 17:7-9; Ezekiel 44:23,24). They covered the ark and sanctuary vessels with a scarlet cloth before the Levites might approach them ( Numbers 4:5-15). They blew the “alarm” for marching, with the long silver trumpets which belonged to them in a special way ( Numbers 10:1-8); two if the multitude was convened, one if a council of elders and princes ( Numbers 10:10); with them the priest announced the beginning of solemn days and days of gladness, and summoned all to a penitential fast ( Joel 2:1,15). They blew them at Jericho’s overthrow ( Joshua 6:4) and the war against Jeroboam ( 2 Chronicles 13:12; compare Chronicles 20:21,22); 3,700 joined David ( 1 Chronicles 12:23,27). An appeal lay to them in controversies ( Ezekiel 44:24; 2 Chronicles 19:8-10; Deuteronomy 17:8-13); so in cases of undetected murder ( Deuteronomy 21:5). They blessed the people with the formula, Numbers 6:22-27.

    SUPPORT. The priest had (1) one tenth of the tithes paid to the Levites, i.e. one percent on the whole produce of the land ( Numbers 18:26-28). (2) A special tithe every third year ( Deuteronomy 14:28; 26:12). (3) The redemption money, five shekels a head for the firstborn of man and beast ( Numbers 18:14-19). (4) Redemption money for men or things dedicated to Jehovah (Leviticus 27). (5) Share of war spoil ( Numbers 31:25-47). (6) Perquisites: firstfruits of oil, wine, and wheat, the shewbread, flesh and bread offerings, the heave shoulder and wave breast ( Numbers 18:8-14; Leviticus 6:26,29; 7:6-10; 10:12-15). Deuteronomy 18:3, “the shoulder, cheeks, and maw” (the fourth stomach of ruminant animals esteemed a delicacy) were given in addition, to those appointed in Leviticus (compare Numbers 16:19,20).

    Of the “most holy” things none but the priests were to partake ( Leviticus 6:29). Of the rest their sons, daughters, and even home-born slaves, but not the stranger and hired servant, ate ( Leviticus 10:14; 22:10,11). Thirteen cities within Judah, Benjamin, and Simeon (whereas the Levites were scattered through Israel) with suburbs were assigned to them ( Joshua 21:13-19). They were far from wealthy, and were to be the objects of the people’s liberality ( Deuteronomy 12:12,19; 14:27-29; 1 Samuel 2:36), and were therefore tempted to “teach for hire” ( Micah 3:11). Just after the captivity their tithes were badly paid ( Nehemiah 13:10; Malachi 3:8-10).

    In David’s reign the priests were divided into 24 courses, which served in rotation for one week commencing on the Sabbath, the outgoing priest taking the morning sacrifice, the incoming priest the evening; the assignment to the particular service in each week was decided by lot ( <132401> Chronicles 24:1-19; 2 Chronicles 23:8; Luke 1:5,9). Ithamar’s representatives were fewer than Eleazar’s; so 16 courses were assigned to the latter, eight to the former. Only four courses returned from Babylon ( Ezra 2:36-39): 973 of Jedaiah, 1,052 of Immer, 1,247 of Pashur, 1,017 of Harim. They were organized in 24 courses, and the old names restored.

    The heads of the 24 courses were often called” chief priests.” In the New Testament when the high priesthood was no longer for life, the ex-high priests were called by the same name (archiereis ); both had seats in the Sanhedrin. The numbers of priests in the last period before Jerusalem’s overthrow by Rome were exceedingly great (compare Acts 6:7).

    Jerusalem and Jericho were their chief head quarters ( Luke 10:30).

    Korah’s rebellion, with Levites representing the firstborn, and Dathan and Abiram leading the tribe of Jacob’s firstborn, Reuben, implies a looking back to the patriarchal priesthood. The consequent judgment on the rebels, and the budding of Aaron’s rod, taught that the new priesthood had a vitality which no longer resided in the old (Numbers 16). Micah’s history shows the tendency to relapse to the household priests (Judges 17; 18).

    Moloch and Chiun had even a rival “tabernacle,” or small portable shrine, served by priests secretly ( Amos 5:26; Acts 7:42,43; Ezekiel 20:16,39). After the Philistine capture of the ark, and its re. moral from Shiloh, Samuel a Levite, trained as a Nazarite and called as a prophet, was privileged to “come near” Jehovah. The Nazarite vow gave a kind of priestly consecration to “stand before” Him, as in the case of the Rechabites ( Amos 2:11; Jeremiah 35:4,19; 1 Chronicles 2:55).

    The independent order of prophets whose schools began with Samuel served as a counterpoise to the priests, who might have otherwise become a narrow caste. Under apostate kings the priests themselves fell into the worship of Baal and the heavenly hosts ( Jeremiah 2:8; 8:1,2). The prophets who ought to have checked joined in the idolatry ( Jeremiah 5:31).

    After Shiloh Nob became the seat of the tabernacle ( 1 Samuel 21:1).

    Saul’s massacre of priests there ( 1 Samuel 22:17,18) drove Abiathar to David ( 1 Samuel 23:6,9), then at Saul’s death 3,700 under Jehoiada and Zadok ( 1 Chronicles 12:27,28). From all quarters they flocked to bring up the ark to Zion ( 1 Chronicles 15:4). The Levites under Benaiah and Jahaziel, priests with the trumpets, ministered round it in sacred music and psalms; but the priests generally ministered in the sacrificial system at the tabernacle at Gibeon ( 1 Chronicles 16:5,6,37-39; 21:29; Chronicles 1:3). David purposed, and Solomon at length accomplished, the union of the two services in the one temple at Jerusalem.

    After the return from Babylon the Levites took a leading part with the priests in teaching the people ( Nehemiah 8:1-13). The mercenary spirit, of many priests, and their low estimation as “contemptible and base before all the people,” Malachi glances at ( Malachi 2:8,9; 1:10). Their former idolatry had given place to covetousness. They had sunk so low under Antiochus Epiphanes that Jason (the paganized form of Joshua) and others forsook the law for Gentile practices. Some actually ran naked in the circus opened in Jerusalem (2 Macc. 4:13,14). Under the Maccabean struggle faithfulness to the law revived. At Pompey’s siege of Jerusalem they calmly carried on their ministrations in the temple, until slain in the act of sacrificing (Josephus, Ant. 14:4, section 3; B. J., 1:7, section 5). Through the deteriorating effects of Herod’s and the Roman governor’s frequently changing the high priests at will, and owing to Sadduceeism becoming the prevailing sentiment of the chief priests in the times of the Gospels and Acts ( Acts 4:1,6; 5:17), selfishness and unscrupulous ambition and covetousness became their notorious characteristics ( Luke 10:31). In the last Roman war the lowest votaries of the Zealots were made high priests (Josephus, B. J. 4:3, section 6; 6:8, section 3; 5, section 4). From a priest Titus received the lamps, gems, and costly garments of the temple.

    The rabbis rose as the priests went down. The only distinction that now these receive is the redemption money of the firstborn, the right of taking the law from the chest, and of pronouncing the benediction in the synagogue. From some of the “great company of the priests” who became “obedient to the faith,” the occurrences in Matthew 27:51,62-66, the rending of the veil and the application to Pilate as to securing the sepulchre, were learned and recorded. These events doubtless tended to their own conversion.

    PRISCILLA Diminutive of Prisca. (See AQUILA .) A sample of what married women can do for the Lord’s cause, as Phoebe is of what unmarried women can do. Timothy at Ephesus would find her counsel invaluable in dealing with the female part of his flock, his position as a young man needing delicacy and discretion in relation to them ( 2 Timothy 4:19; Romans 16:3; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Acts 18:2,26).

    PROCHORUS One of the seven deacons ( Acts 6:5).

    PROCURATOR ”governor”; Greek heegemoon in New Testament, more strictly epitropos .

    Used of see PONTIUS PILATE , Felix, and Festus (Matthew 27; Acts 23,; 24; 26:30). Legates governed the imperial provinces, with term of office subject to the emperor’s will. They had six lictors, the military dress and sword (Dion Cass. 53:13). Procurators administered for the emperor’s treasury (fiscus) the revenues. In smaller provinces as Judaea, attached to larger as Syria, the procurator had the judicial junctions as “president,” subordinate to the chief president over Syria. Caesarea was the head quarters of the procurator of Judaea ( Acts 23:23), where he had his judgment seat ( Acts 25:6) in the audience chamber ( Acts 25:23), assisted by a council ( Acts 25:12) whom he cousulted in difficult cases.

    He had a bodyguard of soldiers ( Matthew 27:27). He visited Jerusalem at the great feasts, when riots were frequent, and resided in Herod’s palace, where was the proetorium (“judgment hall,” John 19:9; “common hall,” Matthew 27:27; Acts 23:35).

    PROPHET nabiy’ , from naaba’ “to bubble forth as a fountain,” as Psalm 45:1, “my heart is bubbling up a good matter,” namely, inspired by the Holy Spirit; 2 Peter 1:19-21; Job 32:8,18,19,20. Roeh , “seer,” from raah “to see,” was the term in Samuel’s days ( 1 Samuel 9:9) which the sacred writer of 1 Samuel calls “beforetime”; but nabi was the term as far back as the Pentateuch, and roeh does not appear until Samuel’s time, and of the ten times of its use in seven it is applied to Samuel. Chozeh , “seer,” from the poetical chazeh “see,” is first found in 2 Samuel 24:11, and is frequent in Chronicles; it came into use when roeh was becoming less used, nabi being resumed. [Nabi ] existed long before, and after, and alongside of roeh and chozeh . Chazon is used in the Pentateuch, Samuel, Chronicles, Job, and the prophets for a prophetic revelation. Lee (Inspir. 543) suggests that chozeh designates the king’s “seer” ( 1 Chronicles 21:9; Chronicles 29:25), not only David’s seer Gad (as Smith’s Bible Dictionary says) but Iddo in Solomon’s reign ( 2 Chronicles 9:29; 12:15). Jehu, Hanani’s son, under Jehoshaphat ( 1 Chronicles 19:2). Asaph and Jeduthun are called so ( 1 Chronicles 29:30; 35:15); also Amos 7:12; also 2 Chronicles 33:18. Chozeh “the gazer” upon the spiritual world ( 1 Chronicles 29:9), “Samuel the seer (roeh ), Nathan the prophet (nabi ), Gad the gazer” (chozeh ). As the seer beheld the visions of God, so the prophet proclaimed the divine truth revealed to him as one of an official order in a more direct way. God Himself states the different modes of His revealing Himself and His truth ( Numbers 12:6,8).

    Prophet (Greek) means the interpreter (from pro , feemi , “speak forth” truths for another, as Aaron was Moses’ prophet, i.e. spokesman: Exodus 7:1) of God’s will (the mantis was the inspired unconscious utterer of oracles which the prophet interpreted); so in Scripture the divinely inspired revealer of truths be fore unknown. Prediction was a leading function of the prophet ( Deuteronomy 18:22; Jeremiah 28:9; 1 Samuel 2:27; Acts 2:30; 3:18,21; 1 Peter 1:10; 2 Peter 3:2).

    But it is not always attached to the prophet. For instance, the 70 elders, ( Numbers 11:16-29); Asaph and Jeduthun, etc., “prophesied with a harp” ( 1 Chronicles 25:3); Miriam and Deborah were “prophetesses” ( Exodus 15:20; Judges 4:4, also Judges 6:8); John the Baptist, the greatest of prophets of the Old Testament order. The New Testament prophet ( 1 Corinthians 12:28) made new revelations and preached under the extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit “the word of wisdom” ( 1 Corinthians 12:8), i.e. imparted with ready utterance new revelations of the divine wisdom in redemption. The “teacher” on the other hand, with the ordinary and calmer operation of the Spirit, had “the word of knowledge,” i.e. supernaturally imparted ready utterance of truths already revealed ( 1 Corinthians 14:3,4). The nabi was spokesman for God, mediating for God to man. Christ is the Antitype. As God’s deputed representative, under the theocracy the prophet spoke in God’s name.

    Moses was the highest concentration of the type; bringing in with mighty signs the legal dispensation, as Christ did the gospel ( Deuteronomy 18:15; 34:10,11; John 1:18,45; 3:34; 15:24), and announcing the program of God’s redemption scheme, which the rest of the Bible fills up.

    Prophecy is based on God’s unchanging righteousness in governing His world. It is not, as in the Greek drama, a blind fate threatening irrevocable doom from which there is no escape. Prophecy has a moral purpose, and mercifully gives God’s loving fatherly warning to the impenitent, that by turning from sin they may avert righteous punishment. So Jonah 3; Daniel 4:9-27.

    The prophets were Jehovah’s remembrancers, pleading for or against the people: so Elijah (1 Kings 17; 18:36,37; Romans 11:2,3; James 5:16,18; Revelation 11:6). God as King of the theocracy did not give up His sovereignty when kings were appointed; but as occasion required, through the prophets His legates, superseded, reproved, encouraged, set up, or put down kings (as Elisha in Jehu’s case); and in times of apostasy strengthened in the faith the scattered remnant of believers. The earlier prophets took a greater share in national politics. The later looked on to the new covenant which should comprehend all nations. Herein they rose above Jewish exclusiveness, drew forth the living spirit from beneath the letter of the law, and prepared for a perfect, final, and universal church.

    There are two periods: the Assyrian, wherein Isaiah is the prominent prophet; and the Chaldaean, wherein Jeremiah takes the lead. The prophets were a marked advance on the ceremonial of Leviticus and its priests: this was dumb show, prophecy was a spoken revelation of Christ more explicitly, therefore it fittingly stands in the canon between the law and the New Testament The same principles whereon God governed Israel in its relation to the world, in the nation’s history narrated in the books of Samuel and Kings, are those whereon the prophecies rest. This accounts for those historical books being in the canon reckoned among “the prophets.” The history of David and his seed is part of the preparation for the antitypical Son of David of whom the prophets speak. Daniel on the other hand is excluded from them, though abounding in the predictive element, because he did not belong to the order of prophets officially, but ministered in the pagan court of the world power, Babylon. Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings were “the former prophets”; Isaiah to Malachi “the latter prophets.” The priests were Israel’s regular teachers; the prophets extraordinary, to rouse and excite. In northern Israel however, where there was no true priesthood, the prophets were God’s regular and only ministers, more striking prophetic deeds are recorded than in Judah.

    Moses’ song (Deuteronomy 32) is “the magna charta of prophecy” (Eichhorn). The law was its basis ( Isaiah 8:16,20; Deuteronomy 4:2; 13:1-3); they altered not a tittle of it, though looking forward to the Messianic age when its spirit would be written on the heart, and the letter be less needed ( Jeremiah 3:16; 31:31). Their speaking in the name of the true God only and conforming to His word, and their predictions being fulfilled, was the test of their’ divine mission (Deuteronomy 13; 18:10,11,20,22). Also the prophet’s not promising prosperity without repentance, and his own assurance of his divine mission (sometimes against his inclination: Jeremiah 20:8,9; 26:12) producing inward assurance in others. Miracles without these criteria are not infallible proof (Deuteronomy 13). Predictions fulfilled established a prophet’s authority ( 1 Samuel 3:19; Jeremiah 22:11,12; Ezekiel 12:12,13; 24). As to symbolic actions, ninny are only parts of visions, not external facts, being impossible or indecent ( Jeremiah 13:1-10; 25:12-38; Hosea 1:2-11).

    The internal actions, when possible and proper, were expressed externally ( 1 Kings 22:11). The object was vivid impressiveness.

    Christ gave predictions, for this among other purposes, that when the event came to pass men should believe ( John 13:19). So Jehovah in the Old Testament ( Isaiah 41:21-23; 43:9,11,12; 44:7,8.) The theory of a long succession of impostors combining to serve the interests of truth, righteousness, and goodness from age to ago by false pretensions, is impossible, especially when they gained nothing by their course but obloquy and persecution. Nor can they be said to be self deceivers, for this could not have been the case with a succession of prophets, if it were possible in the case of one or two. However, various in other respects, they all agree to testify of Messiah ( Acts 10:43). Definiteness and curcumstantiality distinguish their prophecies from vague conjectures. Thus Isaiah announces the name of Cyrus ages before his appearance; so as to Josiah, 1 Kings 13:2.

    Prophets as an order. The priests at first were Israel’s teachers in God’s statutes by types, acts, and words (Lee, 10:11). But when under the judges the nation repeatedly apostatized, and no longer regarded the acted lessons of the ceremonial law, God sent a new order to witness for Him in plainer warnings, namely, the prophets. Samuel, of the Levite family of Kohath ( 1 Chronicles 6:28; 9:22), not only reformed the priests but gave the prophets a new standing. Hence he is classed with Moses ( Jeremiah 15:1; Psalm 99:6; Acts 3:24). Prophets existed before: Abraham, and the patriarchs as recipients of God’s revelations, are so designated ( <19A515> Psalm 105:15; Genesis 15:12; 20:7); but Samuel constituted them into a permanent order. He instituted theological colleges of prophets; one at Ramah where he lived ( 1 Samuel 19:12,20), another was at Bethel ( 2 Kings 2:3), another at Jericho ( 2 Kings 2:5), another at Gilgal ( 2 Kings 4:38, also 2 Kings 6:1). Official prophets seem to have continued to the close of the Old Testament, though the direct mention of “the sons of the prophets” occurs only in Samuel’s, Elijah’s, and Elisha’s time. A “father” or “master” presided ( 2 Kings 2:3; 1 Samuel 10:12), who was “anointed” to the office ( 1 Kings 19:16; Isaiah 61:1; <19A515> Psalm 105:15). They were “sons.” The law was their chief study, it being what they were to teach, Not that they were in antagonism to the priests whose duty it had been to teach the law; they reprove bad priests, not to set aside but to reform and restore the priesthood as it ought to be ( Isaiah 24:2; 28:7; Malachi 2:1; 1:14); they supplemented the work of the priests. Music and poetry were cultivated as subordinate helps (compare Exodus 15:20; Judges 4:4; 5:1). Elijah stirred up the prophetic gift within him by a minstrel ( 2 Kings 3:15); so Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun ( 1 Chronicles 25:5,6). Sacred songs occur in the prophets ( Isaiah 12:1; 26:1; Jonah 2:2; Habakkuk 3:2). Possibly the students composed verses for liturgical use in the temple. The prophets held meetings for worship on new moons and Sabbaths ( 2 Kings 4:23).

    Elisha and the elders were sitting in his house, officially engaged, when the king of Israel sent to slay him ( 2 Kings 6:32). So Ezekiel and the elders, and the people assembled ( Ezekiel 8:1; 20:1; 33:31). The dress, like that of the modern dervish, was a hairy garment with leather girdle ( Isaiah 20:2; Zechariah 13:4; Matthew 3:4). Their diet was the simplest ( 2 Kings 4:10,38; 1 Kings 19:6); a virtual protest against abounding luxury.

    Prophecy. Some of the prophetic order had not the prophetic gift; others having the gift of inspiration did not belong to the order; e.g., Amos, though called to the office and receiving the gift to qualify him for it, yet did not belong to the order ( Amos 7:14). Of the hundreds trained in the colleges of prophets only sixteen have a place in the canon, for these alone had the special call to the office and God’s inspiration qualifying them for it. The college training was but a preparation, then in the case of the few followed God’s exclusive work: Exodus 3:2, Moses; 1 Samuel 3:10, Samuel; Isaiah, Isaiah 6:8; Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1:5; Ezekiel. Ezekiel 2:4. Each fresh utterance was by “vision” ( Isaiah 6:1) or by “the word of Jehovah” ( Jeremiah 2:1). The prophets so commissioned were the national poets (so David the psalmist was also a prophet, Acts 2:30), annalists ( 2 Chronicles 32:32), theocratic patriots (Psalm 48; 2 Chronicles 20:14-17), promoters of spiritual religion (Isaiah 1), extraordinarily authorized expounders of the spirit of the law ( Isaiah 58:3-7; Ezekiel 18; Micah 6:6-8; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21) which so many sacrificed to the letter, official pastors, and a religious counterpoise to kingly despotism and idolatry, as Elijah was to Ahab. Their utterances being continued at intervals throughout their lives (as Isaiah in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah) show that they did not earn their reputation as prophets by some one happy guess or oracle, but maintained their prophetical character continuously; which excludes the probability of imposture, time often detecting fraud.

    Above all, the prophets by God’s inspiration foretold concerning Jesus the Messiah ( Matthew 1:22,23 with Isaiah 7:4; 8:8). The formula “that it might be fulfilled” implies that the divine word spoken through the prophets ages before produced the result, which followed in the appointed time as necessarily as creation followed from the creative word. Christ appeals to the prophets as fulfilled in Himself: Matthew 13:14 ( Isaiah 6:9), Matthew 15:7 ( Isaiah 29:13), John 5:46; Luke 24:44. Matthew ( Matthew 3:3) quotes Isaiah 40:3 as fulfilled in John the Baptist; so Matthew 4:13-15 with Isaiah 9:1,2; Matthew 8:17 with Isaiah 53:4; Matthew 12:17 with Isaiah 42:1. So also Jeremiah, Matthew 2:18; Hebrews 8:8; Daniel, Matthew 24:15; Hosea, Matthew 2:15; Romans 9:25; Joel, Acts 2:17; Amos, Acts 7:42; 15:16; Jonah, Matthew 12:40; Micah, Matthew 12:7; Habakkuk, Acts 13:41; Haggai, Hebrews 12:26; Zechariah, Matthew 21:5; Mark 14:27; John 19:37; Malachi, Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27. The Psalms are 70 times quoted, and often as predictive. The prophecies concerning Ishmael, Nineveh, Tyre, Egypt, the four empires Babylon, Medo-Persia, Graeco-Macedonia, and Rome, were notoriously promulgated before the event; the fulfillment is dear; it could not have been foreseen by mere human sagacity. The details as to Messiah scattered through so many prophets, yet all converging in Him, the race, nation, tribe, family, birthplace, miracles, humiliation, death, crucifixion with the wicked yet association with the rich at death, resurrection, extension of His seed the church, are so numerous that their minute conformity with the subsequent fact can only be explained by believing that the prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit to foretell the event. What is overwhelmingly convincing is, the Jews are our sacred librarians, who attest the prophets as written ages before, and who certainly would not have corrupted them to confirm Jesus’ Messianic claims which they reject. Moreover, the details are so complicated, and seemingly inconsistent, that before the event it would seem impossible to make them coincide in one person. A “son,” yet “the everlasting Father”; a “child,” yet “the mighty God”; “Prince of peace,” sitting “upon the throne of David,” yet coming as Shiloh (the peace-giver) when “the sceptre shall depart from Judah”; Son of David, yet Lord of David; a Prophet and Priest, yet also a King; “God’s Servant,” upon whom He “lays the iniquity of us all,” Messiah cut off, yet given by the Ancient of days “an everlasting dominion.” The only key that opens this immensely complicated lock is the gospel narrative of Jesus, written ages after the prophets.

    The absence of greater clearness in the prophets is due to God’s purpose to give light enough to guide the willing, to leave darkness enough to confound the willfully blind. Hence the prophecy is not dependent for its interpretation on the prophet; nay, he was often ignorant of the full meaning of his own word ( 2 Peter 1:20,21). Moreover, if the form of the prophecies had been direct declaration the fulfillment would have been liable to frustration. If also the time had been more distinctly marked believers would have been less in a state of continued expectancy. The prophecies were designedly made up of many parts (polumeros , Hebrews 12:1); fragmentary and figurative, the temporary and local fulfillment often foreshadowing the Messianic fulfillment. The obscurity, in some parts, of prophecies of which other parts have been plainly fulfilled is designed to exercise our faith, the obscure parts yet awaiting their exhaustive fulfillment; e.g. prophecies combining the first coming and the second coming of Christ, the parts concerning the latter of course yet require patient and prayerful investigation. Moreover, many prophecies, besides their references to events of the times of the sacred writer, look forward to ulterior fulfillments in Messiah and His kingdom; for “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” ( Revelation 19:10). Thus the foretold deliverance from Babylon by Cyrus foreshadows the greater deliverance from the antitypical Babylon by Cyrus’ Antitype, Messiah ( Isaiah 44:28; 45:1-5,13,22-25; Jeremiah 51:6-10,25; compare Revelation 18:4; 17:4; 14:8; 8:8). So the prophet Isaiah’s son is the sign of the immediate deliverance of Judah from Rezin and Pekah; but language is used which could not have applied to him, and can only find its full and exhaustive accomplishment in the antitypical Immanuel ( Isaiah 7:14-16; 8:3-12,18; 9:6,7; Matthew 1:18-23). So too our Lord’s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem is couched in language receiving its exhaustive fulfillment only in the judgments to be inflicted at His second coming (Matthew 24); as in the sky the nearer and the further off heavenly bodies are, to the spectator, projected into the same vault. The primary sense does not exclude the secondary, not even though the sacred writer himself had nothing in his thought; beyond the primary, for the Holy Spirit is the true Author, who often made the writers unconsciously utter words reaching far beyond the primary and literal sense; so Hosea 11:1, compare Matthew 2:15; so Caiaphas, John 11:50-52. They diligently inquired as to the deep significancy of their own words, and were told that the full meaning would only be known in subsequent gospel times ( Daniel 12:8,9; Zechariah 4:5; 1 Peter 1:10-12).

    The prophet, like his Antitype, spoke not of himself ( John 7:17,18; Numbers 11:17,25,29; 1 Samuel 10:6; 19:20; Numbers 12:6-8).

    The dream and vision were lower forms of inspiration than Moses enjoyed, namely, “mouth to mouth, not in dark speeches”; directly, without the intervention of dream, vision, or person (compare Exodus 33:11 with Joel 2:28; Daniel 1:17). The prophets did net generally speak in ecstatic unconsciousness, but with self possession, for “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” ( 1 Corinthians 14:32); but sometimes they did (Genesis 15; Daniel 7; Dan . 8; Daniel 10; Daniel 11; Daniel 12, “the visions of Daniel”); “the vision of Isaiah” (Isaiah 6); “the vision of Ezekiel” (Ezekiel 1); “the visions of Zechariah” (Zechariah 1; Zechariah 4; Zechariah 5; Zechariah 6); the vision of Peter (Acts 10); of Paul ( Acts 22:17; 2 Corinthians 12); Job ( Job 4:13-16; 33:15,16); John ( Revelation 1:10) “in the Spirit,” i.e. in a state of ecstasy, the outer world shut out, the inner spirit being taken possession of by God’s Spirit, so that an immediate connection was established with the invisible world. Whereas the prophet speaks in the Spirit the apocalyptic seer is wholly in the Spirit, he intuitively and directly sees and hears ( Isaiah 6:1; Zechariah 2:1; Micah 1:1; Habakkuk 1:1; Acts 10:11; 22:18; Revelation 1:12); the subjects of the vision are in juxtaposition (as in a painting), independent of relations of time.

    But however various might be the modes of inspiration, the world spoken or written by the inspired prophets equally is God’s inspired infallible testimony. Their words, in their public function, were not their own so much as God’s ( Haggai 1:13); as private individuals they searched diligently into their far-reaching meaning. Their words prove in the fulfillment to be not of their own origination, therefore not of their own individual (compare 1 Peter 1:10-12) interpretation (idias epiluseos ou ginetai ), but of the Holy Spirit’s by whom they were “moved”; therefore we must look for the Holy Spirit’s illumination while we “take heed to the word of prophecy (now become) more sure” (through the fulfillment of part of it already, namely, that concerning Christ’s sufferings; and through the pledge given in His transfiguration witnessed by Peter, that the rest will come to pass, namely, His foretold glory: 2 Pet 1:19-21 Greek, compare 2 Samuel 23:2; Hosea 9:7).

    Messianic prophecy. Prophecy and miracles are the direct evidences of the truth of revelation; the morals, propagation, and suitableness of Christianity to man’s needs, combined together with the two former, are its irrefragable proofs. All subsequent prophecy of Messiah develops the primary one ( Genesis 3:15). This only defined the Saviour as about to be the woman’s seed. Noah’s prophecy that He should be of the Semitic branch of the human race, ( Genesis 9:26; 12:3; 22:18; 28:14) of the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ( Genesis 49:10) of the tribe of Judah, a Shiloh or tranquilizer, yet one who will smite with a sceptre and come as a star ( Numbers 24:17); a prophet, like Moses ( Deuteronomy 18:15); a king, of David’s seed, reigning forever ( 2 Samuel 7:16; Psalm 18; 61; 89); the Son of God, as well as Son of David ( Psalm 2:2,6,7,8; 110:1-4, etc.). Anointed by Jehovah as David’s Lord, King of Zion, Inheritor of the whole earth, dashing in pieces His enemies like a potter’s vessel with a rod of iron, “it Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek”; severely afflicted, “hands and feet pierced,” betrayed by “His own familiar friend,” “His garments parted and lots cast for His vesture,” “His ears opened” to “come” and “do God’s will” at all costs, when God would not have animal “sacrifice” (Psalm 22; Psalm 40; Psalm 55; Psalm 69; Psalm 102; Psalm 109). Raised from the grave without His flesh seeing corruption (Psalm 16; Psalm 17); triumphant King, espousing the church His bride (Psalm 45); reigning in peace and righteousness from the river to the ends of the earth (Psalm 72).

    There are four groups of the 16 prophets. Of the northern Israel, Hosea, Amos, Joel, Jonah; of Judah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah; prophets of the captivity, Ezekiel and Daniel; prophets of the restoration, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Each adds some fresh trait to complete the delineation of Messiah. see ISAIAH Isaiah 52:13-15; Isaiah 53, is the most perfect portrait of His vicarious sufferings, the way of salvation to us and of consequent glory to Him, and eternal satisfaction in seeing His spiritual seed.

    The arrangement in the canon is chronological mainly. But as the twelve lesser prophets are regarded as one work, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are placed at the close of the greater prophets, and before the lesser, whose three last prophets are subsequent to Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Hosea being longest of the lesser is placed first of them, though not so chronologically.

    PROPITIATION Romans 3:25, hilastrion , “the propitiatory” or mercy seat, the bloodsprinkled lid of the ark, the meeting place between God and His people represented by the priest ( 1 John 2:2; 4:10).[HIlasmos , abstract for concrete noun. He is all that is needed for propitiation in behalf of our sins, the propitiatory sacrifice provided by the Father’s love removing the estrangement, appearing God’s righteous wrath against the sinner. A father may be offended with a son, yet all the while love him. It answers in Septuagint to Hebrew kaphar , kippurim to effect an see ATONEMENT or see RECONCILIATION with God ( Numbers 5:8; Hebrews 2:17), “to make reconciliation for ... sins,” literally, to expiate the sins, eeilaskesteeai . Psalm 32:1, “blessed is he whose sin is covered.”

    PROSELYTES geerim . 1 Chronicles 22:2, “the strangers,” in Septuagint “proselytes, i.e. comers to Palestine, sojourners ( Exodus 12:48; 20:10; 22:21; Leviticus 19:33). In New Testament converts to Judaism, “comers to a new and God-loving polity” (Philo). Israel’s religious attitude attracted neighbouring people from the first. The Shechemites are an instance, only that passion and interest were their motive (Genesis 34). Circumcision was required as the condition. At the exodus “a mixed multitude went up with Israel” ( Exodus 12:38). “The stranger” was bound by the law of the Sabbath ( Exodus 20:10; 23:12; Deuteronomy 5:14) and the Passover when he was circumcised ( Exodus 12:19,48), the feast of weeks ( Deuteronomy 16:11), tabernacles ( Deuteronomy 16:14), the day of atonement ( Leviticus 16:29), prohibited marriages ( Leviticus 18:26), and blood ( Leviticus 17:10), and Moloch worship ( Leviticus 20:2), and blasphemy ( Leviticus 24:16). The city of refuge was open to him ( Numbers 35:15). Kind treatment in remembrance of Israel’s own position as strangers formerly in Egypt ( Exodus 22:21; 23:9; Deuteronomy 10:18,19; Leviticus 19:33,34), justice ( Leviticus 24:22; Deuteronomy 1:16; 24:17; 19-21), share in gleanings and tithe of the third year ( Deuteronomy 14:29), were the stranger’s right. But he could not hold land nor intermarry with Aaron’s descendants ( Leviticus 19:10; 21:14), he is presumed to be in a subject condition ( Deuteronomy 29:11); Hobab and the Kenites ( Numbers 10:29-32; Judges 1:16), Rahab of Jericho ( Joshua 6:25), and the Gibeonites as “hewers of wood and drawers of water” (Joshua 9), are instances of strangers joined to Israel. The strangers were assembled with Israel at the feast of tabernacles at the cnd of every seven years, to hear the law ( Deuteronomy 31:10-12; Joshua 8:34,35). Under the kings strangers rose to influential positions: Doeg the Edomite ( 1 Samuel 21:7), Uriah the Hittite ( 2 Samuel 11:3), Araunah the Jebusite ( 2 Samuel 24:23), Zelek the Ammonite ( 2 Samuel 23:37), Ithmah the Moabite ( Chronicles 11:46, the law in Deuteronomy 23:3 forbidding an Ammonite or Moabite to enter the congregation to the tenth generation does not forbid their settlement in Israel, the law must have been written in times long before David whose great grandmother was Ruth the Moabtress), Ittai the Gittite ( 2 Samuel 15:19), Shebna the secretary of state under Hezekiah ( 2 Kings 18:37; Isaiah 22:15), Ebedmelech the Ethiopian under Zedekiah ( Jeremiah 38:7), the see CHERETHITES and see PELETHITES .

    Hezekiah’s triumph over Sennacherib was followed by many bringing gifts: unto Jehovah to Jerusalem ( 2 Chronicles 32:23); this suggested the prophecy in Psalm 87 that Rahab (Egypt) and Babylon (whose king Merodach Baladan had sent a friendly embassy to Hezekiah), Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia should be spiritually born ( Psalm 51:5,10; 22:31; Isaiah 66:8; John 3:3,5; both Old and New Testament teach the need of the new birth) in Jerusalem as proselytes. Tyre’s alliance with David was a prophetic earnest of its future union with the kingdom of God, of which the Syrophoenician woman was a firstfruit ( Mark 7:26), as Candace’s eunuch the proselyte (Acts 8) was a pledge of Ethiopia’s conversion. In times of judgment on Israel for apostasy the stranger became “the head” ( Deuteronomy 28:43,44); but under David and Solomon they were made to do bondservice, 70,000 bearers of burdens, 80,000 hewers, 3,600 overseers ( 1 Chronicles 22:2; 2 Chronicles 2:17,18). In Psalm 94:6, as the pagan do not make widow and strangers their chief object of attack, “the stranger” is probably the saint in relation to this world ( Psalm 39:12), and “the widow” is the widowed church awaiting Christ’s glorious epiphany to avenge her on antichrist ( Luke 18:3-8).

    All the prophets anticipate the future sharing of proselytes in the kingdom of God, and even in the Holy Land as “sojourners” ( Ezekiel 47:22; Isaiah 2:2; 11:10; 56:3-6; Micah 4:1), and meantime plead their cause ( Jeremiah 7:6; Ezekiel 22:7,29; Zechariah 7:10; Malachi 3:5). After the return from Babylon many “had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God” with their families ( Nehemiah 10:28). Many, in Esther’s time ( Esther 8:17), “of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.” In New Testament times these appear in the synagogues ( Acts 13:42,43,50; 17:4; 18:7), come up to the feasts at Jerusalem ( Acts 2:10). Roman centurions, a class promoted for military good conduct, were noble specimens of these proselytes ( Luke 7:5; Acts 10:2,7,30), and were most open to gospel truth. But Jewish fanaticism sought proselytes also by force and fraud, as John Hyrcanus offered the Idumeans the alternative of death, exile, or circumcision (Josephus, Ant. xiii, 9, section 3). Casuistry released the proselyte from moral obligations admitted before; and superstition chained him anew, hand and foot, e.g. the korban ( Matthew 15:4-6); and circumcision, canceling all previous relationships, admitted of incestuous marriages. Any good in paganism was lost, and all that was bad in traditional Judaism was acquired. Thus the proselyte became “twofold more the child of hell” than the scribes themselves ( Matthew 23:15). Considering that the end justified the means, the scribes “compassed sea and land to make one proselyte,” yet, when made, the Jews despised the proselyte as a “leprosy cleaving (in perversion of Isaiah 14:1) to the house of Jacob”; “no wise man would trust a proselyte to the 24th generation” (Jalkuth, Ruth f. 163 a). They classed them into (1) “Love proselytes,” wishing to gain the beloved one. (2) Man for woman or woman for man, where one embraced the married partner’s Judaism. (3) Esther proselytes, to escape danger ( Esther 8:17). (4) King’s table proselytes, seeking to gain court favor, as under Solomon. (5) Lion proselytes, through dread of judgments: 2 Kings 17:26 (Gem. Hieros., Kiddush 65, section 6).

    Simon ben Gamaliel said: “when a pagan comes to enter the covenant we ought to stretch out, our hand to him and bring him under the wings of God” (Jost, Judenth. 1:447).

    The distinction between “proselytes of the gate” (from Exodus 20:10, “the stranger that is within thy gates”) and “proselytes of righteousness” was minutely drawn by the talmudic rabbis and Maimonides (Hilc. Mel. 1:6). The proselytes of the gate were not bound to circumcision, only to the seven precepts of Noah, namely, the six said to have been given to Adam: (1) against idolatry, (2) blasphemy, (3) bloodshed, (4) uncleanness, (5) theft, (6) the precept of obedience to authorities, and (7) that given to Noah against “flesh with the blood”; but he had not the full Israelite privileges, he must not study the law nor redeem his firstborn.

    But all this is rabbinical systematizing theory; in fact, the New Testament only in a general way recognizes two degrees of converts to Judaism. The eunuch of Candace was a sample of the full convert, circumcised and baptized at his admission (Otho, Lex Rabb., Baptism, for which the rabbis quoted Exodus 19:10), followed by his presenting the corban offering of two turtle doves, as after a birth ( Leviticus 12:8). The presumed existence of this proselyte baptism for males and females throws light on John’s baptism and the priests’ question, “why baptizest thou then?” ( John 1:25) and John 3:5,10, the Lord’s words to Nicodemus, “art thou a master (teacher) of Israel, and knowest not these things?”

    Nicodemus ought to have understood the deeper sense to which Christ applied the familiar phrase “new birth” in connection with “baptism” of proselytes. However, there is no mention of baptism of proselytes in the Bible, the Apocrypha, Philo, Josephus, or the older targums. The centurion Cornelius was a proselyte of a less strict kind, which the rabbis would call a proselyte of the gate; otherwise a special revelation would not have been needed to warrant Peter’s opening the gospel kingdom to him, as it had not been needed to open the gospel to Candace’s eunuch (Acts 8; 10). “Proselyte” occurs in New Testament only Matthew 23:15; Acts 2:10; 6:5; 13:43. The common phrase is” devout men,” “fearing” or “worshipping God” ( Acts 10:2,7; 13:16,26,43,50; 16:14; 17:4,17; 18:7; John 12:20). From them came the largest accession to the Christian church.

    PROVERBS, BOOK OF mishlee , plural of maashaal , “comparison” or “likeness.” The Christian fathers (Clement, Ep. Cor. 1:57; Hegesippus, Irenaeus in Eusebius H. E. 4:22) entitle it “Wisdom, the sum of all virtues” (Panareros sophia). Pithy sayings (compare David’s quotation, 1 Samuel 24:13), like similes or with a figure. The comparison is either expressed or left for the hearer to supply. So Balaam’s “parable” is prophecy in figurative language ( Numbers 23:7-10; 1 Samuel 10:12; Ezekiel 12:22,23; 17:2,3; 18:2; 20:49; 24:3; Luke 4:23). In Job 27:1 “parable” ( Job 29:1) means a figurative, sententious, weighty embodiment of wisdom, not in this case short, but containing Job’s whole argument ( Psalm 49:4, [maashaal]). In Proverbs 1:6 “dark sayings” (chidah ) are another form of proverbs, the enigmatical obscurity being designed to stimulate reflection ( Habakkuk 2:6; Judges 14; 1 Kings 10:1; 2 Chronicles 9:1; Ezekiel 17:2; Psalm 78:2); the melitsah ( Proverbs 1:6), “interpretation” (so Chald. and Vulgate versions), for which Gesenius translated “a saying that needs an interpreter,” i.e. enigmatical ( Habakkuk 2:6). For instance ( Proverbs 12:27), “the slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting” requires discernment to see the point of comparison and the application; the slothful man is too lazy to hunt, and therefore has nothing to roast (compare 2 Thessalonians 3:10). “Proverb” is with Jesus’ disciples equivalent to an obscure saying ( John 16:29).

    Canonicity. The Book of Proverbs is found in all Jewish lists among the ketubim , “writings” (hagiographa), the third division of Scripture. The Talmud (Baba Bathra, 14 b.) gives the order, Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra (including Nehemiah), Chronicles. The New Testament quotes and so canonizes ( Proverbs 1:16; Romans 3:10,15. Proverbs 3:7; Romans 12:16. Proverbs 3:11,12; Hebrews 12:5,6; Revelation 3:19. Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6. Proverbs 10:12; 1 Peter 4:8. Proverbs 11:31; 1 Peter 4:17,18. Proverbs 17:13; Romans 12:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; 1 Peter 3:9. Proverbs 17:27; James 1:19. Proverbs 20:9; 1 John 1:8. Proverbs 20:20; Matthew 15:4. Proverbs 22:8; 2 Corinthians 9:6; Galatians 6:7,9. Proverbs 25:21,22; Romans 12:20. Proverbs 26:11; 2 Peter 2:22. Proverbs 27:1; James 4:13).

    Divisions and authorship. The same heading, “the proverbs of Solomon the son of David king of Israel” ( Proverbs 1:1; 10:1; 25:1), marks the three divisions. Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs ( 1 Kings 4:32) and “set in order” the present selection (Proverbs 1--24; Ecclesiastes 12:9). “Hezekiah” directed his pious “men” (perhaps Isaiah, Micah, Shebna, and Joah: 2 Kings 18:18) to supplement the collection with a series of proverbs of Solomon, not included in the collection by the royal author ( Proverbs 25:1; compare Ecclesiasticus 47:14,17). The Holy Spirit did not appoint all Solomon’s proverbs indiscriminately to be put into the canon for all ages, but a selection suited for the ends of revelation. The bringing forth of God’s word from obscurity fitly accompanied the reformation by pious Hezekiah, as in the case of Josiah’s reformation ( Chronicles 31:21,29,30). The Jews assign the composition of the Song of Solomon to Solomon’s youth, Proverbs to his manhood, and Ecclesiastes to his old age. (1) Proverbs 1--9 are one connected whole, in which wisdom is recommended to youths; an introduction states the aim. (2) Proverbs 10--24 are single detached proverbs; from Proverbs 10:1 to Proverbs 22:16; Proverbs 22:17 to Proverbs 24:21, form a more connected whole on righteousness and prudence, with an introduction; Proverbs 24:23-34, “these also belong to the wise,” are an appendix of unconnected maxims. (3) Proverbs 25--29, consisting of single sentences, are the selection of Hezekiah’s men. Proverbs 30 is Agur’s proverbs and enigmatical sayings.

    Proverbs 31 consists of king Lemuel’s words ( Proverbs 31:1-6), and an alphabetical acrostic in praise of a virtuous woman. The repetition of many proverbs in a similar form in the middle division is due, not to their emanating from different authors, but to their having been selected out of different collections oral or written, of the same author Solomon, in which the same proverb appeared in a different connection; just as Jesus’ sayings repeated in different connections ( Proverbs 14:12; 16:25; 21:2,9,19; 10:1; 15:20; 10:2; 11:4; 10:15; 18:11; 15:33; 18:12; 11:21; 16:5; 14:31; 17:5; 19:12; 20:2). The Proverbs apply the truths of religion to practical life in sentences weighty and easily remembered by their terse point. (See POETRY .) Gnomic poetry is peculiarly Semitic. Instead of philosophical reasonings and argument, the results of observation are embodied in terse proverbial similitudes and maxims. A proverb is defined as” the wit of one, the wisdom of many.” When the nation’s experiences had become matured Solomon in a time of national peace embodied them in gnomic proverbs.

    Internal tranquillity favored the growth of a contemplative spirit which suits such a work.

    Favorite phrases characterize the middle division, the style of which is simple and antique. The Proverbs are in antithetic parallelism, the second clause standing in contrast to the first. Here are the phrases “fountain of life,” “tree of life,” “snares of death,” “healing,” “health;” “destruction” (mechittah ), Proverbs 10:14,15,29, nowhere else in Proverbs; (ad argiah ) “but for a moment”; (yad leyad ) “hand to hand,” Proverbs 11:21; (nirgan ) “a whisperer,” “talebearer” Proverbs 18:18, etc.), are characteristic of the middle division.

    The third division, namely, of Hezekiah’s men, is marked by the interrogation “seest thou?” ( Proverbs 26:12; 29:20.) Things are compared by being placed side by side, connected simply by “and” ( Proverbs 25:3,20). The antithesis is not so marked. The verses are not of two equal members; one is often shorter than the other; sometimes there are even three members in the verse. A cautious and mournful tone is thought to mark the language as to rulers, instead of the joy and reverence of the middle and older division; the, state of the nation under Hezekiah at the close of the eighth century B.C. accords with his selection of these proverbs of Solomon.

    The first division, with the closing part of the middle ( Proverbs 10:1-- 22:16 being the germ of the book), Proverbs 1--9; 22:17--25:1, is characterized by favorite words and constructions: as chokmot , “wisdoms”; zarah , “the strange woman”; nokriah , “the foreigner,” the adulteress who seduces youth, the opposite of true wisdom, found once in the middle division ( Proverbs 22:14). Shephathaim , dual fem., is constructed with the verb masc. plural. Warning against envy at the sinner’s seeming prosperity appears ( Proverbs 3:31; 23:17; 24:1,19) as in Job. The disciplinary design of chastisement (“instruction,” musar , Greek paideia , correction by discipline), Proverbs 3:11-13; so Job ( Job 33:17-30; 5:17); wisdom ( Proverbs 2:4; 3:14; 8; Job 28; Proverbs 3:23; Job 5:22; Proverbs 8:25; Job 15:7,8). The similarity is probably due to Solomon’s having become imbued with the spirit of the book of Job, through study of it. The language of the first division rises from a general exhortation, and then a particular one to youth to follow wisdom, to the sublimest and most universal strain at the close ( Proverbs 6:20--9:18).

    This first division is continuous description and elucidation of truth, instead of the single proverb which characterizes the middle collection; the poetic parallelism is synonymous, not antithetic or synthetic, as in the middle division.

    Keil truly says, after all these distinctions of parts, “one historical background is shown throughout, the contents corresponding only to the relations, culture, and experiences of life acquired by the political development of Israel under Solomon.” The first part forms a connected mashal or parabolic commendation of wisdom. It is the porch, leading into the interior, the Proverbs proper, loosely connected. The ornamental, flowing style suits the young, to whom the first division is addressed. The second, addressed to men, is in brief, business like style, compressing much in brief compass for the right conduct of life. The two sentences in each distich mutually complement each other, and the ellipsis in one is to be supplied from the antithesis in the other, e.g. ( Proverbs 12:3), “a man shall not be established by wickedness (but shall be rooted out); but the root of the righteous shall (be established and) not be moved”; Proverbs 11:12, “he that is void of understanding despiseth his neighbour (and therefore withholds not contemptuous words); but a man of understanding (despiseth not his neighbour and therefore) holdeth his speech” (from contemptuous words). So in very many verses.

    From Proverbs 22:17 to Proverbs 24:16 the continuous style is resumed from Proverbs 1--9. It forms the epilogue of the middle division, with a few closing disconnected maxims ( Proverbs 24:23-34). (On the closing Proverbs 30; 31, see AGUR ; see LEMUEL ; see JAKEH ; see MASSA ; see ITHIEL ; see UCAL .) Lemuel’s mother suggested the model of the closing acrostic in praise of a virtuous woman, “a looking glass for ladies” (M. Henry); the 22 verses begin with the consecutive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The introduction of a foreigner’s (Lemuel) words into the inspired canon of Israel is paralleled by Balaam’s and Job’s words being part of Scripture.

    PROVIDENCE Foresight, Greek pronoia “forethought” ( Acts 24:2). As applied to God, it expresses His never ceasing power exerted in and over all His works. It is the opposite of “chance,” “fortune,” and “luck.” It continues creation. In relation to all things it is universal, and nothing is too minute for its regard; to moral beings special; to holy or converted beings particular. Each is an object of providence according to its capacity. God’s providence is concerned in a sparrow’s fall; His children are of more value than many sparrows, and therefore are assured of His providential care in all their concerns. Its acts are threefold; preservation, co-operation, and government. He controls all things for the highest good of the whole, acting upon every species conformably to its nature: inanimate things by physical influences, brutes according to instinct, and free agents according to the laws of free agency. Providence displays God’s omnipresence, holiness, justice and benevolence. If the telescope reveals the immense magnitude and countless hosts of worlds which He created and sustains, the microscope shows that His providence equally concerns itself with the minutest animalcule. Nothing is really small with God. He hangs the most momentous weights on little wires. We cannot explain fully why evil was ever permitted; but God overrules it to good. If no fallible beings had been created there could have been no virtue, for virtue implies probation, and probation implies liability to temptation and sin. Sin too has brought into view God’s wisdom, mercy, and love, harmonized in redemption, and good educed from evil; yet the good so educed by guilt does not exculpate sinners, or warrant the inference, “let us do evil that good may come” ( Romans 3:8).

    Proofs of providence. (I) We can no more account for the world’s continued preservation than for its original creation, without God’s interposition. (II) He sustains because He originally made it ( Psalm 33:6,13-16; Colossians 1:17); as one may do what one will with his own, so God has the right to order all things as being their Maker ( Isaiah 64:8; Romans 9:20-23). God’s interest in His own creation is Job’s argument for God’s restoring him ( Job 10:3,9-12; 14:15). (III) God’s power, wisdom, knowledge, and love all prove a providence. “He that denies providence denies God’s attributes, His omniscience which is the eye of providence, His mercy and justice which are the arms of providence, His power which is its life and motion, His wisdom which is the rudder whereby providence is steered, and holiness the compass and rule of its motion” (Charnock). (IV) The prevailing order in the world proves providence ( Genesis 8:22). The Greek word for world and order is one and the same, kosmos , Latin, mundus; and modern science has shown that the very seeming aberrations of the planets are parts of the universal order or law which reigns. “All discord harmony not understood, All partial evil universal good.” ( Isaiah 40:22,26.) The plagues, earthquakes, drought, flood, frost, and famine subserve ends of providence which we only in part see; and they also suggest to us the need of a providence to control them within appointed bounds, and that without such a providence all nature would fall into disorder ( Jeremiah 5:22; Job 26:7-11; 38:4-14). (V) The present moral government of the world. Conscience stings the wicked, or civil punishments or the consequences of violating nature’s laws overtake them. (1) The anomalies apparent now, the temporary sufferings of the righteous and prosperity of the wicked, the failure of good plans and success of bad ones, confirm the revelation of the judgment to come which shall rectify these anomalies (see JOB ). (2) The godly amidst affliction enjoy more real happiness than the ungodly, whose prosperity is “shining misery”; ( 1 Timothy 4:8; Mark 10:29,30). (3) The sorrows of godly men are sometimes the result of their running counter to laws of nature, or even of revelation; as Jacob’s lying to Isaac, repaid in kind retributively in Jacob’s sons lying to him, etc., David’s adultery and murder punished retributively by Absalom’s lying with his father’s concubines and by the sword never departing from David’s house (2 Samuel 12). (4) Yet even so they are overruled to the moral discipline of the saint’s faith, patience, and experience ( Romans 5:3,4; 1 Peter 1:6,7); David’s noblest qualities were brought forth by Saul’s persecutions, and even by Absalom’s punitive rebellion ( 2 Samuel 15:25,26; 16:10-12). (5) There is sin even in men sincere before God; they need at. times to be brought, as Job at last was, to abase themselves under God’s visiting hand, and instead of calling God to account to acknowledge His ways are right and we are sinful, even though we do not see the reason why He contends with us ( Job 40:4,5; 42:2-6; contrast Job 10:2; 33:13). (6) The issue of wickedness is seen even in this life generally, that though flourishing for a time ( Jeremiah 12:1) the wicked are “set in slippery places, and brought into desolation as in a moment” (Psalm 73; 37:35-37; Job 20:5). (VI) History vindicates providence. The histories of Israel, Judah, and Gentile nations show that “righteousness exalteth a nation” ( Proverbs 14:34). The preparations made for the gospel of our Saviour indicate a providence ( Galatians 4:4), the distinctness of prophecy waxing greater and greater as the time for the evangelization of the Gentiles approached ( Luke 2:32). The translation of the Jewish Scriptures into the language of a large part of the civilized world, Greek, by the Septuagint (by it the history of providence and the prophecies of Messiah became accessible to the learned everywhere; all possibility of questioning the existence or falsifying the contents of the prophecies was taken away; the closing of the canon just before proved that the Scriptures, so translated, supplied complete all that God revealed in Old Testament times); the expectation throughout the East of a great King and Deliverer to arise in Judaea; the increasing light of philosophy; the comprehension of most of the known world by the Roman empire, breaking down the barrier between E. and W., establishing a regular police everywhere, and the universal peace which prevailed at the coming of the gospel of peace; the multiplication and settling of Jews in Egypt, Asia, Greece, Italy, and western Europe (Horace, Sat. i., 9:69-71; 4:140): all paving the way for promulgating the gospel.

    The remarkable working of providence secretly (for God’s name never occurs in the book) is apparent in the case of see ESTHER , whereby the fate of the whole Jewish nation hung upon a despot’s whim, acted on by a favorite. The providential preparations for the appointed issue, Ahasuerus’ feast, Vashti’s womanly pride, Mordecai’s informing the king of the design against his life, the choice of Esther as queen, Haman’s plot, laid so cleverly yet made to recoil on himself, so that after having himself to thank for dictating the honours which he had to pay to the very man whom he wished to destroy he was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. So in the case of Joseph; the brothers’ wicked and seemingly successful plan for defeating God’s will of elevating him above them, as revealed in his dreams, was overruled to being made the very means of accomplishing it. So “Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel,were gathered together against Christ, for to do whatsoever God’s hand and God’s counsel determined before to be done” ( Acts 4:27,28; compare Genesis 42:6; Proverbs 19:21; 21:30).

    Fighters against the truth have been by providence made, in spite of themselves, instrumental in spreading it, by calling attention to it and to its power in ennobling believers’ lives. “They that were scattered abroad” by persecutors “went everywhere preaching the word” ( Acts 8:4), the storm that would rend the oak scatters its seed in every direction. (VII) Belief in providence is the basis of religion, especially of revealed religion: “the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will” ( Daniel 4:32), So minute is His providential care that “the very hairs of our head are all numbered” ( Matthew 10:30; Acts 27:34; Luke 21:18; Daniel 3:27); nor is the smallest saint forgotten amidst countless multitudes: “Thou art as much His care as if beside Not man nor angel lived in heaven and earth; Thus sunbeams pour alike a glorious tide, To light up worlds or wake an insect’s mirth.” See Amos 9:9. It is God who “clothes the grass of the field.” “The lot cast into the lap” seems chance, “but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord” ( Proverbs 16:33; Jonah 1:7). God’s guardianship of His people amidst dangers and plagues appears in Psalm 91 and in His putting a difference between Israel and the Egyptians ( Exodus 11:6,7; 10:23); the dependence of all creatures on God’s providence in Psalm 104; Acts 17:28. Christ upholdeth all things by the word of His power” ( Hebrews 1:3); “by Him all things consist” ( Colossians 1:17; Job 38--41).

    PROVINCE (See PROCURATOR ; see PROCONSUL , for the distinction of imperial and senatorial provinces under Rome, accurately observed in New Testament) Ahab’s “young men of the princes of the province” are probably young warriors of Gileadite chiefs recognizing his supremacy, but distinct from “the children of Israel” ( 1 Kings 20:14,15,19). Provinces existed under Solomon in his wide empire ( Ecclesiastes 2:8; 5:8). Under the Persian king were 127, each having its own system of finance and its treasurer ( Esther 1:1; 8:9; Ezra 2:1,4; 5:7; 6:6; 7:22,24; Herodotus iii. 89). The satrapies were only 20. The Jews had their governor (tirsbatha’ ), of their own race ( Ezra 2:63; Nehemiah 5:14; 8:9), subject to the satrap (pathath ) of the provinces W. of Euphrates.

    PSALMS (See DAVID and see POETRY .) The Hebrew designation tehillim , “praises” or hymns,” occurring only in the title of Psalm 145 and about times in the body of the Psalms, applies only to some not to all the psalms.

    The glorification of God is the design of them all, even the penitentiary and precatory psalms; but [tehilliym] applies strictly to praise songs alone, [tephillowt] to the prayer songs; Psalm 17; Psalm 72 end, closing the second book of Psalms, Psalm 86; 90; 102 title. No one Hebrew title comprehends all. The Greek Septuagint has given the title “Psalms” (from psalloo “to play an instrument”) applied to the whole collection. The Hebrew mizmor designates 65 psalms; in the Syriac version it comprises the whole (from zaamar “to decorate”), psalms of artificial, adorned structure (Hengstenberg). “A rhythmical composition” (Lowth). “Psalms,” the designation most applicable to the whole book, means songs accompanied by an instrument, especially the harp ( 1 Chronicles 16:4-9; 2 Chronicles 5:12,13). Shir , “a joyful thanksgiving song,” is prefixed only to some. The various kinds are specified in Ephesians 5:19; “psalms (accompanied by an instrument), hymns (indirect praise of God), ... spiritual songs (joyous lyric pieces; contrast Amos 8:10).”

    TITLES. Their genuineness is confirmed by their antiquity (which is proved by their being unintelligible to the Septuagint translators of the Hebrew into Greek), and by their presence in the greatest number of manuscripts, and in fragments of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. Their obscurity and occasional want of connection with the psalm’s contents (as title Psalm 34) are incompatible with their origination from forgers. The orientals, moreover, usually prefix titles to poems ( Habakkuk 3:1; Isaiah 38:9); so David ( 2 Samuel 23:1). The enigmatical titles, found only in the psalms of David and of David’s singers, accord with Eastern taste.

    They are too “poetical, spirited, and profound for any later collector” (Hengstenberg). So David’s “bow song” ( 2 Samuel 1:18), his enigmatical designation for “the song on him expert with the bow” ( Samuel 1:22). The historical hints in some titles give a clue to the dates. If the titles were added by later hands, how is it that they are wanting in those psalms where conjecture could most easily have had place, namely, the non-Davidic psalms of the fourth and fifth books, whereas they appear in the most regular and complete form in David’s psalms, next in those of his singers? Now these are just the ones where conjecture is given no room for exercise; for the titles do not apparently illustrate these psalms, but are a memorial of the events which most deeply impressed David’s own mind. In the last two books the historical occasions do not occur in the titles, because cycles of psalms mainly compose these books, and among such cycles psalms of an individual reference hardly have place.

    DIVISIONS. Davidic basis of the whole. The Psalms form one “book”; so the Lord refers to them ( Luke 20:42), so His apostles ( Acts 1:20).

    The fathers, Ambrose (on Psalm 40) and Jerome to Cyprian (2:695), describe the Psalms as five books in one volume. Based on and corresponding to the historical Pentateuch, they form a poetical “Pentateuch” (Epiphanius, de Mens., c. 5), extending from Moses to the times of Malachi “the Hebrew history set to music an oratorio in five parts, with Messiah for its subject” (Wordsworth). The Psalms, like the Pentateuch, being used in divine worship, are the people’s answer to God’s address to them in the law, i.e. the expression of their pious feelings called forth by the word of God.

    The close of each of the five books is marked by a doxology. The “blessed be the Lord God of Israel” is taken up by Zacharias, as fulfilled in Christ ( Leviticus 1:68-71; <19A648> Psalm 106:48). Book I includes Psalm 1--41; Book II, Psalm 42--72; Book III, Psalm 73--89; Book IV, Psalm 90--106; Book V, Psalm 107--150. Book I is according to the titles Davidic; accordingly there is no trace of any author hut David. The objection from the “temple” ( Psalm 5:7) being mentioned is groundless, for in Samuel 1:9; 3:3, it is similarly used for the tabernacle long before Solomon’s temple was built. The argument for a post-Babylonian date from the phrase “bring back the captivity” ( Psalm 14:7) is invalid; it is a Hebraism for reversing one’s misfortunes ( Job 42:10). Nor does the acrosticism in Psalm 25 prove a late date, for acrosticism appears in psalms acknowledged to be David’s (Psalm 9).

    In Books II and III David’s singers have borrowed from David (excepting “a song of the beloved” Psalm 45, and Psalm 46, “upon Alamoth”) everything peculiar in his superscriptions; see Psalm 42; 43; 44; 84; 86. “Selah” is restricted to David and his singers; but “hallelujah” is never found in his or their psalms. So also “to the chief musician,” (committing the psalm to the music conductor to prepare for musical performance in the public service: 1 Chronicles 15:21 Hebrew and margin, compare Chronicles 15:22,) is limited to David’s and their psalms. The writer of Samuel 22 evidently turned into prose David’s poetical superscription (Psalm 18); so the writer of 1 Samuel 19:11; 21:13,14; 23:19, had before him the titles of Psalm 34; 54; 59. Hezekiah’s “writing” (miktab ) alludes probably to David’s miktam (a “secret,” or “song of deep import”), Psalm 56; 57 titles, for it was he who restored David’s psalms to their liturgical use in the temple ( 2 Chronicles 29:30). This imitation of David’s title, and still more the correspondence of his prayer to David’s psalms ( <19A224> Psalm 102:24; 27:13; 49:1; 6:5; 30:9), is a presumption for the authenticity of David’s and his singers’ psalms and their titles.

    Habakkuk similarly leans upon David’s superscriptions, as also upon his psalms. Habakkuk 3:1, “Shiggaion,” compare title Psalm 7:1, “Son of David”; Habakkuk 3:19, “to the chief musician on my stringed instruments” is derived from the titles Psalm 4; 6. So the “Selah” (verses 9,13) which occurs only in the psalms of David and his singers.

    The absence of the authors’ names from most of the psalms in the fourth and fifth books implies that none of them have an individual and personal character, as the Davidic psalms have. In all such the psalmist represents the community. The later groups of psalms rest on the Davidic, and echo the poetry of David. Even in the psalms of David’s singers, the authors, except Asaph (Psalm 1; 74) who was immediately associated with David, do not give their individual names.

    PRINCIPLE OF SELECTION. Not all Israel’s lyric poetry but only. (1) such as is directly religious is included in the psalter, therefore not David’s dirge over Saul and Jonathan ( 2 Samuel 1:17-27). Also (2) only the psalms applicable to the whole church and therefore suited to the public services of the sanctuary. The individual psalmist represents the religious community whose mouthpiece he is. 2 Samuel 23:1: David sings in his typical and representative character; no other psalmist in the book has personal references. Hence Hezekiah’s prayer (Isaiah 38) and Jonah’s thanksgiving are excluded as too personal. (3) Only such as were composed trader the Holy Spirit’s inspiration. The very musicians who founded the sacred music were inspired ( <132501> Chronicles 25:1, “prophesy with harps”), much more the psalmists themselves. Asaph, the writer of some psalms, was a “seer” ( Chronicles 29:30). David spoke “in the Spirit.” Christ testifies ( Matthew 22:41-46), He classes” the Psalms,” the chief book of the chetubim or hagiographa, with “the law and the prophets” ( Luke 24:44).

    The Messianic prophetic element in David leans on Nathan’s prophecy (2 Samuel 7). Subsequent prophets develop David’s Messianic predictions.

    The Psalms draw out of the typical ceremonial of the law its tuner spirit, adapting it to the various requirements of the individual and the congregation. By their help the Israelite could enter into the living spirit of the law, and realizing his need of the promised Saviour look for Him of whom the Psalms testify. They are a treasury from which we can draw the inner experiences of Old Testament saints and express our corresponding feelings, under like circumstances, in their divinely sanctioned language of praise and prayer.

    CLASSIFICATION. (1) Psalms of joy and gratitude, shir , lethodah “for confession” or ascription of praise (Psalm 100), tehillah (Psalm 145). (2) Psalms under sorrow, giving birth to prayer: tephillah , “prayer song” (Psalm 90), lehazkir “to put God in remembrance” of His people’s needs (Psalm 38; 70), leanot “concerning the affliction” (Psalm 88), altaseheeth “destroy not” (Psalm 57; 58; 59). (3) Didactic and calmly meditative: Psalm 1; 15; 31; 49. The title Maschil is absent from some didactic psalms and present in others, because its design is to mark as didactic only those in which the “instruction” is covert and so might be overlooked. Thirteen are so designated, mostly of David’s time.

    The later, composed in times of national peril, breathe a spirit of too intense feeling to admit of the calm didactic style. Moreover Solomon’s proverbs subsequently to David took the place of the didactic psalms. But some maschil psalms still were composed, and these more lyric in tone and less sententious and maxim-like in style than Proverbs.

    ORDER. The Holy Spirit doubtless directed the compiler in arranging as well as the writers in composing the psalms. The first psalm begins, as the Sermon on the Mount ( Matthew 5:3), and the second closes, with “blessed.” Thus this pair, announcing the blessedness of the godly and the doom of the ungodly in the coming judgment, fitly prefaces the Psalms as John the Baptist’s announcement of the final judgment preludes the gospel (Matthew 3). “A spiritual epitome of all history (Wordsworth); the godly “meditate in the law of the Lord,” the ungodly “meditate a vain thing” ( Psalm 1:2; 2:1). The five dosing the psalter begin and end with “hallelujah.” The principle of arrangement is not: wholly chronological, though David’s book of psalms is first of the five, and the post captivity book of psalms last; for Moses’ psalm (Psalm 90), the oldest of all, begins the fourth book, and some of David’s psalms are in the fifth. Also the songs of degrees, i.e. ascents of the pilgrims to the three national feasts at Jerusalem, though written at different times, form one group. Spiritual affinity and the relation to one another and to the whole modify the chronological arrangement. The arrangement in some instances is so significant as to indicate, it to be the work of the Spirit, not of the collector merely. Thus, Psalm 22 portrays Messiah’s death scene, Psalm 23. His rest in paradise, Psalm 24. His ascension ( Acts 2:25-27,37). “At the time the Psalms were written” they were not of such use to those among whom they were written as they are to us, for they were written to prophesy the New Testament among those who lived under the Old Testament” (Augustine on Psalm 101; 1 Peter 1:10-12.) The one great theme ultimately meant is Christ, the antitypical David, in respect to His inner life as the Godman, and in His past, present, and future relations to the church and the world ( Luke 24:25,27,45,46).

    The Psalter rightly holds the middle place of the Bible, being the heart of both Old Testament and New Testament Other scriptures of the Old Testament have corresponding scriptures in the New Testament The Pentateuch and Old Testament histories answer to the Gospels and Acts; Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the prophets to the epistles; the Song of Solomon and Daniel to Revelation. The Psalms alone have no counterpart in the New Testament, except the songs of the Virgin, Zacharias and Simeon (Luke 1; 2), because the psalter belongs to both Testaments alike, being “the hymnbook of the universal church” (Wordsworth). There is scarcely a place in the Psalms where the voices of Christ and the church are not to be found (Augustine on Psalm 59). Christ’s sufferings and conflict, ending in His reign, appear most in Books I, II; Israel’s prostration in Book III; the fruits of His victory, the Lord s reign, and Israel’s restoration after her past pilgrim state, in Book IV; the songs of degrees, i.e. the church’s pilgrim ascents below, “coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved,” and her everlasting hallelujahs, in Book V.

    AUTHORS: David composed 80 of the Psalms, Asaph wrote four, singers of his school (see below) penned eight, the sons of Korah of David’s and Solomon’s times seven, Solomon two. To see JEHOSHAPHAT ’S time belong Psalm 47; Psalm 48; Psalm 83. The occasion of Psalm 47 was his bloodless victory over Moab, Ammon, Edom, and the Arabians, who combined to drive Judah out of their “inheritance” ( Psalm 47:4; Chronicles 20:11). The title ascribes the psalm to “the sons of Korah,” just as in 2 Chronicles 20:19 the Korahites are in front of the Jews’ army “to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high”; so Psalm 47:5 answers to 2 Chronicles 20:26. Psalm 47 was perhaps sung in the valley of Bernehah (blessing); Psalm 48 in the temple service on their return (compare Psalm 47:9). As Jehoshaphat was “in the fore front” of the returning people ( 2 Chronicles 20:27), so “Jehovah with the sound of a trumpet went up” to His earthly temple ( Psalm 47:5). So “the fear of God was on all the kingdoms” ( Psalm 47:8,9; compare 2 Chronicles 20:28,29). The breaking of Jehoshaphat’s Tarshish ships is alluded to Psalm 48:7, his ungodly alliance being as great a danger from within as the hostile invasion from without; both alike the grace of God averted. (See JAHAZIEL and see BERACHAH .) To the time of the overthrow of Sennacherib’s host under see HEZEKIAH belong Psalm 46; Psalm 75; Psalm 76; Psalm 87. To the time of the carrying away of Israel’s ten tribes belong Psalm 77; Psalm 80; Psalm 81. Judah intercedes with God for her captive sister; “of Asaph” in the title may mean only that one of his school wrote under his name as the master of the school. The remaining 46, except Moses’ Psalm 90, were written just before, during, and after the Babylonian captivity. As the psalms took their rise in the religious awakening under David, so the long times of growing declension subsequently were barren of additions to the psalter. The only times of such additions were those of religious revivals, namely, under Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah (to whose reign probably belong Psalm 77; Psalm 92; Psalm 100; this series has the common theme, Jehovah’s manifestation for His people’s comfort and their foes’ confusion). The captivity taught the people a bitter but wholesome lesson; then accordingly psalmody revived.

    After the last new song sung to the Lord at the completion of the city walls under Nehemiah, no new psalm was composed under inspiration. The written word thenceforth took the place of the inspired speakers of prophecy and song.

    David gave the tone to all the succeeding psalms, so that, in a sense, he is their author. Recognition of God’s retributive righteousness as a preservative against despair (in undesigned coincidence with the history, 1 Samuel 30:6), and the sudden interposition of divine consolation amidst sorrowful complaints, are characteristic of his psalms. They are more elevated, and abound in rare forms, from whence arises their greater difficulty. He first introduced the alphabetical arrangement; also the grouping of verses with reference to numbers, and the significancy of the recurrence of the names of God; also the combining of psalms in pairs, and in larger cycles. The divine promise to his line in 2 Samuel 7 forms the basis of many of his Messianic prophecies, as Psalm 138--145; compare with <19E001> Psalm 140:1; 2 Samuel 22:49. Wordsworth suggests Psalm and Psalm 71, at the close of Books I and II respectively, were written at the time of Adonijah’s, Joab’s, and Abiathar’s conspiracy when David was old and languishing, yet “in the strength of the Lord God” enabled to rise afresh in the person of Solomon his son, whose throne in Messiah is to be everlasting, as Psalm 72 sets forth. Of Asaph’s psalms, four are composed by David’s chief musician: Psalm 50; Psalm 73; Psalm 78 (warning Ephraim not to rebel against God’s transfer of their prerogative to Zion and Judah), Psalm 82; a didactic and prophetic character marks them all.

    Eight others (Psalm 74--77; Psalm 79--81; Psalm 83), marked by his name, belong to singers in later times, who regarded him as their founder, just as the sons (followers) of Korah regarded Korah. The Hebrew [le-] before a name in the title designates the author. Psalm 74:8 answers to Jeremiah 52:13,17; the psalmist was probably one of the few Jews left by the Chaldaeans “in the land.” So also Psalm 79:1 alludes to the temple’s “defilement” by the Chaldees ( Jeremiah 10:25 quotes Psalm 79:6). The psalms of the sons of Korah are fourteen, of which seven belong to David’s and Solomon’s times, and seven to later times. Psalm 42; Psalm 43; Psalm 84; Psalm 86 (according to Hengstenberg, as occurring in the midst of Korahitic psalms though superscribed with David’s name), refer to Absaiom’s rebellion; Psalm 44 on the invasion of the Edomites ( Samuel 8:13; 1 Chronicles 18:12; 1 Kings 11:15,16); Psalm 49 of general import; Psalm 45 on King Messiah’s marriage to Israel and the church, in Solomon’s time; Psalm 47; Psalm 48; Psalm 83, in Jehoshaphat’s time; Psalm 46; Psalm 87, refer to Sennacherib’s host overthrown before Jerusalem, in Hezekiah’s reign; Psalm 85; Psalm 88; Psalm 89, before the Babylonian captivity. Neither Heman nor the sons of Heman are named in the superscriptions, but the sons of Korah; perhaps because Heman, though musical and head of the Korahitic singers, was not also poetically gifted as was Asaph; Psalm 88, is gloom throughout, yet the title calls it (shir ) a “song” of joy; this can only refer to Psalm 89 which follows being paired with it; it was when the “anointed” of David’s throne (Josiah) had his “crown profaned on the ground,” being not able to” stand in the battle” ( Psalm 89:43), and his son Jehoahaz after a three months’ reign was carried to Egypt by Pharaoh Necho ( 2 Chronicles 35:20-25, 36:1-4; Psalm 89:45); the title, “to the chief musician,” shows the temple was standing, Josiah had just before caused a religious revival.

    NUMBERS IN ARRANGEMENT. The decalogue has its form determined by number; also the genealogy in Matthew; so the Lord’s prayer, and especially the structure of the Apocalypse. So Isaiah 1 represents Israel’s revolt in seven, divided into three and four, the four for the sinfulness, and the three for the revolt. And Isaiah 52:13--53:12: the introduction three verses ( Isaiah 52:13-15) with the concluding two verses ( Isaiah 53:11,12) making up five, the half; the main part comprises ten ( Isaiah 53:1-10), divided into seven for Messiah’s humiliation (three of which represent Messiah’s sufferings, four their cause, His being our substitute) and three for His glorification (Hengstenberg). Similarly, the form of the several psalms is regulated by numbers, especially seven divided into four and three. The correctness of our division into verses is hence confirmed.

    The criticism too which would dismember the psalms is proved at least in their case, and in that of whatever Scriptures are arranged by numbers, to be false.

    NAMES orGOD. A similar proof of the correctness of the text appears in the fact that theELOHIM psalms are peculiar to the first three books, those of David, Asaph, and the sons of Korah. So strange had “ELOHIM ” become in later times that only the Jehovah psalms of David were inserted in the later books, excepting David’s Psalm 108 introductory to Psalm and Psalm 110. The three form a trilogy: Psalm 108 anticipating triumph over the foe, Psalm 109 the foe’s condemnation, Psalm 110 Messiah’s divine kingly and priestly glory. In the fifth book Elohim occurs only seven times, i.e. six times in Psalm 108 and once in David’s Psalm 144. It is an undesigned coincidence and proof of genuineness that in independent sacred history David uses Elohim as a favorite term (2 Samuel 7; Chronicles 28:20; 29:1). In Book I “Jehovah” occurs 272 times, Elohim times; in Book II, Elohim 164 times, Jehovah 30 times; in Book III, Jehovah 44 times, Elohim 43 times; in Book IV, Jehovah 103 times, Elohim, not once; in Book V, Jehovah 236 times, Elohim 7 times.

    Hengstenberg suggests the reason of David’s predilection for “Elohim.”

    The pagan regarded Jehovah as designating the local God of Israel, but not God absolutely, possessing the whole fullness of the Godhead. So David felt it unnecessary to express “Jehovah,” because He was unquestionably Israel’s God; it was only contested whether He was Elohim. David boldly, in the face of mighty nations, asserts the nullity of their gods and the sole Godhead of Jehovah; compare Psalm 18:31, “who is Elohim but Jehovah?” Jehovah is understood before Elohim in Elohim psalms, as the doxology at the end of the second book recognizes, “blessed be Jehovah Elohim” ( Psalm 72:18). Latterly when the falsely called Elohim of surrounding nations began to be honoured in Israel the term gave place to Jehovah for expressing the true God. Psalm 18 is “a great hallelujah, with which David retires from tide theater of life.”

    I. The first book (Psalm 1--41) the Davidic-Jehovah psalms.

    II. The second book (Psalm 42--72) the Elohim psalms; namely, of David’s singers, the sons of Korah (Psalm 42--49), Asaph’s (Psalm 1.), then David’s Elohim psalms (Psalm 51--71), Solomon’s Elohim psalm (Psalm 72).

    III. Psalm 73--89, the Jehovah psalms of David’s singers; of Asaph (Psalm 73; Psalm 83), of the sons of Korah (Psalm 84--89). Thus in the arrangement the Jehovah psalms (Jehovah being the fundamental name) enclose the Elohim psalms; so the first book doxology begins with Jehovah; the second has, let Jehovah Elohim be praised; the third, let Jehovah be praised.

    IV. ( Psalm 90--106.) The psalms of David in the last two books are inserted as component parts into the later cycles. The subscription, Psalm 72:20, “the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended,” distinguishes the detached from the serial psalms of David; so Job 31:40 is not contradicted by his again speaking in Job 40; Job 42. Moses’ Psalm 90 is put after David’s and his singers’ psalms, because David was so preeminent as the sweet psalmist of Israel. Psalm 91--100 are connected. Then follows David’s trilogy, Psalm 101--103, and the trilogy of the captivity (Psalm 104--106).

    V. Psalm 107--150 are (excepting David’s psalms incorporated) after the return from the captivity. The dodecad Psalm 108--119, is composed of a trilogy of David introducing nine psalms sung at laying the foundation of the second temple. Psalm 119 is the sermon (composed by see EZRA ) after the Hallel, to urge Israel to regard God’s word as her national safeguard. Psalm 120--134, the pilgrim songs (“songs of degrees”), namely, four psalms of David, one of Solomon, and ten nameless ones, are appropriate to the time of the interruption of the temple building. Psalm 135--146 (including David’s psalms incorporated with the rest) celebrate its happy completion. Psalm 147--150 were sung at the consecration of the city walls under Nehemiah.

    J. F. Thrupp (Smith’s Bible Dictionary) maintains that as Psalm 73--83 do not all proceed from Asaph, but from members of the choir which he founded, so the psalms in Books III, IV, V, inscribed with the name of David, were written by his royal representatives for the time being (Hezekiah, Josiah, Zerubbabel, etc.), who prefer honouring the name of their ancestor to obtruding their own names. But why then should one of the psalms in question be inscribed with” Solomon” rather than David? The psalms accord with David’s circumstances; their containing phrases of David’s former psalms is not inconsistent with his authorship, as the sacred authors often repeat their own inspired words. The Chaldaisms of Psalm 139 are due to David’s adapting uncommon phrases to a lofty theme.

    In 2 Maccabees the collection of David’s psalms is attributed to Nehemiah.

    Jerome, Ep. ad Sophronium, and the Synopsis in Athanasius, ascribe the collection to Ezra, “the priest and ready scribe in the law of Moses” ( Ezra 7:6; Nehemiah 8:9). (On see SHIGGAION , etc., see the words as they occur.) Finally, if we would “taste the honey of God” we must “have the palate of faith.” “Attune thy heart to the psalm. If the psalm prays, pray thou; if it mourns, mourn thou; if it hopes, hope thou; if it fears, fear thou. Everything, in the psalter, is the looking glass of the soul” (Augustine on Psalm 96 and Psalm 30). The heart, the lips, and the life must be in accord with the psalm, to derive the full blessing. “Vita sic canta, ut nunquam sileas.” (Augustine on Psalm 146) PSALTERY A stringed instrument played by the hand to accompany the voice, Hebrew nebel . In Psalm 33:2 omit “and,” translated “sing with the psaltery an instrument of ten strings.” Josephus (Ant. 7:12, sec. 3) mentions that ordinarily it had 12 strings; nebel means literally, a leather bottle, the psaltery was named so from its shape ( Psalm 92:3, 144:9). The king, or, “lyre,” had ten strings, but was played with a quill, not with the hand.

    PTOLEMAIS OriginallyACCHO; the old name is resumed, Jean, d’Acre. Paul visited the Christians there on his return from his third missionary journey, between Tyre and Caesarea ( Acts 21:3,7,8).

    PUA; PHUVA 1. Numbers 26:23: father ofTOLA, the judge ( Judges 10:1). (See PUNITES , Pua’s descendants.) 2. 1 Chronicles 7:1. 3. (See MIDWIVES .)

    PUBLICAN Only mentioned in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Matthew leaves the parable of the publican to Luke ( Luke 18:9), because he is the publican from whom it is drawn. In the New Testament are meant not the “publicani” (never mentioned in the New Testament) who were generally wealthy Roman knights, capitalists at Rome, that bought for a fixed sum to be paid into the treasury (in publicum) the taxes and customs of particular provinces. Under them were “chiefs of publicans,” having supervision of a district, as Zacchaeus (Luke 19), in the provinces; and under these again the ordinary “publicans” (in the New Testament sense) who, like Levi or Matthew, gathered the customs on exports and imports and taxes ( Matthew 9:9,10,11; Mark 2:14, etc.). The office for “receipt of custom” was at city gates, on public roads, or bridges. Levi’s post was on the great road between Damascus and the seaports of Phoenicia. Jericho, Zacchaeus’ head quarters, was center of the balsam trade. Jesus, preferring a publican’s house to that of any of the priests at Jericho, then said to number 12,000, marks the honour He does to Zacchaeus and drew on Him the indignation of Jewish bigots. Even the chief publican, Zacchaeus implies, often “took from men by false accusation” (esukofanteesa , rather “unfairly exacted,” “extorted”); Luke 3:13 also, John the Baptist’s charge “exact no more than that which is appointed you.” Still more odious to the Jews was the common publican, with whom most they came in contact. Inquisitorial proceedings and unscrupulous extortion in a conquered country made the office, hateful already as the badge of God’s elect nation’s subjection to pagan, still more so. Most Jews thought it unlawful to pay tribute to pagan. To crown all, the publicans were often Jews, in the eyes of their countrymen traitors to Israel’s high calling and hopes; to be spoiled by foreigners was bad, but to be plundered by their own countrymen was far worse. Publican became synonymous with “sinner” and “pagan” ( Luke 15:1,2; Matthew 18:17; 5:46; 21:31; Mark 2:15,16). The hatred and contempt in which they were held hardened them against all better feelings, so that, they defied public opinion. As the Pharisees were the respectable and outwardly religious class, so the publicans were the vile and degraded. Hence the rabbis declared, as one robber disgraced his whole family, so one publican in a family; promises were not to be kept with murderers, thieves and publicans (Nedar 3:4); the synagogue alms box and the temple corban must not receive their alms (Baba Kama 10:1); it was not lawful to use riches received from them, as gotten by rapine; nor could they judge or give testimony in court (Sauhedr. 25, sec. 2). Hence we see what a breach of Jewish notions was the Lord’s eating with them ( Matthew 9:11), and His choice of Matthew as an apostle, and His parable in which He justified the penitent self condemned publican and condemned the self satisfied Pharisee. They were at least no hypocrites. Abhorred by all others, it was a new thing to them to find a Holy One “a friend of publicans” ( Matthew 11:19).

    PUBLIUS Chief (“first,” Greek) man of Melita; “lodged courteously for three days” Paul when shipwrecked ( Acts 28:7). His hospitality to Christ’s servant was rewarded (compare Hebrews 13:2) in the cure of his father’s bloody flux by Paul. The designation (Greek) “first of the island” could not have been from his “possessions” in his father’s lifetime. Two inscriptions at Civita Vecchia in Malta mention the official title, “first of the Meliteans”; thus Publius was legate of the printer of Sicily, to whose jurisdiction Malta belonged.

    PUDENS (See CLAUDIA ). 2 Timothy 4:21. (Martial 11:54; Tacitus, Ann. 13:21; Agricola 14.)

    PUHITES 1 Chronicles 2:53, of the families of Kirjath Jearim.

    PUL (1) Isaiah 66:19. Philae, an island in the Nile, the border between Egypt and Ethiopia (Bochart). Septuagint read [Phud]. see PHUT ought to be read for Pal; compare Nahum 3:9. An African people is meant by Isaiah ( Ezekiel 27:10; 30:5).

    PUL (2) (See ASSYRIA ). The first Assyrian king mentioned in Scripture. When Menahem neglected to apply for “confirmation in his kingdom,” on ascending the throne of Israel, to the Assyrian king, his lord paramount (for the black obelisk shows that Jehu paid tribute to Shalmaneser as early as 884 B.C.), Pul came against the land ( 2 Kings 15:19,20; Chronicles 5:26). Menahem’s smiting Tiphsah (verse 16) or Thapsacus was a direct attack on the Assyrian dominion W. of the Euphrates. With 1,000 talents of silver he induced Pul “to confirm the kingdom in his hand.” Pul’s wife was the famous Semiramis of Babylon (Herodot. 1:184). Assyrian records make no mention of Pul; but Berosus mentions Pul a Chaldoean king exactly at this time, while Assbur-lush was reigning at Nineveh. The Jews called him “king of Assyria,” that being the dominant empire at the time; so Nabopolassar of Babylon is called “king of Assyria,” ( 2 Kings 23:29), and Darius Hystaspes Ezra 6:22. Moreover, just about 763 B.C. some western Assyrian provinces had been broken off and joined to the Babylonian king’s empire. He being thus master of the Assyrian portion next Palestine appeared to the Jews to be “king of Assyria,” about 763-760 B.C. Some identify Pul with Phulukh, mentioned in a Nimrud inscription (compare Septuagint for PHI). Schrader and G. Smith regard Pul as the Babylonian name of Taglath Pileser, and as the “Porus” in the astronomical canon who began to reign at Babylon 781 B.C., the very year in which the cuneiform records date Taglath Pileser’s overthrow of Chinzir king of Babylon, whom the canon makes the immediate predecessor of Porus (a name identical with Pal). The last year of Porus in the cuneiform canon of kings is also the last year of Taglath Pileser.

    PULSE Daniel 1:12,16, zeronim , edible “seeds” or grain of any kind, barley, wheat, millet, vetches. Leguminous seeds roasted are still used in the East (compare 2 Samuel 17:28). Gesenius explains “vegetables grown from seeks, in general.”

    PUNISHMENTS (See CROSS , etc.) Death was the punishment of striking or even reviling a parent ( Exodus 21:15,17); blasphemy ( Leviticus 24:14,16,23); Sabbath-breaking ( Numbers 15:32-36); witchcraft ( Exodus 22:18); adultery ( Leviticus 20:10); rape ( Deuteronomy 22:25); incestuous and unnatural connection ( Leviticus 20:11,14,16); man stealing ( Exodus 21:16); idolatry ( Leviticus 20:2). “Cutting off from the people” is ipso facto excommunication or outlawry, forfeiture of the privileges of the covenant people ( Leviticus 18:29). The hand of God executed the sentence in some cases ( Genesis 17:14; Leviticus 23:30; 20:3,6; Numbers 4:15,18,20). Capital punishments were stoning ( Exodus 17:4); burning ( Leviticus 20:14); the sword ( Exodus 32:27); and strangulation, not in Scripture, but in rabbinical writings. The command ( Numbers 25:4,5) was that the Baal-peor sinners should be slain first, then impaled or nailed to crosses; the Hebrew there (hoqa ) means dislocated, and is different from that in Deuteronomy 21:22 (thalitha toli ), Deuteronomy 21:23. The hanged were accounted accursed; so were buried at evening, as the hanging body defiled the land; so Christ ( Galatians 3:13). The malefactor was to be removed by burial from off the face of the earth speedily, that the curse might be removed off the land ( Leviticus 18:25,28; 2 Samuel 21:6,9). Punishments not ordained by law: sawing asunder, and cutting with iron harrows (Isaiah, Hebrews 11:37; Ammon, in retaliation for their cruelties, 2 Samuel 12:31; 1 Samuel 11:2); pounding in a mortar ( Proverbs 27:22); precipitation ( Luke 4:29; 2 Chronicles 25:12); stripes,40 only allowed ( Deuteronomy 25:3), the Jews therefore gave only 39; the convict received the stripes from a three-thonged whip, stripped to the waist, in a bent position, tied to a pillar; if the executioner exceeded the number he was punished, a minute accuracy observed in 2 Corinthians 11:24. The Abyssinians use the same number (Wolff, Travels, 2:276).

    Heaps of stones were flung upon the graves of executed criminals ( Joshua 15:25,26; 2 Samuel 18:17); to this day stones are flung on Absalom’s supposed tomb. Outside the city gates ( Jeremiah 22:19; Hebrews 13:12). Punishment in kind (lex talionis) was a common principle ( Exodus 21:24,25). Also compensation, restitution of the thing or its equivalent ( Exodus 21:18-36). Slander of a wife’s honour was punished by fine and stripes ( Deuteronomy 22:18,19).

    PUNITES One of the four families of the tribe of Issachar ( Numbers 26:23; <130701> Chronicles 7:1), whose combined numbers in the Mosaic census were 64,300.

    PUNON; PINON Genesis 36:41. An Edomite ducal city; the Phoeno of Eusebius and Jerome, the penal abode of convicts sent to labour in the neighbouring copper mines. The Septuagint have Finon . Between Petra and Zoar, probably near the Roman road between them. Seetzen heard of a ruined castle, Fenan (3:17). Phoeno probably lay E. of, not within, Edom; as the Roman road is much to the right of the direct line of march. Punon may coincide with Kala’at Aneizeh, between el Ahsa (Oboth) and Ma’an ( Numbers 33:42). Israel’s second last stage before reaching the plains of Moab.

    PURIFICATION The outward purification with water, symbolizing man’s need of inward purity before admission into God’s presence. (See LEPER ; see PRIEST ; see BIRTH ; see NAZARITE : Leviticus 11:25,40; 12:6,8,15; Luke 2:22-24; Numbers 19; 31. See HEIFER , see RED : Hebrews 9:13.) The rabbis multiplied unauthorized purifications, e.g. cups, pots, couches. etc. ( Mark 7:3; John 2:6.)

    PURIM (See ESTHER .) From a Persian word, “lots”; because Haman had east lots to find an auspicious day for destroying the Jews ( Esther 3:6,7; 9:24).

    The feast of Purim was kept on the 14th and 15th days of Adar. An introductory fast was subsequently appointed on the 13th, commemorating that of Esther and of the Jews by her desire before she ventured into Abasuerus’ presence ( Esther 4:16). When the stars appear at the beginning of the 14th candles are lighted in joy, and the people assemble in the synagogue. Then the megillah “roll” of Esther is read through histrionically. On Haman’s name being mentioned the congregation exclaim, “let his name be blotted out!” His sons’ names are read in one enunciation to mark they were all hanged at once. At the close of reading the megallah all cry out, “cursed be Haman, blessed be Mordecai; cursed be Zeresh (Haman’s wife), blessed be Esther; cursed be all idolaters, blessed be all Israelites, and blessed be Harbonah who hanged Haman!”

    The repast at home is mainly milk and eggs. At morning service Exodus 17:8-16, the doom of Amalek the people of Agag ( 1 Samuel 15:8), Haman’s ancestor ( Esther 3:1), is read. Saturnalian-like drinking and acting, the men assuming women’s attire (the Purim suspending the prohibition, Deuteronomy 22:5), and offerings for the poor, characterize the feast ( Esther 9:17,18,19-32). The feast began among the Jews of their own accord; Mordecai wrote confirming it, and Esther joined with him in “writing with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purlin.” (See JESUS CHRIST on “the feast of the Jews,” John 5:1, not probably Purim (which the Vaticanus and the Alexandrinus manuscripts reading, “a,” favors), but the Passover (which the Sinaiticus manuscript, “the,” indicates).)

    PURPLE argan . Obtained by the Tyrians from the shell fish Murex purpura, and conchylium ( Exodus 25:4; 35:25; Judges 8:26; Proverbs 31:22).

    PURSE Often the girdle (zoonee ): Matthew 10:9; Mark 6:8. Or a bag for money, and for merchants’ weights ( Genesis 42:35; Proverbs 1:14; Isaiah 46:6; John 12:6, glossokomon , literally, a bag for carrying mouthpieces of musical instruments).

    PUTEOLI The port of Italy to which ships from Egypt and the Levant commonly sailed (Josephus, Ant. 18:7, section 4; so Acts 28:13). The bay of Naples was then named from it, sinus Puteolanus. A cross road led thence to Capua, there joining the Appian Way to Rome. Sixteen piers of the harbour mole, formed of the concrete pozzolana, remain. Puteoli was at the E. of the bay, Baiae at the W. Puteoli comes from puteus a “well,” or puteo, “to smell strong,” from the offensively smelling mineral springs.

    PUTIEL Exodus 6:25. An Egyptian name, “devoted to El.” Father in law of Eleazar the priest.

    PYGARG dishon . A clean animal ( Deuteronomy 14:5). A generic name for the white rumped (as pugarg means in Greek) antelope of northern Africa and Syria. The Septuagint has translated the Hebrew by “pygarg”; living near the habitat of the pygarg they were likely to know. The mohr kind is best known, 2 ft. 8 in. high at the croup. The tail is long, with a long black tuft at the end; the whole part round the base of the tail is white, contrasting with the deep brown red of the flanks. Conder (Palestine Exploration, July, 1876) makes it the gazelle.

    Q QUAIL celaw . The Arabic name is similar, which identifies the quail as meant.

    Twice miraculously supplied to Israel ( Exodus 16:13; Numbers 11:31,32). <19A540> Psalm 105:40 connects the quail with the manna, and therefore refers to Exodus 16:13, the first sending of quails, the psalm moreover referring to God’s acts of grace. Psalm 78:27,31, refers to the second sending of quails (Numbers 11) in chastisement ( <19A614> Psalm 106:14,15). The S.E. wind blew them from the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea. Translated “threw them over the camp ... about two cubits above the face of the ground.” Wearied with their long flight they flew breast high, and were easily secured by the Israelites. They habitually fly low, and with the wind. The least gatherer got ten homers’ (the largest Hebrew measure of quantity) full; and “they spread them all abroad for themselves” to salt and dry (Herodotus ii. 77). “Ere the flesh was consumed” (so Hebrew) God’s wrath smote them. Eating birds’ flesh continually, after long abstinence from flesh, a whole month greedily, in a hot climate predisposed them by surfeit to sickness; God miraculously intensified this into a plague, and the place became see KIBROTH see HATTAAVAH , “the graves of lust.” The red legged crane’s flesh is nauseous, and is not therefore likely to be meant. “At even” the quails began to arrive; so Tristram noticed their arrival from the S. at night in northern Algeria two successive years.

    Ornithologists designate the quail the Coturnix dactylisonans (from its shrill piping cry).

    QUARTUS A Christian at Corinth whose salutations Paul sends to the Roman Christians ( Romans 16:23).

    QUATERNION A guard of four soldiers, two attached to the prisoner, two outside his cell door. Four quaternions took by turns the guard over Peter for the four night watches ( Acts 12:4).

    QUEEN malkah “queen regnant” ( 1 Kings 10:1; Daniel 5:10; Esther 1:9); sheegal “the queen consort” ( Psalm 45:9; Daniel 5:2,3); gebirah “powerful mistress,” “the queen mother.” Polygamy, lessened the influence of the kings wives, whose hold on his affections was shared by others and was at best precarious; but the queen mother enjoyed a fixed position of dignity. So Bathsheba ( 1 Kings 2:19, etc.); Maachah ( 1 Kings 15:13); 2 Kings 10:13, Jezebel; Jehoiachin’s mother ( 2 Kings 24:12; Jeremiah 13:18; 29:2).

    QUEEN OF HEAVEN Astarte (see ASHTORETH ) ( Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-25). Wife of Baal or Moloch, “king of heaven.” The male and female pair symbolized nature’s generative powers, from whence prostitution was practiced in her worship.

    The worshippers stoutly refused to give up her worship, attributing their recent deprival of plenty to discontinuing her service, and their former plenty to her service. God makes fools’ present prosperity their doom ( Proverbs 1:32) and does good to His people in their latter end ( Deuteronomy 8:16). In Jeremiah 44:19 Maurer translated “did we form her image.” Crescent-shaped cakes were offered to the moon. Beltis, the female of Bel or Baal, was the Babylonian “queen of heaven.” Ishtar the Babylonian Venus (in the Sardanapalus inscriptions) was also “the mistress of heaven and earth.” Babylon, Israel’s instrument of sin, was in righteous retribution made Israel’s punishment ( Jeremiah 2:19).

    QUICKSANDS The Syrtis, in the sea off the N. African coast between Carthage and Cyrene. (See CLAUDA , see EUROCLYDON , see MELITA , see PAUL ). Acts 27:17, for “strake sail” (which would have hurried them into the danger), translated “they lowered the gear” (chalasantes to skeuos ), i.e., afraid of falling into the Syrtis with the storm from the N.E., they took down the higher sail and kept only the storm sail set, turning the ship’s head off shore and standing on as best they could. There were two Syrtes; the eastern one the gulf of Sidra, the western one, smaller, the gulf of Cabes.

    QUIVER (1) Teli , from a root “to hang,” either the quiver for holding arrows or a sword hung by the side. (2) Ashpah ; covering the arrows, as our quiver is from cover. Slung at the back when not being used, by a belt; when in use brought in front.

    R RAAMAH A Cushite race. Called son of Cush ( Genesis 10:7; Septuagint translated Rhegma the same as that in Ptolemy 6:7, S. of the Persian gulf). Sheba and Dedan are Raamah’s sons ( Ezekiel 27:22). His locality must therefore be southern Arabia. Renowned as traders with Tyre and other peoples ( Ezekiel 27:22).

    RAAMIAH (whom Jehovah makes to tremble) ( Nehemiah 7:7). Reeliah in Ezra 2:2.

    RABBAH Meaning greatness of size or numbers. 1. see AMMON ’S chief city, its only city named in Scripture, in contrast to the more civilized Moab’s numerous cities ( Deuteronomy 3:11; Samuel 12:26; 17:27; Jeremiah 49:2; Ezekiel 21:20). Conjectured to be the Ham of the Zuzim ( Genesis 14:5). After Hanun’s insult Abishai and Joab defeated the allies Ammon and the Syrians of Bethrehob, Zoba, Ishtob, and Maachah (2 Samuel 10). The following year David in person defeated the Syrians at Helam. Next, Joab with the whole army and the king’s bodyguard (including Uriah: 2 Samuel 23:39) besieged Ammon (2 Samuel 11; 1 Chronicles 19; 20). The ark apparently accompanied the camp ( 2 Samuel 11:11), a rare occurrence ( 1 Samuel 4:3-6); but perhaps what is meant is only that the ark at Jerusalem was “in a tent” ( 2 Samuel 7:2,6) as was the army at Rabbah under Jehovah the Lord of the ark, therefore Uriah would not go home to his house. The siege lasted nearly two years, from David’s first connection with Bathsheba to the birth of Solomon. The Ammonites made unsuccessful sallies ( 2 Samuel 11:17). Joab finally took the lower town, which, from the stream rising in it and flowing through it perennially, is called “the city of waters,” and from the king’s palace “the royal city.” Then in a characteristic speech, half jest half earnest ( 2 Samuel 12:28, compare 2 Samuel 19:6,7), which shows the power he had gained over David through David’s secret and wicked commission ( 2 Samuel 11:14,15), he invited David to crown the capture by taking the citadel lest if he (Joab) took it, it should be called after his name. Josephus (Ant. 7:7, section 5) says the fortress had but one well, inadequate to supply the wants of its crowded occupants. (On its capture by David, and his putting the people under saws and harrows to cut them in pieces in retaliation for their cruelties, see DAVID , also Judges 1:7; 1 Samuel 11:2). Amos ( Amos 1:14) speaks of its “wall” and “palaces” and “king” (perhaps Moloch) about to be judged by God. So also Jeremiah 49:2,3. Nebuchadnezzar attacked Ammon because of Baalis their king having instigated Ishmael to slay Gedaliah the Chaldaean governor ( Jeremiah 40:14). See 1 Macc. 5:6 as to subsequent judgments on Ammon. Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 21:20) depicts Nebuchadnezzar’s divination to decide whether he should attack Jerusalem or Rabbah the first. Jerusalem’s fall should be followed by that of Rabbah (compare Josephus, Ant. 10:9, section 7).

    Under the Ptolemies Rabbah still continued of importance as supplying water for the journey across the desert, and was made a garrison for repelling the Bedouins of that quarter. Ptolemy Philadelphus named it Philadelphia. Josephus (B. J. 3:3, section 3) includes Rabbah in Decapolis.

    Now Amman, on a tributary (Moiet Amman) of the Zerka river (Jabbok), 19 miles S.E. of Es Salt (Ramoth Gilead), 22 E. of Jordan. Its temple, theater, and forum are remarkable ruins. Eight Corinthian columns of the theater (the largest known in Syria) remain. It has become as foretold “a stable for camels, a couching place for flocks a desolate heap” ( Ezekiel 25:5). Its coins bear the image of Astarte, and the word Heracleion from Hercules the idol which succeeded Moloch. The large square stones of the citadel are put together without cement, the massive walls are evidently very ancient. 2. Rabbah of Moab, called in the Bible Ar, in the highlands S.E. of the Dead Sea. 3. Rabbah of Judah, near Kirjath Jearim ( Joshua 15:60).

    RABBI =“great”. Simeon (identified by some with him who took the infant Jesus in his arms: Luke 2:25 ff) son of Hillel, shortly before Christ, was the first doctor of the law with the title Rabban (higher than Rabbi), Rabbi (higher than Rab). The disciples applied it to Christ ( Mark 9:5; 11:21; 14:45; John 1:38,50; 3:2; 4:31; 6:25; 9:2; 11:8; 13:13). Christ’s prohibition of the title to the disciples ( Matthew 23:7,8) is against using it in the spirit of exercising dominion over the faith of others. The triune God is the only “Father,” “Master” (katheegeetes , guide, Romans 2:19; contrast John 16:13), “Teacher” (didaskalos Vaticanus manuscript Matthew 23:8) in the highest sense; on Him alone can implicit trust be placed. All are “brethren “ before Him, none by office or precedence nearer to God than another. Rabboni ( John 20:16) is simply “Master,” the i final in John’s translated not meaning my, as it often does.

    RABBITH A town of Issachar ( Joshua 19:20).

    RABMAG Jeremiah 39:3,13. (See NERGAL see SHAREZER ). Probably Magis not = Magus or Magusu (the Magi) of the Behistun inscription; the Magi had no standing in Neriglissar’s time at Babylon. Emga means “priest,” so Rabmag is “chief priest.” The office was one of high dignity, and gave opportunities for gaining possession of the throne.

    RABSARIS 1. Sent by Sennacherib with Tartan and Rabshakeh against Jerusalem ( Kings 18:17). Meaning chief eunuch, often a minister of state or a commander in expeditions (margin, 2 Kings 25:19). 2. One of Nebuchadnezzar’s princes at the taking of Jerusalem under Zedekiah ( Jeremiah 39:3,13); probably a title of see NEBUSHASBAN , i.e. worshipper of Nebo.

    RABSHAKEH i.e. chief cupbearer (2 Kings 18--19; Isaiah 36--37). Sent by Sennacherib with Tartan who probably had chief command (first in 2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 20:1) of an army to induce Jerusalem by threats and promises to surrender. Spokesman for Tartan and Rabsaris. Possibly a Jewish deserter and apostate. This is favored by his familiarity with the Hebrew language, in which he addresses fluently (to the annoyance of Hezekiah’s officers sent to meet him) the Jews on the wall, and with Isaiah’s prophecy ( Isaiah 8:7,8; 10:5,6): “am I now come up without the Lord to destroy it? The Lord said, Go up against this land” ( 2 Kings 18:25). Isaiah ( Isaiah 33:14) alludes to traitors, “sinners in Zion,” “hypocrites.”

    Rabshakeh was a zealous pleader for his master, reckless of truth, glossing over the real miseries of deportation by Assyria ( Isaiah 36:16,17), pretending to have Jehovah on his side, yet classing Jehovah with the idols of other lands overthrown by Assyria ( Isaiah 36:18-20, liars need to have good memories), trying to rob the godly of their one only but sure trust in trouble, misrepresenting Hezekiah’s faithful act in removing forbidden high places to Jehovah, as though he thereby had dishonored and so forfeited the favor of Jehovah ( Isaiah 36:7), boasting of Assyria’s might, as if, because Judah could not supply 2,000 riders if even Assyria supplied the horses, it were impossible the Jews could repel one of the least of Assyria’s captains ( Isaiah 36:8,9); in filthy and blasphemous language he threatens to reduce them to eat their own excrement in the extremity of famine ( Isaiah 36:12; 2 Chronicles 32:11): a sample of the true nature of the pagan attack on Jerusalem, at once arrogant, blasphemous, and reckless of all decency.

    RACA Chaldee reeiqua, “worthless, vain man” ( James 2:20; Judges 9:4; 11:3). Expressing contempt of one as at once despicable and worthless; three degrees of angry bitterness, and of corresponding punishment, are described Matthew 5:22.

    RACHAL One of David’s haunts in southern Judah in his flight from Saul. To it in reward he sent a portion of the Amalekite spoil ( 1 Samuel 30:29).

    RACHEL (an ewe) (see JACOB and see BENJAMIN ) (Genesis 29--33; Genesis 35).

    Jacob’s first interview, courteous removal of the stone at the well’s mouth, emotion, and kissing her in the usual mode of salutation in pastoral life in the East in those days, are simply and graphically narrated; his love to her making his seven years’ service “seem but a few days”; the imposition of Leah upon him, his second term of service for her, and his receiving her in marriage. Even then disappointment followed in her childlessness at first; beauty and the grace of God do not always go together, “Rachel envied her sister” and said with unreasonable and impatient fretfulness, “Give me children, or else I die.” Jacob with just anger replied, “am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?” God took her at her word; she had Joseph, and in giving birth to Benjamin “died.” At Joseph’s birth she by his name (= adding) expressed her fond anticipation, “the Lord shall add to me another son” ( Genesis 30:24). In obtaining her wish, the greatest joy to her, she suffered her sharpest pang; Ben-oni’s (“son of her sorrow”) birth was her death. Her stealing her father’s images or see TERAPHIM , household gods in human form, used for divination ( Judges 17:5; 18:14,17,18,20; 1 Samuel 15:23; 2 Samuel 23:24; Ezekiel 21:21; Zechariah 10:2), and her dexterity and ready cunning in hiding them, mark a character that had learned much of her father’s duplicity. The old superstition from which Abraham had been called still lingered in the family ( Joshua 24:2,14). Not until Jacob reached Bethel did he bury the strange gods under the oak by Shechem. A little way from Ephrath, which is Bethlehem, Rachel died and was buried, and Jacob set a pillar on her grave. The patriarch on his death bed vividly recalls that tender, deep, and lasting sorrow ( Genesis 48:7). Though fretful, cunning, and superstitions, Rachel still worshipped Jehovah; and after she had complained to her husband, and received his reproof, she turned in prayer to God, for we read “God remembered Rachel, and hearkened to her, and opened her womb” (compare 1 Samuel 1:19). She had given up all her idols before the death stroke fell on her (Genesis 35), and, we may well believe, was prepared for her great change by the hallowing influences of God’s blessing on her husband and his seed immediately before, at Bethel. Moreover, Joseph, the only son over whom she exercised a mother’s influence, was from early years the choice one of the family; such a son must have had a mother not altogether dissimilar. Hers is the first instance recorded of death in childbirth, and her sepulchral pillar is the first on record in the Bible. Caves were the usual places of sepulcher ( Samuel 10:2). Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 31:15) says as to Nebuzaradan’s collecting the captive Jews at Ramah, previous to their removal to Babylon ( Jeremiah 40:1), “a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children ... refused to be comforted because they were not; thus saith the Lord, Refrain thy voice from weeping, for ... there is hope in thine end, that thy children shall come again to their own border.” Rachel, who pined so for children and died in bearing “the son of her sorrow,” and was buried in the neighborhood of Ramah (of Benjamin) and Bethlehem, is poetically represented as “weeping” for her Ephraimite sons carried off by the Chaldees. Matthew ( Matthew 2:17,18) quotes this as fulfilled in Herod’s massacre of the innocents. “A lesser, and a greater, event of different times may answer to the single sense of one scripture, until the prophecy be exhausted” (Bengel). Besides the reference to the Babylonian exile of Rachel’s sons, the Holy Spirit foreshadowed Messiah’s exile to Egypt, and the accompanying desolation caused near Rachel’s tomb by Herod’s massacre, to the grief of Benjamite mothers who had “sons of sorrow,” as Rachel’s son proved to her. Israel’s representative Messiah’s return from Egypt, and Israel’s (both the literal and the spiritual) future restoration (including the innocents) at His second advent, are antitypical to Israel’s restoration from Babylon, the consolation held out by Jeremiah. “They were not,” i.e. were dead ( Genesis 42:13), does not apply so strictly to the Babylonian exiles as it does to Messiah and His people, past, present, and future. “There is hope in thine end,” namely, when Rachel shall meet her murdered children at the resurrection of the saints bodily, and of Israel nationally (Ezekiel 37).

    Literally, “each was not,” i.e. each Bethlehemite mother had but one child to lament, as Herod’s limit, “two years old and under,” implies; a coincidence the more remarkable as not obvious. The singular too suits Messiah going to exile in Egypt, Rachel’s chief object of lamentation.

    Rachel’s tomb (Arabic Kubbit Rahil) is two and a half miles S. of Jerusalem, one mile and a half N. of Bethlehem; Muslims, Jews, and Christians agree as to the site. The tomb is a small square building of stone, with a dome, and within it a tomb, a modern building; in the seventh century A.D. there was only a pyramid of stones.

    RADDAI Fifth son of Jesse ( 1 Chronicles 2:14).

    RAGAU Luke 3:35. Ancestor of Jesus; = Reu, son of Peleg ( Genesis 9:19).

    RAGUEL; REUEL = “friend of God” 1. Prince priest of Midian; father of Zipporah, Moses’ wife, and of see JETHRO and see HOBAB ( Exodus 2:21; 3:1; Numbers 10:29). The older tradition, and the insecurity from Egyptian power which Moses would have been exposed to in the W. of the Elanitic gulf, favor the view that Raguel lived on the coast E. of the Elanitic gulf. 2. Genesis 36:4.

    RAHAB (1) Joshua 2; Joshua 6: The harlot of Jericho who received Joshua’s spies. She had a house of her own, separate from her father, mother, brothers, and sisters; perhaps a lodging convenient for travelers, being situated on the wall. The flax she spread on her roof and the scarlet line make it likely she manufactured linen and dyed, as did the Phoenicians; compare Joshua 7:21 the “Babylonian garment,” implying a trade in such articles with Mesopotamia. Jericho, near the fords of Jordan, would be an emporium between Phoenicia and Babylon and Egypt. Hence, Rahab knew the facts of the exodus, the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, and the overthrow of Sihon and Og. God made the truth bring the conviction to her mind that Israel would conquer Canaan, and that “Jehovah Israel’s God is God in heaven above and in earth beneath.” Faith induced her, at the risk of her life, to shelter the spies under the stalks of flax spread on the flat roof. Her deceiving the king of Jericho and saying they had “gone she knew not where” is not commended in Scripture, but only the faith which was the mainspring of her conduct. Scripture forbids a lie, or any “evil doing, that good may come” ( Romans 3:7,8). (See JAEL ). Next, she told them of the panic which Israel’s advance caused among her countrymen, and obtained from them the promise that when Israel took Jericho she and her father, mother, brethren, and sisters, and all of the household, should be saved; the scarlet line by which they were let down from her window in the wall was the pledge, placed in the window. By her counsel they hid three days in the mountains (Quarantana, abounding in caves, a wall of rock rising 1,200 ft. precipitously) bounding the Jericho plain on the N.; and when the pursuers had returned, and the Jordan fords were clear, they escaped back to Israel’s camp. Their tidings must have much encouraged the army. Joshua faithfully kept the promise to her at the destruction of Jericho, causing the two spies to bring out Rahab and all her kindred from her house, which was under the protection of the scarlet line.

    Salmon, then a youth, who married her, was probably one of the two whom she had saved, gratitude leading on to love and erasing the remembrance of her former life of shame. Her faith was richly rewarded, she becoming mother of Boaz ( Ruth 4:21), an ancestress of Messiah; one of the four women, all foreigners, Thamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, named in Matthew’s genealogy ( Matthew 1:5). In it “none of the holy women are included, only those whom the Scriptures blame, in order that He who came in behalf of sinners, being Himself born of sinners, might destroy the sins of all” (Jerome). Possibly the 345 “children of Jericho” were posterity of her kindred, settled in Israel ( Ezra 2:34; Nehemiah 3:2). Harlotry was not counted “sin” among the pagan, though not respectable; but when she adopted a pure faith she began a pure life. Believing knowledge of God’s purpose concerning Israel and Jericho made her renounce the lower duty, patriotism, for the higher one, piety; she could only have been faithful to her country by unfaithfulness to her God. She renounced the pollution of her country’s gods, with which her own harlotry may have been connected, to join Jehovah and His people.

    Her provision for her parents’ and relatives’ safety shows that self was not her sole consideration. Her hospitality to the spies was for their Lord’s sake ( Matthew 10:40-42). Hebrews 11:31: “by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that disobeyed not (apeitheesasin , God’s will manifested by miracles in Israel’s behalf) when she had received the spies in peace,” i.e. securing them from hurt. The season, as otherwise comes out, was four days before Passover, “on the tenth day of the first month,” barley harvest time, when Jordan periodically overflowed its banks. The flax harvest was simultaneous with barley harvest, it appears from Exodus 9:31. In undesigned coincidence with these casual notices, Rahab “hid the spies with the stalks of flax,” doubtless just cut down and spread on the roof of her house ( Joshua 2:6; 3:15; 4:19; 5:10,11).

    Paul quotes Rahab as exemplifying “faith”; James ( James 2:25) quotes Rahab as exemplifying justification by works evidentially. Therefore Paul’s justification by faith alone means a faith, not dead, but working by love ( Galatians 5:6). Again, Rahab’s act cannot prove justification by works as such, for she was a woman of bad character. But as an example of grace, justifying through an operative as opposed to mere verbal faith, none could be more suitable than the saved “harlot.” She believed, so as to act on her belief, what her countrymen disbelieved; and this in the face of every improbability that an unwarlike force would conquer a well armed one, far more numerous. She believed with the heart ( Romans 10:9,10), confessed with the mouth, and acted on her profession at the risk of her life. A woman of loose life, and a Gentile, is justified even as Abraham, the father of the Jews, the friend of God, was; showing that justifying, working faith manifests itself in every class. The nature of the works alleged, not works of charity and virtue, but works the value of which consists in their being proofs of faith, proves that James quotes them as evidences of faith, faith expressed in act. We are “justified by works” in the sense that we are justified by a faith which always works where it has the opportunity. The scarlet line typifies Jesus’ blood, that secures from wrath the Gentiles and even harlots and notorious sinners ( Matthew 21:31,32), within His church, even as the sprinkled blood of the paschal lamb secured Israel in their houses, and typified the same all-atoning blood. Rahab is an instance of the call of Gentiles anticipatory of that under the gospel.

    RAHAB (2) (“insolence”). A poetical name for Egypt ( Isaiah 51:9). In Isaiah 30:7 De Dieu translated “I called her Arrogance (Rahab) that sitteth still.”

    She who boasted of the help she would give, when put to the test, sat still ( Isaiah 36:6). Psalm 87:4,5; 89:10, “Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain.” Egypt is put foremost, as first of the great world powers that opposed God. She was reduced to corpse-like helplessness By God’s stroke at the Red Sea, and at the slaying of the firstborn previously. (compare Psalm 74:13,14). Rahab occurs in the Hebrew, Job 9:13; 26:12.

    RAHAM 1 Chronicles 2:44.

    RAIN (See PALESTINE : Climate). Matar . Geshem , violent rain or generically the early and latter rain ( Jeremiah 5:24; Joel 2:23). Yoreh , the early rain of autumn; malkosh , the latter rain of spring ( Proverbs 16:15; Job 29:23; Jeremiah 3:3; Hos 6:3; Zechariah 10:1). Rebibim , from rab “many,” from the multitude of drops; “showers” ( Deuteronomy 32:2). Zerem , “violent rain,” “hailstorm” ( Job 24:8). Sagrir only in Proverbs 27:15. As compared with Egypt, Palestine was a land of rain ( Deuteronomy 11:10,11), but for six months no rain falls so that “rain in harvest” and “thunder” were marvelous phenomena, and out of time and place ( Proverbs 26:1; 1 Samuel 12:16-18). The early rain begins gradually, the latter end of October or beginning of November. Generally from the W. or S.W. ( Luke 12:54); the wind then changes to the N. or E. At no period in the winter, from the end of October to the end of March, does rain entirely cease. In January and February snow falls, but lies only a short time. “The early rain” means the first autumnal showers which prepare the arid soil for the seed; “the latter rain” the later spring showers, especially in March, which Bring forward the crop toward harvest ( James 5:7; Proverbs 16:15). Showers fall occasionally in April and May. God claims as His peculiar prerogative the sending or withholding of rain, which He made dependent on the obedience or disobedience of Israel ( Leviticus 26:3-5,19; Deuteronomy 11:13-15; 28:23,24; Jeremiah 3:3; 5:24; 14:22). “The latter rain in the first (month)” in Joel 2:23 means in the month when first it is needed; or else, as Vulgate and Septuagint, “as at the first” (compare Isaiah 1:26; Hosea 2:15; Malachi 3:4); or in Nisan or Abib, the Passover month, the first, namely, the end of March and beginning of April. The departure of winter was marked by the cessation of rain (Song 2:11-13). Rain is the beautiful image of the Spirit’s refreshing influences in Messiah’s kingdom ( Hosea 6:3; 2 Samuel 23:4; Psalm 72:6).

    RAINBOW (See BOW ).

    RAKEM 1 Chronicles 7:16.

    RAKKATH A fortified town of Naphtali ( Joshua 19:35).

    RAKKON A town of Dan, not far from Joppa; Yerakon in Septuagint ( Joshua 19:46).

    RAM 1. Ruth 4:19; 1 Chronicles 2:9,10,25,27. Hezron’s second son, born in Egypt after Jacob settled there, for he is not mentioned in Genesis 46:4. In Matthew 1:3,4; Luke 3:33, Aram. 2. Job 32:2. Uz and Aram recur three times in the race of Shem ( Genesis 10:23; 22:2; 36:28).

    RAM, BATTERING Ezra 4:2; 21:22. A mound was usually raised, on which the ram was planted, to be on a level with the walls. The ram was sometimes fixed, or else joined to moveable wooden towers containing warriors. It was hung by a rope, whereby the men inside swung it forward and backward. The besieged by a double rope from the battlements tried to catch the ram, or else threw lighted torches on it.

    RAMA RAMAH = an elevated spot. 1. In Benjamin ( Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:18). The cry of the weeping mothers and of Rachel is poetically represented as heard as far as Rama, on the E. side of the N. road between Jerusalem and Bethel; Rama where Nebuzaradan gathered the captive Jews to take them to Babylon.

    Not far from Gibeah of Saul ( 1 Samuel 22:6; Hosea 5:8; Isaiah 10:28-32). Now Er Ram, five miles from Jerusalem ( Judges 4:5; 19:13; Joshua 18:25). There is an Er Ram one mile and a half E. of Bethlehem; but explain Jeremiah 31:15 as above. see BAASHA (see ASA ) fortified it, to prevent his subjects from going S. to Jerusalem to the great feasts, and so joining the kingdom of Judah ( 1 Kings 15:17-21; <141601> Chronicles 16:1-5). The coincidence is dear between Rama’s being built by Israel, its overthrow by Judah, and the emigration from Israel to Judah owing to Jeroboam’s idolatry ( 1 Kings 12:26; 2 Chronicles 11:14-17); yet the events are named separately, and their connection only inferred by comparison of distinct passages, a minute proof of genuineness. Its people returned after the captivity ( Ezra 2:26; Nehemiah 7:30). The Rama, Nehemiah 11:33, was further W. 2. The house of Elkanah, Samuel’s father ( 1 Samuel 1:19; 2:11).

    Samuel’s birthplace, residence, and place of burial. Here he built an altar to Jehovah ( 1 Samuel 7:17; 8:4; 15:34; 16:13; 19:18; 25:1; 28:3).

    Contracted from Ramathaim Zophim, in Mount Ephraim (which included under its name the northern parts of Benjamin, Bethel, and Ataroth: Chronicles 13:19; 15:8; Judges 4:5; 1 Samuel 1:1). Muslim, Jewish, and Christian tradition places Samuel’s home on the height Neby Samwil, four miles N.W. of Jerusalem, than which it is loftier. Arculf (A.D. 700) identifies it as “Saint Samuel.” The professed tomb is a wooden box; below it is a cave excavated like Abraham’s burial place at Hebron, from the rock, and dosed against entrance except by a narrow opening in the top, through which pilgrims pass their lamps and petitions to the sacred vault beneath.

    The city where Samuel anointed Saul (1 Samuel 9--10) was probably not Samuel’s own city Rama, for the city of Saul’s anointing was near Rachel’s sepulchre adjoining Bethlehem ( 1 Samuel 10:2), whereas Mount Ephraim wherein was Ramathaim Zophim did not reach so far S. Near Neby Samwil, the probable site of Samuel’s Rama, is the well of Sechu to which Saul came on his way to Rama, now “Samuel’s fountain” near Beit Isku. Beit Haninah (probably Naioth) is near ( 1 Samuel 19:18-24).

    Hosea ( Hosea 5:8) refers to Rama. The appended “Zophim” distinguishes it from Rama of Benjamin. Elkanah’s ancestor Zuph may have been the origin of the “Zophim.” 3. A fortress of Naphtali in the mountainous region N.W. of the sea, of Galilee. Now Rameh, eight miles E.S.E. of Safed, on the main track between Akka and the N. of the sea of Galilee, on the slope of a lofty hill. 4. On Asher’s boundary between Tyre and Sidon; a Rama is still three miles E. of Tyre. 5. Ramoth Gilead ( 2 Kings 8:29; 2 Chronicles 22:6). 6. Re-occupied by Benjamin on the return from Babylon ( Nehemiah 11:33). Identified by Grove with Ramleh.

    RAMATH LEHI So Samson named the scene of his slaying a thousand Philistines with a jawbone. Judges 15:17, “the height of Lehi.” In Judges 15:9 “Lehi” is used by anticipation, Samson calling it so subsequently, or else he played on the name which it had already, “Ramath Lehi,” as expressing what he now has done, namely, “lifted up the jawbone.” (But see LEHI ).

    RAMATH MIZPEH Gad’s northern landmark ( Joshua 13:26). (See MIZPEH ).

    RAMATH (RAMAH) OF THE SOUTH A town in the extreme S. of Simeon ( Joshua 19:8). The same as see BAALATH BEER . South Ramoth, 1 Samuel 30:27.

    RAMATHAIM ZOPHIM (See RAMAH ).

    RAMATHITE 1 Chronicles 27:27.

    RAMESES There is mentioned in Egyptian monumentsRHMSS, son of Aahmes I (Lepsius); the new Pharaoh “that knew not Joseph.” The Pharaohs of the 19th dynasty of Rama (Rameses II was the great conqueror) two centuries later have a final -u, Ramessu. In Genesis 47:11 Rama is the name of a district. In Exodus 1:11 Raamses is the city which already existed, but which the Israelites now strengthened as a treasure city. Rameses II fortified and enlarged it long after. Septuagint make Rama the Heroopolis of later times. It and Pithom were on the canal dug under Osirtasin of the 12th dynasty. Derived from Ra-mes, “child of Ra” the sun god. The Egyptians called themselves “children of Ra” front the earliest times, even “Mizraim” may be from Mis-ra. The name Rama would fitly apply to Goshen which was especially associated with sun worship. Aahmes I built cities in the Delta, especially on the eastern quarter from whence the invading shepherds had come, and was likely as restorer of the sun (Ra) worship to have given the name Rama to the treasure city which Israel fortified there, as he gave it also to his son. Besides Pi (city) should appear before Rama if it were the Egyptian designation from the name of king Rameses. When Rameses II enlarged it its name was Rama Meiamon, not Rama simply. Moreover, when enlarged by him it was the center of a large Egyptian festive population, whereas in Exodus 1:11 it is in the midst of oppressed Israelites. Lepsius makes Aboo Kesheyd to be on the site.

    RAMOTH (1) A Levitical city of Issachar ( 1 Chronicles 6:73). Jarmuth in Joshua 21:28,29.

    RAMOTH (2) Of the sons of Bani. Put away his foreign wife ( Ezra 10:29).

    RAMOTH GILEAD ”Heights of Gilead.” A fortress commanding Argob and the Jair towns, occupied by Solomon’s commissariat officer ( 1 Kings 4:13). Keenly fought for by the Israelites and their enemies the Syrians under Ahab and Joram ( 1 Kings 22:4; it had been seized by Benhadad I from Omri; Josephus Ant. 8:15, section 3. Ahab fell in attempting to recover it). Joram of Israel allied himself with Ahaziah of Judah ( 2 Chronicles 22:5,6), gained and kept Ramoth Gilead in spite of Hazael ( 2 Kings 9:14,15; Josephus Ant. 9:6; section 1). Jehu from it started to seize the kingdom. 2 Kings 8:28 = Ramath Mizpeh in Joshua 13:26. The spot called by Jacob in his covenant with Laban, of which the pillar and stone heap was pledge, Galeed and see MIZPAH . A city of refuge in Gad ( Deuteronomy 4:43; Joshua 20:8; 21:38). Now Es Salt, W. of Philadelphia, or else Jela’ad (Gilead) four miles N. of Es Salt, for Ramath Mizpeh is in the N. of Gad ( Joshua 13:26), which Es Salt is not. The Arabic of Joshua 13:26 has Ramah el Jeresh or Jerash (Gerasa).

    RAMS’ SKINS DYED RED Colored like red morocco. Manufactured in Libya from remote antiquity.

    An inner covering of the tabernacle ( Exodus 25:5).

    RANSOM Greek lutron , antilutron ( 1 Timothy 2:6). A price paid for freeing a captive. Anti implies vicarious, equivalent substitution, “a ransom for many” ( Matthew 20:28; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18,19). Man was the slave of Satan, sold under sin. He was unable to ransom himself, because absolute obedience is due to God; therefore no act of ours can satisfy for the least offense. Leviticus 25:48 allowed one sold captive to be redeemed by one of his brethren. The Son of God therefore became man in order that as our elder brother He should redeem us ( Hebrews 2:14,15). (See REDEEM ).

    RAPHA 1 Chronicles 8:37. Rephaiah in 1 Chronicles 9:43.

    RAPHU Numbers 13:9.

    RAVEN ‘oreb , from a root “black,” including the crow. Not allowed as food ( Leviticus 11:15). Of the order Insessores, family Corvidae. Genesis 8:7, Noah’s first messenger from the ark, which kept going forth and returning, resting on the ark but never entering, feeding on the floating carcasses; type of the carnal soul that having left God finds no rest ( Isaiah 57:20,21); like Satan ( Job 1:7; 2:2). Ravens fed Elijah at the brook Cherith ( 1 Kings 17:4,6) when cut off from intercourse with men, who might have betrayed him to Ahab. When even the voracious ravens were against their nature made to care for him more than for themselves, his confidence was strengthened in Jehovah’s illimitable resources to help him in his coming conflict with the idolatrous priests, dislikes the raven as of ill omen God cares for it ( Job 38:41; <19E709> Psalm 147:9; Luke 12:24). The raven is singled out as exemplifying God’s care for His creatures because of their restless flying in search for food to satisfy their voracious appetites. With their hoarse cry they unconsciously appeal to their Maker and Preserver for their necessary food, and never in vain, though they neither sow nor reap neither have storehouse nor barn. A lesson of faith to us. The ravens build their nests in solitary “valleys,” hence a sign of desolation ( Isaiah 34:11). Birds of prey attack the eye especially. The mocker of his father shall die a death of shame, and be a prey to the “raven of the valley” ( Proverbs 30:17). The shrewd and ill visage of the raven, its mourning hue, its solitary haunts, harsh croak, instant scenting of premonitory decomposition even before death, made it be regarded as of ill omen. The glossy steel-blue black of the raven is the image of the bridegroom’s locks (Song 5:11).

    REAIA 1 Chronicles 5:5.

    REAIAH 1. 1 Chronicles 4:2. 2. Ezra 2:47; Nehemiah 7:50.

    REBA Numbers 31:8; Joshua 13:21.

    REBEKAH; REBECCA Romans 9:10. Arabic, “a rope with a noose,” i.e. captivating. Bethuel’s daughter, Laban’s sister, see ISAAC ’S wife ( Genesis 22:23; 24), Rebekah, the grand-daughter of Abraham’s brother, marries Isaac, Abraham’s son; it is an undesigned coincidence with probability that Isaac was the son of Abraham’s and Sarah’s old age ( Genesis 18:12), and so, though of a generation earlier than Rebekah, yet not so much her senior in years. A model marriage: God’s direction was asked and given, the godly seed was equally yoked with the seed of the godly, the parents sanctioned it, Rebekah was one who had as a maiden discharged domestic duties diligently; her beauty, courtesy, willing consent, modesty, all made her deservedly attractive, and secured Isaac’s love at once and permanently.

    Barren for 19 years, she at last received children by God’s gift in answer to Isaac’s prayers. Before they were born she was told, in answer to her inquiry of the Lord because of her sensations, the elder shall serve the younger ( Genesis 25:21-23; Romans 9:10-12), illustrating “the purpose of God, according to election, not of works but of Him that calleth,” inasmuch as it was when “neither had done any good or evil.” (See JACOB , see ESAU ).

    Jacob was her favorite because of his gentle domestic habits ( Genesis 25:28). This partiality led her to the deceit practiced on Isaac to gain his blessing for Jacob (Genesis 27). Esau’s Hittite wives “were a grief to Isaac and Rebekah” ( Genesis 26:34,35.) Her beauty tempted Isaac when in Gerar, through fear of being killed for Rebekah’s sake, to say she was his sister. All compromises of truth, through fear of man ( Proverbs 29:25), bring their own punishment. Isaac exposed her to the risk of defilement, which a straightforward course would have averted, and exposed himself to the rebuke of the worldly see ABIMELECH (Genesis 26). She saved Jacob from Esau’s murderous fury by inducing Isaac to send him away to Padan Aram ( Genesis 28:1-5); thus she brought on herself by the one great sin the loss of her favorite’s presence for the rest of her life, for she was not alive when he returned, Isaac alone survived ( Genesis 35:27).

    Faith in God’s promise as to Jacob the younger, given before birth, prompted her to seek the blessing for him; unbelief and ignorance of God’s holiness tempted her to do evil that good might come. see DEBORAH her nurse died and was buried at Bethel on Jacob’s return. She evidently had gone back to Padan Aram, and joined Jacob after her mistress’ death.

    Rebekah was buried in the cave of Machpelah with Abraham and Sarah.

    Isaac was subsequently buried there ( Genesis 49:31).

    RECHAB Father or ancestor of see JEHONADAB ( 2 Kings 10:15,23; Chronicles 2:55; Jeremiah 35:6-19).RECHABITES, the dwellers in cities, are distinguished from the nomadic wanderers ( Genesis 4:20-22); and the distinction still exists in Persia and Arabia, where the two classes are found side by side. Rechab, meaning “rider,” may be an epithet that became a proper name; a wild Bedouin-like nomadic rider, as the Rechab ( Samuel 4:2): a fit companion for Jehu the furious driver ( 2 Kings 9:20).

    Boulduc (Ecclesiastes ante Leg., 3:10) infers from 2 Kings 2:12; 13:14, that Elijah and Elisha were “the chariot (recheb ) of Israel,” i.e. its safeguard, and that their austere followers were “sells of the chariot,” which phrase was subsequently, through ignorance of the original meaning, made “sons of Rechab.” John of Jerusalem says Jehonadab was Elisha’s disciple (Instit. Monach. 25). The ascetic rule against wine, houses, sowing, and planting (Jeremiah 35), was a safeguard against the corrupting license of the Phoenician cities and their idolatries ( Amos 2:7,8; 6:3-6).

    They must rigidly adhere to the simplicity of their Arab tent life.

    Jehonadab’s name, containing “Jehovah,” and his abhorrence of Baal worship, imply that the Rechabites though not of Israel were included in the Abrahamic covenant; the Arab Wahabees, ascetics as to opium and tobacco, present a parallel. In Jeremiah’s days they were still faithful to Jehovah. Their strict Nazarite vow was the ground of their admission into one of the temple chambers devoted to the sons of Hanak sprung from “Igdaliah a man of God,” or prophet of special sanctity. There they resisted the temptation to drink wine; and Jeremiah makes their faithfulness to their earthly father a reproof of Israel’s unfaithfulness to their heavenly Father.

    God consequently promises, “Jehonadab son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before Me forever,” i.e. to minister in the sanctuary before Jehovah so long as Israel’s sanctuary and polity stand: so Levi ( Deuteronomy 10:8; 18:5-7; Genesis 18:22; Judges 20:28; <19D401> Psalm 134:1; Jeremiah 15:19); so the targum of Jonathan translated “ministers before Me.” It was an adoption of the Rechabites into Israel, by incorporation with Levi, on the ground of their Nazarite-like purity and consecration. The Rechabites are spoken of as “scribes” ( 1 Chronicles 2:55); at the return from Babylon they took a profession, almost exclusively a Levite one. Kimchi (in Vatablus) cites the tradition recorded by Rechab. Judah that the Rechabites married Levites, and their children ministered in the temple. Their close juxtaposition with the sons of David ( 1 Chronicles 3:1) shows in what esteem the sacred writer held them.

    Hegesippus (Eusebius, H. E. ii. 23) mentions that a Rechabite priest protested against the martyrdom of James the Just. Hegesippus thus attests the existence of the Rechabites as sharing in the temple ritual down to its destruction by the Romans; fulfilling Jeremiah 35:19. Benjamin of Tudela (12th century) says that near El Jubar (Pumbeditha) he found 100,000 Rechabite Jews, who tilled, kept flocks and herds, abstained from wine and flesh, and gave tithes to teachers who devoted themselves to studying the law and weeping for Jerusalem; their prince Solomon han Nasi traced his descent to David and ruled over Thema and Telmas. Wolff found a tribe, the Beni Khaibr, near Senaa, who called themselves “sons of Jonadab,” and said they numbered 60,000 (Journal, ii. 334,335). The Septuagint prefixes a title to Psalm 71, “a psalm by David, of the sons of Jonadab, and of those first carried captive”: this implies, in the third century B.C., a Hebrew title existed declaring that the Rechabites shared the Babylonian captivity, and with the Levite psalmists expressed the nation’s sorrows and aspirations.

    RECHAH 1 Chronicles 4:12.

    RECONCILIATION Katallagee , “see ATONEMENT ” (see SACRIFICE , see PROPITIATION ). Romans 5:10,11: “we were reconciled ... being reconciled ... we have now received the reconciliation” (the same word as the verb and participle). The “reconciliation” here cannot be that of ourselves to God, or having its rise in us, for we then should not be said to “receive” it, but that of God to us. We have received the laying aside of our enmity to God would not be sense. Hebrew ratsah “to associate with,” “to be satisfied” or appeased. Katallagee , diallagee , is the changing of places, coming over from one to the other side. In 1 Samuel 29:4 (yithratseh zeh el adonaayw ), “wherewith should this man (David) reconcile himself to his master (Saul)?” the anger to be laid aside was not David’s to Saul, but Saul’s to David; “reconcile himself to Saul” therefore means to induce Saul to be reconciled to him and take him back to his favor. So Matthew 5:24, “be reconciled to thy brother,” means, “propitiate him to lay aside his anger and be reconciled to thee.” So 2 Corinthians 5:18,19, “God hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ,” i.e. restored us (the world, Corinthians 5:19) to His favor by satisfying the claims of justice against us.

    The time (aorist) is completely past, implying a once for all accomplished fact. Our position judicially in the eye of God’s law is altered, not as though Christ’s sacrifice made a change in God’s character and made Him to love us. Nay, Christ’s sacrifice was the provision of God’s love, not its procuring cause ( Romans 8:32). Christ’s blood was the see RANSOM or price paid at God’s own cost to reconcile the exercise of His mercy with justice, not as separate, but as the eternally co-existing harmonious attributes in the unchangeable God. Romans 3:25,26, “God in Christ reconciles the world to Himself,” as 2 Corinthians 5:19 explai/ns, by “not imputing their trespasses unto them,” and by in the first instance satisfying His own justice and righteous enmity against sin ( Psalm 7:11; Isaiah 12:1). Katallassoon , “reconciling,” implies “changing” the judicial status from one of condemnation to one of justification. The “atone- ment” or reconciliation is the removal of the bar to peace and acceptance with the holy God which His righteousness interposed against our sin. The first step towards peace between us and God was on God’s side ( John 3:16). The change now to be effected must be on the part of offending man, God the offended One being already reconciled. Man, not God, now needs to be reconciled by laying aside his enmity against God ( Romans 5:10,11). Ministers’ entreaty to sinners, “be ye reconciled to God,” is equivalent to “receive the reconciliation” already accomplished ( 2 Corinthians 5:21). In Hebrews 2:17 Christ is called “Highpriest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for (hilaskesthai , to expiate) the sins of the people.” Literally, “to propitiate (in respect to) the sins,” etc. God’s justice is (humanly speaking) propitiated by Christ’s sacrifice. But as God’s love was side by side from everlasting with His justice, Christ’s sacrifice is never expressly said to propitiate God (but Hebrews 2:17 virtually implies something like it), lest that sacrifice should seem antecedent to and producing God’s grace. God’s love originated Christ’s sacrifice, whereby God’s justice and love are harmonized. By Christ’s sacrifice the sinner is brought into God’s favor, which by sin he had justly forfeited. Hence his prayer is,” God be propitiated (hilastheeti ) to me who am a sinner” ( Luke 18:13). Christ who had no sin “made reconciliation for (le -kafr (see PITCH , see ATONEMENT ), covered) the iniquity” of all ( Daniel 9:24; Psalm 32:1). “Man can suffer, but cannot satisfy; God can satisfy, but cannot suffer. But Christ, being both God and man, can both suffer and also satisfy. He is competent to suffer for man and to make satisfaction to God, in order to reconcile God to man and man to God. So Christ, having assumed my nature into His person, and so satisfied divine justice for my sins, I am received into favor again with the most high God.” (Beveridge).

    RECORDER (mazkir ). Historiographer, whose charge was over the public registers, to see that fit persons put on record for future remembrance the annals of the kingdom. A high office; the chancellor, not merely national annalist (as Vulgate and Septuagint); he kept a record of whatever took place around the king, informed him of what occurred in the kingdom, and presided over the privy council ( 2 Samuel 8:16; 20:24; 1 Chronicles 18:15, margin “at the hand of the king”; 1 Kings 4:3; 2 Kings 18:18,37; Chronicles 34:8).

    RED SEA Hebrew: Sea of Suph (seaweed; like wool, as the Arabic means: Gesenius).

    The Egyptians called it the Sea of Punt (Arabia). Called red probably from the color of the weed, and the red coral and sandstone, not from Edom (red) which touched it only at Elath; nor from Himyerites (hamar, “red” in Arabic; the Phoenicians too are thought to mean red men, and to have come from the Red Sea), as their connection with it was hardly so dose and so early as to have given the name. An ancient canal, begun by Sesostris, continued by Darius Hystaspes and Ptolemy Philadelphus, joined the Nile to it.

    Boundaries. On the W. Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia; on the E. Arabia; on the N. the isthmus of Suez; on the S. the straits of Bab el Mandeb (gate of tears) joining it to the Indian ocean; 1,600 English miles long, by an average of 150 broad. The mountains on each side vary from 3,000 to 6,000 ft. high; the tops granite, underneath limestone, on the seashore light colored sandstone. The northern end (“the tongue of the Egyptian Sea”), since the exodus, has dried up for 50 miles. The land at the head of the gulf has risen, that on the Mediterranean has fallen (compare Isaiah 11:15; 19:5). This drying up has caused the ancient canal which conveyed the Red Sea commerce to the Nile (from about Hereopolis on the Birket et Timsah and lake of the crocodile to Bubastis at the Nile), and irrigated the country (wady Tumeylat) to be neglected and ruined. The country about has consequently become a gravely sand desert, with rank marsh land round the old sea bottom, called “the bitter lakes.” Near them was the town Heroopolis, from which the gulf of Suez was called the Heroopolite gulf.

    Ras Mohammed, the headland of the Sinaitic peninsula, divides the Red Sea into two tongues: the western one the gulf of Suez, 130 miles long by 18 broad, narrowing to ten at the head; the eastern one the gulf of Akabah (= a declivity), 90 long by an average of 15 broad. Precipitous mountains 2,000 ft. high rise from the shore. The Arabah or Ghor connects it with the Dead Sea and Jordan valley. Anciently the gulf of Akabah was the Sinus Elaniticus, from Oelana or Elath at the northern end. No considerable stream falls into this large sea. The gulf of Suez is the shallowest part. The waters are remarkably transparent, so that the plants, corals, and rocks are visible to a great depth. Its phosphorescence is also noteworthy. This is the most northern part of the ocean where coral reefs are found. These take the outline of the coast, and being covered for some distance with only five or sir feet of water render access to land difficult. The western or Egyptian side of the Red Sea is of limestone formation; gebel Gharib 6,000 ft. high; the porphyry mountain, gebel ed Dukhkhan, inland, is about the same height; gebel ez Zeyt, “the oil (petroleum) mount,” is close to the sea. On these barren and solitary hills lived many of the early Christian hermits. The patriarch of the Coptic church is chosen from the monks of the convent of Anthony.

    Sesostris (Rameses II) was the “first who, passing the Arabian gulf in a fleet of long war vessels, reduced the inhabitants bordering the Red Sea” (Herodotus). Solomon built a navy at “see EZION GEBER (now dry land), beside Elath on the Red Sea in Edom “ ( 1 Kings 9:26).

    Jehoshaphat’s ships were wrecked here on the reef Edh Dhahab (Ezion Geber, “giant’s backbone”): 1 Kings 22:48. Pharaoh Necho built ships in the Arabian gulf, manned by Phoenicians (Herodotus ii. 159). Pliny says their ship were of papyrus, like the Nile boats. The Arab jelebehs, carrying pilgrims along the coast, have the planks sewed together with coconut fibber, and caulked with the date palm fibber and oil of the palma Christi, and sails of mats made of the dom palm. The Himyerite Arabs formed mostly the crews of the seagoing ships. On the Heroopolite gulf, besides Heroopolis (now perhaps Aboo Kesheyd) at its head, was Arsinoe founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and Berenice on the southern frontier of Egypt.

    On the Arabian coast Mu’eyleh, Yembo (the port of El Medeeneh), Juddah (the port of Mecca), and Mocha. The Red Sea and Egypt after the time of Alexander the Great was the channel of commerce between Europe and India. Subsequently the trade passed round the Cape of Good Hope. But now the overland mail and Suez canal are again Bringing it by way of Egypt and the Red Sea. (On Israel’s passage of the Red Sea, see EXODUS ).

    REDEEMER (See RANSOM ). Redeem, Hebrew padhah and gaal . The goel , nearest of kin, had three rights: (1) To purchase back the forfeited inheritance for an Israelite who, through poverty, had sold his land; as Boaz (= might in him; the name of one of the two temple pillars; type of Christ) did for Ruth ( Ruth 4:3-5); or to hold land in possession for an impoverished kinsman until the year of jubilee, when it should revert to the original owner ( Leviticus 25:10,13-16,24- 28). Antitypically, man the heir of all things bartered his magnificent birthright for vanity; Christ, by assuming our manhood, became our [go’eel], and saved us from being disinherited forever ( Hebrews 2:9-15); the full restoration of the inheritance is to be at “the times of restitution of all things” ( Acts 3:21; Matthew 19:28), the grand last jubilee ( Isaiah 61:2-4); ushered in, as the Israelite jubilee, with the great trumpet ( Revelation 11:15; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Isaiah 27:13). (2) The goel ransomed his kinsman from bondage to the foreigner ( Leviticus 25:47-49). So man sold himself to Satan’s bondage; Jesus has (at the price of His precious blood, 1 Peter 1:18,19) ransomed “the lawful captive delivered” ( Isaiah 49:24). (3) The goel avenged the death of his slain kinsman as a point of honor. So our Redeemer “through death has destroyed Satan (man’s ‘murderer from the beginning,’ John 8:44) who had the power of death,” and has delivered us from everlasting “bondage” to him ( Hebrews 2:14,15; Hosea 13:14). Our Boaz has not “left off His kindness to the living and to the dead” ( Ruth 2:20); translated Job 19:25-27 “I know that my Redeemer (vindicator, avenger; redressing my wrongs on Satan their inflicter) liveth, and that He shall arise the Last ( 1 Corinthians 15:45; Revelation 1:17) above the dust (with which is mingled man’s crumbling body: 1 Corinthians 15:20,23; Romans 8:23; Ephesians 1:14), and though after my skin (is destroyed) this (body) is destroyed, yet from my flesh (mibesari ); as from a window, Song 2:9) shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself (on my side), no longer estranged” (zar ) from me. The redemption of our now weak body will be our grand vindication from present wrongs such as Job’s. As the body (not merely the soul) was the sufferer, the body’s restoration in incorruption must be the vindication; this alone would disprove the imputation of guilt thrown on Job because of its sufferings. Job elsewhere hoped for the resurrection after his being “hidden in the grave” for a time ( Job 14:13-15; John 5:21,26,28; Isaiah 26:19-21; Psalm 17:15). The Egyptian myth of Osiris and his son Horus in the “Ritual of the Dead” strikingly confirms the primitive revelation of the promised Redeemer, of which it is the corruption. Horus as Ra was creator; as Teti, the redeemer from the power of Apophis the serpent, and of Typhoon the hippopotamus, representatives of the evil being; as Nets, Horus is the deliverer of the justified.

    REED ‘agmon . Used to form a rope: Job 41:2, “canst thou put a rush rope (agmon ) into his nose?” in Job 41:20agmon is a “caldron” from agam , “to flow.” “Branch (the high) and rush” (the low) ( Isaiah 9:14; 58:5), “bow down ... head as a bulrush,” imply that the head of the [‘agmown] was pendulous. Some aquatic, reed like, plant, the Arundodonax, or phragmitis, used as a walking stick, but apt to break and pierce the hand leaning on it ( 2 Kings 18:21; Ezekiel 29:6,7). The gomee , of the sedge kind (Cyperaceae), the papyrus or paper reeds of which Moses’ ark was formed ( Exodus 2:3). Used to form boats on the Nile, also garments, shoes, baskets, and paper ( Isaiah 18:2); Job 8:11 “can the papyrus plant grow without mire?” so the godless thrive only in outward prosperity, which soon ends, for they are without God “the fountain of life” ( Psalm 36:9). Rapid growth at first, like the papyrus; then sudden destruction. The papyrus is not now found in Egypt; but it has for ages been on the margin of Lake Huleh or Merom and Lake Tiberius and in Syria. Paper was formed by cutting the interior of the stalks into thin slices lengthwise, after removing the rind, and laying them side by side in succession on a flat board; similar ones were laid over them at right angles, and the whole was cemented together by a glue, and pressed and dried.

    The Egyptians stewed and ate the lower part of the papyrus (Herodotus ii. 92). It grows from three to six feet high; Tristram (Land of Israel, 436) says 16 feet, and the triangular stems three inches in diameter, N. of Lake Tiberias. There are no leaves; the flowers are small spikelets at the tip of the threadlike branchlets which together form a bushy crown on each stem.

    Aroth ( Isaiah 19:7) not “paper reeds,” but grassy pastures on the banks of the Nile; literally, places bare of wood, from ‘aarah “to make bore” (Gesenius). KJV is from ‘or the delicate membrane; the antithesis to “everything sown by the brooks” is, the aroth were not sown but growing of themselves. In mentioning “the reeds and flags” it is likely the papyrus would not be omitted; however, a different word in the chap. before ( Isaiah 18:2, gomee ) expresses the papyrus. Kaneh a reed in general; a measuring reed, six cubits long ( Ezekiel 40:5; 41:8; compare Revelation 11:1; 21:15). The “sweet reed from a far country” is possibly the Andropogon calamus aromaticus of central India; keneh bosem ( Exodus 30:23 “sweet calamus”) or hatob ( Jeremiah 6:20); or it may be rather the lemon grass (Andropogon schoenanthus) of India ( Isaiah 43:24; Song 4:14; Ezekiel 27:19).

    REELAIAH Ezra 2:2; Raamiah in Nehemiah 7:7.

    REFINER He who reduced the metal to fluid by heat and solvents, as borax, alkali or lead ( Isaiah 1:25; Jeremiah 6:29), to remove the dross. His instruments were the crucible or furnace (“fining pot,” Proverbs 17:3) and the blowpipe or bellows. Affliction removes the dross from the godly ( 1 Peter 1:7). But the fiery ordeal only hardens the reprobate ( Jeremiah 5:3; Isaiah 9:10). Translated for “tower” and “fortress” ( Jeremiah 6:27), “I have set thee for an assayer and explorer,” separating the metal from the dross “among My people.” In Malachi 3:2,3, Christ “shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and shall purify the sons of Levi.” The purifier sits before the crucible, fixing his eye on the metal, taking care the heat is not too great, and keeping the metal in only until, by seeing his own image reflected in the glowing mass, he knows the dross is completely removed. So the Lord with His elect ( Romans 8:29; Job 23:10; Psalm 66:10; Proverbs 17:3; Isaiah 48:10; Hebrews 12:10).

    REGEM 1 Chronicles 2:47.

    REGEM MELECH (“the king’s official”) ( Zechariah 7:2). Sent by Jews of the country ( Zechariah 7:5) to “the house of God” (Bethel) or congregation at Jerusalem. Beth-el is here used for Beth-Jehovah; the religious authorities, not “the house of Jehovah” (named in Zechariah 7:3), are meant. The temple was not actually completed until two years later (Ezra. 6:15 with Zechariah 7:1). But the congregation, headed by their priests, was “the house of God,” paving the way for the spiritual New Testament “house of God” ( Hebrews 3:6; Zechariah 3:7; Hosea 8:1). Ezra ( Ezra 5:8,15; 6:7; 7:20,23) uses Bet Elowah for “the house of God.” The allusion is to God’s words to Jacob, “go up to Bethel” ( Genesis 28:19; 35:1).

    Jacob’s “house of God” consisted as yet of but a pillar first and an altar afterward ( Genesis 28:17,18,22; 36:1,7); so the house of God at the time of Regem Melech consisted merely of an altar, and congregation, and priests favored with God’s presence in worship at it. God, as in Jacob’s case, could bless the obedient at the bore altar before the temple was reared. But many sent to Jehovah’s house, not like Jacob at Bethel but as the apostate Israelites to the calf at Bethel, with no spirit of true obedience.

    Hence the name “Bethel” is used. In verse 5 it is not to the people of Bethel but “unto all the people of the land” the word of the Lord came in reply; therefore Bethel is not the nominative to “sent” in verse 2, as Maurer proposes.

    REGENERATION palingenesia . Only twice in the New Testament: Titus 3:5 of the regeneration of the soul by the Holy Spirit (see BAPTISM ), and Matthew 19:28 the regeneration of the body and of the material world.

    Besides his natural birthday the believer has a spiritual birthday in this life, and a birthday to glory in the life to come. The marks of regeneration are given 1 John 3:9,14; 5:1,4. Only if God’s Spirit regenerate the soul now will the same Spirit quicken to immortality and glory the body hereafter ( Romans 8:11; Philippians 3:21). The third and crowning step will be the regeneration of our home, this earth, and of “the whole creation,” “the restitution of all things” ( Acts 3:21; Matthew 19:28; Romans 8:19-23). Nations and society shall be first regenerated in the millennial world, with Israel as their priest-kingly head ( Isaiah 2:2-4; 11); wars shall cease, and even the wild beasts cease to rage. (See THOUSAND YEARS ). (Revelation 20; Isaiah 65:16-25). The final regeneration of the earth and nature shall be after the millennium (Revelation 21; 2 Peter 3:7-13).

    REGION ROUND ABOUT The circle (hacicar ) of cultivation, wherein stood Sodom, Gomorrah, and the other three cities. Genesis 13:10-12, “cities of the circuit” round Jordan, the low plain along the water ( Genesis 19:17). In Matthew 3:5 and Luke 3:3; 7:17, the populous region containing Jericho, etc., in the Jordan valley, enclosed in the amphitheater-like Quarantana hills.

    Compare as to the similar region of Gennesaret ( Matthew 14:35).

    REHABIAH 1 Chronicles 23:17; 24:21.

    REHOB (1) 1. 2 Samuel 8:3,12. Josephus (Ant. 7:5, section 1) calls him Araos, and makes Rehob mean “charioteer.” A Syrian name (see BETHREHOB ) ( Samuel 10:6,8). 2. Nehemiah 10:11.

    REHOB (2) (“a roomy, wide space”). 1. The northern limit of the spies’ search ( Numbers 13:21), at the entrance of Hamath ( Numbers 13:21). Near Tell el Kady, anciently see LAISH or see DAN ( Judges 18:28). Now Hunin (Robinson). 2. A town allotted to Asher ( Joshua 19:28), near Sidon. 3. Another town of Asher ( Joshua 19:30); assigned to the Gershonite Levites ( Joshua 21:31); kept by the Canaanites through Asher’s remissness ( Judges 1:31).

    REHOBOAM Solomon’s son by the Ammonite Naamah ( 1 Kings 14:21,13; 11:43; 2 Chronicles 12:13). Succeeded his father in his 41st year. In Chronicles 13:7 “young and tender hearted” means inexperienced (for he was not young in years then) and faint-hearted, not energetic in making a stand against those who insolently rose against him. In his reign Ephraim’s gathering jealousy of a rival ( Judges 8:1; 12:1) came to a crisis, the steps to which were the severance of Israel under Ishbosheth (2 Samuel 2) from Judah under David; the removal of the political capital from Shechem, and the seat of national worship from Shiloh to Jerusalem; and finally Solomon’s heavy taxation for great national and monarchical buildings, and Rehoboam’s injudicious reply to the petition for lightening the burden. The maschil (Psalm 78) of Asaph is a warning to Ephraim not to incur a fresh judgment by rebelling against God’s appointment which transferred Ephraim’s prerogative, for its sins, to Judah; he delicately avoids wounding Ephraim’s sensitiveness by not naming revolt as likely (compare Samuel 20:2). He leaves the application to themselves.

    Rehoboam selected Shechem as his place of coronation, probably to conciliate Ephraim. But Ephraim’s reason for desiring Shechem for the place of coronation was their intention to rebel; so they made see JEROBOAM the spokesman of their complaints. It would have saved Rehoboam the loss of the majority of his kingdom, had he heeded his father’s wise old counselors ( Proverbs 27:10), and shown the same conciliatory spirit in reply to Israel’s embassy; but he forgot his father’s proverb ( Proverbs 15:1). In the three days’ interval between their mission and his reply he preferred the counsel of the inexperienced young men, his compeers, who had been reared in the time of Solomon’s degeneracy, “my father chastised you with whips, I will chastise you with scorpions,” i.e. scourges armed with sharp points. Solomon in Ecclesiastes 2:19 expresses his misgiving as to Rehoboam, “who knoweth whether the man after me shall be a wise man or a fool?” His folly was overruled by Jehovah to perform His prophecy by see AHIJAR unto see JEROBOAM . With the same watchword of revolt as under Sheba ( 2 Samuel 19:43; 20:1), Israel forsook Rehoboam ( 1 Kings 12:16), “what portion have we in David? To your tents, O Israel.” They then stoned see ADORAM who was over the tribute, Rehoboam retained, besides Judah, Levi, Simeon, Dan, and parts of Benjamin (see ISRAEL ).

    Rehoboam with 180,000 sought to regain Israel; but Jehovah by Shemaiah forbade it ( 1 Kings 12:21-24). Still a state of war between the two kingdoms lasted all his reign ( 1 Kings 14:30). Rehoboam built fortresses round on the S. side of Jerusalem, apprehending most danger from the quarter of Egypt ( 2 Chronicles 11:1-12,13,16,17). Moreover, the calf worship in northern Israel drove the Levites and many pious Israelites to the southern kingdom where Jehovah’s pure worship was maintained. Thus, Rehoboam became strengthened in his kingdom, but after three years’ faithfulness and consequent prosperity from God the tendency to apostasy inherited from his mother Naamah the Ammonitess, and her bad early training, led him to connive at, and like Solomon join in, the abominations of idolatry, the “high places, standing images, and groves on every high hill and under every green tree” ( 1 Kings 14:22-24).

    Rehoboam “forsook the law of Jehovah, and all Israel with him.” So God sent Shishak, see JEROBOAM ’S ally, with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen, to punish him, in the fifth year of his reign ( 1 Kings 11:40; 14:25-28; 2 Chronicles 12:2-4, etc.). Shemaiah explained the cause from Jehovah; “ye have forsaken Me, therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak” (Shishak was first of the 22nd or Bubastite dynasty; whereas his predecessor, the Pharaoh whose daughter Solomon married, was the last of the 22nd or Tanite dynasty). Rehoboam and the princes thereupon humbly accepted their punishment, and justified Jehovah ( James 4:10; Exodus 9:27; Psalm 51:4; Leviticus 26:41,42).

    Therefore, the Lord “granted them some deliverance,” at the same time that He gave them up to Shishak’s service, who took the Jews’ fenced cities and came to Jerusalem, that they might know to their sorrow its contrast to “His service” ( Deuteronomy 28:47,48; Isaiah 47:13; 1 John 5:3; Hosea 2:7). So Shishak took away the temple and the palace treasures, and the golden shields (200 larger and 300 smaller, Kings 10:16,17), for which Rehoboam substituted brazen shields, to be borne by the bodyguard before him in state processions, characteristic of his vanity which comforted itself with a sham after losing the reality; but the Lord did not let Shishak destroy Rehoboam altogether, for He saw, amidst abounding evil, with His tender compassion, some “good things in Judah.” Shishak’s success against the kingdom of Judah (malchi Judah) is found commemorated outside of the Karnak temple, the very features of the Jews being characteristically represented.

    Rehoboam reigned for 17 years; his acts were recorded in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies. His doing evil is traced to his “not preparing (fixing) his heart to seek Jehovah.” His polygamy (“desiring many wives,” 2 Chronicles 11:23) is another blot on his character. Besides Mahalath and Maacbah, granddaughters of David, and Abihail descended from Jesse, he had wives and 60 concubines; his sons, with worldly wisdom, he dispersed through the fenced cities as their governors, and made Abijah, son of his favorite wife Maachah, his successor on the throne.

    REHOBOTH (1) (“room, broad space”). Third of Isaac’s wells, called so because after that the wells Esek (“contention”) and Sitnah (“hatred”), which his men had dug, the Gerar herdsmen would not let him keep peaceably, now at last his good has overcome their evil, and God makes room for him. Spiritually Romans 12:18-21; Genesis 32:20; 13:7-9; Matthew 5:25; Revelation 15:2; John 14:2. In the wady er Ruhaibeh are ruins of a large city, eight hours S. of Beersheba, and an ancient well, 12 ft. in circumference, built with hewn stone, now filled up (Robinson Phys.

    Geog., 243; “Our Work in Palestine,” 299). Its site is marked by fallen masonry, seemingly a cupola roof of well cemented brick shaped stones. At hand is Shutnet, the “Sitnah” of Scripture: Rehoboth lies 20 miles S.W. of Bir es Seba or Beersheba, with three remaining wells, two full of water, one dry.

    REHOBOTH (2) One of the four cities built by see NIMROD (see ASSYRIA ) when he went forth to Asshur: Rehoboth Ir (i.e. “the streets of the city”), Calah, Resen, and see NINEVEH . The four were probably afterwards combined under the one name Nineveh; the words in Genesis 10:11,12, “the same is a great city,” refer to the united whole, not to the single Resen.

    REHOBOTH BY THE RIVER The Edomite king Saul’s or Shaul’s city ( Genesis 36:37). As Edom never extended to the Euphrates’ “river,” probably an Assyrian invasion put Shaul from Rehoboth on the Edomite throne. There is still a Rahabeh on the right bank of the river, eight miles below the junction of the Khabour, and three miles W. of the river; four or five miles further down on the left bank is Rahbeth malik, “royal Rehoboth”; whether this be Shaul’s city, or whether it be Rehoboth Ir, is uncertain ( 1 Chronicles 1:48).

    REHUM 1. Ezra 2:2;NEHUM Nehemiah 7:7. 2. Nehemiah 3:17. 3. Nehemiah 10:25. 4. Nehemiah 12:3. 5. The chancellor, literally, lord of decree (beel teem ), i.e. royal prefect; with others wrote to Artaxerxes (Pseudo Smerdis) to induce him to stop the building of the temple and city walls ( Ezra 4:8,9,17,23).

    REI Remained faithful to David in Adonijah’s rebellion. Ewald makes Rei as Shimei, David’s brother. Raddad ( 1 Kings 1:8). Jerome (Quaest.

    Hebrew) makes him “Hiram the Zairite,” i.e. “Ira the Jairite.”

    REINS kelayot . The kidneys; the supposed seat of the desires and affections ( Psalm 7:9; 26:2; Jeremiah 11:20; 17:10; Job 19:27). For “the loins” (halatsaim ), Isaiah 11:5.

    REKEM 1. One of Midian’s five. king’s slain by Israel ( Numbers 31:8). 2. 1 Chronicles 2:43,44. Rehem in Joshua 18:27 is a town of Benjamin. Ain Karim, the spring W. of Jerusalem, may represent the name.

    RELIGION RELIGIOUS. James 1:26,27, threeskos , threeskeia ; distinct from eulabees (reverent; from the Old Testament standpoint; cautious fear toward God), “devout” ( Luke 2:25); theosebees , “godly”; eusebees , “pious.” “If any man seem a diligent observer of the offices of religion (threeskos ) ... pure and undefiled religion (not the sum total or inner essentials of religion, but its outer manifestations) is to visit the fatherless,” etc. The Old Testament cult or religious service (threeskeia ) was ceremony and ritual; the New Testament religious service consists in acts of mercy, love, and holiness. “Religion” refers to the external service, “godliness” being the soul. James as president of the Jerusalem council ( Acts 15:13-21) had decided against ritualism; so he teaches, instead of Judaic ceremonialism, true religious service is (1) active, (2) passive ( Micah 6:7,8; Matthew 23:23); compare Acts 26:5, “our religion”; Colossians 2:18, “worshipping,” threeskeia .

    REMALIAH Father of the usurper Pekah ( 2 Kings 15:25-37). Isaiah ( Isaiah 7:4-9) designates the usurper as “the son of Remaliah,” to mark that, belonging to a family alien from David’s, to whom alone God promised the kingdom, he cannot succeed against the heir of David.

    REMMON A town in Simeon ( Joshua 19:7); Rimmon.

    REMMON METHOAR A landmark on the eastern boundary of Zebulun. Joshua 19:13 translated “Remmon, which reaches (or is bounded off) to Neah” (Neiel in Asher, Joshua 19:27). A Levitical town; Joshua 21:35, Dimah. Chronicles 6:62,77, Rimmon. Now Rummaneh, two and a half hours N. of Nazareth (Robinson 3:195).

    REMPHAN CHIUN. Amos 5:26,27, “ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god which ye made to yourselves.” Acts 7:42,43 from the Septuagint of Amos, “ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them.” Instead of “Chiun your images” Pusey, deriving Chiun from chun “to fix firmly,” translated Amos, “ye did bear the (portable) shrine of your idol king, and the pedestal of your images,” etc. Israel secretly carried on idolatry in the wilderness, with a small shrine escaping Moses’ observation ( Ezekiel 20:7,8,39; 23:3; Joshua 24:14).

    Ken and Rempu were foreign gods worshipped jointly in Egypt; they became seemingly interchangeable names, so that Chiun in Amos answers to Remphan in Acts; and this god in turn is but another phase of Moloch or Saturn, the star god. A star was put on the head of the images of the idol representing Saturn; hence “images” answer to “star” in parallelism. The Egyptians represented Rempu as an Asiatic with full board and face of the type given on the monuments to nations E. of Egypt. Ken was represented naked, holding grain in both hands, and standing on a lion; answering to the Syrian goddess or Venus, called also Ketesh (Hebrew qideeshaah “consecrated”). Ken is related to Khem, the Egyptian god of productiveness, Remphan and Chiun answer to the Phoenician Baal and Astarte or Ashtoreth (Mylitta of Babylon).

    REPHAEL 1 Chronicles 26:7.

    REPHAH 1 Chronicles 7:25.

    REPHAIAH 1. 1 Chronicles 3:21. 2. 1 Chronicles 4:42,43. 3. 1 Chronicles 7:2. 4. 1 Chronicles 9:43;RAPHA in 1 Chronicles 8:37. 5. Nehemiah 3:9.

    REPHAIM, VALLEY OF (emeq ). 2 Samuel 5:17,18,22; 23:13; 1 Chronicles 11:15; 14:9; Isaiah 17:5. In Joshua 15:8; 18:16, it is translated “the valley of the giants.” The scene of David’s twice routing the Philistines utterly and destroying their idols; so that it was named see PERAZIM , God breaking forth there upon David’s foes (for they came to seek him to avenge their old quarrel, on hearing of his accession); a type of God’s future utter overthrow of the church’s last foes ( Isaiah 28:21,22). The Philistines came in harvest time to the valley, to carry off the ripe crops, in Samuel 23:13; Isaiah 17:5. Joshua ( Joshua 15:8) says Judah’s boundary “went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of the valley, of Rephaim (giants) northward.” The most northern point of the valley of Rephaim was at the summit that terminated the valley of Hinnom on the W. Its proximity to Bethlehem is implied in 2 Samuel 23:13-17. Bethlehem was S. of Jerusalem. Moreover, the Philistines’ natural line of march to Jerusalem would be from the S.W. Hence it is likely the valley of Rephaim is the wide elevated plain which, beginning at the top of the valley of Hinnom, stretches S. along the road to Bethlehem, but gradually bends W. until it contracts into the narrow, deep valley, wady el Werd.

    REPHIDIM (“rests” or “stays”) ( Exodus 17:1,8; 19:2). Here Israel first suffered from want of water, and here they defeated Amalek. Captains Wilson and Palmer make the battle in wady Feiran, near the ancient city of Feiran (amidst traces of building and cultivation) under Mount Serbal. But Holland (Canon Cook’s essay on Exodus 16; 17; 19; Speaker’s Commentary) places Rephidim after Israel traversed the wady es Sheikh at the pass el Watiyeh shut in by perpendicular rocks on either side; a choice position for Amalek as it commands the entrance to the wadies round the central group of Sinai. On the N. is a plain without water, Israel’s encampment. N. of the defile is a hill and bore cliff such as Moses struck with his rod. S. of the pass is another plain, Amalek’s encampment, within reach of abundant water. At the foot of the hill whereon Moses sat ( Exodus 17:12 or else Exodus 18:13) the Arabs call a rock “the seat of the prophet Moses.” (See EXODUS ). The fertility of Feiran is Stanley’s argument for it as the site of Rephidim, Amalek being likely to contend for it against Israel. The “hill” in Exodus 17:9,10, he identifies with that on which the church of Paran stood ( Numbers 33:12,13). Holland’s view is probably the truer one, for wady Sheikh is the only open broad way from the N.W. into the wilderness of Sinai, Ras Sufsafeh before the open er Rahah or desert of Sinai being the true Mount Sinai, not Serbal. The Bir Musa, “well of Moses,” in the wide part of wady es Sheykh, is immediately outside or N. of the pass out of Horeb.

    Wady es Sheykh, “the valley of the chiefs,” may allude to the elders appointed at Jethro’s suggestion to be rulers and judges under Moses ( Exodus 18:21-26). Forster (if his reading be correct: Voice of Israel, p. 118) interprets an inscription with a man’s figure with uplifted hands on a rock, “the prophet upon a hard great stone prayeth unto God, Aaron and Hur sustaining his hands.” It was after receiving the water supply at Rephidim from God that Israel conquered Amalek. So it is only after the Christian receives the living water front Christ the smitten Rock that he can effectively conquer his spiritual foes ( 1 John 5:4). Faith and prayer go together, as at Rephidim. Lift up, not an empty hand, but like Moses grasping the rod hold fast God’s word of promise, filling the hand with this effectual plea ( Exodus 17:9,11,12; Job 23:4; <19B949> Psalm 119:49; Isaiah 43:26; James 5:16). (See MASSAH , see MERIBAH ). Moses struck the rock in Horeb at some point not in the people’s sight, therefore not near the summit, but in the presence of selected witnesses, the elders ( Exodus 17:5,6).

    The “spiritual rock, Christ, followed all the Israelites” ( 1 Corinthians 10:4). The repetition of the miracle ( Numbers 20:11) at Kadesh shows that the rabbinical tradition is incorrect, that the rock or the stream followed them literally in all their journeys. Rather He of whom the rock was type accompanied them and supplied all their needs ( 1 Corinthians 10:4).

    RESEN The Larissa of Xenophon (Ahab. 3:4, section 7), now Nimrud. (See ASSYRIA , see NINEVEH ). Calah is probably Kileh Sherghat, 55 miles S. of Mosul, on the right bank of the Tigris. Resen was situated nine geographical miles N. of it, and four S. of Koyunjik or Nineveh. Septuagint read Dasen. G. Rawlinson however identifies Asshur with Kileh. Sherghat, and Caleb or Halah with Nimrud. The name Calah may have been transferred from Asshur, Kileh Sherghat, to Nimrud, when the seat of empire was transferred to this latter place. The targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem explain Resen as Tel-assar “the mound of Asshur.”

    RESHEPH 1 Chronicles 7:25.

    REST Hebrews 4:9, “there remaineth a keeping of sabbath (sabbatismos ) to the people of God.” God’s rest (“My rest” Hebrews 4:3) was a sabbatism, so will ours be; a home for the exile, a mansion for the pilgrim, a sabbath for the workman weary of the world’s weekday toil. In time there are many sabbaths, then there shall be one perfect and eternal. The “rest” in Hebrews 4:8 is katapausis ; Hebrews noach , rest from weariness: as the ark rested on Ararat after its tossings; as Israel, under Joshua, rested from war in Canaan. Anesis ( 2 Thessalonians 1:7), relaxation from afflictions. Anapausis , “rest,” given by Jesus now ( Matthew 11:28); but the “rest” in Hebrews 4:9 is the nobler sabbath rest; katapausis , literally, cessation from work finished ( Hebrews 4:4) as God rested from His ( Revelation 14:13; 16:17).

    The two ideas combined give the perfect view of the heavenly sabbath: rest from weariness, sorrow, and sin; and rest in the completion of God’s new creation ( Revelation 21:5). The renovated creation shall share in it.

    Nothing will there be to break the sabbath of eternity. The Triune God shall rejoice in the work of His hands ( Zephaniah 3:17). The Jews call the future rest “the day which is all sabbath.”

    RESURRECTION (See JESUS and see LAW ). His resurrection is the earnest or “firstfruits” of ours. His life is ours by vital union with Him, and because He lives we shall live also ( 1 Corinthians 15:23; John 14:19). Christ from Exodus 3:6,16 proves the resurrection and charges the see SADDUCEES with ignorance of Scripture and of God’s “power” ( Mark 12:24) as the root of their “error.” God said, “I AM the God of Abraham” when Abraham was dead; but God is the God of the living, Abraham must therefore live again and already lives in God’s sure purpose, not a disembodied spirit, which would be no restoration of man in his integrity, but as heir of an abiding city suited to man with perfect body, soul, and spirit ( Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 11:8-16). God promised “to thee will I give this land,” not merely to thy posterity. This can only be fulfilled by Abraham rising and, in integrity of parts, inheriting the antitypical Canaan.

    Disembodied spirits require a body if they are to exercise the functions of life. Abraham’s soul now receives blessings from God, but will only “live unto God” when he receives again the body. Rabbi Simai argues on Exodus 6:3,4, “it is not, said, to give you, but to give them, whereby the resurrection of the dead appeareth out of the law.” So Manasseh ben Israel, “God said to Abraham, I will give to thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger; but Abraham did not possess that land; wherefore it is of necessity that they should be raised up to enjoy the good promises, else God’s promise would be vain.” The Pharisees in holding this preserved the faith gleaned from the Old Testament by the pious fathers of the nation; such was Martha’s and Paul’s faith ( John 11:25; Acts 26:6-8). Jacob’s dying ejaculation “I have waited for Thy salvation” ( Genesis 49:18) and Balaam’s, “let me die the death of the righteous,” etc. ( Numbers 23:10), assume a future state. see JOB expressly asserts his anticipation of the resurrection through his Redeemer ( Job 19:23-27) (see REDEEMER for the translated). So David ( Psalm 16:9-11; 17:14,15) anticipates his “soul not being left in hades,” so that “his flesh shall rest in hope,” and his “awaking with Jehovah’s likeness”; fulfilled in Christ the Head first ( Acts 2:25-31), and hereafter to be so in His members. So Isaiah ( Isaiah 26:19), “thy dead shall live ... my dead body shall they arise”; Christ’s dead body raised is the pledge of the resurrection of all Jehovah’s people. Daniel ( Daniel 12:2): Hebrew “many from among the sleepers, these (the partakers of the first resurrection, Revelation 20) shall be unto everlasting life; but those (the rest who do not rise until after the thousand years) shall be unto shame” ( 1 Corinthians 15:23). The wicked too shall rise ( John 5:28,29; Revelation 20:13). Essentially the same body wherewith the unbeliever sinned shall be the object of punishment ( Jeremiah 2:10; Isaiah 3:9-11; Revelation 22:11,12; 2 Corinthians 5:10), “that every one may receive the things done by the instrumentality of (‘dia ’) the body.” Self consciousness witnesses the identity between the body of the infant and full grown man, though that identity does not consist in the sameness of the particles which compose the body at different stages. Possibly there is some indestructible material germ at the basis of identity between the natural (psychic, i.e. soulish or animal) body and the resurrection body which 1 Corinthians 15:44,45 call a “spirit-animated body,” in contrast to the “natural.” “Christ will transfigure our body of humiliation ( Corinthians 4:10; 2 Timothy 2:11,12: ‘not vile, nothing that He made is vile:’ Whately on his death bed), that it may be conformed unto the body of His glory” ( Philippians 3:21). The mere animal functions of flesh and blood shall no longer be needed they do not marry, but are equal to the angels ( Luke 20:35,36; 1 Corinthians 6:13; 15:35-57; 1 Peter 1:3,4) The time is fixed for the Lord’s coming ( Colossians 3:4; 1 Thess, 4:16; Revelation 20). (See REGENERATION ).

    REU Peleg’s son. Among Abraham’s ancestors ( Genesis 11:18-21). Lived 239 years according to the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuch, according to Septuagint.

    REUBEN Jacob’s firstborn, Leah’s son, born long after the marriage. The name expresses the parents’ joy at the accomplishment of long deferred hope:

    Behold ye a son ( Genesis 29:32). He gathered see MANDRAKES for his mother, in boyhood ( Genesis 30:14). In a sudden gust of temptation he was guilty of foul incest with Bilhah, his father’s secondary wife. Jacob on his deathbed ( Genesis 49:3,4) said: “boiling over (so pachaz means) like water (on a rapid fire), thou shalt not excel” ( Genesis 49:4). The effervescence of water symbolizes excited lust and insolent pride. By birthright Reuben was “the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power” ( Genesis 49:3), i.e. entitled to the chieftianship of the tribes and to a double portion; but because of incest ( Genesis 35:22; Leviticus 18:8) “thou shalt not excel” or “have this excellency” (compare the margin of Leviticus 4:7). (No great act, no great prophet, judge, or hero leader, springing from Reuben, appears on record ( 1 Chronicles 5:1,2). The chieftainship was transferred to Judah, the double portion to Joseph; the firstborn of the beloved Rachel superseding the firstborn of slighted Leah, not however to gratify the father’s preference ( Deuteronomy 21:15-17), but to fulfill God’s holy purpose.

    Impulses to good, as well as evil, were strong in Reuben. Impetuous, without due balance of mind, he was at the same time generous in disposition. He saved Joseph’s life from the crafty and cruel brothers, Levi, Simeon, Judah, and the rest, by insisting that his blood should not be shed, but he be cast into a pit, Reuben secretly intending to deliver him out of their hands. These took advantage of his temporary absence to sell Joseph ( Genesis 37:20 ff). He probably had gone to seek means to rescue Joseph. The writer’s omitting to explain Reuben’s absence is just what a forger would not have omitted, and proves the simplicity and truthfulness of the narrative. Reuben was deeply moved to find Joseph gone; he rent his clothes, crying, “the child is not, and I, where shall I go?” Years after he reminded them of his remonstrance ( Genesis 42:22): “spoke I not unto you saying, Do not sin against the child, and ye would not hear? Therefore behold also his blood is required.” Again, his offer to Jacob ( Genesis 42:37) to stake his own two sons’ lives for the safety of Benjamin, Joseph’s surviving brother, is another trait of kindliness. But consistent resoluteness was wanting; putting Joseph in the pit was a compromise with the brothers’ wickedness; decided, firm, unyielding resistance would have awed them and saved Joseph.

    Reuben had four sons at the migration into Egypt ( Genesis 46:9; Chronicles 5:3; Numbers 26:5-11). The conspirators Dathan, Abiram, and On sprang through Eliab and Pallu from Reuben ( Numbers 16:1).

    At the Sinai census ( Numbers 1:20,21; 2:11) Reuben numbered 46,500 men above 20 years of age, fit for service, and was sixth on the list: at the borders of Canaan ( Numbers 26:7) -- 43,730. On march Reuben was S. of the tabernacle; Gad and Simeon were next Reuben on the same side ( Numbers 2:10-16). Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh still retained their forefathers’ calling as tending flocks and herds ( Numbers 32:1). So, at their request, they were allowed to occupy Og’s and Sihor’s territories E. of Jordan, “the mishor” or even downs, the modern Belka; well watered, with smooth short turf, stretching away into the vast nomadic tracts eastward. Reuben, faithfully keeping their promise to Moses ( Numbers 32:16-33), left the wives, little ones, and flocks behind in this region, and marched W. of Jordan to help in the conquest of Canaan; subsequently they erected an altar shaped like the tabernacle altar, W. of Jordan, not for sacrifice but to attest their share in the national worship with their brethren on that side (Joshua 22). By a solemn protestation of their not intending political or religious schism in the name of ‘Eel , the Strong One, Elohim the Supreme Being to be feared, and Jehovah the covenant God, they disabused Israel’s mind of suspicion. Typical of there being only one sacrificial altar, Christ, above; our earthly communion with His sacrifice being commemorative, spiritual, and real, not carnal and literal ( Hebrews 13:10; Revelation 8:3).

    Moses’ blessing on Reuben ( Deuteronomy 33:6,7), “let Reuben live and not die, and let (not) his men be few,” implies a warning and a deprecation of evils deserved. Reuben held the S. of the land E. of Jordan. Occupation with their flocks made them dilatory and unwilling to join in the struggle for national independence against Jabin ( Judges 5:15,16). Keil translated, “at the watercourses of Reuben were great resolutions (projects) of heart.” Reuben held meetings by their rural watercourses (pelagot ), passed spirited resolutions, but after all preferred remaining quietly among the sheepfolds (hurdles) and hearing the bleating of the flocks (or else the piping of shepherds) rather than the blast of war trumpets. The same impulsive instability appears in them as in their forefather Reuben (see RIVER ). Seeking pastures for their flocks they dissipated their strength in guerrilla marauding expeditions toward Euphrates against the Bedouin tribes Hagar, Jetur, Nephish ( Chronicles 5:9,10,18, etc.). The see DIBON stone shows that Moab wrested from Reuben many cities assigned by Joshua to them. Finally going a whoring after the gods of the people of the land whom God destroyed before them, Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh were first cut short by Hazael ( 2 Kings 10:32,33), then carried off by Pul and Tiglath Pileser, and placed about the river Khabour “in Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river Gozan” ( 1 Chronicles 5:26).

    REUEL 1. Genesis 36:4,10,13,17. 2. The father-in-law of Moses, Zipporah’s father ( Exodus 2:18). (See HOBAB ). 3. Numbers 2:14.DEUEL in Numbers 1:14; 7:42. 4. 1 Chronicles 9:8.

    REUMAH Genesis 22:24.

    REVELATION OF JOHN Authorship and authenticity. The writer calls himself John ( Revelation 1:1,4,9; 22:8). Justin Martyr (Dial. 308, A.D. 139-161) quotes it as the apostle John’s work, referring to the millennium and general resurrection and judgment. Justin held his controversy with the learned Jew Trypho at Ephesus, John’s residence 35 years previously; he says “the Revelation was given to John, one of the twelve apostles of Christ.” Melito, bishop of Sardis (A.D. 171), one of the seven churches whose angel was reproved ( Revelation 3:1), is said by Eusebius (H.E. iv. 26) to have written on the Revelation of John. So, Theophilus of Antioch (A.D. 180) quoted from the Revelation of John (Eusebius iv. 26), also Apollonius of Asia Minor in the end of the second century. Irenaeus (A.D. 195), a hearer of Polycarp (John’s disciple, probably the angel of the Smyrnean church, Usher), quotes repeatedly Revelation as the apostle John’s writing (Haer. iv. 20, section 11; 21, section 3; 30, section 4; 5:26, section 1; 30, section 3; 35, section 2). In v. 30, section 1 he quotes the beast’s number ( Revelation 13:18) as in all the old copies, and orally confirmed to him by persons who had seen John, adding “we do not hazard a confident theory as to Antichrist’s name, for if it had been necessary that his name should be proclaimed openly at this present time it would have been declared by him who saw the apocalyptic vision, for it was seen not long ago, but almost in our generation, toward the end of Domitian’s reign.” In writing “against heresies” ten years after Polycarp’s martyrdom he quotes Revelation 20 times as inspired Scripture. These are testimonies of those contemporary with John’s immediate successors, and connected with the region of the seven churches to which Revelation is addressed. Tertullian of northern Africa (A.D. 220, Adv. Marcion iii. 14,24) quotes the apostle John’s description of the sword proceeding out of Christ’s mouth ( Revelation 19:15), and the heavenly city (Revelation 21). See also De Resurr. 27; De Anima 8:9; De Praescr. Haeretic, 33. The Muratorian Canon (A.D. 170) refers to John, “Paul’s predecessor,” namely, in the apostleship, as writing to the seven churches. Hippolytus, bishop of Ostia, about A.D. 240 (De Antichristo 67) quotes Revelation 17:1-18 as the apostle John’s writing. The catalogue on Hippolytus’ statue specifies among his writings a treatise on the Revelation and Gospel according to John.” Clemens Alex., A.D. 200 (Strom. 6:13), refers to the 24 elders’ seats mentioned in Revelation ( Revelation 4:5) by John, also (Quis Dives Salvus? section 42) John’s return to Ephesus from Patmos on the Roman emperor’s death. Origen (A.D. 233, commentary on Matthew in Eusebius H. E. vi. 25) names John as author of Revelation without any doubt, also (on Matthew, tom. 16:6) he quotes Revelation 1:9, and observes “John seems to have beheld the Apocalypse in the isle of Patmos.” Victorinus, bishop of Petau in Pannonia, martyred under Diocletian (A.D. 303), wrote the oldest extant commentary on Revelation.

    Ephraem the Syrian (A.D. 378) quotes it as John’s work and as Scripture, though the Syriac Peshito version omits it. Papias, John’s hearer and Polycarp’s associate and bishop of Hierapolis near Laodicea (one of the seven churches), attests its canonicity and inspiration (according to a scholium of Andreas of Cappadocia). Revelation was omitted by the council of Laodicea from its list of books to be read publicly, doubtless because of its prophetic obscurity. The epistle of the churches of Lyons and Vienne to those of Asia and Phrygia (in Eusebius, H. E. v. 1-3) in the Aurelian persecution, A.D. 177, quotes as Scripture Revelation 1:5; 3:14; 14:4; 22:11. Cyprian, A.D. 250 (Ep. 13), quotes Revelation 2:5 as Scripture, and Revelation 3:21 (Ep. 25) as of the same authority as the Gospel. Athanasius (Fest. Ep.) reckons Revelation among the canonical Scriptures to which none must add and from which none must take away.

    Jerome (Ep. ad Paulin.) enumerates Revelation as in the canon, saying: “it has as many mysteries as words. All praise falls short of its merits. In each word lie hid manifold senses.” Thus a continuous chain of witnesses proves its authenticity and canonicity.

    The Alogi (Epiphanius, Haer. 31) and Cains the Roman presbyter (Eusebius iii. 28), toward the end of the second and beginning of the third century, rejected Revelation on slight grounds. Caius (A.D. 210) according to Jerome (De Vir. Illustr.) ascribed Revelation to Cerinthus. Dionysius of Alexandria says many before his time rejected it because of its obscurity, or because it supported Cerinthus’ view of an earthly kingdom. Dionysius, Origen’ s scholar, bishop of Alexandria (A.D. 247), recognizes its inspiration (in Eusebius, H. E. vii. 10), but ascribes it to a different John from the evangelist, on the ground of its different style and its naming John, whereas his name is kept back in the Gospel, also as the epistle does not allude to Revelation nor Revelation to the epistle; moreover the style abounds in solecisms.

    Eusebius (H. E. xxiv. 39) through antimillennial bias wavers as to whether to count Revelation canonical or not. Cyril of Jerusalem (A.D. 386; Catachesis iv. 35,36) omits Revelation in enumerating the New Testament Scriptures to be read privately as well as publicly, for he argues “whatever is not read in the churches read not even by thyself.” Yet (Catechesis i. 4) he quotes Revelation 2:7,17, and (Catechesis i. 16, section 13) draws from Revelation 17:11 the conclusion that the king who should humble three kings ( Daniel 7:8,20) is the eighth king. In Daniel 7:15,27 he quotes from Revelation 12:3,4. The 60th canon (if genuine) of the Laodicean council (fourth century A.D.) omits Revelation from the canon; but the council of Carthage (A.D. 397) recognizes its canonicity. The eastern church in part doubted, the western church after the fifth century universally recognized, the Revelation. Cyril of Alexandria (De Adoratione, 146), while intimating the doubts of some, himself accepts it as John’s work. Andreas of Caesarea in Cappadocia recognized its genuineness and canonicity, and wrote the first connected commentary on it. The most primitive testimony is decidedly for it; the only objections were subjective: (1) the opposition of many to the millennium in it; (2) its symbolism and obscurity prevented its being publicly read in churches and its being taught to the young.

    The writer’s addresses to the seven churches of proconsular Asia accord with the tradition that after John’s return from Patmos at Domitian’s death he lived for long in Nerva’s reign, and died at Ephesus in Trajan’s time (Eusebius, H. E. iii. 20,23). If Revelation were not his, it would certainly have been rejected in that region, whereas the earliest witnesses in the churches there are all in its favor. One alone could use such authoritative language to the seven churches, namely John, the last surviving apostle, who superintended all the churches. It is John’s manner to asseverate the accuracy of his testimony at the beginning and end ( Revelation 1:2,3; 22:8 with John 1:14; 19:35; 21:24; 1 John 1:1,2). Moreover, it accords with the writer’s being an inspired apostle that he addresses the angels or presidents of the churches as a superior inferiors. Also he commends Ephesus for trying and convicting “them which say they are apostles, and are not”; implying his own claim to prophetic inspiration ( Revelation 2:2) as declaring in the seven epistles Christ’s will revealed through him. None but John could, without designing to deceive, have assumed the simple title “John” without addition. One alone, the apostle, would be understood by the designation at that time, and in Asia. “The fellow servant of angels and brother of prophets” ( Revelation 22:9) is more likely to be the celebrated apostle John than any less known person bearing the name.

    As to difference of style, as compared with the Gospel and epistle, the difference of subject accounts for it; the seer, rapt above the region of sense, appropriately expresses himself in a style abrupt and unbound by the grammatical laws which governed his calmer and more deliberate writings.

    Writing a revelation related to the Old Testament prophets (Daniel especially), John, himself a Galilean Hebrew, reverts to their Hebraistic style. Besides there are resemblances of style between the Apocalypse and John’s Gospel and epistle; e.g. (1) Christ’s designation unique to John, “the Word of God” ( Revelation 19:13; John 1:1; 1 John 1:1). (2) “He that overcometh” ( Revelation 2:7,11,17; 3:5,12,21; 12:11; 15:2; 17:14; 21:7; John 16:33; 1 John 2:13,14; 4:4; 5:4,5). (3) “True,” i.e. genuine, antitypical (aleethinos ), as opposed to what is shadowy and unreal; only once in Luke ( Luke 16:11); four times in Paul’s epistles ( 1 Thessalonians 1:9; Hebrews 8:2; 9:24; 10:22); but nine times in John’s Gospel ( John 1:9; 4:23,37; 6:32; 7:28; 8:16; 15:1; 17:3; 19:35); four times in 1 John ( 1 John 2:8; 5:20); ten times in Revelation ( Revelation 3:7,14; 6:10; 15:3; 16:7; 19:2,9,11; 21:5; 22:6). (4) The diminutive for lamb (arnion , “lambkin”) occurs 29 times in Revelation; the only other place of its occurrence is John 21:15; by John alone is Christ called directly “the Lamb” ( John 1:29,36), in 1 Peter 1:19 “the blood of Christ as a lamb,” etc., alluding to Isaiah 53:7. (5) So “witness” or “testimony” ( Revelation 1:2,9; 6:9; 11:7; John 1:7,8,15,19,32; 1 John 1:2; 4:14; 5:6-11); “keep the word,” “commandments” ( Revelation 3:8,10; 12:17; John 8:51,55; 14:15). (6) The same thing asserted post. lively and negatively ( Revelation 2:2,6,8,13; 3:8,17,18; John 1:3,6,7,20; 1 John 2:27,28). (7) Spiritual “anointing” ( Revelation 3:18; 1 John 2:20,27). The startling solecisms arrest attention to the deep truths beneath, they flow from the sublime elevation which raises the transported seer above mere grammatical rules. It is not due to ignorance of grammar, because he shows his knowledge of it in more difficult constructions. But in order to put his transcendent subject vividly before the eye, with graphic abruptness he passes from one grammatical construction to another. The connection of thought is more attended to than that of grammar. Two-fifths of the whole, moreover, is the recorded language of others, not John’s own.

    Tregelles (New Testament Historical Evidences) observes, “there is no book of the New Testament for which we have so clear, ample, and numerous testimonies in the second century as we have for the Apocalypse. The nearer the connection of the witnesses with the apostle John (as Irenaeus), the more explicit their testimony. That doubts should prevail in after ages must have originated either in ignorance of the earlier testimony, or else from some supposed intuition of what the apostle ought to have written. The objections on the ground of internal style can weigh nothing against the actual evidence. It is in vain to argue a priori that John could not have written the book, when we have the evidence of several competent witnesses that he did write it.”

    Relation of Revelation to the rest of the canon. Gregory of Nyssa (tom. iii. 601) calls Revelation “the last book of grace.” It completes the volume of inspiration. No further revelation remains until Christ shall come, as is implied in Revelation 22:18-20. Appropriately, the last surviving apostle wrote it. The New Testament consists of the histories (the Gospels and Acts), the doctrinal epistles, and the one prophetic book, Revelation; the same apostle wrote the last of the Gospels dud the last of the epistles and the only prophetic book of the New Testament All the New Testament books were written and read in the church assemblies some years before John’s death. Providence prolonged his life, that he might give Scripture its final attestation. The Asiatic bishops (A.D. 100) came to John at Ephesus, bringing him copies of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and requested his apostolic judgment concerning them; he pronounced them genuine, authentic, and inspired, and at their request added his Gospel to complete the fourfold aspect of Christ (Muratori Canon; Eusebius iii. 24; Jerome, Procem. in Matth.; Victorinus on the Apocalypse; Theodoret of Mopsuestia). What he wrote they attested; John 21:24, “this is the disciple which testifieth of these things and wrote these things, and WE know that his testimony is true.” Revelation is “the seal of the whole Bible” (a Greek divine in Allatius), the completion of the canon. Scripture is one organic whole, its books, though ranging over 1,500 years in their date of composition, being mutually connected. The end is the necessary sequence of the middle, the middle of the beginning. Genesis represents man in innocence and bliss, followed by man’s fall through Satan’s cunning, and man’s consequent dooming to death and exclusion from paradise and its tree of life and delightful rivers. Revelation represents in reverse order man first sinning and dying, then conquering sin and death through the blood of the Lamb; the first Adam and Eve represented by the second Adam, Christ, and the church His spotless bride in paradise, with access to the tree of life, and the crystal waters of life flowing from the throne of God. As Genesis foretold the bruising of the serpent’s head by the woman’s Seed, so Revelation declares the accomplishment of that prophecy (Revelation 19-- 20).

    PLACE AND TIME OF WRITING. John was exiled under Domitian (Iren. 5:30; Clemens Alex.; Eusebius, H. E. iii. 20). Victorinus says he had to labor in the mines of see PATMOS . At Domitian’s death (A.D. 95) he returned to Ephesus under Nerva. He probably wrote out the visions immediately after seeing them ( Revelation 1:2,9; 10:4). “Forbidden to go beyond certain bounds of earth, he was permitted t heaven” (Bede on Revelation 1). Irenaeus writes, “Revelation was seen no long time ago, almost in our own generation, at the close of Domitian’s reign.”

    Coincidences with the epistles of Paul and Peter ( Revelation 1:4,8; 22:12; Hebrews 10:37. Revelation 21:14; Hebrews 11:10. Revelation 14:1; Hebrews 12:22,23. Revelation 11:19; 15:5; 21:3; Hebrews 8:1,2. Revelation 1:16; 2:12,16; 19:13,15; Hebrews 4:12. Revelation 20; Hebrews 4:9. Revelation 1:1 with 1 Peter 1:7,13. Revelation 4:13; 5:10; with 1 Peter 2:9. Revelation 2:26,27; 3:21; 11:18; with 2 Timothy 4:8. Revelation 12:7-12 with Ephesians 6:12. Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12,15; Philippians 4:3. Revelation 1:5; Colossians 1:18. Revelation 10:7; 11:15-18, with 1 Corinthians 15:52). The characteristic Pauline benediction ( Revelation 1:4) John would scarcely have used in Paul’s life; his adopting it must have been after Paul’s death under Nero.

    READERS ADDRESSED. The inscription makes Revelation addressed to the seven churches of Asia, i.e. proconsular Asia. There were more than that number, e.g. Magnesia and Tralles; but John fixes on the sacred number seven, implying totality and universality, to mark that his address under the Spirit is to the church of all places and ages; its various states of life or deadness the seven churches represent, and are accordingly encouraged or warned. Smyrna and Philadelphia alone receive unmixed praise, as faithful in tribulation and rich in works of love. Heresies had sprung up in Asia, and some had waxed lukewarm; while others increased in zeal, and one, see ANTIPAS , sealed his witness with his blood.

    OBJECT. Mainly, as the introduction states, to “show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass” (Revelation 1--3). The foundation of the whole is Revelation 1:5-9; Christ’s person, offices as our Redeemer. second coming, and the intermediate tribulation of those who in patient perseverance wait for His kingdom. From Revelation 4 to Revelation 22 is mainly prophecy, with consolations and exhortations interspersed, similar to those addressed to the seven churches (who represent the universal church of all ages), so that the beginning forms an appropriate introduction to the body of the book.

    INTERPRETATION. Three schools exist: (1) The preterists hold that the whole has been fulfilled in the past. (2) The historical interpreters think that it comprises the history of the church from John’s time to the end of the world, the seals being chronologically succeeded by the trumpets and the trumpets by the vials.

    The objection is, the prophecies, if fulfilled as is alleged, ought to supply an argument against infidelity; but its advocates differ widely among themselves as to the fulfillment, so that no such argument is derivable from them for the faith. (3) The futurists consider almost the whole as yet future, to be fulfilled immediately before Christ’s second coming. No early father held the first theory; few but rationalists hold it, who limit John’s vision to his own age, pagan Rome’s persecutions, and its consequently anticipated destruction.

    God has said “surely He will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets” ( Amos 3:7). The Jews had a succession of prophets to guide them by the light of prophecy; He never would leave the New Testament church without similar guidance for the 1,700 or 1,800 years since John’s age; what the prophets were to the Jews, that Revelation is to us. Its beginning and end ( Revelation 1:3; 22:6,7,12,20) assert a speedy fulfillment. “Babylon,” etc., cannot be interpreted literally.

    The close of the seven seals is couched in language which must refer to Christ’s second coming; so the close of the seven trumpets ( Revelation 6:12-17; 8:1 ff; 11:15); so the vials ( Revelation 16:17). All three run parallel toward their close, and end in the same point. “Catchwords” (Wordsworth) connect the three series; the subsequent series fills up in detail the same picture which the preceding drew in outline. So Victorinus on Revelation 7:2: “the order of things is not to be regarded, for the Holy Spirit, when He has run to the end of the last time, again returns to the same time, and supplies what lie has less fully expressed.” And Primasius, “in the crumpets he describes by a pleasing repetition. as is his custom.” At the beginning John hastens, as is the tendency of all the prophets, to the grand consummation ( Revelation 1:7): “Beheld he cometh with clouds,” etc. ( Revelation 1:8,17), “I am the beginning and ending ... the first and the last.” The seven epistles exhibit the same anticipation of the end ( Revelation 3:12, compare Revelation 21:2).

    Also Revelation 2:28, compare Revelation 22:16. Again the earthquake at the sixth seal’s opening is a “catchword,” i.e. a link chronologically connecting the sixth seal with the sixth trumpet ( Revelation 9:13; 11:13; compare the seventh seal, Revelation 16:17,18). The concomitants of the sixth seal, in their full, final, and exhaustive sense, can only apply to the terrors which shall overwhelm unbelievers just before the Judge’s advent. Again, “the beast out of the bottomless pit,” between the sixth and seventh trumpets ( Revelation 11:7), connects this series with the section Revelation 12; 13; 14; concerning the church and her adversaries the two beasts and the dragon.

    Again, the sealing of the 144,000 under the sixth seal (Revelation 7) connects this seal with the section Revelation 12--14. Again, the loosing of the four winds by the four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, under the sixth seal ( Revelation 7:1), answers to the loosing of the four angels at the Euphrates under the sixth trumpet ( Revelation 9:14).

    Links also connect Revelation with the Old Testament The “mouth speaking great things” ( Revelation 13:5) connects the “beast that blasphemes against God, and makes war against the saints,” with the “little horn” who, arising after the ten kings, shall “speak against the Most High, and wear out the saints”; compare also the “42 months” ( Revelation 13:5), or “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” with the “time, times, and the dividing of time” in Daniel 7:8,11,25. Moreover, the “42 months” in Revelation 11:2, answering to Revelation 12:6; 13:5, link together the period under the sixth trumpet to Revelation 12--14.

    NUMBER. “The history of salvation is mysteriously governed by holy numbers; they are the scaffolding of the organic edifice; they indicate not merely time but nature and essence; not only nature, but history, is based in numbers. Scripture and antiquity put numbers as the fundamental forms of things, where we put ideas.” (Auberlen). As number regulates the relations and proportions of the natural world, so does it enter most frequently into revelation, which sets forth the harmonies of the immediately Divine. Thus the most supernatural revelation leads us the farthest into the natural, the God of nature and of revelation being one. Seven is the see NUMBER for perfection ( Revelation 1:4; 4:5; 5:6). The seven seals, trumpets, vials, are each a complete series, fulfilling perfectly the divine course of judgments. Three and a half is opposed to the divine seven, but is broken in itself, and in the moment of its highest triumph is overwhelmed by judgment. Four is the number of the world’s extension; seven is that of God’s revelation in the world. In Daniel’s four beasts a superior power is recognized, a mimicry of Ezekiel’s four cherubs, which symbolize all creaturely life in its due subjection to God ( Ezekiel 4:6-8). So the four corners of the earth, the four winds, four angels loosed from Euphrates, and Jerusalem lying “four square” expressing world wide extension. The sevenfoldness of the Spirits ( Revelation 1:4) on the part of God corresponds to the fourfold cherubim on the part of the created. John, seeing more deeply into the essentially God-opposed character of the world, presents to us not the four beasts of Daniel, but the seven heads of the beast, whereby it arrogates to itself the sevenfold perfection of the Spirits of God, at the same time that with characteristic self contradiction it has ten horns, the number peculiar to the world power. Its unjust usurpation of the sacred seven is marked by the addition of an eighth to the seven heads, also by the beast’s own number, 666, which in units, tens, and hundreds, verges upon, but falls short of, seven. The judgments on the world are complete in six; after the sixth seal and the sixth trumpet there is a pause. When seven comes there comes “the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ.” Six is the number of the world given to judgment, six is half of twelve; twelve is the church’s number, as Israel’s 12 tribes, the 12 stars on the woman’s head ( Revelation 12:1), the New Jerusalem’s 12 gates ( Revelation 21:12-16). Six symbolizes the world broken and without solid foundation. Twice twelve is the number of the heavenly elders, times 12,000 the number of the sealed elect. The tree of life yields twelve manner of fruits ( Revelation 22:2). A chronological meaning also is in the numbers, but as yet it is not incontrovertibly ascertained. We are commanded to investigate them reverently, not for the gratification of curiosity. The event will show the wisdom of God, who ordered all things in minutely harmonious relations as to the times, ways, and events themselves.

    Arguments for the year day theory. (1) Daniel 9:24, “seventy sevens (Hebrew) are determined upon.” Mede says the Hebrew always means seven of days, never of years ( Leviticus 7:5; Deuteronomy 16:9,10,16). (2) Israel’s wandering in the wilderness was for 40 years to correspond to the 40 days of the spies’ search of Canaan, “each day for a year” ( Numbers 14:33,34). (3) In Ezekiel 4:5,6, “I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, 390 days ... 40 days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.” (4) In Revelation 2:10 the prophecy “ye shall have tribulation ten days” seems fulfilled in the ten years of persecution recorded by Eusebius. Even in the year-day theory patience and probation of faith have scope for exercise, for the precise beginning of the 1,260 years is uncertain to us, so that Christ’s words would still hold good, “of that day and hour knoweth no man.” But the theory is hardly probable in all places, e.g. the “thousand years” in Revelation 20:6,7, can scarcely mean 1,000 by 360 days, i.e. 360,000 years. ”The first resurrection” then must be literal, for Revelation 20:5 is so, “the rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years were finished”; Corinthians 15:23; Philippians 3:11; Luke 20:35,36 confirm it. The fathers between the apostolic age and Constantine held the premillennial (chiliastic, from the Greek chilioi a thousand) advent. Rome was then associated with antichrist. But when Christianity was established under Constantine professors looked at the church’s temporal prosperity as fulfilling the prophecy, and ceased to look for Christ’s promised reign on earth. Popery beforehand usurps the earthly throne which Christ shall assume only at His appearing. A primary historical fulfillment of the symbols is likely, typical of the ultimate and exhaustive fulfillment which toward the close shall vindicate God’s grand scheme, as a whole, before the universe. Hence language is used in part answering to the primary historical event, but awaiting the full realization in the close of this present age.

    REZEPH (“a stone”). A fortress conquered by Sennacherib ( 2 Kings 19:12), probably on the western side of Euphrates; joined with Haran. Ptolemy ( 2 Kings 5:15) mentions a Resapha in the Palmyrene district.

    REZIA 1 Chronicles 7:39.

    REZIN 1. King of Damascus. The Israelite see PEKAH ’S ally, always mentioned first in the war against Ahaz of Judah ( Isaiah 7:4-8; 8; 17:1; 2 Kings 15:37; 16:5-9). He previously attacked Jotham. Rezin wrested from Judah Elath on the gulf of Akabah of the Red Sea. But Ahaz invited Tiglath Pileser to his help, who took Damascus and slew Rezin, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy. His aim had been to put a creature of his own on the throne of Judah, “the son of Tabeal.” Tiglath Pileser having reduced Syria to be tributary before treated Rezin as a rebel, and carried away the Syrians captive to see KIR . In the monuments records his defeat of Rezin and Damascus. 2. A family of the Nethinim ( Ezra 2:48; Nehemiah 7:50). A non- Israelite name.

    REZON (See HADAREZER ). 1 Kings 11:23,24. Gathered the Syrian remnant, after David’s slaughter of his master Hadadezer ( 2 Samuel 8:3-8), and set up a petty kingdom at Damascus, and thence harassed Solomon’s kingdom. See also Josephus, Ant. 8:7, section 6.

    RHEGIUM A city in the S. of Italy, at the southern entrance of the straits of Messina, opposite Sicily; now Reggio. Here Paul (sailing from Syracuse) landed on his way to Rome and stopped a day ( Acts 28:13). By curious coincidence the figures on its extant coins are the “twin brothers, Castor and Pollux,” from whom Paul’s ship was named. The intermediate position of Rhegium between Syracuse and Puteoli, his waiting there for a S. wind to carry the ship through the straits, the run to Puteoli within the 24 hours, all accord with geographical accuracy. The distance of Rhegium across the straits to Messina is about six miles.

    RHESA Son of Zerubbabel in Christ’s genealogy ( Luke 3:27). Lord A. Hervey conjectures Rhesa to be no person, but the title of Zerubbabel, rosh , i.e. “prince,” thereby removing a difficulty in reconciling Matthew’s with Luke’s genealogy.

    RHODA The maid who announced Peter’s arrival at Mary’s door after his release from prison ( Acts 12:13,14).

    RHODES A large island of the Aegean sea, mentioned in Paul’s third missionary journey to Jerusalem; he passed it apparently without landing ( Acts 21:1). The day before he was at Cos, an island on the N.W. From Rhodes he went eastward to Patara in Lycia. The wind was probably, as often in the Levant, blowing from N.W. S.W. of Asia Minor, having Caria to the N. and Lycia to the E. The people were honorable, upright, and prudent; famed for mercantile pursuits. Its temple to the sun, and the colossus, a statue of Apollo, 105 ft. high, executed by Chares of Lindos, a native artist, 288 B.C. were famous. The coins bear on the obverse the head of Apollo as the sun (the proverb said the sun shone every day on Rhodes), on the reverse the rose from which Rhodes takes its name. The capital is at the N.E. of the island. It was the last spot where the Christians of the East held out against the advancing Saracens, and was subsequently noted as the home and fortress of the knights of John.

    RIBAI 2 Samuel 23:29.

    RIBLAH 1. A landmark on the eastern border of Israel ( Numbers 34:11), between Shepham and the sea of Cinneroth, on the “E. side of the spring.”

    Probably, without the vowel points and the final -ah of motion towards, the true name is Harbel “the Mount of Bel” or Baal. Judges 3:3, “Har-Baal- Hermon,” Septuagint reads Ar-bela, which confirms Harbel; the summit of Hermon, the southernmost and highest peak of Antilibanus, 10,000 ft. high, overtopping every mountain in Palestine. The ruins of a Baal sanctuary still remain on it. However, “go down from Shepham to Riblah” seemingly implies Riblah was lower; therefore Riblah was probably one of the many sanctuaries with which the sides, as well as the summit, of Hermon were covered. The landmark of Judges 3:3 would be unlikely to he omitted in Numbers 34:11. The “spring” or “fountain” (Ain), E. of which was Riblah, was probably, as Jerome and the later targums understood it, the fountain of the Jordan. The two most celebrated sources of Jordan, Daphne and Paneas, are in the plain at the S.W. foot of Hermon; streams from the western slopes of the mountain feed the longest branch of the river. 2. Riblah or Riblathah in the land of Hamath, on the high road between Palestine and Babylon, where the Babylonian kings remained in directing the operations of their armies in Palestine and Phoenicia; where Jehoahaz was put in chains by Pharaoh Necho ( 2 Kings 23:33), and Zedekiah, after seeing his sons slain, had his own eyes put out ( Jeremiah 39:5-7; literally, Jeremiah 39:9,10), and other leading captives were slain, probably by the Assyrian death of impaling ( Jeremiah 39:24,27), as depicted on the monuments. Still called Ribleh, on the right bank of the Orontes (Asy), 30 miles N.E. of Baalbek; consisting of 40 or 50 houses and the remains of a quadrangular building. In the midst of a vast and fertile plain, stretching in all directions save S.W., and on a mountain stream; an admirable encampment for the Egyptian and Babylonian hosts.

    The curious Kamoa el Hermel is visible from Riblah, a pyramidal top resting on a quadrilateral building in two stories. It is on a high mound several miles higher up the Orontes than Riblah. The lower story has figures of dogs, stags, and hunting instruments. From Riblah the roads were open by the Euphrates to Nineveh, or by Palmyra to Babylon, by the S. of Lebanon and the coast to Palestine and Egypt, or through the Bekaa and Jordan valley to the center of Palestine.

    RIDDLE Hebrew chidah (see PROVERBS ), Judges 14:12-19; Greek enigma , 1 Corinthians 13:12, “darkly,” literally, “in enigma,” “an obscure allegory” (Augustine).

    RIMMON 1. Father of see RECHAB and see BAANAH : 2 Samuel 4:2-9. 2. An idol worshipped by the Syrians of Damascus ( 2 Kings 5:18). The name appears in Hadad Rimmon. From rum , “the most high”; as El-ion (Selden, Gesenius, etc.). Others from Hebrew rimmon , a “pomegranate,” sacred to Venus; the fertilizing principle in nature; tree worship anciently having prevailed, a perverted relic of the tradition of Eden’s tree of life.

    Hadadrimmon may be the full name, from Hadad the sun god and Rimmon the pomegranate ripened in the autumn. 3. A town of Zebulun (see REMMON ). 4. Of Judah in Simeon’s portion ( Joshua 15:32, where verse 29 for verse 36 is a copyist’s error); near the southern bound of Judah ( Zechariah 14:10). Omit “and” between Ain and Rimmon, and make one name Ain-Rimmon or En-Rimmen, as Engedi ( Nehemiah 11:29).

    Um-er-rumamin, “mother of pomegranates,” four hours N. of Beersheba, corresponds (Robinson, Researches, iii. 8). From the neighboring hill region the spies brought pomegranates and figs ( Numbers 13:23). 5. Rimmon the rock; where the 600 surviving Benjamites retreated after the slaughter of the tribe, and kept themselves four months ( Judges 20:45,47; 21:13). Fifteen Roman miles N. of Jerusalem. Now the village Rummon stands on and round the top of a conical limestone mountain, and is visible in all directions (Robinson, 2:113). The houses cling to the sides as huge steps. On the southern side the mountain rises hundreds of feet from the ravine wady Mutyah, and on the western side it is isolated by a deep cross valley. It lies three miles E. of Bethel, and seven N.E. of Gibeah.

    RIMMON PAREZ orRIMMON PEREZ. A station in Israel’s marches ( Numbers 33:19,20) = “the pomegranate of the breach.” Probably the scene of God’s breaking forth in wrath, as at Korah’s rebellion (compare 2 Samuel 6:8; Job 16:14).

    RING tabaath , “to impress with a seal.” (See EARRING ). Used as a signet ( Genesis 38:18, chothem ), worn on the hand, or suspended, as the Arabs do, by a cord from the neck. Pharaoh’s transfer of his ring from his finger to Joseph betokened his investing him with royal authority ( Genesis 41:42; a device, as the beetle or the owner’s name, was engraven on it, Exodus 28:11). So Ahasuerus in the case of Haman ( Esther 3:8-10), and Mordecai ( Esther 8:2). In Luke 15:22 it is the father’s token of favor, dignity, and sonship to the prodigal; Roman slaves wore no gold rings. We are no longer slaves but God’s free sons when we believe, and receive the Holy Spirit as the pledge of sonship and earnest of sharing the Father’s glory ( Galatians 4:3-7). Rich men (especially Romans of the equestrian order, whose badge the ring was) wore many rings on the left hand ( James 2:2). Greek “golden-ringed,” not merely with one ring. Christians derived the usage of the wedding ring from the Jews. The ring was treasured much, and so symbolizes what is most precious to us ( Jeremiah 22:24, Jehoiachin’s popularity is alluded to); the signet: ring was worn on the right hand (contrast Haggai 2:23).

    A costly sacrifice to the Lord ( Exodus 35:22). Song 5:14, “his hands” bent are compared to “rings” in which “beryls” are set, as the nails in the fingers; compare as to our names being “sealed” upon His heart, Song 8:6, and palms, Isaiah 49:16. The bride desires herself to be a signet ring on His arm. God in turn seals us with His signet ( Revelation 7:2-4), “I will make thee as a signet” ( Haggai 2:23), i.e. an object of constant regard, as the ring is ever before the eye. Christ the Antitype is always in the Father’s presence, ever pleasing in His sight; so we, through Him our representative. The signet represents legally the owner; so Christ wields the Father’s delegated authority ( Matthew 28:18; John 5:22,23).

    RINNAH 1 Chronicles 4:20.

    RIPHATH Gomer’s second son ( Genesis 10:3). Paphlagonia (Josephus, Ant. 1:6, section 1). The Riphaean mountains in the remote N. to the E. of Tanais (the Don); the Carpathian range N.E. of Dacia.

    RISSAH (“a worm”). A station in Israel’s march ( Numbers 33:21,22). Roman Rasa, 30 miles from Elath, on the road to Jerusalem, on the plateau of the wilderness near the hill now named Ras-el-Kaa, i.e. “head of the plain,” N.W. of Ezion Geber, and W. of El Beyaneh.

    RITHMAH A station in Israel’s march ( Numbers 33:18,19): from rethem or retem, the broom; KJV “juniper.” The same encampment as that at Kadesh ( Numbers 13:26). Rithmah is a descriptive epithet, from the broom abounding there; probably applied to the encampment in this neighborhood in the first march toward Canaan, to distinguish it from the second encampment in the same district, but not the same spot, in the 40th year ( Numbers 33:36-38; 13:21,26).

    RIVER A river in our sense is seen by few in Palestine. (1) Nahar , a continuous and full river, as Jordan, and especially “the river” Euphrates. The streams are dried up wholly in summer, or hid by dense shrubs covering a deeply sunk streamlet. When the country was wooded the evaporation was less. (2) Nahal , “a winter torrent,” flowing with force during the rainy season, but leaving only a dry channel or bed in the wady in summer. “Brook” in the KJV has too much the idea of placidity. “Valley” or wady ( Numbers 32:9), e.g. the bed (or in winter the torrent) of Arnon, Jabbok, Kishon.

    Some of these are abrupt chasms in the rocky hills, rugged and gloomy, unlike our English “brook.” Translated Job 6:15, “deceitfully as a winter torrent and as the stream in ravines which passes away,” namely, in the summer drought, and which disappoint the caravan hoping to find water there. The Arab proverb for a treacherous friend is “I trust not in thy torrent.” The fullness and noise of those temporary streams answer to the past large and loud professions; their dryness when wanted answers to the failure of friends to make good their professions in time of need (compare Isaiah 58:11; margin Jeremiah 15:18). (3) ‘Aphik , from a root “to contain”; so the channels or deep rock-walled ravines that hold the waters ( 2 Samuel 22:16); so for “rivers” ( Ezekiel 32:6) translated “channels.” (4) Yeor , the river Nile ( Genesis 41:1,2; Exodus 1:22; 2:3,5). In Jeremiah 46:7,8; Amos 8:8; 9:5, translated “the river of Egypt” for “flood.” The word is Egyptian, “great river” or “canal.” The Nile’s sacred name was Hapi, i.e. Apis. The profane name was Aur with the epithet act “great.” Zechariah 10:11, “all the deeps of the river shall dry up,” namely, the Nile or else the Euphrates. Thus the Red “sea” and the Euphrates “river” in the former part of the verse answer to “Assyria.” and “Egypt” in the latter. (5) Peleg (compare Greek pelagos ), from a root “divide,” waters divided, i.e. streams distributed through a land. Psalm 1:3, “a tree planted by the divisions of water,” namely, the water from the well or cistern divided into rivulets running along the rows of trees (see REUBEN on Judges 5:15,16, where “divisions” mean waters divided for irrigation); but Gesenius from the root to flow out or bubble up. (6) Yubal , a full flowing stream ( Jeremiah 17:8). (7) A conduit or watercourse ( 2 Kings 18:17); tealah .

    RIVER OF EGYPT. (1) Nehar Mitsraim ( Genesis 15:18); the Nile (2) Nahal Mitsaim ( Numbers 34:5; Joshua 15:3,4,47; 1 Kings 8:65; 2 Kings 24:7); “the torrent of Egypt”: see above nahal , a stream flowing rapidly in the rainy season, then drying up, inapplicable to the sluggish Nile ever flowing. The Rhinocorura or Rhinocolora (so Septuagint of Isaiah 27:12) on the sea coast, a wady and torrent running into the sea two or three days’ journey from the nearest branch of the Nile. Now wady el Arish. Though not in Egypt, it was the last torrent of any raze on the way toward Egypt from the N. In Joshua 13:3, “from Sihor which is before Egypt,” the same torrent is marked as Israel’s southern boundary, as the entering in of Hamath is the northern ( Numbers 34:5,8). The Nile was not “before” (i.e. east of) Egypt, but flowed through the middle of the land; so 1 Chronicles 13:5. Shihor, “the black river,” is the Nile’s designation in Deuteronomy 23:3; Jeremiah 2:18.

    RIZPAH Saul’s concubine, mother of Arboni and Mephibosheth. A Hivite sprung from Aiah, son of Zibeon ( Genesis 36:14). Foreigners were generally chosen as inferior wives by Solomon, Rehoboam, etc. Ishbosheth suspected Abner of intercourse, with Rizpah at Mahanaim, which in Eastern ideas was tantamount to aspiring to succeed to Saul’s throne ( Samuel 3:7). Her famous act was ( 2 Samuel 21:8-11) her watching against bird and beast of prey the hung up corpses of her two sons and five kinsmen on the sacred hill of Gibeah, with which Saul had been so closely connected ( 1 Samuel 11:4), from the beginning of barley harvest, the sacred Passover season, until the fall of the early rain in October, without tent to screen her from the scorching sun all day and the saturating dews at night, and with only her black widow’s sackcloth to rest upon, keeping her from the rocky ground. (See ABNER , see ISHBOSHETH , see GIBEONITES ). A striking instance of motherly devotion, stronger than death, and clinging at all costs with desperate tenacity even to the lifeless remains of the loved ones (Song 8:6; Isaiah 49:15).

    ROAD Inroad, raid ( 1 Samuel 27:10).

    ROBBERY Esteemed by the Ishmaelites as creditable ( Genesis 16:12). Predatory incursions were frequent on the part of the Chaldaeans and Sabeans ( Job 1:15,17). The “liers in wait” of the men of Shechem are instances also, “robbing all that came along that way” ( Judges 9:25). Also David plundering the Amalekites, etc. ( 1 Samuel 27:6-10); they made reprisals (1 Samuel 30). In Israel’s disorganized state in the northern kingdom this evil was very prevalent ( Hosea 4:2; 6:9; Micah 2:8). Owing to the corrupt administration of Roman governors, and the facility of collecting and hiding banditti in the natural caves of Palestine, robbers infested Judaea much in our Lord’s time and the age following ( Luke 10:30; John 18:40; Acts 5:36,37; 21:38; 2 Corinthians 11:26). On the punishment of robbery see Exodus 22. For “thieves” translated “robbers” ( Matthew 27:38).

    ROD Emblem of authority. Exodus 4:2, etc., Moses’; Numbers 17, Aaron’s; Psalm 2:9, Christ’s. He will either rule with the pastoral rod, or break with the rod (scepter) of iron ( Revelation 2:27; 19:15; Micah 6:9; 7:14; <19B002> Psalm 110:2; Isaiah 9:4; 11:4).

    ROE ROEBUCK. Yaalah , “chamois” ( Proverbs 5:19) or ibex, the female of the wild goat. Tsebi (masc.), tsebiah (fem.), from whence Tabitha (Greek Dorkas ), loving and beloved: Acts 9:36. The beautiful antelope or gazelle, the Antelope dorcas and Arabica. Slender, graceful, shy, and timid; the image of feminine loveliness (Song 4:5; 2:9,17; 8:14). The eye is large, soft, liquid, languishing, and of deepest black; image of swift footedness ( 2 Samuel 1:19; 2:18; 1 Chronicles 12:8). Israel ate the gazelle in the wilderness, and the flesh of flocks and herds only when offered in sacrifice; but in Canaan they might eat the flesh, “even as the gazelle” ( Deuteronomy 12:15,22); Isaac’s venison was front it (Genesis 27). The valley of Gerar and the Beersheba plains are still frequented by it. Egyptian paintings represent it hunted by hounds.

    ROGELIM Barzillai the Gileadite’s abode ( 2 Samuel 17:27; 19:31), near Mahanaim. Meaning washers, fullers who tread clothes with their feet (regel ).

    ROHGAH 1 Chronicles 7:34.

    ROLL Ancient writings were rolled round a cylinder or stick. Volume means so ( Jeremiah 36:2; Psalm 40:7; compare Deuteronomy 31:26; Ezekiel 2:9,10, where the writing “within and without” was contrary to the usage of writing only on one side, implying the fullness of the prophecy of woe. The writing was in columns (delathot ), literally, doors, on parchment or prepared skins.

    ROMAN EMPIRE Pompey’s lieutenant, M. Aemilius Scaurus, 64 B.C., interfered in the contest between Aristobulus and Aretas king of Arabia Petraea, who supported Hyrcanus, whom Aristobulus had driven from the high priesthood. Next year Pompey himself took Jerusalem (Josephus, Ant. 14:2-4: B. J. 1:6, section 7). Thenceforward Judaea was under Rome.

    Hyrcanus was titular sovereign and high priest, subject to his minister Antipater, the partisan of Rome. Antipater’s son, Herod the Great, was made king by Antony, 40 B.C., and confirmed by Augustus 30 B.C. (Josephus, Ant. 14:14; 15:6). Roman soldiers were quartered at Jerusalem in Herod’s time to maintain his authority (Ant. 15:3, section 7). Rome exacted tribute and an oath of allegiance to the emperor as well as to Herod (Ant. 17:2, section 2). On Archelaus’ banishment, A.D. 6, Judaea became an appendage of Syria, governed by a Roman procurator residing at Caesarea. Galilee was still under the Herod’s and other princes whose dominions and titles successive emperors changed from time to time. In the New Testament we find such notices of Roman dominion as the Jews recognizing Caesar as sole king ( John 19:15); Cyrenius “governor of Syria” ( Luke 2:2); Pontius Pilate, Felix, and Festus, “governors,” i.e. procurators of Judaea; the “tetrarchs” Herod, Philip, and Lysanias ( Luke 3:1); “king Agrippa” ( Acts 25:13); Roman soldiers, legions, centurions, publicans; “tribute money” ( Matthew 22:19); the “taxing of the whole world” ( Luke 2:1); Italian and Augustan cohorts ( Acts 10:1; 27:1); an “appeal to Caesar” ( Acts 25:11). Three Roman emperors are named; Augustus, Tiberius ( Luke 2:1; 3:1), and Claudius ( Acts 11:28; 18:2). Nero is alluded to as “Augustus” and “Caesar” ( Acts 25:10,11,21,25,26; Philippians 4:22), and “my lord” (compare also 1 Peter 2:17; Romans 13:1). For notices of Rome’s administration and magistrates in the provinces, see Romans 13:7; 18:12; 16:12,35,38; 19:38.

    In theory at first Augustus was neither king nor dictator, but simply first citizen, “prince,” or chief member of the senate (Tacitus, Ann. 1:9). The various prerogatives of the old magistracies, which nominally were retained, were conferred on Augustus. Others bore the chief official titles, while he really controlled every department. As “emperor” (imperator) he had full military authority over the army; Julius Caesar changed this title (commander in chief) into a permanent one, implying paramount military authority over the state. The real basis of the emperor’s power thus was the support of the army. “Caesar” was the family name, “Augustus” the sacred name of majesty. The Romans shrank at first from designating him by a despotic title; but servility increased as the empire progressed. “My lord” (ho kurios , “dominus,” in Acts 25:26) marks the downward tendency in Nero’s time as contrasted with Augustus’, for the latter and Nero refused the title. Caligula first took it. The empire, though nominally elective (Tacitus, Ann. 13:4), became hereditary or passed by adoption (Tacitus, History i. 15). Each emperor in beginning his reign bribed the army by donatives, and fed and amused the mob in Rome at the cost of the provinces. So long as the army and mob were not touched, Caligula, Nero, and Domitian could shed the noblest blood with impunity. John the Baptist implies that the soldiers’ characteristic sins were violence, false accusation, and discontented greed ( Luke 3:14). The full danger of military government became apparent first at the death of Pertinax, A.D. 193.

    The bounds of the Roman empire were the Atlantic on the W.; the Euphrates on the E.; the African deserts, the Nile cataracts, and the Arabian deserts on the S.; the British Channel, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Black Sea on the N. Claudius added Britain, and Trajan Dacia, to the empire. Germany on the N. and Parthia on the E. were the only independent powers. Gibbon guesses the population of the empire in the time of the emperor Claudius at 120 million. An army of 25 legions, and the Praetorian guards (10,000) and cohorts in the capital, in all about 170,000 men, controlled this population. The auxiliaries were about as many more (Tacitus, Ann. 4:5).

    In the New Testament the political condition of the provincial cities varies.

    The free cities were governed by their own magistrates, and were exempt from Roman garrisoning; as Tarsus, Antioch in Syria, Athens, Ephesus, Thessalonica. Politarchs (“rulers of the city”) and the demos (“people”) are mentioned at Thessalonica ( Acts 17:5-8); the “town clerk” (grammateus ) and “assembly” at Ephesus ( Acts 19:35-39); “colonies” also, as Philippi, i.e. communities of Roman citizens, as it were a miniature Rome transplanted into another land ( Acts 16:12-21,35). So Corinth, Troas, and the Pisidian Antioch. The magistrates bore the Roman designation “praetors” (Greek strategoi ), and were attended by “lictors” (Greek rabdouchoi , “serjeants”). (On the see PROVINCES see PROCURATOR , see PROCONSUL ). Roman revenue was mainly drawn from the provinces by a direct tax (kensos , footos ; Matthew 22:17; Luke 20:22), from five to seven per cent on the produce of the soil.

    Indirect taxes ([tete]: vectigalia) also were heavy. By public gratuities to thousands of idle citizens, and pay to the army, Augustus found the revenue so impaired that he was under the necessity of making the valuation of the property of the empire alluded to in Luke 2:1. (See CENSUS see CYRENIUS , see PUBLICANS (portitores), underlings of the Roman knights).

    The state of the Roman empire shows that “the fullness of the time was come” ( Galatians 4:4) when Jesus came. The universal peace within the empire, so that Janus’ temple was shut; the military roads constructed; piracy put clown; commerce uniting the various lands; Latin spread in the West as Greek in the East: these causes all combined in God’s providential arrangements to prepare for a world-wide religion. Privileged races and national religions were now blended in one rarity under one imperial ruler; so that men were the more ready to admit the truth that “God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth” ( Acts 17:24,26). Under all the outward appearance of unity, peace, and prosperity, moral death and stagnant corruption prevailed on all sides.

    There were no hospitals for the sick, no establishments for the relief of the poor, no societies for ameliorating men’s condition, no instruction for the lower classes, no antidote to the curse of slavery. Charity and philanthropy were scarcely recognized as duties. Philosophers regarded all religions as equally false, the people all as equally true, magistrates all as equally useful for restraining anarchy. Christianity came as the life-giving healer to this mass of death; “gradually withdrawing some of all orders, even slaves, out of the vices, ignorance, and misery of that corrupted social system. It was ever instilling humanity, coldly commended by an impotent philosophy, among men and women whose infant ears had been habituated to the shrieks of dying gladiators; it was giving dignity to minds prostrated by years of despotism; it was nurturing purity and modesty, and enshrining the marriage bed in a sanctity long almost lost, and rekindling the domestic affections; substituting a calm and rational faith for worn out superstitions, gently establishing in the soul the sense of immortality.” (Milman, Latin Christianity, 1:24, quoted in Smith’s Bible Dictionary) Daniel 2; 7 refer to Rome as the fourth kingdom; compare also Deuteronomy 28:49-57; Matthew 24:15,28.

    ROMANS, EPISTLE TO THE AUTHENTICITY,GENUINENESS. Peter ( 2 Peter 3:15,16) quotes Romans 2:4, calling it “Scripture.” The epistles of Clement (Cor. 35) and Polycarp (ad Philippians 6) quote respectively Romans 1:29-32 and Romans 14:10-12. Irenaeus (iv. 27, section 2) quotes it as Paul’s ( Romans 4:10,11). Melito’s “Hearing of Faith” is entitled from Romans 10 or Galatians 3:2,3. The Muratorian Canon, Syriac and Old Latin versions, have it. Heretics admitted its canonicity; so the Ophites (Hippol.

    Haer. 99; Romans 1:20-26); Basilides (238, Romans 8:19-22; 5:13,14); Valentinus (195, Romans 8:11); the Valentinians Heracleon and Ptolemaeus; Tatian (Orat. 4, Romans 1:20), and Marcion’s canon.

    The epistle of the churches of Vienne and Lyons (Eusebius, H. E. v. 1; Romans 8:18); Athenagoras (13, Romans 12:1; 37, Romans 1:24); Theophilus of Antioch (Autol. 79, Romans 2:6; 126, Romans 13:7,8). Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria often quote it.

    DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING. Paul wrote while at Corinth, for he commends to the Romans Phoebe, deaconess of Cenchreae, the port of Corinth ( Romans 16:1,2). He was lodging at Gaius’ house ( Romans 16:23), a chief member of the Corinthian church ( 1 Corinthians 1:14).

    Erastus, “treasurer” (chamberlain, KJV), belonged to Corinth ( Timothy 4:20; Acts 19:22). The time was during his visit in the winter and spring following his long stay at Ephesus (Romans 20:3); for he was just about to carry the contributions of Macedonia and Achaia to Jerusalem ( Romans 15:25-27; compare Acts 20:22), just after his stay at Corinth at this time ( Acts 24:17; 1 Corinthians 16:4; <470801> Corinthians 8:1,2; 9:1, etc.). His design of visiting Rome after Jerusalem ( Romans 15:23-25) at this particular time appears incidentally from Acts 19:21. Thus, Paul wrote it in his third missionary journey, at the second of the two visas to Corinth recorded in Acts. He remained then three months in Greece. He was on the point of sailing to Jerusalem when obliged to alter his purpose; the sea therefore was by this time navigable. It was not late in the spring, for, after passing through Macedon and visiting the coast of Asia Minor, he still expected to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost ( Acts 20:16). He must therefore have written the epistle to the Romans early in spring, A.D. 58.

    Thus, it is logically connected with the epistles to the Galatians and Corinthians. He wrote 1 Corinthians before leaving Ephesus; 2 Corinthians on his way to Corinth; and Galatians at Corinth, where also he wrote Romans. Hence, the resemblance of these two epistles in style and substance. The epistle to the Galatians and the two almost contemporaneous epistles to the Corinthians are the most intense in feeling and varied in expression of Paul’s epistles.

    OCCASION. Intending long to visit Rome and Spain ( Romans 1:9-13; 15:22-29), he was for the present unable, being bound for Jerusalem with the alms of the Gentile Christians. But, as Phoebe a deaconess of the neighbouring Cenchreae was starting for Rome ( Romans 16:1,2), he sends meantime this epistle by her. Tertius wrote it at his dictation ( Romans 16:22), the apostle with his own hand, as in other epistles, probably adding the benediction and abrupt doxology at the close.

    Had Peter or any other apostle founded the church at Rome, some allusion to him would have occurred in this epistle or in Paul’s epistles written at Rome. Moreover Paul’s rule was not to build on another’s foundation ( Romans 15:20). Also in dividing the field of labour between himself and Peter ( Galatians 2:7-9), as apostle of the Gentiles he claims the Romans as his share ( Romans 1:13) and hopes to confer some spiritual gift (charism) on them to establish them; implying that heretofore no apostle had been with them to do so ( Romans 1:11; compare Acts 8:14-17).

    The date of the introduction of Christianity at Rome must have been very early. Andronicus and Junia were “in Christ” even before Paul. Probably of the Roman strangers or pilgrim sojourners at Jerusalem ( Acts 2:10) who heard Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, some were among the converts, and brought back the gospel to the metropolis. (See RUFUS ). In this sense Peter founded the church at Rome, though having never yet visited it. The constant contact between Judaea and Rome through commerce, the passing of soldiers back and forward from Caesarea, and the repairing of Jewish settlers at Rome to Jerusalem for the three great feasts, ensured an early entrance of the gospel into Rome. Hence too at first the church there had that tinge of Judaism which this epistle corrects. Its members were in part Jews originally, in part Gentiles (compare as to the Jewish element Romans 2; Romans 3; Romans 7; Romans 9; 11:13). A considerable number saluted in Romans 16 were Jew-Christians: Mary, Aquila, Priscilla, Andronicus and Junia, Paul’s kinsmen, Herodion, Apelles, Aristobulus (of the Herodian family). The Jews at Rome were so numerous that Augustus assigned them a separate quarter beyond the Tiber, and permitted them freely to exercise their religion (Philo, Leg. ad Caium, 568).

    That Gentiles, however, composed the bulk of the Roman church appears from Romans 1:5,13; 9:3,4; 10:1, “my prayer to God for them” (the Jews, as distinguished from the Gentiles whom he here more directly addresses; so Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus manuscripts read for “Israel”), Romans 11:23,25,30. But the Gentiles of this church were not Latin, but Greek. The literature of the early Roman church was written in Greek; the names of its bishops are almost all Greek. The early Latin versions of the New Testament were made for the provinces, especially Africa, nor Rome. The names in the salutations (Romans 16) are generally Greek; and the Latin names, Aquila, Priscilla, Junia, Rufus, were Jews.

    Julia (of the imperial household), Amplias, and Urbanus, are the few exceptions. The Greeks were the most enterprising and intelligent of the middle and lower classes at Rome. Juvenal alludes satirically to their numbers and versatility (iii. 60-80; vi. 184); their intellectual restlessness made them sit loosely to traditional superstitions, and to be more open than others to inquire into the claims of Christianity. Many of the names (Romans 16) are found in the lists of freedmen and slaves of the early Roman emperors, “they of Caesar’s household” ( Philippians 4:22). (See PALACE ). From the lower and middle classes, petty tradesmen, merchants, and army officers, the gospel gradually worked upward; still “not many wise ... mighty ... noble were called” ( 1 Corinthians 1:26). The legend of Peter and Paul presiding together over the church at Rome probably represents the combination of Jews and Gentiles in it. The joint episcopate of Linus and Cletus subsequently may be explained by supposing one ruled over the Jewish, the other over the Gentile congregation; this gives point to the general argument of Romans 1--3 and Romans 10:12, that there is no respect of nationality with God.

    Accordingly, the epistle has the character of a general treatise. The metropolitan church was the fittest one to whom to address such a general exposition of doctrine, at the same time the injunction of obedience to temporal rulers was appropriate at the head quarters of the imperial government ( Romans 13:1). The epistles to Corinthians and Galatians, immediately preceding chronologically, are full of personal references. The epistle to the Romans summarizes what he had just written; namely, epistle to Corinthians representing the attitude of the gospel to the Gentile world, the epistle to Galatians its relation to Judaism. What was in these two epistles immediately drawn out by special Judaizing errors of the Galatians, and Gentile licence of the Corinthians, is in Romans methodically combined together add arranged for general application. The doctrine of justification by faith only on the one hand is stated (Romans 1--5) as in Galatians; on the other antinomianism is condemned (Romans 6); and the avoidance of giving offence as to meats (Romans 14) answers to 1 Corinthians 6:12, etc., 1 Corinthians 8:1, etc.

    Alexandrinus manuscript transposes the doxology Romans 16:25-27 (which Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts keep as KJV) to the close of Romans 14. Probably the epistle was circulated in two forms, both with and without the two last chapters. The form without them removed the personal allusions which manuscript G still more divested it of by omitting “that be in Rome” ( Romans 1:7), “that are at Rome” ( Romans 1:15). The two chapters being omitted, the doxology would stand at the close of Romans 14 in the shorter form. Compare the omission of “in Ephesus” ( Ephesians 1:1) to generalize the see EPISTLE TO EPHESIANS .

    The theme is stated Romans 1:16,17, “the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek; for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.”

    The divisions are: (I) Personal statements ( Romans 1:1-15). (II) Doctrinal ( Romans 1:16--11:36). The pagan and Jew alike under condemnation (Romans 1; 2). Objections answered ( Romans 3:1-8); the truth vindicated by Scripture ( Romans 3:9-20). The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, being of faith, not of the law, unto all who believe ( Romans 3:21-26). Boasting is excluded ( Romans 3:27-31).

    Abraham an example, David’s testimony (Romans 4). Justification by faith gives peace with God through Jesus, access into the standing of grace, and joy in hope of the glory of God, joy in tribulations, joy in God through Jesus by whom we have received the atonement ( Romans 5:1-11).

    Christ the head of redeemed manhood, as Adam of fallen manhood ( Romans 5:12-19); as sin came by Adam to man, so grace by Christ.

    The law came in parenthetically (pareiselthen ) and incidentally to reveal the malignity of the evil introduced by Adam, and the need of the remedy by Christ ( Romans 5:20,21). The superseding of the law by Christ its fulfillment, so far from licensing sin, makes the believer dead to sin and the law with the crucified Christ, that henceforth he may walk in newness of life, by the power of the Spirit, with the risen Saviour who was raised by the same Spirit, the earnest of our coming glorification with Him (Romans 6--8). The casting away of the Jew, though most sad, is neither universal now (for there is a remnant according to the election of grace, and God’s foreordaining is to be accepted not criticized by finite man), nor final, for “all Israel shall be saved” in the coming age, and their being received will be as life from the dead to the Gentile world (Romans 9; Romans 11).

    Their exclusion from justification now is because they seek it by the law, whereas God’s way is by faith, open to Jew and Gentile alike; therefore preaching to the Gentiles is not, as the Jews imagined, unlawful, but foretold by Isaiah and required by the necessities of the case (Romans 10). (III) Practical exhortations: to holiness, charity, obedience to legal authorities, avoiding to give offense to weak brethren (Romans 7--15:13). (IV) Personal explanations: his motive in writing, intention to visit them ( Romans 15:14-33). Salutations, benediction, doxology (Romans 16).

    ROME Paul’s first visit was between the restoration by Augustus, whose boast was “he had found the city of brick and left it of marble” (Suet., Aug. 28), and that by Nero after its conflagration. His residence was near the barrack (praetorium) attached to the imperial see PALACE on the Palatine ( Philippians 1:13). Modern Rome lies N. of ancient Rome, covering the Campus Martius, or plain to the N. of the seven hills; the latter ( Revelation 17:9), the nucleus of the old city, stand on the left bank. On the opposite side of the Tiber is the higher ridge, Janiculum, also the Vatican. The Mamertine prison where legend makes see PETER and Paul to have been fellow prisoners for nine months is still under the church of Giuseppe dei Falegnani; but see 2 Timothy 4:11. The chapel on the Ostian road marks the legendary site of the two parting for martyrdom.

    The church of Paolo alle Tre Fontane on the Ostian road is the alleged site of Paul’s martyrdom. The church of Pietro in Montorio on the Janiculum is that of Peter’s martyrdom. The chapel “Domine quo Vadis?” on the Appian road marks where see PETER in the legend met the Lord, as he was fleeing from martyrdom. The bodies of the two apostles first lay in the catacombs (“cemeteries” or sleeping places: Eusebius, H. E. ii. 25); then Paul’s body was buried by the Ostian road, Peter’s beneath the dome of the famous basilica called after him (Caius, in Eusebius, H. E. ii. 25). All this is mere tradition.

    Real sites are the Colosseum and Nero’s gardens in the Vatican near to Peter’s; in them Christians wrapped in beasts’ skins were torn by dogs, or clothed in inflammable stuffs were burnt as torches during the midnight games! Others were crucified (Tacitus, Annals xv. 44). The catacombs, subterranean galleries (whether sand pits or excavations originally is uncertain), from eight to ten feet, high, and four to six wide extending for miles, near the Appian and Nomentane ways, were used by the early Christians as places of refuge, worship, and burial. The oldest inscription is A.D. 71; thence to A.D. 300 less than thirty Christian inscriptions are known bearing dates, 4,000 undated are considered anterior to Constantine.

    ROOM In Matthew 23:6; Mark 12:39; Luke 14:7,8; 20:46, not in our sense, but place at table. Expressed in Luke 11:43 “uppermost (See REHOBOTH ).

    ROSE Song 2:1; Isaiah 35:1; the autumn crocus, the meadow saffron of a white and violet color, Colchicum autumnale (Gesenius). The Hebrew chabatseleth implies a bulbous plant (betsel , a bulb). The narcissus is very fragrant, and therefore more likely than the crocus; the lily is associated with it in the Song of Solomon. They blossom about the same time; another reason for the narcissus rather than the crocus, which blossoms not until autumn. The narcissus grows in the plain of Sharon (Chateaubriand, Itineraire, ii. 130). The rose is not mentioned in the Bible, but in the apocryphal Ecclesiasticus (Ecclesiastes 24:14), “I (wisdom) was as a rose plant in Jericho.” “The rose of Jericho” is not a rose, but the Anastatica Hierochuntina. However, roses now grow in Palestine, both cultivated and wild. The Hebrew implying a bulbous plant may refer to the bulb-like flower of the rose with its petals folded over each other (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, April 1878, p. 51).

    ROSH ”Chief” ( Ezekiel 38:2,3; 39:1). Rather, as not rosh but nasi is the head of a nomadic tribe ( Genesis 23:6), “Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal,” three great Scythian tribes of which gosh is the first.

    Rosh is the tribe N. of the Taurus range and near Rha or Volga which gives them their name; the earliest trace of the Russ nation. A Latin chronicle A.D. 839 (Bayer, Origines Russ., 1726, p. 409) is the first modern mention of this now mighty people. Tiras stands for Rosh with Meshech and Tubal ( Genesis 10:2). Others state that the modern Russians have assumed their name from Rhos, the Araxes, though their proper ancient name was Slavi or Wends. Hengstenberg supports KJV: “Magog was Gog’s original kingdom, though he acquired also Meshech and Tubal, so as to be called their ‘chief prince.’” RUBIES penni yim , peninim ( Job 28:18; Proverbs 3:15; 8:11; 31:10; Lamentations 4:7), “more ruddy than rubies,” but Bochart “pearls.”

    Gesenius (from the Arabic “a branch” and the Hebrew paanan “to divide into branches” or else “to turn” from the globular form), “corals.”

    RUE Luke 11:42. Ruta graveolens; a shrub two feet high, used as a condiment and as a medicine. Dioscorides (iii. 45) describes two kinds, the rue of the mountains and the strong smelling or garden rue. The garden plant was titheable. The Turks keep pots of rue in their drawing rooms for the odor. In the middle ages the priests used bunches of rue wherewith to sprinkle holy water, from whence Shakespeare uses the term “herb of grace” (Rich. II, 3:4).

    RUFUS Son of Simon the Cyrenian who bore Christ’s cross. Mark ( Mark 15:21) wrote at Rome (Clemens Alex.). Now if “Rufus (whom Paul salutes as at Rome) chosen in the Lord” ( Romans 16:13) be the same Rufus as Mark mentions in writing a Gospel for the Romans, the undesigned coincidence will account for what otherwise would be gratuitous information to his readers, that Simon was “father of Rufus,” which the other evangelists omit, and which Mark himself seemingly turns to no advantage. Rufus according to Paul was a disciple of note at Rome; how natural then to designate Simon, who was unknown, to the Romans by his fatherhood to one whom they well knew, Rufus! Mark gives the Romans whom he addresses a reference for the truth of the narrative of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection to one who was accessible to them all, and who could attest the facts on the authority of his own father, the reluctant bearer of the Lord’s cross ( Luke 23:26). The “compelling” of him to bear the cross issued in his voluntarily taking up his own cross to follow Jesus; then through Simon followed his wife’s conversion, and that of Rufus whose mother by nature she was, as she was Paul’s mother by kindnesses bestowed for Christ’s sake. “Salute Rufus ... and his mother and mine.”

    RUHAMAH (See LO-AMMI ). Hosea 1:6,7. Compassionated by God, as Israel shall be in the last days; in contrast to Lo-Ruhamah, “not compassionated,” as now apparently Israel is by unbelief.

    RUMAH 2 Kings 23:36. Birthplace of Pedaiah, father of Zebudah ( 2 Kings 23:36). Probably Dumah, a town in the mountains of Judah near Hebron ( Joshua 15:52).

    RUST James 5:3. “The rust (ios ) of your riches shall be a witness against you” in the judgment, that your riches were of no profit, lying unemployed, and so contracting rust. Matthew 6:19,20, “rust” (brosis ), “corrosion.”

    RUTH From Reuth , feminine of Reu, “friend.” In beautiful contrast to Judges’ end in internecine bloodshed, the book of Ruth is a picture of a peaceful, virtuous, filial obedience, and the rich reward of choosing the Lord at the sacrifice of all else. Orpah’s end is shrouded in darkness, while Ruth is remembered to all generations as chosen ancestress of Messiah. Boaz’ name is immoralized by linking himself with the poor Moabitess, while the kinsman who would not mar his own inheritance is unknown. Goethe said of this book, “we have nothing so lovely in the whole range of epic and idyllic poetry.” Ruth is an instance of natural affection made instrumental in leading to true religion. A “blossom of pagandom stretching its flower cup desiringly toward the light of revelation in Israel.”

    OBJECT. In Ruth 4:18-22 the author shows his aim, namely, to give a biographical sketch of the pious ancestors of David the king. The book contains the inner and spiritual background of the genealogies so prominent in Scripture. The family life of David’s ancestors is sketched to show how they walked in single hearted piety toward God, and justice and love, modesty and purity towards man. “Ruth the Moabite, great-greatgrandmother of David, longed for the God and people of Israel with all the deepest earnestness of her nature, and joined herself to them with all the power of love. Boaz was an Israelite without guile, full of holy reverence for every ordinance of God and man, and full of benevolent love and friendliness toward the poor pagan woman. From such ancestors was the man descended in whom all the nature of Israel was to find its royal concentration and fullest expression.” (Auberlen). There is also involved a Messianic trait, prophetic of the coming world wide church, in the fact that Ruth, a pagan of a nation so hostile to Israel as Moab, was counted worthy to be tribe mother of the great and pious king David on account of her love to Israel and trust in Israel’s God. Tamar and Rahab are the other two similar instances in Christ’s genealogy (Genesis 38; Joshua 6:25; Matthew 1:3,5).

    Ruth is historically a supplement to Judges and an introduction to 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, which give no account of David’s ancestors. But the Hebrew canon puts Ruth in the hagiographa among the five megilloth (Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther), read in the synagogue at the feast of weeks. The three classes of the Old Testament see CANON were arranged according to the relation in which their authors stood to God and the theocracy, and in which the books themselves stood in contents and spirit to the divine revelation. Ruth is not a mere appendix to Judges, and differs from that book in style, contents, and design. The time passes beyond that of Judges.

    Time of composition. The close of Ruth shows it was written not earlier than David’s having obtained that prominence as king which made his genealogy a matter of such interest. An interval of 160 or 170 years therefore elapsed between the events and this book’s record of them. By this time the custom mentioned in Ruth 4:7 of taking off the shoe in barter, which had prevailed, had fallen into desuetude, so that the writer feels it necessary to explain the custom to his readers. The Chaldaisms (ta aburi , tidbaqin , Ruth 2:8,21; yiqetsorun , Ruth 2:9; samti , yaradti , shakabti , Ruth 3:3,4; Mara for Marah , Ruth 1:20; laheen , ‘agan , Ruth 1:13) occur only in the speeches of the persons introduced, not in the writer’s own narrative. He simply gives the forms and words used in common conversation, as he found them in the written documents which he used for his book, probably relics of the archaic language subsequently appropriated by Chaldee.

    The story is as follows. In a famine under the judges (whether caused by Eglon’s occupation of Judah, or under Gideon, Judges 6:3,4, or in Eli’s time) Elimelech and Naomi migrated to Moab, where Ruth married Mahlon their son. At the end of ten years, there being plenty in Judah, Naomi, now a widow and childless, returned; and Ruth in spite of her mother-in-law’s suggestion that she should go back with Orpah (compare Luke 24:28), at the sacrifice of home and Moabite kindred (compare Luke 14:27,28), did cling to Naomi ( Proverbs 17:17; 18:24). Her choice was that of not only Naomi’s people but chiefly of Naomi’s “God” ( Joshua 24:14,15,19). The Lord, by Naomi’s entreaty that she should return from following, tested her faith (compare 1 Kings 19:20); with “whither thou goest I will go” compare John 12:26; Revelation 14:4 middle; with Ruth 2:11, “thou hast left the land of thy nativity and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore,” compare Genesis 12:1; Acts 7:3,5. God’s providence “under whose wings she was come to trust” ( Ruth 2:12; Psalm 17:8; 36:7) guided her to Boaz’ field to glean. At Naomi’s suggestion she claimed from him that he should perform the part of her late husband’s near kinsman by purchasing Elimelech’s inheritance and marrying her. The nearest kinsman having declined, Boaz did so. The date of the events is brought down to the time of Eli by the supposition that names have been omitted in the genealogical list of Boaz’ ancestors. Without the insertion of such names Boaz would be 112 when Obed was born, and Obed and Jesse would beget sons at a similarly advanced age.

    RYE Exodus 9:32. Hebrew kussemeth ; Arabic chirsanat; rather “spelt,” Triticum spelta. Ezekiel 4:9. Rye is a northern plant, whereas spelt was long cultivated in Egypt and the East (Herodotus ii. 36). Nutritious, hardy, like bearded wheat; but there is a smooth variety also. The root is casam , suiting the bearded form in in its meaning “to have hair,” and the smooth bald variety in its meaning “to shear.”

    S SABAOTH, LORD OF Hebrew tsebaot (not Sabbath, an altogether different word), i.e. of hosts, namely, of the heavenly powers ( 1 Kings 22:19; <19A321> Psalm 103:21; 148:2; Romans 9:29; James 5:4, reminding the rich who think the poor have no advocate that the Lord of the whole hosts in heaven is their patron). Implying the boundless resources at His command for His people’s good ( Psalm 59:5). The sabaoth included both the angelic and starry hosts. The latter were objects of the idolatry, hence called sabaism ( 2 Kings 17:16). God is above even them ( 1 Chronicles 16:26). The “groves” symbolized these starry hosts. In contrast, Jehovah is the Lord of them, therefore alone to be worshipped. The title does not occur in the Pentateuch, nor earlier than 1 Samuel 1:3, but in the singular Joshua 5:14,15.

    SABBATH Hebrew “rest.” Applied to the days of rest in the great feasts, but chiefly to the seventh day rest ( Exodus 31:15; 16:23). Some argue from the silence concerning its observance by the patriarchs that no sabbatic ordinance was actually given before the Sinaitic law, and that Genesis 2:3 is not historical but anticipatory. But this verse is part of the history of creation, the very groundwork of Moses’ inspired narrative. The history of the patriarchs for 2,500 years, comprised in the small compass of Genesis, necessarily omits many details which it takes for granted, as the observance of the sabbath. Indications of seven-day weeks appear in Noah’s twice waiting seven days when sending forth the dove ( Genesis 8:10,12); also in Jacob’s history ( Genesis 29:27,28). G. Smith discovered an Assyrian calendar which divides every month into four weeks, and the seventh days are marked out as days in which no work should be done. Further, before the Sinaitic law was given the sabbath law is recognized in the double manna promised on the sixth day, that none might be gathered on the sabbath ( Exodus 16:5,23). The meaning therefore of Genesis 2:3 is, God having divided His creative work into six portions sanctified the seventh as that on which He rested from His creative work. The divine rest was not one of 24 hours; the divine sabbath still continues. There has been no creation since man’s. After six periods of creative activity, answering to our literal days analogously, God entered on that sabbath in which His work is preservation and redemption, no longer creation. He ordained man for labour, yet graciously appointed one seventh of his time for bodily and mental rest, and for spiritual refreshment in his Maker’s worship. This reason is repeated in the fourth commandment ( Exodus 20:10,11); another reason peculiar to the Jews (their deliverance from Egyptian bondage) is stated Deuteronomy 5:14,15; possibly the Jewish sabbath was the very day of their deliverance. All mankind are included in the privilege of the seventh day rest, though the Jews alone were commanded to keep it on Saturday. Besides its religious obligation, its physical and moral benefit has been recognized by statesmen and physiologists. Its merciful character appears in its extension to the ox, ass, and cattle.

    Needless and avoidable work was forbidden ( Exodus 34:21; 35:3). But like other feasts it was to be a day of enjoyment ( Isaiah 58:13; Hosea 2:11). Only the covetous and carnal were impatient of its restraints ( Amos 8:5,6). In the sanctuary the morning and evening sacrifices were doubled, the shewbread was changed, and each of David’s 24 courses of priests and Levites began duty on the Sabbath. The offerings symbolized the call to all Israel to give themselves to the Lord’s service on the Sabbath more than on other days. The 12 loaves of shewbread representing the offerings of the 12 tribes symbolized the good works which they should render to Jehovah; diligence in His service receiving fresh quickening on the day of rest and holy convocation before Him. The Levites were dispersed throughout Israel to take advantage of these convocations, and in them “teach Israel God’s law” ( Deuteronomy 33:10). The “holy convocation” on it ( Leviticus 23:2,3) was probably a meeting for prayer, meditation, and hearing the law in the court of the tabernacle before the altar at the hour of morning and evening sacrifice ( Leviticus 19:30; Ezekiel 23:38). In later times people resorted to prophets and teachers to hear the Old Testament read and expounded, and after the captivity to synagogues ( 2 Kings 4:23; Luke 4:15,16; Acts 13:14,15,27; 15:21). Philo (De Orac. c. 20; Vit. Mos. 3:27) and Josephus (Ant. 16:2,3; Apion, 1:20, 2:18) declare the earliest Jewish traditions state the object of the sabbath to be to furnish means for spiritual edification ( Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 33:10).

    Isaiah ( Isaiah 1:13) condemns hypocritical keeping of sabbath. So Christ condemns the burdensome sabbath restraints multiplied by the Pharisees, violating the law of mercy and man’s good for which the sabbath was instituted ( Matthew 12:2,10,11; Luke 13:14; 14:1,5; John 7:22; Mark 2:23-28); yet inviting guests to a social meal was lawful, even in their view ( Luke 14:5). Not inaction, but rest from works of neither mercy nor necessity, is the rule of the sabbath. Man’s rest is to be like God’s rest. His work did not cease at the close of the six days, nor has it ceased ever since ( John 5:17; Isaiah 40:28; Psalm 95:4,5).

    God’s rest was satisfaction in contemplating His work, so “very good,” just completed in the creation of man its topstone ( Genesis 1:31). So man’s rest is in the sabbath being the dose of week day labour done in faith toward God. God orders “six days shalt thou labour,” as well as “remember the sabbath” ( Exodus 20:8-11). “Remember” marks that the sabbath was already long known to Israel, and that they only needed their “minds stirred up by way of remembrance.” The fourth commandment alone of the ten begins so. The sabbath is thus a foretaste of the heavenly (sabbatism) “keeping of sabbath” ( Hebrews 4:9,10 margin), when believers shall rest from fatiguing “labours” ( Revelation 14:13). The Sabbath reminds man he is made in the image of God. Philo calls it “the imaging forth of the first beginning.” It was to the Israelite the center of religious observances, and essentially connected with the warning against idolatry ( Leviticus 19:3,4; Ezekiel 20:16,20).

    As the Old Testament Sabbath was the seal of the first creation in innocence, so the New Testament Lord’s day is the seal of the new creation. The Father’s rest after creation answers to Christ’s after redemption’s completion. The Sabbath was further a “sign” or sacramental pledge between Jehovah and His people, masters and servants alike resting, and thereby remembering the rest from Egyptian service vouchsafed by God.

    The weekly Sabbath, moreover, was the center of an organized system including the Sabbath year and the jubilee year. The Sabbath ritual was not, like other feasts, distinguished by peculiar offerings, but by the doubling of the ordinary daily sacrifices. Thus it was not cut off from the week but marked as the day of days, implying the sanctification of the daily life of the Lord’s people. Leviticus 23:38 expressly distinguishes “the Sabbaths of the Lord” from the other Sabbaths ( Colossians 2:16,17), namely, that of the day of atonement and feast of tabernacles, which ended with the cessation of the Jewish ritual ( Leviticus 23:32,37-39). The Decalogue was proclaimed with peculiar solemnity from Mount Sinai ( Exodus 19:16-24); it was written on tables of stone, and deposited in the ark (representing Himself) covered by the mercy-seat on which rested the Shekinah cloud of His glory; Moses significantly states “these vows the Lord spoke, and He added no more.” The Decalogue was “the covenant,” and the ark containing it “the ark of the covenant;” and therefore the Decalogue sums up all moral duty. The Sabbath stands in the heart of it, surrounded by moral duties, and must therefore itself be moral. God, who knows us best. has fixed the mean between the too seldom and the too often, the exact proportion in which the day devoted to His service ought to recur, best suited to our bodily and spiritual wants. The prophets foretell its continuance in the Messianic age ( Isaiah 56:6,7; 58:13,14; 66:23).

    Christ moreover says “the sabbath was made for man,” i.e. not for Israel only, but for universal “man” ( Mark 2:27,28). The typical Sabbath ( Hebrews 4:9) must remain until the antitypical sabbatism appears. In Romans 14:5 the oldest manuscripts omit “he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it.” As the month of Israel’s redemption from Egypt became the beginning of months, so the day of Christ’s resurrection which seals our redemption is made the first day Sabbath. The Epistle of Barnabas, Dionysius of Corinth writing to Rome A.D. 170 (“we spent the Lord’s day as a holy day in which we read your letter”), and Clemens Alex., A.D. 194, mention the Lord’s day Sabbath.

    The judgment on the Jews for violating the Sabbath was signally retributive ( 2 Chronicles 36:21). The Babylonians carried them captive “to fulfill the word of the Lord by Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfill threescore and ten years” ( Leviticus 26:34-36). There are exactly 70 years of Sabbaths in the 490 between Saul’s accession, 1095 B.C., and Jehoiakim’s deposition by Nebuchadnezzar 606 B.C. Even Adam in innocence needed the Sabbath amidst earthly works; much more we need it, who are fallen. The spirit of the command remains, though the letter is modified ( Romans 13:8-10); the consecration of one day in seven is the essential thing. The choice of the first day is due to Christ’s appearing on that day and to apostolical usage. Revelation 1:10 first mentions “the see LORD’S DAY ” . (See REST ). The early church met to break bread on the first day ( Acts 20:7); it was the day for laying by of alms for the poor ( 1 Corinthians 16:2). No formal decree changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day; this would only have offended the Jews and weak Christians. At first both days were kept. But when Judaizing Christians wished to bring Christians under the bondage of the law, and the Jews became open antagonists of the church, the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was tacitly laid aside, and the Lord’s day alone was kept; see Colossians 2:16.

    Moses, the law’s representative, could not lead Israel into Canaan. The law leads to Christ, there its office ceases: it is Jesus, the Antitype of Joshua, who leads us into the heavenly rest ( Hebrews 4:8,9). So legal sacrifices continued until the antitypical sacrifice superseded it. As the antitypical Sabbath rest will not be until Christ comes to usher us into it, the typical earthly Sabbath must continue until then.

    A lawful Sabbath day’s journey ( Acts 1:12) was reckoned from the distance between the ark and the tents, judged by that between the ark and the people in Joshua 3:4, to repair to the ark on the Sabbath being a duty; namely, 2,000 paces, or about six furlongs, reckoned not from each man’s house but from the wall of the city. The Levites’ suburbs extended to the same distance from their walls ( Numbers 35:5). (See GEZER ).

    Ganneau thinks Bethphage marked on the E. the boundary of the sabbatic zone which on every side surrounded the city. The see MOUNT or OLIVES was exactly, as the writer of Acts says, “a sabbath day’s journey from Jerusalem.” What point in the mountain could this be except the village of the mountain, which occupied its principal summit, and now bears its name (Kefr et Tur, i.e. village of the mount; Bethphage)? (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, Apri1 1878, p. 60). Christ tells His disciples, as retaining Jewish feelings, in Jerusalem to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath, when they could only go 2,000 paces front the city walls ( Matthew 24:20). Exodus 16:29 refers to not going from their place to gather manna on the Sabbath.

    SABBATICAL YEAR (See JUBILEE ). Exodus 23:10,11. Part of the same general law as the Sabbath day. The land must rest fallow each seventh year. In Leviticus 25:2-7 and Deuteronomy 15 God ordains also the release of debtors every seventh year. The parts of the harvest crop ungathered and ungleaned in some degree sowed themselves for a spontaneous growth in the idle seventh year ( Leviticus 19:9; 23:22). The owners laid up grain in the previous years for it Leviticus 25:20-22). As the Sabbath is God’s assertion of His claim on time, so the sabbatical year on the land. The sabbatical year began in the seventh month, and the whole law was then read during the feast of tabernacles; so that holy occupation, not apathetic rest, characterized it, as in the case of the Sabbath day. At the completion of the week of sabbatical years the jubilee crowned the whole. Canaan’s conquest took seven years, the allotment of land seven more; then began the law of the sabbatical year. These “years” were observed under the New Testament; and Judaizers even sought to force their observance on Gentile Christians ( Galatians 4:10).

    In Luke 6:1 explain “the first Sabbath of a year that stood second in a sabbatical cycle.” Josephus (Ant. 14:10, section 6) implies that at that time years were reckoned by their place in a sabbatical cycle. (See Ellicott, Life of Christ, p. 173,174, and note).

    SABTAH Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9. Third of Cush’s sons. In the Hadramaut (the Atramitae), a province of southern Arabia, Pliny (vi. 32) places the city Sabbatha. In this region is a dark race, differing evidently in stock from the fairer Arabs (see HAVILAH ) (G. Rawlinson). The Cushites here form the middle connecting link between Ethiopia their original home, and the Cushite settlement on the Euphrates, the original basis of the Babylonian population. (See BABEL ).

    SABTECHA Fifth of Cush’s sons ( Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9). Possibly in Carmania on the Persian gulf, answering to the city Samydace of Ptolemy (vi. 8, section 7).

    SACAR 1. 1 Chronicles 11:35.SHARAR in 2 Samuel 23:33. 2. 1 Chronicles 26:4.

    SACKBUT Daniel 3:7,10,15. (See MUSIC ). Greek sambukee . Not, as the English term implies, a wind instrument, but played with strings. A triangle with four strings, shrill and high in key. A foreign instrument.

    SACKCLOTH Of coarse, dark goat’s hair. Used for sacks, also for close fitting raiment in mourning; secured by a girdle ( Genesis 42:25; 1 Kings 21:27; Samuel 3:31).

    SACRIFICE Every sacrifice was assumed to be vitally connected with the spirit of the worshipper. Unless the heart accompanied the sacrifice God rejected the gift ( Isaiah 1:11,13). Corban included all that was given to the Lord’s service, whether firstfruits, tithes ( Leviticus 2:12; 27:30), and gifts, for maintaining the priests and endowing the sanctuary ( Numbers 7:3; 31:50), or offerings for the altar. The latter were: 1. Animal (1) burnt offerings, (2) peace offerings, (3) sin offerings. 2. Vegetable: (1) meat and drink offerings for the altar outside, (2) incense and meat offerings for the holy place within.

    Besides there were the peculiar offerings, the Passover lamb, the scapegoat, and the red heifer; also the chagigah peace offering during the see PASSOVER . The public sacrifice as the morning and evening lamb, was at the cost of the nation. The private sacrifice was offered by the individual, either by the ordinance of the law or by voluntary gift. Zebach is the general term for a slaughtered animal, as distinguished from minchah , “gift,” a vegetable offering, our “meat (i.e. food) offering.” ‘Owlah is the burnt offering, that which ascends (from ‘alah ) or is burnt; also kaleel , “whole,” it all being consumed on the altar; “whole burnt sacrifice.” Shelem is the peace offering. Todah the thank offering. Chattath (sin and punishment) the sin offering. ‘Asham , trespass offering, accompanied by pecuniary fine or forfeit, because of injury done to some one (it might be to the Lord Himself) in respect to property. The burnt offering was wholly burnt upon the altar; the sin offering was in part burnt upon the altar, in part given to the priests, or burnt outside the camp. The peace offering was shared between the altar, the priests, and the sacrificer.

    The five animals in Abraham’s sacrifice of the covenant ( Genesis 15:9) are the five alone named in the law for sacrifice: the ox, sheep, goat, dove, and pigeon. They fulfilled the three legal conditions: (1) they were clean; (2) used for food; (3) part of the home property of the sacrificers. They must be without spot or blemish; but a disproportioned victim was allowed in a free will peace offering ( Leviticus 7:16,17; 22:23). The age was from a week to three years old; Judges 6:25 is exceptional.

    The sacrificer (the offerer generally, but in public sacrifice the priests or Levites) slew the victim at the N. side of the altar. The priest or his assistant held a bowl under the cut throat to receive the blood. The sacrificial meal was peculiar to the peace offering. The priest sprinkled the blood of the burnt offering, the peace offering, and the trespass offering “round about upon the altar.” But in the sin offering, for one of the common people or a ruler, he took of the blood with his finger and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and poured out what blood remained at the bottom of the altar; in the sin offering for the congregation and for the high priest he brought some of the blood into the sanctuary and sprinkled it seven times before the veil, and put some on the horns of the altar of incense ( Leviticus 4:3,6,25,30). The “sprinkling” (hizah ) of the blood of the sin offering with the finger or hyssop is distinct from the “casting abroad” (as the Hebrew zarak expresses) with the bowl in which the victim’s blood was received as it flowed. The Mishna says the temple altar was furnished with two holes at the S.W. corner, through which the blood made its way down to Kedron. The Hebrew for burning (hiktir ) on the altar means to send up or make to ascend in smoke, rather than to consume ( Leviticus 1:9). The offering was one of sweet smelling savour sent up in flame to Jehovah, not merely consumed.

    The fat burned on the altar was mainly “sweet fat” or suet , cheleb ( Exodus 29:13,22; Leviticus 3:4,10,15; 4:9; 7:4), distinct from mishman or shameen ( Numbers 12:20). The cheleb , as the blood, was not to be eaten ( Leviticus 3:17); the other fat might be eaten ( Nehemiah 8:10). A different word, peder , denotes the fat of the burnt offering, not exclusively selected for the altar as the cheleb of the other sacrifices ( Leviticus 1:8,12; 8:20). The significance of its being offered to Jehovah was that it is the source of nutriment of which the animal economy avails itself on emergency, so that in emaciation or atrophy it is the first substance that disappears; its development in the animal is a mark of perfection.

    The shoulder belonging to the officiating priest was “heaved,” the breast for the priests in general was “waved” before Jehovah. The wave offering (tenuphah ) was moved to and fro repeatedly; applied to the gold and bronze, also to the Levites, dedicated to Jehovah. The heave offering (terumah ) was lifted upward once; applied to all the gifts for the construction of the tabernacle.

    Abel offered “a more excellent sacrifice than Cain” because in “faith” ( Hebrews 11:4). Now faith must have some revelation from God on which to rest. The revelation was doubtless God’s command to sacrifice animals (“the firstlings of the flock”) in token of man’s forfeiture of life by sin, and a type of the promised Bruiser of the serpent’s head ( Genesis 3:15), Himself to be bruised as the one sacrifice. This command is implied in God’s having made coats of skins for Adam and Eve ( Genesis 3:21); for these must have been taken from animals slain in sacrifice (for it was not for food they were slain, animal food not being permitted until after the flood; nor for clothing, as clothes might have been made of the fleeces, without the needless cruelty of killing the animal). A coat of skin put on Adam from a sacrificed animal typified the covering or atonement (kaphar ) resulting from Christ’s sacrifice (“atone” means to cover). Wycliffe translated Hebrews 11:4 “a much more sacrifice,” one which partook more largely of the true virtue of sacrifice (Magee). It was not intrinsic merit in “the firstling of the flock” above “the fruit of the ground.” It was God’s appointment that gave it all its excellency; if it had not been so it would have been presumptuous will worship ( Colossians 2:23) and taking of a life which man had no right over before the flood ( Genesis 9:2-4). Fire was God’s mode of “accepting” (“turn to ashes” margin Psalm 20:3) a burnt offering. Cain in unbelieving self righteousness presented merely thank offering, not like Abel feeling his need of the propitiatory sacrifice appointed for sin. God “had respect (first) unto Abel, and (then) to his offering” ( Genesis 4:4). Our works are not accepted by God, until our persons have been so, through faith in His work of grace.

    The general prevalence of animal sacrifice among the pagan with the idea of expiation, the victim’s blood and death removing guilt and appeasing divine wrath, is evidently a relic from primitive revelation preserved by tradition, though often encrusted over with superstitions.

    The earliest offering recorded as formally commanded by Jehovah, and of the five animals prescribed, is that of Abraham ( Genesis 15:9-17). The intended sacrifice of see ISAAC and substitution of a ram vividly represented the one only true sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, in substitution for us (Genesis 22). Jacob’s sacrifices at Mizpeh when parting with Laban, and at Beersheba when leaving the land of promise, were peace offerings ( Genesis 31:54; 46:1). That sacrifice was known to Israel in Egypt appears from Moses alleging as a reason for taking them out of Egypt that they might hold a feast and sacrifice to Jehovah ( Exodus 3:18; 5:1,3,8,17). Jethro’s offering burnt offerings and peace offerings when he met Israel shows that sacrifice was common to the two great branches of the Semitic stock ( Exodus 18:12). Balaam’s sacrifices were burnt offerings ( Numbers 23:2,3,6,15); Job’s were also ( Job 1:5; 42:7,8). Thus the oldest sacrifices were burnt offerings. The fat is referred to, not the blood. The peace offering is later, answering to a more advanced development of social life. Moses’ order of the kinds of sacrifices in Leviticus answers to this historical succession. Therefore, the radical idea of sacrifice is in the burnt offering; figuringTHE ASCENT of the reconciled, and accepted creature to Jehovah: “‘olah ” ( Leviticus 1:9): his self-sacrificing surrender wholly of body, soul, and spirit to Jehovah. In the sacrifice of Job ( Job 1:5; 42:7,8; Leviticus 1:4) atonement is connected with the burnt offerings, mediation for the guilty resting on the sacrifice.

    The blood symbolized the life of the offerer represented by the victim’s blood, the material vehicle of life. In contrast with flesh and bones it represents the immaterial principle which survives death ( Leviticus 17:11). The Passover lamb’s sprinkled blood represented its life substituted for the people’s life, which therefore escaped ( Exodus 12:7,22,23). The first mention of throwing the blood upon the altar (the established mode afterward in the burnt offerings, peace offerings, and trespass offering, but not the sin offering) was when Moses “threw (so Hebrew) half of the blood on the altar” ( Exodus 24:4-8), and after reading the covenant, and after that the people assented, he took the blood in the basins and “threw it on them, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words” ( Hebrews 9:19,20; 13:20).

    In the sin offering, on the contrary, part of the blood was offered to Jehovah by being put on the horns of the altar, and on certain occasions by being sprinkled within the tabernacle, while the rest was poured at the altar base ( Leviticus 4:6,7,17,18,25, etc.; Leviticus 16:18, etc.). In Moses’ consecration of the people the blood represented their collective life consecrated to Jehovah; so in the priests’ consecration with the ram’s blood, and in the blood thrown on their persons, the consecrated life was given back to them to be devoted to Jehovah’s service. The Mosaic law accords remarkably with modern research: “the blood is the fountain of life, the first to live, the last to die, the primary seat of the animal soul; it lives, and is nourished of itself and by no other part of the human body” (Harvey); “all other parts of the frame are formed and nourished by it” (John Hunter).

    The sin offering was first introduced by the law, the province of which is to awaken in man the consciousness of sin. Every sacrifice was Based on atonement, and at the same time included the idea of the burnt offering, a portion ascending up to Jehovah in the flame ( Leviticus 1:4). The order of the law was: (1) the sin offering, (2) the burnt offering, (3) the peace offering ( Leviticus 8:14-22; 9:8-22; 12:8; 14:19,20). So the spiritual order; the sinner needs (1) atonement expressed in the sin offering; then (2) he could in the burnt offering offer himself accepted as a sweet savour ( Psalm 51:19) ascending to God; in virtue of this acceptanc (3) he enjoyed communion with Jehovah and with God’s people in the peace offering.

    The burnt offering came before the sin offering in the princes’ offerings in dedicating the altar and in reconsecrating the Nazarite, where personal holiness was subordinate to the idea of national consecration ( Numbers 6:14; 7:15, etc.; Ezekiel 45:17). The additions to sacrificial ritual made by the law were the one altar and the national priesthood and the details peculiar to the sin offering and the trespass offering. The law showed that sin must be removed before the sinner can be accepted. Bringing his victim to the tabernacle door he presented it before the Lord, and slew and cut it in pieces. Then his need of a mediator appeared in the priest’s taking the victim from the worshipper, sprinkling of the blood within the tabernacle, and putting some upon the horns (the highest part toward heaven) of the altar, also placing in the altar fire some of the fat a “sweet savour” to Jehovah ( Leviticus 4:31). Thus the priest “made atonement for him.”

    Except the parts assigned to the altar, the whole flesh of the sin offering (as being “most holy,” i.e. by its blood consecrated for making atonement) was eaten by the priests only within the sacred precincts ( Leviticus 6:25-30; 17: 11). (Note that Hebrew chay , Greek zoee , means life opposed to death. Nephesh , psuchee (Greek), anima (Latin), is the soul distinguished from the body, the life in man or beast: Genesis 2:7. Ruach , pneuma (Greek), is the spirit opposed to the flesh: Romans 8:4-6; Galatians 5:17; 1 Peter 3:18; distinguished from “the life of the flesh,” it is man’s highest part, holding communion with God. See Matthew 6:25; 10:28,39; 16:25,26; Mark 8:35; Luke 12:22,23; 1 Corinthians 15:44; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12). The offerer’s sin, and the victim’s freedom from blemish, and the priest’s atoning for him, all pointed to the spotless Saviour, at once the perfect Victim and Priest, so entering into God’s presence for us as a sweet savour ( Leviticus 4:20,26; 5:6; 6:7; 12:8; Hebrews 10:19-21; Ephesians 5:2).

    The offering of innocent animals in substitution for man is no arbitrary invention; it is founded on man’s close connection with animals. He could not offer his own forfeited life to divine justice, but in the life of the innocent fellow creature was found a suitable typical representative. Jesus Himself is called “the Lamb of God,” “the Firstborn of every creature.”

    The propitiatory, dedicatory, and eucharistic elements combine to give the perfect idea of sacrifice. Anyone divorced from the other two would convey a wrong idea. The propitiatory alone would give the idea of atonement without consequent repentance, faith, and thankful loving obedience. Dedication alone would ignore God’s holy justice, between which and our sin there must be an insuperable barrier without atonement.

    Thanksgiving alone would make gifts the essence of God’s service, as the pagan bribe their gods by vows and offerings. The prophets take for granted sacrificial propitiation, and add that self-dedicating obedience which the Bunt offering taught is what the worshippers must spiritually aim at, else their sacrifice is vain ( 1 Samuel 15:22; Isaiah 1:10-20; Jeremiah 7:22,23; Ezekiel 20:39-44; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21-27; Micah 6:6-8; Psalm 40:8-11; 50:13,14; 51:16,17). The sacrifice had no intrinsic efficacy, and could never “make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience” ( Hebrews 9:9; 10:1,11); but they vividly typified “Christ who through the eternal Spirit offering Himself without spot to God purges the conscience front dead works to serve the living God” ( Hebrews 9:14); so that we can “draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” ( Hebrews 10:22). Their need of repetition implies their intrinsic incompleteness ( Hebrews 10:1-3); also “bulls” and “goats” are so much inferior to man that “it is not possible their blood could take away sins” ( Hebrews 10:4). Christ’s atonement was made and accepted in God’s foreordaining before the foundation of the world ( 1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8), so that penitent and believing offerers of sacrifices in the Old Testament were accepted on the ground of it. Their victims were arbitrary and inadequate representatives of the offerer; but He is one with man the offerer, and one with God the Accepter of the sacrifice, so our true and only mediating Priest, representative Offerer, and Victim ( Hebrews 5:1-4), ordained by God with an oath a High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, “tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin,” yet as Son of God above all creatures, ever living to intercede for us, opening once for all access into the holiest by a new and living way (not by dead sacrifce: Hebrews 10:19-22; 4:14-16). His vicarious sacrifice is asserted ( Isaiah 53:6), “the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all”; ( Isaiah 53:12) “He bore the sin of many.” Matthew 20:28, “a ransom (lutron , apolutroosis : Romans 3:25; 1 Corinthians 1:30) for (anti , substituted for) many.” He is the Atonement for sinners as such, still enemies to God ( Romans 5:6-8); the Propitiation (hilasmos , hilasteerion : Romans 3:24; 1 John 2:2), changing God’s relation to man from estrangement to union from wrath to love ( Isaiah 12:1,2) only remember it was God’s love that first provided this sacrifice to make scope for love being harmonized with His unchangeable hatred of sin. (Compare Hebrews 9:7-12 on the typical sin offering on the day of atonement; the inauguration of the Mosaic covenant, Hebrews 9:13-23; the Passover, 1 Corinthians 5:7; the burning of the public or priestly sin offerings without the camp, Hebrews 13:10-13; the altar of sacrifice typifying His passion, which “we have” as a present and us” though He “knew no sin,” 2 Corinthians 5:21). His self-dedicating obedience, answering to the burnt offering, is our pattern next after having appropriated the Atonement ( Hebrews 2:10; 5:7-9; 10:7-9). As He removed our guilt by His death, so by His obedience He fulfills all which the first Adam left undone ( Romans 5:19, though His “obedience” in this verse includes His atoning death; Philippians 2:8; John 10:18). Our obedience is as necessary a complement of our faith in His atonement as the burnt offering was of the sin offering and Christ’s self dedicating obedience was of His atoning sacrifice ( Romans 6:6; 12:1; Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Colossians 1:24; 1 John 3:16; 2 Timothy 4:6; Philippians 2:17). Christ’s sin offering was made once for all, rending the veil between man and heaven; our continual burnt offering is accepted now through the mediation of our ever living Intercessor within the veil; the incense of tits merits makes our prayers a sweet savour unto God ( Revelation 8:4; Hebrews 9:24-28; 4:14-16; 6:19,20; 7:25). Our peace offerings are sacrifices of praise, almsgiving, and love ( Philippians 4:18; Hebrews 13:15,16).

    Atonement by Christ’s sacrifice as substitute for the penalty of God’s broken law was necessary in the interests of God’s moral government of the universe, to show His displeasure against sin. “It is the blood that maketh atonement by means of (Hebrew) the soul” ( Leviticus 17:11).

    The ceremonies of sacrifice were: (1) the victim’s presentation at the altar; (2) the laying on of hands, signifying consecration to death ( Leviticus 24:14); (3) slaughtering, being the completion of the penal death, whereby the blood became the medium of expiation; (4) the sprinkling of the blood against the altar, completing the expiation; (5) the burning of the flesh; (6) the sacrificial meal at the sanctuary.

    That sacrifices were offered for moral as well as for ceremonial transgressions appears in Leviticus 6:2-7; 19:20,22. The vicarious nature of sacrifice appears in Leviticus 1:4; 16:21,22; Isaiah 53:4,5,6,8,10,11,12. Hebrew nasa’ (compare Leviticus 5:1,17; 17:16; 20:19,20; 24:15; 10:17) implies He not only entered into the fellowship of our sufferings, but took upon Himself the sufferings which we had to bear in order to take them away. Matthew 8:17: He bore their punishment and atoned for them. So more explicitly cabal (compare 1 Peter 2:25).

    In Matthew 26:28 Christ declares His blood not merely ratifies the new testament or covenant, but was “shed for many for the remission of sins,” referring back to the Old Testament ( Exodus 24:5-8; Hebrews 9:18-21). John the Baptist calls Him “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” ( John 1:29). The flocks passing the ford where John baptized, on their way to Jerusalem; suggested the image the Lamb led to the “slaughter,” not merely the shearing ( Isaiah 53:7). The Passover was near ( John 2:13); Christ combined the Passover lamb, the atonement scapegoat ( Leviticus 16:21), and the morning and evening sacrifice of a lamb. The time of John’s pointing to the Lamb of God was about “the tenth hour,” just after the evening sacrifice ( John 1:39; Revelation 5:8-12), a coincidence connecting Him with the typical daily sacrifice. The see PASSOVER was sacrificial: for it is called (1) qorban ( Numbers 9:7), an offering to Jehovah, and (2) zebach , the special designation of a bloody sacrifice. (3) Philo and Josephus confirm Mark 14:12 margin and Corinthians 5:7, that it is a sacrifice. (4) It had the notes of a sacrifice; the blood was poured out and sprinkled on the altar ( Exodus 23:18; 34:25; 2 Chronicles 30:15; 35:11. (5) The Mishna and Karaite Jews, who reject all tradition not founded on Scripture, say the fat and entrails were burnt on the altar. (6) Priests offered it at Hezekiah’s Passover.

    Other leading passages representing Christ’s death as a sacrifice are Corinthians 15:3; Hebrews 1:3 (Greek “made purgation of (our) sins”); Hebrews 9:12,13,14-28; 10:10,12,18; 1 Peter 1:18-20, “not redeemed with silver but ... lamb,” etc., i.e. not with the daily offered lamb purchased with the half-shekel soul-redemption money of every Israelite ( Exodus 30:12-16), but, etc. As “Christ offered Himself to God” He was a real priest, having “somewhat to offer” ( Hebrews 8:3); but if He had only a figurative sacrifice to offer Be would have no superiority to the Aaronic priests ( Revelation 1:5,8,9,12). The Aaronic sacrifices were allusions to Christ’s one atonement, not His to them. The epistle to the Hebrews makes the legal sacrifices to have no inherent efficacy, but Christ’s sacrifice on the contrary to be intrinsically efficacious. The analogy between the Aaronic sacrifices and Christ’s does not mean that both are empty figures, or that they exactly resemble one another, but that they have similarity in their relations. (1) Sacrifice restored an Israelite to his status in the theocracy, forfeited by sin; it was his public confession of guilt, satisfaction of the law, and means of removing legal disability, i.e. “sanctifying to the purifying of the flesh.” (2) Offering sacrifice in penitence and faith he received atonement or reconciliation with God, on the ground of the foreordained sacrifice of Christ. This second effect must have pertained to John’s sacrifice who had no status in the Hebrew theocracy to fall from or be restored to.

    Christ’s death was not only a sacrifice for sin, but a substitution, propitiation, and ransom to God for us: Matthew 20:28 (anti ); Mark 10:45; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Timothy 2:6; 1 Corinthians 7:23; Galatians 3:13; 2 Peter 2:1. There was a claim against man, Christ’s death met that claim, therefore we are freed froth it. God Himself provided the ransom ( John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:19), so that He is not only “just” but also “the justifier of him that believes in Jesus” ( Romans 3:26). Christ’s work has that excellency which God’s unerring justice has seen to be an actual doing of that which was requisite to compensate for the injury perpetrated, and to restore the moral harmony which had been violated; so it is rightly called a “satisfaction” (Pye Smith), though the term is not in Scripture. Christ did not need to undergo the very penalty we incurred, namely, eternal death, but such a penalty as, taking into account Who and what He was, He on our behalf must suffer. The fact of God’s appointment of Him as our atonement guarantees that His death is an amply sufficient satisfaction. There was a real and intrinsic worthiness in Jesus’ propitiation which was the reason of the divine appointment and justifies it. We cannot define the value of Christ’s death, nor its exact mode of satisfying divine justice, but we know it was “precious blood” in God’s sight, and therefore appointed as the propitiation adequate to atone for our sin ( 1 Peter 1:19; 1 Corinthians 6:20; Romans 8:32; Hebrews 9:14). God’s just wrath against sin is as real as His love to us ( Psalm 7:11; John 3:36). The sacrificial see ATONEMENT or see RECONCILIATION (see PROPITIATION ) covers sin out of God’s sight, so that wrath is removed, and He “who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity” sees us in Christ at peace with Him ( Isaiah 12:1-3; Psalm 32:1; Romans 3:24,25). Christ’s sacrifice did not make God placable, but was God’s own appointed means through which to bestow mercy ( Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 1:7; 2:2; 4:10), and to produce reconciliation between God and man ( Romans 5:10,11; Colossians 1:20; Ephesians 2:16). At-one may be from two at variance becoming at one, or from German aussohnen, “to expiate.”

    It is objected that it is opposed to God’s justice that the innocent should suffer for the guilty; but in the daily experience of life and the course of nature the innocent often suffer, sometimes voluntarily, oftener involuntarily, for the guilty; philanthropists, patriots, and missionaries voluntarily. Christ’s knowing and voluntary suffering in our stead is palpably no injustice ( John 10:17,18; Psalm 40:6-8). The vast benefit to be gained for man vindicates it as lawful, as certainly it was in His power, to lay down His life for us. It is objected guilt cannot be transferred, it is purely personal. True: Jesus was personally innocent, but it is just Because He was so, and therefore free, which other men through sin are not, that He could atone for sin. The animal sacrifice similarly was innocent and spotless, but appointed to die for the guilty. The transfer of guilt to the Saviour was only legal, not moral; imputation, not pollution; He took the penalty, not the moral consciousness of our guilt, not the stain but the liability to suffer, the obligation to die. A solvent man, generously paying for an insolvent, does not become insolvent himself, but takes the obligation that really belongs to the debtor. Christ became “sin” and a “curse” for us (i.e. took on Him sin’s penal consequences), but not a sinner ( 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13). Hence the serpent of brass lifted up by Moses was the type of Christ, for it had the form of the animal cursed above all beasts of the field, but not the venom; harmless in itself, but resembling the deadly serpent of the wilderness. So Christ was “made in the likeness of sinful flesh,” but not in sinful flesh. He died “for sin,” all our sin being laid on Him, though no sin was in Him ( Numbers 21:9; John 3:14; Romans 8:3).

    It is also objected that the atonement is opposed to God’s love and goodness. But in the moral and physical world we see daily sure punishment following violation of its laws; this attests what Scripture asserts, namely, the reality of God’s judicial anger. The flood that destroyed the antediluvians, and the fire that consumed Sodom, contradict the notion that punishment’s sole end is the sinner’s reformation. Since then God’s benevolence is consistent with punishment following sin, it cannot be inconsistent with His appointing His Son’s voluntary, sacrificial, substitutional, atoning death to be the means of harmonizing divine justice with mercy to the sinner, and besides of effectively renewing and reforming the sinner, just because His death was of that atoning, redeeming nature. It is objected also that the atonement is unfavourable to virtue, and leads men to trust in another’s work, instead of amending their lives. But God’s wrath against sin, so awfully shown in Christ’s death, never leads men, really believing in it, to trifle with sin; and His love first to us, when felt, constrains us to love Him in turn and try to obey Him. Others object we are taught to forgive because God has forgiven us, but if the atonement be true we ought to imitate God in exacting from our brother the uttermost farthing. We answer: the atonement is the act of God as a holy Judge, but the pardon comes to us perfectly gratuitous; in this its effect, viewed from our human standpoint, God’s forgiving mercy to us is our model for forgiving others. The judge’s and magistrate’s duly is often not to forgive but punish; only in our private relations to fellow men is forgiveness our duty, as opposed to personal revenge.

    The Socinian view derogates from the love of God: for if Christ were mere man, His death was His own act, not God’s; just as any virtuous deed or death of a good man for others. Suffering lighting on an innocent man can give no declaration of God’s readiness to pardon the guilty on repentance.

    No view but that of His death being expiatory can make it a manifestation of God’s love ( 1 John 4:9,10). If love be estimated by the greatness of its gifts, God’s gift of His divine Son to die in our stead is an infinitely greater manifestation of love than that of His allowing a good man to die in self sacrifice. Socinianism sacrifices God’s justice, and so lowers His moral character of holiness of which His justice is one phase, and confounds the eternal distinctions of right and wrong. A human judge who lets criminals escape punishment is counted unjust, however merciful criminals might call him. Love of right is not a whit more virtuous than hatred of evil. A being without anger against wrong would be morally imperfect ( Mark 3:5). If God, moreover, were a God of benevolence only, one cannot see why Christ should have been allowed by God to die at all. If it be unjust to punish the innocent for the guilt of others, must it not be much more unjust to punish him for no guilt whatever? Again, if the object of His death was only to show an example of fortitude, patience, and self denial, since there is nothing of this kind in the sacrificial ritual of the Old Testament, there is no analogy between the sacrifices and Christ’s death, and the sacrificial Old Testament language applied to Christ’s death is meaningless. The Homily of Salvation truly says “reason is satisfied by God’s great wisdom in this mystery of our redemption, who hath so tempered His justice and mercy together, that He would neither by His justice condemn us unto the everlasting captivity of the devil and his prison of hell, remediless forever without mercy, nor by His mercy deliver us clearly without justice or payment of a just ransom; but with His endless mercy He joined His most upright and equal justice.” See Hollywood’s admirable “Bishop Jeune’s Prize Essay on the Atonement,” from which the latter part of the above is mainly condensed.

    SADDUCEES Matthew 3:7; 16:1,6,11,12; 22:23,34; Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27; Acts 4:1; 5:17; 23:6-8. Matthew (as distinguished from Mark) does not usually explain Jewish usages, taking for granted that his readers are familiar with them. His deviating from his wont to explain “the S. say there is no resurrection” is cleared up by what Josephus (Ant. 18:1, section 4) states “the doctrine of the Sadducees is that the soul and body perish together; the law is all that they are concerned to, observe; this doctrine however has not many followers, but those of the highest rank, ... almost nothing of public business falls into their hands.” See also his B. J., ii. 8, section 14. Thus the Jews might easily be ill informed as to the dogmas of a sect, small in numbers, raised above those masses to whom Matthew addresses himself, and to whom therefore his information would not have been superfluous.

    Another undesigned coincidence, confirming the sacred writers accuracy, is that the opposition to Christ in the Gospels is almost exclusively on the part of the Pharisees ( Matthew 23:29,32; John 11:57; 18:3) and His denunciations are mainly against these; but in Acts on the part of the Sadducees ( Acts 4:1; 5:17; 23:6,8). Why so? Because the resurrection of the dead (the doctrine denied by the Sadducees), which was scarcely understood during the Gospels’ period ( Mark 9:10), became the leading doctrine of Christianity in connection with the apostles’ witness for Christ’s resurrection at the time described in Acts 1:22; 2:32; 3:12; 4:2 (Greek “preached in the person of Jesus the resurrection from the dead”), Acts 4:10; 5:31; 10:40; and was therefore bitterly opposed by the Sadducees. John never mentions them, and no writing of theirs has come down to us.

    They denied the oral and upheld the written law. Rabbi Nathan (first mentioned in the Aruch, a rabbiical dictionary, A.D. 1105) states that Antigonus of Socho (mentioned in the Mishna, Avoth 1, as having received the oral law from Simon the Just, last of the great synagogue). had two disciples, who in turn taught disciples his saying “be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of reward, but serve without view of reward”; and that the disciples reasoned, “if our fathers had known that there is another world, and a resurrection of the dead, they would not have spoken thus”; so they separated themselves from the law (and denied there is another world and a resurrection); “so there arose two sects, the Zadokites from Zadok, and Baithusians from Baithos.” But this does not justify the modern notion that Zadok himself misinterpreted Antigonus’ saying; still the Sadducees might claim this Zadok as their head. But the Zadok from whom the Sadducees are named may be rather the famous Zadok who superseded Abiathar under Solomon ( 1 Kings 2:35); “the house of Zadok,” “the sons of Zadok,” “the seed of Zadok” are named with preeminent honour in 2 Chronicles 31:10; Ezekiel 40:46; 42:19; 44:15; 48:11; so they became a kind of sacerdotal aristocracy, including the high priests’ families; compare Mishna, Sanhed. iv. 2, which ordains that only priests, Levites, and Israelites whose daughters might marry priests, were “clean” so as to be judges in capital trials; also Acts 5:17, “the highpriest, and all that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees.”

    Besides their reasonable denial of an oral law, which the Pharisees maintained was transmitted by Moses, the Sadducees denied the resurrection because it is not explicitly stated in Moses’ Pentateuch, the legislator’s sanctions of the law being primarily temporal rewards and punishments ( Exodus 20:12; 23:25,26; Deuteronomy 7:12-15; 28:1- 12,15-68). Christ ( Matthew 22:31,32; Luke 20:37) however shows that even Exodus 3:6,16 suffices to prove the resurrection; and Hebrews 11 quotes the patriarchs as examples of a faith which looked beyond the present for eternal rewards. Job ( Job 19:26), Isaiah ( Isaiah 26:19), Daniel ( Daniel 12:2), and David (Psalm 16; Psalm 17) express the same faith, the germ of which is in the Pentateuch (see RESURRECTION ). The Pharisees, though wrong in maintaining oral tradition as obligatory, yet preserved in respect to the resurrection the faith of the fathers. In Acts 23:8 “the Sadducees” are said to disbelieve in “angel or spirit”; but angels are often introduced in the Pentateuch, which the Sadducees admitted ( Genesis 16:7; 19:1; 22:11; 28:12; Exodus 23:20; Numbers 22:23); and Josephus and the Mishna do not mention their disbelief of angels. Probably it is only their disbelief of angelic communications to men in their time, such as the Pharisees suggested ( Acts 23:9) may have been made to Paul, that the Sadducees denied.

    Josephus states, “the Pharisees say that some things are the work of fate (he should have said God’s providence; he uses the Roman mode of expression), but others in our own power to be or not to be; the Essenes, that fate rules all things. The Sadducees make all things in the power of ourselves as the causes of our good things, and meeting with evils through our own inconsiderateness” (Ant. 18:1, section 3; B. J. 2:8, section 14).

    The Sadducees, though giving paramount authority to Moses’ Pentateuch, did not as Epiphanius asserts (Haer. 14) reject the other Scriptures; for Josephus would certainly have mentioned it were it so. After the fall of Jerusalem the Sadducees doctrine disappeared, the afflicted Jews instinctively turning for consolation from the sad present to the bright hope of an eternal future life. The Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Herodians of Jesus’ day represent the three schools antagonistic to vital Christianity in our days: infidelity; superstition, spiritualism and spiritual pride; worldly compromise. This “leaven” (see Leviticus 2:11; 1 Corinthians 5:8) Jesus warns against; called “doctrine” in Matthew 16:12, “hypocrisy” in Luke 12:1, “the leaven of Herod” Mark 8:15; Antichrist’s antitrinity, the three frogs out of the mouth of the dragon, the false prophet, and the beast ( Revelation 16:13,14).

    SAFFRON Of the Iris order. The stigma and upper portion of the style, taken from the flower’s center and dried, is the saffron of commerce. Esteemed anciently for its fragrance, also as a dye. “Saffron vested” is Homer’s epithet for morning. Also a medicine. Hebrew carcom , Latin crocus (Song 4:14).

    Saffron is derived from Arabic zafran, “yellow.” Saffron Walden in Essex is named from the saffron.

    SALAH (extension); implying the spread of the Shemites from their original seat toward the Euphrates. Arphaxad’s son, Eber’s father ( Genesis 10:24; 11:12-14; Luke 3:35).

    SALAMIS A city on a commodious harbour in the E. of Cyprus, the first place Paul and Barnabas visited after leaving the mainland at Seleucia, on their first missionary tour. The “synagogues” (implying the presence of many Jews) account for their going there first. Moreover Cyprus was Barnabas’ birthplace ( Acts 13:4,5). Herod the Great farmed the Cyprian copper mines, this would bring many Jews there (Josephus, Ant. 14:4, section 5).

    Salamis was near the river Pediaeus, on low ground. Constantine or his successor rebuilt it, and named it Constantia.

    SALATHIEL Greek Shealtiel , Hebrew = I have asked God (compare 1 Samuel 1:20,27,28). Son of Jeconias king of Judah, father of Zerobabel according to Matthew 1:12; but son of Neri, and father of Zerobabel according to Luke 3:27; see also 1 Chronicles 3:17-19. No genealogy would assign to a king’s true son and heir an inferior parentage, whereas a private person’s son would naturally be ranked in the king’s pedigree on his becoming rightful heir of the throne, therefore Luke’s genealogy must be that of the natural descent, and Salathiel was “son of Neri,” descended from Nathan son of David. On Jeconiah’s dying childless, as Jeremiah foretold, and Solomon’s line thereby failing, Salathiel was heir to David’s throne (see SHEALTIEL ).

    SALCAH Salchah. Deuteronomy 3:10. A city the extreme boundary of Bashan ( Joshua 13:11), and of Gad ( 1 Chronicles 5:11). The district also ( Joshua 12:5). The modern Salchah, Sulkhad, or Sarkhad, is seven hours’ journey S.E. of Bozrah. Above the town on a volcanic hill, 400 ft. above the surrounding ground, an offshoot from the Bashan mountains, is a strong castle on the edge of the Euphrates desert, commanding a view of any foe who might approach, almost a day’s journey off. The town is two or three miles hi circumference at the S. end of the jebel Hauran.

    SALEM (“peace”). The oldest name, Jehus the next, Jerusalem (seeing, or the foundation of peace) the latest, of Jerusalem. The cities of the plain were probably S. of the Dead Sea; so Salem is Jerusalem, and “the king’s dale” the valley of the Kedron. The theory of their being N. of the Dead Sea is what necessitates its upholders to seek Salem far north of Jerusalem ( Genesis 14:17,18). But no king of Salem distinct from Jerusalem is mentioned among the kings conquered by Joshua. Moreover, Adonizedek (lord of righteousness) king of Jerusalem ( Joshua 10:3) was plainly successor of Melchizedek (king of righteousness), it was the common title of the Jebusite kings. Further, “the king’s dale” ( 2 Samuel 18:18), identified in Genesis 14:17 with Shaveh, is placed by Josephus and by tradition (the targum of Onkelos) near Jerusalem ( Hebrews 7:1,2).

    Lastly, Psalm 76 identifies Salem with Jerusalem.

    SALIM John 3:23. Named to mark the locality of Aenon (= fountains), the scene of the last baptisms by John ( John 3:23). Eusebius and Jerome (Onomasticon) mention Salim as near Jordan, eight Roman miles S. of Scythepolis. Exactly agreeing with this is Salim, six English miles S. of Beisan and two miles W. of Jordan. A Mussulman’s tomb on the northern base of Tell Redghah, near ruins, is called Sheykh Salim (Van de Velde, Syriac and Pal. ii. 345, section 6). John’s progress was from S. to N., so that this would suitably be the scene of his last labours. The brook wady Chasneh runs dose by, a fountain gushes out beside the wely, and rivulets run in all directions, answering to “there was much water there.” (But see AENON ).

    SALLAI 1. Nehemiah 11:8. 2. Nehemiah 12:20; 7SALLU.

    SALLU Nehemiah 11:7; 1 Chronicles 9:7.

    SALMA Salmon. Son (descendant) of Nahshon, prince of Judah, father (forefather) of Boaz ( Ruth 4:20,21; 1 Chronicles 2:50,51,54,55; Matthew 1:4,5; Luke 3:32). Of the sons of Caleb (i.e., by residence or marriage becoming head of Bethlehem in Caleb’s territory, Salma was reckoned of Caleb’s family). Father, i.e. founder or headman, of Bethlehem. Salma took Rahab of Jericho to be his wife. The Netophathites also, Joab’s house, the Zorites, etc., had Salma as their head. Doubtless one or more links in the genealogy between Nahshon and Salma, and again between Salma and Boaz, have been passed over, possibly one also between Obed and Jesse.

    The chain from Perez to David consists of ten links, five (from Perez to Nahshon) belonging to the 430 years’ sojourn in Egypt, and five (from Salma to David) belonging to the 476 between the exodus and David’s death. This symmetrical division, as well as the limitation of the whole genealogy to ten, is evidently intentional, ten being the number sealing the genealogy as a perfect completed whole.

    SALMON A hill near Shechem on which Abimelech cut down the boughs with which they set on fire the tower of Shechem. Salmon means shady, dark ( Psalm 68:14). The brightness of prosperity after the gloom of the conflict was like the glittering white snow which covers dark Salmon’s forests ( Judges 9:48; Mark 9:3). Or else (Maurer) Canaan had the same snowy appearance, covered over With the corpses of the slain, as Salmon when its trees were cut down by Abimelech changed its dark color for a white one. Joel 1:7, “He hath barked my figtree ... the branches are made white.” The blanching bones too may be referred to.

    SALMONE The eastern promontory of Crete. Paul’s voyage ( Acts 27:7), the wind was “contrary,” therefore, we infer, blowing from the N.W. ( Acts 27:4), so that they “sailed slowly.” Their course was past the southern point of Greece, W. by Salmone. Then we read, when they “scarce were come over against Cnidus,” they made cape Salmone which bears S.W. by Salmone from Cnidus. Assuming that the ship could have made good a course of less than seven points from the wind, we arrive at the conclusion that the wind must have been between N.N.W. and W.N.W. This undesigned coincidence remarkably confirms Luke’s accuracy. (See Smith of Jordanhill’s Voyage, etc., of Paul, 73,74; Conybeare and Howson’s Life of Paul, 2:393). The ship’s direct course from Myra to Italy after reaching Cnidus lay N. of Crete. But the wind blowing W.N.W. (as often in the Archipelago in late summer) forced her to run under the lee of Crete in the direction of Salmone, which is the eastern point of the island. They with difficulty passed that point. From Myra to Cnidus they had been able to work up with N.W. winds, though slowly, because until they reached Cnidus they had the advantage of a weather shore, under the lee of which they had smooth water and a westerly current. But at Cnidus that advantage ceased; thence their only course was under the lee of Crete toward Salmone.

    SALOME 1. Wife of Zebedee; among the “women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto Him” ( Matthew 27:55,56; compare Mark 15:40).

    Supposed to be the Virgin Mary’s sister. (But see on John 19:25 see MARY OF CLEOPHAS ). Salome requested for her two rams seats of honour on Christ’s right hand and left in His kingdom ( Matthew 20:20), and shared with her sons in His rebuke, but was not the less zealous in her attachment to Him. Size was at His crucifixion, “beholding afar off,” when even her sons had withdrawn; and at His sepulchre by early dawn ( Mark 16:1). 2. Herodias’ daughter by her former husband Herod Philip (Josephus Ant. 18:5, section 4; Matthew 14:6; Mark 6:22). She danced before see HEROD ANTIPAS , and at her mother’s instigation asked for see JOHN THE BAPTIST ’S head. Salome married first Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis, her paternal uncle; then Aristobulus, king of Chalcis.

    SALT An appetizing seasoning of food to man and beast. In the East the vegetable food especially needs salt ( Job 6:6; Isaiah 30:24, margin).

    An antidote to the effects of heat on animal food. A necessary accompaniment of the various altar offerings, bloody and unbloody ( Leviticus 2:13, “the salt of the covenant of thy God”; Ezekiel 43:24; Mark 9:49,50). It signifies the imperishableness of Jehovah’s love for His people; as an antiseptic salt implies durability, fidelity, purity.

    The opposite of leaven, the symbol of corruption. Covenants were cemented by feasts and hospitality, the viands of which were seasoned, as all foods, with salt. Hence, “a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord” is an indissoluble covenant ( Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5; Ezra 4:14, margin). An Arab who just before would have robbed and murdered you, once you taste his salt, would die to save you; “faithless to salt” is the Persian term for a traitor. So Jesus, “have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another”; as no sacrifice to God, and no food to man, is acceptable without salt, so prayers offered without “peace” of heart toward fellow men are savourless; a warning to the disciples who had just been disputing with one another, and judging, fellow men who used Jesus’ name though not following the disciples ( Mark 9:33-50). Being “salted with the salt of the (heavenly King’s) palace,” and bound to fidelity to Him, and brought into a covenant of salt with Him, they are called on to have a loving, imperishable savour toward one another and to all men. Colossians 4:6, “let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt,” i.e. the savour of fresh spiritual wisdom excluding all “corrupt communication,” and tasteless unprofitableness or insipidity ( Matthew 5:13; Ephesians 4:29). Near Colosse was a salt lake, hence the image.

    The idea in Mark 9:49, “for every one shall be salted with fire,” is: the reason why it is better for us to cut off offending members is that the work of every one, believer and unbeliever, shall be tried with fire; to believers “the Refiner’s fire” ( Malachi 3:3; Matthew 3:11), symbolizing God’s searching purity; a consuming fire ( Hebrews 12:29) to His foes, who nevertheless shall be imperishable in their doom (salt symbolizing preservation from decay), but purging out only the dross from His people ( 1 Corinthians 3:13; 1 Peter 1:7; 4:12). The righteous can withstand the fire, for it is part of their present salting as “a living sacrifice” ( Isaiah 33:14,15; Romans 12:1). Every offending member and offense must be removed, to enable us to withstand that testing fire and be found without dross unto glory and honour. The southern shore of the Salt Sea supplied, salt abundantly; compare “the valley of salt” ( 2 Samuel 8:13) near the mountain of fossil salt, five miles long, the chief source of the salt in the sea. The salt pits (a source of revenue; Josephus Ant. 13:4, section 9) were at the S. of the Dead Sea; the marshes here are coated with salt deposited periodically by the spring rising of the waters which in summer evaporate; and here were the pillars of salt traditionally represented as Lot’s wife (Josephus Ant. 1:11, section 4; Apocr. Wisd. 10:7). Inferior salt was used for manure ( Matthew 5:13; Luke 14:35). Too much salt produced barrenness ( Deuteronomy 29:23; Zephaniah 2:9). “Sowing with salt” doomed symbolically to barrenness a destroyed city and depopulated region ( Judges 9:45; <19A734> Psalm 107:34 margin). Salt as expressing purity was the outward sign Elisha used in healing the waters ( 2 Kings 2:20,21). The Israelites used to rub infants with salt to make the skin dense and firm, and for purification and dedication of them to God ( Ezekiel 16:4).

    SALT, CITY OF Joshua 15:62. A city near Engedi and the Dead Sea, in the wilderness.

    Van de Velde mentions finding a nahr Maleh (salt), one of four ravines which together form the wady el Bedim; another is the wady ‘Amreh. (Gomorrha?).

    SALT, VALLEY OF Gee’ , more accurately “ravine,” Melach . The battle field between Judah and see EDOM where see DAVID and see AMAZIAH conquered (see ABISHAI , see JOAB ) ( 2 Samuel 8:13; 1 Chronicles 18:12; Psalm title; 1 Kings 11:15,16; 2 Kings 14:7; 2 Chronicles 25:11). Near the salt mountain (Usdum), the upper part of the Arabah or plain S. of the Salt Sea; the boundary between Judah and Edom. Grove objects to this identification with the plain intervening between the Dead Sea and the heights which cross the valley seven miles to the S. For (1) ge is not elsewhere applied to a broad valley or sunk plain like the lower Ghor; ‘eemeq or biquaah would be the name. (2) ‘Arabah was the Hebrew name. (3) “Salt” is not necessarily the right translation of Melach. (4) Amaziah brought 10,000 prisoners to Sela (Petra), Edom’s stronghold, and cast them down; he would scarcely bring so many prisoners from near the Dead Sea,50 miles through a hostile and difficult country; more likely the valley of Salt was nearer Petra.

    SALU Numbers 25:14.

    SALUTATION In meeting, “God be gracious unto thee,” “the Lord bless thee,” etc. ( Genesis 43:29; Ruth 2:4; 3:10; 1 Samuel 15:13; <19C908> Psalm 129:8). Thus “bless” came to moan salute ( 1 Samuel 13:10 margin). “Peace” (shalom ), from whence the oriental salaam), including health or welfare of body and mind, was the constant salutation of Hebrews; as “joy” (chairein ) is the Greek salutation. James 1:1,2: “greeting ... joy,” only found elsewhere in the apostolic letter probably composed by James ( Acts 15:23), an undesigned coincidence. “Hail”: Matthew 27:29.

    The Hebrew’s very salutation indicated his sense of man’s deep spiritual need. The Greek salutation answers to the national characteristic, “joy,” and outward gracefulness ( Genesis 43:27 margin; Exodus 18:7 margin). “Peace” was used also in encouraging ( Genesis 43:23); at parting a blessing was pronounced ( Genesis 24:60). Latterly ( Samuel 1:17) “go in peace”: no empty form in Christ’s mouth ( Mark 5:34; Luke 7:50; 10:5; 24:36; Acts 16:36). Proverbs 27:14: “he that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning,” i.e., the affected assiduity and loud exaggeration engender suspicion of insincerity and duplicity. “Salute no man by the way,” lest it should cause delay by subsequent conversation ( 2 Kings 4:29; Luke 10:4). “Live for ever” was the salutation to the Babylonian and Persian kings ( Daniel 2:4; 6:6). “Grace and peace” is Paul’s opening salutation in his epistles to churches, but in his three pastoral epistles, Timothy and Titus, “grace, mercy, and peace”; for ministers of all men most need “mercy” for their ministry ( <470401> Corinthians 4:1; 1 Corinthians 7:25; 1 Timothy 1:16). Paul added to the epistles written by an amanuensis the salutation with his own hand, “grace” to all ( 1 Corinthians 16:21,23; Colossians 4:18; Thessalonians 3:17,18). The greeting forbidden toward a false teacher in 2 John 1:10 is of that usual among Christian brethren, a token of Christian brotherhood; this would be insincerity.

    SAMARIA (a watch mountain). The oblong terraced hill in the center of a basinshaped, valley, a continuation of the Shethem valley, six miles N.W. of Shechem. The owner, Shemer, sold it for two silver talents to Omri king of Israel (925 B.C.), who built on it a city and called it after Shomer ( Kings 16:23,24). Shechem previously had been the capital, Tirzah the court residence in summer ( 1 Kings 15:21,33; 16:1-18). The situation combines strength, fertility and beauty (Josephus, Ant. 15:8, section 5; B.J. 1:21, section 2). It is 600 ft. high, surrounded with terraced hills, clad with figs and olives. There is abundant water in the valley; but the city, like Jerusalem, is dependent on rain cisterns. The view is charming: to the N. and E. lie its own rich valleys; to the W. fertile Sharon and the blue Mediterranean. (On the “glorious beauty” of Ephraim (Samaria), Isaiah 28:1, see MEALS ).

    Its strength enabled it to withstand severe sieges by the Syrians (1 Kings 20; 2 Kings 6; 7). Finally it fell before Shalmaneser and Sargon, after a three years’ siege ( 2 Kings 18:9-12), 721 B.C. Called from its Baal worship, introduced by Ahab, “the city of the house of Ahab” ( 1 Kings 16:32,33; 2 Kings 10:25). Alexander the Great replaced its inhabitants with Syro Macedonians. John Hyrcanus (109 B.C.) destroyed the city after a 12 months’ siege (Josephus, Ant. 13:10, section 2,3). Herod the Great rebuilt and adorned it, naming it Sebaste from Sebastos, Greek for Augustus, his patron (Ant. 14:5, section 3; 15:8, section 5; B.J. 1:20, section 3, 21, section 2).

    The woman of Samaria and several of her townsmen (John 4) were the firstfruits gathered into Christ; the fuller harvest followed under Philip the evangelist deacon (Acts 8, compare John 4:35). Septimius Severus planted a Roman colony there in the third century A.D.; but politically it became secondary to Caesarea. Ecclesiastically it was of more importance; and Marius its bishop signed himself “Maximus Sebastenus” at the council of Nice, A.D. 325. The Mahometans took it, A.D. 614. The Crusaders established a Latin bishop there. Now Sebustieh; its houses of stone are taken from ancient materials, but irregularly placed; the inhabitants are rude but industrious.

    The ruin of the church of John the Baptist marks the traditional place of his burial; the original structure is attributed to Helena, Constantine’s mother; but the present building, except the eastern Greek end, is of later style: ft. long inside, 75 broad, and a porch 10 ft. wide. Within is a Turkish tomb under which by steps you descend to a vault with tessellated floor, and five niches for the dead, the central one being alleged to have been that of John (?). Fifteen limestone columns stand near the hill top, two others lie on the ground, in two rows, 32 paces apart. Another colonnade, on the N. side of the hill, in a ravine, is arranged in a quadrangle, 196 paces long and broad. On the W.S.W. are many columns, erect or prostrate, extending a third of a mile, and ending in a heap of ruins; each column 16 ft. high, 6 ft. in circumference at the base, 5 ft. at the top: probably relics of Herod’s work. (See HOSHEA ).

    Its present state accords with prophecy: ( Hosea 13:16) “Samaria shall become desolate”; ( Micah 1:6) “I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard, and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley (a graphic picture of its present state which is ‘as though the buildings of the ancient city had been thrown down from the brow of a hill’: Scottish Mission Enquiry, 295), and I will discover the foundations thereof.” The hill planted with vines originally should return to its pristine state.

    SAMARIA is the designation of northern Israel under Jeroboam ( 1 Kings 13:32; Hosea 8:5,6; Amos 3:9). Through the depopulations by Pul and Tiglath Pileser ( 1 Chronicles 5:26; 2 Kings 15:29) the extent of Samaria was much limited. The pagan pushed into the vacated region, and “Galilee of the Gentiles” (nations) became an accepted phrase ( Isaiah 9:1). After Shalmaneser’s capture of Samaria and carrying away of Israel to Halah and Habor, and in the cities of the Medes ( 2 Kings 17:5,6,23,24), see ESARHADDON or see ASNAPPER planted “instead” men of Babylon (where Esarhaddon resided in part: 2 Chronicles 33:11), Cuthah, Ava, and Sepharvaim ( Ezra 4:2,3,10). So completely did God “wipe” away Israel ( 2 Kings 21:13) that no Israelite remained able to teach the colonists “the manner of the God of the land” ( 2 Kings 17:26). Isaiah ( Isaiah 7:8) in 742 B.C. foretold that within 65 years Ephraim should be “broken” so as “not to be a people”; accomplished in 677 B.C. by Esarhaddon’s occupying their land with foreigners. Josephus (Ant. 10:9, section 7) notices the difference between the ten and the two tribes. Israel’s land became the land of complete strangers; Judah not so.

    The lions sent by Jehovah (who still claims the land as His own and His people’s: Jeremiah 31:20; Leviticus 26:42), in consequence of the colonists worshipping their five deities respectively, constrained them through fear to learn from an imported Israelite priest how to “fear Jehovah.” But it was fear, not love; it was a vain combination of incompatible worships, that of Jehovah and of idols ( Zephaniah 1:5; Ezekiel 20:39; 1 Kings 18:21; Matthew 6:24). Luke ( Luke 17:18) calls them “strangers,” foreigners (allogeneis ). In Ezra’s ( Ezra 4:1-4) time they claim no community of descent, but only of religion, with the Jews.

    Baffled in their wish to share in building the temple, they thwarted the building by false representations’ before see AHASUERUS and see ARTAXERXES until the reign ofDARIUS (Ezra 5; 6). The Samaritans gradually cast off idols. In 409 B.C. Manasseh, of priestly descent, having been expelled for an unlawful marriage by Nehemiah, built a temple on Mount Gerizim for the Samaritans by Darius Nothus’ permission.

    Henceforward the Samaritans refused all kindness to the pilgrims on their way to the feasts at Jerusalem, and often even waylaid them (Josephus, Ant. 20:6, section 1, 18:2, section 2). John Hyrcanus destroyed the Gerizim temple, but they still directed their worship toward it; then they built one at Shechem. The Pentateuch was their sole code; for their copy they claimed an antiquity and authority above any Jewish manuscript Jewish renegades joined them; hence they began to claim Jewish descent, as the Samaritan woman ( John 4:12) says “Jacob our father.” Possibly (though there is no positive evidence) Israelites may have not been completely swept from the fastness of the Samaritan hills, and these may have intermarried with the colonists. The Jews recognized no Israelite connection in the Samaritans.

    The Jews’ charge against Jesus was, “Thou art a Samaritan” ( John 8:48), probably because He had conversed with the Samaritans for their salvation (John 4). Then He was coming from Judaea, at a season “four months before the harvest,” when the Samaritans could have no suspicion of His having been at Jerusalem for devotion ( John 4:8,35); so the Samaritans treated Him with civility and hospitality, and the disciples bought food in the Samaritan town without being insulted. But in Luke 9:51-53, when He was “going to Jerusalem,” the Samaritans did not receive Him: a minute coincidence with propriety, confirming the gospel narratives. In sending forth the twelve Christ identifies the Samaritans with Gentiles ( Matthew 10:5,6); He distinguishes them from Jews ( Acts 1:8; John 4:22).

    Samaria lay between Judaea and Galilee. (See Josephus, B. J. 3:3, section 4). Bounded N. by the hills beginning at Carmel and running E. toward Jordan, forming the southern boundary of the plain Esdraelon (Jezreel); including Ephraim and the Manasseh W. of Jordan. Pilate chastised them, to his own downfall (Josephus, Ant. 18:4, section 1). Under Vespasian 10,600 fell (B. J. 3:7, section 32). Dositheus an apostate Jew became their leader. Epiphanius (Haer. 1) mentions their hostility to Christianity, and numerous sects. Jos. Scaliger corresponded with them in the 16th century; DeSacy edited two of their letters to Scaliger; Job Ludolf received a letter from them in the 17th century. (See them in Eichhorn’s Repertorium, 13) At Nablus (Shechem, or Sychar) the Samaritans have a settlement of persons still, observing the law, and celebrating the Passover on Gerizim.

    SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH Pietro della Valle in 1616 procured a complete copy, after it had been lost sight of since its mention by early Christian (Jerome, Prol. Kings, Galatians 3:10; Eusebius of Caesarea, who observes that Septuagint and Sam. agree (against rec. text) in the number of years from the flood to Abraham) and Jewish writers; M. de Sancy, French ambassador at Constantinople, obtained it for Pietro della Valle, and sent it to the library of the Orateire at Paris in 1623. Another is in the Ambrosian Library of Milan. Usher procured six copies, mostly imperfect, of which four are now in the Bodleian, one in British Museum. Two more, procured by Pierese, are in the Imperial Library of Paris. Twenty in all, but only two or three perfect, exist in our European libraries. The Paris Polyglot printed it in 1645; Walton’s Polyglot in 1657; Bagster in 1821. Dr. Blayney, Oxford, in 1790, published it separately. Grove in 1861 brought a 4to copy from Nablus for the Count of Paris, in whose library it is. These copies are in forms varying from 12vo to folio; no scroll such as are used in the synagogues is among them. The Samaritans pretend that the scroll in Nablus is inscribed: “I Abisha (or Abishua), son of Pinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron ... upon them be the grace of Jehovah. To His honour I have written this holy law at the entrance of the tabernacle of testimony on Mount Gerizim, Beth El, in the 13th year of taking possession of Canaan ... by Israel. I praise Jehovah.” (Letters of Meshalmah, 19,791, British Museum). Levysohn, a Christian Jew, with Kraus, is said to have found it in this scroll. The Scroll is written in letters of gold.

    Ravius (Exercitt. in Houbig. Prol.,1755) and Gesenius (Pent. Sam., etc.) have settled the superiority of our Hebrew text. The variations arise from the Samaritans’ (1) imperfect knowledge of grammar and exegesis, or (2) design to conform passages to their speech, conceptions, and faith (e.g. to make Mount Gerizim the place of worship appointed by God to Moses), or (3) to remove obscurities and imperfections by repetitions or newly invented and inapt phrases and words. Only twice they alter the Mosaic laws: Exodus 13:7, Samaritan reads “six days” for “seven”; Deuteronomy 23:17, “live” for “there shall not be.” Quiescent letters (a h e v i, matres lectionis) are supplied. Poetical forms of pronoun altered into common ones. Incomplete verbal forms are completed, the apocopated future changed into the full form. Paragogical letters at the end of nouns omitted. Genders arbitrarily put, from ignorance of nouns of a common gender. The infinitive absolute made a finite verb. Glosses coinciding with Septuagint, probably taken by both from an old targum.

    Conjectural emendations. Supposed deficiency supplied ( Genesis 18:29,30, “destroy” for “do it”). Names reduced to one uniform spelling, where the Hebrew has various forms, as Jethro and Joshua. Supposed historical and chronological improbabilities emended. No antediluvian in the Samaritan begets his first son after he is 150; but 100 years are subtracted before and added after the birth of the first son; so Jared in the Hebrew begat at 162, lived 800 more, and all his years were 962; in Samaritan he begat at 62, lived 785 more, and all his years were 847. After the flood, conversely, 100 or 50 are added before and subtracted after the begetting, e.g. Arphaxad who in Hebrew is 35 when he begets Shelah, and lived 403 afterward. 438 in all, in Samaritan is 135 when he begets Shelah, and lives 303 afterward, 438 in all. The Samaritan and Septuagint interpolation ( Exodus 12:40), “the sojourning of Israel and their fathers who dwelt in ... Canaan and ... Egypt was 430 years” is of late date.

    Samaritan reads Genesis 2:2 “God on the sixth, day ended His work,” lest God should seem to work on the seventh day. Samaritan changes Hebrew into Samaritan idioms. ‘Elohim (plural, four times joined to a plural verb in Hebrew) is in the Samaritan joined to the sing. verb ( Genesis 20:13; 31:53; 35:7). Anthropomorphisms are removed. In Deuteronomy 27:4 Samaritan substitutes Gerizim for Ebal.

    Age. Luzatto in a letter to R. Kirchhelm observes that, in difficult readings where probably the copyist after Ezra, in transcribing from the old Samaritan characters into the modern square Hebrew letters, mistook Samaritan letters of similar form, our Samaritan Pentateuch has the same text as the Hebrew; therefore the Samaritan must be copied from a Hebrew not a Samaritan manuscript The changes of similar Hebrew letters, where the corresponding Samaritan letters are not alike, prove the late date of the Samaritan. The Samaritan jealousy of the worship at Jerusalem, and of the house of David, which are commended in all the other Old Testament books except Judges, Joshua, and Job, accounts for their confining their Scriptures to the Pentateuch. The Samaritan characters were used for ordinary purposes down to a late period; so the Maccabean coins bear Samaritan inscriptions. As there was no Masorah to fix the Samaritan text, it is likely each successive century added its own emendations, so that the original Samaritan text was very different from our present one. The proofs for and against each theory as to the origin and date of the Samaritan are inconclusive. It remains therefore uncertain whether (1) the original Samaritan was inherited from the ten tribes whom the Samaritans succeeded; or (2) from Manasseh (Josephus Ant. 11:8, section 2,4) at the founding of the temple on Mount Gerizim, for which theory are urged the idolatry of the Samaritans before they received an Israelite priest through Esarhaddon ( 2 Kings 17:24-33) and the great number of readings common to Septuagint and Samaritan against the Masoretic Hebrew text; or (3) that Esarhaddon’s priest took the Pentateuch to Samaria with him.

    Gesenius thinks that both Samaritan and Septuagint were formed from Hebrew manuscripts differing from one another as well as from the authorized one of Palestine, and that many willful corruptions have crept, in latterly. It is certain the Samaritan was distinct from the Hebrew copy in Deuteronomy 27:4,8, three hundred years B.C., for then the Jews and Samaritans brought their rival claims before Ptolemy Soter, appealing to their respective copies of the law as to this passage.

    The Samaritan characters of the Samaritan Pentateuch differ not only from the square Hebrew, but from those generally known as Samaritan. Some think they are those in which the Mosaic law was originally written. They are without vowel points. Each word is separated by a dot. Sections are closed by a space left blank. Marks distinguish peculiarities of sound and signification. The writing of the first page begins on the inside, not the outside, in imitation of the sacred roll. The whole is divided into five books. The division of the sections (ketsin ) differs from that of the Jews.

    Versions. (1) The original Samaritan having become to the common people a dead tongue, it was translated into the current Samaritan, dialect, a mixture of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac. They say themselves that Nathaniel their high priest, who died 20 B.C., wrote the translation. It slavishly copies the original, sometimes at the sacrifice of sense; but this close verbal adherence makes it a more valuable help for studying the Samaritan text. De la Valle brought it to Europe with the Samaritan text in 1616. Nedrinus published it with a faulty Latin translated in the Paris Polyglot, from whence Walton reprinted it. (2) A Greek version of the Samaritan was made, as the Jews made the Septuagint from the Hebrew text. The Septuagint manuscripts preserve some fragments of it. (3) An Arabic version by Abu Said in Egypt, A.D. 1000; a good copy is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, presented by Dr. Taylor, 1663.

    SAMGAR NEBO One of the prince generals commanding the army that took Jerusalem ( Jeremiah 39:3). Nebo is the Chaldaean Mercury. Sangara in Sanskrit means “war.”

    SAMLAH (a garment) ( Genesis 36:36,37; 1 Chronicles 1:47,48). A king of Edom. Of Masrekah. From separate cities being assigned to most of the Edomite kings it is supposed Edom was a confederacy of tribes, and the chief city of the reigning tribe was capital of the whole.

    SAMOS (a height) (especially by the sea shore). An island off the boundary line between Ionia and Caria, three or four miles from the mainland. Mentioned in Paul’s return from his third missionary journey ( Acts 20:15), on his way from Chios to Miletus. He spent the night at the anchorage of Trogyllium in the strait between Samos and the extremity of the ridge of Mycale on the mainland. The Greeks conquered the Persians in the sea fight of Mycale, B.C. 479.

    SAMOTHRACIA In the Aegean. A conspicuous landmark to sailors; in Paul’s first voyage to Europe from Troas to Neapolis ( Acts 16:11). He sailed with a fair wind in going, so that his voyage took him only parts of two days, anchoring for the night at Samothracia, but in returning five ( Acts 20:6). The ancient city, and probably the anchorage, was on the N. side sufficiently sheltered from a S.E. wind; this wind would counteract the opposing current which sets S. from the Hellespont, and E. between Samothracia and the mainland.

    SAMSON (See MANOAH ). Meaning awe inspiring ( Judges 13:6,18-20) or else sunlike (Gesenius): compare Judges 5:31, strong (Josephus Ant. 5:8, section 4). Judge of Israel for 20 years ( Judges 15:20; 16:31), namely, in the Danite region near Philistia. Judah and Dan, and perhaps all Israel, were subject then to the Philistines ( Judges 13:1,5; 15:9-11, “knowest thou not the Philistines are rulers over us?” Judges 15:20). His years’ office was probably included in the “40 years” of Philistine rule. At the time of the angel’s announcement to his mother ( Judges 13:5) they ruled, and as his judgeship did not begin before he was 20 it must have nearly coincided with the last 20 years of their dominion. However their rule ceased not until the judgeship of Samuel, which retrieved their capture of the ark ( 1 Samuel 7:1-14). So the close of Samson’s judgeship must have coincided with the beginning of Samuel’s, and the capture of the ark in Eli’s time must have been during Samson’s lifetime. Correspondences between their times appear. (1) The Philistines are prominent under both. (2) Both are Nazarites ( 1 Samuel 1:11), Samson’s exploits probably moving Hannah to her vow. Amos ( Amos 2:11,12) alludes to them, the only allusion elsewhere to Nazarites in the Old Testament being Lamentations 4:7. (3) Dagon’s temple is alluded to under both ( 1 Samuel 5:2; Judges 16:23). (4) The Philistine lords ( 1 Samuel 7:7; Judges 16:8,18,27).

    Samson roused the people from their servile submission, and by his desultory blows on the foe prepared Israel for the final victory under Samuel. “He shall begin to deliver Israel” ( Judges 13:5) implies the consummation of the deliverance was to be under his successor ( <090701> Samuel 7:1-13). “The Lord blessed him” from childhood ( Judges 13:24); type of Jesus ( Luke 2:52, compare Luke 1:80, John the Baptist the New Testament Nazarite). “The Spirit of the Lord” is stated to be the Giver of his strength ( Judges 13:25; 14:6,19; 15:14). Samson was not of giant size as were some of the Philistines (1 Samuel 17); his strength was not brute natural strength, but spiritual, bound up with fidelity to his Nazarite vow. An embodied lesson to Israel that her power lay in separation from idol lusts and entire consecration to God; no foe could withstand them while true to Him, but once that they forsook Him for the fascinations of the world their power is gone and every enemy should triumph over them ( 1 Samuel 2:9). Still even Samson’s falls, as Israel’s, are in God’s wonderful providence overruled to Satan’s and his agents’ confusion and the good of God’s elect. Samson slays the lion at Timnath, and through his Philistine wife’s enticement they told the riddle; then to procure 30 tunics he slew 30 Philistines, the forfeit. His riddle “out of the eater came forth meat (carcasses in the East often dry up without decomposition), and out of the strong ( Matthew 12:29) came forth sweetness,” is the key of Samson’s history and of our present dispensation.

    Satan’s lion-like violence and harlot-like subtlety are made to recoil on himself and to work out God’s sweet and gracious purposes toward His elect. Deprived of his wife, Samson by the firebrands attached to jackals (shual ), avenged himself on them. The Philistines burnt her and her father with fire; then he smote them with great slaughter at Etam. Then under the Spirit’s power with an donkey bone (for the Philistines let Israel have no iron weapons: 1 Samuel 13:19) he slew a thousand Philistines.

    This established his title as judge during the Philistine oppression (“in the days of the Philistines”: Judges 15:20). (See DELILAH for his fall). By lust Samson lost at once his godliness and his manliness; it severed him from God the strength of his manhood.

    Samson set at nought the legal prohibition against affinity with idolatrous women ( Exodus 34:15,16; Deuteronomy 7:3). Parting with the Nazarite locks of his consecration was virtual renunciation of his union with God, so his strength departed. Prayer restored it. The foes’ attribution of their victory over “Samson the destroyer of their country” to their god Dagon provoked God’s jealousy for His honour. A Philistine multitude, including all their lords, congregated in the house, which was a vast hall, the roof resting on four columns, two at the ends and two close together at the center; 3,000 men and women on the roof beheld while Samson made sport. Samson by pulling down the house slew at his death more than in his life. Type of Christ ( Colossians 2:15; Matthew 27:50-54). Fulfilling Jacob’s prophecy of Dan, his tribe ( Genesis 49:16,17). A token that Israel’s temporary backslidings, when repented of, shall issue in ultimate victory. Samson, the physically strong Nazarite, prepared the way for Samuel, the spiritual hero Nazarite, who consummated the deliverance that Samson began. Samson wrought what he did by faith, the true secret of might ( Hebrews 11:32; Matthew 21:21).

    The Phoenicians carried to Greece the story of Samson, which the Greeks transferred to their idol Hercules. The Scholion on Lycophron (Bochart Hieroz. 2:5, section 12) blends the stories of Samson and Jonah, and makes Hercules come out of the belly of the sea monster with the loss of his hair.

    Hercules was “son of the sun” in Egypt (shemesh ) related to Sam-son).

    Ovid (Fasti 54) describes the custom of tying a torch between two foxes in the circus, in memory of damage once done to a harvest by a fox with burning straw. Hercules dies by the hand of his wife; but every fault is atoned by suffering, and at last he ascends to heaven. His joviality and buffoonery answer to the last scene in the life of Samson. The history is taken probably from the tribe of Daniel (See TIMNATH ).

    SAMUEL (asked of God), Greek THeaitetus ; or probably heard of God. Last of the judges, first of the successional prophets (Moses was a prophet, Deuteronomy 18:15, but more a lawgiver; Acts 3:24, “all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after,” Acts 13:20, shows Samuel was first of the succession); founder of the monarchy. He gives name to the two books commemorating the first foundation of the kingdom under Saul, and its firm establishment in David’s person and line.

    Son of Elkanah of see RAMATHAIM ZOPHIM in Mount Ephraim, and see HANNAH . The father, though sprung from Korah the Levite, lived in Mount Ephraim, and became incorporated with Ephraim. So the Levite in Judges 17:7 was “of the family of Judah” by incorporation. On the brow of the double summit of Ramathaim Zophim was the city of Samuel’s birth and residence in after years, at its foot was a great well ( 1 Samuel 19:22). While sleeping in the sanctuary Samuel received his first call of God; “he did not yet know Jehovah,” i.e. by personal revelation ( Samuel 3:7, compare 1 Samuel 3:1; Acts 19:2). Only at the third call (compare Job 33:14), and by Eli’s instruction, Samuel replied, “speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” With delicate consideration for Eli’s feelings Samuel lay until morning shrinking from telling him Jehovah’s revelation, and only at his solicitation told all. The gentleness of the child intensified the awfulness of the doom announced through him to the old priest. Henceforward all Israel, from Dan in the far N. to Beersheba, recognized Samuel as prophet of Jehovah, “for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord, and the Lord let none of his words fall to the ground.” Twenty years elapse after the fall of church and state at the fatal battle of Ebenezer, and the destruction of Shiloh the seat of Jehovah’s worship ( 1 Samuel 7:2,3, etc.). Then Samuel again appears and exhorts Israel, now lamenting after the Lord, to “put away” their idols and “Ashtaroth” in particular (each man besides general sins has his particular besetting sin), and to “return unto Jehovah with all their hearts.” Gathering them at Mizpeh, Samuel poured water before Jehovah in confession of sin and in token of their consequent utter prostration and powerlessness ( 2 Samuel 14:14, inward dissolution through distress; Psalm 22:14; 58:7; Isaiah 12:3; John 7:37). Realization of our weakness is the necessary condition for receiving almighty strength ( Isaiah 40:29,30; 2 Corinthians 12:9,10). The people, hearing that the Philistine lords were come up against them, begged Samuel’s unceasing intercessions. The Lord heard him ( Psalm 99:6; Jeremiah 15:1). As Samuel was offering the burnt offering the Philistines drew near to battle; and Jehovah with a thunderstorm defeated them, and Israel pursued them to Bethcar. At the very spot where 20 years previously Israel was routed Israel set up the see EBEN-EZER stone, commemorating victory over the Philistines by Jehovah’s help ( 1 Samuel 7:7-14). The Philistines restored the cities and adjoining districts which they had taken from Israel, close up to Ekron and Gath, the cities of the Philistines; and the effect of Israel’s victory on the Amorites was they kept peace with Israel (compare Joshua 10:6; Judges 1:34,35). He visited on circuit as judge Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, the three chief sanctuaries W. of Jordan. His home and judicial center was Ramah, where he built an altar.

    Strange to say, notwithstanding the awful warning in Eli’s case of the danger of not correcting children, Samuel had two sons, Joel and Abiah, whom he made judges in Beersheba, and who unlike their father turned aside after lucre and bribes, and perverted judgment ( 1 Samuel 8:1-3).

    The father seems somewhat to blame in respect to them, the only blemish recorded of Samuel. This was the occasion of the Israelite elders requesting for a king. Displeased at the request, Samuel had one unfailing resource, he prayed to Jehovah. The Lord punished them by granting their desire ( <19A615> Psalm 106:15), which was a virtual rejection of Jehovah Himself, not merely of Samuel. Yet the Lord did not abdicate His throne over the theocracy. The king was but Jehovah’s vicegerent holding office only on condition of loyalty to his Liege above; Israel, under the unfaithful Saul, at Nilboa by Bitter experience learned what a vain defense is a king reflecting their own unbelieving carnalism. In spite of Samuel’s warning of the tyrannies of a king, Israel insisted on having one, “like all the nations,” to “judge” them and “fight their battles.” They preferred an arm of flesh to Jehovah’s spiritual defense under Samuel. Samuel duly anointed SAUL by God’s direction, and after Saul’s victory over Nahash renewed the kingdom at Gilgal; here he appealed to the people as to his own past integrity in office, in times when bribery was too prevalent. The people attested his purity, from whence he has been named the Israelite Aristides.

    God by sending a thunderstorm in an unusual time, then May or June, declared both his integrity and the people’s sin. Samuel assures them nevertheless God will forgive and bless them if loyal to Him, but otherwise He will consume both them and their king (1 Samuel 9--12). (On his title “seer” see PROPHET ). The people consulted him on every subject of difficulty ( 1 Samuel 9:6-10), and eiders trembled before his approach as the representative of superhuman power and holiness ( Samuel 16:4,5). His characteristic spiritual work was unceasing crying to Jehovah at times, “all night,” in intercessory prayer ( 1 Samuel 15:11; 7:7,8); so the Antitype “continued all night in prayer to God” ( Luke 6:12). Also bold witness for God’s law, which as prophet he represented, even before Saul when transgressing it. He maintained the supremacy of the divine rule above the secular at the very beginning of the kingdom. His sacrificing was not as a priest, but as a Levite and prophet especially called to do so by God, though not of the family of Aaron; a presage of the better dispensation wherein not those alone of one favored family or caste, but all, are privileged to be king-priests to God. Saul’s sin lay not in his usurping the priest’s office, but in disobedience to God as represented by His prophet ( 1 Samuel 10:8; 13:8; 15, on which occasion Samuel enunciated the eternal principle, “to obey is better than sacrifice,” i.e. not that sacrifice was not required, for God ordained it, but it can never be made a cloak for neglecting the moral, spiritual end for which the positive ordinance of sacrifice existed). Samuel tore himself from Saul, who desired his prophetic countenance before the people; his rending the garment symbolized the rending of Saul’s kingdom from him. Samuel saw Saul no more, yet grieved for one whose self-incurred doom he could no longer avert, until Jehovah expostulated “how long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him?” ( 1 Samuel 16:1, compare <19D921> Psalm 139:21,22). Tender sympathy never led Samuel to give Saul public sanction; but now he is called on to anoint another in Saul’s room, and to be of one mind with God in all that God does.

    Samuel founded “the schools of the prophets,” to which belonged “the sons of the prophets,” whose education, beside the law, was in sacred, vocal, and instrumental music and processions ( 1 Samuel 10:5,10; 19:19,20; 1 Chronicles 25:1,6). (See NAIOTH ). Here David fled as to Ms spiritual home. Then Saul, by sending messengers to take him from Samuel’s very presence, virtually insulted the prophet, but was himself brought under the power of the Spirit. Here David learned the elements of that sacred and prophetic psalmody of which he subsequently became the great representative. Thus Samuel was his spiritual father and the originator of the religious schools of which our modern Christian universities are the offshoot. At his death ( 1 Samuel 25:1) all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him and buried him in his house at see RAMAH . The “Acta Sanctorum” (Aug. 20) say his remains were translated front Judaea (A.D. 406) to Constantinople, and received with pomp at the pieter Chalcedon by the emperor Arcadius, and conveyed to a church near the palace of Hebdomon.

    SAMUEL, BOOKS OF One book in Hebrew; the Septuagint divided it into two. The Talmud (A.D. 500) is the earliest authority that ascribes the book to Samuel (Baba Bathra 14:2). The Hebrews give it his name because its first part treats of his birth, life, and work. His death recorded in 1 Samuel 25 proves he did not write it all. The Talmud’s view, adopted by learned Christian fathers, may be true of the first 24 chapters. That Samuel wrote memoirs, which Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer supplemented, appears from Chronicles 29:29: “now the acts (history: dibrei ) of David the king, first and last, behold they are written in the book (history: dibrei ) of Samuel the seer, and in the book (history) of Nathan the prophet, and in the book (history) of Gad the seer.” Nehemiah is said in 2 Macc. 2:13 to have “gathered together the acts in the kings and the prophets.”

    The internal notices favor a date of the memoirs used in compiling 1 and Samuel before the due organization of the temple and Mosaic ritual. For sacrifices are mentioned with tacit approval, or at least without apology, at other places (Mizpeh, Ramah, Bethel, and Araunah’s threshing floor) than before the door of the tabernacle or temple, the only place permitted by the law ( 1 Samuel 7:9,10,17; 9:13; 10:3; 14:35; 2 Samuel 24:18-25). On the contrary the writer of 1 and 2 Kings stigmatizes the high places to Jehovah and blames the kings who sanctioned or connived at them ( Kings 15:14; 22:43; 2 Kings 12:3; 14:4; 15:4,35; 16:4; 21:3). In the disestablishment of the Mosaic ritual consequent on the Philistine capture of the ark, and in the unsettled times that followed, even the godly followed Moses less strictly. Hence he is but twice mentioned in all Samuel, and then only as joined with Aaron in delivering Israel out of Egypt; the law is never mentioned ( 1 Samuel 12:6,8). In Joshua “Moses” occurs 56 times; in Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, after the captivity, when a return to the Mosaic standard, was the watchword of the civil and religious restoration,31 times; in Kings, ten times; in the unsettled era of Judges, three times. Its early date is also implied by its purity of Hebrew as compared with the so-called Chaldaisms of Kings and the still more alloyed language of Chronicles. The passage ( 1 Samuel 27:6) “Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day” implies the division between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, but this is probably the comment of the last reviser. If it be the compiler’s, then the compilation was made subsequently to the division. Though it does not record David’s death it certainly takes it for granted ( 2 Samuel 5:5). This passage favors the view that the composition was shortly after his death.

    That the composer used various existing materials appears from the distinct, but not irreconcilable, accounts of Saul’s first acquaintance with see DAVID ( 1 Samuel 16:14-23; 17:55-58), also of Saul’s death ( Samuel 31:2-6,8-13; 2 Samuel 1:2-12), also of the origin of the proverb “is Saul also among the prophets?” ( 1 Samuel 10:9-12; 19:22-24).

    Summaries or endings of different memoirs incorporated by the composer appear in 1 Samuel 7:15-17; 14:47-52; 2 Samuel 8:15-18. The only book quoted is the Book of Jasher (= the upright, namely, nation), Samuel 1:18, the bow song or elegy over Saul and Jonathan; once elsewhere ( Joshua 10:13). The allusion to “the Lord’s king and His anointed” ( 1 Samuel 2:10) does not imply that kings already existed, and that therefore this is not Hannah’s genuine utterance (for she lived before any king in Israel), but prophetically points on to the necessary culmination of God’s kingdom in the coming Messiah, and in David His typical forefather. Probably an inspired member of the schools of the prophets composed the book, incorporating in abridged form existing memoirs and records; so thought Theodoret, Athanasius, and Gregory. A recorder, remembrancer, or chronicler (mazkir ) is first mentioned in David’s reign ( 2 Samuel 8:16; 20:24). The details as to David in Bathsheba’s affair, and of Amnon and Tamar, etc., etc., must have been furnished by contemporary memoirs written By persons having intimate access to the royal family. Prophets are prominent in Samuel. Levites are mentioned only twice (1 Samuel 6; 2 Samuel 15:24), but thirty times in 1 Chronicles alone, containing David’s history. The inspired author being of the prophetic schools naturally embodies Nathan’s memoir as to his dealing with David in the Bathsheba sin, and in respect to the promise of permanence to his seed and throne (2 Samuel 7; 12), and Gad’s dealing with him at the time of the plague (2 Samuel 24; also 1 Samuel 22:5).

    The phrase “Lord of hosts,” 62 times found in Isaiah, occurs twice as often in Samuel as in all the other Old Testament histories put together. An undesigned coincidence confirming both occurs between 1 Chronicles 10:12 (which omits notice of the burning), the men of Jabesh Gilead “buried Saul’s and his son’s bones,” and 1 Samuel 31:12, “they burnt the bodies”; the bones in fragments alone remained after the burning.

    Hannah’s song must have been preserved by Samuel and incorporated by the compiler. The latter too derived from records David’s elegies, Samuel 1:19-27; 3:33,34; David’s psalm, 2 Samuel 22:2-51; and his last words, 2 Samuel 23:1-8.

    Samuel contains, but Chronicles omit, David’s kindness to Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9); the story of Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11; 12); Absalom’s rebellion (2 Samuel 13); the Gibeonites hanging Saul’s seven sons (2 Samuel 21); the war with the Philistines ( 2 Samuel 21:15-17); David’s song (2 Samuel 22), and last words (2 Samuel 23). Dates are seldom given.

    The period included is somewhat under 155 years, 1171-1015 B.C. The internal evidence of places, times, etc., accords with truthfulness. Christ stamps Samuel as canonical ( Matthew 12:1-4; compare Acts 3:24; Hebrews 11:32).

    SANBALLAT A Moabite of Horonaim ( Nehemiah 2:10,19; 13:28). Seemingly he had some command over “the army of Samaria” ( Nehemiah 4:2) under Artaxerxes. A perpetual opponent of see NEHEMIAH from the time of his arrival in Judaea. Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arabian ( Nehemiah 2:19; 4:7; 6) were in league with him. His daughter married the highpriest Eliashib’s grandson, Joiada’s son; therefore Nehemiah chased him from him ( Nehemiah 13:28). Tobiah had formed a similar alliance with Eliashib, so that it looks as if Eliasbib concerted with the Samaritan party to thwart Nehemiah’s reforming plans. Josephus’ account of a Sanballat 100 years later under Alexander the Great seems unhistorical.

    SANDAL na’al . A sole attached to the foot by thongs, Greek hupodema ( Mark 6:9; Acts 12:8). Often ornamentally inlaid with gold, silver, jewels, and silk (Song 7:1). The materials were leather, felt, cloth, or wood, occasionally shod with iron. A shoe was delivered in token of transferring property: “over Edom will I cast My shoe.” i.e. I will take possession of it, treading on its pride as it had trodden Israel as an invader ( Psalm 60:8,12; 2 Samuel 8:14; Joshua 10:24). The custom, which existed among the Indians and the ancient Germans, arose from the taking possession of property by treading the soil ( Genesis 13:17), hence handing the shoe symbolized renunciation and transfer of ownership ( Deuteronomy 25:9; Ruth 4:7,8). When a Bedouin husband divorces a runaway wife, he says, “She was my slipper, I have cast her off.” (Burckhardt). In Matthew 3:11; Acts 13:25, the image is, one about to wash his feet getting the slave to untie his shoe or else sandal.

    Hengstenberg so explains Psalm 60:8, “Moab is My washing tub; to Edom will I cast My shoe,” namely, to “bear” as My slave. The latchet was the strap across the instep, securing it on the foot, of small value ( Genesis 14:23; Amos 2:6; 8:6). “Buy the needy for a pair of shoes,” i.e. by oppression compel them to sell themselves to us as bondmen, in order that our great women may have elaborately ornamented sandals.

    Sandals were laid aside indoors, and only put on in a journey or military expedition ( Joshua 9:5,13; Isaiah 5:27; Ephesians 6:15). “Your feet shod with the preparation ( Psalm 10:17) of the gospel of peace,” i.e. preparedness for the good warfare, produced by the gospel, which brings peace within though there is conflict outside with Satan and the world ( Luke 1:79; Romans 10:15; Isaiah 26:3; Philippians 4:7). The shoes and sandals were taken off during meals ( Luke 7:38; John 13:5,6); but the Jews wore sandals on their feet at the Passover, as ready for the journey ( Exodus 12:11). They put off sandals in reverence at a sacred place ( Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15). So the priests in the temple officiated barefoot; so the Mahometans of Palestine before entering a mosque or the Kaaba at Mecca, and the Mesopotamian Yezidis before entering the tomb of a patron saint, and the Samaritans before treading Mount Gerizim. A sign of mourning ( 2 Samuel 15:30; Ezekiel 24:17); humiliation ( Isaiah 20:2,4; Ezekiel 16:10), “I shod thee with see BADGER S’ skins” or seal skins, and skins of other marine animals of the Red Sea; the material of the Hebrew shoes and of the tabernacle covering. Matthew 10:10, “provide not shoes,” but Mark 6:9, “be shod with sandals”; Luke 10:4 harmonizes them, “carry not shoes,” i.e., do not, as most travelers, carry an extra pair in case the pair in use became worn out.

    SANHEDRIN formed from the Greek sunedrion . Sanhedrin is the Chaldee form. (See COUNCIL ).

    SANSANNAH A town in the Negeb or south country ( Joshua 15:31), also called Hazar Susah or Susim, “horse court,” i.e. “depot of horses” ( Joshua 19:5, compare 1 Chronicles 4:31). The wady es Sung, S. of Gaza, the first resting place for horses from Gaza to Egypt. See Wilton. Negeg, 213.

    SAPH Of the sons of the giant; slain by Sibbechai the Hushathite fighting with the Philistines at Gob or Gaza ( 2 Samuel 21:18). In 1 Chronicles 20:4\parSIPPAI.

    SAPHIR (beautiful). A village addressed by Micah ( Micah 1:11). “In the mountain district between Eleutheropolis and Ascalon” (Eusebius and Jerome, Onomast.). In this direction lies now es Sawafir, seven miles N.E. of Ascalon, and twelve W. of Beit Jibrin (Eleutheropolis), to the right of the coast road from Gaza; Sawafir is however not “in the mountain district,” but on the open plain.

    SAPPHIRA (sapphire or beautiful). Three hours only elapsed between see ANANIASdeath and her lie (she being unaware of her husband’s doom) and death ( Acts 5:1,7-10).

    SAPPHIRE One of the hyaline corundums; deep blue, hard, brilliant, and costly.

    Representing the hue of the divine throne. On the highpriest’s breastplate ( Exodus 28:18); some think the lapis lazuli is meant ( Exodus 24:10). Ezekiel 1:26; 10:1; Job 28:6,16; Song 5:14, sapphire, sparkling in the girdle round Him; Isaiah 54:11; Lamentations 4:7, “their polishing was of sapphire,” they were like beautifully cut and polished sapphires. The sapphires represent the blue veins of a beautiful person ( Ezekiel 28:13). The best sapphires came from Persia. Our sapphire is the azure or indigo blue, crystalline corundum; but the Latin and Greek sapphire was “refulgent with spots of gold, azure, never transparent, not suited for engraving when intersected with hard crystalline particles” (Pliny, H. N. 37:9); i.e. the lapis lazuli. The Hebrew lapis lazuli is transparent and suited for engraving; probably our sapphire.

    SARAH (princess). (See ABRAHAM , see ISAAC ). Sarah is Iscah, sister of Milcah and Lot (called “brother of Abraham.” Genesis 14:16), and daughter of Haran. As Nahor married his niece Milcah, so Abraham ( Genesis 11:27), the youngest brother of the three, his niece Sarah, “daughter,” i.e. granddaughter, “of his father not of his mother,” probably not more than ten years his junior ( Genesis 11:29; 20:12) Sarai, “my princess,” was her name down to Genesis 17:15 when God changed it. She was thenceforward to be princess not merely of Abraham and his seed, but of all families of the earth. An example of faith, though she erred in abetting Abram’s pretence that she was his sister (her beauty was then great: Genesis 12:13, etc., Genesis 20:5,13); still more in suggesting the carnal policy of Abram’s taking Hagar to obtain children by her, when God delayed the promised seed by Sarah herself ( Genesis 16:1-3); also in harshness to Hagar, when the retributive consequences of her own false step overtook her through the very instrument of her sin ( Genesis 16:5,6; Jeremiah 2:19; Proverbs 1:31); also laughing in unbelief at God’s promise that she should bear a son in her old age (Genesis 18), forgetting that nothing is “too hard for the Lord” (see Jeremiah 32:17; Luke 1:37), then denying that she laughed, through fear; faith triumphed at last (Genesis 21). “At the set time the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken”; “God hath made me to laugh,” said Sarah, “all that hear will laugh with me,” namely, in joy as Abraham laughed ( Genesis 17:17), not in incredulity, as in Genesis 18:12-15. Under God’s prompting, Sarah, seeing Hagar’s son “mocking” at Isaac the son of the promise during the feast for the latter when weaned (see the spiritual sense Galatians 4:22-31), said to Abraham, “cast out this bondwoman,” etc. (see HAGAR ). Hebrews 11:11, “through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and that when she was past age (the Alexandrinus and Sinaiticus manuscripts omit ‘was delivered of a child’) because she judged Him faithful that promised”; though first doubting, as the weaker vessel, she ceased to doubt, faith triumphing over sense. “Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord,” and so is a pattern of a meek and quiet spirit to all wives ( 1 Peter 3:6; Genesis 18:12). The truth of the sacred narrative appears in its faithfully recording her faults as well as her faith. Her motherly affection so won Isaac that none but Rebekah could “comfort him after his mother’s death” ( Genesis 24:6,7). She was 127 when she died at Hebron,28 years before Abraham, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah, bought from Ephron the Hittite; her “shrine” is shown opposite Abraham’s, with Isaac’s and Rebekah’s on one side, Jacob’s and Leah’s on the other.

    SARAPH 1 Chronicles 4:22.

    SARDINE odem , i.e. the red stone (with a yellow shade). Exodus 28:17; 39:10; Ezekiel 28:13. Much used by the ancients for seals, as being tough yet easily worked, beautiful, and susceptible of high polish; the best stone for engraving. Josephus (the best authority, being a priest, therefore having often seen the high priest’s breastplate) calls it the sardonyx, the first stone in the high priest’s breastplate, in Ant. 3:7, section 5, but the sard or sardine, B.J. 5:5, section 7. Both sardine and sardonyx are varieties of agate. He on the heavenly throne “was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine” ( Revelation 4:3). As the jasper (or else diamond) represents the divine brightness or holiness, so the red sardine (our cornelian) His fiery wrath; the same union as in Ezekiel 1:4; 8:2; Daniel 7:9.

    Named from Sardis in Lydia, where it was first found. The Hebrews got their high priest’s sardines in Arabia, and from Egypt ( Exodus 12:35).

    SARDIS Capital of Lydia, in Asia Minor; on the Pactolus, at the root of Mount Tmolus. Northward is a view up the Hermus valley. Southward stand two beautiful Ionic columns of the temple of Cybele, six feet and one third in diameter, 35 ft. below the capital; the soil is 25 ft. above the pavement.

    The citadel is on a steep, high hill. So steep was its S. wall that Croesus the last king omitted to guard it; and one of Cyrus’ Persian soldiers, seeing a Lydian descend by cut steps to regain his helmet, thereby led a body of Persians into the acropolis. Now an unhealthy desert; not a human being dwelt in the once populous Sardis in 1850. The senate house (gerusia), called Croesus’ house, lies W. of the acropolis. One hall is 156 ft. long by 43 broad, with walls 10 ft. thick. There are remains of a theater, 400 ft. in diameter, and a stadium, 1,000; and of two churches, the latter constructed of fragments of Cybele’s temple. Now Sart.

    Famed for the golden sands of Pactolus, and as a commercial entrepot. In Sardis and Laodicea alone of the seven addressed in Revelation 2; 3; there was no conflict with foes within or without. Not that either had renounced apparent opposition to the world, but neither so faithfully witnessed by word and example as to “torment them that dwell on the earth” ( Revelation 11:10). Smyrna and Philadelphia, the most afflicted, alone receive unmixed praise. Sardis and Laodicea, the most wealthy, receive little besides censure. Sardis “had a name that she lived and was dead” ( Revelation 3:1; 1 Timothy 5:6; 2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 1:16; Ephesians 2:1,5; 5:14). “Become (Greek) watchful” or “waking” (Greek), what thou art not now. “Strengthen the things which remain,” i.e. the few graces which in thy spiritual slumber are not yet extinct, but “ready to die”; so that Sardis was not altogether “dead.” Her works were not “filled up in full complement (pepleromena ) in the sight of My God” (so the Siniaticus, Alexandrinus, and Vaticanus manuscripts). Christ’s God is therefore our God; His judgment is the Father’s judgment ( John 20:17; 5:22). He threatens Sardis if she will not watch or wake up, “He will come on her as a thief”; as the Greek proverb, “the feet of the avenging deities are shod with wool,” expressing the noiseless nearness of God’s judgments when supposed far off. Sardis had nevertheless “a few names” in the book of life, known by the Lord as His ( John 10:3). The gracious Lord does not overlook exceptional saints among masses of professors. Their reward and their character accord. “They have not defiled their garments,” so “they shall walk (the best attitude for showing grace to advantage) with Me in white, for they are worthy,” namely, with Christ’s worthiness “put on them” ( Revelation 7:14; Ezekiel 16:14). The state of grace now, and that of glory hereafter, harmonize. Christ’s rebuke was not in vain.

    Melito, bishop of Sardis in the second century, was eminent for piety; he visited Palestine to investigate concerning the Old Testament canon, and wrote an epistle on it (Eusebius 4:26; Jerome Catal. Script. Ecclesiastes 24). In A.D. 17, under the emperor Tiberius, an earthquake desolated Sardis and 11 other cities of Asia; Rome remitted its taxes for five years, and the emperor gave a benefaction from the privy purse.

    SAREPTA The Old TestamentZAREPHATH. Luke 4:26.

    SARGON (See NAHUM ). From sar a king, and gin or kin established. In the inscriptions Sargina; founded Khorsabad (named Sarghun by Arabian geographers). (See HOSHEA ). Once “Sargon’s” name in Isaiah 20:1, as having taken Ashdod by his general Tartan, caused a difficulty. He is not mentioned in the Scripture histories nor the classics; but Assyrian inscriptions show he succeeded Shalmaneser, and was father of Sennacherib, and took Ashdod as Isaiah says; he finished the siege of Samaria (721 B.C.) which Shalmaneser had begun, and according to the inscription carried away 27,280 persons (compare 2 Kings 17:6).

    Scripture, while naming at the capture of Samaria Shalmaneser, 2 Kings 17:3, in 2 Kings 17:4,5,6, four times says “the king of Assyria,” which is applicable to Sargon. In 2 Kings 18:9-11 it is implied Shalmaneser was not the actual captor, since after 2 Kings 18:9 has named him Kings 18:10 says “THEY took it.” Isaiah was the sole witness to Sargon’s existence for 25 centuries, until the discovery of the Assyrian monuments confirmed his statement. They also remarkably illustrate 2 Kings 17:6, that he placed the deported Israelites (“in Halah, Habor, the river of Gozan, and at a later time) “in the cities of the Medes”; for Sargon in them states he overran Media and “annexed many Median towns to Assyria.”

    Sargon mounted the throne the same year that Merodach Baladan ascended the Babylonian throne, according to Ptolemy’s canon 721 B.C.

    He was an usurper, for he avoids mentioning his father. His annals for years, 721-706 B.C., describe his expeditions against Babylonia and Susiana on the S., Media on the E., Armenia and Cappadocia N., Syria, Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt, W. and S.W. He deposed Merodach Baladan and substituted a viceroy. He built cities in Media, which he peopled with captives from a distance. He subdued Philistia, and brought Egypt under tribute; in his second year (720) he fought to gain Gaza; in his sixth against Egypt (715); in his ninth (712) he took Ashdod by Tartan. Azuri was king of Ashdod; Sargon deposed him and made his brother Ahimiti king; the people drove hint away, and raised Javan to the throne, but the latter was forced to flee to Meroe. (G. Smith, Assyrian Discoveries). Then, according to the inscriptions, he invaded Egypt and Ethiopia, and received tribute from a Pharaoh of Egypt, besides destroying in part the Ethiopian No- Amon or Thebes ( Nahum 3:8); confirming Isaiah 20:2-4, “as Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot,” etc. The monuments also represent Egypt at this time in that close connection with Ethiopia which the prophet implies. A memorial tablet in Cyprus shows he extended his arms to that island; a statue of him, now in the Berlin Museum, was found at Idalium in Cyprus. Sargon built one of the most magnificent of the Assyrian palaces. He records that he thoroughly repaired the walls of Nineveh, which he raised to be the first city of the empire; and that near it he built the palace and town (Khorsabad) which became his chief residence, Dursargina; from it the Louvre derived its series of Assyrian monuments. He probably reigned years, from 721 to 702 B.C., when Sennacherib succeeded.

    SARID A landmark on Zebulun’s boundary ( Joshua 19:10,12). Meaning “hole,” “incision” (Knobel); perhaps the southern opening of the deep, narrow wady, coming down from the basin of Nazareth, about an hour to the S.E. of Nazareth, between two steep mountains. (See tseen , in Keil).

    SARON Acts 9:35.SHARON in Old Testament The article in the Greek shows the name denotes a district.

    SARSECHIM One of Nebuchadnezzar’s generals at Jerusalem’s capture ( Jeremiah 39:3).

    SARUCH Serug ( Luke 3:35).

    SATAN (adversary). Four times in Old Testament as a proper name ( Job 1:6,12; 2:1; Zechariah 3:1, with the article); without it in 1 Chronicles 21:1; 25 times in New Testament; the see DEVIL also 25 times; “the prince of this world” three times, for Satan had some mysterious connection with this earth and its animals before man’s appearance. Death already had affected the pre-Adamic animal kingdom, as geology shows. Satan had already fallen, and his fall perhaps affected this earth and its creatures, over which he may originally in innocence have been God’s vicegerent, hence his envy of man his successor in the vicegerency ( Genesis 1:26; 3:1-14). “The winked one” six times; “the tempter” twice. “The old serpent, the devil, and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world” ( Revelation 12:9; 20:23). In Job his power is only over outward circumstances, by God’s permission. Instead of being a rival power to good and God, as in the Persian belief as to Ormuzd and Ahriman, he is subordinate; his malicious temptation of David was overruled to work out Jehovah’s anger against Israel ( 2 Samuel 24:1; 1 Chronicles 21:1). As the judicial adversary of God’s people he accuses them before God, but is silenced by Jehovah their Advocate ( Zechariah 3:1,2; 1 Peter 5:8; <19A906> Psalm 109:6,31; 1 John 2:1,2). The full revelation of “the strong man armed” was only when “the stronger” was revealed ( Luke 11:21-23). He appears as personal tempter of see JESUS CHRIST . The Zendavesta has an account of the temptation in Eden nearest that of Genesis, doubtless derived from the primitive tradition. Christ’s words of Satan are ( John 8:44), “ye are of your father the devil; he was a murderer (compare as to his instigating Cain 1 John 3:9-12) from the beginning and abode not in the truth.

    When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.” He is a “spirit,” “prince of the powers of the air,” and “working in the children of disobedience” ( Ephesians 2:2). “Prince of the demons” (Greek), at the head of an organized “kingdom” ( Matthew 12:24-26), with “his (subject) angels.” They “kept not their first estate but left their own habitation”; so God “hath reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day” ( Jude 1:6). Again “God spared not the angels, but cast them into hell (Tartarus, the bottomless pit: Luke 8:31; Revelation 9:11), and delivered them to chains of darkness” ( 2 Peter 2:4). Their final doom is Tartarus; meanwhile they roam in “the darkness of this world”; step by step they and Satan are being given up to Tartarus, until wholly bound there at last (Revelation 20). “The darkness of this world” ( Ephesians 6:12) is their chain. They are free now to tempt and hurt only to the length of their chain; Revelation 12:7-9 describes not their original expulsion, but a further step in their fall, owing to Christ’s ascension, namely, exclusion from access to accuse the saints before God ( Job 1:11; Zechariah 3).

    Christ’s ascension as our advocate took away the accuser’s standing ground in heaven (compare Luke 10:18; Isaiah 14:12-15). Pride was his “condemnation,” and to it he tempts others, especially Christian professors ( Genesis 3:5; 1 Timothy 3:6). As love, truth, and holiness characterize God, so malice or hatred (the spring of murder), lying, and uncleanness characterize Satan ( John 8:44; 1 John 3:10-12).

    Disbelief of God is what first Satan tempts men to (Genesis 3); “IF Thou be the Son of God” was the dart he aimed at Christ in the wilderness temptation, and through human emissaries on the cross. Also pride and presumption ( Matthew 4:6). Restless energy, going to and fro as the “roaring lion”; subtle instilling of venom, gliding steadily on his victim, as the “serpent” or “dragon”; shameless lust ( Job 1:7; Matthew 12:43); so his victims ( Isaiah 57:20). He steals away the good seed from the careless hearer ( Matthew 13:19), introduces “the children of the wicked one” into the church itself, the tares among and closely resembling outwardly the wheat ( Matthew 13:38,39). His “power” is that of darkness, from which Christ delivers His saints; cutting off members from Christ’s church is “delivering them to Satan” ( 1 Corinthians 5:5; Timothy 1:20; Acts 26:18; Colossians 1:13). The Jews might have been “the church of God,” but by unbelief became “the synagogue of Satan.” His “throne” opposes Christ’s heavenly throne ( Revelation 4:2; 2:9,10,13). He has his “principalities and powers” in his organized kingdom, in mimicry of the heavenly ( Romans 8:38; 1 Corinthians 15:24; Colossians 2:15; Ephesians 6:12). He instigates persecution, and is the real persecutor. He has “depths of Satan” in opposition to knowledge of “the deep things of God” ( Revelation 2:24); men pruriently desire to know those depths, as Eve did. It is God’s sole prerogative thoroughly to know evil without being polluted by it.

    Satan has “the power of death,” because “the sting of death is sin” ( Corinthians 15:56); Satan being author of sin is author of its consequence, death. God’s law ( Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23) makes death the executioner of sin, and man Satan’s “lawful captive.” Jesus by His death gave death its deathblow and took the prey from the mighty; as David cut off Goliath’s head with his own sword ( Matthew 12:29; Luke 10:19; Isaiah 49:24; 2 Timothy 1:10; Psalm 8:2; Hebrews 2:14). “Christ ... through death ... destroy (katargeesee , render powerless) him that had the power of death.” Satan seeks to “get an advantage of” believers ( 2 Corinthians 2:11); he has “devices” (noeemata ) and “wiles” (methodeias , methodical stratagems) ( Ephesians 6:11), and “snares” ( 1 Timothy 3:7), “transforming himself (Greek) into an angel of light,” though “prince of darkness” ( 2 Corinthians 11:14; Luke 22:53; Ephesians 6:12). “Satan hinders” good undertakings by evil men ( Acts 13:10; 17:13,14; 3:8-10), or even by “messengers of Satan,” sicknesses, etc. ( 2 Corinthians 11:14; 12:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:18; Luke 13:16). Satan works or energizes in and through antichrist ( Thessalonians 2:9; Revelation 13:2) in opposition to the Holy Spirit energizing in the church ( Ephesians 1:19). The wanton turn aside from Christ the spouse after Satan the seducer ( 1 Timothy 5:11-15). The believer’s victory by “the God of peace bruising Satan” is foretold from the first ( Genesis 3:15; Romans 16:20). The opposition of Satan in spite of himself will be overruled to the believer’s good, the latter thereby learning patience, submission, faith, and so his end being blessed, as in Job’s case. Man can in God’s strength “resist Satan” ( James 4:7); by withholding consent of the will, man gives Satan no “place,” room or scope ( Ephesians 4:27). “The wicked one toucheth not” the saint, as he could not touch Christ ( 1 John 5:18; John 14:30). Self restraint and watchfulness are our safeguards ( 1 Peter 5:8).

    Translate 2 Timothy 2:26 “that they may awake (ananeepsosin ) ... being taken as saved captives by him (the servant of the Lord, Timothy 2:24: autou ) so as to follow the will of Him” (ekeinou : God, Timothy 2:25): ezogreemenoi , taken to be saved alive, instead of Satan’s thrall unto death, brought to the willing “captivity of obedience” to Christ ( 2 Corinthians 10:5). So Jesus said to Peter ( Luke 5:10), “henceforth thou shalt catch unto life (zogron ) men.” Satan in tempting Christ asserts his delegated rule over the kingdoms of this world, and Christ does not deny but admits it ( Luke 4:6), “the prince of this world” ( John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 6:12).

    Satan slanders God to man ( Genesis 3:1-5), as envious of man’s happiness and unreasonably restraining his enjoyments; and man to God ( Job 1:9-11; 2:4,5). Satan tempts, but cannot force, man’s will; grace can enable man to overcome ( James 1:2-4; 1 Corinthians 10:13; James 4:7, etc.). Satan steals the good seed from the careless hearer ( James 1:21) and implants tares ( Matthew 13:4,19,25,38). Satan thrusts into the mind impure thoughts amidst holy exercises; Corinthians 7:5, “come together that Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency,” i.e., Satan takes advantage of men’s inability to restrain natural propensities. Satan tempted Judas ( Luke 22:5; John 23:27), Peter ( Luke 22:31), Ananias and Sapphire (Acts 5). Augustine’s (De Civit. Dei, 22:1) opinion was that the redeemed were elected by God to fill up the lapsed places in the heavenly hierarchy, occasioned by the fall of Satan and his demons.

    SATYRS seirim . Leviticus 17:7, “they shall no more offer ... sacrifices unto devils” (seirim ) i.e. to the evil spirits of the desert, literally, “shaggy goats,” hence applied to an object of pagan worship or a demon dwelling in the desert ( 2 Chronicles 11:15; Isaiah 13:21; 34:14). At Mendes in Lower Egypt the goat was worshipped with foul rites. Israel possibly once shared in them. Compare Joshua 24:14,15; Ezekiel 23:8,9,21.

    SAUL Hebrew SHAUL 1. An early king of Edom ( Genesis 36:37,38). 2. Genesis 46:10. 3. 1 Chronicles 6:24. 4. First king of Israel. The names Kish and Ner, Nadab and Abi-nadab, Baal and Mephibosheth, recur in the genealogy in two generations. The family extends to Ezra’s time. If the Zimri of 1 Chronicles 9:42 be the Zimri of 1 Kings 16 it is the last stroke of the family of Saul for the kingdom. Saul was son of Kish, son of Ner, son of Abiel or Jehiel. <090901> Samuel 9:1 omits Ner, the intermediate link, and makes Kish son of Abiel; 1 Chronicles 8:33 supplies the link, or Ner in 1 Chronicles is not father but ancestor of Kish ( 1 Chronicles 9:36-39), and Ner son of Abi- Gibeon (father or founder of Gibeon, 1 Chronicles 8:29) is named only because he was progenitor of Saul’s line, the intermediate names mentioned in 1 Samuel 9 being omitted. The proud, fierce, and self willed spirit of his tribe, Benjamin, is conspicuous in Saul (see Judges 19; 20; 21).

    Strong and swift fooled ( 2 Samuel 1:23), and outtopping the people by head and shoulders ( 1 Samuel 9:2), he was the “beauty” or “ornament of Israel,” “a choice young man,” “there was none goodlier than he.”

    Above all, he was the chosen of the Lord ( 1 Samuel 9:17; 10:24; Samuel 21:6). Zelah was Kish’s burial place. Gibeah was especially connected with Saul. The family was originally humble ( 1 Samuel 11:1,21), though Kish was “a mighty man of substance.” Searching for Kish’s donkeys three days in vain, at last, by the servant’s advice, Saul consulted Samuel, who had already God’s intimation that He would send at this very time a man of Benjamin who should be king. God’s providence, overruling man’s free movements to carry out His purpose, appears throughout the narrative. Samuel gave Saul the chiefest place at the feast on the high place to which he invited him, and the choice portion. Setting his mind at ease about his asses, now found, Samuel raised his thoughts to the throne as one “on whom was all the desire of Israel.” “Little then in his own sight” ( 1 Samuel 15:17), and calling himself “of the smallest of the tribes, and his family least of all the families of Benjamin” ( 1 Samuel 9:21), Saul was very different from what he afterward became in prosperity; elevation tests men ( Psalm 73:18). Samuel anointed and kissed Saul as king. On his coming to the oak (“plain”) of Tabor, three men going with offerings to God to Bethel gave him two of three loaves, in recognition of his kingship. Next prophets met him, and suddenly the Spirit of God coming upon him he prophesied among them, so that the proverb concerning him then first began, “is Saul also among the prophets?” The public outward call followed at Mizpeh, when God caused the lot to fall on Saul. So modest was he that he hid himself, shunning the elevation, amidst the baggage. A band whose hearts God had touched escorted him to Gibeah, while the worthless despised him, saying “how shall this man save us?” (compare Luke 14:14, the Antitype, meekly “He held His peace”; Psalm 38:13).NAHASH’ S cruel threat against Jabesh Gilead, which was among the causes that made Israel desire a king ( 1 Samuel 8:3,19; 12:12), gave Saul the opportunity of displaying his patriotic bravery in rescuing the citizens and securing their lasting attachment. His magnanimity too appears in his not allowing any to be killed of those whom the people desired to slay for saying “shall Saul reign over us?”

    Pious humility then breathed in his ascription of the deliverance to Jehovah, not himself ( 1 Samuel 11:12,13). Samuel then inaugurated the kingdom again at Gilgal.

    In 1 Samuel 13:1 read “Saul reigned 40 years”; so Acts 13:21, and Josephus “18 years during Samuel’s life and 22 after his death” (Ant. 16:14, section 9). Saul was young in beginning his reign ( 1 Samuel 9:2), but probably verging toward 40 years old, as his son Jonathan was grown up ( 1 Samuel 13:2). Ishbosheth his youngest son ( 1 Chronicles 8:33) was 40 at his death ( 2 Samuel 2:10), and as he is not mentioned among Saul’s sons in 1 Samuel 14:49 he perhaps was born after Saul’s accession.

    In the second year of his reign Saul revolted from the Philistines whose garrison had been advanced as far as Geba (Jehu, N.E. of Rama), ( Samuel 10:5; 13:3) and gathered to him an army of 3,000. Jonathan smote the garrison, and so brought on a Philistine invasion in full force, 30,000 chariots. 6,000 horsemen, and a multitude as the sand. The Israelites, as the Romans under the Etruscan Porscna, were deprived by their Philistine oppressors of all smiths, so that no Israelite save Saul and Jonathan had sword or spear ( 1 Samuel 13:19-21). Many hid in caves, others fled beyond Jordan, while those (600: 1 Samuel 13:15) who stayed with Saul followed trembling. Already some time previously Samuel had conferred with Saul as to his foreseen struggle against the Philistines, and his going down to Gilgal (not the first going for his inauguration as king, 1 Samuel 11:14,15; but second after revolting from the Philistines) which was the most suitable place for gathering an army. Samuel was not directing Saul to go at once to Gilgal, as seen as he should go from him, and wait there seven days ( 1 Samuel 10:8); but that after being chosen king by lot and conquering Ammon and being confirmed as king at Gilgal, he should war with the Philistines (one main end of the Lord’s appointing him king, 1 Samuel 9:16, “that he may save My people out of the hand of the Philistines, for I have looked upon My people, because their cry is come unto Me”), and then go down to Gilgal, and “wait there seven days, until I come, before offering the holocaust.” The Gilgal meant is that in the Jordan valley, to which Saul withdrew in order to gather soldiers for battle, and offer sacrifices, and then advance again to Gibeah and Geba, thence to encounter the Philistines encamped at Michmash. Now first Saul betrays his real character. Self will, impatience, and the spirit of disobedience made him offer without, waiting the time appointed by Jehovah’s prophet; he obeyed so far and so long only as obedience did not require crossing of his self will. Had he waited but an hour or two, he would have saved his kingdom, which was now transferred to one after God’s own heart; we may forfeit the heavenly kingdom by hasty and impatient unbelief ( Isaiah 28:16). Saul met Samuel’s reproof “what hast thou done?” with self justifying excuses, as if his act had been meritorious not culpable: “I saw the people scattered from me, and thou camest not within the days appointed (Samuel had come before their expiration), and the Philistines gathered themselves. ... Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto Jehovah; I forced myself therefore (he ought to have forced himself to obey not disobey; necessity, is often the plea for sacrificing principle to expediency) and offered.” see JONATHAN ’S exploit in destroying the Philistine garrison (1 Samuel 14) eventuated in driving the Philistines back to their own land. The same reckless and profane impatience appears in Saul; he consults Jehovah by the priest Ahiah ( 1 Samuel 14:18 read with Septuagint, “bring here the ephod, for he took the ephod that day in the presence of Israel”; for the ark was not usually taken out, but only the ephod, for consultation, and the ark was now at Kirjath Jearim, not in Saul’s little camp); then at the increasing tumult in the Philistine host, impatient to join battle, interrupted the priest, “withdraw thine hand,” i.e. leave off. Contrast David’s patient and implicit following of Jehovah’s will, inquired through the priest, in attacking in front as well as in taking a circuit behind the Philistines ( 2 Samuel 5:19-25). Saul’s adjuration that none should eat until evening betrayed his rash temper and marred the victory ( 1 Samuel 14:29,30). His scrupulosity because the people flew upon the spoil, eating the animals with the blood ( 1 Samuel 14:32-35), contrasts with true conscientiousness which was wanting in him at Gilgal (1 Samuel 13). Now he built his first altar.

    Jonathan’s unconscious violation of Saul’s adjuration, by eating honey which revived him ( 1 Samuel 13:27-29, “enlightened his eyes,” Psalm 13:3), was the occasion of Saul again taking lightly God’s name to witness that Jonathan should die (contrast Exodus 20:7). But the guilt, which God’s silence when consulted whether Saul should follow after the Philistines implied, lay with Saul himself, for God’s siding “with Jonathan” against the Philistines (“he hath wrought with God this day”) was God’s verdict acquitting him. Thus convicted Saul desisted from further pursuit of the Philistines. His warlike prowess appears in his securing his regal authority ( 1 Samuel 14:47, “took the kingdom over Israel”) by fighting successfully against all his enemies on every side, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Zobah, the Philistines, and Amalek (summarily noticed 1 Samuel 14:48, in detail in 1 Samuel 15).

    Saul’s second great disobedience at his second probation by God was (1 Samuel 15) his sparing the Amalekite Agag and the best of the sheep, oxen, etc., and all that was good; again self will set up itself to judge what part of God’s command it chose to obey and what to disobey. The same self complacent blindness to his sin appears in his words to Samuel, “I have performed the commandment of Jehovah.” “What meaneth then tills bleating of the sheep?” Saul lays on the people the disobedience, and takes to himself with them the merit of the obedience: “they have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep ... to sacrifice ... and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” True obedience observes all the law and turns not to the right or left ( Joshua 1:7; Deuteronomy 5:32). The spirit of self will shows its nonsubmission to God’s will in small but sure indications. Saul had zeal for Israel against the Gibeonites where zeal was misplaced, because not according to God’s will (2 Samuel 21); he lacked zeal here, where God required it. He shifts the blame on “the people” and makes religion a cloak, saying the object was “to sacrifice unto Jehovah, thy God.” We must not do evil that good may come ( Romans 3:8). Samuel tears off the pretext: “behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, ... for rebellion is as the silt of witchcraft,” the very sin which Saul fell into at last (1 Samuel 28). As Saul rejected Jehovah’s word so He rejected Saul “from being king.” In 1 Chronicles 10:13 “Saul died for his transgression (Hebrew maal , ‘prevarication,’ shuffling, not doing yet wishing to appear to do, God’s will) against Jehovah, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit.” The secret of Saul’s disobedience he discloses, “because I feared the people and obeyed their voice,” instead of God’s voice ( Exodus 23:2; Proverbs 29:25). Even in confession, while using the same words as David subsequently, “I have sinned” ( 2 Samuel 12:13), he betrays his motive, “turn again with me ... honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people and before Israel” ( John 5:44; 12:43). Man’s favor he regarded more than God’s displeasure. Henceforth Samuel, after tearing himself from the king, to the rending of his garment (the symbol of the transference of the kingdom to a better successor), came to Saul no more though mourning for him.

    As the Spirit of Jehovah came upon David from the day of his anointing ( 1 Samuel 16:13,14), so an evil spirit from (it is never said OF) Jehovah troubled Saul, and the Spirit of Jehovah departed from hint. David then first was called in to soothe away with the harp the evil spirit; but music did not bring the good Spirit: to fill his soul, so the evil spirit returned worse than ever ( Matthew 12:43-45; 1 Samuel 28:4-20). No ritualism or sweet melody, though pleasing the senses, will change the heart; the Holy Spirit alone can attune the soul to purity and peace. Like his tribe, which should “ravin as a wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at night ... the spoil” ( Genesis 49:27), Saul was energetic, choleric, and impressible, now prophesying with the prophets whose holy enthusiasm infected him, now jealous to madness of David whom he had loved greatly and brought permanently to court ( 1 Samuel 16:21; 18:2) and made his armour bearer; and all because of a thoughtless expression of the women in meeting the conquerors after the battle with Goliath, “Saul hath slain his thousands, David his ten thousands” (1 Samuel 17; 18:7). A word was enough to awaken suspicion, and suspicion was wrested into proof of treason, “what can he have more but the kingdom?” (see Ecclesiastes 4:4; Proverbs 27:4). But David’s wise walk made Saul fear him ( 1 Samuel 18:12,14,15,29; <19A102> Psalm 101:2; 5:8). God raised up to David a friend, Michal, in his enemy’s house, which made Saul the more afraid. So, not daring to lay his own hand on him, he exposed him to the Philistines ( 1 Samuel 18:17-27); in righteous retribution, it was Saul himself who fell by them ( Psalm 9:15,16). For a brief time a better feeling returned to Saul through Jonathan’s intercession for David ( Samuel 19:4-6); but again the evil spirit returned, and Saul pursued David to Michal’s house, and even to Samuel’s presence at Naioth in Ramah. But Jehovah, “in whose hand the king’s heart is, to turn it wheresoever He will” ( Proverbs 21:1), caused him who came to persecute to prophesy with the prophets. Yet soon after, because Jonathan let David go, Saul cast a javelin at his noble unselfish son, saying, “thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, for as long as he liveth thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom” ( 1 Samuel 20:28-33).

    Saul’s slaughter of the priests at Nob, on see DOEG ’S (see DAVID ) information, followed (1 Samuel 22), Saul upbraiding his servants as if conspiring with David and feeling no sorrow for the king; “yet can David, as I can ( 1 Samuel 8:14, compare 1 Samuel 22:7), give every one of you fields and vineyards?” etc., thus answering to David’s picture of him (Psalm 53:7), “this is the man that trusted in the abundance of his riches,” etc. By slaying the priests, so that Abiathar alone escaped to David, Saul’s sin recoiled on himself, for Saul thereby supplied him whom he hated with one through whom to consult Jehovah, and deprived himself of the divine oracle, so that at last he had to have recourse to witchcraft, though he had himself tried to extirpate it ( 1 Samuel 23:2,9; 28:3-7, etc.). The Philistines, by whom Saul thought to have slain David, were the unconscious instruments of saving him from Saul at Mann ( 1 Samuel 23:26,27). David’s magnanimity at the cave of Engedi in sparing his deadly foe and only cutting off his skirt, when in his power, moved Saul to tears, so that his better feelings returned for the moment, and he acknowledged David’s superiority in spirit and deed, and obtained David’s promise not to destroy his seed (1 Samuel 24). Once again (1 Samuel 26), at Hachilah David spared Saul, though urged by Abishai to destroy him; the see ALTASCHITH of Psalm 57; 58; 59; refers to David’s words on this occasion, “destroy not.” David would not take vengeance out of God’s hands ( Psalm 35:1-3; 17:4; 94:1,2,23; Romans 12:19). His words were singularly prophetic of Saul’s doom, “his day shall come to die, or be shall descend into battle and perish.” The “deep sleep from Jehovah” on Saul enabled David unobserved to take spear and cruse from Saul’s bolster. From a hill afar off David appealed to Saul, “if thy instigation to (i.e. giving up to the manifestation of thine own) evil be from Jehovah, through His anger against thee for sin, let Him smell sacrifice” (Hebrew), i.e. appease God’s wrath by an acceptable sacrifice; “but if thy instigators be men, they drive me out from attaching (Hebrew) myself to the inheritance of Jehovah (the Holy Land); now therefore let not my blood fall to the earth far away from the face of Jehovah,” i.e. do not drive me to perish in a heathen land; contrast Psalm 16:4-6. Saul acknowledged his sinful “folly” (meaning wickedness in Scripture (see MUTH-LABBEN ), and promised no more to seek his hurt, and blessed him.

    The consultation with the witch at Endor preceded the fatal battle of Gilbea. Saul had “put away out of the land wizards,” etc. But the law forbad them to live ( Leviticus 19:31; 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:10, etc.). He only took half measures, as in sparing the Amalekite king; “rebellion” ended in “witchcraft” ( 1 Samuel 15:23). He had driven away the only man, David, who could have saved him from the Philistines (1 Samuel 17; 2 Samuel 5:17-22). He had killed all by whom he could have consulted Jehovah (1 Samuel 21; 22). How men’s own wickedness, by a retributive providence ( Jeremiah 2:19), corrects them! She was mistress of a spirit (baalath-ob ) with which the dead were conjured up to inquire of them the future. Either she merely pretended this, or if there was a demoniacal reality Samuel’s apparition differed so essentially from it that she started at seeing him, and then (what shows her art to be something more than jugglery) she recognized Saul; probably she fell into a state of clairvoyance in which she recognized persons, as Saul, unknown to her by face. Saul did not himself see Samuel with his eyes, but recognized that it was he from her description, and told him his distress; but Samuel told him it was vain to ask of a friend of God since Jehovah was become his enemy.

    Saul should be in Hades by the morrow for his disobeying as to the Amalekites, while David, Amalek’s destroyer ( 1 Samuel 30:17), should succeed.

    On the morrow the Philistines followed hard upon Saul, the archers hit him; then Saul having in vain begged his armour bearer to slay him ( Samuel 31:4) fell on his own sword, but even so still lingered until an Amalekite (of the very people whom he ought to have utterly destroyed) stood upon and slew him, and brought his crown and bracelet to David ( 2 Samuel 1:8-10). The Philistines cut off his head and fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan. The armour they put in the temple of Ashtaroth, the head in the temple of Dagon ( 1 Samuel 31:9,10; Chronicles 10:10); the tidings of the slaughter of their national enemy they sent far and near to their idols and to the people. The inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead showed their gratitude to their former deliverer by bravely carrying off the bodies of him and his sons, and burning them, and burying the bones under a tree. His life is a sadly vivid picture of declension and deterioration until suicide draws a dark curtain over the scene. In his elegy David brings out all his good qualities, bravery, close union with Jonathan, zeal for Israel whose daughters Saul clothed in rich spoils; David generously overlooks his faults (2 Samuel 1). Years after he had the bones of Saul and Jonathan buried in Zelah in the tomb of Kish ( 2 Samuel 21:12-14). 5. Paul’s original name. He was proud of his tribe Benjamin and the name Saul ( Acts 13:21).

    SAVIOUR moshia’ , Greek soter .SALVATION from all kinds of danger and evil, bodily, spiritual, temporal, and eternal ( Matthew 1:21; Ephesians 5:23; Philippians 3:20,21), including also the idea restorer and preserver, giver of positive life and blessedness, as well as saviour from evil ( Isaiah 26:1; 2 Samuel 8:6; Isaiah 60:18; 61:10; <19B825> Psalm 118:25) (see HOSANNA ), deliverer, as the judges were saviours (margin Judges 3:9,15; Nehemiah 9:27; Jeroboam II, 2 Kings 13:5; Obadiah 1:21). Isaiah, Joshua or Jeshua, Jesus, Hoshea, Hosea, are various forms of the is associated with the idea, and the termREDEEMER (goel ) implies how God can be just and at the same time a saviour of mall ( Isaiah 43:3,11; 45:15,21,24,25; 41:14; 49:26; 9:16,17; Zechariah 9:9; Hosea 1:7).

    Man cannot save himself temporally or spiritually; Jehovah alone can save ( Job 40:14; Psalm 33:16; 44:3,7; Hosea 13:4,10). The temporal saviour is the predominant idea in the Old Testament; the spiritual and eternal saviour of the whole man in the New Testament Israel’ s saviour, national and spiritual, finally ( Isaiah 62:11; Romans 11:25,26).

    Salvation is secured in title to believers already by Christ’s purchase with His blood; its final consummation shall be at His coming again; in this sense salvation has yet “to be revealed” ( 1 Peter 1:5; Hebrews 9:28; Romans 5:10). Salvation negatively delivers us from three things: (1) the penalty, (2) the power, (3) the presence of sin. Positively it includes the inheritance of glory, bliss, and life eternal in and with God our Saviour.

    SCAPEGOAT (See ATONMENT, DAY OF ; and see SIN OFFERING ).

    SCARLET argaman, the purple juice of the Tyrian shell fish, Murex trunculus (see PURPLE , see TYRE ). Shani tolaath, an insect color from the cocci or semiglobular bodies as large as a split pea, black but dusted with a grey white powder, on evergreen oaks and other trees. The insect is of the order Homoptera, the females have a mouth able to pierce and suck plants. The Arabs call them kermes, from whence come our caroline and crimson. The full grown larva has the dye in greatest abundance. They yield their dye by infusion in water. The dye is fixed by a mordant, anciently alum, now solution of tin. The double dipping is implied in shunt, differently pointed in Heb.: Isaiah 1:18, “though your sins be as scarlet (double dyed, deeply fixed so that no tears can wash them away; blood-colored in hue, i.e. of deepest guilt, Isaiah 1:15; the color of Jesus’ robe when bearing them, Matthew 27:28) they shall be as white as snow” ( Psalm 51:7) (see ATONEMENT, DAY OF ). Rahab’s scarlet thread was the type ( Joshua 2:18).

    Scarlet was also used in cleansing the leper ( Leviticus 14:4). The Mishna says a band of twice dyed scarlet wool tied together the living bird, the hyssop, and the cedar, when dipped into the blood and water. Kurtz makes the scarlet wool symbolize vital health; but Isaiah 1:18 gives a contrary sense. A glaring, gorgeous color ( Nahum 2:3); that of the spiritual whore or corrupt church, conformed to that of the beast or Godopposed world power on which she rides (Revelation 17; 18).

    SCEPTRE shebet . Rod or staff of a ruler. In Judges 5:14 translated “out of Zebulun marchers with the staff of the writer” or numberer, who levied and mustered the troops, so a leader in general. 2 Kings 25:19, “principal scribe of the host which mustered the people”; 2 Chronicles 26:11; Psalm 2:9, “thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.” Whoever will not obey Thy loving seeptre, as the Good Shepherd, shall be crushed with an iron sceptre ( Matthew 21:44; Daniel 2:34,35,44). The iron kingdom Christ’s iron sceptre shall break as clay. <19C503> Psalm 125:3, “the sceptre of the wicked (world power; Persia at this time) shall not rest (permanently) upon the lot of the righteous,” namely, on the Holy Land: a psalm written after the return from Babylon. Contrast Christ’s “right sceptre” ( Psalm 45:6; Isaiah 11:3,4).

    SCEVA A chief priest, i.e. once having been high priest, or else chief of the priests at Ephesus, or of one of the 24 courses. His seven sons, Jews, exorcised demons in Jesus’ name, whereupon the demon-possessed leaped on two of them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded: ( Acts 19:14-16; the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus manuscripts read “prevailed against both”).

    SCIENCE gnoosis , rather “knowledge falsely so-called” ( 1 Timothy 6:20). There was a true “knowledge,” a charism or gift of the Spirit, abused by some ( 1 Corinthians 8:1; 12:8; 13:2; 14:6). This was counterfeited by false teachers, as preeminently and exclusively theirs ( Colossians 2:8,18,23).

    Hence arose creeds, “symbols” (sumbola ), i.e. watchwords whereby the orthodox might distinguish one another from the heretical; traces of such a creed appear in 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Timothy 1:13,14. The germs of the pretended gnoosis were not developed into full blown gnosticism until the second century. True knowledge (epignoosis , full accurate knowledge) Paul valued ( Philippians 1:9; Colossians 2:3; 3:10). He did not despise, but utilizes, secular knowledge ( Philippians 4:8; Acts 17:28, etc.); and the progress made in many of the sciences as well as in the arts (as in that of design, manifested in the vases and other works of that description), was evidently very great.

    SCORPION ‘akrab . Of the class Arachnida and order Pulmonaria. Common in the Sinai wilderness, typifying Satan and his malicious agents against the Lord’s people ( Deuteronomy 8:15; Ezekiel 2:6; Luke 10:19). Rolling itself together it might be mistaken for an egg ( Luke 11:12). Found in dry dark places amidst ruins, in hot climates. Carnivorous, breathing like spiders by lung-sacs, moving with uplifted tail. The sting at the tail’s end has at its base a gland which discharges poison into the wound from two openings. In Revelation 9:3,10, “the scorpions of the earth” stand in Contrast to the “locusts” from hell, not earth. The “five months” are thought to refer to the 150 prophetical days, i.e. years, from A.D. 612, when Mahomet opened his mission, to 762, when the caliphate was moved to Bagdad. In 1 Kings 12:11 scorpions mean scourges armed with iron points. The sting of the common scorpion is not very severe, except that of Buthus occitanus.

    SCRIBES Copheerim , from caaphar to “write,” “order,” and “count.” (See LAWYER ). The function was military in Judges 5:14 (see SCEPTRE ), also in Jeremiah 52:25; Isaiah 33:18. Two scribes in Assyrian monuments write down the various objects, the heads of the slain, prisoners, cattle, etc. The scribe or royal secretary under David and Solomon ( 2 Samuel 8:17; 20:25; 1 Kings 4:3) ranks with the high priest and the captain of the host (compare 2 Kings 12:10). Hezekiah’s scribe transcribed old records and oral traditions, in the case of Proverbs 25--29, under inspiration of God. Henceforth, the term designates not a king’s officer but students and interpreters of the law. Jeremiah 8:8 in KJV means “the pen of transcribers is (i.e. multiplies copies) in vain.” But Maurer, “the false pen of the scribes (persons skilled in expounding) has converted it (the law) into a lie,” namely, by false interpretations.

    Ezra’s glory, even above his priesthood, was that “he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given,” and “had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments” ( Ezra 7:6,10,12), “a scribe of the law of the God of heaven.” The spoken language was Becoming Aramaic, so that at this time an interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the basis of their national and religious restoration, was a primary necessity to the exiles just returned from Babylon ( Nehemiah 8:8-13). Scribe maybe meant in Ecclesiastes 12:11,12, “master of assemblies” under “one shepherd,” but the inspired writers are probably meant, “masters of collections,” i.e. associates in the collected canon, given ( Ephesians 4:11) from the Spirit of Jesus Christ the one Shepherd ( Ezekiel 37:24; 1 Peter 5:2-4). The “many books” of mere human composition are never to be put on a par with the sacred collection whereby to “be admonished.” “The families of scribes” had their own special residence ( 1 Chronicles 2:55). Ezra with the scribes probably compiled under the Holy Spirit, from authoritative histories, Chronicles ( 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29; 13:22, “the commentary of the prophet Iddo”: Midrash).

    Except Zadok no scribe but Ezra is named ( Nehemiah 13:13). The scribes by whom the Old Testament was written in its present characters and form, and its canon settled, are collectively in later times called “the men of the great synagogue, the true successors of the prophets” (Pirke Aboth, i. 1). Their aim was to write nothing themselves but to let the sacred word alone speak; if they had to interpret they would do it only orally. The mikra’ , or careful reading of the text ( Nehemiah 8:8) and laying down rules for its scrupulous transcription, was their study (compare copherim , in the Jerus. Gemara). Simon the Just (300-290 B.C.), last of the great synagogue, said, “our fathers taught us to be cautious in judging, to train many scholars, and to set a fence about the law.” But oral precepts, affecting eases of every day life not especially noticed in the law, in time by tradition became a system of casuistry superseding the word of God and substituting ceremonial observances for moral duties ( Matthew 15:1-6; 23:16-23). The scribes first reported the decisions of previous rabbis, the halachoth , the current precepts. A new code (the Mishna, repetition or second body of jurisprudence) grew out of them.

    Rabbinical sayings, Jewish fables ( Titus 1:14), and finally the Gemara (completeness) filled up the scheme; and the Mishna and Gemara together formed the Talmud (instruction), the standard of orthodoxy for the modern Jew. The Old Testament too was “searched” (midrashim ) for recondite meanings, the very search in their view entitling them to eternal life. Jesus warns them to “search” them very differently, namely, to find Him in them, if they would have life ( John 5:39). The process was called [hagada] (opinion). The [Kabala] (received doctrine) carried mysticism further. The [gematria] (the Greek term for the exactest science, geometry, being applied to the wildest mode of interpreting) crowned this perverse folly by finding new meanings through letters supposed to be substituted for others, the last of the alphabet for the first, the second last for the second, etc. The Sadducees maintained, against tradition, the sufficiency of the letter of the law.

    Five pairs of teachers represent the succession of scribes, each pair consisting of the president of the Sanhedrin and the father of the house of judgment presiding in the supreme court. The two first were Joses ben Joezer and Joses ben Jochanan (140-130 B.C.). Their separating themselves from defilement originated the name Pharisees. The Sadducee taunt was “these Pharisees would purify the sun itself.” Hillel (112 B.C.) is the best representative of the scribes; Menahem (probably the Essene Manaen: Josephus Ant. 15:10, section 5) was at first his colleague, But with many followers renounced his calling as scribe and joined Herod and appeared in public arrayed gorgeously. To this Matthew 11:8; Luke 7:24,25, may allude. The Herodians perhaps may be connected with these.

    Shammai headed a school of greater scrupulosity than Hillel’s ( Mark 7:1-4), making it unlawful to relieve the poor, visit the sick, or teach children on the Sabbath, or to do anything before the Sabbath which would be in operation during the Sabbath. (See PHARISEES ). Hillel’s precepts breathe a loftier spirit: “trust not thyself to the day of thy death”; “judge not thy neighbour until thou art in his place”; “leave nothing dark, saying I will explain it when I have time, for how knowest thou whether the time will come?” ( James 4:13-15); “he who gums a good name gains it for himself, but he who gains a knowledge of the law gains everlasting life” (compare John 5:39; Romans 2:13,17-24). A proselyte begged of Shammai instruction in the law, even if it were so long as he could stand on his foot. Shammai drove him away; but Hillel said kindly, “do nothing to thy neighbour that thou wouldest not he should do to thee; do this, and thou hast fulfilled the law and the prophets” ( Matthew 22:39,40). With all his straitness of theory Shammai was rich and self indulgent, Hillel poor to the day of his death.

    Christ’s teaching forms a striking contrast. The scribes leant on “them of old time” ( Matthew 5:21,27,33); “He taught as one having authority and not as the scribes” ( Matthew 7:29). They taught only their disciples; “He had compassion on the multitudes” ( Matthew 9:36).

    They taught only in their schools; He through “all the cities and villages” ( Matthew 4:23; 9:35). As Hillel lived to the age of 120 he may have been among the doctors whom Jesus questioned ( Luke 2:46). His grandson and successor, Gamaliel, was over his school during Christ’s ministry and the early part of the Acts. Simeon, Gamaliel’s son, was so but for a short time; possibly the Simeon of Luke 2:25, of the lineage of David, therefore disposed to look for Messiah in the Child of that house.

    The scanty notice of him in rabbinic literature makes the identification likely; the Pirke Aboth does net name him. This school was better disposed to Christ than Shammai’s; to it probably belonged Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and others too timid to confess Jesus ( John 12:42; 19:38; Luke 23:50,51). The council which condemned Him was probably a packed meeting, hastily and irregularly convened. Translated Isaiah 53:8, “He was taken away by oppression and by a judicial sentence,” i.e. by an oppressive sentence; Acts 8:33, “in His humiliation His judgment was taken away,” i.e., a fair trial was denied Him.

    Candidate scribes were “chosen” only after examination (compare Matthew 20:16; 22:14; John 15:16). The master sat on a high chair, the eider disciples on a lower bench, the youngest lowest, “at his feet” ( Luke 10:39; Acts 22:3; Deuteronomy 33:3; 2 Kings 4:38); often in a chamber of the temple ( Luke 2:46), the pupil submitting cases and asking questions, e.g. Luke 10:25; Matthew 22:36. The interpreter or crier proclaimed, loud enough for all to hear, what the rabbi whispered “in the ear” ( Matthew 10:27). Parables were largely used.

    The saying of a scribe illustrates the pleasant relations between master and scholars, “I have learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues, most from my disciples.” At 30 the presiding rabbi admitted the probationer to the chair of the scribe by laying on of hands, giving him tablets whereon to write sayings of the wise, and “the key of knowledge” ( Luke 11:52) wherewith to open or shut the treasures of wisdom. He was then a chaber , or of the fraternity, no longer of “the ignorant and unlearned” ( Acts 4:13), but, separated from the common herd, “people of the earth,” “cursed” as not knowing the law ( John 7:15,49). Fees were paid them for arbitrations ( Luke 12:14), writing bills of divorce, covenants of espousals, etc. Rich widows they induced to minister to them, depriving their dependent relatives of a share ( Matthew 23:14; contrast Luke 8:2,3). Poverty however, and a trade, were counted no discredit to a scribe, as Paul wrought at tent making. Their titles, rab, rabbi, rabban, formed an ascending series in dignity. Salutations, the designation father, chief seats in synagogues and feasts, the long robes with broad blue zizith or fringes, the hems or borders, the phylacteries (tephillim ), contrasted with Jesus’ simple inner vesture (chitoon ) and outer garment (himation ), were all affected by them ( Matthew 23:5,6; Luke 14:7).

    Notwithstanding the self seeking and hypocrisy of most scribes, some were not far from the kingdom of God ( Mark 12:32-34,38,40; contrast Mark 12:42-44); some were “sent” by the Wisdom of God, the Lord Jesus ( Matthew 23:34; Luke 11:49). Christ’s minister must be “a scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven” ( Matthew 13:52); such were “Zenas the lawyer” and “Apollos mighty in the Scriptures” ( Titus 3:13).

    SCRIP Shepherd’s bag (yalquwt ), 1 Samuel 17:40; 2 Kings 4:42 (tsiqlon ) margin. In New Testament the leather wallet (fra ) slung on the shoulder for carrying food for a journey; distinct from the purse (zone, literally, “girdle”; balantion, small bag for money): Matthew 10:9,10; Luke 10:4; 12:33. Unlike other travelers, the twelve and the seventy, when sent forth, were wholly dependent on God, having no provision for their journey; at other times they carried provisions in a bag and purse ( Luke 22:35,36; John 12:6; Mark 8:14-16). The English “scrip,” originally “script,” related to “scrap,” was used for food.

    SCRIPTURES (See BIBLE ; see CANON ; see INSPIRATION ; see OLD and NEW TESTAMENTS ). Appropriated in the Bible to the sacred writings ( Kings 22:13; Psalm 40:7; 2 Timothy 3:15,16, “the Scripture of truth”; Daniel 10:21; Ezra 6:18). Meetings for worship and hearing the word of the Lord are noticed in Ezekiel 8:1; 14:1,4; 33:31; and even earlier, Isaiah 1:12-15. Especially after the return from Babylon Ezra held such meetings, when the restored exiles yearned for a return to the law. Now the Jews read the Pentateuch once in every year, divided into [parashas] or sections: and parts only of the prophets, [haphtaroth ], shorter lessons read by a single individual, whereas the parasha is distributed among seven readers. Of the hagiographa the five megilloth are read on five annual fasts or feasts, not on the sabbath. “It is written” is the formula appropriated to holy writ. 2 Chronicles 30:5,18, kakathuwb (as it is written); Greek grafee , gegraptai , ta hiera grammata ( Matthew 4:4,6; 21:13; 26:24). The Hebrews, however, substituted mikra , “what is read,” for kethubim , which is applied to one division of Scripture, the hagiographa ( Nehemiah 8:8). Grafee in New Testament is never used of a secular writing. 2 Timothy 3:15,16, “all Scripture (pasa grafee : every portion of ‘the Holy Scripture’) is God-inspired (not only the Old Testament, in which Timothy was taught when a child, compare Romans 16:26, but the New Testament according as its books were written by inspired men, and recognized by men having ‘discerning of spirits,’ 1 Corinthians 12:10; 14:37), and (therefore) profitable,” etc.

    The position of the Greek adjectives, theopneustos kai ofelimos , inseparably connected, forbids making one a predicate the other an epithet, “every Scripture given by inspiration of God is also profitable,” as Eilicott translated In 2 Peter 1:20,21, explain “no prophecy of Scripture proves to be (ginetai ) of private (an individual writer’s uninspired) interpretation,” i.e. solution, and so origination. “Private” is explained “by the will of man,” in contrast to “moved by the Holy Spirit,” not in contrast to the universal church’s interpretation, as Rome teaches.

    SCYTHIAN Colossians 3:11. More barbarian heretofore than the barbarians. The unity of the divine life shared in by all believers counterbalances differences as great as that between the polished “Greek” and the rude “Scythian.”

    Christianity is the true spring of sound culture, social and moral.

    SEA yam . (1) The ocean in general ( Genesis 1:2,10; Deuteronomy 30:13). (2) The Mediterranean, with the article; “the hinder,” “western,” or “utmost sea” ( Deuteronomy 11:24); “the sea of the Philistines,” “the great sea” ( Exodus 23:31; Numbers 34:6,7). (3) The Red Sea ( Exodus 15:4). (4) Inland lakes, as the Salt or Dead Sea. (5) The Nile flood, and the Euphrates ( Isaiah 19:5; Jeremiah 51:36).

    In Deuteronomy 28:68, “Jehovah shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships,” explain, thou didst cross the sea, the waves parting before thee, in leaving Egypt; thou shalt return confined in slave ships.

    SEA, MOLTEN (See LAVER ).

    SEA MONSTER Lamentations 4:3. Tannin , margin “sea calves.” Whales and other cetacean monsters are mammalian. Even they give “the breast” to their young; but the Jewish women in the siege, so desperate was their misery, ate theirs ( Lamentations 4:10). [Tannin] is used vaguely for any great monster of the deep. True whales are occasionally seen in the Mediterranean.

    SEA, THE SALT Now the Dead Sea. Midway in the great valley stretching from Mount Hermon to the gulf of Akabah ( Genesis 14:3; Numbers 34:3,12). “The sea of the plain” (Arabah): Deuteronomy 3:17; 4:49; Joshua 3:16. “The East Sea” ( Ezekiel 47:8,10,11; Joel 2:20). “The former sea,” in opposition to “the hinder sea,” i.e. the Mediterranean, because in taking the four points of the sky the spectator faced the E., having it in front of him and the W. behind him ( Zechariah 14:8). It is geographical miles long by nine to nine and three quarters broad. Its surface is 1,292 ft. (or, according to Lynch, 1,316; it varies greatly at different seasons) below the Mediterranean level. Its greatest depth in the northern part is 1,308 ft. Its intense saltness, specific gravity, and buoyancy, are well known. The saltness is due to masses of fossil salt in a mountain on its S.W. border, and to rapid evaporation of the fresh water which flows into it. Neither animals nor vegetables live in it. Its shores are encrusted with salt. Earthquakes (as in 1834 and 1837) throw up large quantities of bitumen, detached from the bottom, upon the southern shore.

    The great depth of the northern division does not extend to the southern. It was observed by Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake that the bottom is still subsiding. At the southern end the fords between Lisan and the western shore are now impassable, though but three feet deep some years ago; again the causeway between the Rijm el Bahr and the mainland has been submerged for years, though previously often dry. Dr. Tristram’s theory seems probable, that the valley was formed by a depression of the strata subsequent to the English chalk period. The area was filled by a chain of large lakes reaching to the sea. The depression continuing, the heat and the consequent evaporation increased, until there remained only the present three lakes, Merom, Galilee, and the Dead Sea which depends on evaporation alone for maintaining its level. Conder has traced the old shore lines of the ancient great lakes. The southern bay is shallow, and the shores marshy. It occupies probably what was originally the plain of Jordan, the vale of Siddim. Possibly the Jordan originally flowed on through the Arabah into the gulf of Akabah. The southern part of the sea, abounding in salt, bitumen, sulphur, and nitre, was probably formed at a recent date, and answers to the description of the valley of Siddim, “full of slime pits” ( Genesis 14:10), and to the destruction of Sodom; etc., by fire and brimstone, and to the turning of Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt. Scripture, however, nowhere says that Sodom, etc., were immersed in the sea, but that they were overthrown by fire from heaven ( Deuteronomy 29:23; Jeremiah 49:18; 50:40; Zephaniah 2:9; 2 Peter 2:6). Josephus speaks of Sodomitis as burnt up, and as adjoining the lake Asphaltitis.

    Ancient testimony, the recent formation of the sea, its bituminous, saline, volcanic aspect, the traditional names (Usdum), and the traditional site of Zoar (called by Josephus Zoar of Arabia), the hill of salt traditionally made Lot’s wife, all favor the southern site for Sodom, etc. Genesis 13:10 is not to be pressed further than to mean that Lot from between Bethel and Ai saw enough to arrive at the conclusion that the Ciccar (circuit) of the Jordan, i.e. the whole valley N. and S., was fertile and well watered. The lake, comparatively small before, after Sodom’s destruction enlarged itself so as to cover the low valley land.

    It forms an oval divided into two parts by a peninsula projecting from its eastern side, beyond which the southern lagoon, for ten miles (one fourth of the whole length) is shallow, varying from 12 feet in the middle to three at the edges. The northern bottom lies half a mile below the level of the coast at Jaffa, and more than two thirds of a mile below that of Jerusalem! the deepest depression on the earth. The surrounding region is in many places fertile, and teeming with animal and vegetable life; but every living thing carried by the Jordan into the waters dies. Their specific gravity exceeds that of any other water. A gallon weighs over 12 1/2 lbs. instead of 10, the weight of distilled water. Dr. Robinson could never swim before, but here could sit, stand, lie, or swim. It holds in solution ingredients six times those contained in common salt water: one third common salt (chloride of sodium) and two thirds chloride of magnesium. Of the rest chloride of calcium is the chief ingredient, besides silica, bitumen, and bromine in small quantities. The greasy look attributed to it exists in imagination only; it is transparent and generally clear. The lime and earthy salts, with the perspiration of the skin, make the water feel greasy. Sulphur springs abound around, and sulphur lies over the plains in layers or in fragments. Only in the district near wady Zurka have igneous rocks been found; the lake basin’s formation is mainly due to the action of water.

    Before the close of the eocene period the sea flowed the whole length of the Ghor and Arabah connecting them with the Red Sea; it is in fact a pool left by the retreating ocean. It receives the Jordan at the northern end; Zurka Main on its E. side (anciently Callirrhoe, and perhaps the older En Eglaim), also the Mojib (Arnon) and the Beni Hemad; on the S. the Kurahy or el Ahsy; on the W. Ain Jidy. Besides it receives torrents, full in winter though dried up in summer. The absence of any outlet is one of its peculiarities; evaporation through the great heat carries off the supply from without. Owing to this evaporation a haze broods over the water. The mountain walls on either side run nearly parallel; the eastern mountains are higher and more broken by ravines than the western. In color they are brown or red, whereas the western are greyish. On the western side, opposite the peninsula separating the northern lake from the southern lagoon, stood Masada, now the rock Sebbeh, 1,300 ft. above the lake, where the Jewish zealots made their last stand against Sylva the Roman general, and slew themselves to escape capture, A.D. 71. On the western shore three parallel beaches exist, the highest about 50 ft. above the water.

    The Khasm Usdum or salt mount, a ridge five miles long, is at the S.W. corner. Its northern part runs S.S.E., then it bends to the right, then runs S.W.; 300 or 400 ft. high, of crystallized rock salt, capped with chalky limestone. The lower part, the salt rock, rises abruptly from the plain at its eastern base. It was probably the bed of an ancient salt lake, upheaved during the convulsion which depressed the bed of the present lake.

    Between the northern end of Usdum and the lake is a mound covered with stones, Um Zoghal, 60 ft. in diameter, 10 or 12 high, artificial; made by some a relic of Sodom or of Zoar.

    The N. and S. ends are not enclosed by highlands as the E. and W. are; the Arabah between the S. of the Dead Sea and the Red Sea is higher than the Ghor or Jordan valley; the valley suddenly rises 100 ft. at the S. of the Dead Sea, and continues rising until it reaches 1,800 ft. above the Dead Sea, or 500 above the ocean, at a point 35 miles N. of Akabah. The peninsula separating the northern lake from the southern lagoon is called Ghor el Mezraah or el Lisan (the Tongue: so Joshua 15:2 margin); it is ten geographical miles long by five or six broad. “The Tongue,” Lisan, is probably restricted to the southern side of the peninsula. The peninsula is formed of post-tertiary aqueous deposits, consisting of friable carbonate of lime, mixed with sandy marl and sulphate of lime (gypsum); these were deposited when the water of the lake stood much higher than now, possibly by the action of a river from the quarter of wady Kerak forming an alluvial bank at its embouchure. It is now undergoing a process of disintegration.

    The torrents of the Jeib, Ghurundel, and Fikreh on the S., El Ahsy, Numeirah, Humeir, and Ed Draah on the E., Zuweirah, Mubughghik, and Senin on the W., draining about 6,000 square miles, bring down the silt and shingle which have filled up the southern part of the estuary. The Stylophora pistillata coral in the Paris Cabinet d’Hist. Naturelle was brought from the lake in 1837. Polygasters, polythalamiae, and phytolithariae were found in the mud and water brought home by Lepsius; the phosphorescence of the waters too betokens the presence of life. Lynch mentions that the birds, animals, and insects on the western side were of a stone color, undistinguishable from the surrounding rocks. The heat is what tries health rather than any miasma from the water. The lake is said to resemble Loch Awe, glassy, blue, and transparent, reflecting the beautiful colours of the encircling mountains; but the sterile look of the shores, the stifling heat, the sulphureous smell, the salt marsh at the S. end, and the fringe of dead driftwood, justify the name “Dead Sea.”

    SEAL Used to stamp a document, giving it legal validity. Judah probably wore his suspended from the neck over the breast ( Genesis 38:18; Song 8:6; Job 38:14). As the plastic clay presents various figures impressed on it by the revolving cylinder seal (one to three inches long, of terra cotta or precious stone, such as is found in Assyria), as “it is turned,” so the morning light rolling on over the earth, previously void of form through the darkness, brings out to view hills, valleys, etc. Treasures were sealed up ( Deuteronomy 32:34); the lions’ den in Daniel’s case ( Daniel 6:17); so our Lord’s tomb ( Matthew 27:66). Sealing up was also to ensure secrecy ( Daniel 12:4; Revelation 5:1). The signet ring was the symbol of royal authority ( Genesis 12:41,42; Esther 3:10; 8:10).

    Clay hardens in the heat, and was therefore used in Assyria and Babylon rather than wax, which melts. A stone cylinder in the Alnwick Museum bears the date of Osirtasin I, between 2,000 and 3,000 B.C. The Assyrian documents were often of baked clay, sealed while wet and burnt afterwards. Often the seal was a lump of clay impressed with a seal and tied the document. Such is the seal of Sabacho or So, king of Egypt (711 B.C.), found at Nimrud ( 2 Kings 17:4).

    SEBA (See SHEBA ). Son of Cush, i.e. Ethiopia ( Genesis 10:7). A commercial and wealthy region of Ethiopia ( Psalm 72:10; Isaiah 43:3; 45:14 “men of stature”). The Macrobian Ethiopians were reported to be the tallest and comeliest of men (Herodotus 3:20). Meroe, at the confluence of the Astaboras and Astapus, was called Seba, until Cambyses called it Meroe from his sister (Josephus, Ant. 2:10). Seba is distinct from Sheba, which is Semitic; Seba is Hamitic. The Sebaeans were an Ethiopian, ruling race, which dwelt about Meroe the capital, and were physically superior to the rest of the people. Shebek, or Sabacho or So, founded here an Ethiopian kingdom which ruled Egypt. Meru means an island in Egyptian; Meru-pet is “the island of Pet,” the bow, or else “Phut.” The Astaboras is the Atbara, the most northern tributary of the Nile, and the Astapus and Astasobas unite to form the Blue river; these bound the island Meroe.

    SECACAH One of Judah’s six cities in the midbar or wilderness bordering on the Dead Sea ( Joshua 15:61).

    SECHU (the hill or eminence) ( 1 Samuel 19:22): Between Saul’s dwelling place, Gibeah, and Samuel’s, Ramah. It had “the great well” or cistern (bor ).

    Now, according to some, Bir Neballa (the well of Neballa), containing a large pit.

    SECUNDUS Of Thessalonica. Along with Aristarchus accompanied Paul in his last journey from Greece to Jerusalem as far as Troas ( Acts 20:4).

    SEGUB 1. Son of Hezron by Machir’s daughter ( 1 Chronicles 2:21,22). 2. The Bethelite. Hiel’s youngest son. Died when Hiel set up the gates of accursed Jericho, as Joshua foretold ( Joshua 6:26; 1 Kings 16:34).

    SEIR, MOUNT (“hairy, rugged”). 1. Named so from a Horite chief ( Genesis 36:20). Or probably Seir was his title, not proper name, given from the rugged rocky nature of the country, or from its abounding in bushes, in contrast to Halak “the smooth mountain.” Esau and the Edomite supplanted the previous occupants the see HORITES . Mount Seir is the high range from the S. of the Dead Sea to Elath N. of the gulf of Akabah, on the E. of the Arabah, or “the plain from Elath and Ezion Geber.” For as Israel moved from Mount Hor by way of that plain towards the Red Sea at Elath they “compassed Mount Seir” ( Numbers 21:4; Deuteronomy 2:1,8). When Israel was refused leave to go the direct route to Moab through Edom’s valleys ( Numbers 20:20,21) they marched circuitously round the mountains down the Arabah between the limestone cliffs of the Tih on the W. and the granite range of Mount Seir on the E. until a few hours N. of Akabah the wady Ithm opened a gap in the mountains, so that turning to their left they could march N. toward Moab ( Deuteronomy 2:3).

    Mount Hor alone of the range retains the old name of the Horites; it overhangs Petra; now jebel Haroon or Mount Aaron, where he died and was buried. The southern part, jebel es Sherah, between Petra and Akabah, perhaps bears trace of the name “Self.” Jebal is now applied to the northern part of Mount Seir, answering to Gebal of Psalm 83:6,7; Geblah (i.e. mountain) is the name for Mount Seir in the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Jerusalem targum. Jebal extends N. to the brook Zered (wady el Ahsi). “Mount Halak (‘naked’) that goeth up to Seir” ( Joshua 11:17) was the northern border of Seir, probably the line of white “naked” hills running across the great valley eight miles S. of the Dead Sea, dividing between the Arabah on the S. and the depressed Ghor on the N. Seir and Sinai are not in Deuteronomy 33:2 grouped together geographically, but in reference to their being both alike scenes of God’s glory manifested in behalf of His people. The prophetic denunciation of Ezekiel 35, “Behold O Mount Seir, ... I will make thee most desolate ... I will lay thy cities waste ... perpetual desolations”: Burckhardt counted 40 cities in Jebal all now desolate. 2. A landmark N. of Judah ( Joshua 15:10), W. of Kirjath Jearim and E. of Bethshemesh; the ridge between wady Aly and wady Ghurab. Now Mihsir, N.W. of Kesla or Chesalon. The resemblance in ruggedness to the southern Mount Seir may have given the name.

    SEIRATH Where Ehud fled after murdering Eglon, and gathered Israel to attack the Moabites at Jericho. In Mount Ephraim, a continuation of the rugged, bushy (like hair) hills which stretched to Judah’s northern boundary ( Joshua 15:10; Judges 3:26,27).

    SELA celah , “the rock,” Greek petra ( 2 Kings 14:7); Isaiah 16:1, translated “send ye the lamb (tribute) from Sela through the wilderness to the” king of Judah; Amaziah had subjected it ( 2 Kings 14:7). See for its rocky position Judges 1:36; 2 Chronicles 25:12; Obadiah 1:3; Numbers 24:21; Isaiah 42:11; Jeremiah 49:16. The city Petra, 500 Roman miles from Gaza, two days’ journey N. of the gulf of Akabah, three or four S. from Jordan. In Mount Seir, near Mount Hor; taken by Amaziah, and named Joktheel, i.e. subdued by God, man without God could not take so impregnable a place ( Psalm 60:9; Joshua 15:38); afterward in Moab’s territory. In the fourth century B.C. the Nabathaeans’ stronghold against Antigonus. In 70 B.C. the Arab prince Aretas resided here. The emperor Hadrian named it Hadriana, as appears from a coin.

    It lay in a hollow enclosed amidst cliffs, and accessible only by a ravine through which the river winds across its site. A tomb with three rows of columns, a triumphal arch, and ruined bridges, are among the remains.

    Laborde and Linant traced a theater for sea fights which could be flooded from cisterns. This proves the abundance of the water supply, if husbanded, and agrees with the accounts of the former fertility of the district, in contrast to the barren Arabah on the W. Selah means a cliff or peak, contrasted with eben , a detached stone or boulder. The khazneh , “treasury,” in situation, coloring, and singular construction is unique. The facade of the temple consisted of six columns, of which one is broken. The pediment has a lyre on its apex. In the nine faces of rock are sculptured female figures with flowing drapery. (Palmer supposes them to be the tone muses with Apollo’s lyre above).

    SELA-HAMMAHLEKOTH (the rock of divisions) (Targum, Midrash, Rashi), of escapes (Gesenius): 1 Samuel 23:28. S.E. of Judah, in the wilderness of Maon, where David was on one side of the mountain, Saul on the other. A message announcing a Philistine invasion caused “divisions” in Saul’s mind, whether to pursue David still or go after the invaders. David narrowly escaped.

    SELAH Seventy-one times in the Psalms, three times in Habakkuk. From shelah , “rest.” A music mark denoting a pause, during which the singers ceased to sing and only the instruments were heard. Septuagint diapsalma, a break in the psalm introduced where the sense requires a rest. It is a call to calm reflection on the preceding words. Hence, in Psalm 9:16 it follows eeiggaion , “meditation.” The selah reminds us that the psalm requires a peaceful and meditative soul which can apprehend what the Holy Spirit propounds. Thus it is most suggestive, and far from being, as Smith’s Bible Dictionary alleges of this sense, “superfluous.” Delitsseh takes it from saalal “to lift up,” a musical forte, the piano singing then ceasing, and the instruments alone playing with execution an interlude after sentences of peculiar importance, so as to emphasize them.

    SELED 1 Chronicles 2:30.

    SELEUCIA Antioch’s seaport. The Orontes passes Antioch, and falls into the sea near Seleucia, 16 miles from Antioch. Paul and Barnabas at their first missionary tour sailed from that port ( Acts 13:4), and landed there on returning ( Acts 14:26). Named from the great Alexander’s successor, Seleucus Nicator, its founder, who died 280 B.C. The two piers of the old harbour still remain, bearing the names of Paul and Barnabas; the masonry is so good that it has been proposed to clear out and repair the harbour.

    SEMACHIAH 1 Chronicles 26:7.

    SEMEI Luke 3:26.

    SENAAH Ezra 2:35; Nehemiah 7:38; 3:3. Eusebius and Jerome mention Magdal Senash, “great Senaah,” seven miles N. of Jericho.

    SENEH (“bush”). The southern of the two isolated rocks in the passage of Michmash, mentioned in Jonathan’s enterprise ( 1 Samuel 14:4,8), the nearer of the two to Geba. He made his way across from Geba of Benjamin to the Philistine garrison at Michmash over Seneh and Bozez, the rocks intervening. Seneh was named from the growth of thorn brushes upon it.

    The ridge between the two valleys (still called Suweineh and Buweizeh) has two steep sides, one facing the S. toward Geba (Seneh), the other facing the N. toward Michmash (Bozez). In going from Geba to Michmash, instead of going round by the passage of Michmash where the two valleys unite, Jonathan went directly across the ridge over the two rocks which lay between the passages or valleys.

    SENIR 1 Chronicles 5:23; Ezekiel 27:5. Wrongly changed to Shenir in Deuteronomy 3:9,10; Song 4:8. (See HERMON ).

    SENNACHERIB In the monuments Tzin-akki-irib, “Sin (the moon goddess) increases brothers,” implying Sennacherib was not the firstborn; or else “thanking the god for the gift.” Sargon’s son and successor. Ascended the throne B.C., crushed the revolt of Babylon, and drove away Merodach Baladan, made Belibus his officer viceroy, ravaged the Aramaean lands on the Tigris and Euphrates, and carried off 200,000 captives. In 701 B.C. warred with the tribes on Mount Zagros, and reduced the part of Media previously independent. In 700 B.C. punished Sidon, made Tyre, Arad, and other Phoenician cities, as also Edom and Ashdod, tributary. Took Ashkelon, warred with Egypt, took Libnah and Lachish on the frontier; and having made treaty with Sabacus or So (the clay seal of So found in Sennacherib’s palace at Koyunjik was probably attached to this treaty), he marched against see HEZEKIAH of Judah who had thrown off tribute and intermeddled in the politics of Philistine cities against Sennacherib ( Kings 18:13). (See ASSYRIA ; see NINEVEH ). Hezekiah’s sickness was in his 14th year, but Sennacherib’s expedition in his 27th, which ought to be substituted for the copyist’s error “fourteenth.” On his way, according to inscriptions (G. Smith, in Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, October 1872, p. 198), Sennacherib attacked Lulia of Sidon, then took Sidon, Zarephath, etc. The kings of Palestine mentioned as submitting to Sennacherib are Menahem of Samaria, Tubal of Sidon, Kemosh Natbi of Moab, etc. He took Ekron, which had submitted to Hezekiah and had delivered its king Padi up to him; Sennacherib reseated Padi on his throne.

    Sennacherib defeated the kings of Egypt and Ethiopia at Eltekeh.

    Sennacherib took 46 of Judah’s fenced cities including Lachish, the storming of which, is depicted on his palace walls. He shut up Hezekiah, (building towers round Jerusalem,) who then submitted and paid 30 talents of gold and 800 of silver. Sennacherib gave part of Judah’s territory to Ashdod, Ekron, Gaza, and Ashkelon. It was at his second expedition that the overthrow of his host by Jehovah’s Angel took place ( 2 Kings 18:17-37; 2 Kings 19). This was probably two years after the first, but late in his reign Sennacherib speaks of an expedition to Palestine apparently. “After this,” in 2 Chronicles 32:9,17 years after his disaster, in B.C., his two sons Adrammelech and Sharezer assassinated him after a reign of 22 years, and Esarhaddon ascended the throne 680 B.C.

    Esarhaddon’s inscription, stating that he was at war with his half brothers, after his accession, agrees with the Bible account of Sennacherib’s assassination. Moses of Chorene confirms the escape of the brothers to Armenia, and says that part was peopled by their descendants.

    Sennacherib’s second invasion of Babylon was apparently in 699 B.C.; he defeated a Chaldaean chief who headed an army in support of Merodach Baladan. Sennacherib put one of his own sons on the throne instead of Belibus. Sennacherib was the first who made Nineveh the seat of government. The grand palace at Koyunjik was his, covering more than eight acres. He embanked with brick the Tigris, restored the aqueducts of Nineveh, and repaired a second palace at Nineveh on the mound of Nebi Yunns. Its halls were ranged about three courts, one 154 ft. by 125 ft., another 124 ft. by 90 ft. One hall was 180 ft. long by 40 ft. broad; 60 ft. small rooms have been opened. He erected memorial tablet at the mouth of the nahr el Kelb on the Syrian coast, beside an inscription recording Rameses the Great’s conquests six hundred years before; this answers to his boast that “he had come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon.”

    SENUAH Nehemiah 11:9; 1 Chronicles 9:7.

    SEORIM 1 Chronicles 24:8.

    SEPHAR Genesis 10:30. Zafar or Dhafari, a seaport on the coast of Hadramaut.

    Pronounced by Arabs Isfor. A series of villages near the shore of the Indian Ocean, not merely one town. El Beleed or Hark’am, consisting of but three or four inhabited houses, on a peninsula between the ocean and a bay, is the ancient Zafar (Fresnel).

    SEPHARAD Jerusalem’s citizens, captives at Sepharad, shall return to occupy the city and southern Judaea ( Obadiah 1:20). Jerome’s Hebrew tutor thought Sepharad was on the Bosphorus. Jerome derives it from an Assyrian word “limit,” i.e. scattered in all regions abroad (so James 1:1). The modern Jews think Spain. As Zarephath, a Phoenician city, was mentioned in the previous clause, Sepharad is probably some Phoenician colony in Spain or some other place in the far West (compare Joel 3:6, to which Obadiah refers). C Pa Rad occurs before Ionia and Greece in a cuneiform inscription giving a list of the Persian tribes (see also Niebuhr, Reiseb. 2:31). Also in Darius’ epitaph at Nakshi Rustam, 1:28, before Ionia in the Behistun inscription (i. 15). Thus, it would be Sardis (the Greeks omitting the ph) in Lydia. In favor of Spain is the fact that the Spanish Jews are called Sephardim, the German Jews Ashkenazim.

    SEPHARVAIM From southern Ava, Cuthah, and Hamath, the Assyrian king brought colonists to people Samaria, after the ten tribes were deported ( 2 Kings 17:24). Rabshakeh and Sennacherib ( 2 Kings 18:34; 19:13) boastingly refer to Assyria’s conquest of Sepharvaim as showing the hopelessness of Samaria’s resistance ( Isaiah 36:19): “where are the gods of Hamath ...

    Sepharvaim? have they (the gods of Hamath and Sepharvaim) delivered Samaria out of my hand?” How just the retribution in kind, that Israel having chosen the gods of Hamath and Sepharvaim should be sent to Hamath and Sepharvaim as their place of exile, and that the people of Hamath and Sepharvaim should be sent to the land of Israel to replace the Israelites! ( Proverbs 1:31; Jeremiah 2:19). Sepharvaim is Sippara, N. of Babylon, built on both banks of Euphrates (or of the canal nahr Agane), from whence arises its dual form, -aim, “the two Sipparas.” Above the nahr Malka. The one Sippara was called Sipar-sa-samas, i.e. consecrated to Samas the sun god; the other, Sipar-sa-Anunit, consecrated to the goddess Anunit. The Sepharvites burned their children in fire to see ADRAMMELECH and see ANAMMELECH , the male and female powers of the sun; on the monuments Sepharvaim is called “Sepharvaim of the sun.” Nebuchadnezzar built the old temple, as the sacred spot where Xisuthrus deposited the antediluvian annals before entering the ark, from whence his posterity afterward recovered them (Berosus Fragm. 2:501; 4:280). Part of Sepharvaim was called Agana from Nebuchadnezzar’s reservoir adjoining. Sepharvaim is shortened into Sivra and Sura, the seat of a famed Jewish school. Mosaib now stands near its site. The name Sippara means “the city of books.” The Berosian fragments designate it Pantibiblia, (all books). Here probably was a library, similar to that found at Nineveh, and which has been in part deciphered by G. Smith and others.

    SEPTUAGINT Designated Septuagint The Greek version of Old Testament, made for the Greek speaking (Hellenistic) Jews at Alexandria. The oldest manuscripts in capitals (uncials) are the Cottonian (fragments) in British Museum; Vatican (representing especially the oldest text) at Rome; Alexandrian in British Museum, of which Baber in 1816 published a facsimile; Sinaitic at Petersburgh. Alexandrian is of the fifth century, the others are of the fourth. The ancient text current before Origen was called “the common one”; he compared this with the versions of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, and marked the Septuagint with an obelos mark where he found superfluous words, and supplied deficiencies of Septuagint from those three, prefixing an asterisk.* Its wide circulation among Hellenistic Jews before Christ providentially prepared the way for the gospel. Its completion was commemorated by a yearly feast at Alexandria (Philo, Vit. Mos. 2). Its general use is proved by the manner of its quotation in New Testament. The Jews in Justin Martyr’s Apology questioned its accuracy. A letter of Aristeas to his brother Philocrates (Hody, Bibl. Text. Orig., 1705) describes the origin of Septuagint; King Ptolemy (Philadelphus), by the advice of his librarian Demetrius Phalereus, obtained from the high priest at Jerusalem interpreters, six from each tribe; by conference and comparison in 72 days they completed the work. Aristobulus (second century B.C., in Clemens Alex. Strom.) says that, before Demetrius, others had made a translation of the Pentateuch and Joshua (the history of the going forth from Egypt, etc.).

    Aristeas’ letter is probably a forgery of an Alexandrian Jew; nevertheless the story gave its title to the Septuagint (70, the round number for 72). The composition at Alexandria begun under the earlier Ptolemies, 280 B.C.; the Pentateuch alone at first; these are the main facts well established. The Alexandrian Macedonic Greek forms in the Septuagint disprove the coming of 72 interpreters from Jerusalem, and show that the translators were Alexandrian Jews. The Pentateuch is the best part of the version, being the first translated; the other books betray increasing degeneracy of the Hebrew manuscripts, with decay of Hebrew learning. The Septuagint translators did not have Hebrew manuscripts pointed as ours; nor were their words divided as ours. Different persons translated different books, and no general revision harmonized the whole. Names are differently rendered in different books. The poetical parts (except Psalms and Proverbs) are inferior to the historical. In the greater prophets important passages are misunderstood, as Isaiah 9:1,6; Jeremiah 23:6; Ezekiel and the lesser prophets are better. Theodotion’s version of Daniel was substituted for Septuagint, which was not used. The delicate details of the Hebrew are sacrificed in Septuagint, the same word in the same chapter being often rendered by differing words, and differing words by the same word, the names of God (Yahweh , Kurios , and ‘Elohim , THeos ) being confounded; and proper names at times being translated, and Hebrew words mistaken for words like in form but altogether different in sense (sh being mistaken for s, shin for sin, r for d, resh for daleth). Some of the changes are designed (see OLD TESTAMENT ): Genesis 2:2, “sixth” for “seventh.” Strong Hebrew expressions are softened, “God’s power” for “hand,” “word” for “mouth”; so no stress can be laid on the Septuagint words to prove a point.

    Use of Septuagint. Being made from manuscripts older far than our Masoretic text (from 280 to 180 B.C.), it helps towards arriving at the true text in doubtful passages; so Psalm 22:16, where Septuagint “they pierced” gives the true reading instead of “as a lion,” Aquila a Jew (A.D. 133) so translated “they disfigured”; ( Psalm 16:10) “Thy Holy One” singular, instead of our Masoretic “Thy holy ones.” The Septuagint is an impartial witness, being ages before the controversy between Jews and Christians. In Genesis 4:8 Septuagint has “and Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go into the plain” or “field” (so Samaritan Pentateuch); but Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Targum of Onkelos agree with our Hebrew. Of 350 quotations of the Old Testament in the New Testament only 50 differ materially from Septuagint Its language molded the conceptions of the New Testament writers and preachers. The Hebrew ideas and modes of thought are transfused into its Greek, which is wholly distinct from classic Greek in this. Expressions unknown to the latter are intelligible from Septuagint, as “believe in God,” “faith toward God,” “flesh,” “spirit,” “justify,” “fleshly mindedness.” “The Passover” includes the after feast and sacrifices ( Deuteronomy 16:2), illustrating the question on what day Christ kept it ( John 18:28).

    SERAH Genesis 46:17; 1 Chronicles 7:30.SARAH in Numbers 26:46.

    SERAIAH 1. 2 Samuel 8:17. 2. The high priest under king Zedekiah; taken by Nebuzaradan, captain of the Babylonian guard, and slain at Riblah ( 2 Kings 25:18; Chronicles 6:14; Jeremiah 52:24). 3. Son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite; came to the Babylonian viceroy Gedaliah to Mizpah, who promised security to the Jews who should dwell in the land, serving the king of Babylon ( 2 Kings 25:23; Jeremiah 40:8). 4. 1 Chronicles 4:13,14. 5. 1 Chronicles 4:35. 6. Ezra 2:2; Nehemiah 7:7 Azariah. 7. Ezra 7:1. 8. Nehemiah 10:2. 9. Nehemiah 11:11. 10. Nehemiah 12:1,12. 11. Neriah’s son, Baruch’s brother ( Jeremiah 51:59,61). Went with Zedekiah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Jeremiah gave a special copy of the prophecy to Seraiah where with to console the Jews in their Babylonian exile. Though Seraiah was to cast it into the Euphrates, a symbol of Babylon’s fate, he retained the substance in memory, to communicate orally to his countrymen. Calvin translated “when he went in behalf of Zedekiah,” being sent to appease Nebuchadnezzar’s anger at his revolt. “This Seraiah was a quiet prince,” menuchah , from nuwach to be quiet (compare 1 Chronicles 22:9, “a man of rest”). Seraiah was not one of the courtiers hostile to God’s prophets, but quiet and docile, ready to execute Jeremiah’s commission, notwithstanding the risk. Glassius translated “prince of Menuchah” (on the borders of Judah and Dan, called also Menahath), margin 1 Chronicles 2:52. Maurer translated “commander of the royal caravan,” on whom it devolved to appoint the resting places for the night.

    SERAPHIM Isaiah 6:2,3. God’s attendant angels. Seraphim in Numbers 21:6 means the fiery flying (not winged, but rapidly moving) serpents which bit the Israelites; called so from the poisonous inflammation caused by their bites. Burning (from saraph to burn) zeal, dazzling brightness of appearance ( 2 Kings 2:11; 6:17; Ezekiel 1:13; Matthew 28:3) and serpent-like rapidity in God’s service, always characterize the seraphim. Satan’s serpent (nachash ) form in appearing to man may have some connection with his original form as a seraph of light. The serpent’s head symbolized wisdom in Egypt ( 2 Kings 18:4). Satan has wisdom, but wisdom not sanctified by the flame of devotion. The seraphim with six wings and one face differ from the cherubim with four wings (in the temple only two) and four faces ( Ezekiel 1:5-12); but in Revelation 4:8 the four living creatures (zooa ) have each six wings. The “face” and “feet” imply a human form. Seraphim however may conic from sar , “prince” ( Daniel 10:13); “with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain He did fly.” Two wings alone of the six were kept ready for instant flight in God’s service; two veiled their faces as unworthy to look on the holy God or pry into His secret counsels which they fulfilled ( Exodus 3:6; Job 4:18; 15:15; 1 Kings 19:13).

    Those in the presence of Eastern monarchs cover the whole of the lower part of their persons (which the “feet” include). Service consists in reverent waiting on, more than in active service for, God. Their antiphonal anthem on the triune God’s holiness suggests the keynote of Isaiah’s prophecies, “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts; the fullness of the whole earth (is) His glory” ( Psalm 24:1; 72:19). Besides praising God they are secondly the medium of imparting spiritual fire from God to His prophet; when Isaiah laments alike his own and the people’s uncleanness of lips, in contrast to the seraphim chanting in alternate responses with pure lips God’s praises, and ( Isaiah 6:5-7) with a deep sense of the unfitness of his own lips to speak God’s message to the people, one of the seraphim flew with a live coal which he took from off the altar of burnt offering in the temple court, the fire on it being that which God at first had kindled ( Leviticus 9:24), and laid it upon Isaiah’s mouth, saying, “lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged.” Thus he was inaugurated in office, as the disciples were by the tongues of fire resting on them, the sign of their speaking of Jesus in various languages; his unfitness for the office, as well as his personal sin, were removed only by being brought into contact with the sacrificial altar, of which Messiah is the antitype.

    SERED Genesis 46:14; Numbers 26:26.

    SERGIUS PAULUS Proconsul of Cyprus, when Paul and Barnabas visited it on their first missionary circuit ( Acts 13:7). (See CYPRUS , see PAUL , see PROVINCE , see DEPUTY , see ELYMAS ). He was at first under the influence of Elymas, but being “a prudent man” (i.e. intelligent and searching for the truth), he called for Barnabas and Paul, and having heard the word of God, and having seen the miraculous infliction of blindness on the sorcerer, “believed, being astonished at the (divine power accompanying the) doctrine of the Lord.”

    SERPENT nachash . Subtle ( Genesis 3:1). The form under which Satan “the old serpent” tempted Eve ( Revelation 12:9; 2 Corinthians 11:3). The serpent being known as subtle, Eve was not surprised at his speaking, and did not suspect a spiritual foe. Its crested head of pride, glittering skin, fascinating, unshaded, gazing eye, shameless lust, tortuous movement, venomous bite, groveling posture, all adapt it to be type of Satan. The “cunning craftiness, lying in wait to deceive,” marks the particular serpent rather than the serpent order generally. The serpent cannot be classed physically with the behemoth, the pachyderm and ruminant animals; “the serpent was crafty above every behemoth in the field” ( Genesis 3:1); nor physically is the serpent “cursed above others”; it must be Satan who is meant (see DEVIL ). Wise in shunning danger ( Matthew 10:16).

    Poisonous: Psalm 58:4; 140:3, “they have sharpened their tongues” to give a deadly wound, “like a serpent” ( Psalm 64:3). Lying hid in hedges ( Ecclesiastes 10:8) and in holes of walls ( Amos 5:19). Their wonderful motion is effected by the vertebral column and the multitudinous ribs which form so many pairs of levers, enabling them to advance ( Proverbs 30:19); the serpent, though without feet or wings, trails along the rock (stony places being its favorite resort) wheresoever it will, leaving no impression of its way, light, gliding without noise, quick, and the mode unknown to us. The curse in Genesis 3:14 is mainly on Satan, but subordinately on the serpent his tool; just as the ox that gored a man was to be killed, so the serpent should suffer in his trailing on the belly and being the object of man’s disgust and enmity. They shall eat the dust at last (i.e. be utterly and with perpetual shame laid low), of which their present eating dust in taking food off the ground is the pledge ( Isaiah 65:25; Micah 7:17; Isaiah 49:23; Psalm 72:9).

    The nachash is the Naja haje. It “will bite without (i.e. unless you use) enchantment” ( Ecclesiastes 10:11). In Numbers 21:4-9 the “fiery (causing inflammation by the bite) flying serpent” is the naja, which has the power of raising and bringing forward the ribs under excitement, so as to stretch the skin wing-like into a broad thin flattened disc, three or four times the width of the neck in repose, and then dart at its prey. Hindu mythology represents Krishna first as bitten in the foot, then as finally crushing the serpent’s head beneath his feet; evidently a tradition from Genesis 3:15.

    SERPENT, BRAZEN Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14,15. The apocryphal Wisdom (16:5-12) says “they were troubled for a small season that they might be admonished having a sign of salvation ... for he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing that he saw, but by Thee that art the Saviour of all.” The brazen serpent typified the Son of man, in that (1) the brazen serpent had the form without the venom of the deadly serpent; just as Jesus was “in the likeness of sinful flesh” yet “without sin” ( Romans 8:3), “made sin for us” though He “knew no sin” ( Corinthians 5:21); the brazen serpent seemed the most unlikely means of curing the serpents’ bites; so the condemned One seemed most unlikely to save the condemned. (2) The brazen serpent lifted up on the pole so as to be visible with its bright brass (which also is typical: Revelation 1:15) to the remotest Israelite answers to Jesus “evidently set forth before the eyes, crucified” ( Galatians 3:1), so that “all the ends of the earth” by “looking unto” Him may “be saved” ( Isaiah 45:22), “lifted up from the earth,” and so “drawing all men unto Him” ( John 12:32-34). (3) The cure of the body by looking naturally typifies the cure of the soul by looking spiritually; faith is the eye of the soul turned to the Saviour ( Hebrews 12:2), a look from however far off saves ( Hebrews 7:25; Ephesians 2:17; Acts 2:39); the bitten Israelite, however distant, by a look was healed. The serpent form, impaled as the trophy of the conqueror, implies evil, temporal and spiritual, overcome. Wisdom (of which the serpent is the symbol) obeying God is the source of healing; as wisdom severed from God envenoms and degrades man. Moses’ serpent rod was the instrument of power overcoming the magicians’ serpents ( Exodus 7:10-12). (See NEHUSHTAN on the worship of the relic; so the cross of Christ itself was perverted into an idol).

    SERPENT CHARMING (See ADDER ). Ecclesiastes 10:11; Jeremiah 8:17.

    SERUG Reu’s son, great grandfather of Abraham (as to his age see CHRONOLOGY ); in the Hebrew 230 years, 30 before begetting Nahor, 200 afterward; but in Septuagint 130 before begetting Nahor, making 330.

    One of many systematic variations lengthening the interval between the flood and Abraham from 292 to 1172, or as the Alexandrinus manuscript 1072. Epiphanius (Haer. 1:6, section 8) says Serug means “provocation,” and that idolatry began in his time, but confined to pictures, and that the religion of mankind up to his time was Scythic, after Serug and the building of the Babel tower it was Hellenic or Greek.

    SERVANT na’ar , meshareth . In our sense, a free, voluntary attendant, as Joshua of Moses ( Exodus 33:11; so 2 Kings 4:12,43; 5:20, 6:15 margin “minister”; 2 Samuel 13:17,18; 1 Kings 20:14,15). ‘Ebed on the other hand is a bondservant or slave.

    SETH Genesis 4:25; 5:3; 1 Chronicles 1:1. Seth means “foundation,” being “appointed” in Abel’s place as ancestor of the promised Seed. Father of Enos = frailty; a name embodying his sense of man’s weakness, the opposite of the Cainites’ pride. This sense of frailty led the Sethites to calling on God in His covenant relation to His believing people; thus began the church as a people separated from the world, and its service of prayer and praise. While the Cainites, by erecting a city and inventing worldly arts, laid the foundation of the world kingdom, the Sethites, by joint invocation of Jehovah’s name i.e. His self manifestation towards man, founded the kingdom of God.

    SEVEN (See NUMBER ). The Semitic has the word in common with the Indo- European languages; Hebrew sheba answering to Latin septem, Greek hepta .

    SEVERAL HOUSE 2 Kings 15:5. (See UZZIAH ).

    SHAALABBIN A town in Dan ( Joshua 19:42). (See SHAALBIM ).

    SHAALBIM (place of foxes or jackals). The common form forSHAALABBIM ( Judges 1:35). Held by the Amorites, but at last reduced to be tributary by the house of Joseph. One of Solomon’s commissariat districts ( 1 Kings 4:9).SHAALBONITE ( 2 Samuel 23:32) probably means a native of Shaalbim.

    SHAAPH 1. 1 Chronicles 2:47. 2. Caleb’s son by his concubine Maachah; father, i.e. founder, of Madmannah ( 1 Chronicles 2:49).

    SHAARAIM (“two gateways”). A city assigned to Judah ( Joshua 15:36; 1 Samuel 17:52). In the see SHEPPHELAH . ( 1 Chronicles 4:31). (See SHILHIM ). The Septuagint read Sakarim, which favors identifying Shaaraim with Tell Zekariah above the southern bank of the valley of Elah, a large hill with terraced sides and caves.

    SHAASHGAZ The eunuch in Xerxes’ palace, who had charge of those women in the second house, i.e. who had been in to the king ( Esther 2:14).

    SHABBETHAI 1. Ezra 10:15. 2. Nehemiah 11:16.

    SHACHIA 1 Chronicles 8:10: Shabiah.

    SHADDAI (ALMIGHTY). (See GOD ). Gesenius derives from shad , shaadad , “to be strong.” Isaiah 13:6 plays on similar sounds, “destruction from the Almighty,” shod (devastating tempest) from Shadday . Rashi and the Talmud (Chagiga, 12, section 1) from sh “He who is,” and day “allsufficient.”

    SHADRACH The Chaldee for see HANANIAH (see MESHECH ). Hebrews 11:33,34.

    SHAGE 1 Chronicles 11:34. In 2 Samuel 23:33 see SHAMMAH .

    SHAHARAIM 1 Chronicles 8:8. Father of many heads of houses whom his three wives bore to him. He begat in Moab, after he had sent them namely, Hushim and Baara his wives away; there he begat, with Hodesh his wife, Jobab, etc. He must have been in Moab a long time.

    SHAHAZIMAH A town of Issachar between Tabor and Jordan ( Joshua 19:22).

    SHALEM Genesis 33:18,19. Rather “Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem.” So Rashi and the Jewish commentators; and Samaritan Pentateuch. But Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac as KJV There is a “Salim” still somewhat in the position required, three miles E. of Nablas (Shechem), i.e. between Shechem and the Jordan valley where at Succoth Jacob was just before ( Genesis 33:17). But Salim is not on any actual line of communication between Nablus and the Jordan valley. Moreover, if Shalem were Salim, Jacob’s well and Joseph’s tomb would have to be removed from their appropriate traditional site to a spot further E. and nearer Salim.

    SHALIM, THE LAND OF or Shaalim = “the land of foxes” or “jackals” ( 1 Samuel 9:4), through which Saul passed, seeking Kish’s asses. Eastward from Shalisha, where on Van de Velde’s map we find Beni Mussah and Beni Salem. Between Shalisha and the land of Yemini (Benjamin?).

    SHALISHA 1 Samuel 9:4. Between Mount Ephraim and Shalim. Keil makes Shalisha the country round Baal-Shalishah ( 2 Kings 4:42), 15 Roman miles N. of Diospolis (Lydda); according to Eusebius (Onom.) probably the country W. of Jiljilia where three wadies run into the one called Kurawa, from whence came the name Shalisha , i.e. threeland. There are ruins, Sirisia, Salita, Shilta, and Kefr thilth, all modifications of the Hebrew shalish “three.” In the shephelah.

    SHALLECHETH, THE GATE (“overturning”). 1 Chronicles 26:16. Botcher translated “refuse door.”

    The gate was at the road of ascent from the middle valley of Jerusalem to the western side of the temple court. This ascending causeway is still existing, though hidden by the houses in the valley. So the Shallecheth gate is the bab Silsileh or Sinsleh, which enters the western wall of the Haram area opposite the southern end of the platform of the Dome of the Rock, 600 ft. from the S.W. corner of the Haram wall. (See TEMPLE , see JERUSALEM ).

    SHALLUM (“retribution”). 1. Son of Jabesh; 15th king of Israel. Smote Zachariah, son of Jeroboam II, openly before the people (showing that their sympathies were with him), and seized the kingdom ( 2 Kings 15:9,10), thereby fulfilling the prophecy that Jehu’s dynasty should last only to the fourth generation ( 2 Kings 10:30). Slain after a month’s reign by Menahem, illustrating the retributive law ( Matthew 26:52; Revelation 13:10). 2. The prophetess Huldah’s husband ( 2 Kings 22:14); keeper of the priestly vestments ( 2 Chronicles 34:22). 3. 1 Chronicles 2:40,41. 4. King Josiah’s fourth son in order, according to 1 Chronicles 3:15; Jeremiah 22:11; by birth third son (see JEHOAHAZ ). 5. 1 Chronicles 4:25. 6. Ezra 7:2; 1 Chronicles 6:12,13. 7. 1 Chronicles 7:13;SHILLEM in Genesis 46:24; Numbers 25:48,49. 8. 1 Chronicles 9:17; Ezra 2:42. 9. Son of Kore ( 1 Chronicles 9:19,31). From 1 Chronicles 9:18 it seems Shallum, etc., were of higher rank than Shallum, Akkub, etc., who were “for the companies of the sons of Levi.” 10. 2 Chronicles 28:12. 11. Ezra 10:24. 12. Ezra 10:42. 13. Rebuilt the wall with his daughters ( Nehemiah 3:12). 14. Jeremiah’s uncle ( Jeremiah 32:7); perhaps the same as Shallum, Huldah’s husband. 15. Jeremiah 35:4.

    SHALLUN Nehemiah 3:15.

    SHALMAI, CHILDREN OF orSHAMLAI. Ezra 2:46; Nehemiah 7:48.

    SHALMAN SHALMANESER. Hosea 10:14 the ‘eser common to Shalman with three other Assyrian kings is omitted, Tiglath Pil-eser, Esar-haddon, and Sharezer.

    No monuments of Shalman remain, because Sargon his successor, an usurper, destroyed them. The Assyrian canon agrees with Scripture in making Shalman king directly after Tiglath Pileser. Menander of Ephesus spoke of his warring in southern Syria and besieging Tyre five years (Josephus, Ant. 9:14). (See HOSHEA and see SARGON ). Hoshea king of Israel revolted; then, on Shalman coming up against him, became his tributary servant, but conspired in dependence on So of Egypt, and withheld tribute. Shalman a second time invaded the Holy Land (723 B.C.). As Sargon claims the capture of Samaria he must have ended what Shalman began. Scripture ( 1 Kings 17:3-6, the general expression “the king of Assyria,” and 1 Kings 18:9,10, “they took it,”) accords with this: “Shalman spoiled Beth Arbel in the day of battle.” G. Smith states that tablets prove the S.E. palace at Nimrud to be that of Shalmaneser, B.C.

    SHAMA 1 Chronicles 11:44.

    SHAMARIAH 2 Chronicles 11:19.

    SHAMED orSHAMER. 1 Chronicles 8:12.

    SHAMER 1. 1 Chronicles 6:46. 2. 1 Chronicles 7:34.

    SHAMGAR Son of Anath, judge of Israel after Ehud, and immediately before Barak ( Judges 5:6,8; 3:31). Probably a Naphtalite, as Beth Anath was of Naphtali. This tribe took a foremost part in the war with Jabin ( Judges 4:6,10; 5:18). The tributary Canaanites ( Judges 1:33) combined with the Philistines against Israel, rendering the highways unsafe and forcing Israelite travelers into byways to escape notice. The villages were forsaken, and as in later times the oppressors disarmed Israel of all swords and spears ( Judges 4:3; 1 Samuel 13:19,22). With an ox goad, his only weapon (compare Judges 15:15,16, an undesigned coincidence marking genuineness; 1 Samuel 17:47,50; spiritually 2 Corinthians 10:4; Corinthians 1:27) he slew 600 Philistines, thereby giving Israel deliverance from oppressors for a time. So he prepared the way for Deborah and Barak’s more decisive blow. The inadequacy of the instrument renders Jehovah’s might the more evident.

    SHAMHUTH 1 Chronicles 27:8. “TheIZRAHITE” or “Zarhite” ( 1 Chronicles 27:13); of the family of Zerah, son of Judah ( 1 Chronicles 2:4,6). Called SHAMMOTH in 1 Chronicles 11:27. Belonging to Harod, not “Hurorite” (a mistake of r for d); 2 Samuel 23:25, “SHAMMAH the Harodite.”

    SHAMIR (1) (“a sharp point”). 1. A town in the mountains of Judah ( Joshua 15:48); probably eight or nine miles S. of Hebron. 2. The judge Tola’s home and burial place in Mount Ephraim ( Judges 10:1,2). Why Tola of Issachar dwelt there is uncertain; either for security from the Canaanites, or Issachar may have possessed some towns in the Ephraim mountains. Van de Velde identifies Shamir with Khirbet Sammer, a ruin in the mountains overlooking the Jordan valley, ten miles E.S.E. of Nablus.

    SHAMIR (2) 1 Chronicles 24:24.

    SHAMMA 1 Chronicles 7:37.

    SHAMMAH 1. Genesis 36:13,17; 1 Chronicles 1:37. 2. Jesse’s third son,SHIMEA,SHIMEAH,SHIMMA ( 1 Samuel 16:9,13); present at David’s anointing and at the battle with Goliath ( 1 Samuel 17:13). 3. One of David’s three mighties; son of Agee the Hararite. Single handed he withstood the Philistines in a field of lentils (“barley” according to Chronicles 11:13,14,27, where also by a copyist’s error Shammah is omitted and the deed attributed to Eleazar), when the rest fled before them and Jehovah by him wrought a great victory ( 2 Samuel 23:11,12). 4. (See SHAMHUTH ). 5. 2 Samuel 23:32,33, instead of “Jonathan Shammah,” should read “Jonathan son of Shage,” or combining both as Kennicott suggests, “Jonathan son of Shamha” ( 1 Chronicles 11:34).

    SHAMMAI 1. 1 Chronicles 2:28,32. 2. Of Maon ( 1 Chronicles 2:44,45). 3. Brother of Miriam and Ishbah, all three being sons of” Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh whom Mered took” (these words ought to be transposed after “Jalon”: 1 Chronicles 4:17,18). (See BITHIAH , see MERED , and see JEHUDIJAH ).

    SHAMMUA 1. Numbers 13:4. 2. 1 Chronicles 14:4; Shimea in 1 Chronicles 3:5. 3. Nehemiah 11:17; called also Shemaiah, father of Obadiah ( Chronicles 9:16). 4. Nehemiah 12:18.

    SHAMSHERAI 1 Chronicles 8:26.

    SHAPHAM 1 Chronicles 5:12.

    SHAPHAN (the jerboa). 2 Kings 22:3,12; Jeremiah 29:8; 36:10-12; 39:14; 40:5,9,11; 41:2; 43:6; Ezekiel 8:11. Sent by king Josiah, With the governor of the city and the recorder, to Hilkiah to take account of the money collected for repairing the temple. Hilkiah gave the discovered copy of the law to Shaphan who read it to the king. Josiah then sent Shaphan, etc., to Huldah the prophetess to inquire of the Lord His will. Shaphan must have been then an old man, for his son Ahikam was then a man of influence at court. Ahikam was Jeremiah’s friend; hence Gemariah gives the prophet and Earuch a friendly warning to hide, and intercedes that Jehoiakim should not burn the roll ( Jeremiah 36:12,19,25).

    SHAPHAT (judge). 1. Numbers 13:5. 2. 1 Kings 19:16,19. 3. 1 Chronicles 3:22. 4. 1 Chronicles 5:12. 5. 1 Chronicles 27:29.

    SHAPHER, MOUNT (“pleasant”). Numbers 33:23,24. Either jebel esh Shureif, 40 miles W. of Ras el Ka’a (near Rissah), or else jebel Sherafeh, a rocky promontory on the W. shore of the Elanitic gulf, near the southern limit of the Tih. The former is more likely (Speaker’s Commentary). Jebel Araif, a conical hill, standing out at the S.W. corner of the wilderness of Ziu. The wady Shareif at the N. side may be a corruption of Shapher. Here is a broad pleasant valley, affording fine pasture (Imperial Dictionary).

    SHARAI Ezra 10:40.

    SHARAR 2 Samuel 23:33.SACAR in 1 Chronicles 11:35.

    SHAREZER (“the king protects”). Sennaeherib’s son and murderer, with Adrammelech.

    Moses of Chorene mills him Sanasar, and says the Armenian king to whom he fled gave him a tract of land where his descendants became numerous.

    SHARON; SARON 1 Chronicles 5:16; Isaiah 33:9, “the excellency (beauty) of Sharon” ( Isaiah 35:2), Isaiah 65:10; Song 2:1, “the rose (narcissus) of Sharon,” famous for flowers and for pasture; Acts 9:35. The broad rich tract between the central mountains and the Mediterranean, stretching from Joppa or Jaffa northwards to Carmel. Half the width is of marl and alluvial soil, the other half of old red semi-consolidated sand and shelly breccias. (See PALESTINE ). The coast is marked by white sandhills; fine grain, well trimmed plantations, and long gentle swells of rich red and black earth, characterize Sharon. A second Sharon beyond Jordan is not meant in Chronicles 5:16, as some have imagined. It is not said that the Gadites possessed cities in Sharon but only pastures of Sharon; these the Gadites sought for their herds as far as the Mediterranean coast. As intercourse was maintained between the cis-Jordanic Manassites and the trans-Jordanic Manassites, the Gadites with the latter might very well repair with their herds to the Sharon pastures, as the domain of cis-Jordanic Manasseh stretched into the plain of Sharon. Translated “and in all the pasture grounds of Sharon unto their outgoings” to the sea ( Joshua 17:9).

    David had his herds feeding in Sharon with Shitrai the Sharonite over them. Gesenius derives Sharon from jashar “straight,” “a plain country.”

    One of the earliest recorded travelers in this district was an Egyptian, whose papyrus has been lately transliterated; then as now agricultural pursuits prevailed here, and illustrations are still found of the Egyptian and Eastern plows.

    SHARUHEN A town in Judah allotted to Simeon ( Joshua 19:6). CalledSHILHIM in 15:32,SHAARAIM in 1 Chronicles 4:31. The name may be preserved in Tell Sheriah, half way between Gaza and Beersheba, ten miles W. of the latter, Bir es Seba, at the head of wady Sheri’ah i.e. “the watering place.”

    SHASHAI Ezra 10:40.

    SHASHAK 1 Chronicles 8:14,25.

    SHAUL 1. Genesis 46:10; Exodus 6:15; Numbers 26:13; 1 Chronicles 4:24. Jewish tradition identifies Shaul with Zimri, “who did the work of the Canaanites in Shittim” (Targum Pseudo Jon., Genesis 46). 2. Shaul of Rehoboth by the river was one of the kings of Edom ( Chronicles 1:48,49);SAUL in Genesis 36:37. 3. 1 Chronicles 6:24.

    SHAVEH, VALLEY OF ”The king’s dale,” where Melchizedek and the king of Sodom met Abraham ( Genesis 14:17). There see ABSALOM reared for himself a pillar, to keep his name in remembrance; “Absalom’s place” ( 2 Samuel 18:18). The pyramidal monument, the northern one of the group of monuments W. of Olivet, is hardly “the pillar of Absalom,” for “the king’s dale” was an ‘emeq , i.e. broad open valley, not a deep ravine as that of Kedron. Josephus says it was a column and of marble (Ant. 7:10, section 3), and erected, whereas the oldest and lowest part of the pyramidal monument is not “erected” but cut out, and this of the limestone of the hill.

    Its Ionic capitals and frieze ornamentation betray Roman or Grecian art.

    Josephus’ account however that it was “two stadia from Jerusalem agrees with the nearness of Shaveh valley to Salem or Jerusalem.

    SHAVEH KIRIATHAIM Genesis 14:5. The dwelling place of the Emim at Chedorlaomer’s incursion. The dale or valley (Shaveh) by which Kiriathaim was situated.

    Or “the valley of the two cities.” (See KIRIATHAIM ).

    SHAVSHA David’s scribe or secretary of state ( 1 Chronicles 18:16).SERAIAH in 2 Samuel 8:17.SHISHA in 1 Kings 4:3.SHEVA in 2 Samuel 20:25.

    SHAWM Prayerbook version of Psalms, instead of the Bible version, “cornet.” A bass instrument like the clarionet, from German schalmeie a reed pipe, with the compass of an octave and the tone of a bassoon, but plaintive. On the manor house walls, Leckingfield, near Beverley, Yorkshire, is the following: “A shawme maketh a swete sounde, for he tunythe the basse; It mountithe not to hye, but kepith rule and space.

    Yet yf it be blowne with to vehement a wynde, It makithe it to mysgoverne out of his kinde.” SHEAL Ezra 10:29.

    SHEALTIEL Ezra 3:2,8; Nehemiah 12:1; Haggai 1:1,12,14; 2:2,23; Chronicles 3:17SALATHIEL. Father of Zerubbabel in a legal point of view ( Luke 3:27; Matthew 1:12). Pedaiah was natural father of Zerubbabel ( 1 Chronicles 3:18,19). Shealtiel dying without male issue, Pedaiah by the Levirate law married his brother’s widow ( Deuteronomy 25:5-10; Matthew 22:24-28). Shealtiel was son of Jeconiah not by natural birth but by heritage only on his mother’s side. Luke 3:27,31, makes Shealtiel son of Neri, a descendant of David, through Nathan not Solomon; probably Jeconiah, (besides the Zedekiah in 1 Chronicles 3:16 who died childless), had another son, Assir, who left only a daughter, who, according to the law as to heiresses ( Numbers 27:8; 36:8,9), married a man of her paternal tribe, namely, Neri, of David’s family in Nathan’s line.

    From this marriage sprang Shealtiel, Malchiram, and the other “sons,” i.e. grandsons, of Jeconiah in 1 Chronicles 3:17,18.

    SHEARIAH 1 Chronicles 8:38; 9:44.

    SHEARING HOUSE beth eqed . Between Jezreel and Samaria, where Jehu slew at the well or pit 42 of the royal family of Judah ( 2 Kings 10:12,14). Literally, “the place where shepherds bound sheep when about to shear them,” from ‘aaqad “to bind.” Gesenius translated “the meeting place of shepherds.” In the Esdraelon or Jezreel plain, 15 Roman miles from Legio (Lejun):

    Eusebius, Onomasticon. The village Beit Kad, though exactly this distance, is not on the plain but S. of Mount Gilboa. Conder suggests ‘Akadah as the site, on the western side of the great plain.

    SHEAR JASHUB (“a remnant shall return.”) Isaiah’s son who accompanied him in meeting Ahab. His name was a standing memorial to Ahaz, symbolizing the saving of the remnant of Judah when Israel was cast away ( Isaiah 7:1-7; 10:20- 22; 6:13), therefore that Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Damascus could not succeed.

    SHEBA (1) 1. Son of Bichri a Benjamite, a man of Belial ( 2 Samuel 20:1-22). The tribe of Benjamin through Sheba sought to regain the ascendancy which it lost at Saul’s fall. Judah alone remained faithful to David “from Jordan even to Jerusalem”; the rest of Israel followed Sheba. The division between Israel and Judah already had shown itself under Ishbosheth ( 2 Samuel 2:4-9), again at the close of Absalom’s rebellion ( 2 Samuel 19:41-43), David felt the greatness of the crisis, “now shall Sheba do us more harm than did Absalom.” Sheba traversed the country gathering followers, and finally aimed at fortifying himself in see ABEL BETH MAACHAH in the far N., which was probably connected with Absalom’s rebellion through Maacah his mother, and was famed for worldly wisdom. A woman in it saved the city by cutting off and casting Sheba’s head to Joab (see Ecclesiastes 9:14,15). (See AMASA and see JOAB ). 2. 1 Chronicles 5:13.

    SHEBA (2) from whom the country derives its name. 1. Grandson of Cush and son of Raamah ( Genesis 10:7). 2. Son of Joktan ( Genesis 10:28). 3. Grandson of Abraham by Keturah; son of Jokshan ( Genesis 25:3).

    This is an instance of the intermingling of the early descendants of Shem and Ham. SHEBA was a wealthy region of Arabia Felix or Yemen ( 1 Kings 10:1; Psalm 72:10,15, where “Sheba” is Joktanite, “SEBA” Cushite ; Job 1:15, the Keturahite Sheba, Job 6:19; Isaiah 60:6; Jeremiah 6:20; Ezekiel 27:22, it was the Sheba son of Raamah and grandson of Cush that carried on the Indian traffic with Palestine in conjunction with the Keturahite Sheba ( Joel 3:8). The Sabeans were famed for myrrh, frankincense, and cinnamon, their chief city being Mariaba (Strabo 16:777), named also Seba, the one being the city the other the fortress (near the famous dyke el ‘Arim, built to store water and avert mountain torrents). This was afterward the celebrated Himyeritic Arab kingdom, called from the ruling family of Himyer. The Cushite Sheba and his brother Dedan settled along the Persian gulf (see RAAMAH ), but afterward were combined with the Joktanite Sabean kingdom. The buildings of Mariaba or Seba are of massive masonry, and evidently of Cushite origin. The Joktanites (Semitics) were the early colonists of southern Arabia. The Himyerites Strabo first mentions in the expedition of A. Gellius (24 B.C.); the Arabs however place Himyer high in their list. Himyer may mean “the red man,” related to the Red Sea” and “Phoenician.” The kingdom probably was called “Sheba” (Seba = “turned red”), its reigning family Himyer; the old name was preserved until the founding of the modern Himyeritic kingdom about a century B.C. “The queen of Sheba” ( 1 Kings 10:1,2,10) ruled in Arabia, not Ethiopia, as the Abyssinian church allege; Sheba being in the extreme Sheba of Arabia, “she came (a distance of nearly a thousand miles) from the uttermost parts of the earth,” as then known, to hear the wisdom of Solomon ( Matthew 12:42; Luke 11:31). Four principal Arab peoples are named: the Sabeans, Atramitae or Hadramaut, Katabeni or Kahtan or Joktan, and the Mimaei. SHEBA. A town of Simeon ( Joshua 19:2). Possibly theSHEMA of Joshua 15:26. Now Saawe (Knobel). Or Sheba is a transcriber’s error, repeating the end of Beer-sheba; for the number of names in Joshua 19:2-6 including Sheba is 14, whereas 13 is the number stated, and in Chronicles 4:28 Sheba is omitted in the list of Simeon. But Conder (Palestine Exploration, January 1875) identifies Sheba with Tell el Seba, two miles of Beersheba, and on the line to Moladah ( Joshua 19:2); its well is a quarter of a mile W. of it.

    SHEBAH or Shibeah, meaning seven and oath, oaths being ratified with sevenfold sacrifices ( Genesis 21:28,31). The well from which see BEERSHEBA was named ( Genesis 26:31-35), called from the oath between Isaac and the Philistines.

    SHEBAM A town in the land E. of Jordan, assigned to Reuben and Gad ( Numbers 32:3). The same as Shibmah or Sibmah.

    SHEBANIAH 1. Nehemiah 9:4,5; 10:10. 2. Nehemiah 10:4; 12:14; Shechaniah in Nehemiah 12:3. 3. Nehemiah 10:12. 4. 1 Chronicles 15:24.

    SHEBARIM Joshua 7:5. From sheber “a fracture,” stone quarries near the slope E. of the town (Keil), or else a spot where were fissures in the soil, gradually deepening until they ended in a precipice to the ravine by which Israel had come from Gilgal, “the going down” margin, Hebrew Ha-Morad .

    SHEBER 1 Chronicles 2:18,48.

    SHEBNA (See HEZEKIAH , whose treasurer or prefect, of the palace Shebna was ( Isaiah 22:15); also see ELIAKIM ). For pride ( Isaiah 22:16), luxury ( Isaiah 22:18), oppression (in contrast to Eliakim a “father” to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Isaiah 22:21), and alienation from God (contrasted with “God’s servant,” Isaiah 22:20), he was doomed to be “tossed” away as a ball. Repenting, he was only degraded to the lower post of scribe ( Isaiah 36:3). Whether the threat was finally fulfilled on himself, he apostatizing, or on his posterity, is uncertain. (See TOMB ).

    SHEBUEL 1. 1 Chronicles 23:16; 26:24;SHUBAEL in 1 Chronicles 24:20. 2. 1 Chronicles 25:4,SHUBAEL in 1 Chronicles 25:20; chief of the 13th order or band in the temple choir.

    SHECANIAH 1. 1 Chronicles 24:11. 2. A priest under Hezekiah; distributed the priests’ daily portion; those on duty and those off duty alike received ( 2 Chronicles 31:15-19).

    SHECHANIAH 1. 1 Chronicles 3:21,22. 2. Ezra 8:3. 3. Ezra 8:5. 4. Ezra 10:2. 5. Nehemiah 3:29. 6. Nehemiah 6:18. 7. Nehemiah 12:3.

    SHECHEM (1) (shoulder, or upper part of the back just below the neck); explained as if the town were on the shoulder of the heights dividing the waters that flow toward the Mediterranean on the W. and to the Jordan on the E.; or on a shoulder or ridge connected with Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. Also called\parSICHEM,SYCHEM, andSYCHAR ( John 4:5; Joshua 20:7; Judges 9:9; 1 Kings 12:25). Mount Gerizim is close by ( Judges 9:7) on the southern side, Mount Ebal on the northern side. These hills at the base are but 500 yards apart. Vespasian named it Neapolis; coins are extant with its name “Flavia Neapolis”; now Nablus by corruption. The situation is lovely; the valley runs W. with a soil of rich, black, vegetable mold, watered by fountains, sending forth numerous streams flowing W.; orchards of fruit, olive groves, gardens of vegetables, and verdure on all sides delight the eye. On the E. of Gerizim and Ebal the flue plain of Mukhna stretches from N. to S. Here first in Canaan God appeared to Abraham ( Genesis 12:6), and here he pitched his tent and built an altar under the oak or terebinth (not “plain”) of Moreh; here too Jacob re-entered the promised land ( Genesis 33:18,19), and “bought a parcel of a field where he had spread his tent,” from the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, and bequeathed it subsequently to Joseph ( Genesis 48:22; Joshua 24:32; John 4:5); a dwelling place, whereas Abraham’s only purchase was a burial place. It lay in the rich plain of the Mukhna, and its value was increased by the well Jacob dug there. Joshua made “Shechem in Mount Ephraim” one of the six cities of refuge ( Joshua 20:7). The suburbs in our Lord’s days reached nearer the entrance of the valley between Gerizim and Ebal than now; for the narrative in John 4:30,35, implies that the people could be seen as they came from the town toward Jesus at the well, whereas Nablus now is more than a mile distant, and cannot be seen from that point. Josephus (B.

    J. 3:7, section 32) says that more than 10,000 of the inhabitants were once destroyed by the Romans, implying a much larger town and population than at present. (See DINAH , see HAMOR , and see JACOB on the massacre by Simeon and Levi, Genesis 34.) Under Abraham’s oak at Shechem Jacob buried the family idols and amulets ( Genesis 35:1-4).

    Probably too “the strange gods” or “the gods of the stranger” were those carried away by Jacob’s sons from Shechem among the spoils ( Genesis 35:2; 34:26-29). The charge to “be clean and change garments” may have respect to the recent slaughter of the Shechemites, which polluted those who took part in it (Blunt, Undesigned Coincidences). Shechem was for a time Ephraim’s civil capital. as Shiloh was its religious capital ( Judges 9:2; 21:19; Joshua 24:1,25,26; 1 Kings 12:1).

    At the same “memorial terebinth” at Shechem the Shechemites made Abimelech king ( Judges 9:6). Jotham’s parable as to the trees, the vine, the fig, and the bramble, were most appropriate to the scenery; contrast the shadow of the bramble which would rather scratch than shelter, with Isaiah 32:2.

    Abimelech destroyed Shechem and sowed it with salt ( Judges 9:45).

    From Gerizim the blessings, and from Ebal the curses, were read ( Joshua 8:33-35). At Shechem Joshua gave his farewell charge ( Joshua 24:1-25). Joseph was buried there ( Joshua 24:32; Acts 7:16). At Shechem Rehoboam was made king by Israel ( 1 Kings 12:1); he desired to conciliate the haughty Ephraimites by being crowned there.

    Here, through his ill advised obstinacy, the Israelites revolted to Jeroboam, who made Shechem his capital. Mediaeval writers (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, Jan. 1878, p. 27,28) placed the Dan and Bethel of Jeroboam’s calves on Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. The following reasons favor this view. (1) The ruins below the western peak of Gerizim are still called Lozeh or Luz, the old name of Bethel; a western spur of Ebal has a site Amad ed Din, (possibly Joshua’s altar on Ebal,) bearing traces of the name Dan, and the hill is called Ras el Kady (judgment answering to the meaning of Dan). (2) The Bethel of the calf was close to the palace of Jeroboam who lived in Shechem ( Amos 7:13; 1 Kings 12:25). (3) The southern Bethel was in Benjamin ( Joshua 18:22) and would hardly have been chosen as a religious center by Jeroboam who was anxious to draw away the people from Jerusalem ( 1 Kings 12:28). (4) The southern Bethel was taken from Jeroboam by Abijah king of Judah ( 2 Chronicles 13:19), whereas the calf of Bethel was not destroyed but remained standing long after ( 2 Kings 10:29). (5) The Bethel of the calf is mentioned in connection with Samaria ( Kings 13:32; 2 Kings 23:19; Amos 4:1-4; 5:6), and the old prophet at Bethel was of Samaria according to Josephus ( 2 Kings 23:18). (6) The southern Bethel was the seat of a school of prophets, which is hardly consistent with its being the seat of the calf worship ( 2 Kings 2:2,3).

    The “men from Shechem” ( Jeremiah 41:5) who had paganly “cut themselves,” and were slain by Ishmael, were probably of the Babylonian colonists who combined Jehovah worship with their old idolatries.

    Shechem was the chief Samaritan city from the time of the setting up of the temple on Gerizim down to its destruction in 129 B.C., i.e. for about years. see SYCHAR is probably a corruption of Shechem; others make it a Jewish alteration, for contempt, from shecher “a lie.” Jesus remained at Shechem two days and won many converts, the firstfruits, followed by a full harvest under Philip the evangelist (Acts 8; John 4:35-43).

    The population now is about 5,000, of whom 500 are Greek Christians, 150 Samaritans, and a few Jews. The main street runs from E. to W. The houses are of stone, the streets narrow and dark. Eighty springs are within or around Shechem. It is the center of trade between Jaffa and Beirut on one side, and the transjordanic region on the other. It has manufactures of coarse woolen fabrics, delicate silk, camel’s hair cloth, and soap.

    Inscriptions from the Samaritan Pentateuch, of A.D. 529, which had been on the walls of a synagogue, have been found and read.

    The well of Jacob lies one mile and a half E. of Shechem beyond the hamlet Balata; beside a mound of ruins with fragments of granite columns on a low hill projecting from Gerizim’s base in a N.E. direction, between the plain and the opening of the valley. Formerly a vaulted chamber, ten feet square, with a square hole opening into it, covered over the floor in which was the well’s mouth. Now the vault has in part fallen and covered up the mouth; only a shallow pit remains, half filled with stones and rubbish. The well was 75 feet deep at its last measurement, but 105 at Maundrell’s visit in 1697. It is now dry almost always, whereas he found 15 feet of water.

    Jacob dug it deep into the rocky ground, its position indicating it was dug by one who could not rely for water on the springs so near in the valley (Ain Balata and Defneh), the Canaanites being their owners. A church was built round it in the fourth century, but was destroyed before the crusades.

    Eusebius in the early part of the fourth century confirms the traditional site; John 4 accords with it. Jesus in His journey from Jerusalem to Galilee rested at it, while “His disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat”; so the well must have lain before, but at some little distance from, the city.

    Jesus intended on their return to proceed along the plain toward Galilee, without visiting the city Himself, which agrees with the traditional site.

    The so-called “tomb of Joseph,” a quarter of a mile N. of the well in the open plain, in the center of the opening between Gerizim and Ebal, is more open to doubt. A small square of high walls surrounds a common tomb, placed diagonally to the walls; a rough pillar altar is at the head, and another at the foot. In the left corner is a vine whose branches “run over the wall” ( Genesis 49:22). Maundrell’s description applies better to another tomb named from Joseph at the N.E. foot of Gerizim. However the phrase in Genesis 33:19, “a parcel of a field,” Joshua 24:32, favors the site near Jacob’s well, bechelqat hasadeh , a smooth lever open cultivated land; in Palestine there is not to be found such a dead level, without the least hollow in a circuit of two hours.

    SHECHEM 1. Son of the Hivite see HAMOR (see DINAH and see JACOB ) ( Genesis 33:19; 34). 2. Numbers 26:31; Joshua 17:2. 3. 1 Chronicles 7:19.

    SHECHINAH SHEKINAH. Not found in the Bible but in the targums. From shakan “to dwell,” from whence comes mishkan “the tabernacle.” God’s visible manifestation in a cloudy pillar and fire; the glorious light, enveloped in a cloud and thence bursting forth at times ( Exodus 16:7-10), especially over the mercy-seat or capporeth . (See CLOUD , see PILLAR OF , and Exodus 13:21,22; 14:19,20). Its absence from Zerubbabel’s temple is one of the five particulars reckoned by the Jews as wanting in the second temple. In the targums Shekinah is used as a periphrasis for God whenever He is said to “dwell” in Zion, between the cherubims, etc., to avoid the semblance of materialism. They anticipated the Shekinah’s return under Messiah; Haggai 1:8 they paraphrase, “I will cause My Shekinah to dwell in it in glory”; Zechariah 2:10, “I will cause My Shekinah to dwell in the midst of thee,” etc. The continued presence of the Shekinah down to Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of the temple seems implied in Joshua 3; 4; 6; Psalm 68:1, compare Numbers 10:35; <19D208> Psalm 132:8; 80:1; 99:1,7; Leviticus 16:2.

    In the New Testament we find, corresponding to the Shekinah, “the glory of the Lord”: Luke 2:9; compare Deuteronomy 33:2; Acts 7:2,53,55; Hebrews 2:2; 9:5; Romans 9:4 “the glory”; John 1:14, “the Word tabernacled (eskeenosen ) among us, and we beheld His glory”; 2 Corinthians 4:6; 12:9, “that the power of Christ may tabernacle (episkeenosee ) upon me”; Revelation 21:3. His coming again with clouds and fire is the antitype of this Shekinah ( Matthew 26:64; Luke 21:27; Acts 1:9,11; 2 Thes. 1:7,8; Revelation 1:7). Angels or cherubim generally accompany the Shekinah ( Revelation 4:7,8; Psalm 68:17; Zechariah 14:5). In Genesis 3:24 is the earliest notice of the Shekinah as a swordlike flame between the cherubim, being the “Presence of Jehovah” from which Cain went out, and before which Adam and succeeding patriarchs worshipped.

    SHEDEUR Numbers 1:5; 2:10. Derived from Shadday , “the Almighty.”

    SHEEP Genesis 4:2. Abounded in the pastures of Palestine. Shepherds go before them and call them by name to follow ( John 10:4; Psalm 77:20; 80:1). The ordinary sheep are the broad tailed sheep, and the Ovis aries, like our own except that the tail is longer and thicker, and the ears larger; called bedoween . Centuries B.C. Aristotle mentions Syrian sheep with tails a cubit wide. The fat tail is referred to in Leviticus 3:9; 7:3.

    The Syrian cooks use the mass of fat instead of the rancid Arab butter. The sheep symbolizes meekness, patience, gentleness, and submission ( Isaiah 53:7; Acts 8:32). (See LAMB ). Tsown means sheep”; ayil , the full-grown “ram,” used for the male of other ruminants also; rachel , the adult “ewe”; kebes (masc.), kibsah (fem.), the half grown lamb; seh , “sheep” or paschal “lamb”; char , “young ram”; taleh , “sucking lamb”; ‘atod (Genesis 31 “ram”) means “he-goat”; imrin , “lambs for sacrifice.”

    The sheep never existed in a wild state, but was created expressly for man, and so was selected from the first for sacrifice. The image is frequent in Scripture: Jehovah the Shepherd, His people the flock ( Psalm 23:1; Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 23:1,2; Ezekiel 34). Sinners are the straying sheep whom the Good Shepherd came to save ( <19B9176> Psalm 119:176; Isaiah 53:6; Jeremiah 50:6; Luke 15:4-6; John 10:8,11). False teachers are thieves and wolves in sheep’s clothing ( Matthew 7:15).

    None can pluck His sheep from His hand and the Father’s ( John 10:27-29).

    SHEEP GATE The Jerusalem gate N. of the temple ( Nehemiah 3:1,32; 12:39).

    Between the tower of Meah and the chamber of the corner, or gate of the guard house or prison gate. (See JERUSALEM ). “The pool near the sheep gate” (not “market,” John 5:2) was probably the present Hammam esh Shefa.

    SHEEP MARKET John 5:2; rather “sheep gate.”

    SHEHARIAH 1 Chronicles 8:26.

    SHEKEL (See MONEY ). It is found inscribed only with the Samaritan character, the original form of the Hebrew. The lulab is a frequent symbol, namely, branches of the three trees in Leviticus 23:40, the palm, the myrtle, and the willow, carried at the feast of tabernacles. Also the citron fruit, and a palm tree between two baskets of fruit.

    SHELAH 1. Judah’s youngest son by the Canaanite Shuah’s daughter; ancestor of theSHELANITES ( Numbers 26:20; Genesis 38:5,11,14,26; 46:12; 1 Chronicles 4:21-23). 2. Son of Arphaxad, the proper form for Salah ( 1 Chronicles 1:18,24).

    SHELEMIAH 1. Ezra 10:39. 2. Nehemiah 3:30; probably the same as in Nehemiah 8:8, one of the priests who made the sacred perfumes and incense, “apothecaries.” 3. Over “the treasuries” of Levitical tithes ( Nehemiah 13:13). 4. Jeremiah 37:3. 5. Jeremiah 37:13. 6. Meshelemiah or Shallum ( 1 Chronicles 26:1,14). 7. Ezra 10:41. 8. Jeremiah 36:14. 9. Jeremiah 36:26.

    SHELEPH Second of Joktan’s sons ( Genesis 10:26). Ptolemy (6:7) mentions the Salapeni among the ancient inhabitants of Arabia Felix. The geographer Yacut mentions the Es Sulaf or Beni es Silfan as inhabiting the Yemen. The traveler C. Niebuhr found them still in the Yemen, under the name Salfie, 60 miles S.W. of Senaa.

    SHELESH 1 Chronicles 7:35.

    SHELOMI Numbers 34:27.

    SHELOMITH 1. Married an Egyptian, a connection unfavourable for promotion of piety ( 2 Corinthians 6:14,15); their son was stoned for blasphemy ( Leviticus 24:11). 2. 1 Chronicles 3:19. 3. 1 Chronicles 23:18;SHELOMOTH 24:22. 4. 1 Chronicles 26:25,26,28. 5. Son of Shimei, a Gershonite ( 1 Chronicles 23:9). The Gershonites numbered nine fathers’ houses, six named after Laadan, and three after Shimei. The three sons of Laadan ( 1 Chronicles 23:8) and the three of Shimei ( 1 Chronicles 23:9, descended from Libni and not elsewhere named) were heads of the fathers’ houses of Laadan. The Shimei in Chronicles 23:9 is distinct from the Shimei in 1 Chronicles 23:7. The sons of the Shimei in 1 Chronicles 23:7 are not enumerated until Chronicles 23:10. Laadan and Shimei are not named in 1 Chronicles 23:7 as being sons of Gershon, but as founders of the two chief lilies of the Gershonites. 6. Ezra 8:10; but Septuagint read “of the sons of Bani, Shelomith the son of Josiphiah.”

    SHELUMIEL Numbers 1:6; 2:12; 7:36,41; 10:19.

    SHEM Noah’s oldest son, as the order implies ( Genesis 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18; 10:1; 1 Chronicles 1:4). (See HAM ). Usually named first, but in Genesis 10:21 last, because from that point forward Scripture traces the history of his descendants. Translated “the elder brother of Japheth,” as Arabic, Syriac, and Vulgate. If “Japheth the elder” had been meant Hebrew idiom would have added “son,” “the elder son of Noah.” His descendants dwelt chiefly in western Asia, Shem of the Asiatic Japhethites, in an uninterrupted line from the Mediterranean to the mountains of Luristan and the Indian Ocean, Lydia, Palestine, Syria (Aram), Chaldaea (Arphaxad), Assyria (Asshur), Persia (Elam), northern and central Arabia (Joktan). Shem means in Hebrew name, and may have been a designation subsequently given him as the one of note or great name among Noah’s sons; as Ham, the settler in the warm regions of Africa; Japheth, the one whose descendants spread most abroad ( Genesis 9:18-27). Noah’s words after Shem’s dutifulness in covering his father’s shame, in filial reverence, with Japheth (compare the blessing, Exodus 20:12), “blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant,” not only bless God for putting the pious feeling into his heart, but prophesy that Jehovah should be especially the God of Shem, which was fulfilled in choosing Abraham and Israel his descendants as God’s peculiar people. “Japheth shall dwell in the tents of Shem,” fulfilled in part now, more fully hereafter ( Isaiah 60:3,5; Ephesians 3:6). All the Japhetic nations almost are believers in the God of Shem, even the Aryan races in Asia are tending toward Christianity. Others less probably (as Genesis 9:27 refers to Japheth’s future rather than Shem’s), “God shall dwell in the tents of Shem” (compare John 1:14, the Son of God “tented (eskeenosen ) among us”). The Hamitic Babel tower builders perhaps sneered at the religion of Shem the father of the faithful, the worshipper of “Jehovah God of Shem.” “Go to, let us build us a city and tower ... let us make us a name” (shem ).

    Noah had reached 500 (in round numbers, strictly 502) years before the birth of his first son, Shem. When Shem was 98 and Noah 600 the flood came; two years later Shem the heir of the blessing ( Genesis 9:18-27) begat Arphaxad ( Genesis 5:32; 7:6; 11:10). He died at 600. Methuselah and Shem were the two links between Adam and Isaac, so that the record of creation and man’s fall came to Isaac on the testimony of the original chief actor, transmitted by only two intervening links. SEMITIC orSHEMITIC LANGUAGES. Ethnologists, from the facts of language, divide the Semitic into five main branches, the Aramaean, the Hebrew, the Phoenician, the Assyrian or Assyro Babylonian, and the Arabian. Scripture in Shem’s genealogy notices four out of the five: Asshur for the Assyrian, Aram for the Syrian or Aramaean, Eber for the Hebrew, and Joktan for the pure Arabic. Moses omits the Phoenicians, as they had not in his time yet made the movement which first brought them into notice, namely, from the shores of the Persian gulf to those of the Mediterranean (Herodotus i. 1). Moses adds to the Semitic races the Elamites and Ludites, concerning which ethnology says nothing. The Japhetic and Hamitic races are geographically contiguous; the Japhetic spread over the northern regions, Greece, Thrace, Scythia, Asia Minor, Armenia, Media; the Hamitic over all the southern and south western regions, N. Africa, Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, southern and south eastern Arabia and Babylonia; the Semitic are located in one region, namely, the central one intermediate between the Japhetic on the N. and the Hamitic upon the S. The intermediate position of the Shemites brought them in contact with the Japhetic races in Cappadocia, and on the other hand with the Hamitic in Palestine, in the Yemen (Arabia Felix), in Babylonia and Elymais. The harmony between Genesis 10 and ethnology strikingly confirms Scripture. The Scythic (Hamitic) race at a remote period overspread Europe, Asia, and Africa ( Genesis 10:18,20); the Semitic and. Aryan races subsequently occupied the places respectively assigned them by Providence in Canaan and elsewhere; but the Semitics were probably (as the Semitic Melchizedek exemplifies) in Canaan originally, and the Hamite Canaanites acquired their language. The dead languages of the Semitic are Ethiopic and Himyaritic (inscriptions), both related to Arabic dialects; Hebrew, Samaritan, Carthaginian Phoenician (inscriptions); Chaldee, Syriac, Assyrian (cuneiform inscriptions). (See PHOENICIAN , see HEBREW ). Letters probably passed from the Egyptians to the Hebrews, who under divine guiding improved them ( Exodus 24:4; 31:18; Leviticus 19:28; Numbers 5:23). The names of the letters, ‘aleph (an ox), gimel (a camel), lamedh (an ox-goad), teth (a snake), suit a nomadic people as the Hebrews, rather than a seafaring people as the Phoenicians; these therefore received letters from the Hebrews, not vice versa. Triliteral or bi-syllabic stems or roots are a distinctive mark of Semitic languages. The Indo-Germanic have monosyllabic roots. The Arabic is now the richest of the Semitic languages; but Hebrew possesses in the bud all the contrivances which, if they had been duly developed, would have made it a rival of the present Arabic. The Aramaic has endured longer than Hebrew; but it is poor lexically and grammatically, needing frequent periphrases and particles in aid, and wanting in flexibility and harmony. Semitic lacks the Japhetic power of creating compound words, also the delicate shades and gradations of meaning observable in the latter class of languages. divine wisdom shows itself in choosing as the vehicle for the Old Testament revelation a language so solid, self contained, immovable, and reflective as Hebrew. The Aramaic was too coarse and vague, the Arabic too earthy. When the New Testament revelation for all mankind was to be given, a different vehicle with more flexibility and variety was needed. By that time the Japhetic had ripened fully, and Greek was the tongue so happily chosen for expressing with its wonderful variety, flexibility, and logical power the fully developed doctrines of the gospel.

    SHEMA (1) A town of Judah ( Joshua 15:26), deriving its origin from Hebron, and in its turn colonizing Maon ( 1 Chronicles 2:43-45; Joshua 15:26).

    SHEMA (2) 1. 1 Chronicles 5:8. 2. Of Benjamin: a head of the fathers of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who drove away the men of Gath ( 1 Chronicles 8:13,21); the same as Shimei and Shimhi. 3. Nehemiah 8:4.

    SHEMAAH Margin Ha-smash: 1 Chronicles 12:3.

    SHEMAIAH 1. A prophet under Rehoboam, commissioned to charge the king and his 180,000 warriors of Judah not to fight against their brethren of Israel, but to return every man to his house, instead of striving to regain northern Israel from Jeroboam ( 1 Kings 12:22; 2 Chronicles 11:2), for that the severance is Jehovah’s doing; so they desisted in obedience to the Lord. Upon Rehoboam and his people forsaking Jehovah, and building high places, standing images, and groves, God sent Shishak of Egypt against Jerusalem; he then took all the fenced cities, and Shemaiah told Rehoboam and his princes, “thus saith Jehovah, Ye have forsaken Me, therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.” The princes then humbled themselves, saying, The Lord is righteous ( Psalm 51:4; Leviticus 26:43). When Jehovah saw they humbled themselves He declared by Shemaiah, “I will not destroy them but grant them some deliverance, and My wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak” (see REHOBOAM ). Shemaiah wrote a chronicle of Rehoboam’s reign. 2. 1 Chronicles 3:22. The words ( 1 Chronicles 3:21) “the sons of Rephaiah” to the end of the chapter are a genealogical fragment inserted subsequently; the copula is wanting before “the sons of Rephaiah”; their connection with Zerubbabel’s descendants who are mentioned before is not stated ( Nehemiah 3:29). 3. 1 Chronicles 4:37. 4. 1 Chronicles 5:4. 5. Nehemiah 11:15,16. 6. 1 Chronicles 9:16;SHAMMUA, Nehemiah 11:17. 7. 1 Chronicles 15:8,11. 8. 1 Chronicles 24:6. 9. 1 Chronicles 26:1,4,6,7. 10. 2 Chronicles 29:14. 11. Ezra 8:13. 12. Ezra 8:16. 13. Ezra 10:21. 14. Ezra 10:31. 15. Son of Delaiah; a prophet bribed by Sanballat and Tobiah to frighten Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 6:10, etc.); Shemaiah pretended to be “shut up” through fear, his action corroborating his word, and proposed all should meet in the temple and shut its doors; Nehemiah heroically replied, “should such a man as I flee?” (compare Psalm 11:1.) Shemaiah’s aim was to entrap Nehemiah into sinful fear, so as to have matter of “evil reproach” against him. 16. Nehemiah 10:8; 12:6,18,35. 17. Nehemiah 12:34. 18. Nehemiah 12:36. 19. Nehemiah 12:42. 20. The Nehelamite, a false prophet at Babylon, who wrote urging Zephaniah the deputy priest to show his gratitude to God for his promotion to Jehoiada’s place by exercising his power in imprisoning Jeremiah as “mad” (compare 2 Kings 9:11; Matthew 21:23; Acts 26:24; John 10:20 the Antitype) and putting him in stocks, because he had recommended the Jewish captives at Babylon to build, plant, and settle there as for a long time, in opposition to those who flattered them with promises of a speedy release. Jeremiah on hearing Shemaiah’s letter read by Zephaniah, who was less prejudiced against him, declared from Jehovah, “Shemaiah shall not have a man to dwell among this people, neither shall he behold the good” (namely, the future restoration from Babylon), “because he caused you to trust a lie” and “hath taught rebellion against Jehovah,” namely, against God’s revealed will as to the time of the restoration ( Jeremiah 29:24-32, compare Jeremiah 29:10; 28:16). 21. 2 Chronicles 17:8. 22. 2 Chronicles 31:15. 23. A Levite at Josiah’s Passover ( 2 Chronicles 35:9); Conaniah his brother’s name occurs in Hezekiah’s time, as also Shemaiah, for the same names recur in different generations. 24. Jeremiah 26:20. 25. Jeremiah 36:12.

    SHEMARIAH 1. 1 Chronicles 12:5. 2. Ezra 10:32. 3. Ezra 10:41.

    SHEMEBER King of Zeboim; ally of the king of Sodom, when attacked by Chedorlaomer.

    SHEMER Owner of the hill which Omri bought for two silver talents. On it Omri built Samaria (Shomeron , Hebrew), named from Shemer Shomer, the form in 1 Chronicles 7:32, answers better to the name Shomeron than Shemer ( 1 Kings 16:24).

    SHEMIDA SHEMIDAH ( 1 Chronicles 7:19). Son of Gilead; ancestor of the\parSHEMIDAITES ( Numbers 26:32), who obtained their lot among the male children of Manasseh ( Joshua 17:2).

    SHEMINITH Psalm 6 and Psalm 12’s title. Feminine of shemini , “the eighth” ( Exodus 22:32); 1 Chronicles 15:21, “the singers were appointed with harps on the sheminith to excel,” or “oversee.” Gesenius explains, the lowest of the three keys of the human voice, an octave or eighth below the treble; the bass sung by men; as “on alamoth” answers to the treble or female voice, as alamoth means. Hengstenberg takes it as indicating the time measured according to the number eight. Septuagint and Vulgate translated “concerning” or “for the eighth.”

    SHEMIRAMOTH 1. A Levite of the second degree appointed to play with a psaltery on alamoth ( 1 Chronicles 15:18,20). In Asaph’s division, who led with cymbals ( 1 Chronicles 16:5). 2. 2 Chronicles 17:8.

    SHEMUEL 1. Numbers 34:20. 2. Samuel the prophet ( 1 Chronicles 6:33). 3. 1 Chronicles 7:2.

    SHEN 1 Samuel 7:12. Samuel set up the memorial of the Lord’s deliverance from the Philistines, the stone Ebenezer, between Mizpah and Shen, i.e. the teeth, a projecting point of rock (compare 1 Samuel 14:4,5 margin).

    SHENAZAR Son of Shealtiel or Salathiel ( 1 Chronicles 3:18, Kimchi); rather, brother of Shealtiel, as the “also” with Malchiram proves (Keil).

    SHENIR Deuteronomy 3:9; Song 4:8. Hebrew [see SENIR ] (which see), the Amorite name for see MOUNT HERMON ( 1 Chronicles 5:23; Ezekiel 27:5).

    SHEPHAM On the eastern boundary of the promised land, between Hatser-enan where the northern boundary ends and Riblah (or Marbel, i.e.HAR-BAALHERMON, Judges 3:3): Numbers 34:10,11.

    SHEPHATHIAH Hebrew [Shephatiah ] = whom Jehovah defends. 1. 1 Chronicles 9:8. 2. SHEPHATIAH, David’s fifth son, by Abital ( 2 Samuel 3:4). 3. A family of 372; returned with Zerubbabel ( Ezra 2:4; Nehemiah 7:9); a second company of 80 under Zebadiah came up with Ezra ( Ezra 8:8). 4.

    Among “the children of Solomon’s servants” ( Ezra 2:57). 5. Nehemiah 11:4. 6. Son of Mattan; urged Zedekiah to put Jeremiah to death, as weakening the hands of the men of war, by foretelling life to those who would go forth to the Chaldaeans and death to those who should remain in the city ( Jeremiah 38:1). 7. 1 Chronicles 12:5. 8. 1 Chronicles 27:16. 9. 2 Chronicles 21:2.

    SHEPHELAH Hebrew for KJV “the vale,” “the plain,” “the low country”; rather, as Macc. 12:38 proves, the low hills between the central mountains and the seacoast plain, compare Seville; for Adida on the shephelah answers to Haditheh, which is not in the plain but the low hills. The valleys amidst the shephelah are seldom more than 300 ft. deep, and the slopes much more gradual. Eusebius says that the country about Eleutheropolis was still called shephelah. It is the district of rolling hills, not spurs or shoulders from the main range, but between this and the plain below. The article is always prefixed, the shephelah (ha-Shephelah ), a marked physical feature of the land; like our phrase “the downs,” “the wolds” ( Zechariah 7:7; Joshua 15:33; Deuteronomy 1:7). The divisions are mountain, hill = shephelah, and plain (Talmud, tract Shevith). Rabbi Jochanan says that from Bethhoron to Emmaus is mountain (har ); from Emmaus to Lydda hill; and from Lydda to the sea plain. In Joshua 15:33-47 the shephelah contains 42 cities with their dependent hamlets, many of them in the mountains. The shephelah is most fruitful, receiving, as it does, the soil washed down from the mountains behind by the winter rains; and here were extensive tracts of grain land, the references to which and to the flails and other agricultural instruments are frequently met with.

    SHEPHERD (See SHEEP ). The nomadic state is one of the earliest stages of society, and was regarded as honourable even to a chief ( Genesis 4:2,20; 30:29 ff; Genesis 37); chiefs’ daughters did not disdain to tend flocks ( Genesis 29:6, etc.; Exodus 2:19). The long stay in Egypt elevated Israel from the nomadic to a settled life. The two and a half nomadic tribes received their portion in the outlying regions beyond Jordan (Numbers 32). As agriculture increased pasturage decreased, and was limited to particular spots, the border of the wilderness of Judah, Carmel ( 1 Samuel 25:2), Bethlehem ( 1 Samuel 16:11; Luke 2:8), Tekoa ( Amos 1:1), and Gedor ( 1 Chronicles 4:39). Hence the “shepherd’s tent” came to symbolize desolation ( Ezekiel 25:4; Zephaniah 2:6). The shepherd’s occupation was now no longer dignified ( Psalm 78:70; 2 Samuel 7:8; Amos 7:14).

    The shepherd’s office represents Jehovah’s tender care of His people (Psalm 23; Isaiah 40:11; 49:9,10; Jeremiah 23:3,4; Ezekiel 34:11,12,23). Allusions occur to the exposure to heat and cold ( Genesis 31:40), the precarious food ( Amos 7:14), the husks of the carob ( Luke 15:16), the attacks of beasts ( 1 Samuel 17:34; Isaiah 31:4; Amos 3:12), robbers ( Genesis 31:39). The shepherd had a mantle of sheepskin with the fleece on ( Jeremiah 43:12), a wallet for food ( Samuel 17:40), a sling such as the Bedouin still carries, a staff to ward off foes and to guide the flock with its crook ( Psalm 23:4; Zechariah 11:7; so Jehovah “lifts up His staff against” His people’s foes, Isaiah 10:1,24; His word is at once our prop of support and our defense against Satan). The shepherd, when far from home, had his light tent (Song 1:8), easily taken down and shifted ( Isaiah 38:12). Towers were sometimes erected to spy a foe afar off, and to guard the flock ( 2 Chronicles 26:10; 27:4, compare “tower of see EDAR ,” Genesis 35:21; Micah 4:8).

    His duty was to go before and call by name the sheep ( John 10:4), watch it with dogs, a sorry animal in the East ( Job 30:1), to search for stray sheep ( Ezekiel 34:12; Luke 15:4), to supply water, either at a stream or at troughs by wells ( Genesis 29:7; 30:38; Exodus 2:16), (so Jesus, Psalm 23:2), to bring back to the fold at evening and to reckon the sheep that none be missing (compare as to Jesus John 18:9; 17:11,12; 10:28,29), passing one by one “under the rod” ( Leviticus 27:32; Jeremiah 33:13; Ezekiel 20:37), (i.e. you shall be counted as Mine, and subjected to My chastening discipline with a view to My ultimate saving of the elect, Micah 7:14), checking each sheep as it passed; to act as porter, guarding the entrance to the fold by night ( John 10:3). The shepherds kept watches (plural in Greek, Luke 2:8, not “slumbering,” Nahum 3:18) by turns at night, not on duty both night and day as Jacob ( Genesis 31:40). Tenderness to the young and feeble was the shepherd’s duty, not to overdrive them ( Genesis 33:13); so Jesus ( Isaiah 40:11,29; Mark 6:31; 8:2; 4:33; John 16:12). There were chief and under shepherds ( Genesis 47:6; 1 Peter 5:4), and hirelings not of the family ( John 10:11-13; 1 Samuel 21:7). The shepherd had responsibility, and at the same time personal interest in the flock ( 1 Samuel 31:39; 30:32; 1 Corinthians 9:7). Playing on the pipe beguiled the monotony, and a feast at shearing time gave a yearly variety ( 1 Samuel 16:17; Genesis 31:19; 38:12; 2 Samuel 13:23).

    Shepherds often contended with one another as to water ( Genesis 26:17-22; Exodus 2:17).

    The Egyptian antipathy to shepherds (whom the monuments always represent as mean) was due to their being themselves agriculturists, whereas the neighbouring Arabs with whom they so often strove were nomads. The seizure of Lower Egypt by shepherd kings (Hyksos) for centuries aggravated this dislike, though the Hyksos were subsequent to Joseph ( Genesis 46:34).

    Princes, and even hostile leaders, are called shepherds: Isaiah 44:28; Jeremiah 2:8; 3:15; 6:3; Ezekiel 34:2; Micah 5:5. Teachers: Ecclesiastes 12:11. Messiah: Genesis 49:24; Psalm 80:1; Zechariah 13:7; John 10:14; Hebrews 13:20.

    SHEPHI 1 Chronicles 1:40;SHEPHO in Genesis 36:23. There is a hill Shafeh, N. of Akaba.

    SHEPHUPHAN Son of Bela, Benjamin’s firstborn ( 1 Chronicles 8:5).SEPHUPHAM, SHUPHAM ( Numbers 26:39); Shuppim in 1 Chronicles 7:12,15; MUPPIM, Genesis 46:21, a transcriber’s error probably forSHUPPIM, SHUPHAM.

    SHERAH Ephraim’s daughter, founded the two Bethhorons andUZZENSHERAH ( 1 Chronicles 7:24). Sherah as all heiress probably received these places as her inheritance, and caused them to be enlarged by her family.

    SHEREBIAH Ezra 8:18,24. A Levite of the family of Mahli, son of Merari. One of the first ministers for the house of God who joined Ezra at the river Ahava.

    With Hashabiah, etc., he had charge of the vessels and gifts which the king, his lords, and all Israel, had offered. Sherebiah also assisted Ezra at the reading of the law, in making the people understand its sense ( Nehemiah 8:7). He took part in the confession and thanksgiving at the fast after the feast of tabernacles ( Nehemiah 9:4,5); and signed the covenant ( Nehemiah 10:12), and was over the psalmody ( Nehemiah 12:8,24).

    SHERESH 1 Chronicles 7:16.

    SHEREZER Sent with Regem Melech by the Jews of the country to “the house of God,” i.e. the congregation of priests at Jerusalem ministering at the altar, (the temple was not yet completed), to ask whether they should still observe the fast on the tenth day of the fifth month, the anniversary of the burning of the temple. Their fast had been a mere act of self imposed and hypocritical will worship, to please themselves, not the Lord ( Zechariah 7:2).

    SHESHACH Jeremiah 25:26; 51:41; i.e. Babylon, from their goddess Shach reduplicated, as they named Misael Meshach.SHACE was the designation of a Babylonian feast to Shach, of five days’ duration, during which unbridled license prevailed as at the Roman saturnalia. Slaves ruled their master, and one called zogan in each house in royal garments ruled the rest ( Jeremiah 51:39,57; Isaiah 21:5). Cyrus during it took Babylon; thus Jeremiah prophesies the concomitants of the capture. The Kabalistic system (Athbash, the first Hebrew letter being expressed by the last, the second by the last but one, etc.) would make Sheshach answer to Babel.

    But in Jeremiah 51:41 concealment cannot have been Jeremiah’s object, for he mentions “Babylon” ( Jeremiah 51:42). It is not likely the Kabala was as yet invented.

    SHESHAI One of Anak’s three sons at Hebron, driven out and slain by Caleb leading Judah ( Numbers 13:22; Joshua 15:14; Judges 1:10).

    SHESHAN Descended from Jerahmeel, Hezron’s son, representing a chief family of Judah. Having no male issue, he gave his daughter in marriage to Jarha his Egyptian slave ( 1 Chronicles 2:31,34,35).

    SHESHBAZZAR see ZERUBBABEL ’S Persian or Babylonian name ( Ezra 1:8,11; 5:14,16). Prince (ha -nasi , the Jewish term for head of the tribe) and governor (pechah , the Persian Cyrus appointing him) of Judah. “Sheshbazzar laid the foundation of the house of God in Jerusalem” as Zechariah ( Zechariah 4:9) foretold that Zerubbabel should do (compare Ezra 1:11 with Ezra 2:1,2).

    SHETH 1. Seth in 1 Chronicles 1:1. 2. Numbers 24:17 translated “destroy all the children of tumult,” i.e.

    Moab’s fierce warriors ( Exodus 15:15; Isaiah 15:4; 16:6). Sheth is related to shaon in the parallel “tumultuous ones,” Hebrew “children of tumult” ( Jeremiah 48:45); others make Sheth a Moabite king.

    SHETHAR In Xerxes’ (Ahasuerus) third year ( Esther 1:3,4; compare Ezra 7:14).

    SHETHAR BOZNAI (“star of splendour”). A Persian officer commanding “on this side the river” under Tatnai the satrap, in Darius Hystaspes’ reign ( Ezra 5:3,6; 6:6,13). Shethar Boznai with Tatnai and the Apharsachites tried to hinder the building of the temple under Zerubbabel, writing to Darius (Ezra 5) that search should be made whether the decree of Cyrus for its restoration, which the Jews alleged, was to be found in the house of the rolls at Babylon. On its being found at Achmetha, or Ecbatana, Darius ordered the work to proceed, and that Shethar Boznai, etc., should help with contributions from the king’s goods, and with animal victims, and wheat, salt, wine, and oil. Shethar Boznai and the others thereupon did so speedily.

    SHEVA 1. David’s scribe ( 2 Samuel 20:25);SERAIAH in 2 Samuel 8:17; SHISHA in 1 Kings 4:3;SHAVSHA in 1 Chronicles 18:16. 2. Father or founder of Machbena and Gibea ( 1 Chronicles 2:49).

    SHEWBREAD “Bread of the faces” or “presence” of God ( Exodus 25:30). “Bread of ordering” ( 1 Chronicles 9:32). “The continual bread” ( Numbers 4:7). “Hallowed bread” ( 1 Samuel 21:4-6; Matthew 12:4; Hebrews 9:2 “the shewbread,” Greek “bread of setting forth”). The table was of acacia or “shittim wood,” two cubits long, one broad, one and a half high, overlaid with pure gold, with a golden crown to the border round about, to hinder any bread falling off (but see below): Exodus 25:23-30. The border was to be “of a handbreadth”; so in the sculpture on Titus’ Arch the slave’s hand that holds the table is just the breadth of the border. “The pure table” ( Leviticus 24:6), both because of its unalloyed gold and because of the “pure offering” on it ( Malachi 1:11). The table stood in the holy place on the N. side ( Exodus 26:35). The 12 cakes of unleavened bread, arranged in two piles, with a golden cup of frankincense on each (Josephus Ant. 3:10, section 7), were renewed every sabbath, and the stale loaves given to the priests. They represented the 12 tribes before Jehovah perpetually, (see Revelation 21:12) in token that He was always graciously accepting His people and their good works, for whom atonement had been made by the victims on the altar outside. They were the national meat offering ( Leviticus 24:5-9). Each cake contained two tenths of an ephah, about six pounds and a quarter, of fine flour. The frankincense as a memorial was probably cast upon the altar fire as “an offering made by fire unto the Lord,” when the bread was removed from the table on the Sabbath. Ahimelech stretched the law in giving the stale loaves to David’s men, as free from ceremonial defilement ( 1 Samuel 21:4-6; Matthew 12:4), for they should have been eaten by the priests, in the holy place ( Leviticus 24:5-9). Bahr thinks the loaves symbolized the Holy One in His sanctuary as the Bread of life to His people ( John 6:35,47-51; Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3). But the loaves were taken from Israel, not presented by God to them; and one loaf would suit his view rather than twelve ( 1 Corinthians 10:17). Still, on their presenting themselves before Him in the bread symbol, He feeds them represented by their priests. As they are a bread offering to Him, so He gives Himself as the bread to feed them.

    In 2 Chronicles 4:8,19, ten tables are mentioned “whereon the shewbread was set,” i.e., Solomon made a number of tables, and one great golden one on which they set the loaves. In the parallel passage, Kings 7:48, “the table of gold” alone is mentioned, as in 2 Chronicles 29:18. “Ten” is the number also of the candlesticks. The tables were probably made of cedarwood overlaid with gold (see Josephus Ant. 8:3, section 7). As it is omitted in the list of articles restored from Babylon ( Ezra 1:9-11), it was doubtless remade by Zerubbabel. Antiochus Epiphanes carried away the table of the second temple (2 Macc. 1:22).

    Anew one was made at the restoration of the temple by Judas Maccabeus (1 Macc. 4:49). Afterward Ptolemy Philadelphus presented a splendid table (Josephus Ant. 12:2, section 8,9). In the Arch of Titus, the sculptor in defiance of perspective exhibits the two ends. Speaker’s Commentary ( Exodus 25:23-30) for “crown of gold” translated “moulding of gold”; for “border,” “a framing” which reached from leg to leg, to make the table firm, as well as to adorn it with a second moulding of gold; two fragments of such a framing appear half way clown the legs in the Titus’ Arch sculpture. “Over against the framing” the rings were “upon the four extremities (KJV ‘corners’) that were at the four (clawlike) feet,” answering to each corner of it. The staves were never taken out of the golden rings by which the ark was to be borne; so translated Numbers 4:5,6, “put the staves thereof in order,” not “put in,” they would need merely adjustment after motion ( Exodus 25:14,15). The “dishes” or bowls were probably the measures for the meal used in the loaves. For “spoons” translated “cups” filled with frankincense, represented on Titus’ Arch. For “covers” and “bowls” and “to cover withal” translated “flagons and chalices, to pour out withal.” These were for the drink offering which accompanied every meat offering, for the shewbread was a true meat offering.

    In Numbers 4:7 the Hebrew means “the shew table” or “table of the faces” or presence, namely, of God manifested. Similar is the phrase “the Angel of His presence” ( Isaiah 63:9; Exodus 33:14,15; 23:20; Deuteronomy 4:37, “in His sight”). The “face” stands for the Person. “The bread of the face” on the table in the sanctuary symbolizes that man is admitted to God’s holy table and presence, seeing and being nourished by God in the person of Christ, the Bread of life. The priests, Israel’s representatives, alone ate this sacramental pledge in the Old Testament.

    The whole church as “priests unto God” offer themselves before God and are fed at the Lord’s table with the sacramental symbol of Christ’s body, our true food ( Psalm 23:5; Luke 22:30; 1 Corinthians 11:26).

    The continued renewal every Sabbath testified to the design of that holy day to renew men afresh to self dedication as in God’s immediate presence; as Israel by the candlestick appeared as a people of enlightenment, and by the incense altar as a people of prayer. The frankincense always on the shewbread, and consumed when the bread was to be eaten, symbolized that prayer must ever accompany self dedication, and that the fame of love must kindle prayer when we are about to hold communion with and to be nourished by Him.

    SHIBBOLETH (“a stream” or “ear of grain”). The Ephraimites, unable to pronounce the aspirate (as indeed the Greeks also have no “sh” sound), said Sibboleth, and so were detected by the Gileadites under Jephthah at the passage of Jordan ( Judges 12:6).

    SHIBMAH; SIBMAH Hebrew A town originally of Bashan, and called Sebam or Shebam ( Numbers 32:3), but afterward assigned to Reuben who rebuilt it ( Numbers 32:3,38). Famous for its vines ( Isaiah 16:8,9). Now the ruin Es Sameh, four miles E. of Heshbon.

    SHICRON A landmark at the W. end of the northern boundary of Judah ( Joshua 15:11); between Ekron and Jabneel.

    SHIELD (See ARMS ). Being of wood covered with leather, it might be burned ( Ezekiel 39:9). In Nahum 2:3, “the shield ... is made red,” the reference is to bull’s hide shields dyed red to strike terror into the foe, or rather to the red reflection of the sun’s rays from shields of bronze or copper, such as are found among the Assyrian remains. The surface was kept bright with oil, which preserved both the leather and the metal, Isaiah 21:5, “anoint the shield”: Isaiah warns the Babylonian revelers to prepare for instant self defense; offensive arms are not mentioned, as Cyrus would take them by surprise in the midst of a feast ( 2 Samuel 1:2l). The shield was covered when not in use; Isaiah 22:6, “Kir uncovered the shield,” i.e. took off for battle the leather cover which protected the embossed figures from dust or injury. In Psalm 47:9, “the shields of the earth belong unto God,” the shields are the princes as protectors of their people ( Hosea 4:18). Faith is our shield “above all” ( Ephesians 6:16), i.e. to cover all that was put on before; but Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts read “IN all things.” Faith will certainly intercept (not only “ye may,” but “ye shall be able”) and so “quench all the fire-tipped darts of the evil one” ( 1 Peter 5:9; 1 John 5:4,18). Fire darts were canes with tow and combustibles ignited on the head. to set fire to wood and tents.

    SHIGGAION From shaagah , “erred.” An erratic melody betokening excitement and agitation (Ewald). Hengstenberg refers it to the subject of the psalms, “the aberrations of the wicked” ( Habakkuk 3:1). In consonance with this the Hebrew root of Shiggaion occurs in Saul’s address to David ( 1 Samuel 26:21), “behold I have played the fool and erred exceedingly” (compare <19B921> Psalm 119:21,118). Psalm 7 refers to David’s being accused by Saul (the Benjamite, Cush the Ethiopian unchangeably black at heart toward David: Jeremiah 13:23; Amos 9:7; Cush similar to Kish, Saul’s father) of plotting evil against him, whereas he returned good for evil in sparing Saul his deadly foe, when in his power ( 1 Samuel 24:7); “concerning the words” i.e. on account of the calumnies which men uttered against David to ingratiate themselves with the king, and which Saul gave ear to ( 1 Samuel 24:9; 26:19). These David rebuts ( Psalm 7:3-5).

    SHIHON A town of Issachar ( Joshua 19:19). Eusebius (Onomasticon) calls it “a villagenear Mount Tabor.”

    SHIHOR OF EGYPT The black, turbid river ( Joshua 13:3; 15:4,47;SIHOR is the less correct form): 1 Chronicles 13:5. “Shihor which is before (i.e. E. of) Egypt.”

    Not the Nile, which is called “the river” (haeor , Genesis 41:1,3; Exodus 1:22), and flowed not before but through the middle of Egypt.

    The Rhinocorura is meant, now wady el Arish, the nachal or “river of Egypt,” Canaan’s southern boundary toward Egypt, ( Numbers 34:5). In Isaiah 23:3; Jeremiah 2:18; Sihor means the Nile.

    SHIHOR LIBNATH Joshua 19:26. A boundary of Asher. “Shihor” is not confined to the Nile exclusively. Not the Belus or glass river (Ptiny H. N. 5:19), now nahr Naman, which flows into the Mediterranean below Acre or Accho, for this is too far N. It must be S. of Carmel where Asher was bounded by Manasseh ( Joshua 17:10), S. of Dor. Keil conjectures the nahr Zerka, three hours S. of Dor, Pliny’s “crocodile river”; its name “blue” may answer both to Shihor “black” and Libnath “white.”

    SHILHI 1 Kings 22:42.

    SHILHIM A city in the S. of Judah ( Joshua 15:32). One of Simeon’s cities in Joshua 19:6 (see SHARUHEN );SHAARAIM in 1 Chronicles 4:31.

    The Imperial Bible Dictionary connects Shilhim with Shiloah or Siloam from shaalach “send,” waters sent from a fountain ( John 9:7; Nehemiah 3:15), and identifies with el Birein, “the wells” four in number, each 25 or 30 ft. deep. The name appears in wady es Serum, which is near and contains “ruins of Serum,” khirbet es Seram.

    SHILLEM SHALLUM. 1 Chronicles 7:13. Ancestor of theSHILLEMITES ( Genesis 46:24; Numbers 26:49).

    SHILOAH, WATERS OF A soft flowing stream,SILOAM. Isaiah ( Isaiah 8:6) makes it represent the quiet confidence in Jehovah’s benignant sway, exercised through David’s line, to which he urged the Jews, in contrast to the overwhelming force of Assyria (like the flood of the Euphrates) which they sought as an ally. For twenty out of the twenty-four hours its flow is perfectly quiet; its action is intermittent and irregular during the other three or four hours. In summer the irregularity is only once in two or three days. Northern Israel too preferred Rezin of Syria, and Pekah, to alliance with Judah, represented by softly flowing Shiloah ( Isaiah 8:6,17,14).

    SHILOH (1) Genesis 49:10. The Messianic interpretation is evaded by translated “until he (Judah) shall come to Shiloh,” Judah leading in the march ( Numbers 2:3-9; 10:14); and when Israel came to Shiloh they pitched the tabernacle there ( Joshua 18:1-10), and Judah’s principality ceased.

    But the town Shiloh did not exist in Jacob’s time, and Judah did not lose the preeminence there; nor indeed did Judah, but Moses and Aaron, lead Israel in the wilderness. Shiloh means the Peacemaker, “the Prince of peace” ( Isaiah 9:6), from shalah “to be at peace.” Solomon (= peaceful) typically (Psalm 72), Messiah antitypically, fulfils the prophecy (Gesenius, Keil, etc.). The ancient versions, however, almost unanimously translated “He to whom, it belongs,” “He whose right it is”: Ezekiel 21:27 (Septuagint, Aqu., Symm., Syriac, Saad., Onk., Targum Jer., all except Vulgate and Pseudo Jon.). The letter yod (the i in Shiloh) is made an objection to this latter translation, but many Hebrew manuscripts and all Samaritan manuscripts are without the yod, which probably did not appear until the tenth century. The reading without the yod being the harder reading is the less likely to be spurious; the copyists would more probably insert than omit it. However, (as [sh] for the relative pronoun ‘asher is unknown in the Pentateuch, and “it (huw’ ) is due,” namely, the sceptre, would be needed), “the Peacemaker” is best, and so our Hebrew text requires as it has the yod. “Abraham rejoiced to see Messiah’s day, he saw it and was glad” ( John 8:56); Jacob naturally expresses the same sure anticipation. The taxing ( Luke 2:1,2) on the eve of Jesus’ birth definitely marked the passing of the sceptre (the tribal authority and royal prominence) and of the lawgiver (the Sanhedrin expounders of the law, literally, the ruler’s staff, mechoqeeq ; Numbers 21:18) from Judah, which virtually had begun some time before, and which was consummated only at Jerusalem’s overthrow by Rome. The Herods, though Rome’s creatures, exercised a quasi-native sovereignty in Judah just before and after Jesus’ birth. After Archelaus a Roman procurator for the first time was sent there. Keil’s view however is probably preferable: “the sceptre shall not depart from Judah ... until Shiloh come,” i.e. shall NEVER depart. “Until” (‘ad kiy ) is not exclusive ( <19B001> Psalm 110:1); “and (until) to Him shall the willing obedience (as of a son yiqhath : Proverbs 30:17) of the peoples be.” Judah should bear the sceptre with “lion” courage until in the future Shiloh, sprung from Judah, the willing obedience of the nations came to Him, and His rule over the tribes was widened into the peaceful government of the world. Balaam refers to this prophecy of Jacob ( Numbers 24:17; Isaiah 11:1-9; Zechariah 9:10; Ephesians 2:14; Revelation 5:5). “From between his feet” is explained by the versions, “from his posterity.” Rather it is the ruler’s staff resting between his feet when he sat, and inclining toward himself. When he spoke in public assemblies he held it in his hand (Keil).

    SHILOH (2) From shaalah “to rest.” The place at which Israel attained its state of rest, and where the Lord rested among them ( <19D214> Psalm 132:14). Judges ( Judges 21:19) describes its position as “on the N. side of Bethel (Beitin), on the E. side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem (Nablus), and on the S. of Lebonah.” Now Seilun. The ark, which had been at Gilgal during the conquest of Canaan, was removed on the completion of the conquest to Shiloh where it remained from Joshua’s closing days to Samuel’s ( Joshua 18:1-10; Judges 18:31; Samuel 4:3). Here Joshua divided by lot the part of the western Jordan land not yet allotted ( Joshua 19:51). Shiloh fell within Ephraim ( Joshua 16:5,6). The animal feast of Jehovah when the daughters of Shiloh went forth in dances gave Benjamin, when threatened with extinction, the opportunity of carrying off wives ( Judges 21:19-23). At a distance of 15 minutes’ walk is a fountain reached through a narrow dale; it flows first into a well, thence into a reservoir, from which herds and flocks are watered. Here the daughters of Shiloh would resort, the spectators could see their dances from the amphitheater of surrounding hills. Terraces are traceable at the sides of the rocky hills, once covered with verdure and productiveness. Though the scenery is not striking the seclusion was favorable to worship and religious study. In the rockhewn sepulchres may have been laid the remains of some of Eli’s house. Here Eli judged Israel and died of grief at the capture of the ark by the Philistines.

    Here Hannah prayed and Samuel was reared in the tabernacle and called to the prophetic office (1 Samuel 1; 2; 3). The sin of Hophni and Phinehas caused the loss of the ark and God’s forsaking of His tabernacle at Shiloh (called in spiritual sense “the house of God,” though not of stone: Judges 18:31; 2 Samuel 7:6; 1 Kings 3:2), so that this became a warning beacon of God’s wrath against those who sin in the face of high spiritual privileges ( Jeremiah 7:12; Psalm 78:60,61). Ahijah the prophet was here consulted by the messengers of Jeroboam’s wife ( Kings 11:29; 12:15; 14:1,2). From Shiloh came the half pagan men, with offerings for the Lord’s house, who had cut themselves, and whom Ishmael slew ( Jeremiah 41:5).

    A tell or hill, surrounded by higher hills, rises from an uneven plain, with a valley on the south side. On the hill the tabernacle would be conspicuous from all sides. On the summit of the hill are the remains of what was once a Jewish synagogue, subsequently used as a mosque. On the lintel over the doorway, between two wreaths of flowers, is carved a vessel shaped like a Roman amphora, so closely resembling the “pot of manna,” as found on coins and in the ruins of the synagogue at Capernaum, that it doubtless formed part of the original building. There is a curious excavation in the rock which may have been the actual spot where the ark rested; for its guardians would select a place sheltered from the bleak winds of the highlands. The position of the sanctuary was central for the Israelites W. of Jordan. Major Wilson says northwards the tell at Seilun slopes down to a broad shoulder, across which a level court has been cut, 77 by 412 ft.; the rock is scarped to the height of five feet, evidently the site of the tabernacle. The mosque’s title, the mosque of the Eternal, points to its original occupation by Jehovah’s sanctuary.

    SHILONI Nehemiah 11:5, translated “the Shilohite,” i.e; descendant of Shelah, Judah’s youngest son; Shelani ( Numbers 26:20) is changed to Shiloni; compare 1 Chronicles 9:5.

    SHILSHAH 1 Chronicles 7:37.

    SHIMEA SHIMEAH. 1. David’s brother ( 2 Samuel 21:21). Named alsoSHAMMAH, father of Jonathan and Jenadab ; distinct fromSHAMMUA orSHAMMUAH, David’s son by Bathsheba ( 1 Chronicles 3:5; 20:7 margin). 2. 1 Chronicles 6:30. 3. 1 Chronicles 6:39. 4. 1 Chronicles 8:32, called alsoSHIMEAM ( 1 Chronicles 9:38).

    SHIMEATH 2 Kings 12:21; 2 Chronicles 24:26.

    SHIMEI 1. Son of Gershom, son of Levi ( 1 Chronicles 23:7,9,10 (see\parSHELOMITH (5)); 1 Chronicles 6:17,29; Numbers 3:18; Zechariah 12:13).SHIMI in Exodus 6:17. 2. Son of Gera, a Benjamite, of Saul’s house; at Bahurim, a marked spot on the way from the Jordan valley to Jerusalem, just within Benjamin; to this point Phaltiel followed Michal ( 2 Samuel 3:16). When David, fleeing from Absalom, reached the edge of the valley, between the road and Shimei’s house, Shimei ran along the ridge over against the road, cursing and throwing stones and dust at him and his mighty men still as he went; and saying, “Come out, come out, thou bloody man and thou man of Belial the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul (referring to his hanging up Saul’s sons for the Gibeonites, 2 Samuel 21, which in time preceded this; also to his general engagement in wars, 1 Chronicles 22:8), and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son, and behold thou art taken in thy mischief because thou art a bloody man” ( 2 Samuel 16:5-13). Abishai would have “taken off his head” then and there, as a “dead dog” presuming to “curse the king.”

    But David felt it was Jehovah’s doing: “let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him; it may be that the Lord will look on shine affliction, and requite me good for his cursing.” An undesigned coincidence between David’s language in the history and in the independent psalms, a mark of genuineness ( <19A917> Psalm 109:17,28, “let them curse, but bless Thou”; Psalm 25:18, “look upon mine affliction,” etc.). Shimei wisely was the “first of the house of Joseph” to meet David on his victorious return over Jordan (compare spiritually our wisdom, Luke 14:32). A thousand Benjamites, and Ziba with his 15 sons and 20 servants, were with him. He fell down before the king, confessing his sin and begging David not to “impute iniquity” to him, or remember and take to heart his perversity; spiritually compare Matthew 5:25; Psalm 32:1-6. Again Abishai would have slain Shimei, but David felt his day of restoration to the kingdom was no day for avenging wrongs, and said “thou shalt not die.”

    But on his deathbed David felt, though he forgave Shimei the personal wrong, yet that public justice required his punishment in some form, for David was not likely, in going to appear before God, to cherish revenge after having spared him twice when he might justly have slain him. To Solomon he committed the fulfillment of the duty unfulfilled by himself; “thou knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him.” The impunity of Shimei as of Joab had brought the law into discredit, for Shimei was living in court favor at Jerusalem, “thou hast with thee Shimei” ( 1 Kings 2:8).

    Anticipating from Shimei’s restless spirit that he would attempt some fresh lawlessness, David says, “his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood.” However, as Solomon did not put him to death but gave him a chance of life, some understand “not” after “bring thou down,” taken from the former clause “hold him not guiltless,” and “bring not down his hoar head,” etc. So in 1 Samuel 2:3, where two prohibitions come together, the negative is expressed only in the first clause and understood in the second. Solomon bound him on pain of death to build a house, and stay at Jerusalem, and not cross the Kedron which separated him from the road to his old abode at Bahurim. After the lapse of three years Shimei went after two slaves of his, who had fled to Achish of Gath. His breach of his own oath brought on him the king’s threatened penalty; he was slain by Benaiah. Thus he brought, “on his own head” his wickedness towards David which David had left unavenged; justice had its course so by “taking away the wicked from before the king, his throne was established in righteousness” ( Proverbs 25:5; 1 Kings 2:36-46; Psalm 7:16; Ezekiel 17:19). 3. Faithful to Solomon in Adonijah’s rebellion ( 1 Kings 1:8); identified with Shimei son of Elah ( 1 Kings 4:18), Solomon’s commissariat officer in Benjamin; or with Shimei or Shammah, David’s brother, or Shammah the Ararite ( 2 Samuel 23:11). 4. Son of Pedaiah, Zerubbabel’s brother ( 1 Chronicles 3:19). 5. Son of Zacchur, a Simeonite ( 1 Chronicles 4:26,27); he had 16 sons and six daughters. 6. Son of Gog a Reubenite ( 1 Chronicles 5:4). 7. A Gershonite Levite, son of Jahath ( 1 Chronicles 6:42). 8. Son of Jeduthun, chief of the tenth division of singers ( 1 Chronicles 25:17). 9. The Ramathite, over David’s vineyards ( 1 Chronicles 27:27). 10. A Levite, of the sons of Heman; took part in the purification of the temple under Hezekiah ( 2 Chronicles 29:14). 11. The Levite, Cononiah’s brother, having charge of the offerings, etc., under Hezekiah ( 2 Chronicles 31:12,13). 12. A Levite in Ezra’s time ( Ezra 10:23), married a foreign wife; also\parSEMIS. 13. Of the Hashum family, put away his foreign wife ( Ezra 10:33). 14. Son of Bani, put away his foreign wife ( Ezra 10:38). 15. Ancestor of Mordecai, son of Kish, of Benjamin ( Esther 2:5).

    SHIMEON Ezra 10:31.

    SHIMITES Numbers 3:21; Zechariah 12:13.

    SHIMMA; SHAMMAH Jesse’s third son ( 1 Chronicles 2:13; 1 Samuel 16:9).

    SHIMON 1 Chronicles 4:20.

    SHIMRATH 1 Chronicles 8:21.

    SHIMRI 1. 1 Chronicles 4:37. 2. 1 Chronicles 11:45. 3. 2 Chronicles 29:13.

    SHIMRITH 2 Chronicles 24:26;SHOMER in 2 Kings 12:21.

    SHIMROM RatherSHIMRON: 1 Chronicles 7:1.SHIMRONITES, his descendants, Numbers 26:24.

    SHIMRON MERON One of the 34 kings conquered by Joshua ( Joshua 12:20; 11:1). In Joshua 19:15 Shimron Meron appears among the towns of Zebulun.

    The Talmud identifies Shimron Meron with Simuniyeh, W. of Nazareth.

    The Jewish traveler Hap-Parchi fixes it south of Mount Gilboa, at a village Dar Meron (Asher’s Benj. 2:434).

    SHIMSHAI The scribe of Rehum, the royal prefect of Judaea; he joined in writing in Syriac to Artaxerxes to stop the building of the temple and city ( Ezra 4:7-24).

    SHINAB King of Admah; one of the five kings attacked by Chedorlaomer.

    SHINAR A region in Mesopotamia, the plain between the Tigris and Euphrates.

    Here the rebels against God’s will built the Babel tower ( Genesis 11:2,3). Famed for its wheat (Herodotus 1:193). Derived from sheni “two” and ‘ar or nahar “rivers.”

    SHIP Among the earliest shipbuilders were the Phoenicians, whose commerce and voyages made them foremost in the maritime science of early ages, and traces of whose ships are frequently met with. (OnPAUL’ S voyage see EUROCLYDON ; see MELITA ; see CNIDUS ; see CRETE ; see FAIR HAVENS ). Paul was first in the Adramyttian coasting vessel from Caesarea to Myra; then in the large Alexandrian grain ship wrecked at Malta; then in another Alexandrian grain ship from Malta by Syracuse and Rhegium to Purcell. Luke shows accurate nautical knowledge, yet not professional, but of an observer, telling what was done but not the how or the why.

    Fourteen different verbs he uses of the progression of a ship, peculiar to himself and appropriate to each case: pleoo , Luke 8:23; Acts 21:3; apopleo , Acts 13:4; 14:26; 20:15; 27:1; bradupleoo , Acts 27:7; diapleoo , Acts 27:5; ekpleoo , Acts 15:39; katapleoo , Luke 8:26; hupopleoo , Acts 27:4,7; parapleoo , Acts 20:16; euthudromeoo , Acts 16:11; 21:1; hupotrechoo , Acts 27:16; paralegomai , Acts 27:8,13; feromai , Acts 27:15; diaferomai , Acts 27:27; diaperaoo , Acts 21:2.

    Paul’s ship, besides cargo of wheat, carried 276 persons, so she would be of 600 tons. Lucian (Ploion e Euche) describes an Alexandrian wheat ship, 180 ft. long (including end projections) by 45 ft. broad, i.e. 1,300 tons. The largest on record was Ptolemy Philopator’s war galley, 420 ft. long by ft. broad, under 5,000 tons. “The governor” in James 3:4 is the helmsman (kuberneetees ; the owner was naukleeros ). There were two paddle rudders, one on each quarter, acting in a rowlock or through a porthole. As the helmsman used only one at a time, “the helm” is in the singular in James 3:4. In Acts 27:29,40, after letting go the four anchors at the stern, they lashed up both the rudder paddles lest they should interfere with the ground tackle. When they wished to steer again and the anchor ropes were cut (margin), they unfastened the lashings or bands of the paddles. The ship’s run from Rhegium to Puteoli, 180 miles in two days, the wind being full from the S., illustrates the rate of sailing. The bow and the stern were much alike, except that on each side of the bow was painted “the sign” (paraseemon ), as for instance “Castor and Pollux” ( Acts 28:11). An eye was painted on each side of the bow; so Luke’s phrase (antofthalmein ), “bear up into,” literally, “eye the wind” directly ( Acts 27:15). The imperfect build of ships caused the need of “undergirders” to pass round the frame, at right angles to its length, when the planks were in danger of starting.

    The anchors resembled ours, but had no flukes. Spiritually they symbolize the Christian hope ( Hebrews 6:19). The soul is the ship; the world the sea; the bliss beyond the distant coast; hope resting on faith the anchor which prevents the vessel being tossed to and fro; the consolation through God’s promise and hope is the cable connecting the ship and anchor. The soul clings, as one in fear of shipwreck, to the anchor, and sees not where the cable runs, where it is fastened; she knows it is fastened behind the veil which hides the future glory; if only she hold on to the anchor, she shall in due time be drawn in where it is, into the holiest, by the Saviour.

    Anchoring by the stern, the ancients were prepared to anchor in the gale such as Paul encountered; and Purdy (Sailing Directions, 180) says that the holding ground at Malta where Paul was wrecked is quite good enough to have secured the anchors and ship in spite of the severe night. In Acts 27:40, for “mainsail” translated “foresail,” which was needed to put the ship about and to run it aground. Vessels were propelled by oars as well as by sails ( Ezekiel 27:29; Isaiah 33:21; Jonah 1:13). Of the parts or points of the compass card a modern ship will sail within six points of the wind. The clumsier ancient ship probably could sail within seven points. In a heavy gale the ship would lie to, with the right side to the storm, the object being not progress but safety; as under the lee of Clauda ( Acts 27:14-17). To anchor was impossible; to drift would have brought the ship to the fatal Syrtis off Africa. The wind was E.N.E. (Euraquilo); the direction of drift being W. by N., and the rate of drift one mile and a half an hour; the shipwreck must have been off Malta. Having no compass or charts, they seldom ventured voyaging in winter ( Acts 27:9), and the absence of visible sun or stars seriously embarrassed them ( Acts 27:20). In the intricate passages between islands and mainland they did not sail by night when the moon was dark ( Acts 20:13-16; 21:1). Thomson (Land and Book, 401-404) mentions seeing but one rickety boat on the sea of Galilee, which was once covered with fishermen’s boats; contrast the fact that Josephus (B. J., 2:21, section 8- 10) mentions his collecting here 280 boats, with four men in each.

    SHIPHI 1 Chronicles 4:37.

    SHIPHMITE Native ofSHEPHAM;ZABDI ( 1 Chronicles 27:27).

    SHIPHRAH From Egyptian cheper “to procreate,” “prolific” (see PUAH , see MIDWIFE ): Exodus 1:15-21.

    SHIPHTAN Numbers 34:24.

    SHISHA 1 Kings 4:3 (see SHAVSHA ); 1 Chronicles 18:16.

    SHISHAK Sheshonk I in the monuments; first sovereign of the Bubastite 22nd dynasty. He comes before us without the ancient name of Pharaoh; he probably was a bold adventurer who supplanted the previous dynasty.

    Hence arose his hostility to Solomon, who was allied to a daughter of the former Pharaoh. By comparing Manetho and the monuments with Chronicles 12:2-9 and 1 Kings 11:40; 14:25-28, we infer that the first year of Shishak corresponds to Solomon’s 26th year, about 988 B.C. (980:

    Hincks); and the 20th of Shishak when he invaded Judah (969 B.C.) to Rehoboam’s fifth year. Zerah probably succeeded Shishak and attacked Judah before the 15tb year of Asa. The name Shishak answers to Sheshach (Babylon), as Usarken and Tekerut, his successors, answer to Sargon and Tiglath, Semitic names; Namuret (Nimrod) too is a name of princes of this line. The tablet of Harpsen from the Serapeium (Lepsius) makes Shishak son of a chief named Namuret, whose ancestors are untitled and bear foreign names. Shishak took as the title of his standard “he who attains royalty by uniting the two regions of Egypt.” He married the heiress of the Rameses family; his son and successor took to wife the daughter of the Tanite 21st dynasty. A Pharaoh of the 21st dynasty took Gezer in Palestine from the Canaanites ( 1 Kings 9:16) and gave it as a present to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. It was only late in his reign that Shishak could, like that Pharaoh, carry on foreign wars. Shishak early in his reign received Jeroboam the political exile, fleeing from Solomon, Jeroboam’s enemy, toward whom Shishak would feel only jealousy, having no He of affinity as the Pharaoh of the previous dynasty had. During Solomon’s powerful reign Shishak attempted no attack. The division of the tribes under see REHOBOAM gave Shishak the opportunity which he sought. With 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen, and Lubim, Sukkiim and Cushim without number, he took Judah’s cities fortified by Rehoboam ( 2 Chronicles 11:5-12) and came to Jerusalem ( 2 Chronicles 12:2-4,5,9-12) (see SHEMAIAH ). Shishak has recorded this expedition on the wall of the great temple at Karnak; there is a list of the countries, cities and tribes, ruled, conquered, or made tributary by him, including many Jewish names, Taanach, Rehob, Mahanaim, Gibeon, Bethhoron, Kedemoth, Aijalon, Megiddo, Ibleam, Almon, Shoco, one of Rehoboam’s fenced cities, etc.

    Telaim, Beth Tappuah, Golan, the circle of Jordan, the valley (‘eemek ), Beth Emek; Joshua 19:27), the Negeb or S. of Judah, Jerahmeelites, Rekem (Petra), and the Hagarites, are all specified; (1) the Levitical and Canaanite cities are grouped together; (2) the cities of Judah; (3) Arab tribes S. of Palestine.

    Champollion reads in the inscription “the kingdom of Judah.” Brugsch objects that the “kingdom of Judah” would be out of place as following names of towns in Judah, the supposed equivalent of “kingdom” (malkuwth ) rather answers to king (melek ). Shishak went to settle his protege, Jeroboam, in his northern kingdom, where he was endangered from the Levitical ( 2 Chronicles 11:13) and the Canaanite towns in northern Israel not being in his hands; these Shishak reduced and banded over to him. Shishak contented himself with receiving Rehoboam’s submission, and carrying away the accumulated temple treasures of David’s and Solomon’s reigns, the golden shields, etc.; and allowed him to retain Judah, lest Jeroboam should become strong. His policy was to leave the two petty kings as checks upon each other, letting neither gain strength enough to trouble himself. He was not strong enough to attack Assyria; so he contented himself with subjugating Palestine and the parts of Arabia bordering on Egypt, so as to make them an effectual barrier against Assyria’s advance. An inscription in the Silsilis quarries mentions the cutting of stone for the chief temple of Thebes in Shishak’s 22nd year. He appears in the temple at Thebes as “lord of both Upper and Lower Egypt.”

    The lotus and the papyrus are both upon the shields carried before him; the “nine bows” follow, symbolizing Libya.

    SHITRAI 1 Chronicles 27:29.

    SHITTAH The acacia, perhaps the seyal , or Nilotica or Arabica. The ark, the staves, the shewbread table and staves, and the altars of burnt offering and incense, were made of shittah (Exodus 25; 26; 36--38). Isaiah foretells ( Isaiah 41:19) God’s planting it in the wilderness. The Egyptian saut.

    Many acacia trees grow on Sinai; they grow to the size of a mulberry tree.

    It was probably in the shittah or acacia that the flame appeared which did not burn the bush (Exodus 3). The gum arabic is obtained by incisions in the bark. The shittah boards of the tabernacle, ten cubits long and one and a half broad, were not necessarily one piece but formed of pieces joined together. The acacia is not that so-called in England, the Robinia pseudo acacia, a N. American phant; but of the order Leguminosae, Mimoseae.

    Hard and durable wood. If the ark had been made in Palestine, oak or cedar would have been its material; its being said to be made of shittah, the wood of the wilderness, is an undesigned propriety and mark of truth ( Exodus 25:10).

    SHITTIM (See SHITTAH , see ABEL SHITTIM ).

    SHIZA 1 Chronicles 11:42.

    SHOA Ezekiel 23:23 = rich (see PEKOD , see KOA ). Symbolical name for Babylon. Smith’s Bible Dictionary takes it as a proper name, upon the sound of which Ezekiel plays. Pliny mentions a “Sue” in the rocky region W. of the Orontes range, near Gaugamela. Shua in Chaldee means “rock.”

    SHOBAB 1. 2 Samuel 5:14; 1 Chronicles 3:5; 14:4. 2. 1 Chronicles 2:18.

    SHOBACH General of Hadarezer, king of the Syrians of Zoba. Commanded the army brought from beyond Euphrates after Syria’s and Ammon’s defeat before Rabbah. David crossed Jordan and defeated Shobach at Helam. Shobach fell on the battle field.SHOPHACH in 1 Chronicles 19:16.

    SHEBAI, CHILDREN OF Ezra 2:42; Nehemiah 7:45.

    SHOBAL 1. Seir’s second son, a “duke” or phylarch of the Horites ( Genesis 36:20,29). 2. Prince or founder of Kirjath Jearim ( 1 Chronicles 2:50,52). Soba (related to Shobal the founder of Kirjath Jearim) answers to it; for Kirjath Jearim is described as on the boundary of Judah, next Mount Seir, which is next to Chesalon. Kesla now answers to Chesalon, on the same ridge with Soba; and between the two is the mount called Saghir, evidently answering to Mount Seir. The thickets W. of Soba answer to Mount Jearim, “the hill of thickets.” Baalah was another name of Kirjath Jearim, meaning “elevated,” which is true of Soba. (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1878, p. 114.) 3. Possibly the same as Haroeh, which maybe a corruption for Reaiah ( <130401> Chronicles 4:1,2). So 2 and 3 are identical.

    SHOBEK Nehemiah 10:24.

    SHOBI Son ofNAHASH ( 2 Samuel 17:27). Showed hospitality to David when fleeing from Absalom.

    SHOCO 2 Chronicles 11:7.SHOCHO in 28:18;SHOCHOH in 1 Samuel 17:1. (See SOCHO ).

    SHOHAM 1 Chronicles 24:27.

    SHOMER 1. = see SHAMER . 2. Father of Jehozabad. see SHIMRITH is given as the mother in Chronicles 24:26. Keil conjectures that Shomer is a transcriber’s error from omitting th, or else that Shomer was grandfather of Jehozabad.

    SHOPHAN A fortified town E. of Jordan, rebuilt by Gad ( Numbers 32:35). Rather write Atroth Shophan, i.e. “Ataroth of the burrow,” to distinguish it from Ataroth in Numbers 32:34.

    SHOSHANNIM Titles of Psalm 45; Psalm 69; Psalm 80. The “upon” expresses the object of the psalm. In Psalm 60 the singularSHUSHAN occurs. Shoshannim means “lilies,” i.e. beautiful virgins. The beauty of the innocent, pure, lily like “virgins” ( Psalm 45:9,14) is spiritual; for the other psalms of the authors of Psalm 45, namely, “the sons of Korah,” are all spiritual. In Psalm 80SHOSHANNIM EDUTH is the “testimony” ( Psalm 78:5; 81:5) which points out the lovely (lily like) salvation of the Lord. Hence, thrice is repeated “we shall be saved,” Psalm 80:3,6,19, and Psalm 80:2, “save us.” The lily is the enigmatic expression for loveliness. David delighted in enigmatic titles.SHUSHAN EDUTH (Psalm 60) is “the lily of testimony”; God’s promise (Genesis 49; Deuteronomy 33; Numbers 24:17-19) of Canaan to Israel (verse 6) is His lovely testimony, of which the assurance was already given in a partial deliverance (verses 4,5).

    SHUA A Canaanite of Adullam, father of Judah’s wife ( 1 Chronicles 2:3), who was therefore named Bathshua,” daughter of Shua.”

    SHUAH 1. Genesis 25:2. 2. Brother of Chelub ( 1 Chronicles 4:11). Ten of DeRossi’ s and Kennicott’s manuscripts read “Shuah son of Chelub,” another form of Caleb, the addition distinguishing him from Caleb, son of Hezron, and from Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

    SHUAL 1 Chronicles 7:36.

    SHUAL, THE LAND OF 1 Samuel 13:17; from shual , jackal, or else “the hollow land.” Shual was the land where one of the three parties of Philistine marauders went ( 1 Samuel 13:17). In the same direction as Ophrah, Taiyibeh; therefore N. of Michmash. Possibly “the land of Shalim” ( 1 Samuel 9:4). The wild region E. of Taiyibeh, containing a ravine named that of “hyenas.”

    SHUBAEL (See SHEBUEL ).

    SHUHAM SHUHAMITES ( Numbers 26:42,43).HUSHIM in Genesis 46:23.

    SHUHITE Bildad, in Job 2:11. On the W. of Chaldaea, bordering on Arabia.

    Above Hit, on both sides of the Euphrates, occur in Assyrian inscriptions the Tsukhi, a powerful people. Conquered by Babylon they are counted by Ezekiel among the Chaldaean tribes. Descended from Shuah (1). Sohene in the Peutingerian tables designates the country on the Euphrates immediately above Babylonia.

    SHALAMITE (See CANTICLES ). Feminine of Solomon, “prince of peace.” His bride, “daughter of peace,” accepting and proclaiming peace ( Isaiah 52:7; Ephesians 2:17). Caught up in chariot like flight by her Lord to sit with Him in heavenly places ( Ephesians 2:6), she is entreated by the daughters of Jerusalem “Return, return, O Shulamite” (Song 6:13).

    Compare as to the future rapture of the saints, 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Elijah, 2 Kings 2:11,12,16. There is a beautiful reciprocity of character, name, and blessedness between the heavenly Solomon and His Shulamite the redeemed church. “As He is, so are we in this world” ( 1 John 4:17); He “the living Stone,” they “lively stones” ( 1 Peter 2:4,5); He the Bridegroom, she the bride; He “a crowner glory and diadem of beauty” to her ( Isaiah 28:5; Malachi 3:17), she “a crown of glory and a royal diadem” in His hand ( Isaiah 62:3). “The company of two armies.” (Mahanaim, two camps) to be seen in the Shulamite (Song 6:13) are Christ’s family in heaven and that on earth conjoined in Him, the one militant the other at rest. Mahanaim was where the angels met Jacob (Genesis 32), the scene of his victorious wrestling in prayer with the Angel of the covenant. Though she is “peace” yet she has warfare here with the flesh within and foes without. Her strength and peace are Christ and His double hosts, in heaven and on earth, enlisted on her side by prayer. Hence flow the graces in her which attract the daughters of Jerusalem. Not until toward the close does the bride receive her name Shulamite (Song 6:13), “the peace receiver.” In Song 8:10 margin she explains her name, “one that, found peace.” Not until her union with Solomon did site find it and received her name accordingly ( Romans 5:1). The reconciled one ( Corinthians 5:19,20; Ephesians 2:14).

    SHUMATHITES 1 Chronicles 2:53.

    SHUNEM SHUNAMITE. A city of Issachar ( Joshua 19:18). The Philistines’ place of encampment before the battle of Gilboa ( 1 Samuel 28:4). The residence of the Shunammite women ( 2 Kings 4:8), amidst grainfields; connected with Mount Carmel. Abishag’s home (l Kings 1:3). “Five miles S. of Mount Tabor,” in Eusebius’ (Onom.) time called “Sulem.” Rather eight Roman miles from Tabor. Now Solam, a village on the S.W. side of “little Hermon,” jebel Duhy, three miles N. of Jezreel, five from Gilboa (Fukua), in view of the sacred site on Mount Carmel, amidst rich grainfields. It has a spring, without which the Philistines would not have encamped there.

    SHUNI SHUNITES ( Genesis 46:16; Numbers 26:15).

    SHUPPIM (See HUPPIM and see MUPPIM ).

    SHUR Outside the eastern border of Egypt. Meaning “a wall.” The strip of desert which skirts the wall-like range of jebel er Rahah (E. of Suez, the continuation of the range jebel et Tih northward toward the Mediterranean, still called by the Arabs jebel es Sur) as far S. as wady Gharandel. Hagar fleeing from Abraham, then in southern Palestine, reached a fountain “in the way to Shur” ( Genesis 16:7). She was probably making for her country Egypt by the inland caravan route, the way by Star over jebel er Rahah as distinguished from the coast road by el Arish. Abraham settled for a time between the two deserts of Kadesh and Shur, and finally sojourned at Gerar ( Genesis 20:1). In Genesis 25:18 Shur is defined to be “before (i.e. E. of) Egypt.” So 1 Samuel 15:7; 27:8; Josephus (Ant. 6:7) makes it Pelusium, near the Nile’s mouth; others the N.E. part of the wilderness of Paran, now al Jifar. Gesenius makes Shur the modern Suez. Israel entered “the wilderness of Shur” when they had crossed the Red Sea ( Exodus 15:22,23). The wilderness of Shur is the whole district between the N.E. frontier of Egypt and Palestine, Shur being derived from the Egyptian Khar (occurring in a papyrus of the 19th dynasty), Kh and Sh being interchanged. In Numbers 33:8 the special designation occurs, “the wilderness of Etham” (at the northern extremity of the Bitter Lakes).

    SHUSHAN Named from its abundant lilies. Capital of Elam, Cissia, or Susiana.

    Asshur-bani-pal, Esarhaddon’s successor, in inscriptions says he took Shur and gives its ground plan sculptured (Layard Nin. 452), 600 B.C. In Belshazzar’s last year Daniel was at Shushan in the palace (not actually, but transported in spirit) when he saw the vision ( Daniel 8:2). Cyrus’ conquest transferred Shushan to Persia. Darius Hystaspes and the Achaemenian princes made it the capital. He founded the grand palace described in Esther 1:5,6. Near Persia, cooler than Babylon, and having excellent water, Shushan was a suitable metropolis of the Persian empire.

    The kings left it for Ecbatana or Persepolis only in the height of summer, and for Babylon in the depth of winter; here Alexander found twelve million and the regalia of the great king. After this it declined. Shushan lay between the two streams of the Eulaeus and the Shapur. Canals joined the two and so surrounded the citadel of Shushan. The Coprates or river of Dizful and the right branch of the Choaspes (Kerkhah) flowed a few miles E. and W. of the city. Hence arose its famed fertility. The Kerkhah water was so excellent that it was carried about with the great king on his journeys.

    The ruins cover a space 6,000 ft. E. to W. by 4,500 from N. to S.; the circumference is about three miles. Spacious artificial mounds or platforms stand separated from one another. The western one, of earth, gravel, and sundried bricks, is smallest but loftiest, 119 ft. above the Shapur, an obtuse angled triangle, with corners rounded off and base facing E. The sides are so steep as to be unapproachable to horsemen except at three points; round the top is a space of 2,850 ft. This is probably the famous citadel (Herodot. 3:68; Polyb. 5:48,14; Strabo 15:3, section 2; Arrian Exp. Al. 3:16). S.E. of this western platform is the great platform of 60 acres, the eastern face 3,000 ft. long. The third platform is N. of the other two, a square of 1,000 ft. each way. The three together form a lozenge pointing almost due N., 4,500 ft. long by 3,000 broad. E. of these is an irregular extensive but lower platform, as large as all the rest put together. Low mounds extend beyond to the Dizful river.

    Sir F. Williams of Kars discovered the bases of three columns of the palace in the E. of the lozenge, 27 ft. 6 in. from center to center, similar to the great hall (Chel Minar) at Persepolis. Loftus (Chaldaea Susiana) ascertained next the position of all the 72 pillars of the original palace. On the bases of four columns were found trilingual inscriptions in the three languages used by the Achaemenian kings at Behistun. E. Norris deciphered the first part: “says Artaxerxes, the great king, king of kings, king of the country, king of the earth, son of king Darius ... Darius was the son of king Artaxerxes ... Artaxerxes was son of Xerxes ... Xerxes was son of king Darius ... Darius was the son of Hystaspes the Achaemenian ...

    Darius my ancestor anciently built the temple; afterward it was repaired by Artaxerxes my grandfather. By Ormuzd’s aid I placed the effigies of Tanaites and Mithra in this temple. May Ormuzd, Tanaites, and Mithra protect me, with the other gods, and all that I have done ...” The dimensions correspond almost to the hall at Persepolis, Susa’s palace, by 244 ft. N. and S. As Darius Hystaspes commenced the Susa palace, so Xerxes built that at Persepolis. Both consisted of a central hall 200 ft. square, i.e. 40,000 square ft. in area, only inferior to the Karnak hall, 58,300 square ft.; with 36 columns more than 60 ft. high; the walls at Persepolis are 18 ft. thick; three great porches stood outside, 200 ft. wide by 65 deep, supported by 12 columns. These were the palace audience halls; the western porch for morning audience, the eastern for the afternoon. The principal porch, the throne room, was to the N.

    The central hall, called “temple” in the inscription as the king partook of the divine character, was used for such religious ceremonials as the king’s coronation or enthroning, thanksgivings, and offerings to the gods for victories. It was unsuited for convivial festivities. “The king’s gate” where Mordecai sat ( Esther 2:21) was a square hall, 100 ft. each way, resting on four central pillars, 150 or 200 ft. in front of the northern portico. The inner court where Esther begged Ahasuerus’ favor ( Esther 5:1) was the space between the northern portico and “the king’s gate”; the outer court was the space between the king’s gate and the northern terrace wall. “The royal house” ( Esther 1:9) and “the house of the women” ( Esther 2:9,11) were behind the great hall toward the S. or between the great hall and the citadel, communicating with it by a bridge over the ravine. “In the court of the garden of the king’s palace” in front of the eastern or western porch Ahasuerus “made a feast unto all the people ... seven days ... where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble” ( Esther 1:5,6). The feast, was evidently out of doors, in tents put up in one of the palace courts. A tular or raised platform was above the palace roof, as at Persepolis, making the height above the artificial platform 120 ft., and above the plain, which was 60 ft. lower, 180 ft. The effect of such a stately central palace, elevated on a plateau, and rising above the outer subordinate buildings, interspersed with trees and shrubs, must have been magnificent.

    SHUTHELAH SHUTHALHITES ( Numbers 26:35). Ancestor of Joshua ( 1 Chronicles 7:20-27). Lord A. C. Hervey, viewing 1 Chronicles 7 as corrupt, restores the line of Shuthelah thus: (1) Joseph; (2) Ephraim; (3) Shuthelah; (4) Eran or Laadan; (5) Ammihud; (6) Elishama, captain of Ephraim ( Numbers 1:10); (7) Nun; (8) Joshua.

    The affair with the men of Gath ( Joshua 7:20-27; 8:13) was probably after Israel’s settlement in Canaan; and Ephraim and Shuthelah mean the individuals of their descendants who represented them as heads of the tribe or family. The Ephraimite settlements in the mountain district containing Bethhoron, Gezer, and Timnath Serah, were suited for a descent on the Philistine plain containing Gath. Benjamin helped Ephraim against the men of Gath. The Ephraim who mourned for his sons Ezer and Elead was not the patriarch son of Joseph, but a descendant who bore Ephraim’s name.

    SIA, CHILDREN OF Nehemiah 7:47.SIAHA in Ezra, 2:44.

    SIBBECAI SIBBECHAI theHUSHATHITE . Of David’s guard ( 2 Samuel 21:18; Chronicles 27:11), eighth captain for the eighth month, of 24,000 ( Chronicles 11:29). Of the Zarhite family of Judah. Fought singly with Saph or Sippal, the Philistine giant in the battle at Gezer or Gob ( Chronicles 20:4).MEBUNNAI is a transcriber’s mistake for Sibbecai, in 2 Samuel 23:27.

    SIBMAH A town of Reuben, E. of Jordan ( Joshua 13:19). (See SHIBMAH ). In Moab’s hands afterward it was famed for its grapes ( Isaiah 16:7-9). Jeremiah 48:32, “thy plants are gone over the sea,” i.e. shall be transported beyond sea to Cyprus and lands subject to Babylon; or else “they wandered through the wilderness, they are gone over the Dead Sea,” in wild luxuriance overrunning the wilderness round Moab and spreading round the sea so as to reach beyond to the other side. Sibmah was near Heshbon; “the lords of the pagan,” the Assyrian princes invading Moab, destroyed all the luxuriant vines.

    SIBRAIM A landmark N. of the Holy Land ( Ezekiel 47:16), between the boundary of Damascus and Hamath.

    SICHEM (See SHECHEM ). Genesis 12:6, “the place of Sichem.” The town was not yet existing.

    SIDDIM, THE VALE OF Genesis 14:3,8,10. Gesenius from the Arabic explains “a plain (emek ) cut up by stony channels, which render it difficult of transit.” emek means a broad flat tract between hills, a suitable battle field for the four kings against five. It had many bitumen pits. Onkelos, Aquila, and Rashi make Siddim plural of sadeh , “a plain.” So Stanley “the valley of (cultivated) fields.” Aben Ezra derives Siddim from sid , “lime,” bitumen being used for lime ( Genesis 14:3). The words “which is the Salt Sea” imply that the Dead Sea in part now covers (probably at its Siddim end which is shallow and with shores incrusted with salt and bitumen) the vale of Siddim. The plain is in part enclosed between the southern end of the lake and the heights which terminate the Ghor and commence the wady Arabah. In the drains of the Sabkhah are Gesenius’ impassable channels. The form of the plain agrees with the idea of an emek . The Imperial Bible Dictionary makes Siddim a Hamitic word occurring in Egyptian monuments, the Shet-ta-n or land of “Sheth,” part of the Rephaim who possessed that part of Palestine.

    SIDON (“fishing town”); orZIDON. Genesis 10:9,15; Joshua 11:8; 19:28; Judges 1:31. Sidon was in Asher ( Isaiah 23:2,4,12). An ancient mercantile city of Phoenicia, in the narrow plain between Lebanon and the Mediterranean, where the mountains recede two miles from the sea; miles N. of Tyre. Now Saida. Old Sidon stands on the northern slope of a promontory projecting a few hundred yards into the sea, having thus “a fine naturally formed harbour” (Strabo). The citadel occupies the hill behind on the south. Sidon is called ( Genesis 10:15) the firstborn of Canaan, and “great Sidon” or the metropolis ( Joshua 11:8). Sidonians is the generic name of the Phoenicians or Canaanites ( Joshua 13:6; Judges 18:7); in Judges 18:28 Laish is said to be “far from Sidon,” whereas see TYRE ; , 20 miles nearer, would have been specified if it had then been a city of leading importance. So in Homer Sidon is named, but not Tyre. Justin Martyr makes ( Judges 18:3) Tyre a colony planted by Sidon when the king of Ascalon took Sidon the year before the fall of Troy. Tyre is first mentioned in Scripture in Joshua 19:29 as “the strong city,” the “daughter of Sidon” ( Isaiah 23:12.) Sidon and Sidonians are names often subsequently used for Tyre, Tyrians. Thus Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians ( 1 Kings 16:31), is called by Menander in Josephus (Ant. 8:13, section 2) king of the Tyrians. By the time of Zechariah ( Zechariah 9:2) Tyre has the precedency, “Tyrus and Sidon.” Sidon revolted from the yoke of Tyre when Shalmaneser’s invasion gave the opportunity. Rivalry with Tyre influenced Sidon to submit without resistance to Nebuchadnezzar. Its rebellion against the Persian Artaxerxes Ochus entailed great havoc on its citizens, Tennes its king proving traitor.

    Its fleet helped Alexander the Great against Tyre (Arrian, Anab. Al., 2:15).

    Augustus took away its liberties. Its population is now 5,000. Its trade and navigation have left it for Beirut. It was famed for elaborate embroidery, working of metals artistically, glass, the blowpipe, lathe, and graver, and cast mirrors. (Pliny 36:26, H. N. 5:17; 1 Kings 5:6, “not any can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.”) Their seafaring is alluded to ( Isaiah 23:2). Self indulgent ease followed in the train of their wealth, so that “the manner of the Sidonians” was proverbial ( Judges 18:7).

    Sidon had her own king ( Jeremiah 25:22; 27:3). Sidonian women in Solomon’s harem seduced him to worship Ashtoreth “the goddess of the Sidonians” ( 1 Kings 11:1,4; 2 Kings 23:13). Joel reproves Sidon and Tyre for selling children of Judah and Jerusalem to the Grecians, and threatens them with a like fate, Judah selling their sons and daughters to the Sabeans. So Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 28:22-24) threatens Sidon with pestilence and blood in her streets, so that she shall be no more a pricking brier unto Israel. Jesus went once to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon ( Matthew 15:21). Paul touched at Sidon on his voyage from Caesarea to Rome ( Acts 27:3); by Julius’ courteous permission Paul there “went unto his friends to refresh himself.” Tyre and Sidon’s doom shall be more tolerable in the day of judgment than that of those who witnessed Christ’s works and teaching, yet repented not ( Matthew 11:21,22). On a coin of the age of Antiochus IV Tyre claims to be “mother of the Sidonians,” being at that time the capital city.

    SIHON King of the Amorites. Shortly before Israel’s approach he had dispossessed Moab of all their territory N. of Arnon. An Israelite poet celebrates Sihon’s victory, glorifying Heshbon as the city from whence “a flame” went forth “consuming Ar of Moab,” so that “Moab’s sons their idol (Chemosh) rendered fugitives, and yielded his daughters into captivity unto Sihon”! then by a sudden startling transition the poet introduces Israel’s triumph in turn over Sihon. “We (Israelites) have shot at them, Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, with fire even unto Medeba.” Israel begged leave to pass peaceably through the Amorite land by the king’s highway, but “Sihon gathered all his people” and came to Jahaz (between Dibon and Medeba) and fought against Israel and was defeated. Churlishness and unprovoked violence bring their own punishment ( Proverbs 16:18; 18:12; Numbers 21:21-31). So Israel gained all the Amorite territory, from the Arnon to the Jabbok. Josephus says that every man in the nation fit to bear arms fought in the Amorite army against Israel (Ant. 4:, section 2). The struggle was a desperate one; no mere human force enabled Israel, heretofore unused to warfare, to subdue so formidable a king and conqueror as Sihon. Pride of conquest was his snare.

    SIHOR (See SHIHOR ).

    SILAS Contracted form ofSILVANUS. A chief (Greek “leading”) man of the church at Jerusalem, a prophet ( Acts 15:22,32). His name from the Latin sylva, “a wood,” implies he was a Hellenistic Jew. He was ( Acts 16:37) a Roman citizen. Delegated by the Jerusalem council to accompany Paul and Barnabas with the decree for Antioch. Then he returned to Jerusalem ( Acts 15:33), for ( Acts 15:34) “notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still” is an interpolation to account for Acts 15:40 (the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus manuscripts omit Acts 15:34). He doubtless revisited Antioch soon after his return to Jerusalem, so he was there chosen by Paul to be companion of his second missionary tour ( Acts 15:40--17:14). He stayed behind with Timothy at Berea when Paul went on to Athens, but was charged to join him there with all speed ( Acts 17:15). Silas, when he and Timothy (apparently together) came from Macedonia, found Paul at Corinth ( Acts 18:5). Whether in the meantime he had joined Paul at Athens, and been sent thence to Thessalonica with Timothy ( 1 Thessalonians 3:2), and joined him again at Corinth, is not recorded. Paul notices his preaching at Corinth and associates his name with his own in the heading of the two epistles to the Thessalonians ( 2 Corinthians 1:19; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; <530101> Thessalonians 1:1). Silas was the bearer of the first epistle of Peter ( Peter 5:12) who designates him “a faithful brother unto you as I suppose.”

    The uncertainty is not as to Silas’s faithfulness to them (which is strongly marked by the article in the Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus manuscripts), but as to whether he or some other would prove to be the bearer of the epistle, addressed as it was to five provinces, all of which Silas might not reach. “By Silas that faithful brother, as I expect, I have written to you.” Silas probably stood in a close relation to the churches of Asia, having taken the oversight after Paul’s departure, and afterward went to Peter. Silas was a suitable messenger by whom to confirm Paul’s doctrine of “the true grace of God” in the stone churches ( 2 Peter 3:16). After Paul’s last journey to Jerusalem Silas no more appears as his companion. His connection with Peter began after that. “Exhorting and confirming the brethren” seems to have been Silas’ forte ( Acts 15:32). In the public witness for Christ confirmed by the Pythoness at Philippi, and in the scourging for His name’s sake, and the prayers and praises sung in the prison to God, and in the jailer’s conversion, Silas bore a part second only to Paul ( Acts 16:19,25,29). So also at Thessalonica and Berea ( Acts 17:4,10).

    SILK The English is derived by the change of r and l from sericum, the manufacture of the Chinese (Seres): Revelation 18:12. Aristotle in the fourth century B.C. is the first who positively mentions the import of the raw material to the island Cos in the Mediterranean (H. A. 5:19). In Proverbs 31:22 (shesh ) translated “fine linen,” not silk. The texture silk was probably known much earlier in western Asia, considering its intercourse with the far East by various routes, namely, from southern China by India and the Persian gulf, or across the Indus through Persia, or by Bactria the route of central Asia, for theSINIM ( Isaiah 49:12) are the Chinese. Meshi , the other Hebrew term for silk, occurs in Ezekiel 16:10,13, from maashah “to draw,” fine drawn silk (Pliny 6:20; 11:26, describes the manner). The Bombyx mori, the caterpillar of a sluggish moth, feeding on the mulberry tree, produces the oval-yellow cocoon of silk wound around its own body.

    SILLA 2 Kings 12:20. “The house of Mille which goeth down to Silla.”

    Evidently in the valley below see MILLO , but “the Mille” is the phrase elsewhere.

    SILOAM, THE POOL OF Shelach in Nehemiah 3:15, KJV “Siloah,” “Shiloah” ( Isaiah 8:16), Siloam ( John 9:7,11). Now Silwan. Every other pool has lost its Bible designation. Siloam, a small suburban tank, alone retains it. It is a regularly built pool or tank (bereekah ) near the fountain gate, the stairs that go down from the city of David (S. of the temple mountain), the wall above the house of David, the water gate, and the king’s garden (compare Nehemiah 12:37 with Nehemiah 3:15). Josephus (B. J. 5:9, section 4; 4, section 1; 6, section 1; 12, section 2) places it at the end of the valley of Tyropeon, outside the city wall where the old wall took a bend eastward, and facing the hill on which was the rock Peristereon to the E.

    The adjoining village Kefr Silwan on the other side of Kedron also retains the name Siloam. Silwan stands at the southern extremity of the temple mountain, known as “the Ophel.” It is partly hewn out of the rock, partly built with masonry, measuring 53 ft. long, 18 wide, 19 deep. A flight of steps descends to the bottom. Columns extend along the side walls from top to bottom. The water passes hence by a channel cut in the rock, and covered for a short way, into the gardens below which occupy the site of “the lower pool” or “the king’s pool” ( Nehemiah 2:14). The fountain of the Virgin above is connected by a zigzag conduit, 1,750 ft. long cut through the rock, with a reservoir, an oblong basin, decreasing. in size as it proceeds from 15 to three feet, in a cave entered by a small rock hewn archway. From this artificial cave at the west end of Siloam an open channel in the rock conveys the water into Siloam. The Virgin’s fountain (where the lamp here figured was found), 15 ft. long by six wide at the bottom, is on the opposite side of the valley from the Jewish burying ground where Kedron turns W. It is near the beginning of the projection of the temple hill called “Ophel.” It is named now also “the fountain of the mother of steps” (ayin um ed durag ), because it is reached by two flights of 26 descending steps cut in the rock. It is a natural syphon, so that at times it is quite dry and in a short time rises beyond its ordinary limits. The term kolumbeethra in John 9:7 implies “a pond for swimming.” R.

    Ishmael says of its source, the Virgin’s fountain, that there the high priest used to plunge. It was to Siloam that a Levite was sent with the golden pitcher on “the last and great day of the feast” of tabernacles. From Siloam he brought the water to be poured over the sacrifice in memory of the water at Rephidim. To it Jesus alluded when standing in the temple He cried, “if any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink,” etc. ( John 7:37-39). He “sent” the blind man to wash the clay off his eyes in Siloam, which means “sent,” and he returned seeing. Messiah “the sent One” ( Luke 4:18; John 10:36) answers to the type Siloam the sent water ( Job 5:10; Ezekiel 31:4) that healed; He flows gently, softly, and healing, like Siloam fertilising and beautifying, not turbid as the winter torrent Kedron, nor sweeping destructively all before it as Euphrates (symbol of Assyria), but gliding on in its silent mission of beneficence ( Isaiah 8:6; 42:1-4; 40:11; 2 Corinthians 10:1). Siloam was called so from sending its waters to refresh the gardens below, still the greenest spot about Jerusalem, and abounding in olives, figs, and pomegranates. The water for the ashes of the red heifer also was taken from Siloam (Dach Talm. Babyl. 380). Into Siloam probably Hezekiah led by a subterranean aqueduct down the Tyropoeon valley the waters on the other side of the city when “he stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon and brought it straight down to the W. side of the city of David” ( 2 Chronicles 32:30).

    SILOAM, TOWER OF Luke 13:4. Probably connected with “the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king’s garden” ( Nehemiah 3:15); “at the wall’s bend to the S. above the fountain of Siloam” (Josephus B. J. 5:4, section 2) was probably a tower. Jotham “built much on the wall of Ophel” ( 2 Chronicles 27:3); “Manasseh compassed about Ophel” ( 2 Chronicles 33:14); a “tower lay (projecting) out” in Ophel ( Nehemiah 3:26); such a projection might easily fall.

    SILOAM, VILLAGE OF The village Keir Silwan is at the foot of the third height of Olivet, at the spot where Solomon built the temples to Chemosh, Ashtoreth, and Milcom; “the mount of corruption,” E. (= “before”) of Jerusalem, the shrines being “on the right band,” i.e. S. of the mount called in the Vulgate “the mount of offense” ( 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:13).

    SILVER Hebrew keceph , Greek arguros . The only one of the four metals, gold, silver, brass, and iron, not mentioned until after the deluge. Abraham paid Ephron for the cave of Machpelah “400 shekels of silver, current money with the merchant” ( Genesis 23:16). By this time it had become a recognized standard of value and medium of exchange. It probably was not coined, but bars of silver were probably formed in conventional shapes and marked with some sign to note their weight. The thousand (“pieces” is not in the Hebrew) of silver given by Abimelech to Abraham probably indicate the value of the “sheep and oxen,” etc., which he gave ( Genesis 20:14-16). (See MONEY ). Silver was brought to Solomon in lavish abundance from Arabia and Tarshish (in plates like the Cingalese sacred writing tablets): 2 Chronicles 9:14,21; 1 Kings 10:21,27. Idols were generally wood inside, plated over with silver ( Jeremiah 10:9; Isaiah 30:22; 40:19; Hosea 13:2; Habakkuk 2:19). It was used for women’s ornaments, Genesis 24:53; cups, Genesis 44:2; sockets and chapiters of the pillars of the tabernacle, Exodus 26:19; 27:10; 38:17; the two trumpets, Numbers 10:2; the temple candlesticks, etc., Chronicles 28:15-17; the model shrines of Diana, Acts 19:24. There being mines (“vein”) of silver and “dust of gold” is accurately noted in Job 28:1 (see METALS ). The Lord, with perfect wisdom and love, leaves His people in affliction till, their dross being purified, He sees them reflecting His holy image; just as a “refiner of silver” sits watching the melting silver until he sees his own image reflected, when he knows the silver has been long enough in the furnace and withdraws it ( Malachi 3:3). (See MINES and see LEAD ). Captain Burton’s discovery of silver and gold and other metals in great abundance in the land of Midian, as well as the remains of ancient mine workings, remarkably confirms the Scripture account of Midian’s wealth in the metals ( Numbers 31:9,22,50-54; Judges 8:24-26). A forger would never have ascribed this kind of wealth to a nomadic people. (See MIDIAN , see PARAN ).

    SILVERLINGS Isaiah 7:23. (See PIECES OF SILVER ). “A thousand vines at 1,000 silverlings,” i.e. shekels (2s. 3d. each); a large price.

    SIMEON SIMON. 1. (See LEVI ). Jacob’s second son by Leah, Genesis 29:33.

    From shaama , “hear”; as the birth of Reuben (see a son) her firstborn convinced Leah that God saw her, so that of Simeon that God heard her.

    Levi’s and Simeon’s slaughter of the Shechemites ( Genesis 34:25,30) incurred Jacob’s reproof ( Genesis 49:5-7). Judah and Simeon joined together in the conquest of southern Canaan ( Judges 1:3,17). Joseph’s selection of Simeon as hostage for Benjamin’s appearance was perhaps due to his having been a leader in the brothers’ cruel attack (Genesis 37; 42:24).

    Simeon’s families are enumerated ( Genesis 46:10; Numbers 26:12-14; 1 Chronicles 4:24-43). At the census at Sinai Simeon numbered 59,300 ( Numbers 1:23); it was then the most numerous after Judah and Daniel At Shittim it had become the smallest, numbering 22,200. The mortality consequent on the idolatry of Peor was a leading cause ( Numbers 25:9,14). Zimri, slain in the act, was a prince of Simeon ( Numbers 26:14). Simeon was doomed by Jacob to be “scattered in Israel” ( Genesis 49:7); its sins caused its reduction to such small numbers as found adequate territory within Judah ( Joshua 19:2-9).

    Simeon was the “remnant” with Judah and Benjamin, which constituted Rehoboam’s forces ( 1 Kings 12:23). Still Simeon remained strong enough in Hezekiah’s days to smite the men of Ham with an expedition under 13 Simeonite princes, and to occupy their dwellings “at the entrance of (rather, as Keil, ‘westward from’) Gedor to the E. side of the valley” ( 1 Chronicles 4:34-43). The Simeonites “found the Meunim” (not as KJV, 1 Chronicles 4:41, “habitations”) (see MAON ) there besides the Hamites (whether Egyptians, Cushites, or Canaanites). The Meunim were connected with Maan, a city near Petra, E. of wady Musa, nomads. Five hundred Simeonites undertook a second expedition under four chiefs, sons of Shimei, against the remnant of Amalek that had escaped from Saul and David ( 1 Samuel 14:48; 15:7; 2 Samuel 8:12) to the mountains of Idumea; they smote them utterly, and dwelt in their place, and were there at the date of the composition of 1 Chronicles, i.e. after the return from Babylon. Simeon is omitted in Moses’ blessing, possibly because of the idolatry of Peor. Simeon in the wilderness marched south of the tabernacle, with Reuben and Gad, sons of Zilpah, maid of Leah, Simeon’s mother. The Canaanitess mother of Shaul ( Genesis 46:10) and the Horite father of Shaphat the spy from Simeon ( Numbers 13:5) indicate the laxness of Simeon in marriage connections, from whence sprang his paganish degeneracy. Their villages and 18 or 19 cities lay round the well Beersheba in Judah’s extreme south. Simeon stands first of the tribes appointed to bless the people on Mount Gerizim ( Deuteronomy 27:12). Though cities of Simeon were among those to which David sent presents of the Amalekite spoils, and though Ziklag was David’s own property, received from Achish king of the Philistines who had wrested it from Simeon ( Samuel 27:6; 30:26, etc.), yet Simeon and Judah were few in numbers at his installation at Hebron ( 1 Chronicles 12:23-37), and Simeon more than Judah. Some men of Simeon were apparently settled in the northern kingdom of Israel after the disruption ( 2 Chronicles 15:9; 34:6). Simeon is between Issachar and Benjamin, not beside Judah, in Ezekiel 48:25.

    Simeon is also in Revelation 7:7. 2. Luke 3:30. 3. PETER . The Hebrew form of the Greek Simon used by James; the most Hebraistic of the twelve ( Acts 15:14). Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus manuscripts read “Symeon” ( 2 Peter 1:1), but Vaticanus “Simon.” His mentioning his original name accords with his design in 2 Peter, to warn against coming false teachers (2 Peter 2) by setting forth the true “knowledge” of Christ on the testimony of the original apostolic eye witnesses like himself. This was not required in 1 Peter. 4. Luke 2:25-32. “Just and devout, waiting (like the dying Jacob, Genesis 49:18) for the consolation of Israel” (promised in Isaiah 40), and having upon him “the Holy Spirit,” who “revealed that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” When Jesus’ parents brought Him into the temple to redeem Him as the firstborn with five shekels according to the law ( Numbers 18:15), and to present Him to the Lord, Simeon took Him up in his arms, and blessing God said, “Lord, now Thou dost let Thy servant depart in peace (not a prayer, but a thanksgiving; again like Jacob, Genesis 46:30); for mine eyes (not another, Job 19:27) have seen ( 1 John 1:1) Thy ( Isaiah 28:16; Luke 3:6) salvation: which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people (the universality of the gospel): a light to lighten the Gentiles ( Isaiah 9:2), and (not only light, but also) the glory of Thy people Israel” ( Isaiah 60:1-3). He is mentioned so vaguely, “a man in Jerusalem,” that Lightfoot’s view is hardly correct that he was president of the Sanhedrin and father of Gamaliel ( Acts 5:34-40) who took so mild a view of Christianity, and that because of his religious opinions Simeon is not mentioned in the Mishna. Rabban Simeon’s grandfather was of the family of David; he succeeded his father Hillel as president, A.D. 13; at the feet of his son Gamaliel Paul was brought up. But the Simeon of Luke would scarcely have trained his son a Pharisee; Simeon was a common name. Christ’s advent brings to view some of His hidden ones, as Simeon and Anna, who, unknown to the world, were known to Him as yearning for Him. 5. Brother, i.e. cousin, of Jesus ( Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3).

    Probably the apostle Simeon Zelotes, “the zealot” ( Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13) for the honour of the law and the Israelite theocracy. Called “the Canaanite” (not the nation, but Kananaios , in Chaldee equivalent to the Greek Zeelotees ; “zealot,” Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18). Tenth among the twelve in Luke, but eleventh in Matthew and Mark. Eusebius from Hegesippus makes Simeon son of Clopas to succeed James in the bishopric of the Jerusalem church which was removed to Pella. He was martyred in his 120th year, under Trajan, A.D. 107, as David’s descendant who might claim the throne and give trouble to the Romans. 6. Father of Judas Iscariot ( John 6:71; 12:4; 13:2,26). 7. “The leper,” cleansed probably by Jesus. In his house at Bethany Mary anointed the Lord’s feet ( Matthew 26:6, etc.; Mark 14:3). He was probably father of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus; perhaps for a time he was away through leprosy, so that he is not named in Luke 10:38 where the house is called Martha’s house, nor John 11, but in Mark 14:3. (See LAZARUS ). 8. “The Pharisee” in whose house the sinful, but forgiven, woman anointed Jesus’ feet. Uncharitableness, ignorance, and pride prompted his thought, “this man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him, for she is a sinner.” Christ shinned His own knowledge by answering Simon’s unexpressed thought; His holiness, by not only being undefiled by her touch, but also sanctifying her by His touch; His judicial power, as One more than “a prophet,” by justifying her and condemning him ( Luke 7:36-50; 18:9-14). By the parable of the debtor forgiven 500 pence loving the creditor more than the one forgiven only 50, Christ showed that her warm and demonstrative love flowed from consciousness of forgiveness, his want of love from his fancy that he needed but little God’s forgiveness. Where little or no love is shown, little or no sense of forgiveness (which answers to her “faith,” Luke 7:50) exists to prompt it. Her sins, though many, were forgiven, not on account of her love, but as the moving cause of her love; the “for” in Luke 7:47 is evidential, her much love evidenced her much forgiveness and much sense of it. 9. Of Cyrene; attending the Passover “from the country, father of Alexander and Rufus” (known to Roman Christians, Romans 16:13, for whom Mark wrote); impressed to bear after Christ the cross to Golgotha, when the Lord Himself had sunk under it ( John 19:17; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26). An honourable ignominy. 10. THE TANNER with whom Simon lodged at Joppa ( Acts 9:43; 10:6,32). As rigid Jews regarded the business as unclean, Peter’s lodging there shows already a relaxation of Judaism. His house was near the seaside for the convenience of the water. By the Sultan’s order the old walls of Jaffa (Joppa) have been lately removed. In cutting a gate through a water battery at an angle of the sea wall built by Vespasian, and directly in front of the reputed house of Simon the tanner on the rocky bluff above, the men came on three oval shaped tanner vats hewn out of the natural rock and lined with Roman cement, down near the sea, and similar to those in use 18 centuries ago. Probably no more than one tanner would be living in so small a place as Joppa; so that the tradition is confirmed that here was the house of Simon with whom Peter lodged when he received the call of Cornelius. 11. Simeon Magus. The Samaritan who practiced magic, “bewitching the people of Samaria, giving out that he himself was some great one,” so that all said “this is the power of God which is called great” (so the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus manuscripts). Born at the Samaritan village (Gittim, according to Justin Martyr), Simeon was converted nominally and baptized through Philip at Sichem or Sychar, where Christ’s ministry (John 4) had already prepared the way. Josephus (Ant. 20:7, section 2) records that Simeon was Felix’ tool to seduce Drusilla away from her husband Azizus, king of Emesa. The Pseudo Clemens represents him as disciple, then successor, of Dositheus the gnostic heresiarch. The Recognitiones and Clementina report fabulous controversies between Simeon and Peter. His followers report his saying “I am the word of God, the paraclete, omnipotent,” in fact the incarnation of the word (the Logos, Philo and John 1:1). Simeon, viewing baptism as the initiation into communion with some powerful spirit through whom he could do greater wonders than before, was baptized. His case shows that the apostles could not always infallibly read motives, and that the grace symbolized in baptism is not indifferently conferred on all as Romanists teach giving sacraments a magic power as if they could profit without faith. Simeon, subsequently seeing extraordinary powers of the Holy Spirit conferred through laying on of Peter’s and John’s hands on those already baptized, and supposing that their bestowal was by the outward act independently of the inward disposition, desired to buy the power of conferring such gifts (from whence comes our term simony); evidently Simeon himself had not received the gifts, not having yet presented himself. Peter said “thy money perish with thee” ( 1 Corinthians 6:13; Colossians 2:22), undesignedly in coincidence with Peter’s language in the independent epistle ( 1 Peter 1:7); so “thou hast neither part, nor lot,” etc.; compare 1 Peter 1:4 “inheritance,” literally, lot (kleeros ); “thy heart is not right (in motives and ends) in the sight of God; repent ... if perhaps the thought ... may be forgiven,” implying his sin verged toward the unpardonable one ( Matthew 12:31). God, not the apostles, in Peter’s view could absolve; compare John 20:23. “For I perceive thou art in the gall,” etc. ( Hebrews 12:15). Simeon in his prayer, “pray that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me,” shows that fear of punishment, not hatred of sin, influenced him as Pharaoh ( Exodus 8:8).

    SIMRI SHIMRI. 1 Chronicles 26:10. Though not the firstborn, his father made him chief.

    SIN (1) (See EXODUS ). Pelusium ( Ezekiel 30:15,16), the strength of Egypt, its frontier fortress on the N.E. in contrast to No or Thebes at the far S. of Egypt. From sin , “muddy,” as Pelusium comes from flos “mud,” “day.” So the Arab Teeneh from teen, “mud.” But Lepsius explains Pelusium the Philistine town, the last held by the shepherd dynasty (?). A Sallier papyrus records a great battle at Sin between Rameses and the Sheta; here too was the alleged deliverance of Sethos from Sennacherib, mice gnawing by night the Assyrians’ bowstrings and shield straps. Herodotus says that Sethos’ statue with a mouse in his hands stood in Vulcan’s temple, and an inscription, “look on me and learn to reverence the gods.” Ezekiel’s prophecy “Sin shall have great pain” was fulfilled in the Persian Cambyses’ great cruelty to the Egyptians after conquering Psammenitus near Pelusium. Ochus here defeated Nectanebos, the last native king.

    SIN, WILDERNESS OF Which Israel reached after leaving the encampment by the Red Sea ( Numbers 33:11). Their next stage was Rephidim: see EXODUS Exodus 16:1; 17:1. Sin wilderness is the desert sandstone tract, Debbet er Ramleh, extending across the peninsula from wady Nasb in a S.E. direction between the limestone district of et Tih and the granite of the central formation, Sinai. The journey from Elim, or even from the Red Sea, could be performed in a day. The Egyptians working the copper mines at Sarbut el Khadim would keep the route in good order. Israel moved by detachments; and only at the wilderness of Sin “all the congregation” assembled for the first time. (See PARAN ). Distinct from the wilderness of Zin.

    SIN (2) Viewed as chatha ’, “coming short of our true end,” the glory of God ( Romans 3:23), literally, missing the mark; Greek hamartanoo . ‘awen , “vanity,” “nothingness”; after all the scheming and labour bestowed on sin nothing comes of it. “Clouds without water” ( Jude 1:12; Proverbs 22:8; Jeremiah 2:5; Romans 8:20). Pesha’ rebellion, namely, against God as our rightful king. Rasha’ “wickedness,” related to rash “restlessness”; out of God all must be unrest ( Isaiah 57:20,21); “wandering stars” ( Jude 1:13). Maal , “shuffling violation of duty,” “prevarication” ( 1 Chronicles 10:13). ‘aashaam , “guilt,” incurring punishment and needing atonement, Ra , “ill,” “ruin,” the same word for “badness” and “calamity” literally, breaking in pieces. Awal , “evil,” “perversity.” Amal , “travail”; sin is weary work ( Habakkuk 2:13). Avah , “crookedness,” “wrong,” a distortion of our nature, disturbing our moral balance. Shagah , “error.” abar , “transgression through anger”; “sin is the transgression of the law,” i.e. God’s will ( 1 John 3:4). Sin is a degeneracy from original good, not an original existence, creation, or generation; not by the Creator’s action, but by the creature’s defection ( Ecclesiastes 7:29). As God is love, holiness is resemblance to Him, love to Him and His creatures, and conformity to His will. Selfishness is the root of sin, it sets up self and self will instead of God and God’s will.

    The origination of man’s sin was not of himself, but from Satan’s deceit; otherwise man’s sin would be devilish and ineradicable. But as it is we may be delivered. This is the foundation of our see REDEMPTION (see SAVIOUR and see ATONEMENT ) by Christ. Original sin is as an hereditary disease, descending from the first transgressor downward ( Psalm 51:5). National sins are punished in this world, as nations have no life beyond the grave ( Proverbs 14:34). The punishment of the individual’s sins are remedial, disciplinary, and deterrent in this world; and judicially retributive in the world to come. (See, on eternal punishment, see HELL ). The Greek aionios represents the Hebrew olam and ad ; olam , hidden, unlimited duration; ad , applied to God’s eternity and the future duration of the good and destruction of the wicked ( Psalm 9:5; 83:17; 92:7).

    The objections are: 1. That, the length of punishment is out of all proportion with the time of sin. But the duration of sin is no criterion of the duration of punishment: a fire burns in a few minutes records thereby lost for ever; a murder committed in a minute entails cutting off from life for ever; one act of rebellion entails perpetual banishment from the king. 2. That the sinner’s eternal punishment would be Satan’s eternal triumph.

    But Satan has had his triumph in bringing sin and death into the world; his sharing the sinner’s eternal punishment will be the reverse of a triumph; the abiding punishment of the lost will be a standing witness of God’s holy hatred of sin, and a preservative against any future rebellion. 3. That the eternity of punishment involves the eternity of sin. But this, if true, would be no more inconsistent with God’s character than His permission of it for a time; but probably, as the saved will be delivered from the possibility of sinning by being raised above the sphere of evil, so the lost will be incapable of sinning any more in the sense of a moral or immoral choice by sinking below the sphere of good. 4. That eternal vengeance is inconsistent with God’s gospel revelation of Himself as love.

    But the New Testament abounds in statements of judicial vengeance being exercised by God ( Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30; Thessalonians 4:6; 2 Thessalonians 1:8).

    SIN OFFERING (See SACRIFICE ; see ATONEMENT ; see LEPROSY ). As chatteth , hamartia , is the sin offering, so asham (implying negligence), lutron , is the trespass offering. (See SIN ). The trespass offering was a forfeit for the violated rights of others, whether of Jehovah as head of the nation or of a fellow man. It related to the consequence of sin more immediately than to sin itself in the sinner’s heart. Its connection with the consecration of the leper, and reconsecration of the Nazarite, expressed the share each has in sin’s consequences, disease, death, and consequent defilement ( Leviticus 5:14; 14; 15). It was less connected with the conscience than the sin offering ( Leviticus 4:3). There was no graduation of offerings according to the worshipper’s circumstances. It was accompanied with pecuniary fine, one fifth besides the value of the injury done, in fact “fine offerings” ( Numbers 5:5-8). None of the blood was put on the altar horns, as in the sin offering. The victim was a ram instead of a female sheep or goat. In Isaiah 53:10 translated “when His soul shall have made an offering for sin” (asham , a trespass offering, Matthew 20:28, “a ransom for many,” lutron anti polloon ), He voluntarily laying down His life ( John 10:17,18; Ephesians 5:2; Hebrews 9:14). (On the ceremonies of the see DAY OF ATONEMENT ). The later Jews, instead of setting the scapegoat free in the wilderness, led it to a high precipice called Sook (narrow) and dashed it down. This was done to avoid the recurrence of what once occurred, namely, the scapegoat came back to Jerusalem, which was thought a bad omen. Lieut. Conder has discovered the spot, the hill el Muntar, half a mile beyond the well of Suk beside the ancient road from Jerusalem. The ridge still is named Hadeidun, answering to the Hebrew name of the district, Hidoodin (sharp). A tabernacle was erected at every space of 2,000 cubits, to evade the law of the Sabbath day’s journey, for they led the scapegoat out on the Sabbath; after eating bread and drinking water the conductor of the goat could go on to the next tabernacle; ten stages were thus made between Seek and Jerusalem, in all six and a half miles to el Muntar, from whence the conductor caught the first sight of the great desert. Beside the well probably was the tenth tabernacle, to which he returned after precipitating the goat, and where he sat until sundown, when he might return to Jerusalem. (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1878, p. 118).

    Sins of ignorance, rather of inadvertence. Ecclesiastes 5:6; 10:5; Hebrews 9:7, “errors,” Greek “sins of ignorance.” Leviticus 4:2, in contrast to presumptuous sins entailing (ipso facto, whether the crime incurred civil punishment or not) the being cut off ( Numbers 15:22,30; Psalm 19:12,13; Hebrews 10:26,27; Proverbs 2:13-15; Exodus 31:14; Leviticus 7:20; Matthew 12:31; 1 John 5:16; Acts 3:17; Ephesians 4:18; 1 Peter 1:14; Luke 12:48).

    SINAI (See EXODUS ). The peninsula of Sinai is a triangular tract, bounded on the W. by the gulf of Suez, on the E. by the gulf of Akabah, and on the N. by a line drawn from Gaza through Beersheba to the S. of the Dead Sea.

    There are three divisions: (1) the southernmost, the neighbourhood of Sinai; (2) the desert of et Tih, the scene of Israel’s wanderings; (3) the Negeb, or south country, the dwelling of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Near ‘Ain Hudherah (Hazeroth) Mr. Palmer (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, January, 1871) discovered Erweis el Ebeirig, which he believed to be the remains of an Israelite camp. The tombs outside he identified as the Kibroth Hattaavah, “graves of lust” ( Numbers 11:31); the extensive remains betoken a large assemblage of people. Farther on the stone huts scattered over the hills and country, Arabic “Nawamis” (mosquitos), were probably Amalekite dwellings. Proceeding N. the explorers reached ‘Ain Gadis or Kadesh, with a wady of the same name running from it beside a large plain. ‘Ain Gadis is on the frontier of the Negeb or south country, which is now waste through neglect of the water supply, but bears traces of former cultivation arid ruins of many cities.

    Eshcol, where the spies went, lay not far off from Kadesh in the vine abounding district on the way to Hebron; the hill sides are covered with small stone heaps, on which the vines were trained. To the north stand el Meshrifeh or Zephath “the watchtower,” and Sbaita, all built of stone, without timber, “the city of the Zephath,” afterward called Hormah ( Judges 1:17). The route lies then through the Amorite hills to Ruhaibeh, with the remains of an old well, the troughs being of great size and antiquity, the Rehoboth well of Isaac; near it Shutnet, or Sitnah. Then Beersheba with three wells, one dry, the other two full of water.

    Sinai stands in the center of the peninsula which lies between the two horns of the Red Sea. It is a wedge shaped mass of granite and porphyry platonic rocks, rising almost 9,000 ft. above the sea. On the S.W. lies a wide alluvial plain, coasting the gulf of Suez; on the E. side, coasting the Akabah gulf, the plain is narrow. There are three chief masses: (1) The N.W. cluster, including five-peaked Serbal, 6,342 ft. above the sea. (2) The E. and central mass, jebel Katherin its highest point, 8,063 ft. above the sea; jebel Musa, at the south end, about 7,000 ft. (3) The S.E. close to (2), Um Shaumer its highest point. Ras Sufsafeh, the northern end of (2), with the vast plain er Rahab (the wilderness of Sinai) for Israel below, is the Mount Sinai of the law. Horeb is the N. part of the Sinaitic range. At the foot of Ras Sufsafeh are alluvial mounds, which exactly correspond to the “bounds” set to restrain the people. In the long retiring sweep of er Rahab the people could “remove and stand afar off,” for it extends into the side valleys. Moses, coming through one of the oblique gullies at the side of Res Sufsafeh on the N. and S., might not see the camp, though hearing the noise, until he emerged from the wady ed Deir or the wady Leja on the plain ( Exodus 32:15-19).

    SINIM Isaiah 49:12. The people of southern China. An inland commercial route (see SILK ) connected the extreme East with the West very early. The Sinims and the Scythians interchanged commodities as the Chinese and Russians do now. Sinae was the name of the Chinese traders. Their town was Thinae, one of the great emporiums in western China, now Thsiu or Tin in the province of Schensi. In the eighth century B.C. the Sinae became independent in western China, their princes reigning there for 650 years before they attained dominion over the whole land; in the third century B.C. the dynasty of Tsin (from whence came “China”) became supreme over the empire. The Chinese “came from far,” (distinct from “the N. and the W.”), namely, from the far East, answering the requirements of Isaiah 49:12. The western part becoming first known to India, the name of this part was given to the whole. The Chinese seldom call themselves so, being in the habit of giving themselves high sounding titles, or else naming themselves from the reigning dynasty.

    SINITE A tribe of Canaan ( Genesis 10:17). In the Lebanon district Strabo mentions Sinna (16:2, section 18); Jerome that near Area was Sinum, Sini (Quaest,. Hebrew in Genes.).

    SION, MOUNT A name of Mount see HERMON . Deuteronomy 4:48, “lofty,” “upraised.” Different from Zion. Shenir and Sirion mean the glittering breastplate of ice.

    SIPHMOTH One of David’s haunts in southern Judah, to which he sent of the Amalekite spoil ( 1 Samuel 30:28).

    SIPPAI Of the sons of the Rephaim or giants, slain by Sibbechai ( 1 Chronicles 20:4). see SAPH in 2 Samuel 21:18.

    SIRAH, THE WELL OF Whence Joab recalled Abner to murder him at Hebron ( 2 Samuel 3:16,26). On the northern road from Hebron by which Abner would naturally return through Bahurim to Mahanaim. Ain Sara, a spring and reservoir on the western side of the ancient northern road, one mile out of Hebron, may represent Sirah. Sirah and Sara mean alike “withdrawn,” referring to the fact that the spring is withdrawn. from the high road at the end of a little alley with dry stone walls, under a stone arch (Palestine Exploration Quarerly Statement, July, 1878, p. 121).

    SIRION The Sidonian name for see HERMON ( Deuteronomy 3:9; Psalm 29:6).

    SISAMAI 1 Chronicles 2:40.

    SISERA 1. Captain of the host of see JABIN (see JAEL ; see BARAK ; see DEBORAH ; see KISHON ), the Canaanite king who reigned inHAZOR.

    Sisera resided in see HAROSHETH of the Gentiles . His doom was a standing reference in after times ( 1 Samuel 12:9; Psalm 83:9). The curdled milk, still offered by Bedouin as a delicacy to guests, is called leben. It is not only refreshing to the weary, but also strongly soporific, and Jael’s aim would be to cast Sisera into a sound sleep. In Judges 5:20, “the stars in their courses fought against Sisera,” the reference is not only to the storm of hail beating in the enemy’s face which Josephus describes, but also to the falling meteoric stars of autumn which descended as the defeated host fled by night. (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1878, p. 115,116). The divine approval of the faith of Jael in killing Sisera involves no approval of her treachery. So in the case of Gideon, Samson, Jephthah, God in approving their faithful zeal in executing His will gives no sanction to the alloy of evil which accompanied their faith ( Hebrews 11:32). From this great enemy sprang Israel’s great friend, Rabbi Akiba, whose father was a Syrian proselyte of righteousness; he was standard bearer to Bar Cocheba in the Jewish war of independence (Bartolocci 4:272). 2. One of the Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel ( Ezra 2:53; Nehemiah 7:55). Canaanite captives were dedicated to help the Levites in the heavier work of the temple.

    SITNAH Genesis 26:21. The same root as Satan. Now Shutnet. The second of the two wells dug by Isaac in the valley of Gerar, which the herdsmen of the place strove for as theirs. On the left of the wady Ruhaibeh is the small valley Shutneh er Ruhaibeh, preserving the name. Palmer suggests that the great well in wady Sadi is Isaac’s. (Palestine Exploration Society, “Our Work.”) SLAVE Hired service was little known anciently; slavery was the common form of service. But among the Hebrews the bond service was of a mild and equitable character; so much so that ebed , “servant,” is not restricted to the bond servant, but applies to higher relations, as, e.,g., the king’s prime minister, a rich man’s steward, as Eliezer ( Genesis 15:2; 24:2), God’s servant ( Daniel 9:17). Bond service was not introduced by Moses, but being found in existence was regulated by laws mitigating its evils and restricting its duration. Man stealing was a capital crime ( Deuteronomy 24:7); not only stealing Israelites, but people of other nations ( Exodus 21:16). The Mosaic law jealously guarded human life and liberty as sacred.

    Masters must treat Hebrew servants as hired servants, not with rigour, but with courteous considerateness as brethren, and liberally remunerate them at the close of their service ( Deuteronomy 15:12-18; Leviticus 25:39-41). Exodus 21:2 provided that no Israelite bound to service could be forced to continue in it more than six years. Leviticus supplements this by giving every Hebrew the right to claim freedom for himself and family in the jubilee year, without respect to period of service, and to recover his land. This was a cheek on the oppression of the rich ( Jeremiah 34:8-17). Property in foreign slaves might be handed down from father to son, so too the children born in the house ( Genesis 14:14; 17:12). Some were war captives ( Numbers 31:6,7,9; Deuteronomy 20:14); but Israelites must not reduce to bondage Israelites taken in war ( 2 Chronicles 28:8-15). The monuments give many illustrations of the state of the Israelites themselves reduced to bondage by foreign kings to whom they were delivered for their rebellion.

    Others were enslaved for crime ( Exodus 22:3, like our penal servitude), or bought from foreign slave dealers ( Leviticus 25:44), so they were his property ( Exodus 21:21). The price was about 30 or 40 shekels ( Exodus 21:32; Leviticus 27:3,4; Zechariah 11:12,13; Matthew 26:15). The slave was encouraged to become a proselyte ( Exodus 12:44). He might be set free ( Exodus 21:3,20,21,26,27).

    The law guarded his life and limbs. If a married man became a bondman, his rights to his wife were respected, she going out with him after six years’ service. If as single he accepted a wife from his master, and she bore him children, she and they remained the master’s, and he alone went out, unless from love to his master and his wife and children he preferred staying ( Exodus 21:6); then the master bored his ear (the member symbolizing willing obedience, as the phrase “give ear” implies) with an awl, and he served for ever, i.e. until jubilee year ( Leviticus 25:10; Deuteronomy 15:17); type of the Father’s willing Servant for man’s sake (compare Isaiah 50:5; Psalm 40:6-8; Hebrews 10:5; Philippians 2:7). A Hebrew sold to a stranger sojourning in Israel did not go out after six years, but did at the year of jubilee; meantime he might be freed by himself or a kinsman paying a ransom, the object of the law being to stir up friends to help the distressed relative. His brethren should see that he suffered no undue rigour, but was treated as a yearly hired servant ( Leviticus 25:47-55). Even the foreigner, when enslaved, if his master caused his loss of an eye or tooth, could claim freedom ( Exodus 21:6; Leviticus 19:20). He might be ransomed. At last he was freed at jubilee. His murder was punished by death ( Leviticus 24:17,22; Numbers 35:31-33). He was admitted to the spiritual privileges of Israel: circumcision ( Genesis 17:12), the great feasts, Passover, etc. ( Exodus 12:43; Deuteronomy 16:10; 29:10-13; 31:12), the hearing of the law, the Sabbath and jubilee rests. The receiver of a fugitive slave was not to deliver him up ( Deuteronomy 23:15,16). Christianity does not begin by opposing the external system prevailing, but plants the seeds of love, universal brotherhood in Christ, communion of all in one redemption from God our common Father, which silently and surely undermines slavery. Paul’s sending back Onesimus to Philemon does not sanction slavery as a compulsory system, for Onesimus went back of his own free will to a master whom Christianity had made into a brother. In 1 Corinthians 7:21-24 Paul exhorts slaves not to be unduly impatient to cast off even slavery by unlawful means ( 1 Peter 2:13-18), as Onesimus did by fleeing. The precept (Greek) “become not ye slaves of men” implies that slavery is abnormal ( Leviticus 25:42). “If called, being a slave, to Christianity, be content; but yet, if also (besides spiritual freedom) thou canst be free (bodily, a still additional good, which if thou canst not attain be satisfied without, but which if offered despise not), use the opportunity of becoming free rather than remain a slave.” “Use it” in verse 23 refers to freedom, implied in the words just before, “be made free” ( 2 Peter 2:19).

    SLIME chemar . Septuagint “asphalte,” bitumen ( Genesis 11:3). Herodotus (i. 179) mentions that hot bitumen and burned bricks were used for building the walls of Babylon; the bitumen from the river Is falling into Euphrates not far from Babylon. As the bitumen is found only here and there among the ruins, chiefly toward the basement, it was probably used only where they wished to counter. act moisture. The Dead Sea, from its abounding in asphalte, is called “the Asphalte Lake.” The vale of Siddim was full of pits of it ( Genesis 14:10). Moses’ mother made the ark watertight with pitch and “slime” (asphalte; Speaker’s Commentary Exodus 2:3, makes it mud to bind the papyrus stalks together, and to make the surface smooth for the infant).

    SLING (See ARMS ). 1 Samuel 17:40. Smooth stones were preferred. The Benjamites’ expertness with it was famed ( Judges 20:16; Chronicles 12:2). Suited for skirmishing, and for striking the besieged ( 2 Kings 3:25; 2 Chronicles 26:14). Two strings attached to a leather center, the hollow receptacle of the stone, composed it. Samuel 25:29, “the soul of thine enemies Itc will hurl away in the cup (kaph ) of the sling.” It was swung round the head, then one string was let go and the stone hurled out. Image of sudden and violent removal ( Jeremiah 10:18). Translated Zechariah 9:15, “they (the Jews) shall tread under foot the sling stones” hurled at them by the foe, and falling harmless at their feet ( Job 41:28). Their foes shall be as such sling stones when fallen under foot; in contrast to God’s people ( Zechariah 9:16), “the (precious) stones of a crown.” In Proverbs 26:8, “as he that bindeth a stone in a sling” (margemah , distinct from qela’ a sling), the stone bound is useless to the slinger; so “honour” is useless when “given to a feel” (Ewald). Maurer translated “hurleth.” Chald., Syriac, and Arabic support KJV; the Vulgate supports margin, “as he that putteth a precious stone in an heap of stones.” KJV is best.

    SMYRNA A city on the coast of Ionia, at the head of the gulf, having a well sheltered harbour; N. of Ephesus; beautified by Alexander the Great and Antigonus, and designated “the beautiful.” Still flourishing, and under the same name, after various vicissitudes, and called “the Paris of the Levant,” with large commerce and a population of 200,000. The church here was one of the seven addressed by the Lord ( Revelation 2:8-11). Polycarp, martyred in A.D. 168, 86 years after conversion, was its bishop, probably “the angel of the church in Smyrna.” The Lord’s allusions to persecutions accord with this identification. The attributes of Him “which was dead and is alive” would comfort Smyrna under persecution. The idol Dionysus at Smyrna was believed to have been killed and come to life; in contrast to this lying fable is Christ’s title, “the First and the Last, which was dead and is alive” ( Revelation 2:8). As death was to Him the gate of life, so it is to His people. Good “works,” “tribulation,” “poverty” owing to “spoiling of goods,” while she was “rich” in grace (contrast Laodicea, “rich” in her own eyes and the world’s, poor before God), were her marks. The Jews in name, really “the synagogue of Satan,” blasphemed Christ as “the Hanged One.” At Polycarp’s martyrdom they clamoured with the pagan for his being cast to the lions; the proconsul opposed it, but, impotent to restrain the fanaticism of the mob, let them He him to the stake; the Jews with their own hands carried logs for the pile which burned him. The theater where he was burned was on a hill facing the N. It was one of the largest in Asia.

    Traces of it may be seen in descending from the northern gateway of the castle. A circular letter from the church of Smyrna describes his martyrdom. When urged to recant he said, “four-score years and six I have served the Lord, and He never wronged me; how then can I blaspheme my King and Saviour?” The accuser, the devil, cast some of the Smyrna church into prison, and “it had tribulation ten days,” a short term ( Genesis 24:55; Numbers 11:19), whereas the consequent joy is eternal (many Christians perished by wild beasts or at the stake because they refused to throw incense into the fire to sacrifice to the genius of the emperor): a sweet consolation in trial. Ten is the number of the world powers hostile to the church ( Revelation 13:1). Christ promises Smyrna “a crown of life” (compare James 1:12; 2 Timothy 4:8 “of righteousness,” 1 Peter 5:4 “of glory”) in reward for “faithfulness unto death.” The allusion is to the crown-wearing (stefanofori ), leading priests at Smyrna It was usual to present the superintending priest with a crown at the end of his year of office; several persons of both sexes are called “crown bearers” in inscriptions. The ferocity of the populace against the aged Polycarp is accounted for by their zealous interest in the Olympian games celebrated here, in respect to which Christianity bore an antisocial aspect. Smyrna (= myrrh) yielded its perfume in being bruised to death. Smyrna’s faithfulness is rewarded by its candlestick not having been wholly removed; from whence the Turks call it “infidel Smyrna.” Persecuted Smyrna and see PHILADELPHIA are the only churches which the Lord does not reprove.

    SNAIL chomet ( Leviticus 11:30). Rather “a lizard.” Some think the Stellio lacerta. The Chaldee means “to bow down”; the Muslims kill it, as though it mimicked them at prayers. The shablul in Psalm 58:8 is a “snail” or slug (limax), which delights in the damp night; but in the hot sunshine, as it crawls over a dry surface and moistens the way with its secretion, its moisture melts away.

    SNOW See PALESTINE , Climate, at the end.

    SO The Egyptian king to whom Hoshea, Israel’s last king, applied in the ninth year of his reign for help, when casting off the obligation to pay tribute to Assyria ( 2 Kings 17:4). So did not venture to encounter the Assyrian king Shalmaneser, but deserted his protege, as Egyptian kings often did ( Isaiah 30:3; 36:6). Israel was conquered and Samaria taken. Egyptian monuments illustrate Scripture; precisely in Hoshea’s time a change occurs in the Egyptian dynasties. Manetho’s 25th or Ethiopian dynasty extended its influence into Lower Egypt in 725 B.C. So or Seveh answers to Sabacho of Manetho, and Shebek I of the hieroglyphics. A little later So contended with Sargon in southern Palestine. A seal of fine clay, impressed from the bezel of a metallic finger ring, an oval two inches long by one wide, bears the image, name, and titles of Sabacho. Some make So the first Sabacho, others Sabacho II. Tirhakah or Tehrak, the third and last of the dynasty, is thought to have put So to death. Sabaku (according to G.

    Smith’s deciphering) married the sister of Tirhakah who helped Hezekiah against Sennacherib; at Sabaku’s death Tirhakah succeeded, Sabaku’s son being set aside.

    SOAP borit . (See FULLER ). Jeremiah 2:22. Vegetable alkali or potash. Many plants yielding alkalies exist in Palestine and around: hubeibet (Salsola kali) with glass-like leaves near the Dead Sea; ajram near Sinai, pounded for use as soap; the gilloo or soap plant of Egypt; and the heaths near Joppa. The Saponaria offcinalis and Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum ( Job 9:30; Isaiah 1:25). Hebrew for “purely” “as alkali (purifies).”

    SOCHO 1. 1 Chronicles 4:18. Heber was “father,” founder, or colonist of Socho in the low hill region of Judah. Now Shuweikeh, in the western part of the low hills of Judah, on the southern slope of the wady Sumt, nearly half a mile above the bed of the wady, a natural terrace, green in spring, dotted with grey ruins.SOCHOH in 1 Kings 4:10.SOCOH in Joshua 15:35.

    Between Socho and Azekah the Philistines were posted for the battle wherein Goliath fell ( 1 Samuel 17:1). Rehoboam fortified it after the disruption ( 2 Chronicles 11:7). Taken by the Philistines in Ahaz’ reign ( 2 Chronicles 28:18). 2. Also in Judah; now Shuweibeh ( Joshua 15:48), ten miles S.W. of Hebron.

    SODI Numbers 13:10.

    SODOM Chief of the group Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela or Zoar ( Genesis 10:19; 13:3,10-13; 19; Luke 17:29; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 1:4-7; Mark 6:11; Matthew 10:15; Deuteronomy 29:23). (See GOMORRAH ). Palmer and Drake traversing the Negeb in a S.E. direction, as far as Mount Hor, made a detour to jebel (mount) Madherah.

    At its summit and base are blocks of stone, of which the Arabs say: “a people once dwelt there, to whom travelers came seeking hospitality; but the people did to them a horrible deed, wherefore the Almighty in anger rained down stones, and destroyed them from off the face of the earth.”

    Sodom is interpreted “burning” or else “vineyard” (Gesenius), “fortification” (Furst). Abraham could see the smoke of the burning cities from near Hebron. The Lord over night announced to him Sodom’s doom, at some spot on the way from Mamre or Hebron toward Sodom, to which he had accompanied the angels ( Genesis 18:16). Tradition says the spot was Caphar Berucha, from which the Dead Sea is visible through a ravine.

    Long ranges of hills intervene between Hebron and Sodom, but from the hill over Hebron or Mamre through a gap in the chain the whole district of the Jordan valley is visible. Lot at first pitched only towards Sodom, not until afterward did he go further south to Sodom itself ( Genesis 13:12; 14:12; and Genesis 14:3 says expressly the vale of Siddim is the Salt Sea). This favors the S. of the Dead Sea site for Sodom, etc., which the traditional names confirm.

    SODOMITES.

    Not inhabitants of Sodom, but those “devoted” (qedeeshim ) to unnatural lust in Ashtoreth’s honour, as a religious rite! ( Deuteronomy 23:17; 1 Kings 14:24; 2 Kings 23:7; Job 36:14 margin) There were women similarly “desecrated” to lust as a religious rite ( Genesis 38:21,22; Hosea 4:14; translated 1 Kings 22:38), “the dogs licked his blood while the harlots (zonot ) were bathing in the pool” early in the morning, as their custom was. So Septuagint SOLOMON Shlomoh in Hebrew. Second child of David by Bathsheba. Josephus makes Solomon last born of David’s sons (Ant. 7:14, section 2). His history is contained in 2 Samuel 12:24,25; 1 Chronicles 22:6-16; 1 Kings 1-- 11; 2 Chronicles 1--9. The leading events of his life were selected, under inspiration: namely, his grandeur, extensive commerce, and wisdom, etc. ( 1 Kings 9:10--10:29), from “the book of the Acts of Solomon”; his accession and dedication of the temple (1 Kings 1--8:66) from “the book of Nathan the prophet”; his idolatry and its penal consequences (chap. 11) from “the book of Ahijah the Shilonite and the visions of Iddo the seer.”

    Psalm 72 was his production under the Spirit. Its objective character accords with Solomon’s other writings, whereas subjective feeling characterizes David’s psalms. Solomon’s glorious and wide kingdom typifies Messiah’s. The Nile, Mediterranean, and Euphrates, were then Israel’s bounds ( 1 Kings 4:21; 2 Chronicles 9:26) as promised in Genesis 15:18; Deuteronomy 11:24. From thence Messiah is to reign to the ends of the earth (verse 8; Isaiah 9:5,6; Isaiah 11; Zechariah 9:10; see Micah 5:4; Numbers 24:19). “The song of degrees,” i.e. for Israelites going up to the great feasts at Jerusalem (Psalm 127), was also Solomon’s. It has no trace of the sadness which pervades “the songs of degrees” without titles, and which accords with the post captivity period. The individual comes into prominence here, whereas they speak more of the nation and church. The theme suits Solomon who occupied chiefly the domestic civic territory. The main thought answers to Proverbs 10:22, “so God giveth His beloved sleep,” i.e. undisturbed repose and wealth without the anxieties of the worldly, in a way they know not how ( Mark 4:27). So God gave to His beloved S. in sleep (Hengstenberg supplies “in”); Matthew 6:25,34. Jedidiah (“beloved of Jehovah,” <19C702> Psalm 127:2) was his God-given name ( Psalm 60:5). Solomon evidently refers ( Psalm 60:2) to his own experience ( 1 Kings 3:5-13; 4:20-25), yet in so unstudied a way that the coincidence is evidently undesigned, and so confirms the authenticity of both psalm and independent history. (See PROVERBS , see CANTICLES , and see ECCLESIASTES ).

    His name “Solomon,” peaceful, was given in accordance with the early prophecy that, because of wars, David should not build Jehovah’s house, but that a son should be born to him, “a man of rest,” who should build it ( 1 Chronicles 22:9; compare the fulfillment 1 Kings 4:25; 5:4, and the Antitype Matthew 11:29; <19D208> Psalm 132:8-14; Isaiah 11:10; 9:6; Ephesians 2:14). His birth was to David a pledge that God is at peace with him. Jehovah commissioned Nathan (“sent by the hand of Nathan”), and Nathan called David’s son Jedidiah “for Jehovah’s sake,” i.e. because Jehovah loved him. Jehovah’s naming him so assured David that Jehovah loved Solomon. Jedidiah was therefore not his actual name, but expressed Jehovah’s relation to him ( 2 Samuel 12:24,25). Tradition makes Nathan the prophet his instructor, Jehiel was governor of the royal princes ( Chronicles 27:32). Jehovah chose Solomon of all David’s sons to be his successor, and promised to be his father, and to establish his kingdom for ever, if he were constant to His commandments ( 1 Chronicles 28:5,6,7).

    Accordingly David swore to Bathsheba that her son should succeed. She pleaded this at the critical moment of see ADONIJAH ’S rebellion ( Kings 1:13,17,30). By the interposition of Nathan the prophet, Zadok the priest, Benaiah, Shimei, and Rei, David’s mighty men, Solomon was at David’s command taken on the king’s own mule to Gihon, anointed, and proclaimed king. Solomon would have spared see ADONIJAH but for his incestuous and treasonous desire to have Abishag his father’s concubine; he mercifully spared the rest of his brothers who had joined Adonijah. see ABIATHAR he banished to Anathoth for treason, thus fulfilling the old curse on Eli ( 1 Samuel 2:31-35). Joab the murderer he put to death, according to his father’s dying charge, illustrating Solomon’s own words, Ecclesiastes 8:12,13. Shimei fell by breaking his own engagement on oath. Solomon’s reverent dutifulness to his mother amidst all his kingly state appears in the narrative ( 1 Kings 2:12; Exodus 20:12; Psalm 45:9; Proverbs 1:8; 4:3; 6:20; 10:1).

    The ceremonial of coronation and anointing was repeated more solemnly before David and all the congregation, with great sacrifices and glad feastings, Zadok at the same time being anointed “priest”; and Jehovah magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel ( 1 Chronicles 29:20-25). He was “yet young and tender” ( 1 Chronicles 29:1; 22:5; 1 Kings 3:7; “I am but a little child,” Proverbs 4:3); perhaps 20 years of age: as Rehoboam was 41 at his accession and Solomon had reigned 40 years, Rehoboam must have been born before Solomon’s accession ( 1 Kings 11:42; 14:21). Solomon loved the Lord who had first loved him (see JEDIDIAH ): 1 Kings 3:3.

    He walked in David’s godly ways but there being no one exclusive temple yet, he sacrificed in high places, especially at the great high place in Gibeon, where was the tabernacle with its altar, while the ark was in Zion.

    After his offering there a thousand burnt offerings God in vision gave him his choice of goods. In the spirit of a child (see 1 Corinthians 2:14) he asked for an understanding heart to discern between good and bad (compare James 1:5; 3:17; 2 Timothy 3:17; Proverbs 2:3-9; Psalm 72:1,2; Hebrews 5:14). God gave him, besides wisdom, what he had not asked, riches, honour, and life, because he made wisdom his first desire ( James 4:3; 1 John 5:14,15; Ecclesiastes 1:16; Matthew 6:33; Ephesians 3:20; Proverbs 3:2,16; Psalm 91:16). His wise decision as to the owner of the living child established his reputation for wisdom. His Egyptian queen, Pharaoh’s daughter, is distinguished from “the strange women” who seduced him to idolatry ( <111101> Kings 11:1), and no Egyptian superstitions are mentioned. Still he did not let her as a foreigner stay in the palace of David, sanctified as it was by the presence of the ark, but assigned her a dwelling in the city of David and then brought her up out of the city of David to the palace he had built for her ( 2 Chronicles 8:11; 1 Kings 9:24; 3:1). see GEZER was her dowry. Toward the close of his reign God chastised him for idolatry because, beginning with latitudinarian toleration of his foreign wives’ superstitions, be ended with adopting them himself; retaining at the same time what cannot be combined with idolatry, Jehovah’s worship ( Ezekiel 20:39; 1 Kings 11). see JEROBOAM “lifted up his hand against the king, and fled to Shishak (of a new dynasty) of Egypt”; see REZON of Zobah on the N.E. frontier and see HADAD the Edomite became his adversaries, Solomon otherwise had uninterrupted peace.

    Among his buildings were the famous see TADMOR or Palmyra in the wilderness, to carry on commerce with inland Asia, and store cities in Hamath; Bethhoron, the Upper and the Nether, on the border toward Philistia and Egypt; Hazor and Megiddo, guarding the plain of Esdraelon; Baalath or Baalbek, etc. (On 1 Kings 10:28 see LINEN , and on Kings 10:29 see HORSE ) Tiphsah (Thapsacus) on the Euphrates ( 1 Kings 4:24) was his limit in that direction. On Lebanon he built lofty towers ( 2 Chronicles 8:6; Song 7:4) “looking toward Damascus” ( Kings 9:19). The Hittite and Syrian kings, vassals of Solomon, were supplied from Egypt with chariots and horses through the king’s merchants. Hiram was his ally, and supplied him with timber in return for 20,000 measures (core) of wheat and 20 measures of pure oil (1 Kings 5).

    Solomon gave him at the end of his great buildings 20 cities in Galilee, with which Hiram was dissatisfied (see CABUL ). Solomon had his navy at Ezion Geber, near Eloth on the Red Sea, which went to Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold; and a navy of see TARSHISH which sailed with Hiram’s navy in the Mediterranean, bringing every three years “gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.” For the first time Israel began to be a commercial nation, and Solomon’s occupation of Edom enabled him to open to Hiram his ally a new field of commerce. His own interest in it is evidenced by his going in person to Elath and Ezion Geber to view the preparations for expeditions ( 2 Chronicles 8:17; compare his allusions to seafaring life, Proverbs 23:34,35). Silver flowed in so plentifully that it was “nothing accounted of”; of gold yearly came in 666 (the number of the beast, Revelation 13:18) talents; a snare to him and his people, seducing the heart from God to luxurious self indulgence ( 1 Kings 4:20,25). Heretofore “dwelling alone, and not reckoned among the nations,” Israel now was in danger of conformity to them in their idolatries ( 1 Kings 10:14).

    The see TEMPLE and his palace were his great buildings. Hiram, a widow’s son of Naphtali by a Tyrian father, was his chief artificer in brass.

    Solomon’s men, 30,000, i.e. 10,000 a month, the other 20,000 having two months’ relief, cut timber in Lebanon; 70,000 bore loads; 80,000 hewed stone in the mountains and under the rock, where the mason’s Phoenician marks have been found; chiefly Canaanites, spared on conforming to Judaism; 3,300 officers were over these workmen. The preparation of stones took three years (Septuagint 1 Kings 5:18). The building of the temple began in Zif, the second month of his fourth year; the stones were brought ready, so that no sound of hammer was heard in the house; in seven years it was completed, in the month Bul (November), his 11th year ( 1 Kings 6:37,38); eleven months later Solomon offered the dedication prayer, after the ark had been placed in the holiest place and the glory cloud filled the sanctuary; this was during the feast of tabernacles. He recognizes in it God’s covenant-keeping faithfulness ( 1 Kings 8:23-26); His being unbounded by space, so that “the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him,” much less any temple; yet he begs God to regard the various prayers which should, under various exigencies, be offered there ( Isaiah 66:1; Jeremiah 23:24; Acts 7:24). He acknowledges His omniscience as knowing already the plague of each heart which the individual may confess before Him. After kneeling in prayer Solomon stood to bless God, at the same time begging Him to incline Israel’s heart unto Himself and to “maintain their cause at all times as the matter shall require” (Hebrew “the thing of a day in its day”) 1 Kings 8:59; Luke 11:3. God’s answer ( 1 Kings 9:3) at His second appearance to Solomon in Gibeon was the echo of his prayer ( 1 Kings 8:29), “Mine eyes and Mine heart shall be there perpetually” ( 1 Kings 9:3), but God added a warning that if Israel should apostatize the temple should become “a bye-word among all people.”

    The building of Solomon’s palace occupied 13 years, after the temple, which was built in seven. It consisted of (1) the house of the forest of Lebanon, built of a forest of cedar pillars, and serving also as an armory ( 1 Kings 10:17), 100 cubits long, 50 broad, 30 high, on four rows of cedar pillars and hewn cedar beams over the pillars. There were 45 side rooms, forming three stories of 15 rooms each, built upon the lower rows of pillars in ranges of 15 each; the windows of the three stories on one side were vis a vis to those on the opposite side of the inner open court enclosed between them (Keil on 1 Kings 7). An artificial platform of stones of ten and eight cubits formed the foundation; as in Sennacherib’s palace remains at Koyunjik, and at Baalbek stones ft. long, probably laid by Solomon. (2) The pillar hall with the porch ( 1 Kings 7:6) lying between the house of the forest of Lebanon and (3) The throne room and judgment hall ( 1 Kings 7:7). (4) The king’s dwelling house and that of Pharaoh’s daughter ( 1 Kings 7:8). All four were different parts of the one palace. His throne, targets, stables, harem (both the latter forbidden by God, Deuteronomy 17:16,17), paradises at Etham (wady Urtas), men and women singers ( Ecclesiastes 2:5-8), commissariat, and officers of the household and state, all exhibit his magnificence (1 Kings 4; 1 Kings 10--11).

    His might and greatness of dominion permanently impressed the oriental mind; Solomon is evidently alluded to in the Persian king Artaxerxes’ answer, “there have been mighty kings over Jerusalem which have ruled overall countries beyond the river; and toll, tribute, and custom was paid unto them.” The queen of see SHEBA’ S (Arabian tradition calls her Balkis) visit illustrates the impression made by his fame, which led “all the earth to seek to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart”; she “hearing of his fame concerning the name of Jehovah” (i.e. which he had acquired through Jehovah’s glorification of Himself in him) brought presents of gold, spices, and precious stones. Josephus attributes to her the introduction of the balsam for which Judaea was afterward famed ( <111001> Kings 10:1-25). Northern Arabia was at this time ruled by queens not kings, but she probably came from southern Arabia or Arabia Felix. Like the wise men coming to the Antitype, she came with a great train, and with camels laden with presents, in search of Heaven-sent wisdom ( Proverbs 1:6; Matthew 2:1), “to prove Solomon with hard questions” (chidah , pointed sayings hinting at deep truths which are to be guessed; very common in Arabic literature), and to commune with him of all that was in her heart; compare as to these “hard questions” Proverbs 30:18, etc., Proverbs 30:15,16; Judges 14:12-19; also Josephus (Ant. 8:5, section 3) quotes Phoenician writers who said that Solomon and Hiram puzzled one another with sportive riddles; Hiram at first had to pay forfeits, but was ultimately the winner by the help of a sharp Tyrian lad Abdemon. The queen of Sheba confessed that she believed not the report until her own eyes saw its truth, yet that half was not told her, his wisdom and prosperity exceeded the fame which she had heard (compare spiritually John 1:46; 4:42). Her coming to Solomon from so far condemns those who come not to Him who is infinitely greater, Wisdom itself, though near at hand, and needing no long pilgrimage to reach Him ( Matthew 12:42; Proverbs 8:34). He is the true “Prince of peace,” the Jedid-jah “the well beloved of the Father.” “God gave Solomon wisdom (chokmah , ‘practical wisdom’ to discern the judicious course of action), and understanding (tebunah ), keenness of intellect to solve problems), and largeness of heart (large mental capacity comprising varied fields of knowledge) as the sand,” i.e. abundant beyond measure ( 1 Kings 4:29). He excelled the famous wise men of the East and of Egypt ( Isaiah 19:11; 31:2; Acts 7:22).

    Of his 3,000 proverbs we have a sample in the Book of see PROVERBS ; of his 1,005 songs we have only the Song of Solomon (its five divisions probably are referred to in the odd five), and Psalm 72 and Psalm 127. He knew botany, from the lowly hyssop (probably the tufty wall moss, Orthotrichum saxatile, a miniature of the true and large hyssop) to the stately cedar. He also spoke of the results of his observations in the natural history of beasts, birds, creeping things, and fish.

    As an autocrat, Solomon was able to carry on his magnificent buildings and works, having an unbounded command of wealth and labour. But the people’s patience was tried with the heavy taxes and levies of provisions ( 1 Samuel 8:15; 1 Kings 4:21-23) and conscriptions required ( Kings 5:13). Thus by divine retribution the scourge was being prepared for his apostasy through his idolatrous mistresses. God declared by His prophet His purpose to rend the kingdom, except one tribe, from his son ( 1 Kings 11:9, etc.). One trace of the servitude of the “hewers of stone” existed long after in the so-called children or descendants of “SOLOMON’ S SERVANTS” attached to the temple ( Ezra 2:55-58; Nehemiah 7:57,60); inferior to the see NETHINIM , hewers of wood ( 1 Kings 5:13-15,17,18; 9:20,21; 2 Chronicles 8:7,8; 1 Chronicles 22:2), compelled to labour in the king’s stone quarries. His apostasy was the more glaring, contrasted with God’s goodness in appearing to him twice, blessing him so much, and warning him so plainly; also with his own former scrupulous regard for the law, so that he would not let his Egyptian queen remain in the neighbourhood of the ark; and especially with his devout prayer at the dedication. See the lesson to us, 1 Corinthians 10:12.

    Solomon probably repented in the end; for Chronicles make no mention of his fall. Again see ECCLESIASTES is probably the result of his melancholy, but penitent, retrospect of the past; “all is vanity and vexation of spirit”: it is not vanity, but wisdom as well as our whole duty, to “fear God and keep His commandments.” God having made him His Jedidiah (beloved of Jehovah) “visited his transgression with the rod, nevertheless His lovingkindness He did not utterly take from him” ( Psalm 89:30-36).

    As the Song of Solomon represents his first love to Jehovah in youth, so Proverbs his matured experience in middle age, Ecclesiastes the sad retrospect of old age. “Solomon in all his glory” was not arrayed as one of the “lilies of the field”: a reproof of our pride ( Matthew 6:29).

    The sudden rise of the empire under David and Solomon, extending miles from Egypt to the Euphrates, and its sudden collapse under Rehoboam, is a feature not uncommon in the East. Before Darius Hystaspes’ time, when the satrapial system was introduced of governing the provinces on a common plan by officers of the crown, the universal system of great empires was an empire consisting of separate kingdoms, each under its own king, but paying tribute or presents to the one suzerain, as Solomon. The Tyrian historians on whom Dius and Menander base their histories (Josephus, Apion 1:17) confirm Hiram’s connection with Solomon, and state that letters between them were preserved in the Tyrian archives and fix the date as at the close of the 11th century B.C., and the building of the temple 1007 B.C. Menander (in Clem. Alex., Strom. 1:386) states that Solomon took one of Hiram’s daughters to wife, so “Zidonians” are mentioned among his wives ( 1 Kings 11:1). At first sight it seems unlikely Israel could be so great under David and Solomon for half a century in the face of two mighty empires, Egypt and Assyria. But independent history confirms Scripture by showing that exactly at this time, from the beginning of the 11th to the close of the 10th century B.C., Assyria was under a cloud, and Egypt from 1200 B.C. to Shishak’s accession 990 B.C. Solomon was prematurely “old” ( 1 Kings 11:4), for he was only about 60 at death.

    SOLOMON’S PORCH John 10:23. A portion of the temple which according to Josephus (B. J. 5:5, section 1; Ant. 20:9, section 7) remained from Solomon’s time. It rose from a great depth, occupying part of the valley, and supported by a wall 400 cubits high, formed of immense stones, some 20 cubits long. The Chaldaeans spared it, perhaps for its strength and beauty. Our Lord walked in its shelter in winter.

    SOLOMON’S SERVANTS i.e. slaves. (See SOLOMON ) Canaanites, living until Solomon’s time in comparative freedom, were forced to slaves’ work in the stone quarries, and degraded below the Nethinim (“given” or dedicated to the Lord, as the Gibeonites were; hewers of wood and drawers of water for the sanctuary, Joshua 9:23): 1 Kings 5:13-18; 9:20,21; 2 Chronicles 8:7,8; Chronicles 22:2. Their “children” or descendants discharged menial offices in the temple on the return from Babylon ( Ezra 2:55-58; Nehemiah 7:57-60). Their names betray their Canaanite origin: only 392, in contrast with Solomon’s 150,000.

    SON Used also for descendant. Figuratively too to express the characteristic:

    Barnabas means son of consolation; “sons of Belial,” i.e. of worthlessness, children generally having their father’s characteristic; “son of oil,” abounding in oil or fruitfulness ( Isaiah 5:1 margin).

    SON OF GOD Applied in the plural to the godly see SETH ’S descendants (not angels, who “neither marry nor are given in marriage,” Luke 20:35,36), “the salt of the earth” heretofore, amidst its growing corruption by the Cainites.

    When it lost its savour (“for that he also (even the godly seed) is become flesh” or fleshly) by contracting marriages with the beautiful but ungodly, God’s Spirit ceased to strive with man, and judgment fell ( Genesis 6:2-4). In Job 1:6; 2:4, angels. In Psalm 82:6 “gods ... sons of the Highest,” i.e. His representatives, exercising, as judges and rulers, His delegated authority. A fortiori, the term applies in a higher sense to “Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world” ( John 10:35).

    Israel the type was Son of God ( Exodus 4:22,23; Hosea 11:1). Faith obeying from the motive of love constitutes men “sons of God” ( Jeremiah 3:4; Hosea 1:10). Unbelief and disobedience exclude from sonship those who are sons only as to spiritual privileges ( Deuteronomy 32:5; Hebrew). “It (the perverse and crooked generation) hath corrupted itself before Him ( Isaiah 1:4), they are not His children but their blemish,” i.e. “they cannot be called God’s children but the disgrace of God’s children” ( Romans 9:8; Galatians 3:26). The doctrine of regeneration or newborn sonship to God by the Spirit is fully developed in the New Testament ( John 1:12,13; 3:3,5; 1 John 3:1-3; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5,6).

    The Son of God, Antitype to Israel, is co-equal, co-eternal, co-essential (consubstantial) with the Father; by eternal generation ( Colossians 1:15), “begotten far before every creature” (Greek), therefore not a creature. So Proverbs 8:22 (Hebrew), “Jehovah begat (qananiy related to Greek gennaoo ) Me in the beginning of His way (rather omit ‘in’; the Son Himself was ‘the Beginning of His way,’ ‘the Beginning of the creation of God,’ Revelation 3:14) from everlasting ... or ever the earth was ... I was by Him as One brought up with Him. I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him” ( Proverbs 8:22-31; John 1:1-3). The Son was the Archetype from everlasting of that creation which was in due time to be created by Him. His distinct Personality appears in His being “by God ... brought up with God,” not a mere attribute; “nursed at His side”; “the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father”; to be “honoured as the Father” ( John 1:18; 5:20). Raised infinitely above angels; “for to which of them saith God, Thou art My Son, this day (there is no yesterday or tomorrow with God, His ‘today’ is eternity from and to everlasting) have I begotten Thee?” and “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Hebrews 1; Psalm 2:7; 45:6,7). His divine Sonship from everlasting was openly manifested by the Father’s raising Him from the dead ( Acts 13:33; Romans 1:4; Revelation 1:5). Nebuchadnezzar called Him “the Son of God,” unconsciously expressing a truth the significance of which he imperfectly comprehended ( Daniel 3:25). The Jews might have known Messiah’s Godhead from Psalm 45:6,7, and Isaiah 9:6, “a Son ... the mighty God, the Everlasting Father”; ( Isaiah 7:4) Immanuel “God with us”; ( Micah 5:2) “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” The Scripture-asserted unity of God was their difficulty ( Deuteronomy 6:4), and also the palpable woman-sprung humanity of Jesus. Their supposing John the Baptist to be Messiah ( Luke 3:15) shows they did not expect Messiah or Christ to be more than man ( Matthew 22:42-45). To Jesus’ question, “what think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?” the Pharisees answered not the Son of God, but “the Son of David,” and could not solve the difficulty,” how then doth David in the Spirit call Him Lord?” in Psalm 110, “Jehovah said unto my Lord” (‘Adonay ), etc., i.e. the Lord of David, not in his merely personal capacity, but as Israel’s Representative, literal and spiritual. Jesus quotes it “Lord,” not “my Lord,” because Jehovah addresses Him as Israel’s and the church’s Lord, not merely David’s. Had the Pharisees believed in Messiah’s Godhead they could have answered: As man Messiah was David’s son, as God He was David’s and the church’s Lord. The Sanhedrin unanimously ( Mark 14:64) condemned Him to death, not for His claim to Messiahship but to Godhead ( John 19:7; Luke 22:70,71, “art Thou the Son of God?” etc., Luke 23:1; Matthew 26:63-66). So contrary to man’s thoughts was this truth that, Jesus says, not flesh and blood, but the Father revealed it to Peter ( Matthew 16:17). The Jews thrice took up stones to kill Him for blasphemy (1) in unequivocally claiming God to be peculiarly “His own Father” (idion patera ): John 5:15. Again, (2) in claiming divine pre-existence, “before Abraham was created (began to be, genesthai ), I am” (eimi ): John 8:58,59. And (3) in saying, “I and the Father are one” (hen , one essence, not person): John 10:30,31,33. The apostles preached His divine Lordship as well as Messiahship ( Acts 2:36). His acknowledged purity of character forbids the possibility of His claiming this, as He certainly did and as the Jews understood Him, if the claim were untrue; He never would have left them under the delusion that He claimed it if delusion it were. But the Jews from Deuteronomy 13:1-11 (some thought Jesus specially meant, “if the son of thy mother entice thee,” for He had a human mother, He said, but not a human father) inferred that His miracles, which they could not deny, did not substantiate His claim, and that their duty was to kill with holy zeal One who sought to draw them to worship as divine another beside God.

    They knew not that He claimed not to be distinct God, but One with the Father, One God; they shut their eyes to Deuteronomy 18:15, etc., and so incurred the there foretold penalty of rejecting Him. His miracles they attributed to Satan’s help ( Matthew 12:24,27; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15; John 7:20; 8:48; Matthew 10:25). Men may commit awful sins in fanatical zeal for God, with the Scriptures in their hands, while following unenlightened conscience; conscience needs to be illuminated by the Spirit, and guided by prayerful search of Scripture. The Jews ought to have searched the Scriptures and then they would have known. Ignorance does not excuse, however it may palliate, blind zeal; they might have known if they would. Yet Jesus interceded for their ignorance ( Luke 23:34; Acts 3:17; 13:27). Deniers of Jesus’ Godhead on the plea of God’s unity copy the Jews, who crucified Him because of His claim to be God. The Ebionites, Cerinthians, and other heretics who denied His Godhead, arose from the ranks of Judaism. The arguments of the ancient Christian apologists, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, etc., against the Jews, afford admirable arguments against modern Socinians; the Jews sinned against the dimmer light of the Old Testament, Socinians against the broad light of both Old and New Testament The combination in One, the Son of God and the Son of man, was such as no human mind could have devised. The Jews could not ascend to the idea of Christ’s divine Sonship, nor descend to the depth of Christ’s sufferings as the Son of man; so they invented the figment of two Messiahs to reconcile the seemingly opposite prophecies, those of His transcendent glory and those of His exceeding sufferings. The gospel at once opposes the Jews’ false monotheism by declaring Christ to be the coequal Son of God, and the pagan polytheism by declaring the unity of God.

    SON OF MAN Others are “sons of men” ( Job 25:6; <19E403> Psalm 144:3; 146:3; Isaiah 51:12; 56:2). God addresses Daniel ( Daniel 8:17) once, Ezekiel so about 80 times, to remind him of his human lowliness and frailty, as “man lower than the angels,” though privileged to enjoy visions of the cherubim and of God Himself, “lest he should be exalted through the abundance of the revelations” ( 2 Corinthians 12:7). The divine Son appeared to him “as the appearance of a man above upon the throne” ( Ezekiel 1:26). As others are “sons of God,” but He “the Son of God,” so others are “sons of man” ( Ezekiel 2:1,3) but He “the Son of man” ( Matthew 16:13), being the embodied representative of humanity and the whole human race; as on the other hand He is the bodily representative of “all the fullness of the Godhead” ( Colossians 2:9). Ezekiel, as type of “the Son of man” whose manifestation he records, is appropriately designated “son of man.”

    The title “the Son of man” implies at once Messiah’s lowliness and His exaltation in His manifestations asTHE REPRESENTATIVE MAN respectively at His first and second comings; His humiliation on the one hand ( Psalm 8:4-8; Matthew 16:13; 20:18,28) and His exaltation on the other hand, just “because He is the Son of man”: Daniel 7:13,14, Hebrew not Ben ish or Adam , son of a hero or of man generically viewed, but Ben enosh , “Son of man,” frail and abject, marking the connection of His humiliation and exaltation as man ( Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 26:64; John 5:27). He comes again as man to reinstate man in his original glory, never to be dispossessed of it. He is now set down on the throne of God as the Son of God. That is a throne which His saints cannot share; therefore He shall assume another throne, made “His” in order that they may sit down on it with Him ( Revelation 3:21). The kingdom shall be “under the whole heaven,” on earth ( Daniel 7:18,27); He shall reign with them as the Son of man, Head of the new creation, and Restorer of man’s lost inheritance. Because as man He established His and the saints’ title to the kingdom at the cost of His own blood, as man He shall judge and reign. It is fit that He who as the Son of man was judged by the world should judge the world. Revelation 5:9,10; Psalm 8:4-8; Hebrews 2:6-8; Corinthians 15:21,22-28,45,47. The title “the Son of man” in the New Testament Jesus alone uses, and of Himself, except Stephen in dying, “I see the Son of man standing on the right hand of God,” referring not to His humiliation on earth but to His heavenly exaltation (compare John 12:23,34; 6:62; 3:13; Acts 7:56); standing to assist, plead for ( <19A931> Psalm 109:31), and receive the dying martyr. Stephen speaking “full of the Holy Spirit” repeats Jesus’ prophecy before the council, foretelling His exaltation as the Son of man; only there it is “sitting on the right hand of power,” because there majestic repose, here rising to His servant’s help, is the thought. Stephen’s assertion stirred their rage, that Jesus who had been crucified for claiming to be “the Son of God” stands at God’s right hand as being “the Son of man.” Another exception is John so calls Him in apocalyptic vision ( Revelation 1:13; 14:14), corresponding to the Old Testament apocalypse ( Daniel 7:13). The Son of God in eternity became the Son of man in time, whose manhood shall be glorified with His Godhead to eternity. The two titles together declare the whole truth as to His one Person, “whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am? ... Thou art the Christ, the Son of God. ... Blessed art thou, Bar-Jona” (son of Jonah), etc. As truly as thou art son of Jonah I am at once “the Son of man” and “the Son of God” ( Matthew 16:18). The two are again combined in Caiaphas’ question as to His being the Son of God, and His affirmative answer and further revelation, “nevertheless, besides ... ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power,” etc. ( Matthew 26:63,64; 24:30; 25:31,32; Mark 14:61,62). As the Son of man He was Lord of the Sabbath, “for the Sabbath was made for man” whose Representative Head He is ( Mark 2:28). As the Son of man He suffered for sin ( Matthew 17:12), and as the Son of man He hath power on earth to forgive sins ( Matthew 9:6). As the Son of man He had not where to lay His head ( Matthew 8:20); as the Son of man “He hath on His head a golden crown” ( Revelation 14:14). Every eye shall see Him ( Revelation 1:7), but only “the pure in heart shall see God” ( Matthew 5:8). “The Son of God became the Son of man that you who were sons of men might be made sons of God” (Augustine, Serm. 121).

    Jesus is one of our race, yet above the whole race, the One Man in whom mankind finds its unity, the turning point of history at the close of the old and the beginning of the new era. His absolute relation to mankind requires an absolute relation to God. He could be the Son of man only because He is the Son of God. He alone fully realizes the ideal of man, as well as that of God, combining too in His manhood all the exquisite graces of woman with the powers of man.

    SOOTHSAYERS (See DIVINATION ). Old Saxon for “sayers of the truth.”

    SOPATER ”Son of Pyrrhus” (in the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus manuscripts), of Berea, was one of Paul’s companions on his return from Greece to Asia, after his third missionary journey ( Acts 20:4).

    SOPHERETH, CHILDREN OF Ezra 2:55; Nehemiah 7:57.

    SORCERERS (See DIVINATION ). From sortiarii, divining by lots.

    SOREK A wady (Hebrew nachal ) where dwelt Delilah ( Judges 16:4). Near Gaza probably ( Judges 16:21). Sorek means a choice kind of vine with dusky colored grapes. The Arabic now expresses a purple grade of Syria, noted for small raisins, soft minute pips, and red wine. Named from plantations of this vine; so Masrekah ( Genesis 36:36). Porter identifies Sorek with wady Surar (Hebrew “pebbles”), the drain of the western Judaean hills, running as a broad fiat valley through the lower hills and reaching the sea at Yebneh. The valley separates the rugged mountains of the ‘Arkub from the low rolling hills of the shephelah, beyond which is the Philistine plain. The valley of Sorek joins the great gorge which bounded Judah on the N.; at the junction lie the ruins of Bethshemesh on a knoll. On the south is see TIMNATH , where Samson slew the lion; on the north are Sur’a and Eshu’a, the ancient Zoreah and Eshtaol. Beit Atab (rock Etam) is two miles westward; on the N. side of the valley is a chapel dedicated to neby Samit, a name related to Samson.

    SOSIPATER Romans 16:21. Possibly the full form of Sopater ( Acts 20:4).

    SOSTHENES A Jew, “ruler of the synagogue,” after Crispus on conversion had ceased to be so. Probably ringleader of the spiteful Jews who with one accord made insurrection against Paul, and brought him to Gallio’s judgment seat. When Gallio would not be made the tool of their spite, but drove them from his judgment seat, the Greeks or Gentiles, seeing the deputy’s feeling which they sympathized with, against the Jewish bigots, seized Sosthenes and beat him before Gallio’s judgment seat; and Gallio cared for none of these things, i.e. refused to interfere, being secretly pleased that the mob should second his own contempt for the fanatical Jews. But in 1 Corinthians 1:1 we find Sosthenes under very different circumstances, no longer against Paul, but associated with him in saluting the Corinthian Christians.

    Whence arose the change? Paul probably showed Christian sympathy for an adversary in distress; the issue was the conversion of Sosthenes. Saul the persecutor turned into Paul the apostle, and Sosthenes the ringleader of persecution against the apostle, were two trophies of grace that, side by side, would appeal with double power to the church at Corinth. Paul designates “our brother” in a way implying that Sosthenes was well known to the Corinthians, though at the time of writing he must have been with Paul at Ephesus.

    SOTAI, CHILDREN OF Ezra 2:55; Nehemiah 7:57.

    SOUTH The designation of a large district of see JUDAH (see PALESTINE ); the Negeb. Palmer (Desert of Exodus) notices how accurately Jeremiah 13:19 has been fulfilled, “the cities of the South shall be shut up, and none shall open them.” Walls of solid masonry remain; fields and gardens surrounded with goodly walls, every sign of human industry, remains of wells, aqueducts, reservoirs; mountain forts to resist forays of the sons of the desert; desolated gardens, terraced hill sides, and wadies dammed to resist the torrent; ancient towns still called by their names, but no living being, except the lizard and screech owl, amidst the crumbling walls. In Judges 1:16 it is called “the wilderness of Judah South of Arad”; a strip of hilly country, running from the Dead Sea westward across Palestine, obliquely to the S.W. This tract is separated from the hills of Judaea or the mountains of Hebron by the broad plain of Beersheba (wady el Malih, “the valley of Salt”) extending from the Dead Sea westward or S.W. to the land of Gerar. The cities were 29 ( Joshua 15:21-32); some of the names are not of distinct cities, but compound names. The land is now at rest, enjoying its Sabbath, because it did not rest in the Jews’ Sabbaths ( Leviticus 26:34,35,43). Besides the application of “the Negeb” to the whole district there are ethnological and geographical subdivisions; the Negeb of the Cherethites, the Negeb of the Kenites, the Negeb of Judah the Negeb of Arad, the Negeb of Jerahmeel. The Negeb of Caleb was a subdivision of, or identical with, the Negeb of Judah, as appears from Samuel 30:14,16; 25:2,3; compare with Joshua 21:11,12). The low country N. and W. of Beersheba was the Negeb of the Cherethites. The Negeb of Judah was South of Hebron in the outposts of Judah’s hills; Tel Zif, Main, and Kurmul (Carmel), ruined cities, mark the Negeb of Caleb.

    Tel Arad marks the Negeb of the Kenites reaching to the S.W. of the Dead Sea. The Negeb of Jerahmeel lay between wady Rukhmeh (corruption of Jerahmeel) in the N., and wadies el Abaydh, Marreh, and Madarah, in the South. The Amalekites (in Numbers 14:25) dwelt in the valley and yet “in the hill,” for their land was a plateau, the sense of sadeh “country” in Genesis 14:7; compare 1 Samuel 27:8. Some lived in the hills, others in the fertile lower level to which the wadies debouch; so now the Azazimeh.

    SOUTH RAMOTH orRAMATH OF THE SOUTH. Bordering on the desert S. of Judah; resorted to by David toward the close of his wanderings, and rewarded with a share of the Amalekite spoil ( 1 Samuel 30:27).

    SOWER (See AGRICULTURE ). <19C606> Psalm 126:6; Hebrew “he goeth, going and weeping, bearing the draught of seed (i.e. seed to be drawn out by him from the seed basket, Amos 9:l3 margin) coming he shall come with rejoicing (joyous cry), bearing his sheaves”; the long continued sorrow and the consequent longer joy are happily expressed by the repetitions. The spiritual sowing is illustrated in Proverbs 11:18; Matthew 13:19,24; 2 Corinthians 9:6; Galatians 6:7. Heavenly reward and hell are not arbitrary, but the natural and necessary development of the seed of holiness and that of sin respectively.

    SPAIN Solomon’s fleet visited Spain, then named Tarshish (the Greek “Tartessus”). In classic times the name “Spain” came into use, traceable to the Basque Ezpana, i.e. on the edge of Europe. The Iberian language (from whence the country derived one of its names and its river Iberus or Ebro was designated) was the original of the Basque. Romans 15:24,28, Paul’s intention to visit Spain may imply that a Christian church was already founded there. As to the early introduction of Christianity, compare Irenaeus 1:3 and Tertullian, Adv. Judg., 7.

    SPARROW Related to Hebrew tsipor , imitation of the sound made by it, “tzip” ( Psalm 84:3 (see BIRD ), Leviticus 14:4-7 margin). On the meaning of the rite in cleansing leper’s, one [tsippor] killed, the other dipped in its blood and let loose alive, Cowper writes: “Dipped in his fellow’s blood, The living bird went free; The type, well understood, Expressed the sinner’s plea; Described a guilty soul enlarged, And by a Saviour’s death discharged.” Its commonness gives point to Jesus’ remark, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ... one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. ... Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value than many sparrows” ( Matthew 10:29,31; Luke 12:6,7).

    There are one hundred different species of the passerine order in Palestine.

    SPEARMEN dexiolaboi ( Acts 23:23). Light-armed troops, as distinguished from bowmen and targeteers; derived from their grasping the weapon with the right hand which the others could not. Alexandrinus manuscript reads dexioboloi , “hurlers with the right hand.” So Syriac version. Escorted Paul to Caesarea from Jerusalem by night. Distinguished from the heavy armed legionaries (stratiotai ), who only went as far as Antipatris, and from the cavalry who went forward to Caesarea. They accompanied these latter, and were evidently so lightly armed as to be able to keep pace on the march with the mounted soldiers.

    SPICES basam . Not pungent, as pepper, ginger, etc., but aromatic woods, seeds, or gums (Song 6:2; 5:1). Balsam or balm of Gilead, Amyris opobalsamum; a tropical plant that grew in the plains of Jericho and the hot valleys of southern Palestine. KJV translated not basam , but tseri or tsori , “see BALM ” . The balm of Gilead tree is not more than 15 ft. high, with straggling branches and scanty foil age. The balsam is procured from the bark by incision, and from the green and ripe berries. The nekoth , “spicery” Genesis 37:25, is the storax or gum of the styrax tree (Speaker’s Commentary). Arabic nekaat, the gum exuding from the tragacanth (astragalus); when exposed to the air it hardens into lumps or worm-like spires (Smith’s Bible Dictionary). In 2 Kings 20:13 margin, “house of spicery” expresses the original design of the house; but it was used ultimutely for storing Hezekiah’s other “precious things.” Sammim , a general term for aromatics used in preparing the holy anointing oil. Certain Levites especially “oversaw the frankincense and spices” ( 1 Chronicles 9:29,30). Myrrh and aloes were among the spices wrapped with Jesus’ body ( John 19:39,40; compare also 2 Chronicles 16:4; Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56; 24:1).

    SPIDER ‘akabish . Job 8:14, “the hypocrite’s trust shall be a spider’s web,” namely, frail and transitory, notwithstanding its ingenuity; the spider’s web sustains it, the hypocrite’s trust will not sustain him. Hypocrisy is as easily swept away as the spider’s web by the wind; it is as flimsy, and is woven out of its own inventions, as the spider’s web out of its own bowels. Isaiah 59:5, “they weave the spider’s web ... their webs shall not become garments”; the point is the thinness of the garment, as contrasted with what is substantial ( Proverbs 11:18). When a spider attacks a fly it plunges its two fangs into its victim, and through them (being tubular) injects poison. In Proverbs 30:28 translated semamith , “the gecko (lizard) taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.” it can run over smooth surfaces noiselessly in an inverted position, as flies on a ceiling. But the spider’s characteristic is not this, but to weave a web; it is in cottages rather than “palaces.” The gecko teaches, as much as the spider taught Robert Bruce, the irresistible power of perseverance. The spider’s spinning organs serve as both hands and eyes (Kirby, Bridgwater Treatise, 2:186).

    SPIES According to Numbers 13:2, Moses sent the spies into Canaan at the command of God; but according to Deuteronomy 1:22 at the suggestion of the people. The seeming discrepancy disappears thus; the people begged that they should be sent; Moses laid their request before God, who thereupon gave the command. In the historical book, Numbers, God’s command alone is mentioned; but in Deuteronomy, which treats of the people’s conduct toward God, Moses reminds them that the request which eventuated in their fathers’ rebellion and death in the wilderness, emanated from themselves. The generation whom Moses addressed in Deuteronomy needed to be warned by the fate of their fathers. Moses treats fathers and children as one people.

    SPIKENARD nard , meaning the stalk; so our spike-nard, Arabic sunbul. Song 1:12; 4:13,14. Of it the ointment with which Mary anointed Jesus was made; it was so costly that Judas and other disciples murmured at the waste ( Mark 14:3-5; John 12:3-5), its worth being 300 denarii, about British pounds 7s. 6d. A valerian, with roots of strong odor, acting on the nerves Nardostachys jatamansi (Sanskrit, “locks of hair,” from the shaggy hair on the stem). Brought from distant India it suggested our Lord’s declaration, “wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.” In lands distant as India, from whence it came, shall her gift of it to her Lord be told.

    SPIRIT Hebrew ruach , Greek pneuma . Man in his normal integrity (“whole,” holokleeron , complete in all its parts, 1 Thessalonians 5:23) consists of “spirit, soul, and body.” The spirit links man with higher intelligences, and is that highest part receptive of the quickening Holy Spirit ( Corinthians 15:47). The soul (Hebrew nephesh , Greek psuchee ) is intermediate between body and spirit; it is the sphere of the will and affections. In the unspiritual the spirit is so sunk under the animal soul (which it ought to keep under) that such are “animal” (“seasonal,” having merely the body of organized matter and the soul, the immaterial animating essence), “having not the spirit” ( Jude 1:19; James 3:15; Corinthians 2:14; 15:44-48; John 3:6). The unbeliever shall rise with an animal (soul-animated) body, but not, like the believer, with a spiritual (spirit-endued) body like Christ’s ( Romans 8:11). The soul is the seat of the appetites, the desires, the will; hunger, thirst, sorrow, joy; love, hope, fear, etc.; so that [nephesh] is the man himself, and is used for person, self, creature, any: a virtual contradiction of materialism, implying that the unseen soul rather than the seen body is the man. “Man was made” not a living body but “a living soul.” “The blood, the life,” links together body and soul ( Leviticus 17:11).

    SPIRIT, THE HOLY (See THE HOLY GHOST ), SPIRITS IN PRISON 1 Peter 3:18,19. The argument is, Be not afraid ( 1 Peter 3:14,17) of suffering for well doing even unto death, for death in the flesh leads to life in the spirit as in Christ’s case, who was put to death in the flesh but quickened in spirit (i.e. in virtue of His divine nature: Romans 1:3,4; 1 Corinthians 15:45; 2 Corinthians 13:4) in which (as distinguished from in person) He went in the person of Noah (compare 1 Peter 1:11) “a preacher of righteousness” ( 2 Peter 2:5; He went not locally but as Ephesians 2:17, “He came and preached peace,” namely, by His ministers) and preached unto the spirits in prison, namely, the antediluvian unbelievers; their bodies seemed free, but their spirits were in prison ( <19E109> Psalm 141:9) and they like “prisoners shut up in the prison” just as the fallen are judicially regarded as in chains of darkness, though for a time at large on the earth ( 2 Peter 2:4; Isaiah 24:18,22,23, 61:1; Genesis 7:11, referred to in Isaiah 24:18). “His Spirit” long “strove” with them, but ceased to do so because even the seed of the godly Seth proved “flesh” and quenched the Spirit ( Genesis 6:3).

    SPONGE Matthew 27:48; Mark 15:36; John 19:29; Psalm 69:21.

    Found on rocks in deep water in the Levant and the parts of the Mediterranean which wash the Grecian Isles.

    SPRINKLE Namely, with blood to atone for guilt, as the high priest did ( Leviticus 4:6; 16:14,19), or with water for purifying ( Numbers 19:18-21; Acts 2:33). So Messiah ( Isaiah 52:15; Hebrews 9:13,14; 1 Peter 1:2).

    Many were astonished at Him; so shall He sprinkle many nations, even kings shall shut their mouths in dumb awe (compare Romans 16:25,26, and Romans 15:21 with Isaiah 52:14,15).

    STACHYS A Christian at Rome saluted by Paul in Romans 16:9 with the epithet “my beloved.”

    STACTE The Septuagint Greek term from stazoo “to drop.” One ingredient in the holy perfume ( Exodus 30:34), nataph ; also in Job 36:27. Literally, anything that drops, as e.g. the purest myrrh, that drops as a tear spontaneously from the tree. Storax or Styrax officinale of Syria is probably meant. The leaves resemble those of the poplar, downy beneath, with sweet-scented snow-white flowers clustered on the ends of the branches. It grows about 20 ft. high; the reddish yellow gum resin which exudes from the bark contains benzoic acid; the Hindus burn the benzoin in their temples.

    STAR GAZERS Isaiah 47:13. (See DIVINATION , see ASTROLOGERS ).

    STAR OF THE WISE MEN Matthew 2. (See MAGI ). Smith’s Bible Dictionary ably disproves the theory of its being a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which took place thrice in 7 B.C. (i.e. three years before Jesus’ birth, for the B.C. dates from the fourth year after His birth), May, September, and December, answering to the seven months which would intervene between the beginning and the end of the wisemen’s journey. Tacitus, Suetonius, and Josephus in their statements as to the universal expectation then prevalent of some great One about to appear in the East refer to Vespasian long after Christ. The star was probably a meteoric body employed by the God of nature to be His instrument in the world of revelation, to guide the wise men to the divine Messiah. Curiously a star appeared in September, 1604, between Mars and Saturn, after a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces, but at a shorter interval than the star of the Magi after the conjunction in 7 B.C.

    STATER (See MONEY ). Matthew 17:24-27, Greek.

    STEEL Jeremiah 15:12. Rather copper, which being mixed with “iron” by the Chalybes near the Euxine Pontus formed the hardest metal, “the northern iron and the steel.” “Shall (ordinary) iron break” this? No more can the Jews break the hardier Chaldees of the N. So in Job 20:24; Psalm 18:34, translated “brass” or “copper.” Bronze was anciently used for strengthening arms.

    STEPHANAS A Christian at Corinth whose household, “the firstfruits of Achaia,” Paul baptized ( 1 Corinthians 1:16; 16:15-17). In Romans 16:5 oldest manuscripts read “Asia” for Achaia. Fortunatus and Achaicus were probably of this household. By joining Paul at Ephesus they with Stephanas supplied means of communion between Paul and the Corinthians, taking his letter back with them. They refreshed his spirit as representatives of the absent Corinthians, they helped and laboured with him. So Paul urges the Corinthians, “acknowledge ye them,” by a kindly welcome recognizing their true worth. The partisans of Apollos, Cephas, and Christ, might possibly receive them coldly as having been baptized by Paul, hence he “beseeches” the Corinthians in their behalf. They had “addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints” voluntarily ( 2 Corinthians 8:4; 9:1), namely, to their temporal relief ( Romans 15:25; Hebrews 6:10).

    STEPHEN The first of the seven appointed to minister as a see DEACON in distributing alms, so that the Grecian widows should not be neglected while the Hebrew widows were served (Acts 6; 7). His Grecian name (meaning crown; by a significant coincidence he was the first who received the crown of martyrdom) and his anti-Judaistic speech indicate that he was a Hellenist (see GRECIAN ) or Greek speaking foreign Jew as contrasted with a home born Hebrew speaking Jew. “He did great miracles and wonders among the people,” in confirmation of the gospel. He was, like the rest of the seven, “of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom”; also “full of faith and power,” so that the disputants of the synagogue of the Libertines, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, Cilicians, all like himself Grecian Jews, “were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke.” So they charged him before the Sanhedrin by suborned witnesses with speaking against Moses and God, the temple and the law, and asserting that, Jesus of Nazareth should destroy the temple and change the customs that Moses had delivered. Doubtless, he showed that Jesus really “fulfilled” the law while setting aside that part of its letter which was designed to continue only until the gospel realized its types. His Hellenistic life away from the temple and its rites made him less dependent on them and readier to comprehend the gospel’s freedom from legal bonds. The prophets similarly had foretold the superseding of the legal types and the temple by the Antitype ( Jeremiah 7:4; 31:31-34). His judges looking steadfastly on him “saw his face as it had been the face of an angel,” like that of Moses after talking with God on the mountain ( Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Ecclesiastes 8:1). They were at first awestruck, as the band that fell backward at Jesus’ presence in Gethsemane. Then the high priest appealed to Stephen himself as Caiaphas had to Jesus. His speech is not the unconnected narrative that many suppose, but a covert argument which carries his hearers unconsciously along with him until at the close he unveils the drift of the whole, namely, to show: (1) That in Israel’s past history God’s revelation of Himself was not confined to the holy land and the temple, that Abraham had enjoyed God’s revelations in Mesopotamia, Haran, and Canaan before he possessed a foot of the promised land; so also Israel and Moses in the strange land of Egypt, and in Midian and Sinai, which was therefore “holy ground” ( Acts 7:33), and in the wilderness 40 years. (2) That in their past history from the first the same failure to recognize their true friends appeared as in their present rejection of the great Antitype Messiah and His ministers: “ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did so do ye”; so the brethren toward Joseph, the Israelites towards Moses ( Acts 7:9,35,40), and worst of all toward God, whom they forsook for a calf and for Moloch. (3) That God nevertheless by ways seeming most unlikely to man ultimately exalted the exile Abraham, the outcast slave Joseph, and the despised Moses to honour and chiefship; so it will be in Messiah’s case in spite of the humiliation which makes the Jews reject Him. (4) That Solomon the builder of the temple recognized that which the Jews lose sight of, namely, that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as though His presence was confined to a locality ( 1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chronicles 2:6; 6:18), and which Jehovah through Isaiah ( Isaiah 66:1) insists on. Therefore spiritual worship is the true worship for which the temple was but a preparation.

    The alleged discrepancies between the Old Testament and Stephen’s speech are only in appearance. He under the Holy Spirit supplements the statements in Exodus 7:7, Moses “fourscore years old” at his call, years in the wilderness, 120 at his death ( Deuteronomy 29:5; 31:2; 34:7), by adding that he was 40 at his visiting his Israelite brethren and leaving Egypt for Midian, and stayed there 40 ( Acts 7:23-30). Also he combines, as substantially one for his immediate object, the two statements ( Genesis 15:16), “after that they shall come here (to Canaan) again,” and Exodus 3:12, “ye shall serve God upon this mountain” (Horeb), by Acts 7:7, “after that they shall come forth and serve Me in this place” (Canaan). Israel’s being brought forth to worship Jehovah in Horeb, and subsequent worshipping Him in Canaan their inheritance, were but different stages in the same deliverance, not needing to be distinguished for Stephen’s purpose. Moses’ trembling ( Acts 7:32) was a current belief which Stephen endorses under the Spirit. Again as to Acts 7:15,16, “Jacob and our fathers were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought of Emmor,” Stephen with elliptical brevity refers to six different chapters, summing up in one sentence, which none of his hearers could misunderstand from their familiarity as to the details, the double purchase (from Ephron the Hittite by Abraham, and from Hamor of Shechem by Jacob: Genesis 23:16; 33:19), the double burial place (Machpelah’s cave and the ground at Shechem), and the double burial (Jacob in Machpelah’s cave: Genesis 50:13, and Joseph in the Shechem ground of Jacob, Genesis 50:25; Exodus 13:19; Joshua 24:32).

    The burials and purchases were virtually one so far as his purpose was concerned, namely, to show the faith of the patriarchs and their interest in Canaan when to the eye of sense all seemed against the fulfillment of God’s promise; Stephen hereby implying that, however visionary Jesus’ and His people’s prospects might seem, yet they are as certain as were the patriarchs’ prospects when their only possession in Canaan was a tomb.

    These seeming discrepancies with the Old Testament are just what a forger would avoid, they confirm, the genuineness of S.’ s speech as we have it.

    So as to other supplementary notices in it as compared with Old Testament ( Acts 7:2 with Genesis 12:1; Acts 7:4 with Genesis 11:32; Acts 7:14 with Genesis 46:27; Acts 7:20 with Exodus 2:2; Acts 7:22 with Exodus 4:10; Acts 7:21 with Exodus 2:10; Acts 7:53 with Deuteronomy 33:2; Acts 7:42,43 with Amos 5:26).

    The fascination with which at first Stephen’s beaming heavenly countenance had overawed his stern judges gave place to fury when they at last saw the drift of his covert argument. Perceiving their resistance to the truth he broke off with a direct charge: “ye stiffnecked (with unbending neck and head haughtily thrown back), and (with all your boast of circumcision) uncircumcised in heart and ears (which ye close against conviction!), ye do always resist the Holy Spirit” (compare Nehemiah 9:29,30); with all your phylacteries “ye have not kept (efulaxate ) the law,” of which you boast. They were cut to the heart (Greek: sawn asunder) and gnashed on him with set teeth. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,” strained his eyes with steadfast look into heaven” (atenisas , the same word as describes the disciples’ look after the ascending Saviour: Acts 1:10).

    There he saw “standing (to help ( <19A931> Psalm 109:31), plead for and receive him, not as elsewhere sitting in majestic repose) the Son of man” (a phrase used elsewhere in New Testament by Jesus Himself). The members of the council, remembering probably the use of similar language by Jesus when on trial before them ( Matthew 26:64), being at all events resolved to treat as blasphemy Stephen’s assertion of the divine exaltation of Him whom they had crucified, cried aloud, stopped their ear’s (unconsciously realizing Stephen’s picture of them: Acts 7:51; Psalm 58:4), ran upon him with one accord (contrast “with one accord,” Acts 4:24), and cast him out of the city (as was the custom in order to put out from the midst of them such a pollution: 1 Kings 21:13; Luke 4:29; Hebrews 13:12) and stoned him, all sharing in the execution, the witnesses casting the first stones ( Deuteronomy 13:9,10; 17:7; John 8:7), after having stripped off the outer garments for greater ease in the bloody work, and laid them at the feet of Saul who thereby signified his consent to Stephen’s execution ( Acts 8:1; 22:20). The act was in violation of Roman authority, which alone had power of life or death, a sudden outbreak as in John 8:59. Like Jesus in his recognition of the glory of “the Son of man,” he also resembled his Lord in his last two cries, the second uttered on bended knee to mark the solemnity of his intercession, “Lord Jesus (as Jesus had invoked the Father), receive my spirit.” “Lord lay not this sin to their charge” ( Luke 23:34,46). Thus Stephen was laid “asleep” (the term for death after Jesus’ pattern: John 11:11, compare Deuteronomy 31:16; Daniel 12:2; 1 Corinthians 15:18,51). Devout proselytes, a class related to the Hellenists to whom Stephen belonged, carried him to his burial and made great lamentation over him. His holy day is put next after Christmas, the martyr having the nearest place to the great Sufferer. It is the Lord’s becoming man to die for man that nerves man to be willing to die for the Lord. The gate opening on the descent to the valley of the Kedron is called Stephen’s gate.

    Stephen was first of the earliest Christian ministry, “the archdeacon,” as the Eastern church calls him. To Stephen first the name “martyr” is applied ( Acts 22:20). The forerunner of Paul, whose conversion was the first fruit of his prayer for his murderers; among the pricks of conscience which Saul vainly strove to resist ( Acts 9:5) the foremost was remorse at the remembrance of the part he took in the last touching scene of the holy martyr’s execution. The first martyr foreran the first apostle of the Gentiles; Stephen anticipated that worldwide universality of spirit which Paul advocated everywhere in opposition to the narrow prejudices of Judaism.

    STOCKS (1) Mahpeketh , Jeremiah 20:2; 29:23, from hapak “rack”; our “pillory”; the word implies the body was bent, the arms and neck as well as the leg being confined. Prisons had usually a chamber for the purpose called “the house of the pillory” ( 2 Chronicles 16:10, KJV “prison house”). The other Hebrew term, (2), sad , is our “stocks” ( Job 13:27; 33:11; Acts 16:24), in which the feet alone are confined; the Roman nervous, which could be made at the jailer’s will an instrument of torture by drawing asunder the feet; (3) Proverbs 7:22, rather “a fetter”; akasim , used for “the tinkling ornaments on women’s feet” in Isaiah 3:16-18. The harlot’s tinkling foot ornaments excite the youth’s passions, all the while he knows not that her foot ornaments will prove his feet fetters; “to love one’s fetters, though of gold, is the part of a fool” (Seneca). He sports with and is proud of his fetters as if they were an ornament, or put on him in play.

    STOICS Acts 17:18,29. The pantheists of antiquity, as the Epicureans were the atheists. Zeno of Citium founded the Stoic school, 280 B.C. The painted stoa or portico where he taught originated the name. Cleanthes and Chrysippus succeeded; Seneca popularized their tenets; Epictetus (A.D. 115), as a Stoic, gives their purest specimens of pagan morality; and the emperor Marcus Aurelius tried to realize them in his public conduct. But egotism and pride are at the root, whereas humility is at the foundation of Christianity. Individual autonomy is their aim, faith in the unseen God is the Christian’s principle. The Stoic bows to fate, the Christian rests on the personal providence of the loving Father. The Stoics had no notion of bodily resurrection, it is the Christian’s grand hope. In common with the Stoics Paul denied the Epicurean notion of the world’s resulting from chance, and a God far off and indifferent to human acts and sorrows; for, as the poet Aratus says, “in God we live, and move, and have our being”; but he agreed with the Epicureans, God “needs” nothing from us; but he rejects both Stoic and Epicurean doctrines in proclaiming God as the personal Giver to all of all they have, and the Creator of all, of one blood, and the providential Determiner of their times and places, and their final Judge; inferring the sinful absurdity of idolatry from the spiritual nature of God, which is that wherein man reflects His likeness as His child (not in visible body), and which cannot be represented by any outward image.

    STOMACHER pthigil . Isaiah 3:24. A broad platted girdle; Septuagint “a tunic inwoven with purple stripes.”

    STONES large and long, but not high, are the characteristic of Jewish architecture ( Mark 13:1). Robinson mentions one 24 ft. long by six broad, and only three high (Res. 1:233, note 284). Flint stones were used as knives for circumcising ( Exodus 4:25; Joshua 5:2,3 margin). Stones were consecrated as memorials to God by anointing, as that at Bethel ( Genesis 28:18). The Phoenicians similarly called meteoric stones baetylia, and worshipped them. Isaiah 57:6, “among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion” (i.e. thy gods, Psalm 16:4,5). Gesenius translated “in the bore places of the valley,” but what follows confirms KJV, “even to them hast thou poured a drink offering”; compare Leviticus 26:1, “image of stone,” margin figured stone.

    The “white stone” in Revelation 2:17 is a glistering diamond, the Urim (light answering to “white”) borne by the high priest within the breastplate (choshen ) of judgment, with the twelve tribes’ names on the twelve precious stones, next the heart. None but the high priest knew the name written upon it, perhaps “Jehovah.” He consulted it in some divinely appointed way. In our Christian dispensation the highpriest’s peculiar treasure, consultation of God’s light and truth, belongs to all believers as spiritual priests. If the reference be to Greek ideas, the white conveys the idea of acquittal, the stone that of election.

    In Zechariah 12:3 “I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone ... all that burden themselves with it shall be cut to pieces,” alluding to the custom of testing youths’ strength by lifting a massive stone ( Matthew 21:44).

    The Jews “fell” on Messiah “the rock of offense and were broken”; the rock shall fall on antichrist who “burdens himself with it” by his assault on the restored Jews, and “grind him to powder” (Zechariah 13; 14).

    Christians are “living stones” built up as a spiritual temple on Christ “the chief corner stone” ( Ephesians 2:20-22; 1 Peter 2:4-8).

    STONES, PRECIOUS (See AGATE , see CARBUNCLE , etc.) Josephus’ nomenclature for the stones in the high priest’s breastplate is confirmed by the Vulgate of Jerome, at a time when the breastplate was still open for inspection in the Temple of Concord, situated in the Forum.

    STOOLS abnaim . Exodus 1:16 ( Jeremiah 18:3, where a potter’s wheel is meant); literally, two stones. A peculiar seat such as is represented on monuments of the 18th Egyptian dynasty, and is still used (Lane) by Egyptian midwives. Gesenius however refers it to the laver in which the newborn child was washed, and in which Persian kings used to cause sons of female relatives to be drowned immediately after birth (Thevenot, Itin. 2:98).

    STORK Four feet high, with jet black wings and bright red beak and legs ( Zechariah 5:9). Chacidah , the white stork, Ciconia, alba, unclean because of its unclean feeding ( Leviticus 11:19). From Hebrew chacid , “dutiful,” “piously affectionate.” The black stork is more common in the East (but Septuagint translated “heron”). Its confiding nature toward man, its utility in clearing away offal and reptiles, its attachment to its young, and kindness to the old and feeble, its grave contemplative look, and its predilection for pinnacles of temples, mosques, and churches, have made it in all ages an object of man’s special regard and protection; so that in Thessaly it was a capital crime to kill a stork (Pliny, H. N. 10:21). In the burning of Delft formerly, and more lately in the battle of Friedland, a mother stork, having vainly tried to extricate her young, perished in the flames herself. The stork punctually observes “her appointed times” of migration at the end of March and beginning of April; in Holland she remains until October. Storks’ nests, unless disturbed, are rebuilt for generations on the same site ( Jeremiah 8:7). Regularly they return every spring from their winter abodes in sunnier climes, but God’s people will not return to Him even when “the winter” of His wrath is past and He invites them back to “the spring” of His favor. They build their large nests in lofty trees, in the absence of lofty towers and ruins, to which their liking for man’s society attracts them ( <19A417> Psalm 104:17). (On Job 39:13 see OSTRICH ).

    STRAIN Matthew 23:24. Rather (from a misprint) “strain out a gnat,” as in Tyndale’s, Cranmer’s, the Bishops’, and the Genevan Bible. An image from minute care in straining wines to clear them; ye are punctilious about trifles, but reckless about enormities.

    STRANGER A foreigner settled among the covenant people, without Israelite citizenship, but subject to Israel’s laws, and having a claim to kindness and justice ( Exodus 12:49; Leviticus 24:22; 19:34, 25:6; Deuteronomy 1:16; 24:17,18,19; 10:18,19; 16:11,14; 26:11). (See PROSELYTES ). In contrast to one “born in the land,” not transplanted, “ezrach .” Geer , toshab : geer implies the stranger viewed in respect to his foreign origin, literally, one turned aside to another people; [toshab] implies his permanent residence in the hind of hision. Distinguished from the “foreigner,” nakri , who made no stay in Israel. The stranger included the “mixed multitude” from Egypt ( Exodus 12:38); the Canaanites still remaining in Palestine and their descendants, as Uriah the Hittite and Araunah the Jebusite, Doeg the Edomite, Ittai the Gittite; captives in war, fugitives, and merchants, amounting under Solomon to 153,600 males ( 2 Chronicles 2:17), one tenth of the population. Strictly, the stranger had no share in the land. It is to be a peculiarity of restored Israel that the stranger shall inherit along with the native born ( Ezekiel 47:22). Still anomalies may have been tolerated of necessity, as that of Canaanites (on conversion to the law) retaining land from which Israel had been unable to eject their forefathers. Strangers were excluded from kingship. Though tolerated they must not violate the fundamental laws by blaspheming Jehovah, breaking the sabbath by work, eating leavened bread at the Passover, infringing the marriage laws, worshipping Moloch, or eating blood ( Leviticus 24:16; 18:26; 20:2; 17:10,15; Exodus 20:10; 12:19). If the stranger were a bondservant he had to be circumcised ( Exodus 12:44). If free he was exempt, but if not circumcised was excluded from the Passover ( Exodus 12:48); he might eat foods ( Deuteronomy 14:21) which the circumcised stranger might not eat ( Leviticus 17:10,15). The liberal spirit of the law contrasts with the exclusiveness of Judaism after the return from Babylon. This narrowness was at first needed, in order to keep the holy seed separate from foreign admixture (Nehemiah 9; 10; 13; Ezra 10). But its degeneracy into proud, morose isolation and misanthropy our Lord rebukes in His large definition of “neighbour” in the parable of the good Samaritan ( Luke 10:36).

    The law kept Israel a people separate from the nations, yet exercising a benignant influence on them. It secured a body of 600,000 yeomen ready to defend their own land, but unfit for invading other lands, as their force was ordained to be of infantry alone. Interest front a fellow citizen was forbidden, but from a stranger was allowed, subject to strict regard to equity. The hireling was generally taken from strangers, the law guarded his rights with tender considerateness ( Deuteronomy 24:14,15). (See NETHINIM and see SOLOMON’S SERVANTS ).

    STRAW teben . The Egyptians reaped grain close to the ear, afterward they cut the straw close to the ground and laid the straw by Pharaoh refused this straw to Israel, who therefore had to gather the short stubble left; translated Exodus 5:12, “gather (qash ) stubble for the straw,” i.e. to be prepared as straw chopped small; so the old versions and Targum Onkelos.

    STREET rechob . A broad open space, as the courtyard, the space near the gate devoted to public business ( Deuteronomy 13:16), or before t he temple ( Ezra 10:9; Esther 4:6). Particular trades gathered in certain quarters, as “the bakers’ street” ( Jeremiah 37:21). Chuts is a narrow street ( Proverbs 5:16; Jeremiah 5:1) in contrast to the broad street, rechob . Shuq like chuts is seemingly the narrow street distinguished from “the broad way,” rechob , in Song 3:2. Luke 14:21 plateia and rumee , “the streets and lanes.” But shuq etymology means a place of concourse, and rume is applied to the “straight” street of Damascus ( Acts 9:11).

    SUAH 1 Chronicles 7:36.

    SUCCOTH (booths), from saakak “to entwine” or “shelter.” 1. Jerome places it “beyond Jordan” (Quaest. Hebrew). In Joshua 13:27,28 Succoth is assigned to Gad. The mention of the “house” and “booths” marks that Jacob stayed there for long, in contrast to his previous pilgrim life in tents, Succoth lay on the route between Pentel (see PENUEL ) on the E. of Jordan and Shechem on the W. of Jordan ( Genesis 32:30; 33:17,18) (see SHALEM ) Subsequently, in Gideon’s days Succoth had 77 chiefs and elders (zeqeenim , sheikhs, i.e. headmen, literally, old men). See also 1 Kings 7:46; 2 Chronicles 4:17. The Talmud makes Succoth a district (so Psalm 60:6, “the valley of Succoth”) as well as a town, called Ter’alah; this corresponds to the tell or mound Der’ala, thickly strewed with pottery, in the great plain N. of the Jabbok, one mile from the river and three miles from where it leaves the hills. Close by is a smaller mound with ruins. The Bedouin say a city existed formerly on the large mound. E. of tell Der’ala is the ford of the Jabbok, “Mashra’a Canaan,” i.e. Canaan’s crossing. The route into Canaan which the nomadic tribes, as Midian, always took (“the way of them that dwell in tents,” Judges 8:11) was along the course of the Jabbok and so across Jordan opposite Bethshean, thence spreading over the Esdraelon plain. Gideon ( Judges 8:4-17) in pursuing Midian took the same course in reverse order until he reached Succoth. The men of Succoth, as living on this great army route between Canaan and the East, and having regard only to self and no concern for Israel’s deliverance and no compassion for the sufferings of Gideon’s gallant little band, would give no bread to their brethren lest they should incur the vengeance of Midian; nay more, they added insolence to unkindness. As then they classed themselves with the wicked, of whom thorns are the symbol, their retributive punishment was to be chastised with thorns of the wilderness (the strongest thorns: Isaiah 5:6; 27:4; Amos 1:3; 2 Samuel 23:6,7). See Palestine Exploation Quarterly Statement, April 1878, p. 81. 2. Israel’s first camping place after leaving Egypt, half way between Rameses and Etham, Succoth of the Birket Timseh (the lake of crocodiles) on the road which led by the shortest way to the edge of the wilderness.

    Possibly from Hebrew [sukowt](HSN-0000) “booths,” but probably from the Egyptian sechet or sochot, the domain of an officer of state in Lower Egypt not far from Memphis, in the time of Chufu ( Exodus 12:37; 13:20; Numbers 33:5,6).

    SUCCOTH BENOTH 2 Kings 17:30. Hebrew “the tents of daughters,” i.e. in which they prostituted themselves to the Babylonian goddess of love (Herodotus i. 109), or else “small shrines containing images of female deities.” But, as the parallelism to Nergal and Ashima require a deity, Succoth Benoth is probably Zirbanit, called wife of the Babylonian idol Merodach, and “queen” of Babylon. Thus Succoth “tents” would be a Hebrew mistranslation of Zir as if related to Jarat, whereas it means “supreme”; or Succoth is the Hamitic for Zir (Sir H. Rawlinson). The people of Hani (2000 B.C.), according to G. Smith’s reading of an inscription, defeated the Babylonians, and carried away the image of Zirat Banit = Succoth Benoth.

    SUCHATHITES A family of scribes at Jabez ( 1 Chronicles 2:55).

    SUKKIIMS Part of Shishak’s army in invading Judah ( 2 Chronicles 12:3). “Dwellers in tents” (Gesenius); possibly an Arab tribe S. of Palestine, subdued by Shishak. However, their mention along with the Lubim and Cushim may suggest that they were rather Africans.

    SUN Genesis 1:14 translated “let there be luminaries,” literally, light bearers.

    Genesis only tells what the sun, moon, and stars are in relation to the earth.

    When the mists were dispelled, and the seas confined within bounds, the heavenly bodies assumed their natural functions, marking days and nights, seasons and years, and God appoints the sun to rule the day and the moon the night. “Let them be for signs,” as eclipses, portents of extraordinary events ( Matthew 2:2; Luke 21:25) and divine judgments ( Joel 2:30; Jeremiah 10:2; Matthew 24:29), and indicating the four quarters of the heavens ( Psalm 50:1) and also the changes in the weather; “and for seasons, days, and years.” The sun regulated the length of the Israelite year by the recurrence of Pentecost at a fixed agricultural season, namely, when the grain was ripe. The person facing the rising sun faced the E.; so “before,” “forward,” meant the E.; “behind,” “backward,” meant the W.; “on the left hand” meant the N.”; “on the right” the S. ( Job 23:8,9). Shemesh , “sun,” expresses the stupor produced on the beholder by his overwhelming brilliancy; chammah and cherec are poetical names implying his heat. Sun worship was the earliest idolatry ( Job 31:26,27); Ra was the sun god in Egypt; On was the city of the sun worship ( Jeremiah 43:13; Hebrew), Bethshemesh “house of the sun,” Greek Heliopolis. Joshua’s causing the sun to stand still phenomenally virtually proclaimed his God Jehovah to be Lord of the sun and all creation, in the face of pagandom. The valley of Ajalon is still called wady el Mikteleh, “the valley of slaughter.” The Phoenician Baal; the Ammonite Moloch and Milcom; the Syrian Hadad; latterly the Persian Mithras (Zoroaster previously had reformed the worship). The sun images were called in Hebrew chammanim ( Leviticus 26:30; margin 2 Chronicles 14:5; 34:4), stone statues to solar Baal or Baal Haman in Carthaginian inscriptions. The temple at Baalbek was dedicated to the worship of the sun. Manasseh introduced direct sun worship ( 2 Kings 21:3,5). Josiah destroyed by fire (the very element which was worshipped) the chariots, and removed the horses consecrated to the sun ( 2 Kings 23:5,11,12).

    The housetop was the place of sun altars and incense burning ( Zephaniah 1:5). Worship was directed to the rising sun ( Ezekiel 8:16,17); they used to hold a bunch of tamarisk branches (barsom ) to their nose at daybreak, while singing hymns to the rising sun (Strabo, 1:15, section 733). The horses sacred to the sun, and used in processions to meet the rising sun, were kept at the entering in of the house of Jehovah in the portico (as Gesenius explains parwarim in 2 Kings 23:11, not “suburbs”) at the western side of the outer temple court. An insult to the only true God, in His own house!

    Spiritually, God’s law is the sun ( Psalm 19:7). He is a Sun to cheer; and “the Sun of righteousness,” from whom we receive all righteousness, by imputation for justification, and by impartation for sanctification ( Malachi 4:2; Revelation 1:16).

    SUPPER (See MEALS ).

    SURETISHIP Person for person ( Genesis 43:9). The hand was given in token of undertaking the office or becoming responsible for a debt ( Job 17:13; Proverbs 6:1; <19B9122> Psalm 119:122; Isaiah 38:14): “undertake (harbeeni ) for me,” Hebrew “be surety for me.” Christ is the “surety (enguos ) of a better testament” ( Hebrews 7:22; 9:11-15); Jeremiah 30:21, “who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto Me?” literally, pledged his life, a thing unique: Messiah alone made His life responsible for ours. “Heart” implies the courage it needed to undertake such a tremendous suretiship; the question implies admiration at His union of Godhead and manhood qualifying Him for the work.

    SUSANCHITES Ezra 4:9,10. Descendants of some of the nations planted by Asnapper in Samaria. Inhabitants of Susiana or Susa.

    SUSANNA (“lily”). One of the women who ministered to the Lord Jesus ( Luke 8:3).

    SUSI Numbers 13:11.

    SWALLOW deror , from darar , free, spontaneous motion ( Psalm 84:3). (See BIRD ). ‘Agur is probably the crane, from ga’ar to chatter, as Latin grus is related to garrio, in Isaiah 38:14, and sus (the Italian zisilla) the swallow: “like a swallow or a crane.” In Proverbs 26:2 the sense is “as the bird (sparrow) by wandering, as the swallow (deror ) by flying, never lights upon us, but flies to the winds, so the curse for which we have given no just cause shall not come” to hurt us; contradicting the common superstition that a curse brings its fulfilment, however undeserved; nay Providence shields His people from Satan’s and his agents’ malice. Balaam could not curse Israel whom God had blessed ( Deuteronomy 23:5), nor Shimei David, nay God requited David good instead ( 2 Samuel 16:5-12; <19A928> Psalm 109:28).

    SWAN tinshemet . Leviticus 11:18; Deuteronomy 14:16. ( See SEPTUAGINT ).

    Unclean as food. Probably an unclean feeder (which the swan is not, feeding on vegetable foods) is meant; either the ibis, or also the Porphyrio hyacinthinus, the purple gallinule or sultana waterhen, with rich dark blue plumage, and brilliant red beak and legs, and extraordinarily long goes, with which it grasps its food and carries it to its mouth.

    SWEAT, BLOODY (See AGONY ).

    SWIM The orientals swam anciently in the manner their descendants swim, hand over hand. So the Assyrian sculptures represent swimmers. This illustrates Isaiah 25:11, “He shall spread forth His hands in the midst of them (the foes), as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth ... to swim” (compare Zechariah 5:3) the swimmer beating down with his hands, i.e. bringing down each hand forcibly.

    SYCAMINE TREE Luke 17:6; distinct from theSYCAMORE ( Luke 19:4; Septuagint in Old Testament translated the latter however sycamine, meaning the Egyptian sycamine). The sycamine is the mulberry tree (morus) cultivated for supplying food for the silkworm caterpillars. Slow growing; but attaining large size, and stretching deep roots, so that it would require strong force to “pluck it up by the root.”

    SYCAMORE Luke 19:4. Often planted by the wayside for shade. Tristram (Land of Israel) found an old sycamore at the broken aqueduct of Herod’s Jericho.

    The fig mulberry or sycamore fig ( Amos 7:14). (See SYCAMINE ). The size of a walnut tree; the leaves heart shaped, downy underneath and fragrant; the fruit growing in clusters on little sprigs from the trunk. Amos was a gatherer employed about sycamore fruit (Hebrew); but Septuagint makes him a “puncturer (knizon ) of sycamore fruit.” Pliny says they made an incision in the fruit when of a certain size, and on the fourth day it ripened. The KJV is compatible with the Hebrew. If not gathered, it spoils by gnats. It is inferior to the fig. The tree is always green, and bears fruit often throughout the year, so that it is of much value to the poor. The wood, though porous, is durable, and suffers neither from moisture nor heat; Egyptian mummy coffins of it are sound after entombment for thousands of years. The destruction of sycamore trees by hailstones was among Egypt’s heavy losses (margin Psalm 78:47). David had an overseer over his sycamore trees ( 1 Chronicles 26:28; compare also 1 Kings 10:27).

    SYCHAR John 4:5. Shechem or Nablus (Jerome Quaest. Genesis 48:22) corrupted into Sichem, Sychar. Some think it an intentional corruption, as if from sheker “falsehood,” or shikor “drunkard” ( Isaiah 28:1,7), due to Jewish bigotry against the Samaritans. It is objected that Jacob’s well at the entrance into the valley is a mile and a half from Shechem, and that it is unlikely the woman, if belonging to Shechem, would go so far for water when plenty was nearer at hand; but Robinson conjectures the town had extensive suburbs anciently which reached to near Jacob’s well. The woman probably went to this well, irrespectively of distance, just because it was Jacob’s; her looking for “Messiah” is in consonance with this, besides the well was deep and the water therefore especially good. However Sychar may have been close to the well; and (Thomson, Land and Book, 31) the present village, Aschar, just above Jacob’s well, on the side of Ebal and on the road by which caravans pass from Jerusalem to Damascus, and by which doubtless Jesus passed between Judaea and Galilee, may answer to Sychar. So Jerome and Eusebius (Onomasticon) make S. “before,” i.e.

    E. of, Neapolis (Shechem) by the field of Joseph with Jacob’s well. The Bordeaux pilgrim (A.D. 333) puts Sechar or Sychar a Roman mile from Sychem, which he makes a suburb of Neapolis. “A city of Samaria called Sychar” is language not likely to be used of the metropolis Shechem; moreover the name Sychem occurs Acts 7:16. On the other hand “called” suits the idea that Sychar is a Jewish nickname for Shechem. Lt.

    Conder favors Aschar, which is the translation of the Samaritan Iskar, not from the Hebrew “drunkard,” but from a Hebrew Aramaic root meaning “to be shut up.” This derivation and the description in John 4:5,6 answer accurately to Aschar. Jacob’s well is at the point where the narrow vale of Shechem broadens into the great plain; it is 2,000 yards E. of Nablus (Shechem), which is hidden from it. The tomb of Joseph is a third of a mile northeastward, thence a path ascends to Aschar which is visible from Jacob’s well. (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1877, p. 149).

    SYCHEM In see STEPHEN ’s speech, Acts 7:16. He tells us that the other patriarchs as well as Joseph were buried there ( Joshua 24:32).

    SYENE Properly Seveneh or Sebennytus in the eastern delta (the Heracleopolis of Manetho, called from Hercules the local god), meaning a key or opening, a Syene Egyptian town. “From Migdol to Syene,” i.e. from the fortress near Pelusium on the N. of Suez to Syene in the far S. toward Ethiopia (Ezek 29:10; 30:6); not as KJV “from the tower of Syene.” The shepherd kings had Syene for their chief city, from whence they are called Sebennyte Pharaohs.

    SYNAGOGUE Hebrew eedah , “a congregation” or “appointed solemn meeting,” in the Pentateuch; qaahaal , a meeting called, represents ekklesia see CHURCH ”.

    In the New Testament synagogue (Greek) is used of the Christian assembly only by the most Judaic apostle ( James 2:2). The Jews’ malice against Christianity caused Christians to leave the term “synagogue” to the Jews ( Revelation 2:9). The first hints of religions meetings appear in the phrases “before the Lord,” “the calling of assemblies” ( Isaiah 1:13). The Sabbaths were observed from an early time by gatherings for prayer, whether at or apart from the tabernacle or temple ( 1 Samuel 20:5; Kings 4:23). Jehoshaphat’s mission of priests and Levites ( 2 Chronicles 17:7-9) implies there was no provision for regular instruction except the septennial reading of the law at the feast of tabernacles ( Deuteronomy 31:10-13). In Psalm 74:4,8 (compare Jeremiah 52:13,17, which shows that the psalm refers to the Chaldaean destruction of the sanctuary) the “congregations” and “synagogues “refer to the tabernacle or temple meeting place between God and His people; “mo’eed mo’adee ” in the psalm is the same word as expresses “the tabernacle of congregation,” or meeting between God and His people, in Exodus 33:7, compare Exodus 29:42,43. So in Lamentations 2:6, “He (the Lord) hath destroyed His places of assembly.” But the other places of devotional meetings of the people besides the temple are probably included. So <19A732> Psalm 107:32, “the congregation of the people ... the assembly of the elders” ( Ezra 3:1).

    The prophets’ assemblies for psalmody and worship led the way ( Samuel 9:12; 10:5; 19:20-24). Synagogues in the strict and later sense are not mentioned until after the desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes. The want of the temple in the Babylonian captivity familiarized the exiles with the idea of spiritual worship independent of locality. The elders often met and sat before the prophet, Ezekiel to hear Jehovah’s word ( Ezekiel 8:1; 11:15,16; 14:1; 20:1); in Ezekiel 33:31 the people also sit before him to hear. Periodic meetings for hearing the law and the prophets read were customary thenceforth on the return ( Ezra 8:15; Nehemiah 8:2; 9:1; Zechariah 7:5; Acts 15:21). When the Jews could not afford to build a synagogue they built an oratory (proseuchee ) by a running stream or the seashore ( Acts 16:13). The synagogue was the means of rekindling the Jewish devotion and patriotism which shone so brightly in the Maccabean struggle with Antiochus. The synagogue required no priest to minister; this and the reading of the Old Testament prepared the way for the gospel.

    Sometimes a wealthy Jew or a proselyte built the synagogue ( Luke 7:5). The kibleh or direction was toward Jerusalem. The structure, though essentially different from the temple (for it had neither altar nor sacrifice), resembled in some degree that of the temple: the ark at the far end contained the law in both; the lid was called the kopereth or mercy-seat; a veil hung before it. Here were “the chief seats” sought by the Pharisees and the rich ( Matthew 23:6; James 2:2,3). In the middle was a raised platform on which several could be together, with a pulpit in the middle for the reader to stand in when reading and to sit when teaching. A low partition separated men on one side from women on the other. Besides the ark for the law (torah ) there was a chest for the haphtaroth or roll of the prophets.

    In the synagogue a college of elders was presided over by the chief or ruler of the synagogue ( Luke 7:3; 8:41,49). The elders were called parnasi ym , “pastors,” “shepherds” ( Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 5:1), ruling over the flock ( 1 Timothy 5:17; Hebrews 13:7); they with the ruler managed the affairs of the synagogue and had the power of excommunication. The officiating minister was delegate (sheliach , answering to the term apostle, “sent”) of the congregation, the forerunner of “the angel (messenger sent) of the church” ( Revelation 1:20; 2:1).

    The qualifications required were similar to those of a bishop or presbyter; he must be of full age, father of a family, apt to teach ( 1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:6-9). The chazzan or “minister” ( Luke 4:16-20, where Christ by rising indicated that as a member of the synagogue at Nazareth. He desired to undertake the office of maptir or reader of the lesson from the prophets, and was at once permitted owing to His fame) answered to our deacon or subdeacon; besides getting the building ready for service he acted as schoolmaster during the week. There were also the ten batlani ym or men of leisure, permanently making up a congregation (ten being the minimum to constitute a congregation), that no single worshipper might be disappointed; also acting as alms collectors. Three were archisunagogai , “chiefs of the synagogue”; then also the “angel” or “bishop” who prayed publicly and caused the law to be read and sometimes preached; and three deacons for alms; the interpreter of the old Hebrew Testament, who paraphrased it; also the theological schoolmaster and his interpreter (Lightfoot, Horae. 4:70).

    The government of the church evidently came from the synagogue not from the Aaronic priesthood. So also did the worship; with the addition of the new doctrines, the gifts of the Spirit, and the supper of the Lord; fixed liturgical forms, creeds, as the shema , “Hear O Israel,” etc. ( Deuteronomy 6:4), and prayers, the kadish , shemoneh esreh , berachoth ; (compare brief creeds, 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Timothy 1:13, the Lord’s prayer (Luke 11), the “order” ( 1 Corinthians 14:40);) the teaching out of the law, which was read in a cycle, once through in three years. The prophets were similarly read as second lessons; the exposition (derash ) or “word of exhortation” followed ( Acts 13:15; 15:21). The psalms were selected to suit the special times; the times of prayer (shacharit , minchah , ‘arabit ) were the third, sixth, and ninth hours ( Acts 3:1; 10:3,9); so in Old Testament, Psalm 55:17; Daniel 6:10. Clemens Alex. (Strom.) and Tertullian (Orat. 25) state the same in the church of the second century. Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday were the devotional days of the synagogue as of the church. The custom of ending the Saturday Sabbath with a feast formed the connecting link between the seventh day Jewish sabbath and the first day, Christian Lord’s day and Lord’s supper ( 1 Corinthians 11:20; Revelation 1:10). Preparatory ablutions ( Hebrews 10:22; John 13:1-15; Tertullian, Orat. 11), standing in prayer, not kneeling ( Luke 18:11; Tertullian 23), the arms stretched out (Tertullian 13), the face toward the E. (Clemens Alex., Strom.), the Amen in responses ( 1 Corinthians 14:16), the leaping as if they would rise toward heaven in the Alexandrian church (Clemens Alex., Strom. 7:40) as the Jews at the tersanctus of Isaiah 6 (Vitringa 1100, Buxtorf 10), are all reproductions of synagogue customs. However the Hebrew in prayer wears the talith drawn over his ears to the shoulders (a custom probably later than apostolic times), whereas the Christian man is bareheaded ( 1 Corinthians 11:4).

    The synagogue officers had judicial power to scourge, anathematize, and excommunicate ( Matthew 10:17; Mark 13:9; Luke 12:11; 21:12; John 12:42; 9:22): so the church ( 1 Corinthians 6:1-8; 16:22; Galatians 1:8,9; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Timothy 1:20; Matthew 18:15-18); also to seize and send for trial before the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem ( Acts 9:2; 22:5).

    The Great Synagogue ( Mark 7:3 “the elders”; Matthew 5:21,27,33, “they of old time”) is represented in the rabbinical book, Pirqe Aboth, of the second century A.D., to have succeeded the prophets, and to have been succeeded by the scribes, Ezra presiding; among the members Joshua, the high priest Zerubbabel, Daniel, the three children Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Nehemiah, Mordecai; their aim being to restore the crown or glory of Israel, the name of God as great, mighty, and terrible ( Daniel 9:4; Jeremiah 32:18; Deuteronomy 7:21); so they completed the Old Testament canon, revising the text, introducing the vowel points which the Masorete editors have handed down to us, instituting the feast purim, organizing the synagogue ritual. Their motto, preserved by Simon highpriest, was “set a hedge about the law.” (See SCRIBES ). The only Old Testament notice of anything like such a body is Nehemiah 8:13, “chiefs of the fathers of all the people, the priests; and the Levites ... Ezra the scribe” presiding. The likelihood is that some council was framed at the return from Babylon to arrange religious matters, the forerunner of the Sanhedrin. Vitringa’s work on the synagogue, published in 1696, is the chief authority. In the last times of Jerusalem 480 synagogues were said to be there (see Acts 6:9). Lieut. Conder found by measurement (taking the cubit at 16 in.) that a synagogue was 30 cubits by 40, and its pillars ft. high exactly.

    There are in Palestine eleven specimens of synagogues existing; two at Kefr Bir’im, one at Meiron, Irbid, Tell Hum, Kerazeh, Nebratein, two at El Jish, one at Umm el ‘Amed, and Sufsaf. In plan and ornamentation they are much alike. They are not on high ground, nor so built that the worshipper on entering faced Jerusalem, except that at Irbid, The carved figures of animals occur in six out of the eleven. In all these respects they betray their later origin, as vitally differing from the known form of synagogue and tenets of the earlier Jews. Their erection began probably at the close of the second century, the Jews employing Roman workmen, at the dictation of Roman rulers in the time of Antoninus Pins and Alexander Severus, during the spiritual supremacy of the Jewish patriarch of see TIBERIAS . Their date is between A.D. 150 and 300 (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1878, p. 123).

    SYNTYCHE (See EUODIAS ).

    SYRACUSE A great city in the E. of Sicily. Paul arrived there from Melita (Malta) on his way to Rome ( Acts 28:12). A convenient place for the Alexandrian grain ships to touch at, for the haven was good and the water from the fountain Arethusa excellent. The prevalent wind in this part of the Mediterranean, the W.N.W., would carry the vessel from Malta round the S. of Sicily to the eastern shore on which lay Syracuse. They waited three days there for the wind, then by a circuitous course, necessitated by the direction of the wind, reached Rhegium.

    SYRIA Septuagint Greek for Hebrew ‘Aram , fifth of Shem’s sons. Aram means the high land N.E. of the Holy Land, extending from the Jordan and the sea of Galilee to the Euphrates; the term means high. In Genesis Aram- Naharaim, i.e. Aram between the two rivers, is Mesopotamia, part of which is Padan Aram; and Laban who lived there is called the Aramaean or Syrian. Syria is by some derived from Assyria, by others from Tyre, as if Tsyria; by Ritter from Shur, the wilderness into which Israel passed out of Egypt ( Genesis 25:18; Exodus 15:22; 1 Samuel 27:8), from whence the name was extended over all Syria. The Hebrew Aram begins on the northern border of Palestine, and thence goes northward to Mount Taurus, westward to the Mediterranean, eastward to the Khabour river.

    Divided into Aram or Syria of Damascus, Aram or Syria of Zobah (the tract between Euphrates and Coelosyria), Aram or Syria Naharaim (of the two rivers), i.e. Padan Aram or Mesopotamia, the N.W. part of the land between the Tigris and Euphrates. On the W. two mountain chains run parallel to one another and to the coast from the latitude of Tyre to that of Antioch, namely, Lebanon and Antilebanon; Lebanon the western chain at its southern end becomes Bargylus. Mount Amanus, an offshoot of Taurus, meets the two long chains at their northern extremity, and separates Syria from Cilicia. The valley between Lebanon and Antilebanon is the most fertile in Syria, extending 230 miles, and in width from 8 to 20 miles. The southern portion is Coelosyria and Hamath. The Litany in this valley (el Bukaa) flows to the S.W.; the Orontes (nahr el Asi, i.e. the rebel stream) flows to the N. and N.E. for 200 miles; the Barada of Damascus is another river of Syria. The Syrian desert is E. of the inner chain of mountains, and S. of Aleppo; it contains the oasis of Palmyra, and toward its western side the productive plain of Damascus. The chief towns were Antioch, Damascus, Tadmor or Palmyra, Laodicea, Hamath (Epiphaneia), Hierapolis, Heliopolis or Baalbek in Coelosyria, Chalybon or Aleppo, Apamea, and Emesa.

    Hamites, as the Hittites (the Khatti in the monuments), first occupied Syria.

    Then a Shemite element entered from the S.E., e.g. Abraham, Chedorlaomer, Amraphel. In early times Syria was divided among many petty “kings,” as Damascus, Rehob, Maacah, Zobah, Geshur, etc. Kings 10:29, “kings of Syria”; 2 Kings 7:6, “kings of the Hittites.”

    Joshua fought with the chiefs of the region of Lebanon and Hermon ( Joshua 11:2-18). David conquered Hadadezer of Zobah, the Syrians of Damascus, Bethrehob. Rezon of Zobah set up an independent kingdom at Damascus, in Solomon’s time. Damascus became soon the chief state, Hamath next, the Hittites with Carchemish their capital third. Scripture and the Assyrian records remarkably agree in the general picture of Syria. In both the country between the middle Euphrates and Egypt appears parceled out among many tribes or nations; in the N. the Hittites, Hamathites, Phoenicians, and Syrians of Damascus; in the S. the Philistines and Idumeans. Damascus in both appears the strongest state, ruled by one monarch from one center; Hamath with its single king is secondary ( Kings 19:13; 1 Chronicles 18:9). In contrast with these two centralized monarchies stand the Hittites and the Phoenicians, with their several independent kings ( 1 Kings 10:29; 20:1). Chariots and infantry, but not horsemen, are their strength The kings combined their forces for joint expeditions against foreign countries. Egypt and Assyria appear in both in the background, not yet able to subdue Syria, but feeling their way toward it, and tending toward the mutual struggle for supremacy in the coveted land between the Nile and the Euphrates (G. Rawlinson, Hist. Illustr. of Old Testament). Syria passed under Assyria (Tiglath Pileser slaying Rezin and carrying away the people of Damascus to Kir), Babylon, and Graeco Macedonia successively. At Alexander’s death Seleucus Nicator made Syria head of a vast kingdom, with Antioch (300 B.C.) as the capital.

    Under Nicator’s successors Syria gradually disintegrated. The most remarkable of them was Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), who would have conquered Egypt but for the mediation of Rome (A.D. 168). Then he plundered the Jewish temple, desecrated the holy of holies, and so caused the revolt of the Jews which weakened the kingdom. The Parthians under Mithridates I overran the eastern provinces, 164 B.C. Syria passed under Tigranes of Armenia, 83 B.C., and finally under Rome upon Pompey’s defeat of Mithridates and Tigranes his ally, 64 B.C.

    In 27 B.C. at the division of provinces between the emperor and the senate Syria was assigned to the emperor and ruled by legates of consular rank.

    Judaea, being remote from the capital (Antioch) and having a restless people, was put under a special procurator, subordinate to the governor of Syria, but within his own province having the power of a legate. (See BENHADAD ; see AHAB ; see HAZAEL on the wars of the early kings of Syria).

    Abilene, so-called from its capital Abila, was a tetrarchy E. of Antilibanus, between Baalbek and Damascus. Lysanias was over it when John began baptizing ( Luke 3:1), A.D. 26. Pompey left the principality of Damascus in the hands of Aretas, an Arabian prince, a tributary to Rome, and bound to allow if necessary a Roman garrison to hold it (Josephus, Ant. 14:4, section 5; 5, section 1; 11, section 7). Under Augustus Damascus was attached to Syria; Caligula severed it from Syria and gave it to another Aretas, king of Petra. At Paul’s conversion an “ethnarch of king Aretas” held it ( 2 Corinthians 11:32).

    SYROPHOENICIAN Mark 7:26; the woman is a remarkable case of faith outside of Israel, and of Jesus’ exceptional healing beyond the precincts of the elect nation, His special sphere; parallel to Elijah’s ministration to the widow of Zarephath ( Luke 4:26,27). Mark terms her a “Greek,” i.e. a Gentile; Matthew ( Matthew 15:22) “a woman of Canaan,” i.e., like the Phoenicians her countrymen, she was a descendant of Canaan the accursed race, yet she became blessed by Jesus through faith. Syrophoenicia is the northern end of the long strip, Phoenicia, and had Tyre for its capital. 7:21); so they completed the Old Testament canon, revising the text, introducing the vowel points which the Masorete editors have handed down to us, instituting the feast purim, organizing the synagogue ritual.

    Their motto, preserved by Simon high priest, was “set a hedge about the law.” (See SCRIBES ). The only Old Testament notice of anything like such a body is Nehemiah 8:13, “chiefs of the fathers of all the people, the priests; and the Levites ... Ezra the scribe” presiding. The likelihood is that some council was framed at the return from Babylon to arrange religious matters, the forerunner of the Sanhedrin. Vitringa’s work on the synagogue, published in 1696, is the chief authority. In the last times of Jerusalem 480 synagogues were said to be there (see Acts 6:9). Lieut.

    Conder found by measurement (taking the cubit at 16 in.) that a synagogue was 30 cubits by 40, and its pillars 10 ft. high exactly.

    There are in Palestine eleven specimens of synagogues existing; two at Kefr Bir’im, one at Meiron, Irbid, Tell Hum, Kerazeh, Nebratein, two at El Jish, one at Umm el ‘Amed, and Sufsaf. In plan and ornamentation they are much alike. They are not on high ground, nor so built that the worshipper on entering faced Jerusalem, except that at Irbid. The carved figures of animals occur in six out of the eleven. In all these respects they betray their later origin, as vitally differing from the known form of synagogue and tenets of the earlier Jews. Their erection began probably at the close of the second century, the Jews employing Roman workmen, at the dictation of Roman rulers in the time of Antoninus Pius and Alexander Severus, during the spiritual supremacy of the Jewish patriarch of see TIBERIAS . Their date is between A.D. 150 and 300 (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1878, p. 123).

    SYNTYCHE (See EUODIAS ).

    SYRACUSE A great city in the E. of Sicily. Paul arrived there from Melita (Malta) on his way to Rome ( Acts 28:12). A convenient place for the Alexandrian grain ships to touch at, for the haven was good and the water from the fountain Arethusa excellent. The prevalent wind in this part of the Mediterranean, the W.N.W., would carry the vessel from Malta round the S. of Sicily to the eastern shore on which lay S. They waited three days there for the wind, then by a circuitous course, necessitated by the direction of the wind, reached Rhegium.

    SYRIA Septuagint Greek for Hebrew Aram , fifth of Shem’s sons. Aram means the high land N.E. of the Holy Land, extending from the Jordan and the sea of Galilee to the Euphrates; the term means high. In Genesis Aram-Naharaim, i.e. Aram between the two rivers, is Mesopotamia, part of which is Padan Aram; and Laban who lived there is called the Aramaean or Syrian. Syria is by some derived from Assyria, by others from Tyre, as if Tsyria; by Ritter from Shur, the wilderness into which Israel passed out of Egypt ( Genesis 25:18; Exodus 15:22; 1 Samuel 27:8), from from whence the name was extended over all Syria. The Hebrew Aram begins on the northern border of Palestine, and thence goes northward to Mount Taurus, westward to the Mediterranean, eastward to the Khabour river.

    Divided into Aram or Syria of Damascus, Aram or Syria of Zobah (the tract between Euphrates and Coelosyria), Aram or Sycia Naharaim (of the two rivers), i.e. Padan Aram or Mesopotamia, the N.W. part of the land between the Tigris and Euphrates. On the W. two mountain chains run parallel to one another and to the coast from the latitude of Tyre to that of Antioch, namely, Lebanon and Antilebanon; Lebanon the western chain at its southern end becomes Bargylus. Mount Amanus, an offshoot of Taurus, meets the two long chains at their northern extremity, and separates Syria from Cilicia. The valley between Lebanon and Antilebanon is the most fertile in Syria, extending 230 miles, and in width from 8 to 20 miles. The southern portion is Coelosyria and Hamath. The Litany in this valley (el Bukaa) flows to the S.W.; the Orontes (nahr el Asi, i.e. the rebel stream) flows to the N. and N.E. for 200 miles; the Barada of Damascus is another river of Syria. The Syrian desert is E. of the inner chain of mountains, and S. of Aleppo; it contains the oasis of Palmyra, and toward its western side the productive plain of Damascus. The chief towns were Antioch, Damascus, Tadmor or Palmyra, Laodicea, Hamath (Epiphaneia), Hierapolis, Heliopolis or Baalbek in Coelosyria, Chalybon or Aleppo, Apamea, and Emesa.

    Hamites, as the Hittites (the Khatti in the monuments), first occupied Syria.

    Then a Shemite element entered from the S.E., e.g. Abraham, Chedorlaomer, Amraphel. In early times Syria was divided among many petty “kings,” as Damascus, Rehob, Maacah, Zobah, Geshur, etc. Kings 10:29, “kings of Syria”; 2 Kings 7:6, “kings of the Hittites.”

    Joshua fought with the chiefs of the region of Lebanon and Hermon ( Joshua 11:2-18). David conquered Hadadezer of Zobah, the Syrians of Damascus, Bethrehob. Rezon of Zobah set up an independent kingdom at Damascus, in Solomon’s time. Damascus became soon the chief state, Hamath next, the Hittites with Carchemish their capital third. Scripture and the Assyrian records remarkably agree in the general picture of Syria. In both the country between the middle Euphrates and Egypt appears parcelled out among many tribes or nations; in the N. the Hittites, Hamathites, Phoenicians, and Syrians of Damascus; in the S. the Philistines and Idumeans. Damascus in both appears the strongest state, ruled by one monarch from one center; Hamath with its single king is secondary ( Kings 19:18; 1 Chronicles 18:9). In contrast with these two centralized monarchies stand the Hittites and the Phoenicians, with their several independent kings ( 1 Kings 10:29; 20:1). Chariots and infantry, but not horsemen, are their strength. The kings combined their forces for joint expeditions against foreign countries. Egypt and Assyria appear in both in the background, not yet able to subdue Syria, but feeling their way toward it, and tending toward the mutual struggle for supremacy in the coveted land between the Nile and the Euphrates (G. Rawlinson, Hist. Illustr. of Old Testament). Syria passed under Assyria (Tiglath Pileser slaying Rezin and carrying away the people of Damascus to Kir), Babylon, and Graeco- Macedonia successively. At Alexander’s death Seleucus Nicator made Syria head of a vast kingdom, with Antioch (300 B.C.) as the capital.

    Under Nicator’s successors Syria gradually disintegrated. The most remarkable of them was Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), who would have conquered Egypt but for the mediation of Rome (A.D. 168). Then he plundered the Jewish temple, desecrated the holy of holies, and so caused the revolt of the Jews which weakened the kingdom. The Parthians under Mithridates I overran the eastern provinces, 164 B.C. Syria passed under Tigranes of Armenia, 83 B.C., and finally under Rome upon Pompey’s defeat of Mithridates and Tigranes his ally, 64 B.C.

    In 27 B.C. at the division of provinces between the emperor and the senate Syria was assigned to the emperor and ruled by legates of consular rank.

    Judaea, being remote from the capital (Antioch) and having a restless people, was put under a special procurator, subordinate to the governor of Syria, but within his own province having the power of a legate. (See BENHADAD , see AHAB , see HAZAEL on the wars of the early kings of Syria).

    Abilene, so-called from its capital Abila, was a tetrarchy E. of Antilibanus, between Baalbek and Damascus. Lysanias was over it when John began baptizing ( Luke 3:1), A.D. 26. Pompey left the principality of Damascus in the hands of Aretas, an Arabian prince, a tributary to Rome, and bound to allow if necessary a Roman garrison to hold it (Josephus, Ant. 14:4, section 5; 5, section 1; 11, section 7). Under Augustus Damascus was attached to Syria; Caligula severed it from Syria and gave it to another Aretas, king of Petra. At Paul’s conversion an “ethnarch of king Aretas” held it ( 2 Corinthians 11:32).

    SYROPHOENICIAN Mark 7:26; the woman is a remarkable case of faith outside of Israel, and of Jesus’ exceptional healing beyond the precincts of the elect nation, His special sphere; parallel to Elijah’s ministration to the widow of Zarephath ( Luke 4:26,27). Mark terms her a “Greek,” i.e. a Gentile; Matthew ( Matthew 15:22) “a woman of Canaan,” i.e., like the Phoenicians her countrymen, she was a descendant of Canaan the accursed race, yet she became blessed by Jesus through faith. Syrophoenicia is the northern end of the long strip, Phoenicia, and had Tyre for its capital.

    T TAANACH (“sandy soil”). An old city of Canaan. Joshua conquered its king ( Joshua 12:21). It was afterward assigned to Manasseh ( Chronicles 7:29), and became a Levitical city ( 1 Chronicles 17:11,12; 21:25). Israel failed to drive out its aboriginal occupants ( Judges 1:27), The scene of Barak’s victory was not Taanach or Megiddo, but Mount Tabor, near the sources of the Kishon, three miles W. of Mount Tabor (el Mujahiyeh, “the spring head”): Judges 4:7-14. Barak had all the advantage of a rush down the hill upon the foe in the plain, as Napoleon had in his battle of Mount Tabor; had the battle been in Taanach he would have had to come the whole width of the plain to attack from low ground the foe on the spurs of the hills far away from the main bed of the Kishon. “In Taanach” ( Judges 5:19) must be a general name for the district of which Taanach is the capital; or else must be translated “sandy soil,” which abounds all over the plain. “The waters of Megiddo” in Judges 5:19 are those of the stream Jalud, supplied from springs round Mejedda, a ruin near Beisan (Bethsheart). (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, January 1877, p. 13-20.) Taanach and Megiddo ( 1 Kings 4:12) were the chief towns of the fertile tract which forms the western part of the great Esdraelon valley. Now Ta’annuk, a small village with ruins on a flat tell, an hour and a quarter S.E. of Megiddo.

    TAANATH SHILOH On the border of Ephraim ( Joshua 16:6); = the approach of Shiloh, (Gesenius), the futurity of Shiloh (Kurtz). Hengstenberg also identifies it with Shiloh (= rest after Canaan was subdued; the Jerusalem Talmud, Megillah i., identifies Tanhath Shiloh with Shiloh), making Taanath the old Canaanite name and Shiloh the new Hebrew name. But Eusebius (Onom., Thenath) makes it ten Roman miles from Neapolis (Sichem) on the way to Jordan, probably the Thena of Ptolemy v. 16, section 5, named with Neapolis as the two chief towns of Samaria; now Tana, Ain Tana, ruins S.E. of Nablus where are large cisterns (Robinson, Bibl. Res., 295; Ritter 15:871).

    TABBAOTH, CHILDREN OF Ezra 2:43, Nehemiah 7:46.

    TABBATH S. of Abel Meholah. Conjectured (Smith’s Bible Dictionary) to be Tubukhat Fahil, or terrace of Fahil, a natural bank 600 ft. high, with a long flat top, embanked over against the western face of the mountains E. of the Jordan ( Judges 7:22).

    TABEAL; TABEEL Hebrew. A Syrian-like name. The scheme of Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel was to set up Tabeal’s son as a vassal king instead of Ahaz, in Judah.

    A party in Jerusalem ( Isaiah 7:5,6; 8:6,9,12) favored the project.

    TABEEL A Syrian officer under the Persian government, who joined in writing from Samaria against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes or Pseudo Smerdis ( Ezra 4:7).

    TABERAH (“burning”). A place in the wilderness of Paran where a fire from Jehovah consumed many Israelites at the outer edge of the camp, for their murmurings ( Numbers 11:3; Deuteronomy 9:22). It was close by Kibroth Hattaavah, and not a separate encampment; it therefore is not enumerated in Numbers 33:16.

    TABERING Nahum 2:7: Nineveh’s maids “tabering upon their breasts,” i.e. beating on them as on a tambourine. The tabor, tabret, or timbrel is the tambourine, a musical instrument beaten as a drum.

    TABERNACLE Hebrew mishkan , ‘ohel ; Greek skeenee . A miniature model of the earth, as Israel was a pattern to all nations. The earth shall at last be the tabernacle of God’s glory, when He will tabernacle with men ( Revelation 21:3). Mishkan is from shakan “to dwell,” a poetical word, from from whence comes shekinah . As ohel represents the outward tent of black goats’ hair curtains, so mishkan is the inner covering, the curtain immediately on the boards; the two are combined, “the tabernacle of the tent” ( Exodus 39:32; 40:2,6,29). “House” (bet ) applies to the tabernacle when fixed in Canaan, Israel’s inheritance; originally appearing in Beth-el; finally designating the church of the New Testament ( 1 Timothy 3:15.) Qodesh and miqdash , “sanctuary,” are applied to (1) the whole tabernacle ( Exodus 25:8), (2) the court of the priests ( Numbers 4:12), and (3) in the narrowest sense to the holy of holies ( Leviticus 4:6).

    The same tabernacle was in the wilderness and in Shiloh; the external surroundings alone were changed ( Psalm 78:60; Joshua 18:1; Samuel 3:15). The inner mishkan (Greek naos ) was the same, surrounded by an outer covered space into which “doors” led. Samuel slept, not in the inner mishkan , but in one of the outer chambers. The whole, including the outer chambers, was called heeykal (Greek hieron ), “palace.” The predominating color was sky blue ( Exodus 25:4; 26:4; 28:28,31,37); the curtain, loops, veil, high priest’s lace of the breastplate, ephod robe, mitre lace. The three colors employed, blue, scarlet, and purple, were the royal colors and so best suited to the tabernacle, the earthly palace of Jehovah.

    The three principal parts of the tabernacle were the mishkan , “the\parDWELLING PLACE”; the tent, ‘ohel ; the covering, mikseh . The materials for the mishkan were a great cloth of woven work figured with cherubim, measuring 40 cubits by 28, and a quadrangular enclosure of wood, open at one end, 10 cubits high, 10 wide, and 30 long. The size of the cloth appears from the number and dimensions of the ten breadths (“curtains”) of which it consisted ( Exodus 26:1-6,26-28; 36:31-33). The see VEIL was 10 cubits from the back, according to Philo and Josephus.THE TENT was the great cloth of goats’ hair,44 cubits by 30, and five pillars overlaid with gold, and furnished with golden hooks (waw ), used as to the veil and the tent curtains; taches, “qeres ,” belong to the tabernacle cloth and the tent cloth of the sanctuary, Exodus 26:6,33), from which hung the curtain that closed the entrance. The covering was of rams’ and tachash (skins of marine animals, as seals: see BADGER ) skins.

    Fergusson ably shows that an ordinary tent sheltered the inner mishkan .

    The common arrangement makes (1) the fabric unsightly in form and the beauty of its materials mainly concealed; also (2) drapery could not be strained over a space of 15 feet without heavily sagging, and a flat roof could not keep out rain; also (3) the pins and cords essential to a tent would hardly have place if the curtains were merely thrown over the woodwork and hung down on each side; also (4) the name “tent” implies a structure in that shape, not flat roofed; also (5) the five pillars in front of the mishkan would be out of symmetry with the four pillars of the veil, and the middle of the five pillars would stand needlessly and inconveniently m the way of the entrance. The five are quite appropriate to the entrance to a tent; the middle one, the tallest, supporting one end of a ridge pole, 60 ft. long. The heads of the pillars were joined by connecting rods (KJV “fillets “) overlaid with gold ( Exodus 36:38).

    There were five bars for each side of the structure, and five for the back, the middle bar alone of the five on each wall reached from end to end ( Exodus 26:28), as here shown. The red rams’ skins covering was over the goats’ hair, and the tachash skins above this ( Exodus 26:14). The tent cloth was laid over the tabernacle cloth so as to allow a cubit of tent cloth extending on each side in excess of the tabernacle cloth; it extended two cubits at the back and front ( Exodus 26:13, 36:9,13). The roof angle was probably a right angle; then every measurement is a multiple of five cubits, except the width of the tabernacle cloth,21 cubits, and the length of the tent cloth,44 cubits. Each side of the slope would be about 14 cubits, half the width of the tabernacle cloth. The slope extends five feet beyond the wooden walls, and five from the ground. The tent cloth would hang down one cubit on each side. The tent area (judging from the tabernacle cloth) thus is 10 ft. by 21 ft.; the tent cloth overhanging at the back and front by two cubits, i.e. half a breadth. The wooden structure within the tent would have a space all around it of five cubits in width; here probably were eaten the sacrificial portions of meat not to be taken outside, here too were spaces for the priests, like the small apartments round three sides of the temple. The five pillars must have stood five cubits apart.

    Each chief measurement of the temple was just twice that of the tabernacle.

    The holiest place, a square of ten cubits in the tabernacle (according to inference), was 20 cubits in the temple; the holy place in each case was a corresponding double square. The porch, five cubits deep in the tabernacle, was ten cubits in the temple; the side spaces, taking account of the thickness of the temple walls, were five cubits and ten cubits wide respectively; the tabernacle ridge pole was 15 cubits high, that of the temple roof (the holy place) was 30 cubits ( 1 Kings 6:2). In Ezekiel 41:1ohel is “the tent.” Josephus (Ant. 3:6, section 4) confirms the view, making the tabernacle consist of three parts: the holiest, the holy place, the entrance with its five pillars, the front being “like a gable and a porch.”

    Fergusson observes, “the description (Exodus 26 and Exodus 36) must have been written by one who had seen the tabernacle standing; no one would have worked it out in such detail without ocular demonstration of the way in which the parts would fit together.”

    The brazen altar and the tabernacle were the two grand objects within the court. The tabernacle was Jehovah’s “dwelling place” where He was to “meet” His people or their representatives ( Exodus 25:8; 29:42,43; 27:21; 28:12). “The tabernacle (tent) of the congregation” (rather “of meeting” without the article) is in the full designation “the tabernacle of the tent of meeting” ( Exodus 40:2,29), i.e. not of the people meeting one another, but of Jehovah meeting with Moses, the priest, or the people: “‘ohel moed ” ( Numbers 10:3). “The tabernacle (tent) of the testimony” (i.e. having within it the tables of the law) is another name ( Acts 7:44, Revelation 15:5), Hebrew ‘eduwth ( Exodus 38:21, where it ought to be “the testimony”). The ark contained it; and the lid of the ark, the mercyseat, was the place where Jehovah met or communed with Israel. As the Israelite theocracy was God’s kingdom, so the tabernacle was His palace, where the people had audience of God and whence He issued His commands, embodied in the testimony within the ark. The altar of burnt offering outside marks that only through shedding of blood can sinful man be admitted within His courts; and the mercy-seat within the veil, sprinkled with blood of the victim slain outside, typifies Christ, our propitiation or propitiatory within the heavenly holy of holies ( Romans 3:25), who is the sinner’s only meeting place with God. Once admitted within the courts by the propitiation of Christ, we as king priests can offer incense of prayer and praise, as the priests burnt incense with holy fire on the altar of incense within ( <19E102> Psalm 141:2; Malachi 1:11). The separation of the church from the world is marked by the exclusion of any but priests from the holy place, and of the people from the congregation while unclean; the need of holiness by the various purifications (compare Psalm 24). The king-priestly functions belonging to Israel in relation to the world, but declined through slowness of faith ( Exodus 19:6; 20:19; Deuteronomy 5:27,28), Jehovah keeps for them against Israel’s restoration ( Isaiah 61:6; 66:21).

    The tabernacle represents God dwelling in the midst of Israel, and Israel drawing nigh to God through atonement and with offerings, prayers, and praises. Christ’s body is “the antitypical tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man” ( Hebrews 8:2). Through His glorified body as the tabernacle Christ passes into the heavenly holy of holies, God’s immediate presence, where He intercedes for us. His manhood is the “tabernacle of meeting” between us and God, for we are members of His body ( Ephesians 5:30). John 1:14, “the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us.” The “veil’s” antitype is His rent flesh, or suffering humanity, through which He passed in entering the heavenly holiest for us ( Hebrews 5:7; 10:19,20).

    His body is the temple ( John 2:19). The tabernacle or temple is also a type of the church founded on Christ, the meeting place between God and man ( Ephesians 2:18-22). As 10 (= 1 + 2 + 3 + 4) the number for completeness predominates in the tabernacle itself, so five the half of ten, and the number for imperfection, predominates in the courts; four appearing in the perfect cube of the holiest expressed worldwide extension and divine order. The shittim or acacia, wood implied incorruption and imperishableness of divine truth. As the court represents the Jewish dispensation, so the holy place the Christian and the holiest place the glorified church. The church having passed through the outer court, where atonement has been once for all made, ministers in the holy place, as consisting of king priests ( 1 Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10) without earthly mediator, with prayer, praise, and the light of good works; and has access in spirit already ( Hebrews 10:19), and in body finally, into the heavenly holiest. In another point of view the court is the body, the holy place the soul, the holiest the spirit.

    The tabernacle was fixed at Shiloh ( Joshua 18:1). Then the ark was taken by the Philistines, and returned to Baale or Kirjath Jearim; then the tabernacle was at Nob and Gibeon until the temple was built (1 Samuel 4; Samuel 6; 1 Samuel 21:1; 1 Chronicles 13:5; 16:39; 2 Samuel 6:2,17).

    The tabernacle was made in strict accordance with the pattern God revealed to Moses’ mind; nothing was left to the taste and judgment of artificers ( Exodus 25:9,40). It answered to the archetype in heaven, of which the type was showed by God to Moses (mentally it is probable) in the mountain ( Hebrews 8:5). see BEZALEEL (See) of Judah and see AHOLIAB of Dan were divinely qualified for the work ( Exodus 31:3) by being “filled with the Spirit of God in wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and all workmanship.” The sin as to the golden calf delayed the execution of the design of the tabernacle. Moses’ own “tent” (not mishkam , “tabernacle”) in this transition stage was pitched far off from the camp (to mark God’s withdrawal from apostate Israel) as “the tent of meeting” provisionally, to which only Moses the mediator and his faithful minister Joshua were admitted ( Exodus 33:3-11). Another outline law was given, another withdrawal of Moses to an interview alone with God followed. The people gave more than enough materials ( Exodus 36:2,5,6), and their services as workmen and workwomen ( Exodus 35:25). The tabernacle was now erected on the first day of the second year from the exodus, no longer “far off,” but in the midst of the camp. Israel was grouped round the royal tabernacle of the unseen Captain of the host, in definite order, His bodyguards immediately around, the priests on the eastern side, the other three Levite families on the other three sides; Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, outside on the E.; Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin on the W.; Dan, Asher, Naphtali on the N.; Reuben, Simeon, Gad on the S. The cloud, dark by day, fiery red by night, rested on the tabernacle so long as Israel was to stay in the same encampment; it moved when Israel must move ( Exodus 40:36-38; Numbers 9:15-23). Jehovah’s name, the I AM, distinguishing the personal Creator from the creature, excludes pantheism and idolatry, as conversely the seemingly sublime inscription on Isis’ shrine at Sais, identifying the world and God, involves both: “I am all that has been, and is, and shall be, and my veil no mortal has withdrawn” (Clemens Alex. de Isaiah et Osir., 394).

    Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch is marked by the fact that all his directions concerning impurity through a dead body relate to a tent such as was in the wilderness, nothing is said of a house; but in the case of leprosy a house is referred to ( Numbers 19:11,14,21; Leviticus 13:47-59).

    As to the Levites’ service (Numbers 3--4) of the tabernacle, exact details as to the parts each family should carry on march are given, such as none but an eye-witness would detail. The tabernacle with the camp of the Levites was to set forward between the second and third camps ( Numbers 2:17); but Numbers 10 says after the first camp had set forward the tabernacle was taken down, and the sons of Gershon and Merari set forward bearing the tabernacle, and afterward the second camp or standard of Reuben. This seeming discrepancy is reconciled a few verses after: the tabernacle’s less sacred parts, the outside tent, etc., set out between the first and second camp; but the holy of holies, the ark and altar, did not set out until after the second camp. The reason was that those who bore the outside tabernacle might set it up ready for receiving the sanctuary against its coming ( Numbers 10:14-21). No forger in an age long before modern criticism was thought of would invent such a coincidence under seeming discrepancy.

    TABERNACLES, FEAST OF (See FEASTS ). Hasukoth , “feast of in-gathering”; haciyp ( Exodus 23:16); Greek skenofgia ( John 7:2). Third of the three great feasts; from Tisri 15 to 22 ( Leviticus 23:34-43); commemorating Israel’s passage through the desert. Thanksgiving for harvest ( Deuteronomy 16:13-15). The rites and sacrifices are specified, Numbers 29:12-38.

    The law was read thereat publicly on the sabbatical year ( Deuteronomy 31:10-13). Kept with joy on the return from Babylon (Nehemiah 8); compare the contemporary <19B814> Psalm 118:14,15,19,20,22-27, in undesigned coincidence, alluding to the feast, the joy, the building of the walls, and setting up of the gates; Zechariah 4:7-10; 3:9; 14:16,17. The earlier celebration under Zerubbabel was less formal and full according to the law ( Ezra 3:4); therefore it is unnoticed in the statement ( Nehemiah 8:17) that since Joshua’s days until then (when the later celebration under Nehemiah, which was fuller and more exact., took place) it had not been so kept. The people in the wilderness dwelt in tents, not booths (sukot ). The primary design was a harvest feast kept in autumn bowers, possibly first in Goshen. The booth, like the tent, was a temporary dwelling, and so suited fairly to represent camp life in the desert. So Hosea ( Hosea 12:9) uses “tabernacles” or “tents” for “booths,” when speaking of the feast; the booth was probably used at times in the desert, when at certain places they made a more permanent stay during the forty years. It commemorated, with thanksgiving for the harvest which was the seal of their settlement in a permanent inheritance, their transition from nomadic to agricultural life. Its popularity induced Jeroboam to inaugurate his Bethel calf worship with an imitation feast of tabernacles on the 15th day of the eighth month, “which he devised of his own heart” ( 1 Kings 12:32,33), possibly because the northern harvest was a little later, and he wished to break off Israel from the association with Judah by having a different month from the seventh, which was the legal month. In Jerusalem the booths were built on the roofs, in house courts, in the temple court, and in the street of the water gate and of the Ephraim gate. They were made of boughs of olive, palm, pine, myrtle, and of her trees of thick foliage. From the first day of the feast to the seventh the Israelites carried in their hands “the fruit (margin) of goodly trees, branches of palm, thick trees, and willows” ( Leviticus 23:40). In one hand each carried a bundle of branches (called luwlab or “palm” in rabbiical Hebrew) and in the other a citron (hadar , “goodly trees”). The feast of tabernacles, like Passover, began at full moon on the 15th day of the month; the first day was a day of holy convocation; the seven days of the feast were followed by an eighth day, forming no part of it ( Leviticus 23:34-36; Numbers 29:35), a day of holy convocation, “a solemn assembly” (‘atsereth ), or, as the Hebrew denotes, “a closing festival” ( 2 Chronicles 7:9).

    On each of the seven days the offering consisted of two rams, 14 lambs a year old, with 13 bulls on the first day, 12 on the second, and so on until on the seventh there were only seven, the whole amounting to 70 bulls; but on the ‘atsereth only one bull, one ram, and seven lambs. The booths or, according to Jewish tradition, huts of boards on the sides covered with boughs on the top, were occupied only the seven days, not on the ‘atsereth .

    The feast of tabernacles is referred to in John 7:2,37; 8:12. Jesus alludes to the custom of drawing water from Siloam in a golden goblet and pouring it into one of the two silver basins adjoining the western side of the altar, and wine into the other, while the words of Isaiah 12:3 were repeated, in commemoration of the water drawn from the rock in the desert; the choir sang the great hallel , and waved palms at different parts of Psalm 118, namely, verses 1,25,29. Virtually Jesus said, I am the living Rock of the living water. Coming next day at daybreak to the temple court as they were extinguishing the artificial lights, two colossal golden candlesticks in the center of the temple court, recalling the pillar of fire in the wilderness, Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world” ( John 8:1,2,12). As the sun by natural light was eclipsing the artificial lights, so Jesus implies, I, the Sun of righteousness, am superseding your typical light. “The last great day of the feast” is the atsereth , though the drawing of water was on previous days not omitted. Joy was the prominent feature, from whence the proverb, “he who has never seen the rejoicing at the pouring out of the water of Siloam has never seen joy in his life” (Succah 5:1). The feast was called Hosanna, “save we beseech Thee.” Isaiah 11 refers to the future restoration of Israel; the feast of tabernacles connected with chapter 12 doubtless will have its antitype in their restored possession of and rest in Canaan, after their long dispersion; just as the other two great feasts, Passover and Pentecost, have their antitype respectively in Christ’s sacrifice for us, and in His writing His new law on our hearts at Pentecost. Jewish tradition makes Gog and Magog about to be defeated on the feast of tabernacles, or that the seven months’ cleansing shall end at that feast ( Ezekiel 39:12). Rest after wanderings, lasting habitations after the life of wanderers, is the prominent thought of joy in the feast, alike in its former and in its future celebration.

    TABITHA Aramaic, corresponding to Hebrew tsebiah , “a female gazelle,” Dorcas ( Acts 9:36), the emblem of beauty. The Christian woman at Joppa, “full of good works and alms deeds” (as making coats and garments for poor widows, compare Job 31:19,20), who was raised from the dead by Peter’s prayer and words under the Spirit, “Tabitha, arise.” Many in consequence believed in the Lord. Peter’s miraculous cure of Aeneas at Lydda was what led Tabitha’s believing friends to send so far, that he should come to them, with the hope of God’s power working by him even on the dead. After Christ’s example in the case of Jairus’ daughter, “Peter put them all forth,” and prayed (compare John 11:41,42), and then when he felt he had obtained his request spoke the word of power, and gave her his hand to lift her up ( Matthew 9:25; Mark 5:40,41).

    TABLETS (See AMULET ).

    TABOR = height, mound (tabar related to tsabar ). 1. Psalm 89:12, “the N. and S. Tabor (i.e. the W.) and Hermon (E. of Jordan) shall rejoice,” etc. Their existence and majestic appearance are a silent hymn to their Creator’s praise; the view from Tabor comprises as much of natural beauty and sacred interest as any in the Holy Land.

    Accurately corresponding to its name; a large isolated mound-like mountain, 1865 ft. high, N.E. of Esdraelon plain. On the W. however a narrow ridge connects it with the hills of Nazareth, which lies six or eight miles off due W. The southern end of the lake of Galilee lies 12 miles off to the E. It consists of limestone; thick stone; thick forests of oak, etc., cover the sides, affording covert to wolves, boars, lynxes, and reptiles.

    The summit is a mile and a half in circuit, surmounted with a four-gated fortress’ ruins, with an Arabic inscription on one of the gateways recording its building or rebuilding by the sultan Abu Bekr. Named among Issachar’s boundaries ( Joshua 19:22), but the fortified city at Mount Tabor’s base may be meant there. (See CHISLOTH TABOR ). From Tabor Barak descended with his 10,000 men into the plain, at Deborah’s command, and conquered Sisera at the Kishon ( Judges 4:6-15). (See KEDESH ). Here Zebah and Zalmunna slew Gideon’s brothers ( Judges 8:18,19). Herder makes Tabor to be meant when Hoses says of Issachar and Zebulun ( Deuteronomy 33:19), “they shall call the people unto the mountain, there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness.” The open glades on the summit would form a suitable sanctuary, and were among “the high places” which ensnared Israel in idolatry; so Hosea 5:1, “a net spread upon Tabor.” Jewish tradition states that liers in wait in Tabor and Mizpah intercepted and murdered Israelites going from the northern kingdom up to Jerusalem to worship in Jehovah’s temple (compare Hosea 5:2). Jeremiah 46:18, “as Tabor is among the mountains,” i.e. as it towers high and unique by itself, so Nebuchadnezzar is one not to be matched as a foe. The large, beveled stones among the ruins at the top belong to Roman times.

    The Lord’s transfiguration Jerome and others assigned to Tabor. But the buildings on Tabor (see Josephus, B.J. 4:1, section 8, and 1 Chronicles 6:77) are inconsistent, with the solitude “apart” of which the narrative ( Matthew 17:1,2) speaks. Moreover, the transfiguration took place near Caesarea Philippi; this fact, and the reference to the “snow,” accord best with Mount Hermon being the scene ( Mark 8:27; 9:1-3). 2. The city of the Merarite Levites ( 1 Chronicles 6:77). (See CHISLOTH TABOR , Joshua 19:12). 3. “The plain of Tabor.” Eelon, rather “the oak of Tabor” ( 1 Samuel 10:3). Identified by Ewald with the oak of Deborah (= Tabor differently pronounced), Rebekah’s nurse ( Genesis 35:8), and the palm of Deborah the prophetess ( Judges 4:5; the distance from Rachel’s sepulchre at Bethlehem is an objection), and the oak of the prophet of Bethel ( Kings 13:14).

    TABRETS Tambourines. “The workmanship of thy tabrets was prepared in thee, in the day that thou wast created,” i.e. no sooner wast thou created than, like Adam, thou wast surrounded with tabrets, the emblem of Eden-like joys ( Ezekiel 28:13).

    TABRIMON = good see RIMMON . A Syrian god. Father of Benhadad I, ( 1 Kings 15:18).

    TACHE = clasp, to unite two opposite loops. Exodus 26:6,33, qeres , used only as to the tabernacle cloth and the tent cloth; but “hook,” waw , is used only of the veil and of the tent curtain.

    TACHMONITE (See JASHOBEAM ).

    TADMOR 2 Chronicles 8:4. Built by Solomon in the wilderness. Tamar, Hebrew ( 1 Kings 9:18), meaning “the city of palms,” corresponding to Palmyra from palma “a palm.” Solomon fixed on the site, an oasis in the desert which lies between Palestine and Babylonia, as the commercial entrepot between Jerusalem and Babylon. Subsequently, it linked Rome and Parthia by the mutual advantages of trade. In Trajan’s time it fell under Rome.

    Called by Hadrian, who rebuilt it, Hadrianopolis. Under the emperor Gallienus the Roman senate made Odenathus, a senator of Palmyra, its king for having defeated Sapor of Persia. On Odenathus’ assassination his widow Zenobia assumed the title Queen of the East, but was conquered and made captive (A.D. 273) by the emperor Aurelian. Merchants from the English factory at Aleppo, at the close of the 17th century, visited it, and reported their discoveries (Philos. Transact., A.D. 1695, vol. 19, 83).

    Aglibelus and Melachbelus, i.e. the summer and the winter sun, are named in one inscription (Bochart, Geogr. Sacr., 2:8, section 811). Long lines of Corinthian columns still remain, producing a striking effect; probably of the second and third centuries A.D. A fragment of a building bears Diocletian’s name. There are remains of walls of Justinian’s time. Robert Wood’s “The Ruins of Palmyra,” a folio with splendid engravings (A.D 1753), is the best work on Tadmor; see also chap. 11 of Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”

    TAHAN Numbers 26:35; 1 Chronicles 7:25.

    TAHATH 1. 1 Chronicles 6:24,28,33. 2. 1 Chronicles 7:20. 3. Grandson of 2; but Burrington makes him son of Ephraim, and slain by the men of Gath in a raid on cattle ( 1 Chronicles 7:20,21). Also Tahath 2 is Tahan.

    TAHATH A stage in Israel’s desert march between Makheloth (Nakhel) and Tarah (Tawarah) ( Numbers 33:26). Meaning lower or below. If a district it is probably the mountain region of the Tyahah Arabs, the jebel et Tih.

    TAHPANHES A city on the Tanitic branch of the Nile, in Lower Egypt, called by the Greeks Daphne. On the N.E. border, near Pelusium, of which it was the outpost; therefore soon reached from Palestine by Johanan ( Jeremiah 43:7,9). Pharaoh had there a “palace” being built or repaired in the prophet’s time, with bricks made of clay in a “brick kiln” at the entry. Of the same materials, Jeremiah foretells, should the substructure of Nebuchadnezzar’s throne be built, implying that Nebuchadnezzar’s throne should be raised on the downfall of Pharaoh’s throne: Jeremiah 46:14, “publish in Migdol (E.) ... Noph (S.), ... T.” (W.); here Jews were dwelling ( Jeremiah 44:1). In Isaiah 30:4 it is “Hanes” by contraction. In Jeremiah 2:16 “the children of Noph (Memphis, the capital) and Tahapanes” (with which the Jews came most in contact) represent the Egyptians generally, who under Pharaoh Necho slew the king of Judah, Josiah, at Megiddo, and deposed Jehoahaz for Eliakim or Jehoiakim ( Kings 23:29,30,33-35). Called from the goddess Tphnet. Now Tel Defenneh.

    TAHPENES Wife of the Pharaoh (conjectured to be Psusennes of the Tanitic line) who received Hadad the Edomite, when fleeing from David ( 1 Kings 11:19).

    Her sister married Hadad.

    TAHREA 1 Chronicles 9:41.TAREA in 1 Chronicles 8:35.

    TAHTIM-HODSHI, LAND OF A corrupt text, 2 Samuel 24:6, which not even the Septuagint or Syriac help toward understanding. Visited by Joab in taking the census, between Gilead and Dan Jaan; therefore is E. of Jordan.

    TALENT (See MONEY ). Attic talent = 193 British pounds, 15 shillings. The Hebrew talent was 3,000 shekels; if the shekel is 2 shillings, 6 pence = 375 British pounds. Hebrew kibbar , “a globe.”

    TALITHA CUMI Aramaic, “damsel, arise”; Christ’s words to Jairus’ daughter ( Mark 5:41). From talah “a lamb.”

    TALMAI = “furrows”. 1. One of the three giant sons of Anak slain at Hebron or Kirjath Arba (their dwelling place at the time of the spies, Numbers 13:22) by the men of Judah under Caleb ( Judges 1:10; Joshua 15:14). 2. Of the Geshur royal family, son of king Ammihud; father of David’s wife Maacah ( 2 Samuel 13:37); grandfather of Absalom. David formed the unfortunate connection doubtless in his invasion of the Geshurites ( Samuel 27:8; 2 Samuel 3:3). His passion for beauty at all costs bore its bitter fruits. Talmai harboured Absalom, the beautiful son of a beautiful mother, when fleeing after murdering his brother Amnon.

    TALMON Nehemiah 11:19; 1 Chronicles 9:17; Ezra 2:42, “the children of Talmon”; Nehemiah 7:45; 11:19.

    TAMAH the children of. Nehemiah 7:55, Ezra 2:53.

    TAMAR = “a palm”. 1. (See JUDAH ). Her importance in the narrative ( Genesis 38:6-30) lies in her being the instrument (though in an incestuous way) of saving from extinction the family and tribe from which Messiah was to spring. Er and Onan were dead; and Judah’s wife Bathshun. Shelab alone remained; and Judah’s parental fears for him, lest if joined to Tamar he too like his brothers should die, were preventing Judah from giving him as the tribe law required ( Deuteronomy 25:5; Matthew 22:24) to Tamar. She took the desperate measure of helping herself by incest. Pharez and Zarah were her sons by Judah; and a fruitful race followed, God not sanctioning but overruling evil to His own good purpose ( Romans 3:5-8; Ruth 4:12,22; Matthew 1:3). 2. Daughter of David and Maacah; the handsome see ABSALOM ’S beautiful sister; forced by see AMNON at his bad friend see JONADAB ’S abominable suggestion (2 Samuel 13; 1 Chronicles 3:9). Beauty is a snare unless grace accompany and guard it ( Proverbs 31:30). Tamar excelled in baking palatable cakes (lebibah , “heartcakes,” with spices as “cordials”). Amnon availed himself of this to effect his design, as if he wished to see the exquisite grace with which she baked before his eyes.

    She remonstrated at his force, dwelling twice on such baseness being wrought “in Israel,” where a higher law existed than in pagandom. Yet such was the low opinion she, in common with the rest of David’s children, formed of the king’s foolish fondness for his offspring that she believed it would outweigh his regard for the law of God against incest ( Leviticus 18:9,11). Amnon was his oldest, son, from whom he would not withhold even a half sister! Each prince, it appears, had his own establishment, and princesses were not above baking; the king’s daughters in their virginity were distinguished by “garments of divers colours.” 3. Absalom’s sole surviving child, beautiful as her aunt and father; married Uriel of Gibeah, and bore Maachah, wife of Rehoboam king of Judah ( Kings 15:2; 2 Chronicles 11:20-22, 13:2), and mother of Abijah ( Samuel 14:7).

    TAMAR A spot S.E. of Judah ( Ezekiel 47:12; 48:28). A day’s journey S. of Hebron toward Elam (Elath on the Red Sea), according to the Onomasticon.

    TAMMUZ From tamzuwz , “melted down,” referring to the river Adonis fed by the melted snows of Lebanon, also to the sun’s decreasing heat in winter, and to Venus’ melting lamentations for Adonis. Tammuz was the Syrian Adonis (Jerome), Venus’ paramour, killed by a wild boar, and according to mythology permitted to spend half the year on earth and obliged to spend the other half in the lower world. An annual feast was kept to him in June (Tammuz in the Jewish calendar) at Byblos, when the Syrian women tore off their hair in wild grief, and yielded their persons to prostitution, consecrating the hire of their infamy to Venus; next followed days of rejoicing for his return to the earth. The idea fabled was spring’s beauties and the river’s waters destroyed by summer heat (the river Adonis or nahr Ibrahim in spring becomes discolored with the heavy rains swelling the streams from Lebanon, which discoloration superstition attributed to Tammuz’ blood); or else the earth clothed with beauty in the half year while the sun is in the upper hemisphere, and losing it when he descends to the lower ( Ezekiel 8:14). Instead of” weeping for Tammuz,” the idol of beauty and licentiousness, the women ought to have wept for the national sins. Christian women, instead of weeping over fictitious tales of morbid love and carnal sorrows, ought to consecrate their fine sensibilities to the active promotion of the glory of Him who is altogether lovely, and whose bitter and unmerited sufferings should call forth our tears of grateful and glowing love. Imitate Mary who, when all others were gone, stood at the crucified Lord’s sepulchre weeping, and so had her tears dried up by the risen Saviour Himself ( John 20:11-16). Isis’ relation to Osiris in Egypt was the same as that of Venus to Adonis. Adoni means my lord, like Baali.

    Constantine suppressed the worship for its profligacy.

    TANACH Joshua 21:25. (See TAANACH ).

    TANHUMETH Jeremiah 40:8; 2 Kings 25:23.

    TANIS (See ZOAN ).

    TAPHATH = a drop. Solomon’s daughter, wife of the son of Abinadab, Solomon’s commissariat officer in Dor ( 1 Kings 4:11).

    TAPPUAH = apple. 1. A city of Judah in the shephelah or low hilly region ( Joshua 15:34); on the lower slopes of the hills,12 miles W. of Jerusalem. 2. On Ephraim’s border, not far from the Mediterranean, “THE LAND OF Tappuah,” in the territory of Ephraim but belonging to Manasseh ( Joshua 16:8; 17:8). Having a good spring it is called En Tappuah ( Joshua 17:7). Near the torrent Kanah.

    TAPPUAH A son of Hebron ( 1 Chronicles 2:43); perhaps the meaning is a place near Hebron where one of Hebron’s sons settled, from whence the family took its name. Smith’s Bible Dictionary makes Tappuah colonized by the men of Hebron, the same place as see BETH TAPPUAH . But the continuation of the genealogy, and Korah being never mentioned as a place, requires Hebron to be a person.

    TARAH A stage in Israel’s march between Tahath (jebel et Tih) and Mithcah ( Numbers 33:27). The region possibly of the Tawarah Arabs.

    TARALAH In Benjamin. Joshua 18:27.

    TARES Matthew 13:24-30. Zizanion , Arabic, zowan, Hebrew zownin ; zan means “nausea.” Not our vetch, but darnel; at first impossible to distinguish from wheat or barley, until the wheat’s ear is developed, when the thin fruitless ear of the darnel is detected. Its root too so intertwines with that of the wheat that the farmer cannot separate them, without plucking up both, “till the time of harvest.” The seed is like wheat, but smaller and black, and when mixed with wheat flour causes dizziness, intoxication, and paralysis; Lolium temulentum, bearded darnel, the only deleterious grain among all the numerous grasses. French, ivraie, “tipsy grass,” from from whence our harmless “rye grass” is named. Hollow professors, having the form without the reality of godliness, nay, even hurtful and bad ( Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8; Mark 7:6; Ezekiel 33:31). None but the Lord of the harvest can distinguish the seeming from the real. The attempt to forestall His judgment for the sake of securing a pure church has always failed, and has only tended to foster spiritual pride and hypocrisy. Trench makes the “tares” into degenerate wheat (Parables, 91); sin is not a generation but a degeneracy.

    TARPELITES Ezra 4:9. Colonists planted in Samaria after Israel’s deportation by Assyria. Conjectured to be the Tapyri, a Median tribe E. of Elymais (Ptolemy vi. 2, section 6), or the Tarpetes, a Maeotic race (Strabo, 11:495).

    TARSHISH Tartessus (as Asshur became Athur, Bashan, Batanoea), a Phoenician city S. of Spain; the portion of Spain known to the Hebrews ( Psalm 72:10). “The kings of Tarshish ... kings of Sheba,” i.e. the wealthy Tarshish in the far W. and Sheba in the S.E. Tarshish was a dependency of Phoenician Tyre. Isaiah 23:6,10 (“pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish,” i.e. Tartessus and its inhabitants would now that Tyre’s strength was disabled pour forth as waters, no longer kept working mines for the parent city), 14,18; Ezekiel 26:15,18; 27:12. “Tarshish was thy (Tyre’s) merchant ... with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.”

    Tarshish was famed for various metals exported to Tyre; most of them were drawn from Spain and Portugal, tin possibly from Cornwall or from Lusitania or Portugal. “Ships of Tarshish” are mentioned often: Psalm 48:7, “Thou brakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind,” alluding with undesigned coincidence to the event recorded 2 Chronicles 20:36,37; “Jehoshaphat joined himself with Ahaziah king of Israel to make ships to go to Tarshish ... in Ezion Gaber ... because ... the Lord hath broken thy works,” i.e. wrecked thy ships. The ships of Tarshish built at Ezion Geber on the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea ( 1 Kings 22:48) were intended by Jehoshaphat to trade with Africa and India; but a copyist in Chronicles 20:36 makes them go to Tarshish. It is possible they were carried across the land to the Mediterranean, but more likely that “ships of Tarshish” mean large vessels, as our phrase “East Indiamen” does not imply the destination but the size; the copyist mistook the phrase for the destination. So in 1 Kings 9:26; 10:22; 2 Chronicles 9:21: the “peacocks” point to India, for southern Asia and the isles of the eastern archipelago are their native home. The names too are of Sanskrit etymology, tukki, related to Tamil Iota, “the tailed bird,” i.e. peacock. So “apes,” kaph, related to Sanskrit kapi. The Greeks received the peacock from Persia, as the Greek [taos] is the Persian tans. Strabo makes the Boetis or Guadalquivir (great stream) be called Tartessus. An island, a town, and a region bore the name. (On Genesis 10:4, which Rawlinson refers to see TARSUS , see, at the close).

    TARSUS Acts 9:11; 22:3; 21:39. Paul’s birthplace and early residence. Capital of Cilicia, in a plain on the river Cydnus at the foot of the passes northward over Mount Taurus into Cappadocia and Lycaonia. Through these passes a road led to Lystra and Iconium (Acts 14), another road by the Amanian and Syrian gates eastward to Antioch. Founded by Sennacherub of Assyria; the Greeks too took part in its colonisation (Strabo xiv. 673), Xenophon mentions it (Tarsoi in the Ariabasis). Julius Caesar rewarded Tarsus for fidelity, and Augustus made it a free city, i.e. governed by its own laws and magistrates and free from tribute, but without Roman citizenship, which Paul must have acquired in some other way. Ranked by Strabo above Athens and Alexandria for its school of literature and philosophy; Athenodorus, Augustus’ tutor, the grammarians Artemidorus and Diodorus, and the tragedian Dionysides belonged to Tarsus. Here Paul received providentially that training which adapted him for dealing with the polished Greeks on their own ground, quoting Aratus a Cilician poet, Epimenides a Cretan, and Menander the Athenian comedian. He resided in Tarsus at intervals after his conversion ( Acts 9:30; 11:25); after his first visit to Jerusalem and before his ministry with Barnabas at Antioch, and doubtless at the commencement of his second and third missionary journeys ( Acts 15:41; 18:23).

    G. Rawlinson thinks Tarshish in Genesis 10:4 can scarcely designate Tartessus, founded not until after Moses, but Tarsus in Cilicia; though said to be founded by Sennacherib, an old settlement doubtless preceded his colony. Thus, Tarshish in Genesis 10:4 will represent the Cilicians or the Greeks in Cilicia; it is associated with Kittim or Cyprus, which was near.

    TARTAK Idol of the Avvite colonists planted by Esarhaddon in Samaria ( 2 Kings 17:31). Worshipped under the form of a donkey (Talmud Bab. Sanhedrin,63 b.). In Egyptian hieroglyphics the donkey symbolizes Tartak (Plutarch Isaiah and Os. 14). Tartak may be of Persian origin, meaning the prince of darkness, belonging to the under world or some planet of ill fortune. The Carmanians worshipped Mars with a donkey ( 2 Kings 17:31). In Pehlevi tar thakh means deep darkness, hero of darkness.

    TARTAN Next to the Assyrian king in apparent rank. The commander-in-chief, who commanded his armies in his absence ( Isaiah 20:1). One sent against Ashdod by Sargon, distinct from Sennacherib’s tartan ( 2 Kings 18:17).

    After the tartan came the rubsaris , “chief eunuch,” who had right of near approach to the king’s person, and introduced strangers and attended to his comforts; then the rabshakeh , “chief cupbearer,” representing his master in embassies.

    TATNAI A Persian satrap “on this side,” i.e. the Jewish side, of the Euphrates ( Ezra 3:5,6; 6:6,13). (See SHETHAR BOZNAI ).

    TAXES (See PUBLICAN ). Each Israelite paid a half shekel as “atonement money” for the service of the tabernacle, the morning and evening sacrifice, the incense, wood, shewbread, red heifers, scapegoat, etc. ( Exodus 30:13).

    This became an annual payment on the return from Babylon; at first only a third of a shekel ( Nehemiah 10:32); afterward a half, the didrachma ( Matthew 17:24); paid by every Jew wherever in the world he might be (Josephus Ant. 18:9, section 1). Under kings the taxes were much increased: a tithe of the soil’s produce and of cattle ( 1 Samuel 8:15,17); forced military service, a month every year (verse 12; 1 Kings 9:22; 1 Chronicles 27:1); gifts, nominally voluntary but really imperative (like the Old English “benevolences”), and expected, as at the beginning of a reign or in war ( 1 Samuel 10:27; 16:20; 17:18). Import duties on foreign articles ( 1 Kings 10:15); monopolies of commerce; gold, linen from Egypt ( 1 Kings 9:28; 10:28); the first cuttings of hay, “the king’s mowings” ( Amos 7:1). Exemption from taxes was deemed an ample reward for military service ( 1 Samuel 17:25). The taxes, not the idolatry, of Solomon caused the revolt under his son; and Adoram, as over the tribute, was the chief object, of hatred ( 1 Kings 12:4,18). The Assyrian and Egyptian conquerors imposed heavy taxes on the Israelite and Jewish kings, Mendhem, Hoshea, Hezekiah, Josiah ( 2 Kings 15:20; 17:4; 18:14; 23:35).

    Under the Persian Darius Hystaspes each satrap had to pay a fixed sum which he levied from the people with extortion. Judaea had to provide for the governor’s household daily maintenance, besides 40 shekels a day ( Nehemiah 5:14,15). The three sources of revenue were: (1) the mindah or “measured payment” or “toll,” i.e. direct taxes; (2) the excise on articles of consumption, “tribute,” belo ; (3) “custom” (halak ), payable at bridges, fords, and stations on the road ( Ezra 4:13,20). The priests, Levites, singers, porters, and Nethinim were exempted by Artaxerxes (7:24). The distress of the people by taxes and forced service is pathetically described ( Nehemiah 9:37). They mortgaged their lands to buy grain, and borrowed money at one per cent per month, i.e. 12 percent per year, to pay the king’s tribute; failing payment they became slaves to their creditors.

    When Judaea fell under Rome, the taxes were farmed, namely, the dues (telos ) at harbours and city gates, and the poll tax (census or epikephalaion); the lawfulness of the latter alone the rabbis questioned ( Matthew 22:17). Judas of Galilee raised a revolt against it (Josephus Ant. 18:1, section 6; B.J. 2:8, sec. 1). Besides there was a property tax, the registry and valuation for which took place at Christ’s birth and was completed by Quirinus (see CYRENIUS ) after Archelaus’ deposition ( Luke 2:1,2). The Christian’s rule is Matthew 22:21; Romans 13:7.

    TAXING Luke 2:1,2. (See JESUS CHRIST , see CYRENIUS , see CENSUS ).

    TEBAH Genesis 22:24.

    TEBALIAH 1 Chronicles 26:11.

    TEBETH (See MONTH ).

    TEHINNAH Father or founder of In Nahash (city of Natash, probably father of Abigail, and step sister of David: 2 Samuel 17:25; 1 Chronicles 2:16); Eshton’s son; of Judah, of the men of Rechab ( 1 Chronicles 4:12).

    TEIL ‘eelah . (See OAK ). Royle makes it the terebinth pistacia, from whence comes the pistachio nut and Chio turpentine.

    TEKOA 2 Samuel 14:2. A town of Judah ( 2 Chronicles 11:6). Six Roman miles from Bethlehem, (to the S.E.,) which was six miles S. of Jerusalem.

    Tekoa was thus 12 from Jerusalem (Eusebius), but only nine by a shorter route (Jerome). The wise woman whom Joab suborned to persuade David to restore Absalom belonged to Tekoa (2 Samuel 14). Rehoboam fortified it ( 2 Chronicles 11:6). It was Amos’ birthplace. Jeremiah, warning Judah to flee southward from the enemy advancing from the N. ( Jeremiah 6:1), plays upon the sound tikehu Tekoa, “blow the trumpet in Tekoa.” The derivation taaqa’ “to strike” alludes to the stakes struck into the ground to secure the tents of the shepherds who roamed in “the wilderness of Tekoa,” which was E. of the town or cluster of pastoral tents. Ira, one of David’s thirty mighties, was a Tekoite ( 2 Samuel 23:26). The Tekoites repaired the wall under Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 3:5,27); but “their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.”

    Contrast Nehemiah 4:6, “the people had a mind to work” ( Judges 5:28; Colossians 3:28). see AMOS ’ familiarity with the Tekoa desert and the danger of a shepherd’s life affected his style.

    In the lists of Judah ( 1 Chronicles 2:24; 4:5) Ashur, Hezron’s posthumous son and Caleb’s brother, is mentioned as father, i.e. founder or prince, of Tekoa. Now Teku’a; within sight of “the Frank mountain,” the site of Herod’s castle, formerly see BETHHACCEREM ; broken columns, heaps of bevelled stones, cisterns,and square foundations of houses, mark the site which is on a broad topped hill, with the remains of a square tower at the N.E.; it commands the view of the level range of the Moabite mountains, affording frequent glimpses of the Dead Sea.

    TEL-ABIB The hill or mound Abib. The place of Ezekiel’s residence among the Jewish captives in Babylonia, on the Chebar, a branch of the Euphrates ( Ezekiel 3:15); the nahr Malcha, Nebuchadnezzar’s royal canal.

    TEL-HARSA, TEL-HARESHA A Babylonian town from which certain Jews who “could not show ... whether they were of Israel” returned to Judaea with Zerubbabel ( Ezra 2:59; Nehemiah 7:61). Meaning “hill of the wood” (Gesenius).

    TEL-MELAH Connected with Telharsa and Cherub (Chiripha, in Ptolemy). Thelme (Ptolemy 5:20) or “hill of salt,” a city of the low salt district near the Persian gulf (Gesenins).

    TELAH 1 Chronicles 7:25.

    TELAIM Where Saul numbered his host before attacking Amalek ( 1 Samuel 15:4). Same as Telera probably. Septuagint and Josephus read Gilgal; but no Hebrew manuscript sanctions this.

    TELLSSAR Isaiah 37:12.THELASAR, 2 Kings 19:12. “Hill (or sanctuary) of Asshur”; a place wrested from the children of Eden by Assyria. Somewhere in western Mesopotamia; associated with Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, in the hill country above the upper Mesopotamian plain, from which rises the river Khabour. The targum on Genesis 10:12 understands Tellssar to be Resen.

    TELEM A city in the extreme S. of Judah ( Joshua 15:24). (See TELAIM ).

    Conjectured to be Kubbet el Baul, bordering on the Dhullam Arabs.

    TELEN Ezra 10:24.TALMON, Nehemiah 12:25.

    TEMA = desert land. Ishmael’s ninth son ( Genesis 25:15). Founder of an Arab tribe in the northern Arabia Deserta, on the border of the Syrian desert ( Job 6:19); “the troops of Tema” are the caravans on the direct road anxiously “looking for” the return of their companions gone to look for water; the failure of it in the wady and the disappointment depict Job’s disappointment at not finding comfort from his friends whose professions promised so much ( Isaiah 21:14; Jeremiah 25:23). Teyma, a small town, preserves the name (Themme in Ptolemy 5:19, section 6); commanded by the castle El Ablak of a Jew Samuel (A.D. 550), attributed by tradition to Solomon, now in ruins; originally meant to protect the caravan route on the N. of Arabia. Compare Genesis 25:15, “sons of Ishmael, by their towns and castles.” The Hebrew however for “castles” may mean “hamlets”; see Speaker’s Commentary, Numbers 31:10; from tor “a row,” namely, of rude dwellings, of stones piled one on another and covered with tent cloths, like the devars in Algeria.

    TEMAN = on the right. So south to one facing east. Son of Eliphaz, Esau’s son ( Genesis 36:11); a duke of Edom. The southern part of Idumea.

    Habakkuk ( Habakkuk 3:3) confirms this southern position, from which as the starting point in the region of Mount Paran the Holy One’s coming is northwards. Ezekiel 25:13 translated “I will make it desolate from Teman (in the S.) ever, to Dedan (in the N.W.); they shall fall by the sword,” i.e. the whole land of Edom. Famed for wisdom: Jeremiah 49:8, “is wisdom no more in Teman?” etc.; compare 1 Kings 4:30, and for “mighty men” Obadiah 1:8,9. Eliphaz the Temanite is mentioned as a wise man in Job 2:11; 22:1. Eusebius and Jerome mention Teman as a town 15 miles from Petra, and a Roman post.

    TEMENI 1 Chronicles 4:6.

    TEMPLE (See JERUSALEM and see TABERNACLE ). David cherished the design of superseding the tent and curtains by a permanent building of stone ( <100701> Samuel 7:1,2); God praised him for having the design “in his heart” ( Kings 8:18); but as he had been so continually in wars ( 1 Kings 5:3,5), and had “shed blood abundantly” ( 1 Chronicles 22:8,9; 28:2,3-10), the realization was reserved for see SOLOMON his son. The building of the temple marks an era in Israel’s history, the nation’s first permanent settlement in peace and rest, as also the name Solomon,” man of peace, implied. The site was the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, whereon David by Jehovah’s command erected an altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings ( 2 Samuel 24:18-25; 1 Chronicles 21:18-30, 22:1); Jehovah’s signifying by fire His acceptance of the sacrifice David regarded as the divine designation of the area for the temple. “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar ... for Israel” ( 2 Chronicles 3:1). “Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah (Hebrew in the mount of the vision of Jehovah) where He appeared unto David in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” Warren identifies the “dome of the rock” with Ornan’s threshing floor and the temple altar. Solomon’s temple was there in the Haram area, but his palace in the S.E. of it, 300 ft. from N. to S., and from E. to W., and Solomon’s porch ran along the E. side of the Haram area. The temple was on the boundary line between Judah and Benjamin, and so formed a connecting link between the northern and the southern tribes; almost in the center of the nation. The top of the hill having been leveled, walls of great stones (some 30 ft. long) were built on the sloping sides, and the interval between was occupied by vaults or filled up with earth. The lower, bevelled stones of the wall still remain; the relics of the eastern wall alone being Solomon’s, the southern and western added later, but still belonging to the first temple; the area of the first temple was ultimately a square, 200 yards, a stadium on each side, but in Solomon’s time a little less. Warren makes it a rectangle, 900 ft. from E. to W., and 600 from N. to S. “The Lord gave the pattern in writing by His hand upon David,” and “by His Spirit,” i.e. David wrote the directions under divine inspiration and gave them to Solomon ( 1 Chronicles 28:11-19). The temple retained the general proportions of the tabernacle doubled; the length 60 cubits (90 ft.), the breadth 20 cubits (30 ft.): 1 Kings 6:2; 2 Chronicles 3:3. The height 30 cubits, twice the whole height of the tabernacle (15 cubits) measuring from its roof, but the oracle 20 cubits (double the height of the tabernacle walls, 10 cubits), making perfect cube like that of the tabernacle, which was half, i.e. ten each way; the difference between the height of the oracle and that of the temple, namely, ten cubits, was occupied by the upper rooms mentioned in 2 Chronicles 3:9, overlaid with pure gold. The temple looked toward the E., having the most holy place in the extreme W. In front was a porch as broad as the temple,20 cubits, and ten deep; whereas the tabernacle porch was only five cubits deep and ten cubits wide. Thus, the ground plan of the temple was cubits, i.e. 105 ft., or, adding the porch, 80 cubits, by 40 cubits, whereas that of the tabernacle was 40 cubits by 20 cubits, i.e. just half. In Chronicles 3:4 the 120 cubits for the height of the porch is out of all proportion to the height of the temple; either 20 cubits (with Syriac, Arabic and Septuagint) or 30 cubits ought to be read; the omission of mention of the height in 1 Kings 6:3 favors the idea that the porch was of the same height as the temple, i.e. 30 cubits . Two brazen pillars (Boaz = strength is in Him, and Jachin = He will establish), 18 cubits high, with a chapiter of five cubits -- 23 cubits in all -- stood, not supporting the temple roof, but as monuments before the porch ( 1 Kings 7:15-22). The 35 cubits instead of 18 cubits, in 2 Chronicles 3:15, arose from a copyist’s error (confounding [yah] = 18 with [lah] = 35 cubits). The circumference of the pillars was 12 cubits or 18 ft.; the significance of the two pillars was eternal stability and the strength of Jehovah in Israel as representing the kingdom of God on earth, of which the temple was the visible pledge, Jehovah dwelling there in the midst of His people.

    Solomon ( 1 Kings 6:5,6) built against the wall of the house stories, or an outwork consisting of three stories, round about, i.e. against the longer sides and the hinder wall, and not against the front also, where was the porch. Rebates (three for the three floors of the side stories and one for the roof) or projecting ledges were attached against the temple wall at the point where the lower beams of the different side stories were placed, so that the heads of the beams rested on the rebates and were not inserted in the actual temple wall. As the exterior of the temple wall contracted at each rebate, while the exterior wall of the side chamber was straight, the breadth of the chambers increased each story upward. The lowest was only five broad, the second six, and the third seven; in height they were each five cubits. Winding stairs led from chamber to chamber upward ( Kings 6:8). The windows ( 1 Kings 6:4) were made “with closed beams” Hebrew, i.e. the lattice work of which could not be opened and closed at will, as in d welling houses ( 2 Kings 13:17). The Chaldee and rabbiical tradition that they were narrower without than within is probable; this would adapt them to admit light and air and let out smoke. They were on the temple side walls in the ten cubits’ space whereby the temple walls, being 30 cubits high, out-topped the side stories,20 cubits high. The tabernacle walls were ten cubits high, and the whole height 15 cubits, i.e. the roof rising five cubits above the internal walls, just half the temple proportions: 20 cubits,30 cubits,10 cubits respectively.

    The stone was made ready in the quarry before it was brought, so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool heard in the house while it was building ( 1 Kings 6:7). In the Bezetha vast cavern, accidentally discovered by tapping the ground with a stick outside the Damascus gate at Jerusalem, evidences still remain of the marvelous energy with which they executed the work; the galleries, the pillars supporting the roof, and the niches from which the huge blocks were taken, of the same form, size, and material as the stones S.E. of the Haram area. The stone, soft in its native state, becomes hard as marble when exposed to the air. The quarry is 600 ft. long and runs S.E. At the end are blocks half quarried, the marks of the chisel as fresh as on the day the mason ceased; but the temple was completed without them, still they remain attached to their native bed, a type of multitudes, impressed in part, bearing marks of the teacher’s chisel, but never incorporated into the spiritual temple. The masons’ Phoenician marks still remain on the stones in this quarry, and the unique beveling of the stones in the temple wall overhanging the ravine corresponds to that in the cave quarry. Compare 1 Peter 2:5; the election of the church, the spiritual temple, in God’s eternal predestination, before the actual rearing of that temple ( Ephesians 1:4,5; Romans 8:29,30), and the peace that reigns within and above, in contrast to the toil and noise outside in the world below wherein the materials of the spiritual temple are being prepared ( John 16:33), are the truths symbolized by the mode of rearing Solomon’s temple. On the eastern wall at the S.E. angle are the Phoenician red paint marks. These marks cut into or painted on the bottom rows of the wall at the S.E. corner of the Haram, at a depth of 90 ft. where the foundations rest on the rock itself, are pronounced by Deutseh to have been cut or painted when the stones were first laid in their present places, and to be Phoenician letters, numerals, and masons’ quarry signs; some are well known Phoenician characters, others such as occur in the primitive substructions of the Sidon harbour.

    The interior was lined with cedar of Lebanon, and the floors and ceiling with cypress (berosh ; KJV “fir” not so well). There must have been pillars to support the roof, which was a clear space of 30 ft., probably four in the sanctuary and ten in the hall, at six cubits from the walls, leaving a center aisle of eight cubits (Fergusson in Smith’s Bible Dictionary.). Cherubim, palms, and flowers ( 1 Kings 6:29) symbolized the pure and blessed life of which the temple, where God manifested His presence, was the pledge.

    The costly wood, least liable to corruption, and the precious stones set in particular places, suited best a building designed to be “the palace of the Lord God” ( 1 Chronicles 29:1). The furniture of the temple was the same mainly as that of the tabernacle. Two cherubim were placed over the ark, much larger than those in the tabernacle; they were ten cubits high, with wings five cubits long, the tips of which outstretched met over the ark, and in the other direction reached to the N. and S. sides of the house.

    Their faces turned toward the house ( 2 Chronicles 3:13), not as in the tabernacle ( Exodus 25:20) toward the mercy-seat. Instead of the one seven-branched candlestick ten new ones were made of pure gold, five for the right or N. side and five for the left side of the temple. So there were ten tables of shewbread ( 2 Chronicles 4:8,19). Still the candlestick and the shewbread table were each spoken of as one, and probably but one table at a time was served with shewbread. The ten (the world number) times seven (the divine number) of the golden candlestick = 70; and the ten times twelve (the church number) of the shewbread = 120, implying the union of the world and the Deity and of the world and the church respectively (see NUMBER ). The snuffers, tongs, basins, etc., were of pure gold. The brazen altar of burnt offering was four times as large as that of the tabernacle; 20 cubits on each side and in height, instead of five cubits ( 2 Chronicles 4:1). Between this and the temple door was the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, 45 ft. round, holding 2,000 baths, i.e. 15,000 or 16,000 gallons of water (3,000 in 2 Chronicles 4:5 probably a copyist’s error), supported by 12 oxen, three on each side (representing the 12 tribes). It was for the priests’ washing, as the laver of the tabernacle.

    There were besides ten lavers, five on each side of the altar, for washing the entrails; these were in the inner ( 1 Kings 7:36) or higher ( Jeremiah 36:10) or priests’ court, raised above the further off one by three rows of hewed stone and one of cedar beams ( 1 Kings 6:36; Chronicles 4:9). The great court or that of the people, outside this, was surrounded by walls, and accessible by brass or bronze doors ( Chronicles 4:9). The gates noticed are the chief or E. one ( Ezekiel 11:1), one on the N. near the altar ( Ezekiel 8:5), the higher gate of the house of Jehovah, built by Jotham ( 2 Kings 15:35), the gate of the foundation ( 2 Chronicles 23:5), Solomon’s ascent up to the house of Jehovah ( 1 Kings 10:5; 2 Chronicles 9:11; 2 Kings 16:18).

    Hiram, son of a Tyrian father and Hebrew mother, was the skilled artisan who manufactured the bronze articles in a district near Jordan between Succoth and Zarthan ( 1 Kings 7:13,14,46; 2 Chronicles 4:16,17). see SOLOMON dedicated the temple with prayer and thank offerings of 20,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep (1 Kings 8; 2 Chronicles 5 to 7). The ritual of the temple was a national, not a personal, worship. It was fixed to one temple and altar, before the Shekinah. It was not sanctioned anywhere else.

    The Levites throughout the land were to teach Israel the law of their God; the particular mode was left to patriarchal usage and the rules of religious feeling and reason ( Deuteronomy 33:10; 6:7). The stranger was not only permitted but encouraged to pray toward the temple at Jerusalem; and doubtless the thousands (153,600) of strangers, remnants of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites, whom Solomon employed in building the temple, were proselytes to Jehovah ( 2 Chronicles 2:17; 1 Chronicles 22:2). (On its history see JERUSALEM ). Shishak of Egypt, Asa of Judah, Joash of Israel, and finally Nebuchadnezzar despoiled it in succession ( Kings 14:26; 15:18; 2 Chronicles 25:23,24). After 416 years’ duration the Babylonian king’s captain of the guard, Nebuzaradan, destroyed it by fire ( 2 Kings 25:8,9).

    Temple of Zerubabel. Erected by sanction of Cyrus, who in his decree alleged the command of the God of heaven ( Ezra 1:12), on the stone site (“the place where they offered sacrifices”) and to reproduce Solomon’s temple “with three rows (i.e. three stories) of great stones, and a row of new timber” (a wooden story, a fourth, called a talar: Josephus 11:4,6; 15:11, section 1): Ezra 6:3-12, comp. 1 Kings 6:36. The golden and silver vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar were restored; the altar was first set up by Jeshua and Zerubbabel, then the foundations were laid (Ezra 3) amidst weeping in remembrance of the glorious former temple and joy at the restoration. Then after the interruption of the work under see ARTAXERXES I (see EZRA ; see HAGGAI ; see JESHUA or see JOSHUA ; see NEHEMIAH ) or Pseudo Smerdis, the temple was completed in the sixth year of see DARIUS (chapter 6). The height, 60 cubits (6:3), was double that of Solomon’s temple. Josephus confirms this height of cubits, though he is misled by the copyist’s error, 120, in 2 Chronicles 3:4. Zerubbabel’s temple was 60 cubits broad ( Ezra 6:3) as was Herod’s temple subsequently, 20 cubits in excess of the breadth of Solomon’s temple; i.e., the chambers all around were 20 in width instead of the ten of Solomon’s temple; probably, instead of as heretofore each room of the priests’ lodgings being a thoroughfare, a passage was introduced between the temple and the rooms. Thus the dimensions were 100 cubits long, 60 broad, and 60 high, not larger than a good sized parish church.

    Not merely ( Haggai 2:3) was this temple inferior to Solomon’s in splendour and costly metals, but especially it lacked five glories of the former temple: (1) the ark, for which a stone served to receive the sprinkling of blood by the high priest, on the day of atonement; (2) the sacred fire; (3) the Shekinab; (4) the spirit of prophecy; (5) the Urim and Thummim. Its altar was of stone, not brass (1 Macc. 4:45), it had only one table of shewbread and one candlestick. Antiochus Epiphanes profaned this temple; afterward it was cleansed or dedicated, a new altar of fresh stones made, and the feast of dedication thenceforward kept yearly ( John 10:22). But “the glory of this latter house was greater than of the former” ( Haggai 2:9) because of the presence of Messiah, in whose face is given the light of the knowledge of the glory of God ( Corinthians 4:6; Hebrews 1:2) as Himself said, “in this place is one (Greek ‘a something greater,’ the indefiniteness marking the infinite vastness whereby He is) greater than the temple” ( Matthew 12:6), and who “sat daily teaching in it” ( Matthew 26:55).

    The Millennial Temple at Jerusalem. (See Ezekiel 40--48) The dimensions are those of Solomon’s temple; an inner shrine 20 cubits square ( Ezekiel 41:4); the nave 20 cubits by 40 cubits; the chambers round ten wide, including the thickness of the walls; the whole, with the porch, cubits by 80 cubits; but the outer court 500 reeds on each of its sides ( Ezekiel 42:16), i.e. a square of one mile and one seventh, considerably more than the area of the old Jerusalem, temple included. The spiritual lesson is, the church of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit, hereafter to be manifested on earth, shall be on a scale far surpassing its present dimensions; then first shall Jehovah be worshipped by the whole congregation of the earth, led by Israel the leader of the grand choir. The temple of Herod had an outer court which with porticoes, measuring cubits every way, was a counterpart on a smaller scale to the outer court of Ezekiel’s temple and had nothing corresponding in Solomon’s temple or Zerubbabel’s. No ark is in it, for Jehovah the ark’s Antitype shall supersede it ( Jeremiah 3:16,17; Malachi 3:1). The temple interior waits for His entrance to fill it with His glory ( Ezekiel 43:1-12). No space shall be within its precincts which is not consecrated; whereas in the old temple there was a greater latitude as to the exterior precincts or suburbs ( Kings 23:11). “A separation” shall exist “between the sanctuary and the profane place”; but no longer the partition wall between Jew and Gentile ( Ephesians 2:14; Ezekiel 42:20). The square symbolizes the kingdom that cannot be moved ( Daniel 2:44; Hebrews 12:28; Revelation 21:16). The full significance of the language shall not be exhausted in the millennial temple wherein still secular things shall be distinguished from things consecrated, but shall be fully realized in the post-millennial city, wherein no part shall be separated from the rest as “temple,” for all shall be holy ( Revelation 21:10-12). The fact that the Shekinah glory was not in the second temple whereas it is to return to the future temple proves that Zerubbabel’s temple cannot be the temple meant in Ezekiel (compare Ezekiel 43:2-4). Christ shall return in the same manner as He went up, and to the same place, Mount Olivet on the E. of Jerusalem ( Ezekiel 11:23; Zechariah 14:4; Acts 1:9-12). The Jews then will welcome Him with blessings ( Luke 13:35); His triumphal entry on the colt was the type ( Luke 19:38). As the sacrificial serrate at the tabernacle at Gibeon and the ark service of sacred song for the 30 years of David’s reign, before separate ( 2 Samuel 6:17; 2 Chronicles 1:3,4; called “the tabernacle of David” Amos 9:11,12; Acts 15:16; 1 Chronicles 13:3; 16:37,39), were combined in Solomon’s temple, so the priestly intercessory functions of our High priest in heaven and our service of prayer and praise carried on separately on earth, during our Judaeo universal dispensation, shall in the millennial temple at Jerusalem be combined in perfection, namely, Christ’s priesthood manifested among men and our service of outward and inward liturgy. In the final new and heavenly Jerusalem on the regenerated earth, after the millennium, Christ shall give up the mediatorial and sacerdotal kingdom to the Father, because its purpose shall have been fully completed ( 1 Corinthians 15:24,28); so there shall be no temple, “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb shall be the temple” ( Revelation 21:22).

    Herod’s temple (which was essentially the continuation of Zerubbabel’s temple: compare Haggai 2:9). (See JERUSALEM ). Josephus gives the ground plan accurately; but the height he exaggerates. As the temple was prostrated by the Roman siege, there was no means of convicting him of error as to elevations. The nave was like Solomon’s and still more Zerubbabel’s; but surrounded by an inner enclosure, 180 cubits by cubits, with porches and ten magnificent gateways; there was a high wall round the vast square with a colonnade of two rows of marble pillars, forming a flat roofed cloister, and on the S. side three rows, 25 ft. high.

    Beyond this was an outer enclosure, 400 cubits or one stadium each way, with porticoes exceeding in splendour all the temples of the ancient world, supporting a carved cedar roof; the pavement was mosaic. Herod sought to rival Solomon, reconcile the Jews to his dynasty as fulfilling Haggai 2:9 that the glory of the latter temple should be greater than that of the former, and so divert them from hopes of a temporal Messianic king (Josephus, Ant. 15:11 section 1,5; 20:9, section 7; B.J. 1:21, section 1): he employed 10,000 skilled workmen, and 1,000 priests acquainted with fine work in wood and stone; in one year and a half the temple was ready for the priests and Levites; in eight the courts were complete; but for the 46 years up to Jesus’ ministry ( John 2:20) various additions were being made, and only in the time of Agrippa II the works ceased. The temple occupied the highest of terraces rising above one another; it occupied all the area of Solomon’s temple with the addition of that of Solomon’s palace, and a new part added on by Herod at the S.W. corner by artificial works; Solomon’s porch lay along the whole E. side. Gentiles had access to the outer court.

    The gates were: on the W. side, one to Zion, two to the suburbs, and one by steps through the valley into the other city. Two subterranean passages on the S. led to the vaults and, water reservoirs of the temple. On the N. one concealed passage led to the castle Antonia, the fortress commanding the temple. The only remains of Herod’s temple in situ are the double gates on the S. side at 365 ft. distance from the S.W. angle. They consist of a massive double archway on the level of the ground, opening into a square vestibule 40 ft. each way. In the center of this is a pillar crowned with a Corinthian capital, the acanthus and the waterleaf alternating as in the Athenian temple of the winds, an arrangement never found later than Augustus’ time. From the pillar spring four flat segmental arches. From the vestibule a double tunnel 200 ft. long leads to a flight of steps which rise to the surface in the court of the temple just at the gateway of the inner temple which led to the altar; it is the one of the four gateways on the S. side by which anyone arriving from Ophel would enter the inner enclosure.

    The gate of the inner temple to which this passage led was called “the water gate”: Nehemiah 12:37 (Talmud, Mid. ii. 6). Westward there were four gateways to the outer enclosure of the temple (Josephus, Ant. 15:11, section 5). The most southern (the remains of which Robinson discovered) led over the bridge which joined the stoa basilica of the temple to the royal palace. The second was discovered by Barclay 270 ft. from the S.W. angle, 17 ft. below the level of the S. gate. The third was about ft. from the N.W. angle of the temple area. The fourth led over the causeway still remaining, 600 ft. from the S.W. angle. Previously outward stairs ( Nehemiah 12:37; 1 Kings 10:5) led up from the western valley to the temple. Under Herod the causeway and bridge communicated with the upper city, and the two lower entrances led to the lower city, “the city of David.” The stoa basilica or royal porch overhanging the S. wall was the grandest feature of all (Josephus, Ant. 15: 11, section 5), consisting of the three rows of Corinthian columns mentioned above, closed by a fourth row built into the wall on the S. side, but open to the temple inside; the breadth of the center aisle 45 ft., the height 100; the side aisles 30 wide and 50 high; there were 40 pillars in each row, with two odd ones forming a screen at the end of the bridge leading to the palace. A marble screen three cubits high in front of the cloisters bore an inscription forbidding Gentiles to enter (compare Acts 21:28). Ganneau has found a stone near the temple site bearing a Greek inscription: “no stranger must enter within the balustrade round the temple and enclosure, whosoever is caught will be responsible for his own death.” (So Josephus, B. J. 5:2, Ant. 15:11, section 5.) Within this screen or enclosure was the flight of steps up to the platform on which the temple stood. The court of the women was eastward (Josephus, B. J. 5:5, section 3), with the magnificently gilt and carved eastern gate leading into it from the outer court, the same as “the Beautiful gate” ( Acts 3:2,11). “Solomon’s porch” was within the outer eastern wall of the temple, and is attributed by Josephus (Ant. 15:11, section 3, 20:9, section 7; B.J. 5:5, section 1,3) to Solomon; the Beautiful gate being on the same side, the people flocking to see the cripple healed there naturally ran to “Solomon’s porch.” Within this gateway was the altar of burnt offering, 50 cubits square and 15 high, with an ascent to it by an inclined plane. On its south side an inclined plane led down to the water gate where was the great, cistern in the rock (Barclay, City of the Great King, 526); supplying the temple at the S.W. angle of the altar was the opening through which the victims’ blood flowed W. and S. to the king’s garden at Siloam. A parapet one cubit high surrounding the temple and altar separated the people from the officiating priests (Josephus, B.J. 5:5, section 6). The temple,20 cubits by 60 cubits, occupied the western part of this whole enclosure. The holiest place was a square cube, 20 cubits each way; the holy place two such cubes; the temple 60 cubits across and 100 E. and W.; the facade by adding its wings was 100, the same as its length E. and W. (Josephus, B. J., 5:5, section 4.) Warren (Athenaeum, No. 2469, p. 265) prefers the Mishna’s measurements to Josephus’ (Ant. 15:11, section 3), and assumes that the 600 ft. a side assigned by Josephus to the courts refer to orbits not feet, Josephus applied the 600 ft. of the inner court’s length to the 600 cubits of the outer court. The E., W., and S. walls of the present Muslim sanctuary, and a line drawn parallel to the northern edge of the raised platform, eight cubits N. of the Golden gate, measuring respectively 1,090 ft., 1,138 ft., 922 ft., and 997 ft. (i.e. averaging cubits), closely approach Josephus’ 600. Allow eight cubits for the wall all round, 30 for width of cloisters N., E., and W. sides, and 105 ft. for the S. cloister, and we have 505 cubits for inner sides of the cloisters, closely approaching the Talmudic 500 cubits. The Golden gate (its foundations are still existing) continues the double wall of the northern cloisters to the E., .just as Robinson’s arch led from the southern cloisters to the W.; on this gate “was pourtrayed the city Shushan; through it one could see the high priest who burnt the heifer and his assistants going out to Mount Olivet.”

    On the E. wall stood Solomon’s porch or cloister (Josephus. Ant. 20:9, section 7). The temple’s W. end coincides with the W. side of the raised platform, and its S. side was 11 ft. S. of the S. end of this same platform.

    Josephus states (Ant. 15:11, section 5; 20:8, section 11; B. J. 2:16, section 3) that king Agrippa built a dining room (overlooking the temple inner courts) in the palace of the Asmonaeaus, at the N. end of the upper city overlooking the xystus where the bridge (Wilson’s arch) joined the temple to the xystus; it was the southern portion of the inner court that his dining room overlooked. The altar stood over the western end of the souterrain, which was probably connected with the water system needed for the temple, and with the blood passage discovered at the S.E. angle of the Muslim sanctuary, and with the gates Mokhad, Nitzotz, and Nicanor (Ant. 15:11, section 6). Warren’s plan of the temple is drawn from the Talmud.

    The Huldah gates answer to the double and triple gates on the S. side; the western gates are still in situ, that from the souterrain is the gate leading down many steps to the Acra. S. of this is the causeway still in, situ (except at Wilson’s arch) over the valley N. of the xystus to the upper city along the first wall. The cubit assumed is 21 inches.

    The Jews’ “house was left desolate,” according to Christ’s prophecy, years before the event; though Titus wished to spare it, the fury of his soldiers and the infatuation of the Jewish zealots thwarted his wish, and unconsciously fulfilled the decree of God; and fragments of old pottery and broken lamps now are found where the light of Jehovah’s glory once shone, Hadrian, the emperor, in 130, erected on the site a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus. The apostate emperor Julian tried to rebuild the temple, POTTERY TRADE MARKS. but was thwarted by balls of fire which interrupted the workmen. The mosque of Omar has long stood on the site of the temple in the S.W. of the Harem area. But when “the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, “and when the Jews shall look to Jesus and say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” the kingdom with its temple will come again to Israel ( Luke 13:35; 21:24; Acts 1:6,7). (See VEIL ).

    TEN COMMANDMENTS (See LAW ).

    TENT ‘ohel , “tabernacle “; mishkan , “dwelling”; sukkak , “booth”; qubbah , “recess” ( Numbers 25:8). The characteristic dwelling of the keepers of cattle, the nomadic races, of whom Jabal was the father ( Genesis 4:20).

    The stay of Israel in Egypt weaned them from tent life and trained them for their fixed home in Canaan. The pastoral tribes Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh, still in part retained the tent life E. of Jordan ( Joshua 22:8).

    The phrase “to your tents, O Israel,” remained as a trace of the former nomadic state, when the nation was no longer so ( 1 Kings 12:16).

    Agriculture was sometimes associated with tent life, as in Isaac’s case ( Genesis 26:12), and probably in Heber’s case ( Judges 4:11-22).

    Hazerim ( Deuteronomy 2:23) is not a proper name, but means nomadic “villages” or “enclosures,” a piece of ground surrounded with a rude fence, in which tents were pitched and cattle tethered at night for safety from marauders; or as the Yezidee tent in Syria, a stone wall five feet high, roofed with goats’ hair cloth raised on long poles. So Hazar-adder in the S. and Hazar-erran in the N. ( Numbers 34:4,9.) Some tents are circular, resting on one central pole; others square on several poles. The better kind are oblong, and divided by a curtain into an outer apartment for the males and an inner one for the females. Hooks are fixed in the poles to hang articles on ( Isaiah 22:23,24). To the rain-proof goats’ hair covering a cloth is sewn or twisted round a stick, to the ends of which are tied leather loops. To these loops one end of the tent ropes is fastened, the other being tied to a hooked sharp pin of wood which they drive into the ground with a mallet; such a nail and mallet Jael used ( Judges 4:21). The patriarchs’ wives had separate tents ( Genesis 24:67; 31:33). The beauty of Israel’s orderly and wide encampment by the four parallel brooks running westward into Jordan is compared to trees in rows in beautiful gardens, such as Balaam had seen along his own river Euphrates ( Numbers 24:5,6). The quickness and ease with which tents can be struck, leaving their tenants without covering in the lonely desert, is Paul’s image for the speedy dissolution of our mortal body, preparatory to our abiding resurrection home ( 2 Corinthians 5:1).

    TERAH Tenth from Noah through Shem; father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran ( Genesis 11:27). Accompanied Abram from Ur on the way to Canaan (an act of faith on the part of one so very old; persuaded by his godly son), but died at Haran when 205 years old. He was 70 when Haran his oldest son was born, 130 whenABRAM (see ABRAHAM ) was born ( Genesis 11:26,32; 12:4; Acts 7:2-4).

    TERAPHIM (See IDOL ), Sometimes left untranslated; elsewhere “images ... idolatry” ( Genesis 31:19,30,34; 35:2, “strange gods”). Worshipped by Abram’s kindred in Mesopotamia ( Joshua 24:14). Images in human form; Maurer thinks busts, cut off at the waist, from [taaraph](HSN-0000) “to cut off,” tutelary household gods; small enough to be hidden beneath the camel’s furniture or palanquin on which Rachel sat. Michal put them in David’s bed to look like him ( 1 Samuel 19:13; Judges 17:5; 18:14,17,18,20). Condemned as idolatrous ( 1 Samuel 15:23; Kings 23:24). Used for divination ( Ezekiel 21:21; Zechariah 10:2), and to secure good fortune to a house, as the penates. From Arabic tarafa, “to enjoy the good things of life,” according to Gesenius. The Syriac teraph means “to inquire” of an oracle, Hebrew toreph “an inquirer” ( Hosea 3:4,5). The Israelites used the teraphim for magic purposes and divination, side by side with the worship of Jehovah. Related perhaps to seraphim, the recognized symbol attending Jehovah; so perverted into a private idol meant to represent Him, a talisman whereby to obtain responses, instead of by the lawful priesthood through the Urim and Tbummim. (See GATE ).

    TERESH One of the two eunuchs or chamberlains who kept the door of Ahasuerus’ palace. Hanged on Mordecai’s information for attempting to assassinate the king ( Esther 2:21; 6:2).

    TERTIUS Paul’s amanuensis in writing the epistle to the Romans ( Romans 16:22) from Corinth. His greeting inserted in the middle of Paul’s greetings to the Romans shows that he was well acquainted with the Roman Christians, “I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord”; his name too makes it likely he was a Roman.

    TERTULLUS A diminutive of Tertius. The Latin professional orator employed by the high priest Ananias to prosecute Paul before Felix at Caesarea ( Acts 24:1). As the law proceedings were probably conducted in Latin, Roman or at least Italian advocates were commonly employed in the provinces.

    Greek may have been used in the Syrian law courts, as indeed the emperors permitted it even at Rome (Dio Cassius, 57:15). Still his address has a Latin tinge. It was a common rhetorical device to conciliate the judge by flattery. see FELIX by putting down some rebels gave just enough color to Tertullus’ eulogy to make its general falsehood the more glaring. (See PAUL ). Verses 6-8, “who also hath gone about ... whereof we accuse him,” are omitted in the oldest manuscripts, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus.

    TESTAMENT (See COVENANT ; see HEIR ; see WILLS ).

    TETRARCH Properly governor of the fourth part of a larger province and kingdom, i.e. a tetrarchy. The title “king” is applied by courtesy, not right, to see HEROD “the tetrarch” ( Luke 3:1; Mark 6:14). As Archelaus was “ethnarch” over half of Herod the Great’s whole kingdom, so Philip and Antipus had divided between them the remaining half, and were each “tetrarch” over the fourth; Herod over Galilee; Philip over Ituraea and Trachonitis; Lysanias over Abilene. Caligula annexed the three tetrarchies to the kingdom of Herod Agrippa I, whom he honoured with the title “king” (Acts 12).

    THADDAEUS Mark 3:18. Same as Lebbaeus or Judas not Iscariot ( John 14:22). (See JUDE ). The Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts read in Matthew 10:3 only “Thaddaeus, “omitting “and Lebbaeus whose surname was.”

    THAHASH Genesis 22:24.

    THAMAH, THE CHILDREN OF Ezra 2:53.

    THAMAR, TAMAR Matthew 1:3.

    THANK OFFERING, PEACE OFFERING (See SACRIFICE ). Eucharistic, indicating that the offerer was already by the atonement at peace with God (Leviticus 3; 7:11-34; 23:19-20).

    Spontaneous, “at your own will” (19:5); the only regularly recurring one was that of two firstling lambs at Pentecost. The meat offering on the other hand was regularly ordained. Periods of extraordinary solemnity or joy were the times of peace offerings: as Exodus 24:5; Leviticus 9:18; Joshua 8:31; 1 Samuel 11:15; 2 Samuel 6:17; 1 Kings 8:63; 9:25; 2 Chronicles 30:22; see also Judges 20:26; 2 Samuel 24:25.

    THARA Luke 3:34. see TERAH .

    THARSHISH see TARSHISH . 1. 1 Kings 10:22. 2. Son of Bilhan, a Benjamite ( 1 Chronicles 7:10).

    THEATRE The theater was anciently in the open air; semicircular; the seats in tiers above one another the stage on a level with the lowest seats. Besides the performance of dramas, public meetings were often in the theater, as being large enough almost to receive “the whole city” ( Acts 19:29); so at Ephesus the theater was the scene of the tumultuous meeting excited by Demetrius. The remains of this theater still attest its vast size and convenient position (see EPHESUS and see DIANA ). In 1 Corinthians 4:9 “spectacle” is literally, “theatrical spectacle,” a spectacle in which the world above and below is the theater, and angels and men the spectators. Hebrews 10:33, “made a gazing stock (theatrizomenoi ) by afflictions”; as criminals often were exhibited to amuse the populace in the amphitheater, and “set forth last” in the show to fight with wild beasts (Tertullian, de Pudicitia, 14): Hebrews 12:1. In the theater Herod Agrippa I ( Acts 12:21-23; Josephus, Ant. 19:8, section 2) gave audience to the Tyrian envoys, and was struck dead by God.

    THEBES See NO .

    THEBEZ Hebrew teebeets , “brightness.” A town near Shechem. Besieged by see ABIMELECH . A woman with a millstone, from the tower which was the last, stronghold not yet taken, killed him ( Judges 9:50-55; 2 Samuel 11:21).

    THELASAR 2 Kings 19:12. (See TELASSAR ).

    THEOPHILUS Called “most excellent” or “noble” (kratiste ), a magisterial designation ( Luke 1:3; Acts 1; compare 23:26; 24:3; 26:25). Luke addressed both his works, forming one whole in two parts, to him, in order to give a more orderly written narrative, from the very beginning clown to the journey of Paul to Rome, of those truths in which he had been “instructed” orally (katechethes ). Tradition connects Theophilus with Antioch. The special adaptation of Luke’s Gospel to Gentiles implies Theophilus was a Gentile.

    The epithet [kratiste] implies his rank, as also does the more elegant style of Luke’s dedication ( Luke 1:1-4) as compared with that of, the rest of the Gospel which is more derived from existing brief memoirs embodied by the evangelist. The idea of Theophilus being an imaginary person (the name meaning friend of God) is at variance with the simplicity of the New Testament writers and especially the evangelists.

    THESSALONIANS, EPISTLES TO FIRST EPISTLE. Authenticity. Ignatius, ad Polycarp 1, Ephes. 10, says “pray without ceasing” ( 1 Thessalonians 5:17); so Polycarp, ad Philipp. 4. This epistle is in the Muratorian Canon, that of Marcion, and Laodicea, A.D. 364. Irenaeus (adv. Haer. 5:6, section 1) quotes 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Clement of Alexandria (Paed. 1:88) quotes 1 Thessalonians 2:7; Tertullian (de Resurr. Carnis 24) quotes 1:9,10; 5:1; Caius in Eusebius (Ecclesiastes Hist.) vi. 20, Origen (contra Celsus 3), also confirm it.

    Tertullian quotes this epistle 20 times.

    AIM. After imprisonment and scourging at Philippi, Paul ( Thessalonians 2:2) passed on to see THESSALONICA . With Silas ( Acts 16:3; 17:1-9,14) and Timotheus he founded the church there ( 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 3:1-6; 2 Thessalonians 1:1). The Jews rejected the gospel when preached for three successive sabbaths; a few however “believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout (i.e. proselytes to Judaism) Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.” Amidst trials ( 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2:13) from their own countrymen and from the Jews ( 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16) the converts “received the word with joy of the Holy Spirit.” His stay at Thessalonica was probably longer than the three weeks recorded in Acts 17:2, for some time is implied in his labouring there for support ( 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:8), in his receiving supplies there more than once from Philippi ( Philippians 4:16), in his receiving many converts from the Gentiles ( 1 Thessalonians 1:9, and, according to the Alexandrinus manuscript of Acts 17:4, though not the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts, “of the devout (and) of the Greeks a great multitude”), and in his appointing ministers. He probably (compare Acts 13:46; 18:6,7; 19:8,9) preached first to the Jews; then, when they rejected the message, to the Gentiles. Thenceforth he held the church assemblies in the house of Jason ( Acts 17:5), his “kinsman” ( Romans 16:21). His tender love and gentleness, like that of “a nurse cherishing children,” disinterestedness, devotion even unto death, and zeal for individual souls, beautifully appear in 1 Thessalonians 1:5; 2:1-11. He laboured here with his own hands to further the gospel by giving an example to the idle. Contributions from Philippi also helped him at, Thessalonica ( Philippians 4:15,16).

    Christ’s coming and kingdom were his chief topic ( 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 2:12,19; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:1-11,23,24), that the Thessalonians should walk worthy of it ( 1 Thessalonians 4:1). It is an undesigned coincidence confirming the authenticity of the history and of the epistles that the very charge which Jason’s assailants brought against the brethren was “these do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus” ( Acts 17:5-9). So in Jesus’ own case they perverted His doctrine of His coming kingdom into a charge of treason against Caesar. So also the doctrine of the resurrection is prominent both in Luke’s history ( Acts 17:3) and in Paul’s independent epistle ( 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 4:14-16).

    Paul and Silas had to flee by night to Berea; but the church and ministers had been constituted, and the Thessalonians became missionaries virtually themselves (for which the city’s commerce gave facilities) both by word and by example, the report of which had reached Macedonia where Paul had been, and Achaia where he now was, at Corinth ( 1 Thessalonians 1:7,8). From Berea Paul, after having planted a Scripture-loving church. was obliged to flee by the Thessalonian Jews who followed him there Timothy (who apparently came to Berea separately from Paul and Silas; compare Acts 17:10 with Acts 17:14) and Silas remained there still, when Paul proceeded by sea to Athens. While at Athens Paul longed to visit the Thessalonians again, and see their spiritual state, and “perfect that which was lacking in their faith” ( 1 Thessalonians 3:10); but “Satan (through the instrumentality of the Thessalonian Jews probably, John 13:27) hindered” him ( 1 Thessalonians 2:18; Acts 17:13). He therefore sent Timothy, who followed him apparently to Athens from Berea ( Acts 17:15), and immediately on his arrival at Athens to Thessalonica ( 1 Thessalonians 3:1). Much as he would have desired Timothy’s help against his Athenian opponents, he determined to forego it for the sake of the Thessalonian church. Silas does not appear to have come to Paul at Athens at all, though Paul had desired him and Timothy to “come to him with all speed” ( Acts 17:15), but with Timothy (who from Thessalonica called for him at Berea) joined Paul at Corinth first ( Acts 18:1,5; “when Silas and Timothy were come from Macedonia”).

    The epistle mentions Timothy at Athens ( 1 Thessalonians 3:12), but not Silas.

    Timothy “brought good tidings of the Thessalonian church’s faith and love, and good remembrance of Paul, and desire to see him” as he desired to see them ( 1 Thessalonians 3:6-10). Their defect was the exclusive dwelling of some on Christ’s kingdom to such a degree as to neglect present duties ( 1 Thessalonians 4:11,12). Some who had lost relatives by death doubted whether they who died before Christ’s coming would share with those found alive, in His kingdom then to be revealed. Some had been quarrelsome and revengeful ( 1 Thessalonians 5:13,15); others had even relapsed into pagan lusts, fornication, and adultery ( 1 Thessalonians 4:3-10). Some were insubordinate toward ministers, and slighted the manifestations of the Spirit in those possessing His gifts as “prophesyings” ( 1 Thessalonians 5:12,13,19,20). To correct these defects, to praise their graces, and to testify his love, is Paul’s aim in this epistle.

    The place of writing was Corinth, where Timothy, with Silas, rejoined Paul ( Acts 18:5).

    THE TIME OF WRITING. Soon after Timothy’s arrival with tidings of their state ( 1 Thessalonians 2:17; 3:6), in the autumn A.D. 52. Paul wrote in the winter of that year, or else early in A.D. 53 at the beginning of his stay of one year and a half at Corinth ( Acts 18:11). (Timothy had been sent probably from Athens to inquire: 1 Thessalonians 3:1,2). For it was written not long after the conversion of the Thessalonians ( Thessalonians 1:8,9), while Paul could speak of himself as only “taken from them for a short season” ( 1 Thessalonians 2:17). Hence, it was first in date of all Paul’s extant epistles. Paul, Silas, and Timothy, the three founders of the Thessalonion church, stand at its head in the inscription. “We” is written everywhere except in 1 Thessalonians 2:18; 3:5; 5:27; “we” is the true reading in 1 Thessalonians 4:13. The KJV “I” in Thessalonians 4:9; 5:1,23, is not in the original.

    STYLE. Calm, practical, and uncontroversial, because he takes for granted the doctrinal truths, which were not yet controverted. Simple, less intense, and less marked by sudden turns of thought.

    GROUPING OF PAUL’ S EPISTLES. Impassioned argument and vehement feeling were reserved for subsequent epistles, which had to deal with fundamental errors of doctrine, as Judaizing legalism. The second group of epistles, Corinthians, Romans, and Galatians, five years later, in opposition to the latter, unfold the cardinal doctrines of grace and justification by faith. Still later, the epistles from his Roman prison, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians confirm the same. Last of all, the pastoral epistles suit the church’s developed ecclesiastical constitution, and direct as to bishops and deacons, and correct abuses and errors of later growth. His opponents in Thessalonians are Jews ( 1 Thessalonians 2:16); but in the second group Judaizing Christians. The gospel preached in the epistles to the Thessalonians is that of Christ’s coming kingdom rather than the cross; for the former best met the Messianic hopes which won Jewish believers to the Christian faith; it also especially comforted the infant church under trials, and in the sacrifice of worldly pleasure and gain. The healthy condition of all the Macedonian churches accounts for the close resemblance between this epistle and the epistle to Philippians, written ten years subsequently.

    Hence in both he begins with warm commendations, and drops the official title of “apostle” in the salutation.

    DIVISION. The same prayer (“may God Himself,” etc.) recurring at Thessalonians 3:11-13, and 1 Thessalonians 5:24, (translated “may the God of peace Himself,” etc.,) apparently marks the close of the two divisions.

    PERSONS ADDRESSED. The prevalence of the Gentile element in them appears from the entire absence of quotations from the Old Testament in these two epistles; also from the address being to persons who had turned “from idols” ( 1 Thessalonians 1:9).

    SECOND EPISTLE. Genuineness. Polycarp (Ep. ad Philipp. 11) alludes to 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 3:15, and so attests it. Justin Martyr (Dial.Trypho, 193, sec. 32) alludes to 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Irenaeus (iii. 7, section 2) quotes 2 Thessalonians 2:8. Clement of Alexandria quotes Thessalonians 3:2 as Paul’s words (Strom. i. 5, section 554; Paedag. i. 17).

    Tertullian (de Resurr. Carnis, chap. 24) quotes 2 Thessalonians 2:1,2 as part of Paul’s epistles.

    DESIGN. The report from Thessalonica after the first epistle represented the faith and love of the church there as on the increase, and their constancy amidst persecutions unshaken. Their only error needing correction was that Paul’s description of Christ’s sudden second coming ( 1 Thessalonians 4:13; 5:2), possibly at any moment, led them to believe it actually imminent. Some professed to know by “the Spirit” ( Thessalonians 2:2) it was so, others declared Paul when with them had said so; a letter purporting to be from him to that effect was circulated among them ( 2 Thessalonians 2:2, in 2 Thessalonians 3:17 he marks his autograph salutation as the test whereby to know his genuine letters).

    Hence some ceased to mind their daily work, and cast themselves on the charity of others as if their only duty was to look for Christ’s immediate coming. Paul therefore tells them (2 Thessalonians 2) that before the Lord shall come there must first be a great apostasy, and the man of sin be revealed; and that to neglect daily business would only bring scandal on the church, and was contrary to his own practice among them ( Thessalonians 3:7-9), and that believers must withdraw from such disorderly walkers ( 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 10-15).

    DIVISIONS. (1) 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12; he commends the Thessalonians’ faith, love, and patience, amidst persecutions. (2) 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17; corrects their error as to Christ’s immediate coming, and foretells that the man of sin (see ANTICHRIST ) must first rise and perish. (3) 2 Thessalonians 3:1-16; exhorts to orderly conduct, prays the God of peace in their behalf, autograph salutation and blessing.

    DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING. He must have written at Corinth during his one year and six months’ stay ( Acts 18:11, namely, beginning with the autumn A.D. 52, and ending with the spring A.D. 54), probably six months after his first epistle A.D. 53; for Timothy and Silas, whose names are joined with his own in the inscription were with him at Corinth, and not with him for a long time after he left that city ( Acts 18:18, compare Acts 19:22). Silas was probably never afterward any length of time with Paul.

    STYLE. It resembles that of Paul’s other epistles, save in the prophetic part. In the latter (as in more solemn passages, e.g. Colossians 2:8,16 with 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 with Thessalonians 1:8,9; Romans 1:18 with 2 Thessalonians 1:8,10) his style is elevated, abrupt, and elliptical. As 1 Thessalonians 4:5 dwells on Christ’s coming in its aspect of glory to the sleeping and living saints, so this epistle on its aspect of everlasting perdition to the wicked and to him who shall consummate all iniquity as the man of sin (2 Thessalonians 2). So far was Paul in writing 1 Thessalonians from being mistaken as to Christ’s speedy coming that he had distinctly told them, when with them, the same truths as to the precursory apostasy which he now more emphatically repeats ( 2 Thessalonians 2:5).

    Several coincidences between 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians confirm the genuineness of the latter. Thus, compare 2 Thessalonians 3:2, “that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men,” with 1 Thessalonians 2:15,16; compare Acts 17:6. Also 2 Thessalonians 2:9, “the man of sin” coming after the working of “Satan,” with Thessalonians 2:18; 3:5, where Satan appears in his earlier phase as “hinderer” of the gospel and “tempter.” Also instead of warning in Thessalonians 5:14 stricter discipline is substituted, now that the evil has become worse ( 2 Thessalonians 3:6,14, “withdraw from the company”).

    Paul probably visited Thessalonica subsequently ( Acts 20:4) on his way to Asia, and took with him thence the Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus. Aristarchus was his “companion in travel,” and shared his perils at Ephesus and his shipwreck, and was his “fellow prisoner” and “fellow labourer” at Rome ( Acts 27:2; Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:24).

    THESSALONICA A town of Macedonia on the Thermaic gulf, now the gulf of Saloniki.

    Therma was its original name, which Cossander changed into Thessalonica in honour of his wife, Philip’s daughter. It rises from the end of the basin at the head of the gulf up the declivity behind, presenting a striking appearance from the sea. After the battle of Pydna Thessalonica fell under Rome and was made capital of the second region of Macedonia.

    Afterward, when the four regions or governments were united in one province, Thessalonica became virtually the metropolis. Situated on the Via Ignatia which traversed the S. coast of Macedonia and Thrace, connecting thereby those regions with Rome, Thessalonica, with its harbour on the other hand connecting it commercially with Asia Minor, naturally took the leading place among the cities in that quarter. Paul was on the Via Ignatia at Neapolis and Philippi, Amphipolis and Apollonia ( Acts 16:11-40; 17:1), as well as at Thessalonica. The population of Saloniki is even now 60,000, of whom 10,000 are Jews. Trade in all ages attracted the latter to Thessalonica, and their synagogue here was the starting point of Paul’s evangelizing. Octavius Augustus rewarded its adhesion to his cause in the second civil war by making it “a free city” with a popular assembly (“the people”) and “rulers of the city” (politarchs: Acts 17:1,5,8); this political term is to be read still on an arch spanning the main street, from it we learn there were seven politarchs. Its commercial intercourse with the inland plains of Macedonia on the N., and on the S. with Greece by sea, adapted it admirably as a center from whence the gospel word “sounded out not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place” ( 1 Thessalonians 1:8). Paul visited T. on his second missionary tour. (See PAUL and see JASON on this visit). Other Thessalonian Christians were Demas perhaps, Gaius ( Acts 19:29), Secundus, and Aristarchus ( Acts 20:4; 27:2; 19:29). On the same night that the Jewish assault on Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas his guests took place, the latter two set out for Berea. Again Paul visited Thessalonica ( Acts 20:1-3), probably also after his first imprisonment at Rome ( 1 Timothy 1:3, in accordance with his hope, Philippians 1:25,26; 2:24). Thessalonica was the mainstay of Eastern Christianity in the Gothic invasion in the third century. To Thessalonica the Sclaves and the Bulgarians owed their conversion; from whence it was called “the orthodox city.” It was taken by the Saracens in 904 A.D., by the Crusaders in 1185 A.D., and by the Turks in 1430; and the murder of the foreign consuls in 1876 had much to do with the last war of 1876-1877, between Russia and Turkey. Eustathius, the critic of the 12th century, belonged to Thessalonica. The main street still standing is the old Via Ignatia, running E. and W., as is shown by the two arches which span it, one at the E. the other at the W. end; on that at the E. end are figures in low relief representing the triumphs of a Roman emperor.

    THEUDAS The insurgent mentioned by Gamaliel as having led 400 men, boasting himself to be somebody of importance. Slain at last. His followers were dispersed ( Acts 5:36). Josephus describes such a Theudas (44 A.D.), under Claudius, i.e. ten years later than Gamaliel’s speech. As Theudas preceded Judas the Galilaean according to Luke, he must have revolted at the close of Herod’s reign (for Judas appeared in 6 A.D. after Archelaus’ dethronement), a very turbulent period in which Josephus names three disturbers, leaving the rest unnamed; among the latter was probably Theudas; it is not strange that 50 years later another Theudas, an insurgent in Claudius’ time, should arise. Or Luke’s Theudas may be Josephus’ Simon, one of the three whom, he names in the turbulent year of Herod’s death (B. J. 2:4, section 2; Ant. 17:10, section 6; 12, section 6; 20:4, section 2), Herod’s slave who tried to make himself king in the confusion consequent on the vacancy in the throne. He corresponds to Luke’s description of Theudas in his lofty notion of himself, in his violent death which is not true of the other two insurgents, in the fewness of his followers. Thus, Theudas would be his name, long borne, and so best known to Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem; Simon the name wherewith he set up as king, and so given by Josephus writing for Romans.

    THIEVES Greek leestai . Rather “robbers.” Lawless banditti infested Palestine in our Lord’s days (Josephus, Ant. 17:19, section 8; 20:8, section 10), and gave trouble to each successive Roman governor (Josephus, B. J. 2:13, section 2). Even on the high road between Jericho and Jerusalem they assailed travelers, as the parable of the good Samaritan shows ( Luke 10:30).

    Armed bands were needed to encounter them ( Luke 22:52). Fanatical zeal for emancipating the Jewish nation often accompanied robbery, from whence Barabbas and his companions in insurrection and murder enlisted popular sympathy ( Mark 15:7). Crucifixion was the Roman penalty for the robber and the rebel alike.

    The two crucified with Jesus were probably such: the taunt of the one, “if Thou be Christ, save Thyself and us,” implies sympathy with the Jews’ fanatical zeal for national and individual deliverance from Roman rule: they probably were among Barabbas’ fellow insurgents, and were doomed to die with him; but he was released, and they were left to their fate. At first both railed at Jesus ( Matthew 27:44; Mark 15:32). (Though possibly the plural for the singular is a Hebrew idiom when the writer expresses a fact generally, without specifying which of two the fact bolds good of, as when Jonah “went down into the sides (i.e. one or other of the sides) of the ship,” Jonah 1:5). The mysterious darkness from noon; the meek, holy, and divine bearing of Jesus amidst all taunts and agonies, and His prayer for His murderers, touched the heart of one of the two robbers with sympathy and awe ( Luke 23:39-43). When his fellow reviled Jesus he rebuked the reviler (which makes probable the explanation from Hebrew idiom above, that he himself had not reviled Jesus), “dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation (surely such a terrible penalty from God should lead thee to fear Him: see Isaiah 9:13; Revelation 16:10,11; 2 Chronicles 28:22; Jeremiah 5:3); and we indeed justly (he justifies God in His dealings however penal, the sure mark of repentance, accepting the punishment of iniquity: Psalm 51:4; Leviticus 26:41), for we receive the due reward of our deeds (confession of sin: 1 John 1:9); but this Man hath done nothing amiss” (acknowledgment of Jesus as the Holy One of God: Romans 10:9; Hebrews 7:26; 1 Peter 2:22-24). Then he said to Jesus, “Lord remember me”: he might have said, Lord save me from this agonizing cross, as the other said in taunt; but recognizing him as “Lord” by the Holy Spirit ( 1 Corinthians 12:3), he leaves the mode of blessing for the All- wise and Loving One to decide. “Remember me” includes all that is really good; he looks beyond the present dying state to the eternal future; when all others forget the executed outcast, do Thou remember me ( Job 14:13). The chief butler when raised again forgot Joseph; Jesus, when glorified, then especially remembered the penitent companion of His sufferings ( Genesis 40:14,23; Isaiah 49:15,16). “When Thou comest into Thy kingdom,” which he heard that Jesus claimed before Pilate ( John 18:37; 19:14); while all others, even the disciples, expected a temporal kingdom he looked for a spiritual; he discerned the divine King in the dying human sufferer. Marvelous faith! when the rest had given up all hopes of His Messiahship ( Luke 24:20,21) he takes for granted the coming of Christ’s kingdom, yet unlike the impatient disciples ( Acts 1:6,7) is content to wait Christ’s own time. But Jesus will not let him wait, he shall share Christ’s blessedness today;” and Jesus said, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in see PARADISE ” (see EDEN ). “With ME” is the chief blessedness of the intermediate state ( Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8), as it shall be of the final; to him alone of all His hearers did Jesus speak of paradise. His acceptance is but a slight stay for procrastinators to rest on for the general acceptance of deathbed repentances. The one instance is recorded, that none may despair; but one, that none may presume, He was never called before; now, when called, he instantly obeys: but we are all called from childhood. His faith was exercised under circumstances most adverse to faith; we are called to faith under privileges most favorable to faith. Our case and his are very distinct.

    The place on Christ’s right hand in the kingdom, desired by Zebedee’s sons, was reserved for the penitent thief, first in the kingdom of suffering, then in the kingdom of glory, His case proves that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law, yet not by a dead faith, for his faith evidenced its vitality by confession of sin and of Christ crucified, by faithful reproof of the scorner if haply he too might be led to repent, by humility, and by hope in the Saviour looking beyond present pain to the eternal state; also that baptism is only “generally “necessary to salvation, a baptized man may be lost and an unbaptized man may be saved; the baptism of blood supplied the place of the outward sign of regeneration (Hilary, de Trin. 10; Jerome Ep. 13; Matthew 20:23; Luke 12:50).

    THIMNATHAH A town in Dan ( Joshua 19:43).

    THOMAS Hebrew, “twin;” Greek, Didymus. Coupled with Matthew in Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; but with Philip in Acts 1:13.

    Matthew modestly puts himself after Thomas in the second quaternion of the twelve; Mark and Luke give him his rightful place before Thomas.

    Thomas, after his doubts were removed ( John 20:28), having attained eminent faith (for sometimes faith that has overcome doubt is hardier than that of those who never doubt), is promoted above Bartholomew and Matthew in Acts. John records three incidents throwing strong light on his character: (1) ( John 11:8,15,16) When Jesus, for Lazarus’ sake, proposed to go into Judaea again the disciples remonstrated, “Master, the Jews of late have sought to stone Thee, and goest Thou there again?” On Jesus’ reply that His day was not yet closed, and that He was going to awake Lazarus out of the death sleep, and that He was glad of his death “to the intent that they might believe,” Thomas evinced his devoted love on the one hand, ready to follow Jesus unto death (compare Paul, Acts 21:13), on the other hand ignoring, with characteristic slowness to believe, Jesus’ plain statement as to His going to raise Lazarus. He can see no hope of escape; his natural despondency anticipates death as the certain issue of the journey, still in self devoting affection he will brave all. (2) ( John 14:4-6) “Where I go ye know, and the way ye know; Thomas saith, Lord, we know not where Thou goest (yet Jesus had answered Peter’s question, John 13:36, ‘Lord, where goest Thou?’ and plainly told the disciples He was going to ‘His Father’s house,’ John 14:2, ascending to where He had been before, John 6:62), and how can we know the way?” Thomas still cannot raise his mind to the unseen future home where Jesus is going, or realize the way as through Jesus. (3) ( John 20:20,24-29) Thomas with morbid brooding over doubts had absented himself from the disciples’ assembly on the first Lord’s day, when “He showed unto them His hands and His side”; so he missed the immediate blessing (compare Hebrews 10:25). The disciples did not stand aloof from Thomas though he had stood aloof from them; they told him, “we have seen the Lord.” But he said with an unreasonable demand for sense evidence which is alien to the very idea of faith, and at the same time with language that marks the vivid impression which his Lord’s body nailed on the cross had made on his mind, “except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side (one sense, seeing, is not enough; not even feeling also will satisfy him unless he feels with both hand and finger the spear mark as well as the nail marks) I will not and cannot believe” (oumee pisteusoo ). A week of gloom to Thomas elapsed, the retribution in kind for his obstinate unbelief. Though Jesus might have cast him off yet He would not break the bruised reed; He condescends to Thomas’ culpable weakness. On the next Lord’s day, Thomas, laying aside his morbid isolation, attended the weekly assembly of disciples; though the doors were shut Jesus came and stood in the midst with His wonted salutation, “Peace be unto you”; then saith He to Thomas, with grave yet tender reproof (showing that He knew all that had passed in Thomas’s mind and all he had said to his fellow disciples), “reach here thy finger, and behold My hands, and reach here thy hand, and thrust it into My side; and be (become, ginou ) not faithless but believing. Thomas said unto Him, My Lord and my God!”

    A refutation of Socinianism, because Thomas addresses these words to Jesus. The highest confession of faith in Jesus’ Godhead thus far made; see Peter’s ( John 6:69; Matthew 16:16). As this forms the close of John’s Gospel, before the supplementary chapter (John 21) was added, this ending recurs to the doctrine alleged in the Gospel’s beginning, “the Word was God.” Like Mary Magdalene ( John 20:13) Thomas appropriates Jesus to himself, “my Lord and, my God.” From the overwhelming proofs before him of Jesus’ humanity Thomas believes in His Divinity. The resurrection of the Son of man proved that He was the Son of God ( Romans 1:4). All Christ’s appearances in the 40 days were preparations for the believing without seeing ( 1 Peter 1:8). Jesus spoke for all our dispensation what He said to Thomas, “because thou hast seen Me thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed” ( 2 Corinthians 5:7). Thomas was permitted to doubt, that we might not doubt (“Ab eo dubitatum est, ne a nobis dubitaretur”:

    Augustine). God’s word, not demonstration, is the true ground of faith.

    Thomas is named next to Peter among the seven on the sea of Galilee, a proof that he was a fisherman like Peter ( John 21:2). He appears for the last time among the disciples met after the ascension ( Acts 1:13). The case of Thomas does not sanction but condemns skepticism, for if others were to demand the same tangible visible proofs as Thomas demanded miracles would have to be so continual as to cease to be miraculous, and sight would supersede faith. The unbelief of Thomas drew forth such an infallible proof of the identity between the crucified and the risen Lord that he who any longer disbelieves and is consequently condemned is left without excuse.

    THORN, THISTLE (See BRAMBLE , see BRIER ). (1) The Hebrew atad , Greek ramnos ( Judges 9:14,15; Psalm 58:9); the Lycium Europoeum or boxthorn, in southern Europe and northern Africa, common in hedges. (2) Chedek , Proverbs 15:19, “the way of the slothful is as an hedge of thorns,” i.e. he sees difficulties where all is plain to the willing and resolute ( Proverbs 20:4, 22:13); Micah 7:4, “the best of them is as a brier (thorn) ... sharper than a thorn hedge,” pricking all who come in contact with them, a vivid image of the bad; a single thorn is sometimes two inches long, as sharp as a pin, and. as hard as a bone ( 2 Samuel 23:6,7).

    Thorns were the curse on the ground ( Genesis 3:18). Jesus as “King of the curse” wore a crown of thorns ( Galatians 3:13). So the blessing shall come in the regenerated earth, “instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree” ( Isaiah 55:13). Ezekiel 28:24, “there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all round about them”; none, first, to ensnare Israel into sin (as a brier catches one’s garment), then as the thorn to be the instrument of punishing them. (3) Choach , “thistles” ( Job 31:40); some fast growing prickly weed. (4) Dardar Genesis 3:18, “thistles”; Greek triboloi , Latin tribuli ( Matthew 7:16); the Tribulus terrestris, or else Centsurea calcitrapa, “star thistle.” (5) Shamir, the Arabic samur, a kind of sidra.

    The Paliurus aculeatus (Christ’s thorn) and Zizyphus spina Christi, growing 20 or 30 ft. high, the Arab nebk, abound in Palestine; the nebk fringes the Jordan. The natsowts of Isaiah 7:19 was probably some zizyphus.

    Christ’s crown of thorns was probably platted of its flexible, round, thorny branches, so as to resemble in mockery the green garlands with which generals and emperors used to be crowned. The balm of Gilead is said to have been procured from the Spins Christi, by incision in the bark; antitypically, our healing comes from His wound. As King of the curse He wore the crown of thorns, to which the ground was doomed by man’s sin; and from the thorns He extracts the medicine to heal our incurable wound ( Jeremiah 8:22). Six species of thistle (carduus) have been noticed between Rama and Jerusalem. The thorny ononis or “rest harrow” also abounds in Palestine. Thorns were often used for fuel ( Ecclesiastes 7:6), their “crackling” answers to the fool’s loud merriment which hurries on his doom; dried cow dung was the common fuel; its slowness of burning contrasts with the quickness with which the thorns blaze to their end ( Nahum 1:10). As thorns “folden together” so that they cannot be disentangled and thrown into the fire in a mass, so the Assyrians shall be. Isaiah 27:4; 33:12; Hebrews 6:8; <19B812> Psalm 118:12; 58:9, “before your pots can feel the thorns He shall take them away as with a whirlwind both living and in His wrath”: proverbial; explain rather before your pots’ contents can feel the heat of the thorns burning beneath, He will with a whirlwind take the wicked away, whether the flesh in the pot (i.e. the plans of the wicked against the godly) be raw (literally, living) or sodden (literally, glowing); or else “He will take them (the wicked)away, whether green (not yet reached by the fire) or burning.” Travelers in the desert often have the just kindled fire and all their preparations swept away by a sudden wind. Science regards thorns as undeveloped branches (as in the hawthorn; but prickles as in the bramble and rose are only hardened hairs): a specimen of the arrest which the fall put on the development of what otherwise would have been good; powers for good turned to hurt through sin.

    THOUSAND YEARS The millennium. The period of Christ’s coming reign with His saints over this earth, delivered from Satan’s presence. As Satan and His kingdom in successive stages sink, Christ and His kingdom rise (Revelation 19--20).

    Satan, having been foiled in his last desperate attempt to overthrow Christ’s kingdom by see ANTICHRIST or the beast, shall by the just law of necessary retributive consequence be bound immediately afterward and imprisoned in the bottomless pit a thousand years. On the same just principle they who have suffered for Christ, and not worshipped the Godopposed world power, shall come to life again and reign with Christ ( Timothy 2:12), at His coming, a thousand years. Their see RESURRECTION is “the first resurrection.” “The rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished: blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” Ten, the world number, raised to the third power, the divine number, expresses the world pervaded by God. Possibly the “thousand” may extend much longer than the literal number. So also ( Philippians 3:10) Paul’s ambition was to “attain the resurrection from out of the rest of the dead” (exanastasis ). So our Lord declares ( Luke 20:35), “they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection from the dead cannot die any more, for they are equal unto the angels, and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.” Again, to the apostles ( Luke 22:18), “ye are they who have continued with Me in My temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom as My Father hath appointed unto Me, that ye may eat and drink with Me at My table, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Again ( Matthew 19:28), “ye that have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

    Those “beheaded (virtually or actually, literally, hatcheted) for Jesus and for the word of God” stand first; then they” who have not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands,” i.e. did not treat the world’s riches, ambitions, and pleasures as their portion. Jesus implies, in reply to the request of Zebedee’s two sons, that there are places of peculiar honour reserved by the Father for those who drink Christ’s bitter cup ( Matthew 20:22,23).

    Thus, “whosoever shall lose his life for Christ’s sake (in will or deed) shall save it” ( Mark 8:35). Satan thought to destroy God’s people by persecutions (just as previously to destroy Christ, Revelation 12); but the church is not destroyed from the earth, but raised to rule over it; Satan himself is shut up for a thousand years in the “abyss” (“ bottomless pit”), preparatory to the “lake of fire,” his final doom. As before, by Christ’s ascension, he ceased to be accuser of the brethren in heaven, so during the millennium he ceases to be seducer and persecutor on earth. As long as he rules in the darkness of the world we live in an atmosphere tainted with evil physical and spiritual ( Ephesians 2:2). Christ’s coming will purify the world ( Malachi 3:3). Sin will not wholly cease, for men shall be still in the flesh, and therefore death will come, but at long intervals, life being vastly prolonged as in the days of the patriarchs ( Isaiah 65:20); but sin will not be that almost universal power that it is now. Satan will no longer seduce the flesh, nor be the “god” and “prince of this world” ( John 14:30; 2 Corinthians 4:4), which now “lieth in the wicked one” ( John 5:19). The flesh, untempted from without, shall become more and more subject to the spirit. Christ with His saints, in transfigured bodies, will reign over men in the flesh. The millennial nations will be prepared for a higher state, as Adam would have been in paradise, had he never fallen ( Revelation 21:1,24,26). This will be the manifestation of “the world (age, aion ) to come” already set up invisibly in the saints in “this world” ( Hebrews 2:5; 5:5). As each seventh year was Israel’s year of remission, so of the world’s seven thousands the seventh shall be its sabbatism ( Hebrews 4:9, margin).

    Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Cyprian, expected an earthly millennial kingdom; not until millennial views carnally confounded the state of the transfigured king-priests with that of the subject nations in the flesh, and the church itself sought a present visible kingdom with Rome as its center, instead of hoping for it only when Christ shall come, was the doctrine abandoned by the church and apostasy set in.

    Earth, not becoming transfigured until after the millennium, shall not be, during it, the meet home for the transfigured saints; but from heaven they with Christ rule the earth, the comparatively free communion between the heavenly and earthly churches being typified by Christ’s communion at short intervals with His disciples during the 40 days between His resurrection and ascension.

    Old Testament prophecy everywhere anticipates Christ’s kingdom at Jerusalem: Jeremiah 3:17; Isaiah 4:3; 11:9, 35:8; 60:61,65,66; Ezekiel 37 to 48, etc., etc. He confirms His disciples’ expectation of it, but corrects their impatience to know the time ( Acts 1:6-8). The kingdom begins, not as the carnal Jews thought, from without, but from within, spiritually; then when Christ shall be manifested it shall be manifested outwardly ( Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:2). The papacy blasphemously anticipates the visible headship which Christ shall then assume, “reigning as kings” without Christ ( 1 Corinthians 4:8). “When Christianity became a worldly power under Constantine, the future hope was weakened by joy over present success” (Bengel); the church becoming a harlot ceased to be the bride going to meet her Bridegroom. The saints’ future priesthood unto God and Christ “in His temple” ( Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 7:15; 20:6) is the ground of their kingship toward men. Men will be willing subjects of the transfigured priest-kings whose power is the attraction that wins the heart, not counteracted by devil or beast.

    Church and state will be coextensive; and the church and the world no longer in mutual repulsion. The distinction between them shall cease, for the church will be co-extensive with the world. The veil shall be taken off Israel first, then off all people, and the kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of Christ ( Revelation 11:15; Isaiah 25:7). Christ’s glorious appearing, the church’s transfiguration, antichrist’s destruction, and Satan’s binding, will dispose the nations to embrace the gospel. As a regeneration of elected individuals “taken out” from Jews and Gentiles ( Acts 15:14) goes on now, so a regeneration of nations then. As the church begins at Christ’s ascension, so the visible kingdom at His second advent. What the transfigured priest-kings shall be in heaven, that the Israelite priest-kings shall be on earth. A blessed chain of giving and receiving: God, Christ, the transfigured bride, i.e. the translated church, Israel, the world of nations.

    The outpouring of the Spirit on Israel ( Zechariah 12:10) will usher in the new period of revelation, which has been silent so long as Israel, God’s chosen mediator of revelations, and of establishing His manifested kingdom on earth, has been in the background. God from the first, in dividing to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, set their bounds “according to the number of the children, of Israel” ( Deuteronomy 32:8). Now is the time of preaching; then shall be the time of liturgy of “the great congregation” ( Psalm 22:25; Ezekiel 40 to 48; Zechariah 14:16-21; Isaiah 2:3). Art and music will be the handmaids to spiritual worship, instead of drawing off the soul to sensuousness. Society will be pervaded by the Spirit of Christ. Earthly and heavenly glories shall be united in the twofold election: elect Israel in the flesh shall stand at the head of the earthly nations; the elect spiritual church, in the heavenly kingdom, shall reign over both. These elections are for the good of those to whom they minister respectively; compare, as to Israel’s mediating blessedness to the nations, Romans 11:12,15; Micah 5:7. The extent of rule (the “ten” or “five cities”) is proportioned to the degree of faithfulness, as the parable teaches ( Luke 19:13,15,17,19); all vessels of glory are filled, but those of larger dimensions are of larger capacity for glory ( 2 Timothy 2:20,21; Isaiah 22:24). Peter ( 2 Peter 1:16-18) makes the transfiguration the earnest of Christ’s coming in glory (Matthew 17); it is the miniature specimen of the millennial kingdom: first, Christ in glory, then Moses a specimen of those raised from the dead at Christ’s coming, then Elijah a specimen of those who never taste death, but being found alive are transfigured in a moment ( 1 Corinthians 15:51,52); finally Peter, James, and John, the specimen of Israel and the nations in the flesh who shall desire the tabernacling among them of Christ and the transfigured saints: “Lord, it is good to be here,” etc. The privilege of our high calling in Christ is limited to the time of Satan’s reign; when he is bound there will be no scope for suffering for, and so no longer the reward of reigning with, Him ( Revelation 3:21; 1 Corinthians 6:2.).

    Even during the millennium there is a separation between heaven and earth, humanity transfigured and humanity in the flesh. Hence, apostasy can take place at its close; out of the one element of evil in it, the flesh, man’s birthsin the only influence then preventing the saving of all souls. In the judgment on this, the world of nature is destroyed and renewed, as the world of history was before the millennium. Only then the new heaven and earth are perfected. The millennial heaven and earth, connected but separate, are but a foretaste of the everlasting state, when the upper and lower congregations shall be no longer separate and new Jerusalem shall descend from God out of heaven. The millennium shall be the last season of grace; for what can move him in whom the church’s visible glory, evil being circumscribed on all sides, evokes no longing for communion with the church’s King? As the history of nations ended with the church’s millennial manifestation in glory, so that of mankind in general shall end with the separation of the just from the wicked. (Auberlen, Daniel and Revelation.) As “kings” the transfigured saints shall have subjects; as “priests” they shall have people to whom they shall mediatorially minister blessings from God, namely, the men on earth. The scene of the kingdom is not in, but “under, heaven”; on or over the earth ( Revelation 5:10; Daniel 7:27). The kingdom shall be where the tares once were ( Matthew 13:41), i.e. on earth. “The meek shall inherit the earth”; like Caleb, alone faithful among the faithless, inheriting the very Mount Hebron on which his feet trod 40 years before ( Matthew 5:5; Numbers 14:23,24; Joshua 14:9). It will be a time of Sabbath peace, uninterrupted by war ( Hebrews 4:9; Isaiah 2:4; Zechariah 9:10; Hos, 2:18). Even the savage animals shall lose their ferocity ( Isaiah 11:6-9; 65:25). Christ’s king-priesthood ( Zechariah 6:13) shall be explained in the services of the glorious temple at Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40-- 48). The marriage of the Lamb and bride, then begun in heaven, shall unfold the mysteries of the now obscure Song. The theocracy, or rule of God in Christ, shall supersede the misrule of earthly potentates who ruled for self.

    Finally, when the corrupt flesh and Satan shall have been cast out forever after the millennium, the general resurrection, judgment, and see REGENERATION of our home shall follow. The same Spirit regenerates the believer’s soul now ( Romans 8:11), his body at Christ’s coming, and his home ( <19A430> Psalm 104:30; Revelation 21:1) after the millennium.

    The earth, once baptized with water, shall be baptized with fire ( 2 Peter 3:7,10-13). Earth and nature shall be regenerated, as the nations were previously in the millennium. The saints not merely, as in it, reign from heaven over the earth; but the heavenly Jerusalem, having the glory of God, shall descend on earth, far eclipsing Israel’s Jerusalem in the millennium. The saints shall be God’s city and bride, God causing His glory to shine out through them, as the flame through a jasper colored lamp ( Revelation 21:10,11,23). “The nations of them which are saved,” namely, during the millennium (which will be the age of the regeneration of nations as this is the age of the regeneration of individual souls) “shall walk in the light of” the heavenly Jerusalem, i.e. the wife of the Lamb; for the elect church shall hold the primacy among the redeemed throughout eternity, because she alone shall have witnessed for Christ in the face of an opposing world and the prince of darkness ( Revelation 21:24). In the primitive paradise there was but a garden with a solitary pair; but in the final paradise and the regenerated earth city and garden shall be combined, the perfect communion of saints with individual blessedness and perfection.

    Satan loosed no more; the saints under the blessed necessity of sinning no more; the groans of nature hushed ( Romans 8:18-23); no more sea, literal or figurative ( Daniel 7:2,3; Isaiah 57:20; Revelation 21:1,4); no more pain, crying, death. When Christ shall have accomplished the purpose of His mediatorial kingdom by bringing all things into subjection to the Father, God will be all in all. The unity of the Godhead will then be prominent, as His Trinity is now; “His name will be one,” and He will come then first into direct communion with His redeemed. Lord, hasten it in Thine own time ( Zechariah 14:9; 1 Corinthians 15:24).

    THREE TAVERNS A village or Station where the brethren met Paul on his way to Rome ( Acts 28:15); so-called from there having been originally there three taverns; 33 miles from Rome according to the Antonine Itinerary. Near the present Cisterna. It must have cheered Paul to greet Christians who had come so far to meet him.

    THRESHOLDS Nehemiah 12:25. Rather see ASUPPIM .

    THRONE (1) Of a king; (2) of a judge or a priest ( <19C205> Psalm 122:5). Solomon’s throne ( 1 Kings 10:19) was a chair of ivory with circular back and arms, overlaid with gold, raised on six steps; on each side of each step was a lion of gold, and there was “a footstool of gold fastened to the throne” ( 2 Chronicles 9:18). Usually set on a dais and under a canopy (so the “rainbow about the throne” of the Almighty, Revelation 4:3). For “seats” translated, thrones in Revelation 4:4 and Revelation 11:16.

    So in Revelation 2:13 Satan mimics Christ’s “throne.” “Thrones” in Colossians 1:16 are a princely order of angels, higher than “dominions” or lordships. Reclining or sitting on the ground being the usual postures, a chair marked dignity ( 2 Kings 4:10; Proverbs 9:14). To express royalty “throne of the kingdom” was the phrase ( 1 Kings 1:46).

    Elevation marked the king’s throne, from whence Jehovah’s throne is “high and lifted up” ( Isaiah 6:1). “The throne of the governor” in Nehemiah 3:7 is his official house where his throne was, on or near the city wall.

    THUNDER Rare in the clear air of Palestine in harvest time or summer, which shows how its coming at Samuel’s call unto Jehovah was by divine agency ( Samuel 12:17,18). God so blessed the Holy Land that the ingathering of fruits and the threshing in the open air were unimpeded by rain. Its coming then would be as unseasonable and calamitous as “honour” conferred on a “fool” ( Proverbs 26:1). Symbolizing divine wrath and judgment ( Exodus 19:16; Psalm 29:3-9; 1 Samuel 2:10). Thunderings are figuratively spoken of as “voices of God” ( Exodus 9:28 margin, compare John 12:29,30). Job 26:14, translated “and how faint is the word whisper that we hear of Him! but the thunder (i.e. the majestic fullness) of His power (in antithesis to ‘the whisper’) who can understand?” ( 1 Corinthians 13:9-12.) Job 39:19, “hast thou clothed his (the horse’s) neck with thunder?” i.e. majesty (Umbreit): or his arched neck inspiring fear as the thunder does; but Maurer, “with his trembling, quivering mane.”

    THYATIRA (See LYDIA , the probable agent of carrying the gospel to her native town).

    Thyatira lay a little to the left of the road from Pergamos to Sardis (Strabo 13:4, who calls it “a Macedonian colony”); on the Lycus, a little to the S. of the Hyllus, at the N. end of the valley between Mount Tmolus and the southern ridge of Tetanus. Founded by Seleucus Nicator. On the confines of Mysia and Ionia. A corporate guild of dyers is mentioned in three inscriptions of the times of the Roman empire between Vespasian and Caracalla. To it probably belonged Lydia, the seller of purple (i.e. scarlet, for the ancients called many bright red colors “purple”) stuffs ( Acts 16:14). The waters are so suited for dyeing that nowhere is the scarlet of fezzes thought to be so brilliant and permanent as that made here. Modern Thyatira contains a population of 17,000. In Revelation 2:18-25, “the Son of God who hath eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass,” stands in contrast to the sun god. Tyrimnas, the tutelary god of Thyatira, represented with flaming rays and feet of burnished brass. Christ commends Thyatira’s works, charity, service, faith, and patience.

    Thyatira’s “last works were more than the first,” realizing <520401> Thessalonians 4:1, instead of retrograding from “first love and first works” as Ephesus ( Revelation 2:4,5); the converse of Matthew 12:45; Peter 2:20. Yet Thyatira “suffered that woman see JEZEBEL , which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.” Some self-styled prophetess, or collection of prophets (the feminine in Hebrew idiom expressing a multitude), closely attached to and influencing the Thyatira church and its presiding bishop or “angel” (the Alexandrinus and Vaticanus manuscripts read “thy wife” for “that woman”) as Jezebel did her weak husband Ahab. The presiding angel ought to have exercised his authority over the prophetess or prophets so-called, who seduced many into the libertinism of the see BALAAMITES and see NICOLAITANS of Thyatira’s more powerful neighbour Pergamos ( Revelation 2:6,14,16). The Lord encourages the faithful section at Thyatira. “Unto you (omit ‘and’ with the Alexandrinus and the Vaticanus manuscripts, the Sinaiticus manuscript reads: ‘among ‘) the rest in Thyatira I say, ... I will put upon you none other burden (save abstinence from and protestation against these abominations: this the seducers regarded as an intolerable burden, see Matthew 11:30); but that which ye have hold fast until I come.” A shrine outside Thyatira walls was sacred to the sibyl Sambatha, a Jewess or Chaldaean, in an enclosure called “the Chaldaean court.”

    THYINE WOOD Revelation 18:12, Callitris quadrivalvis of Mount Atlas in North Africa, allied to the “arbor vitro,” Thuja occidentalis or articulata. The Romans prized it highly, and called it citrum; when Roman husbands upbraided ladies with extravagance in pearls, they retorted the men’s fondness for thyine tables (Pliny, H. N. 13:15).

    TIBERIAS John 6:1,23; 21:1. Josephus (Ant. 18, B.J. 2:9, section 1) says it was built by Herod Antipas, and named in honour of the emperor Tiberius.

    Capital of Galilee until the time of Herod Agrippa II, who transferred the seat of power again to Sepphoris. Antipas built in Tiberias a Roman stadium and palace adorned with images of animals which offended the Jews, as did also its site on an ancient burial ground. Now Tubarieh, a filthy wretched place. On the western shore toward the southern end of the sea of Galilee or Tiberias, as John alone calls the sea. John is the only New Testament writer who mentions Tiberias. His notice of its many “boats” ( John 6:23) agrees with Josephus’ account of its traffic.

    Tiberias stood on the strip of land, two miles long and a quarter of a mile broad, between the water and the steep hills which elsewhere come down to the water’s edge. It occupied all the ground of the parallelogram, including Tubarieh at the northern end, and reaching toward the warm baths at the southern end (reckoned by Roman naturalists as one of the wonders of the world: Pliny, H. N. 5:15). A few palms still are to be seen, but the oleander abounds. The people, numbering 3,000 or 4,000, mostly live by fishing as of old. A strong wall guards the land side, but it is open toward the sea. The Jews, constituting one-fourth of the population, have their quarter in the middle of the town near the lake.

    Our Lord avoided Tiberias on account of the cunning and unscrupulous character of Herod Antipas whose headquarters were there ( Luke 13:32); Herod never saw Him until just before the crucifixion ( Luke 23:8). Christ chose the plain of Gennesaret at the head of the lake, where the population was at once dense and Jewish; and, as being sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, kept away from Tiberias. After Jerusalem’s overthrow Tiberias was spared by the Romans because the people favored rather than opposed the conquerors’ arms. The Sanhedrin, after temporarily sojourning at Jamnia and Sepphoris, fixed its seat there in the second century. The Mishna was compiled in Tiberias by Rabbi Judah Haqodesh, A.D. 190. The Masorah body of traditions, which transmitted the Old Testament text readings and preserved the Hebrew pronunciation and interpretation, originated there. Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias are the four holy places in which the Jews say if prayer without ceasing were not offered the world would fall into chaos. The Romans recognized the patriarch of Tiberias and empowered him to appoint his subordinate ministers who should visit all the distant colonies of Jews, and to receive contributions from the Jews of the whole Roman empire. The colony round Tiberias flourished under the emperors Antoninus Plus, Alexander Severus, and Julian, in the second and third centuries. The patriarchate of Tiberias finally ceased in 414 A.D. (See SYNAGOGUE on the Roman character of the existing remains of synagogues in Palestine, due no doubt to the patronage of Antoninus Pius and Alexander Severus, the great builders and restorers of temples in Syria). The eminent Maimonides laboured and was buried at Tiberias in 1204 A.D. The earthquake of 1837 shook the town mightily. A Jewish idea is that Messiah will emerge from the lake, proceed to Tiberias and Safed, then set His throne on the highest peak in Galilee.

    TIBERIAS, SEA OF John’s ( John 6:1; 21:1) designation as better understood by the Gentile Romans, etc., whom he addressed. (See GALILEE, SEA or, the local designation). Lieut. Kitchener makes the depth 682.554 ft. The neighbouring Kurn Hattin is an extinct volcano, and the plain is strewn with basalt and debris. He thinks Khirbet Minyeh the site of Capernaum.

    Josephus says the fountain Capharnaum waters the plain. This may correspond to the modern Ain et Tabighah, the water of which being brought past Khirbet Minyeh waters the plain, and would naturally take its name Capharnaum from that place (presuming that it was Capernaum). The source is only three quarters of a mile away, whereas it is one mile and three quarters from Tel Hum and all the water was carried in an opposite direction, so that it could hardly have taken its name from Tel Hum.

    In John 6:16, etc., we read “the disciples went by ship over the sea toward Capernaum (the same side as Tiberias), and the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew”; then Jesus walked on the sea to them, and “immediately the ship was at the land where they went.” The day following, when the people on the other side of the sea (the eastern side) saw that there was none other boat there save the one whereinto His disciples were entered, ... howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias, nigh unto the place where they did eat bread ... they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus; and when they had found Him on the other side ... they said, ... When camest Thou here?” In Matthew 14:22 “Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a ship and go unto the other side. And He went up into a mountain apart to pray .... But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary.” It might seem strange that the people did not suppose Jesus had used one of the return boats which had come from Tiberias, to cross back to that side in the night. Matthew undesignedly shows why they could not suppose so, namely, because “the wind was contrary,” i.e. blowing from Tiberias and Capernaum; owing to this the ships, probably fishing vessels, were driven to the opposite side for shelter for the night, for what else could have taken to the desert eastern side so many boats as sufficed to convey the people across (verse 24) back again? Their question, “Rabbi, when camest Thou here?” implies plainly that under the circumstances they considered that His crossing in the night could only have been by some extraordinary means. The mention of many ships coming from Tiberias explains also how the people could take shipping to Capernaum after it had been stated there was no other boat there save that which took the disciples. The undesigned harmony of details, incidentally and separately noticed by the two evangelists, confirms their truthfulness, and therefore the miracle of Jesus’ walking on the sea.

    The Gospels -- according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke -- never use the designation “sea of Tiberias” (still bahr Tubariyeh), but the local name,” sea” or “lake of Galilee,” which shows they must have written before that became the universal designation, as it had in the time of John’s writing.

    TIBERIUS Tiberias Claudius Nero, Augustus’ step-son and successor as emperor.

    Reigned A.D. 14 to 37. Son of Tiberias Claudius Nero and Livia. Born at Rome, Nov. 16, 45 B.C. Fifty-five years old at his accession, having already shown ability as a commander, an orator, and an administrator.

    Horace celebrates his and his brother Drasus’ exploits (Odes, 4:4,14).

    Henceforth slothful, self-indulgent, cruel, and despotic. Died at 78 after a 23 years’ reign.

    Tacitus (Annals 1 to 6) describes vividly his dissimulation and vindictiveness. In speaking of Nero he says: “in order to remove the rumour of his having set fire to Rome, Nero shifted the charge on others, and inflicted the most refined punishments on those whom the populace called Christians, and who were hated for their scandalous doings. The author of the name, Christ, in the reign of Tiberias was visited with capital punishment by the governor Pontius Pilate.” In Luke 3:1 John the Baptist’s (six months senior to our Lord) ministry is set down in the 15th year of Tiberias’ principate (hegemonia ). Augustus admitted Tiberias to share the empire two or three years before his own death, so that “the 15th year” is to be dated from the co-partnership at the end of A.U.C. 764. The 15th year will thus be the end of 779, and our Lord’s birth 749 or 750, which agrees with Herod’s death some time after Christ’s birth. The Christian era fixed by Dionysius Exiguus in the sixth century places Christ’s birth in the year 754.

    TIBHATH City of Hadadezer, king of Zobah ( 1 Chronicles 18:8). Betah in Samuel 8:8. Probably on the eastern slopes of the Antilibanus.

    TIBNI Son of Ginath. After Zimri had burned himself to death half the people followed Tibni, half Omri. The contest lasted four years ( 1 Kings 16:18,21,22), and issued in the death of Tibni and in Omri’s accession. The men of Tirzah which Omri besieged probably promoted the cause of Tibni.

    The Septuagint say Joram his brother helped his cause.

    TIDAL From a Samaritan root “reverence” (Gesenius: Genesis 14:1,9).

    Chedorlaomer’s ally, “king of nations,” in the invasion of Syria and Palestine. Probably chief of several nomadic tribes who occupied different tracts of Lower Mesopotamia at different times, as the Arabs do there to this day. His name Thurgah (in the Septuagint, Thargal), “the great chief.” or “king of nations,” is Turanian or Hamitic, the original element of Babylonia’s early population.

    TIGLATH PILESER Related to Atargatis (Syriac), Dargeto, “great fish,” tutelary god of the first Assyrian dynasty. 2 Kings 16:7; less correctly in 1 Chronicles 5:26, and 2 Chronicles 28:20, Tilgath Pilneser. G. Rawlinson identifies Tiglath Pileser with Tiglathi-nin, “be worship given to Nin” or Hercules (the same as Pal-zira, i.e. son of Zira, from whom Calah is called Bitzirah, because he had a temple at Zira or Calah). Oppert explains it, “let there be adoration to the son of the zodiac,” i.e. to Nin or Hercules. The earlier Tiglath Pileser reigned about 1130 B.C. Two cylinders in the British Museum mention him. Tiglath Pileser the second (745-728 B.C) founded a new dynasty succeeded Pul and preceded Shalmaneser; six years before Tiglath Pileser’s accession (751 B.C.) we find him exacting tribute from a Merodach Baladan who ruled in southern Babylonia on the shores of the Persian gulf, a district of marsh lands for many centuries a refuge for Assyrian rebels. (Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 6:16.)

    Probably an usurper, for he makes no mention of his father or ancestors; and Berosus (Eusebius Chronicles Can. 1:4) and Herodotus (1:95) state that in the latter half of the eighth century B.C. there was a change of dynasty from that which ruled for 520 years to the dynasty which came in not long before Shalmaneser, probably at the time of the era of Nabonassar, 747 B.C. Sylla’s friend, Alex. Polyhistor, who had access to Berosus’ writings makes Beletaras (another form of Pal-tzira or Pileser) a gardener of the royal palace originally. Afterward, he gained the sovereignty in an extraordinary way and fixed it in his own family.

    Conquered see REZIN of Damascus and see PEKAH of Israel at Ahaz’ solid citation. The Assyrian inscriptions mention that Menahem of Samaria (probably about 743 B.C.) paid him tribute, Jahuhazi (Ahaz) also, and that he set Hoshea on the Israelite throne at Pekah’s death. He relates that about the fifth year of his reign (741 B.C.) he warred in southern Syria and defeated a large army under Azariah (Uzziah) king of Judah, whose army Scripture states to be 307,500 ( 2 Chronicles 26:6-15). Again, that from his 12th to his 14th year (734 to 732 B.C.) he warred with Pekah and Rezin confederated, and that he besieged Rezin’s capital for two years, at the end of which he took and slew him and punished Pekah by depriving him of a large portion of his dominions, and carrying off vast numbers into captivity. Accurately agreeing with 2 Kings 15:29; 16:9-16; Chronicles 5:6,26: “in the days of Pekah ... came Tiglath Pileser ... and took Ijon, Abel-beth-maachah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, Galilee, all the land of Naphtali (compare Isaiah 7; Isaiah 8; Isaiah 9:1, this stroke fell at first ‘lightly,’ ‘afterward more grievously’), and carried them captive to Assyria. The king of Assyria hearkend unto Ahaz; went up against Damascus and took it, carried the people captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.” “Tiglath Pileser carried away the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah and Habor and Hara, and to the river Gozan.” Probably it was an Assyrian altar which Ahaz copied, as a formal recognition of the gods of the sovereign nation (which required subject kings to set up in their capital “the laws of Asshur”), and a token of submission: the visit of Ahaz to Damascus (where “he saw the altar”) “to meet king Tiglath Pileser” accords with Tiglath Pileser’s inscription that before quitting Syria he held his court at Damascus, and there received submission and tribute from the neighbouring sovereigns, among whom he mentions Pekah and Jahu-Khaz (Ahaz) of Judah. Tiglath Pileser took Sippara (Sepharvaim) in Babylonia. He warred successfully in Media, Armenia, and upper Mesopotamia; but it was only on the western frontier that he made permanent additions to the empire, namely, Damascus, Syria, and Gilead. His mimerous slabs indicate that he probably built a palace at the S.E. corner of Calah (Nimrud). They bear traces of intentional defacement, and Esarhaddon used them as building materials in his palace at Calah. Sargon supplanted Tiglath Pileser’s dynasty, which accounts for the hostility evinced in the injury done to the palace of Tiglath Pileser.

    TIGRIS (See HIDDEKEL ). Genesis 2:14, “running eastward to Assyria.” Daniel 10:4, “the great river.” Rising in the Armenian mountains, not far from the sources of Euphrates, it flows N.E. of the latter for 1,100 miles, when at last they join and flow as one river into the Persian gulf. Its greatest breadth is more than 200 yards. For the last two hundred, miles before its confluence with the Euphrates the country was intersected with artificial watercourses and adapted river beds, such as the Shat-el-Hie, or river of Hie; and in this district are the ruins of old towns; some scarcely known, as Zirgul, “the city of the brilliant light”; others better known, as see UR (Mugheir). It ran through Armenia and Assyria, and then separated Babylonia from Susiana. Subsequently it was the boundary between the Roman and Parthian empires.

    TIKVAH 1. Husband of the prophetess Huldah ( 2 Kings 22:14); see TIKVATH in 2 Chronicles 34:22. 2. Ezra 10:15.

    TILE Ezekiel 4:1, a sun-dried “brick,” the same as is translated “brick” in Genesis 11:3. For “pourtray” translated “engrave.” Bricks with designs engraven on them are found still in ancient Mesopotamian cities. Related to these are the tablets, of which many have been found in the Assyrian and Babylonian rains and mounds. Some of these bear historical inscriptions and narrate the annals of the various reigns; others are known as report tablets, and are of the character of letters or dispatches on various military, political, and social subjects; again a third class are such as the Egibi tablets, a series of financial and contract records belonging to a family of that name, the particular attestations to which for a period of nearly years, from 677 B.C. to 455 B.C., reflect as in a mirror the principal changes in dynastic and imperial affairs. It is greatly owing to the light derived from these various classes of tablets that the chronology and events of history in Western Asiatic and Biblical countries have within the last few years been so greatly elucidated; and further revelations are continually being obtained.

    TILON 1 Chronicles 4:20.

    TIMAEUS Mark 10:46.

    TIMBREL (See MUSIC ). Hebrew toph , “tambourine,” related to the old English “tabor,” i.e. a drum. In Ezekiel 28:13.

    TIMNA 1. Eliphaz’ concubine, mother of Amalek ( Genesis 36:12,22); in Chronicles 1:36 Timna is not, as apparently, a son of Eliphaz. Probably sister of Lotan, daughter of the Horite Seir. The feminine form of Timna shows that it is introduced in Chronicles as an abbreviation for what the chronicler knew his readers understood from Genesis, namely, that Timna was mother of “Amalek,” which follows. 2. A duke or phylarch of Edom ( Genesis 36:40-43), so that Timna was probably the name of a district.

    TIMNAH; TIMNATH = a divided or assigned part. 1. Judah went to shear his sheep in Timnah ( Genesis 38:13,14). 2. A boundary town in Judah on the N. side ( Joshua 15:10). Near the western extremity, further than Bethshemesh, toward Ekron; in the shephelah or low hills between the mountains and the plain ( Chronicles 28:18). Probably the same asTIMNATHAH of Dan ( Joshua 19:43), and as the Timhah of Samson. ( Judges 14:1,19); haunted by lions, etc., therefore thinly peopled; higher than Askelon, lower than Zorah (13:25). Now Tibneh, a deserted site S.W. of Zorah, and two miles W. of Ain Shems. Timnah when deserted by the Danite emigrants to Laish fell by turns to Judah and the Philistines. Tibneh is 740 ft. above the sea, not in the plain. Samson in going down to it would descend first 700 ft. into the valley, then ascend again 350 ft. to Timnah. The grain which he fired grew in the valley, whereas the vineyards and olives lined the hills. With appropriate accuracy Judges (15:4-6) says “the Philistines came up” to Timnah. The substitution of b for m, which we see in Tibneh for Timnah, occurs also in Atab for Etam ( Judges 15:8,11, where instead of KJV “top” translated “he went down and dwelt in the cleft” seiph of the rock Etam). These clefts were the natural hiding places of the Israelites from their oppressors; and the term seiph is only used of the kind of rock to which the term celah is applied, nikrah of the “cavities” of the rock called tsur . Etam answers to Belt Arab, which has a cavern called “the place of refuge,” 250 ft. long, and from 5 to 8 ft. high, 18 ft. wide. The natural cleft has been artificially but rudely hewn in the rock. As Beit Atab, into which Samson went down for refuge (now called Hasuta), answers to the rock Elam (“eagle’s nest”), so seven miles off is a low hill, and close by is a chapel sacred to sheikh Nedhir, “the Nazarite chief,” and higher up is the ruin “Ism-Allah,” i.e. God heard, evidently pointing to the battle of Ramath Lehi. Moreover the springs were sometimes called Ayun Kara, answering to En-Hak. Kore, “fountain of the crier”: Judges 15:19. (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1878, pp. 116-118). 3. A town in the mountain district of Judah, enumerated with Maon, Ziph, and Carmel S. of Hebron.

    TIMNATH HERES = “portion of the sun.” Joshua’s city and burial place, previously Timnath Serah, “portion of abundance” ( Judges 2:9), the consonants being transposed subsequently, to refer to Joshua’s miracle when the sun stood ( Joshua 19:50). In Mount Ephraim on the N. side of Mount see GAASH . Jerome draws our admiration to the fact that “the distributor of possessions chose for himself a mountainous and rugged portion,” noble disinterestedness. Christian tradition identifies Timnath Heres with Tibneh on the Roman road from Antipatris to Jerusalem. But Kefr Haris is the more probable site, nine miles S. of Nablus. The Samaritans make it the burial place of Joshua and of Caleb; there are two sacred spots E. of it: namely neby Kifl, “prophet of the division by lot,” i.e. Joshua; and neby Culda, possibly a corruption of Caleb. The fact that the Jews venerate a place in Samaria as Joshua’s tomb is a presumption in favor of this site.

    TIMON Fifth of the seven deacons ( Acts 6:1-6). His name indicates he was a Hellenist. Grecians were the most fit to secure the Grecian widows from neglect in the distribution of alms.

    TIMOTHY First mentioned ( Acts 16:1) as dwelling in Lystra (not Derbe, 20:4; compare 2 Timothy 3:11). His mother was Eunice, a Jewess ( Timothy 1:5); his father a Greek, i.e. a Gentile; he died probably in Timothy’s early years, as he is not mentioned later. Timothy is called “a disciple,” so that his conversion must have been before the time of Acts 16:1, through Paul ( 1 Timothy 1:2, “my own son in the faith”) probably at the apostle’s former visit to Lystra ( Acts 14:6), when also we may conjecture his Scripture-loving mother Eunice and grandmother Lois were converted from Judaism to Christianity ( 2 Timothy 3:14,15; 1:5): “faith made its dwelling (enookesen , John 14:23) first in Lois and Eunice,” then in Timothy also through their influence. The elders ordained in Lystra and Iconium ( Acts 14:21-23; 16:2) thenceforth superintended him ( Timothy 4:14); their good report and that of the brethren, as also his origin, partly Jewish partly Gentile, marked him out as especially suited to assist Paul in missionary work, labouring as the apostle did in each place, firstly among the Jews then among the Gentiles. The joint testimony to his character of the brethren of Lystra and Iconium implies that already he was employed as “messenger of the churches,” an office which constituted his subsequent life work ( 2 Corinthians 8:23). To obviate Jewish prejudices ( 1 Corinthians 9:20) in regard to one of half Israelite parentage, Paul first circumcised him, “for they knew all that his father was a Greek.” This was not inconsistent with the Jerusalem decree which was the Gentiles’ charter of liberty in Christ (Acts 15); contrast the case of Titus, a Gentile on both sides, and therefore not circumcised ( Galatians 2:3). Timothy accompanied Paul in his Macedonian tour; but he and Silas stayed behind in Berea, when the apostle went forward to Athens. Afterward, he went on to Athens and was immediately sent back ( Acts 17:15; <520301> Thessalonians 3:1) (see THESSALONIANS, FIRST EPISTLE ) by Paul to visit the Thessalonian church; he brought his report to Paul at Corinth ( 1 Thessalonians 3:2,6; Acts 18:1,5). Hence both the epistles to the Thessalonians written at Corinth contain his name with that of Paul in the address. During Paul’s long stay at Ephesus Timothy “ministered to him” ( Acts 19:22), and was sent before him to Macedonia and to Corinth “to bring the Corinthians into remembrance of the apostle’s ways in Christ” ( 1 Corinthians 4:17; 16:10). His name accompanies Paul’s in the heading of 2 Corinthians 1:1, showing that he was with the apostle when he wrote it from Macedonia (compare 1 Corinthians 16:11); he was also with Paul the following winter at Corinth, when Paul wrote from thence his epistle to the Romans, and sends greetings with the apostle’s to them (16:21). On Paul’s return to Asia through Macedonia he went forward and waited for the apostle at Troas ( Acts 20:3-5). At Rome Timothy was with Paul during his imprisonment, when the apostle wrote his epistles to the Colossians ( Colossians 1:1), Philemon ( Philemon 1:1), and Philippians ( Philippians 1:1). He was imprisoned with Paul (as was Aristarchus: Colossians 4:10) and set free, probably soon after Paul’s liberation ( Hebrews 13:23). Paul was then still in Italy ( Hebrews 13:24) waiting for Timothy to join him so as to start for Jerusalem. They were together at Ephesus, after his departing eastward from Italy ( 1 Timothy 1:3). Paul left Timothy there to superintend the church temporarily as the apostle’s locum tenens or vicar apostolic ( Timothy 1:3), while he himself went to Macedonia and Philippi, instead of sending Timothy as he had intended ( Philippians 2:19,23,24). The office at Ephesus and Crete ( Titus 1:5) became permanent on the removal of the apostles by death; “angel” ( Revelation 1:20) was the transition stage between “apostle” and our “bishop.” The last notice of Timothy is Paul’s request ( 2 Timothy 4:13,21) that he should “do his diligence to come before winter” and should “bring the cloak” left with Carpus at Troas, which in the winter Paul would so much need in his dungeon: about A.D. 67 (Alford). Eusebius (Ecclesiastes Hist. iii. 43) makes him first bishop of Ephesus, if so John’s residence and death must have been later. Nicephorus (Ecclesiastes Hist. iii. 11) reports that he was clubbed to death at Diana’s feast, for having denounced its licentiousness. Possibly (Calmet) Timothy was “the angel of the church at Ephesus” (Revelation 2). The praise and the censure agree with Timothy’s character, as it appears in Acts and the epistles. The temptation of such an ardent yet soft temperament would be to “leave his first love.” Christ’s promise of the tree of life to him that overcometh (Rev 2:5,7) accords with 2 Timothy 2:4-6. Paul, influenced by his own inclination ( Acts 16:3) and the prophets’ intimations respecting him ( 1 Timothy 1:18; 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6: compare Paul’s own ease, Acts 13:1), with his own hands, accompanied with the presbytery’s laying on of hands, ordained him “evangelist” ( 2 Timothy 4:5). His self-denying character is shown by his leaving home at once to accompany Paul, and his submitting to circumcision for the gospel’s sake; also by his abstemiousness ( 1 Timothy 5:23) notwithstanding bodily “infirmities,” so that Paul had to urge him to “use a little wine for his stomach’s sake.” Timothy betrayed undue diffidence and want of boldness in his delicate position as a “youth” having to deal with seniors ( Timothy 4:12), with transgressors ( 1 Timothy 5:20,21) of whom some were persons to whom he might be tempted to show “partiality.” Therefore he needed Paul’s monition that “God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” ( 2 Timothy 1:7). His timidity is glanced at in Paul’s charge to the Corinthians ( 1 Corinthians 16:10,11), “if I come, see that he may be with you without fear, let no man, despise him.” His training under females, his constitutional infirmity, susceptible soft temperament, amativeness, and sensitiveness even to “tears” ( 2 Timothy 1:4, probably at parting from Paul at Ephesus, where Paul had to “beseech” him to stay: 1 Timothy 1:3), required such charges as “endure hardness (hardship) as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” ( 2 Timothy 2:3-18,22), “flee youthful lusts,” ( 1 Timothy 5:2) “the younger entreat as sisters, with all purity.” Paul bears testimony to his disinterested and sympathizing affection for both his spiritual father, the apostle, and those to whom he was sent to minister; with him Christian love was become “natural,” not forced, nor “with dissimulation” ( Philippians 2:19-23): “I trust to send Timothy shortly ... for I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state, for all seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ’s; but ye know the proof of him, that as a son with the father he hath served with me in the gospel.” Among his friends who send greetings to him were the Roman noble, see PUDENS , the British princess see CLAUDIA , and the bishop of Rome, see LINUS .

    Timothy “professed a good profession before many witnesses” at his baptism and his ordination, whether generally or as overseer at Ephesus ( 1 Timothy 1:18; 4:14; 6:12; 2 Timothy 1:6). Less probably, Smith’s Bible Dictionary states that it was at the time of his Roman imprisonment with Paul, just before Paul’s liberation ( Hebrews 13:23), on the ground that Timothy’s “profession” is put into juxtaposition with Christ Jesus’ “good confession before Pilate.” But the argument is “fight the good fight of faith.” seeing that “thou art called” to it, “and hast professed a good profession” (the same Greek, “confession.” (homologia ) at thy baptism and ordination; carry out thy profession, as in the sight of Christ who attested the truth at the cost of His life before or under (epi ) Pilate. Christ’s part was with His vicarious sacrifice to attest the good confession, i.e.

    Christianity; Timothy’s to “confess” it and “fight the good fight of faith,” and “keep the (gospel) commandment” ( John 13:34; 1 Timothy 1:5; Titus 2:12; 2 Peter 2:21; 3:2).

    TIMOTHY, EPISTLES TO FIRST EPISTLE. Its authenticity as Paul’s writing, and its canonical authority as inspired, were universally recognized by the early church with the solitary exception of the Gnostic Marcion. 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy are in the Peshito Syriac of the second century. The Muratorian Fragment on the canon in the same century acknowledges them.

    The Pastoral Epistles,1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, have a mutual resemblance. Irenaeus (adv. Haeres. i. and iii. 3,. section 3,4; 4:16, section 3; 2:14, section 8; 3:11, section 1; 1:16, section 3) quotes 1 Timothy 1:4,9; 6:20; 2 Timothy 4:9-11,21; Titus 3:10. Clement of Alex. (Strom. 2:383, 457; 3:534, 536; 1:350) quotes 1 Timothy 4:1,20; 6:20,21; 2 Timothy as to deaconesses; Titus 1:12. Tertullian (de praescriptione Haereticorum, 25 and 6) quotes 1 Timothy 1:18; 6:13,20; 2 Timothy 1:14; 2:2; Titus 3:10,11; and adv. Marcion, Scorp. 13, compare 2 Timothy 4:6. Eusebius includes the two epistles to Timothy and Titus in “the universally acknowledged Scriptures.”

    Theophilus of Antioch (ad Autolycum 3:14) quotes 1 Timothy 2:1,2; Titus 3:1. Caius (in Eusebius’ Ecclesiastes Hist. vi. 20) recognizes their authenticity. Clement of Rome (First Epistle to Cor. 29) quotes Timothy 2:8. Ignatius in the second century (epistle to Polycarp 6) alludes to 2 Timothy 2:4. Polycarp in the same century (Epistle to Philipp. 4,5) alludes to 1 Timothy 6:7,10; 2 Timothy 2:4,11,12; and (in chapter 9) to 2 Timothy 4:10. Hegesippus, in the end of second century (in Eusebius, Ecc. Hist. iii. 32), alludes to 1 Timothy 6:3,20. Athenagoras at the same period alludes to 1 Timothy 6:16.

    Heresies opposed in the Pastoral Epistles. Ascetic Judaism and legalism ( 1 Timothy 1:7; Titus 1:10,14; 3:9) on the one hand, and incipient gnosticism on the other ( 1 Timothy 1:4), of which the theory that a twofold principle existed from the beginning, evil as well as good, appears in germ, chap. 4:3, etc. In 1 Timothy 6:20 the term gnoosis , “science,” itself occurs. Another Gnostic error, “that the resurrection is past,” is noticed ( 2 Timothy 2:17,18; compare 1 Corinthians 15:12,32,33).

    The Judaism herein refuted is not that controverted in the earlier epistles, namely, that which joined the law with faith in Christ, for justification. The intermediate phase appears in epistle to Colossians (Colossians 2), namely, that which superadded ascetical will worship and angel worship to Judaism. In the epistle to Philippians ( Philippians 3:2,18,19) the further stage appears, immoral practice accompanying false doctrine as to the resurrection. The pastoral epistles -- 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus -- exhibit the mattered godlessness which followed superstition as superstition had followed legalism. Not knowing the true use of “the law” ( 1 Timothy 1:7,8) the false teachers “put away good conscience,” as well as “the faith” ( 1 Timothy 1:19; 4:2), “spoke lies in hypocrisy, corrupt in mind,” regarded “piety as a means of gain” ( 1 Timothy 6:5; Titus 1:11); “overthrew the faith” by heresies “eating as a canker, saying the resurrection is past, leading captive silly women, ever learning yet never knowing the truth, reprobate as Jannes and Jambres ( Timothy 3:6-8), defiled, unbelieving, professing to know God but in works denying Him, abominable, disobedient, reprobate” ( Titus 1:15,16). The universal epistles of John ( 1 John 2:18-23; 4:1,3; 2 John 1:7,11; 3 John 1:9,10), Jude, and Peter ( 2 Peter 2:1-22), and to the Hebrews ( Hebrews 6:4-8) present the same features. This proves the later date of Paul’s pastoral epistles. The Gnosticism opposed is not the anti-Judaic later Gnosticism which followed the overthrow of the Jerusalem temple worship, but the earlier phase which amalgamated with Judaism oriental and Greek elements.

    Directions in the Pastoral Epistles as to church ministers and officers. The apostle naturally directs Timothy, the church president for the time being at Ephesus, and Titus at Crete, concerning “bishop-elders and deacons,” in order to secure due administration of the church at a time when heresies were springing up and when he must soon depart this life. He shows the same anxiety in his address to the elders of the same city Ephesus earlier ( Acts 20:21-30). The presbyterate and diaconate existed long before (6:8; 11:30; 14:23). Paul’s directions are not as to their appointment then first, but as to the due ordination and moral qualifications of elders and deacons thenceforth, according as vacancies might occur. Timothy and Titus exercised the same power in ordaining elders in Ephesus and Crete as Paul had in the Gentile churches in general ( 2 Corinthians 11:28).

    Unique phrases and modes of thought in the Pastoral Epistles. The difference of subject and of circumstances of those addressed, and those spoken of, as compared with Paul’s other epistles, accounts for these. They partly occur in Galatians also, where as here he with characteristic warmth controverts the perverters of the truth: 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 2:4, “gave Himself for us,” with Galatians 1:4; 1 Timothy 1:17; Timothy 4:18, “forever and ever,” with Galatians 1:5; 1 Timothy 5:21; 6:13; 2 Timothy 2:14; 6:1 with Galatians 1:20; “a pillar,” Timothy 3:15, with Galatians 2:9; “mediator,” 1 Timothy 2:5, with Galatians 3:20; 1 Timothy 2:6; 6:15; Titus 1:3, with Galatians 6:9, “in due season.” Fifty special phrases occur, e.g. “the faithful saying” ( 1 Timothy 1:15), “sound,” “seared” ( 1 Timothy 4:2,7), “old wives’ fables,” “slow bellies” ( Titus 1:12). Paul’s writing with his own hand, instead of by an amanuensis, as he did to Galatians and Philemon, accounts for the more concise, abrupt, and forcible style and phraseology.

    Time of writing First Epistle to Timothy. Soon after Paul’s leaving Ephesus for Macedon ( 1 Timothy 1:3). The object of leaving Timothy at Ephesus was primarily to restrain the false teachers ( 1 Timothy 1:3), not to organize the church for the first time. The institution for church widows implies a settled organization. Scandals occurring after the original institution rendered directions as to the existing ministry needful. The similarity in style, subject, and state of the church, of the second epistle to Timothy (written certainly just before Paul’s death) with the first epistle, implies that the date of the latter is not much prior to that of the second.

    The mention of Timothy’s “youth” ( 1 Timothy 4:12) is not inconsistent with a late date; he was “young” not absolutely but as compared with “Paul the aged” ( Philemon 1:9), and with some of the elders whom he had to superintend; probably 34 or 35, compare 1 Timothy 5:1. As to Acts 20:25, “all” the Ephesian elders called to Miletus “never saw Paul’s face” afterward; Paul “knew” this by inspiration; but this assertion of his is compatible with his visiting Ephesus again ( 1 Timothy 1:3; Timothy 1:18; 4:20). Being at Miletum, so near Ephesus, after his first Roman imprisonment, he would be sure to visit Ephesus. In 1 Timothy 3:14 Paul says “I write, hoping to come unto thee shortly”; but on the earlier occasion of his passing from Ephesus to Macedon he had planned to spend the summer in Macedon and the winter in Corinth ( 1 Corinthians 16:6). Nor did Paul leave Timothy then as now ( 1 Timothy 1:3) at Ephesus, but sent him to Macedon ( Acts 19:22). Paul in his address to the Ephesian elders ( Acts 20:29,30) prophesies the rise of false teachers; in his epistle to the Ephesians from Rome at his first imprisonment he does not notice the Judaeo-Gnostic errors as yet; but in Timothy he notices them as then actually prevailing.

    Place of writing First Epistle to Timothy. Paul’s using “went” not “came,” “when I went (poreuomenos ) into Macedonia” ( 1 Timothy 1:3), implies he was not there when he wrote the First Epistle to Timothy. Wherever he was he was uncertain how long he might be detained from coming to Ephesus to Timothy ( 1 Timothy 3:14,15). Corinth may have been the place. Between it and Ephesus communication was easy; his course on former occasions was from Macedon to Corinth (Acts 17--18).

    Coincidences occur between 1 Timothy 2:11-14 and 1 Corinthians 14:84 as to women being silent in church; 1 Timothy 5:17,18 and Corinthians 9:8-10 as to ministers’ maintenance, on the law’s maxim not to muzzle the ox treading the grain; and 1 Timothy 5:19,20 and <471301> Corinthians 13:1-4 as to charges against elders before witnesses. In the very place where these directions had been already enforced Paul naturally reproduces them in his First Epistle to Timothy.

    DESIGN. (1) To direct Timothy to restrain false teachers from teaching aught different from the gospel ( 1 Timothy 1:3,20; Revelation 2:1-6). (2) To give instructions as to orderly conducting of worship, the qualifications of bishops and deacons, and the selection of widows who in return for church allowance should do appointed service ( 1 Timothy 2:1--6:2). (3) To warn against covetousness, a sin prevalent at Ephesus, and to stimulate to good works ( 1 Timothy 6:3-19).

    SECOND EPISTLE. (See TIMOTHY, FIRST EPISTLE ). Time and place of writing. In Paul’s prison at Rome, just before his martyrdom. Timothy was possibly still at Ephesus, for Priscilla and Aquila whom Paul salutes generally resided there ( 2 Timothy 4:19); also Onesiphorus, who ministered to Paul at Ephesus and therefore it is presumable resided there ( 2 Timothy 1:16-18). The Hymenaeus of 2 Timothy 2:17 is probably the Hymenaeus at Ephesus ( 1 Timothy 1:20); also “Alexander the coppersmith” ( 2 Timothy 4:14) seems to be the Alexander put forward by the Jews to clear themselves, not to befriend Paul, in the riot at Ephesus ( Acts 19:33,34). Still, if Timothy was at Ephesus, why did he need to be told that Paul had sent Tychicus to Ephesus, or that Paul had left Trophimus, himself an Ephesian ( Acts 21:29), sick at Miletus which was only 30 miles from Ephesus? Probably Timothy’s overseership extended beyond Ephesus to all the Pauline churches in Asia Minor; he combined with it the office of “evangelist,” or itinerant missionary Ephesus was only his head quarters; and 2 Timothy 4:13 will accord with the theory of Ephesus or any other place in the N.W. of Asia Minor being Timothy’s place of sojourn at the time. Paul at his first imprisonment lodged in his own hired house, guarded by a single soldier, and having liberty to receive all comers; but now he was so closely confined that Onesiphorus with difficulty found him; he was chained, forsaken by friends, and had narrowly escaped execution by the Roman emperor. The access however of Onesiphorus, Linus, Pudens, and Claudia to him proves he was not in the Mamertine or Tullianum prison, with see PETER , as tradition represents; but under military custody, of a severer kind than at his first imprisonment ( 2 Timothy 1:16-18; 2:9; 4:6-8,16,17). He was probably arraigned before the “rulers” (Clemens Rom., 1 Ep. Corinth. 5, epi ton heegoumenon ), i.e. Helius the city prefect (see PAUL ), on a double charge: (1) of having conspired with the Christians, as Nero’s partisans alleged, to set fire to Rome, A.D. 64; that event took place the year after his liberation from the first imprisonment, A.D. 63; some Christians were crucified, some arrayed in wild beasts’ skins, and hunted to death by dogs, wrapped in pitch robes some were set on fire by night to illuminate the Vatican circus and Nero’s gardens while that monster played the charioteer. But now three years had elapsed; and Paul as a Roman citizen was treated with greater respect for legal forms, and was acquitted on the “first” charge ( 2 Timothy 4:17) of instigating the Christians to incendiarism before his last departure from Rome; it was then that Alexander the coppersmith witnessed against him ( 2 Timothy 4:14); no patron dared to advocate his cause, though being probably a client of the Aemilian clan, from whence he derived his name Paul, he might naturally have looked for advocacy ( 2 Timothy 4:16,17). The place of trial was possibly one of the two Pauline basilicae, called from L. Aemil. Paulus, who built one and restored the other in the Ferrari. (2) The second charge, of introducing a novel unlawful religion, he expected to be tried upon the following winter ( 2 Timothy 4:21); but if in Nero’s reign his second trial cannot have taken place later than June.

    Luke alone stayed by him. Onesiphorus, undeterred by danger, sought out and visited him; see LINUS also, the future bishop of Rome, see PUDENS a senator’s son and see CLAUDIA the British princess, and Tychicus before he was sent to Ephesus. Possibly Tychicus was bearer of the epistle as of epistles to Ephesians ( Ephesians 6:21,22) and Colossians ( Colossians 4:7,8), since “to thee” in 2 Timothy 4:12 is not needed for this view if Timothy was at the time not at Ephesus itself.

    Paul’s leaving of his cloak and parchments at Troas ( 2 Timothy 4:13) cannot have been at his visit in Acts 20:5-7, for seven years elapsed between this visit and his first imprisonment. Again, when he wrote to the Colossians ( Colossians 4:14) during his first imprisonment ( Philemon 1:24) Demas was with him; but when he is writing 2 Timothy ( 2 Timothy 4:10) Demas had forsaken him and gone to Thessalonica, all have deserted him ( 2 Timothy 1:15). Not so in his first imprisonment ( Acts 28:30), nor in writing from it epistles to Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Philemon; in these he anticipates liberation, but in Timothy 4:6-8,16, immediate death, having been once already tried. He is more closely confined than when writing even Philippians, which represents him, while more uncertain of life, yet cherishing hope of speedy deliverance ( Philippians 2:24; contrast 2 Timothy 1:16-18; 2:9; 4:6-8,18). His leaving Trophimus sick at Miletum ( 2 Timothy 4:20) could not have been on the occasion of Acts 20:15, for he was with Paul at Jerusalem soon after ( Acts 21:29). Besides, Paul would not mention as a recent occurrence one that took place six or seven years before. Timothy was with Paul then at Miletum, and needed not to be informed of Trophimus’ sickness there ( Acts 20:4,17), if the occasion were the same. Paul now had shortly before been at Corinth and left Erastus there ( 2 Timothy 4:20), but Paul had not been at Corinth for several years before his first imprisonment, and in the interval Timothy had been with him; so Paul did not need to write to Timothy about that visit. The writer of Hebrews 13:23,24, doubtless Paul, was at liberty and in Italy; liberated from his first imprisonment at Rome, Paul must have resumed his apostolic journeyings, then was imprisoned at Rome again; thence just before his death he wrote 2 Timothy (See PAUL ).

    Shortly before his second imprisonment Paul visited Ephesus, where new elders governed the church ( Acts 20:25, most of the old ones had passed away), say in the latter end of 66 or 67 A.D.

    OBJECT. To beg Timothy to come and bring Mark with him ( Timothy 1:4; 4:9,11,21). But, uncertain whether Timothy would arrive in time, he desired to give a last warning as to the heresies of which the germs were then being scattered. He exhorts him to faithful zeal for sound doctrine, patience under trials, and boldness in Christ’s cause, a charge which Timothy’s constitutional timidity needed ( 1 Timothy 5:22,23; 2:2-8; 4:1-5). (On see PAUL ’S and see PETER ’S martyrdom, as to place and time, see both).

    STYLE AND CHARACTERISTICS. Paul shows an ever deepening sense of God’s “mercy,” as the end approaches. Hence, “mercy” is inserted between “grace” and “peace” in the pastoral epistles for the first time; in the former epistles he has” grace and peace” only. Compare 1 Timothy 1:13, “I obtained mercy,” especially needed by ministers, whose office is the leading topic in then, (compare 1 Corinthians 7:25). The second epistle is abrupt, without plan, or methodical handling of subjects. Strong emotion, vivid remembrances of the past, and anxious thoughts for the future, characterize it, as was to be expected from one on the verge of eternity.

    The Old Testament is not quoted, as in his other epistles; still its inspiration and wisdom-giving, saving power is strongly alleged ( 2 Timothy 3:15-17). “Faithful sayings, “probably inspired utterances of church prophets, take the place of Old Testament quotations (compare 1 Timothy 4:1; Corinthians 14). Other characteristics of the pastoral epistles are solicitude for “sound” teaching, as opposed to the morbid subtleties of theosophists; the importance attached to church administration and organization; doxologies, as from one continually realizing God’s presence, now especially when earthly things were about to pass from him so soon ( Timothy 1:17; 6:15,16; 2 Timothy 4:18). As 1 Timothy 4:1-5 points to the mediaeval apostasy, “in the latter times some shall depart from the faith ... speaking lies in hypocrisy, forbidding to marry ... commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received,” so <550301> Timothy 3:1-9 to the age out of which shall spring the last antichrist. No longer is it “the latter times,” but “the last days,” characterized by self love, covetousness, boasting, pride, disobedience to parents, love of plea sure, formality without the power of godliness.

    TIN bedil ; Greek kassiteres , from whence comes Cassiterides, the name given to the Scilly isles by the Greeks and Romans. who did not know that the tin came from the mainland of Cornwall. Arabic kasdeer, Sanskrit kastira, Egyptian khasit. The Hebrew bedil , means “substitute” or alloy, its principal use being then to make bronze. In Egypt and Assyria 10 or parts of tin went to 80 or 90 of copper to make bronze. Found among Midian’s spoils ( Numbers 31:22). Centuries before Israel’s exodus bronze was made by the mixture of tin and copper in Egypt, which proves the very ancient use of tin. Isaiah ( Isaiah 1:25) alludes to it as an alloy separated, by smelting, from the silver. Bedell took his motto from Isaiah 1:25. In Ezekiel 22:18,20, “Israel is to me become dross ... tin ... therefore I will gather you into the furnace,” i.e., as Israel has degenerated from pure silver into a deteriorated compound, I must throw them into the furnace to sever the good from the bad ( Jeremiah 6:29,30). The Phoenicians conveyed much tin probably to Tartessus or Tarshish in Spain, thence to Tyre; 27:12,” Tarshish was thy (Tyre’s) merchant with tin.” Zechariah (4:10 margin) mentions tin as used for plummets. Spain and Portugal, Cornwall and Devonshire, and the islands Junk, Ceylon, and Banca in the straits of Malacca (Kenrick, Phoenicia, 212), were the only three countries known to possess tin in quantities.

    TIPHSAH A town on the western bank of the Euphrates, the limit of Solomon’s empire in that direction ( 1 Kings 4:24). Hebrew Tiphsach. Menahem king of Israel smote it and all its coasts ( 2 Kings 15:16). Thapsacus, in northern Syria, where the Euphrates was usually crossed (Strabo xvi. 1, section 21). From pacach , “to pass over,” i.e. the ford. Solomon’s aim ( 1 Kings 4:24) was to have a line of trade with central Asia across the continent. Tadmor was the halting place on the way to Tiphsah. It was “great and prosperous” (Xenophon, Ahab. 1:4, section 11) as the emporium between E. and W., owing to its ford and its bridge of boats (Strabo xvi. 1, section 23; 3, section 4). Here goods were embarked for transport down the river, and disembarked for land transport from boats which came up it (Q. Curt. x. 1). Suriyeh now marks the ford, four stadia or 800 yards across, as Xenophon accurately states, and at times having but. 20 inches of water. The ten thousand here first learned Cyrus the younger’s real intentions (Xenophon, Ahab. i. 4, section 11). A paved causeway on either side of the river and a parallelogram line of mounds still mark the site.

    TIRAS Genesis 10:2. Josephus (Ant. 1:6, section 1) identifies his descendants with the Thracians, including the Getae (from whence came the Goths) and Dacians. Tuch derives the Tyrsenians from Tiras (see ROSH ). Thracian tribes occupied most of northern and central Asia Minor originally. The Bithynians were Thracians. So also the Mariandynians, Paphlagonians, Phrygians (another form of the Thracian Briges), and Mysians (answering to the Moesi). Tiras follows Meshech in the genealogy, just as the Thracian tribes of Asia Minor adjoined the Moschi toward the W. Thus Genesis includes among Japhet’s descendants the vast nation of the Thracians, extending from the Halys in Asia Minor to the Drave and Save in Europe.

    Bria (perhaps = town), in Mesembria, Selymbria, is a solitary relic of the Thracian tongue. The name has been identified as appearing in Aga-thyrsi.

    Taur-us, and Tyras (the river Dniester).

    TIRATHITES Descendants from Tira, one of the three scribe families residing at Jabez ( 1 Chronicles 2:55). The other two were sprung from Shimea and Suchah. The Vulgate translation is not tenable, Tirathites = the singers, Shimeathites = those repeating in song what they have heard, and the Suchathites = dwellers in tents.

    TIRE peer . Ezekiel 24:17,23. The ornamental head-dress or “cap” worn by priests on festive occasions. Isaiah 61:10, “as a bridegroom decketh himself with a priestly head-dress” (peer ); same word as in Isaiah 61:3, “beauty (peer ) for ashes” epher , play upon like sounds); to give the ornamental head tiara for a head-dress of ashes ( 2 Samuel 13:19).

    Appropriate to the kingdom of priests consecrated to offer spiritual sacrifices to God continually ( Exodus 19:6; Revelation 5:10; 20:6).

    TIRHAKAH Isaiah 37:9. (See HEZEKIAH , see SO , see ESARHADDON ). The Tehrak of the Egyptian monuments, who reigned over Egypt from 690 or 695 B.C. to 667 B.C.; probably king of Ethiopia before he took the title “king of Egypt.” Third king of Manetho’s 25th or Ethiopian dynasty.

    Naturally he helped Hezekiah of Judah against their common enemy Sennacherib, who threatened, Egypt. Herodotus (2:141) and Josephus (Ant. 10:1-3) represent Sennacherib to have advanced to Pelusium; here Tirhakah, the ally of Sethos, the king priest of Lower Egypt, and of Hezekiah, forced Sennacherib to retire, His acquisition of the throne of Egypt seems subsequent to his accession to the Ethiopian throne, and to the diversion which he made in favor of Hezekiah against Sennacherib. He extended his conquests to the pillars of Hercules (Strabo xv. 472), the temple at Medineet Haboo is inscribed with his deeds. But Memphite jealousy hid his share in Sennacherib’s overthrow (at the time of his second invasion of Judah), and attributed Setho’s deliverance to divinely sent mice, which gnawed the enemy’s bowstrings. The Ethiopian influence and authority over Egypt appear in the large proportion of Ethiopians in Shishak’s and Zerah’s armies ( 2 Chronicles 12:3; 16:8); also in Pharaoh Necho’s ( Jeremiah 46:9). Isaiah ( Isaiah 17:12--18:7) announces Sennacherib’s overthrow, and desires the Ethiopian ambassadors, now in Jerusalem, having arrived from Meroe, the island between “the river of Ethiopia,” the Nile, and the Astaboras, in “vessels of bulrushes”‘ or pitchcovered papyrus canoes, to bring word to their own nation (not “woe,” but “ho!” calling the Ethiopians’ attention to his prophetic announcement of the fall of Judah’s and their common foe; Vulgate translated “the land of the clanging sound of wings,” i.e. the land of armies with clashing arms; Vitringa supports KJV Ethiopia “shadowing,” i.e. protecting the Hebrews “with wings”; Kenaphaim, related to the name of the idol Kneph, represented with wings: Psalm 91:4).

    TIRHANAH 1 Chronicles 2:48.

    TIRIA 1 Chronicles 4:16.

    TIRSHATHA The official title of the Persian governor of Judaea ( Ezra 2:63; Nehemiah 7:65,70); applied to Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 8:9; 10:1); also to Zerubbabel ( Ezra 2:63). From a Persian root, “his severity.” Like the German title of consuls of free and imperial cities, gestrenger herr. So “our most dread sovereign.” Pecheh (our pasha) is the title of Nehemiah in Nehemiah 12:26; Haggai 1:1; 2:2; Ezra 5:3; implying governor of a province less than a satrapy.

    TIRZAH Numbers 26:33; 27:1; 36:11; Joshua 17:3.

    TIRZAH A Canaanite city whose king was one of the 31 subdued by Joshua (13:24).

    The royal residence of the kings of Israel from Jeroboam to Omri, who removed the capital to Samaria ( 1 Kings 14:17; 15:21; 16:6,17,18); Baasha was buried here. Zimri was besieged here by Omri, and perished in the flames of the palace. Menahem who smote Shallum “went up from Tirzah” ( 2 Kings 15:14,16), but when reigning made Samaria his capital. Celebrated for beauty (Song 6:4); some derive Tirzah from ratsah , “pleasant.” Its mention is no ground for assigning the Song to a date later than Solomon, as it was in his time the chief city of northern Israel as Jerusalem of southern Israel. The church is “a city set on an hill” (Matt 5:14), “well pleasing” to God ( Hebrews 13:21). In the middle ages Brocardus mentions a Thersa on a height three leagues E. of Samaria; this is the exact position of Telluzah, in the mountains N. of Nablus, a large flourishing town, precipitous toward the E. and accessible from the W.; without remains of antiquity; a corruption probably of Tirzah.

    TISHBITE Derived from Thisbe in upper Galilee to the S. of Kedesh in Naphtali; see the apocryphal Tobit 1:2. Elijah was born here, but settled in Gilead as a stranger. See 1 Kings 17:1, “who was of the settlers (mitoshabey ) of Gilead.” Kurtz less probably (see Keil on 1 Kings 17:1) supposes Tishbite to be the Tisieh mentioned by Robinson (Pal. iii. 153) in Gilead S. of Bostra. Paine identifies Tishbite with Listib overhung by the monastery Mar Ilyas (Elijah).

    TITHES (See DEUTERONOMY ). Tenths of produce, property, or spoils, dedicated to sacred use. So Abram (and Levi, as in Abram’s loins) to Melchizedek the king priest who blessed him ( Genesis 14:20; Hebrews 7:1-10).

    Jacob after his Bethel vision vowed a tenth of all that God gave him, should God be with and keep him, and give him bread and raiment, and bring him again to his father’s house in peace ( Genesis 28:20-22). The usage of consecrated tithes existed among the Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians, and Arabians. See 1 Macc. 11:35; Herodotus i. 89; iv. 152; v. 77; vii. 132; 9:81; Diod. Sic. v. 42; xi. 33; 20:44; Cicero, Verr. ii. 3,6,7; Xenophon, Anabasis v. 3, section 9. The tithe (terumot ) of all produce as also of flocks and cattle belonged to Jehovah. and was paid in kind, or if redeemed one fifth of the value was added. Leviticus 27:30-33, “whatsoever passed under the rod”: the rabbis had the tradition that the animals to be tithed were enclosed in a pen, from whence they passed one by one under the counter’s rod, and every tenth was touched with a rod dipped in vermilion ( Jeremiah 33:13; Ezekiel 20:37). The Levites received this terumot ; they in turn paid a tenth of this to the high priest ( Numbers 18:21-28,31). In Deuteronomy 10:9; 12:5-18; 14:22,29; 18:1,2; 26:12-14, the general first tithe of all animal and vegetable increase for maintaining the priests and Levites is taken, for granted; what is added in this later time is the second additional tithe of the field produce alone, and for celebrating the sacred feasts each first and second year in the Shiloh or Jerusalem sanctuary, and every third year at home with a feast to the Levites, the stranger, fatherless, and widow. The six years thus marked were followed by the jubilee year; on it the attendance was the larger because of the scant attendance on the sixth year when most stayed at home. In the jubilee year there was no tithe, as the land enjoyed its sabbath.

    Tobit (1:7,8) says he gave a third tithe to the poor; Josephus (Ant. 4:8, 8, section 22) also mentions a third tithe; so Jerome too on Ezekiel 45.

    Maimonides denies a third tithe (which would be an excessive burden) and represents the seceded tithe of the third and sixth years as shared between the poor and the Levites. (See Selden on Tithes, 2:13). Ewald suggests that for two years the tithe was virtually voluntary, on the third year compulsory. Thus there was a yearly tithe for the Levites, a second yearly tithe for two years for the festivals; but this second tithe on every third year was shared by the Levites with the poor. The kings, Samuel foresaw, would appropriate the three years’ poor man’s tithe ( 1 Samuel 8:15,17). Hezekiah rectified the abuse ( 2 Chronicles 31:5,12,19); also Nehemiah after the return from Babylon (10:38,39; 13:5,12; 12:44). The Pharisees were punctilious in paying tithe for all even the smallest herbs ( Matthew 23:23; Luke 18:12). Amos ( Amos 4:4) upbraids Israel with zeal for the letter of the tithe law while disregarding its spirit. Malachi ( Malachi 3:10) seconded Nehemiah’s efforts. God promises to “open heaven’s windows and pour out a blessing” so that there would be no “room to receive it,” provided the people by bringing in all the tithes would put Him to the proof as to keeping His word. Christians, whose privileges are so much greater and to whom heaven is opened by Christ’s death and ascension, should at least offer no less a proportion of all their income to the Lord’s cause than did the Israelite: we should not lose but even in this world gain thereby ( Proverbs 3:9,10). Azariah the high priest told Hezekiah: “since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord we have bad enough to eat, and have left plenty, for the Lord hath blessed His people, and that which is left is this great store” ( Chronicles 31:10). The New Testament plan of giving is 1 Corinthians 16:2; 2 Corinthians 9:7-9. Moral obligation, not force, was what constrained the Israelite to give tithes. He solemnly professed he had done so every third and sixth year (of the septennial cycle), when instead of taking the second or vegetable tithe to the sanctuary he used it at home in charity and hospitality ( Deuteronomy 26:13,14; 14:28,29). Ananias’ and Sapphira’s declaration corresponds, but it was a lie against the Holy Spirit (Acts 5); Joseph’s fifth of Egypt’s increase to the sovereign who had saved the people’s lives corresponds to, and was perhaps suggested by, the double tithe or fifth paid by Israel long before.

    TITUS Paul’s companion in missionary tours. Not mentioned in Acts. A Greek, and therefore a Gentile ( Galatians 2:1,3); converted through Paul ( Titus 1:4), “mine own son after the common faith.” Included in the “certain other of them” who accompanied the apostle and Barnabas when they were deputed from the church of Antioch to consult the church at Jerusalem concerning the circumcision of Gentile converts ( Acts 15:2), and agreeably to the decree of the council there was exempted from circumcision, Paul resisting the attempt to force Titus to be so, for both his parents were Gentile, and Titus represented at the council the church of the uncircumcision (contrast see TIMOTHY who was on one side of Jewish parentage: Acts 16:3). He was with Paul at Ephesus (Acts 19), and was sent thence to Corinth to commence the collection for the Jerusalem saints, and to ascertain the effect of the first epistle on the Corinthians ( Corinthians 7:6-9; 8:6; 12:18); and there showed an unmercenary spirit.

    Next, Titus went to Macedon, where he rejoined Paul who had been eagerly looking for him at Troas ( Acts 20:1,6; 2 Corinthians 2:12,13); “Titus my brother” ( 2 Corinthians 7:6; 8:23), also “my partner and fellow helper concerning you.” The history (Acts 20) does not record Paul’s passing through Troas in going from Ephesus to Macedon, but it does in coming from that country; also that he had disciples there ( Acts 20:6,7) which accords with the epistle ( 2 Corinthians 2:12): an undesigned coincidence confirming genuineness. Paul had fixed a time with Titus to meet him at Troas, and had desired him, if detained so as not to be able to be at Troas in time, to proceed at once to Macedon to Philippi, the next stage on his own journey. Hence, though a wide door of usefulness opened to Paul at Troas, his eagerness to hear from Titus about the Corinthian church led him not to stay longer there, when the time fixed was past, but to hasten on to Macedon to meet Titus there. Titus’s favorable report comforted Paul. Then he was employed by Paul to get ready the collection for the poor saints in Judaea, and was bearer of the second epistle to the Corinthians ( 2 Corinthians 8:16,17,23). Macknight thinks Titus was bearer of the first epistle also: 2 Corinthians 12:18; Corinthians 16:12, “the brethren” (but see CORINTHIANS, FIRST EPISTLE ). His location as president for a time over the Cretan church ( Titus 1:5) was subsequent to Paul’s first imprisonment and shortly before the second, about A.D. 67, ten years later than the previous notice of him in 2 Cor., A.D. 57. Probably he met Paul, as the apostle requested, at Nicopolis, for his journey into Dalmatia subsequently would be more probable from Nicopolis than from distant Crete ( 2 Timothy 4:10; Titus 3:12). Artemas or Tychicus on arriving in Crete would set Titus free from his episcopal commission to go to Nicopolis. Titus seems to have been bolder and less timid than Timothy, whose going to Corinth was uncertain ( 1 Corinthians 16:10,11). Hence, he was able so well to execute Paul’s delicate commission, and see how the Corinthians were affected by Paul’s reproof of their tolerating immorality in his first epistle.

    Titus enforced his rebukes, and then was not less “comforted in respect to the Corinthians” than Paul himself; “his spirit was refreshed by them all”; “his inward affection” and “joy” were called into exercise, so that we see in Titus much of the sympathizing, and withal bold, disposition of the apostle himself. His energy appeared in his zeal at Paul’s request to begin at his former visit to Corinth the collection about which the Corinthians were somewhat remiss ( 2 Corinthians 8:6,16,17,18). Trustworthiness and integrity were conspicuous traits in him ( 2 Corinthians 12:18); readiness also to carry out heartily the apostle’s wishes. “God put the same earnest care (for the flock) in his heart” as in Paul’s. He needed no exhortation, such as Paul gave him, but “of his own accord,” anticipating Paul’s wishes, went where the apostle desired. Luke was probably the “brother” sent with him, “whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the churches.”

    Paul states his latest commission to Titus, Titus 1:5, “for this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting (epidiorthosee , ‘follow up’ the work begun by me, ‘setting right the things’ which I was unable to complete through the shortness of my stay in Crete) and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee” (he does not mention deacons). Paul began the due organization of the Cretan church; Titus followed up the work in every city, as Gortyna, Lasaea, etc. Paul reminds Titus by letter of the commission he had already given him orally.

    Titus was to “bridle” the mouths of “deceivers” and Judaizing teachers ( Titus 1:11, compare Psalm 32:9), to urge a becoming Christian walk on all classes, the aged, the young, men, women, slaves, subjects, fulfilling relative duties, and to avoid unprofitable speculations. A firm and consistent ruler was needed for the lawless, self indulgent, and immoral Cretans, as they are pictured by their own poet Epimenides ( Titus 1:12,13) who sarcastically remarked that the absence of “wild beasts” from Crete was supplied by its human inhabitants. Livy, 44:45, brands their avarice; Polybius, 6:46, section 9, their ferocity and fraud; and 6:47, section 5, their mendacity. To Cretanize was proverbial for “to lie”, as to “Corinthianize” for “to be licentious”. Hence flowed their love of “fables” ( Titus 1:14), which even pagan poets ridiculed, as for instance their assertion that they had in their land Jupiter’s sepulchre. The one grand remedy which Titus was to apply is ( Titus 2:11-15) “the grace of God that bringeth salvation” in Christ, who “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.” Paul tells Titus to hospitably help forward Zenas the converted Jewish lawyer or scribe and Apollos, with the latter of whom Titus had been already associated in connection with Corinth ( Corinthians 15:12; 2 Corinthians 7:6,9; 8:6; 12:18; Acts 19:1). A ruined church on the site of Gortyna bears the name of Titus, whom tradition makes bishop of Gortyna. His name was the watchword of the Cretans when invaded by the Venetians.

    TITUS, EPISTLE TO (See TIMOTHY, EPISTLES TO ). Genuineness. Ignatius (Tralles, 3) uses “behaviour” (katasteema ), in the New Testament found only in Titus 2:3. Clement of Rome quotes it, Ep. ad Cor. 2 Irenaeus, i. 16, section 3, calls it Paul’s epistle. Theophilus (ad Autol. iii. 14) quotes it as Scripture.

    Justin Martyr in the second century alludes to Titus 3:4 (Dial. contra Tryph. 47). Compare Clem. Alex. Strom. 1:350, and Tertullian Praescr.

    Haer. 6.

    Time and place of writing. Paul wrote this epistle on his way to Nicopolis, where he intended wintering, and where he was arrested shortly before his martyrdom A.D. 67. The tone so closely resembles see 1 TIMOTHY that if the latter, as appears probable, was written at Corinth the epistle to Titus must have been so too, the epistle to Timothy shortly after Paul’s arrival at Corinth, the epistle to Titus afterwards when he resolved on going to Nicopolis. The bearers of his epistles to Ephesus and Crete respectively would have an easy route from Corinth; his own journey to Nicopolis too would be convenient from Corinth.

    Seeds of Christianity may have been carried to Crete shortly after the first Pentecost by Peter’s hearers ( Acts 2:11). Paul doubtless furthered the gospel cause during his visit there on his way to the hearing of his appeal to Caesar, before his first imprisonment at Rome ( Acts 27:7), etc. He visited Crete again after his first imprisonment, probably on his way to Miletus, Colosse, and Ephesus, from which latter Alford thinks he wrote to Titus; thence by Troas to Macedon and Corinth ( 2 Timothy 4:20), the more probable place of writing the epistle to Titus; thence to Nicopolis in Epirus. Titus in his missions for Paul to Corinth had probably thence visited Crete, which was within easy reach. He was thus suited to superintend the church there, and carry on Paul’s work by completing the church’s organization. Paul in this epistle follows up the instructions he had already given by word of mouth. Paul’s visit to Crete may possibly also have been from Corinth, to which he in that case would return.

    Doctrine. The Pauline doctrines of the grace of God providing the atonement in Christ ( Titus 2:10-13), free justification ( Titus 3:5-7) producing holiness of life by the regenerating and renewing Spirit, and expectancy of Christ’s coming in glory, are briefly but emphatically put forward. The abruptness and severity of tone, caused by the Cretan irregularities, are tempered by a loving and gracious recognition of our high privileges which flow from the grace of “God our Saviour.” As the Father is nowhere said to “give Himself for us,” and as ONE Greek article binds together “the great God” and “our Saviour” ( Titus 2:13, “the glorious appearing of Him who is at once the great God ceded our Saviour”) Jesus must be God.

    TIZITE 1 Chronicles 11:45.

    TOAH 1 Chronicles 6:34, ver. 26 “Nahath.”

    TOB =“good”. Where Jephthah was expelled by his stepbrothers; here he gathered to him a band of freebooters; from Tob the elders of Gilead brought him to oppose Ammon. Toward the desert E. of Gilead. Ish-tob, i.e. the men of Tob, supported the Ammonites against David ( 2 Samuel 10:6,8). Ptolemy (Geogr. v. 19) mentions a Thauba S.W. of Zobah, probably N.E. of Ammon. There is a Tell Dobbe or Dibbe, a ruined site S. of the Lejah.

    TOB ADONIJAH 2 Chronicles 17:8.

    TOBIAH, TOBIJAH TOBIJAH=“goodness of Jehovah”. 1. A Levite employed by Jehoshaphat to teach the law in the cities of Judah ( 2 Chronicles 17:8). 2. “The slave, the Ammonite.” With Sanballat and Geshem tried by fair means and foul to thwart Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 2:10,19; 6:17,18; 13:1- 8). He had the greater power of mischief, being married into a Jewish family (the daughter of Shechaniah), and having his son Johanan married to the daughter of Meshullam, thus he had a Jewish party on his side. As Sanballat represented Moab’s hereditary grudge against Israel, so Tobiah represented Ammon’s. Eliashib was allied to Tobiah; possibly Sanballat, Eliashib’s son in law, was related to Tobiah, and so Tobiah was connected with Eliashib ( Nehemiah 13:4). Hence, it was deemed necessary to read before the people the law that “the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever” ( Nehemiah 13:1). Tobiah was notorious for contemptuous sarcasm ( Nehemiah 4:3-5), “even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.”

    Nehemiah winced under his scorn and appealed to God for vindication: “hear, O God, for we are despised, and turn their reproach upon their own head.” The psalmist of Psalm 123 (possibly Nehemiah) speaks in the person of Israel similarly of Moab’s, Ammon’s, and Samaria’s contempt: “behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters (glancing in contrast at ‘Tobiah the servant’ or slave) so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God ... Have mercy upon us, for we are exceedingly filled with contempt; our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.” An undesigned coincidence between the psalm and the history. So also Psalm 79:4,12, written at the same date (see Psalm 79:1) when the “holy temple” lay “defiled”: “we are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us ... Render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach wherewith they have reproached Thee.” Tobiah corresponded with the nobles of Judah of his party, many of whom were “sworn to him” because of affinity. These reported his good deeds before Nehemiah to win him over, and then reported Nehemiah’s words to Tobiah, and wrote intimidating letters to Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 6:17-19). His crowning impudence was residing in a chamber of the temple, of which the proper use was to be a store for the vessels, the tithes, and offerings for the Levites, priests, etc., Eliashib having dared, in defiance of the law, to prepare it for him. Nehemiah was sorely grieved, and cast all Tobiah’s stuff out, and commanded the cleansing of the chambers ( Nehemiah 13:1-9).

    TOBIAH, CHILDREN OF 1. Returned with Zerubbabel; could not prove their Israelite blood ( Ezra 2:59,60; Nehemiah 7:62). 2. Of the children of the captivity; came with Heldai and Jedaiah to Jerusalem with presents of gold and silver for building the temple. Crowns were made of them by Zechariah ( Zechariah 6:9-15), at Jehovah’s direction, and set on the high priest Joshua’s head, as type of Messiah the King Priest who harmonizes in Himself the conflicting claims of justice as the King and love as the Father and Priest ( Ephesians 2:13-17; 1:10).

    The crowns were deposited in the temple to the honour of the donors (compare Acts 10:4), a memorial of Joshua’s coronation. The making of the crowns of gold from afar, i.e. from the Jews from Babylon, typified the return of the dispersed Israelites from afar ( Isaiah 60:9) to the King of the Jews at Jerusalem, and secondarily the conversion of the Gentiles “far off” ( Acts 2:39; Ephesians 2:12-17; Isaiah 60:10; 57:19; Zechariah 2:11; 8:22,23).

    TOCHEN A town of Simeon ( 1 Chronicles 4:32). The statement of Joshua 19:7 and Joshua 15:42 implies Tochen in Chronicles is another name for Ether, in the shephelah or low hills between the mountains of Judah and the maritime low plain.

    TOGARMAH Son of Gomer, brother of Ashkenaz and Riphath ( Genesis 10:8).

    Corresponding to Armenia. From toka, Sanskrit for “tribe” or “race,” and Armah (Armenia). The Armenians represent Haik to be their founder and son of Thorgau (Moses Choren. 1:4; 9-11). The Phrygians, the race that overspread Asia Minor, probably migrated from Armenia, their language resembled the Armenian (Eudoxus, in Steph. Byz. on Armenia). The Phrygian is Indo-Germanic, as inscriptions prove, and resembled Greek (Plato, Cratyl.). In Ezekiel 27:14 Togarmah appears trading with Tyre for horses and mules; so Strabo (xi. 13, section 9) makes Armenia famous for breeding horses. In Ezekiel 38:6, Togarmah comes with Comer from the N. against Palestine; this and Genesis 10:3 imply Togarmah’s connection with the Japhetic races, which modern research confirms as to Armenia. The Armenian connection with the Celts (Comer, i.e. the Cimbri, Cimmerians, Crimea, Cymry), implied in Togarmah being Gomer’s son, is not unlikely. The Imperial Dictionary makes Togarmah to mean the Turkomans who have always joined the Turks, i.e. Gog ( Ezekiel 38:1-6) or the king of the N. ( Daniel 11:40); Bochart makes Goghasan the original form, among the Colchians, Armenians, and Chaldaeans, for which the Greeks gave Caucasus.

    TOHU Samuel’s ancestor ( 1 Samuel 1:1). Perhaps see TOAH .

    TOI 2 Samuel 8:9,10; TOU 1 Chronicles 18:9,10. King of Hamath on the Orontes; sent his son Hadoram or Joram with presents of gold, silver, and brass, to congratulate David on his victory over Hadadezer, king of Zobah, whose kingdom bordered on Hamath and who probably had tried to reduce Toi to vassalage. Toi’s aim was to secure the protection of so powerful an ally as David. David consecrated his presents to Jehovah.

    TOLA 1. Issachar’s firstborn ( Genesis 46:13; Numbers 26:23; <130701> Chronicles 7:1,2). Ancestor of the Tolaites, 22,600 men of valor in David’s time. 2. Next judge of Israel after Abimelech ( Judges 10:1). Son of Puah, of Issachar. Judged for 23 years at Shamir in Mount Ephraim; here he died and was buried.

    TOLAD A town of Simeon ( 1 Chronicles 4:29). El Tolad in Joshua 19:4.

    TOMBS Simplicity is the characteristic of Jewish sepulture. No sarcophagus or coffin or separate tomb structure for one individual; usually no pillar (but Jacob set one over Rachel, Genesis 35:20) or mound, no inscription or painting. The coffining and embalming of Joseph as a naturalized Egyptian, and the embalming of Jacob his father in Egypt, are exceptional cases. So also the burning of Saul, when his body was hastily rescued from the Philistines. The body was usually washed, anointed, wrapped in linen, and borne without pageant or prayers to the grave. “Great burnings” of perfumes accompanied the sepulture of kings ( Mark 14:8; 16:1; John 19:39, etc.; 2 Chronicles 16:14; Jeremiah 34:5). The Jewish rock tombs are of three classes: (1) Kokim tombs, which have parallel tunnels running in, three or four side by side, from the walls of a rectangular chamber; the bodies lay with their feet toward the chamber, and stone pillows for the heads at the further end; the entrance door is in the face of the cliff; this is the most ancient form of tomb, for the kokim are found sometimes in part destroyed to enlarge the tomb on a different system. (2) Loculus tombs; these often have decorated facades, within the chamber has an arched recess with rock-cut sarcophagus or loculus beneath, the body lying parallel to the side of the chamber; the rolling stone is found with the loculus, hardly ever with the koka tomb; our Lord’s sepulchre was therefore a loculus. (3) Sunken tombs are not of Jewish origin. The so-called sepulchres of Joseph and Nicodemus are unmistakably Jewish kokim, rock-hewn. The present chamber in the church of the Holy Sepulchre was formed when the church was built, by cutting away a portion of the original tomb chamber so as to leave a sort of cave, and the floor was leveled at the same time.

    The side of the kok was cut away, and a canopy of rock left over its bed.

    In course of time, by pilgrims carrying off relics of rock the kok became entirely isolated, the canopy disappeared, and the tomb assumed its present form (Major Wilson). The angel at the head and the angel at the foot could only have been in a loculus, not a koka tomb. The Mishna (Baba Bathra, 2:9) says, “corpses and sepulchres are separated from the city 50 cubits.”

    The fact that the locuhs tomb was formed out of an original koka tomb, whereas our Lord’s loculus tomb was a “new” one “wherein was man never yet laid” ( John 19:41), seems to be fatal to the claim of the socalled Holy Sepulchre, independently of the argument of its having been probably inside the walls. The loculi or recesses are about two feet wide by three high. A stone closes the outer end of each loculus. The shallow loculi were used only in the Greek-Roman period, when sarcophagi were introduced, and for embalmed bodies.

    The deep loculus lengthwise from the cave best suited the unembalmed body, for it whilst the body was decomposing could most easily be shut off with a small stone from the rest of the catacomb (compare John 11:38-40, “take away the stone,” and “they took away the stone”). This, and the stone rolled away from out’ Lord’s tomb ( Mark 16:3,4, “the stone was rolled away ... very great”), was that at the mouth of the cave, not as Smith’s Dictionary supposes from the small mouth of the loculus inside.

    The stone, like a cheese or millstone, (generally three feet wide,) rolled right and left of the door (generally two feet wide) in a groove, so that it could be moved to one side when the tomb was opened and rolled back over the mouth in shutting the tomb. (See BURIAL ). The slope was down toward the cave mouth, so that it would roll down there by its own weight; but to roll it aside was to roll it upward and created the difficulty to the women; it is noticeable also that the earthquake would not roll it up, nor if rolled up would it remain so. Such is the case in the “tombs of the kings,” so-called. The tomb of Helena, queen of Adiabene, is the only dated example of the loculus tomb with stone closed mouth; it was made in the first century (Josephus 20:4, section 3). The language of John can only apply to the mouth of the cave, not that of the loculus. “It was a cave and a stone lay upon it”; so Mark 16:3,4, “who shall roll us away the stone (‘very great’) from the door of the sepulchre?” The rock-cut tombs are few, not 1,000 in or near Jerusalem, so that the majority had to be content with graves dug in the earth. see SHEBNA “hewed out a sepulchre on high,” namely, in the rocks, for himself and his family. Isaiah ( Isaiah 22:16) at the very spot accosts him, “what hast thou here, and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock?” His un-Hebrew name implies he was an alien, probably brought to court by Hezekiah’s ungodly predecessor Ahaz. A stately tomb ill became such an upstart, who seems to have been of the ungodly faction who set at nought Isaiah’s warnings (Isaiah 28--33). Some of the kings were buried close to the temple; Ezekiel 43:7-9 is thought to refer to this (Smith’s Bible Dictionary); rather “kings” mean the idols who had been their lords, but now that Jehovah is their Lord ( Isaiah 26:13) the idols, once their “kings,” seem but “carcasses,” so these are associated with the “high places.” This is confirmed by Leviticus 26:30; Jeremiah 16:18; 2 Kings 21:5; 23:6. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah, have lain in the cave of Machpelah in the field so solemnly bought from Ephron the Hittite at Hebron, about 3,700 years ( Genesis 23:4, etc., 50:31); but none is allowed to enter. A round hole in the mosque admits light, and air to the cave below. There is a like opening into the tomb under the Dome of the Rock, if tomb it be. A Muslim kubr now crowns the hill overlooking Petra, and is called Aaron’s tomb; but whether this hill be Mount Hor or the tomb Aaron’s is most doubtful. Joshua was buried in his inheritance in see TIMNATH SERAH ( Joshua 24:30); Samuel in his own house at Ramah ( 1 Samuel 25:1); Joab in his house in the wilderness ( 1 Kings 2:34), i.e. in a loculus closed with a stone, so as to prevent effluvia, in the garden or court attached to the dwelling.

    Tombs of the kings. Of the 22 who reigned at Jerusalem from 1048 to B.C., eleven (David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah, Amaziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, Josiah; also the good priest Jehoiada) were buried in one common subterranean receptacle in “the city of David.” Warren (Palestine Exploration) supposes David, having hewn stones from the quarries called the cotton grotto (probably the same spot as “the royal caverns”), for the building of the temple, converted the subterranean recesses so made into his sepulchre. It seems (Josephus Ant. 16:7, section 1) Herod attempted to plunder David’s tomb, but being strangely interrupted built a white stone monument in atonement at the mouth of the tomb. To this monument Titus advanced from Scopus, i.e. from the N.E. of the city (Josephus B.J., 5:3., section 2; 5:7, section 3; 5:13, section 3). According to this, David’s tomb would be outside the N. wall of Jerusalem to the E. Asa was buried “in his own sepulchres which he had made for himself (a new chamber attached to the older sepulchre) in the city of David, and was laid in the bed (a loculus) filled with spices,” etc. ( 2 Chronicles 16:14). Hezekiah was buried “in the chiefest (highest) of the sepulchres of the sons of David” ( 2 Chronicles 32:33), i.e. they excavated for him a chamber higher than the others. These instances prove the importance attached to an honourable burial among the Israelites. The rock-cut sepulchre under the wall of the present church of the Holy Sepulchre may be the site of the burial of the idolatrous kings. The site of the tomb of the kings was in (i.e. near, at, [B]) the city of David ( Nehemiah 3:16). The phrases “house,” “city,” “in,” need some explanation. Jehoram is said to have been “buried with his fathers in the city of David” ( 2 Kings 8:24), yet “not in the sepulchres of the kings” ( 2 Chronicles 21:20); Josephus (Ant. 9:5, section 3) says “they neither buried him in the sepulchres of his fathers, nor vouchsafed him any honours, but buried him as a private man”; therefore the phrase “in the city of David” does not necessarily mean within the walls, but may mean at or near. The Hebrew is translated “Joshua was by Jericho,” as it must mean in Joshua 5:13; so “in” must mean in Genesis 13:18; 37:12,13; Joshua 24:32. Again the phrase “city of David” includes the immediate environs ( Numbers 35:25-28; 1 Kings 2:36,37, where the suburbs up to Kedron are included); moreover, “house” is applied to the tomb ( Job 30:23; Ecclesiastes 12:5; Isaiah 14:18,19). This explains the difficulty, “they buried Samuel in his house” (his tomb, not his dwelling: Isaiah 22:16, where “habitation” is explained by “sepulchre”): <092501> Samuel 25:1; 1 Kings 2:34, “Joab was buried in his own house in the wilderness”; 2 Chronicles 33:20, “they buried Manasseh in his own house,” which is explained 2 Kings 21:18, “in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza.” (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, October 1877, p. 195-197). Uzziah, or Azariah, is said to have been buried “in the city of David,” which is explained in 2 Chronicles 26:23, “in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings, for they said, He is a leper.”

    This explains how Nehemiah’s account of David’s sepulchre as outside the then existing walls of Jerusalem is in harmony with the statement elsewhere that it was “in the city of David.” David’s sepulchres ( Nehemiah 3:15,16,26; 12:37) were not far from “the gate of the fountain ... the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king’s garden, and the stairs that go down from the city of David. ... Ophel, unto the place over against the water gate toward the East.” “The house (not palace) of David” answers to the sepulchres of David ( Nehemiah 12:37; 3:16). Nehemiah’s procession (in Nehemiah 3) began at the N.E., went round by the W. and S., and returned to the starting point in the N.E. The procession (in Nehemiah 12) of the first company went from W. by S. to E. The fountain gate was near the pool of Siloam. The water gate led from Ophel to the Virgin fountain. “The pool that was made” (the lower pool of Siloam) was one lower down the Tyropoeon valley. The stairs of the city of David led down Ophel to near the pool of Siloam; probably then David’s tomb was either cut in the face of the rock or near to the top of the steep (40 or 50 feet high) with which Ophel ridge ends, just over Siloam. The field of the burial of the kings ( 2 Chronicles 26:28; 2 Kings 21:18,26) was probably just below, at the S. end of Ophel in the Tyropoeon valley, the site of the king’s winepresses, near the king’s garden ( Zechariah 14:10) (W. F. Birch).

    The tombs of the prophets, on the W. side of Mount Olivet, are decidedly Jewish. A natural cavern is improved by art, which has constructed an outer gallery into which 27 loculi placed lengthwise open. It has no architectural moldings, and no shallow loculi breadthwise, to indicate anything unJewish.

    In the valley of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat, and on the high land N. of Jerusalem, are rock-hewn tombs betraying by their ornamentation Greek and Roman times. The tomb of see ZACHARIAS so-called is a square pyramid-topped building, with four Ionic columns and Assyrian cornice on each side; but in the form of the volutes, the egg and dart molding, etc., beneath it is Roman.

    The so-called “tomb of Absalom” is larger and of the Roman Ionic order, with a frieze of the Roman Doric order. In the rear of the monolith is a sepulchral cavern called “the tomb of Jehoshaphat.” It is now closed by the stones thrown by passers at the tomb of the undutiful Absalom. Its pediment is identical in style with the tombs of the judges, therefore of the same age. “The tomb of James” is between the other two; a verandah with two Doric pillars of a late Greek order; behind is a rock-cut chamber with deep loculi, and in the rear is an apartment with three shallow loculi, which therefore are post-Judaic.

    The “tomb of the judges” contains 60 deep loculi in three storeys with ledges in front to support the closing stones, the lowest level with the ground. The architecture is that of “the tomb of Jehoshaphat,” and has a Greek pediment of an age later than the debased Roman of “the tomb of Absalom.” The unnamed “Jewish tomb” adjoining, with beveled facade but late Roman Doric details, betrays its late age.

    Tomb of Herod. Josephus (B. J. 5:4, section 2; 3, section 2; 12, section 2) says the wall reached from the tower Psephinus (on the ridge above the pool Birket Mamilla) to the site opposite the monument of Helena; then it extended a long way until it passed the sepulchral caverns of the kings.

    They also are named “Herod’s tombs” or “monuments,” for here he was buried, the procession passing “eight stadia to the Herodium” (Josephus Ant. 17:8, section 3); this (eight stadia or one mile) is the exact distance between the palace and the tombs. The facade is Roman Doric, with bunches of grapes and local foliage, evidently of the same age as the “tomb of Jehoshaphat” and “of the judges.” The entrance is concealed below the ground level, and closed by a rolling stone. The vestibule is 20 ft. square, from which three square apartments open, surrounded by deep loculi; a small square apartment again is at the head or side of the loculi, the use of which is unknown, but certainly it is not Jewish. There is an innermost sarcophagus chamber in which two sarcophagi were found, one of which is now in the Louvre, deposited by DeSaulcy. This and the “James’s tomb” are the only sarcophagus chambers at Jerusalem; as then Herod, appointed king by Rome, affected Roman usages, he would be buried in the Roman mode, so that this was probably the sepulchre of Herod. Scarcely a tomb of Jerusalem could be pointed out, of any but the Roman age.

    Tomb of Helena, queen of Adiabene. Though a convert to Judaism, she did not think it needful to be buried under ground. Josephus (Ant. 20:4, section 3) says “she and her brother were buried in the pyramids she constructed three stadia from Jerusalem.” Pausanias (8:16) too speaks of it as a built up tomb, (tafos ) not a cave. Its site was between the tower Psephinus and the royal caverns (Josephus B. J. 5:22; 5:4, section 2). This tomb was N.W. of Herod’s, which was on the N. of the city.

    Tombs used to be whitewashed yearly on the 15th of Adar, to warn off passers by, so as not to contract pollution. Jacob’s pillar over Rachel was called matseqeth ; the tomb is qeber ; the cave, mearah ; the stone at the mouth, golel . Major Wilson divides tombs thus: (1) Rock hewn (the oldest) tombs; (2) Masonry tombs (as at Kedesh and Tel Hum); and (3) Sarcophagi. The simplest of (1) is a grave-shaped loculus sunk in the rock, with a covering slab; so at Kedesh; a second kind is an arched recess in the rock and a loculus sunk under it, as at Meiron; sometimes loculi are cut in the sides of a natural cavern.

    TONGUES, CONFUSION OF (See BABEL ) Genesis 10 accords with the modern scientific principle of ethnic subdivision; as races increase they subdivide; thus as mankind spread there was a continual breaking up into a larger and larger number of nations. These were distinct linguistically, and also ethnically “by these (i.e. from the Japhethites just before named the tribes sprang by whom) were the isles (the maritime coasts) of the Gentiles divided in their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations” ( Genesis 10:5). The sacred writer at once states the fact of the great multiplicity of languages, and also the resemblance and connection between what at first sight seem distinct tongues. Ethnology speaks of “mother,” “sister,” and “daughter” dialects, just as Genesis 10 mentions mother, sister, and daughter races. It is the only theory of ethnology which harmonizes with and accounts for the facts of language, as comparative philology reveals them to us. The general teaching of Genesis 10 is that the nations N. and W. of Mesopotamia and Syria were Japhetic and, within the geographic limits alluded to, comprise seven chief races; ethnology does not contradict this. Moses does not contemplate a scientific scheme embracing all the tribes and nations existing in the world at the time, but a genealogical arrangement of those best known to Moses and his readers. Ethnologists divide the Shemites into five main branches, Aramaean, Hebrew, Phoenician, Assyrian or Babylonian, and Arabian; Moses recognizes four of these, Asshur or Assyria, Aram or Syria, Eber or the Hebrews, Joktan the pure Arabs. Moses adds Elam and Lud, of which ethnology says nothing. He omits the Phoenicians who in his time had not yet acquired importance or moved from the shore of the Persian gulf to the Mediterranean. The Japhetic races spread over all the northern regions known to Moses: Greece, Thrace, Scythia, Asia Minor, Armenia. and Media. The Hamitic races over the S. and S.W.: N. Africa. Egypt, Nubia., Ethiopia, S. and S.E. Arabia, and Babylonia. The Semitic races in the region intermediate between the Japhetic and Hamitic: Syria, Palestine, northern and central Arabia, Assyria, Elymais, from the Mediterranean to the mountains of Luristan. Thus by their intermediate position the Shemites were in contact with Japhetic races in Cappadocia, and with Hamites in Palestine, the Yemen, Babylonia, and Elymais.

    The ethnological character of the genealogy (Genesis 10) appears in such gentilie forms as Ludim, Jebusite, and geographical and local names as Mizraim, Sidon; as also from the formula “after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations” ( Genesis 10:5,20,31). (See GENERATION ; on the connection of Canaan with see HEBREW ,).

    This is a trace of the original unity of races so distinct, subsequently, as the Hamitic Canaanites and the Semitic Hebrews. The Hamites and Shemites again meet in see BABYLON , which Scripture assigns to a Cushite founder, Nimrod, in accordance with recent discoveries of Hamitic inscriptions in the oldest Babylonian remains at Ur.

    The unity of mankind Paul ( Acts 17:26) asserts, “God hath made of one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth.” Moreover Christ is the Head of all mankind in redemption, as Adam in the fall of all ( Romans 5:15-19; 1 Corinthians 15:22,45-49). Again Genesis ( Genesis 9:19) traces the whole postdiluvian population to Noah, “of the three sons of Noah was the whole earth overspread.” Speech is inherent in man as being the outcome of reflection, the Greeks therefore rightly express by the same word reason and speech, logos , for reason is inward speech and speech is outward reason. This is his superiority to brutes; hence to mature Adam’s intellectual powers and to teach him the use of language God brought the animals to him to name ( Genesis 2:19,20). Nouns are the simplest and earliest elements of language; and animals by their appearance, movements, and cries, suggest names for themselves.

    Whatever differences of tongue arose before the flood, the original unity of speech was restored in Noah. This continued until the confusion of tongues at Babel. God defeated the attempt to counteract His will, that men should disperse systematically, by confounding the tongues of the builders of the intended central metropolis of the world. Oppert identifies Babel with the basement of the great mound of Birs Nimrud, the ancient Borsippa. The confusion consisted in a miraculous forestalment of the wide dialectical differences which ordinarily require time and difference of place and habits to mature; the one common substratum remained. Genesis 10 states summarily the dispersion according to race and tongue, the origin of which Genesis 11 proceeds to detail; in chronological order of events Genesis was before Genesis 10. Ethnology and philology tend more and more rewards recognizing the unity of mankind; unity amidst variety is the general law.

    A substratum of significant monosyllabic roots is at the base of all languages. Three classes of tongues exist: the isolating, the agglutinative, and the inflecting. In the isolating there are no inflections, no ease or person terminations, no distinction of form between verb, noun, adjective, preposition, and conjunction; the bare root is the sole substance. In the other two the formal elements represent roots; both these and the radical elements are monosyllabic. There are two kinds of roots, predicable and pronominal; the predicable constituting the material element of verbs, nouns, and adjectives; the pronominal that of conjunctions, prepositions, and particles; the pronominal especially supplies the formal element, i.e. the terminations of verbs, substantives, and adjectives. Monosyllabic roots are the common feature of all of the Indo European family. Bisyllabism prevails in the Semitic family, especially in the verbs, but these also are reducible to monosyllabics, consisting of consonants at the beginning and at the end; the stem thus enclosed at both ends was precluded from external increment, but by internal modification of vowels produces economy of material, simplicity, and dignity. In the agglutinative family the relational elements are attached to the predicable theme by mechanical junction, the individuality of each remaining still. The inflecting languages must have been once agglutinative, and the agglutinative once isolating. If the relational and the predicable elements of the isolating be linked together, it becomes agglutinative. If the material and the formal parts are pronounced as one word, eliminating the sounds that resist incorporation, the tongue becomes inflecting, Moreover, no sharp line of demarcation separates the three: the isolating are not wholly so, the agglutinative as the Finnish and Turkish are sometimes inflecting, the inflecting as Hebrew is often agglutinative and has separate particles to express relations; the Indo European (inflecting) appends to its substantival stems suffixes of case and number; the Ural Altaian (agglutinative) adds governing particles, rendering them post positional instead of prepositional; the Semitic expresses grammatical variations by vowel changes within the root, the Indo European by affixes without. The steppes of central Asia have always been the home of the agglutinative, the nomadic life expressing itself naturally in giving prominent distinctness to the leading idea in each word, thereby giving ready communication between families which associate only at intervals; the inflecting tongues on the other hand express higher social cultivation. Outward circumstances, position, and disposition, all combined, have modified language. In grammar too correspondences occur between the three great classes. The isolating, in the absence of grammatical forms, collocate the words in a somewhat logical order.

    Herein our inflecting, highly cultivated, English tongue exhibits a resemblance; the subject preceding the verb, and the verb preceding the object; also subject, copula, and predicate. In the agglutinative the principal word comes last, every qualifying clause or word that precedes being sustained by it. Thus, the syntactical arrangement is the opposite of the verbal, the principal idea taking precedence in the latter. In the Semitic tongues the reverse of this usage of the classical holds good; the verb stands first, and the adjective comes after its noun. In the agglutinative adjectives qualifying nouns remain undeclined, answering to compound words in the Indo European, where the final member alone is inflected; so the absence of the plural ending of nouns following a numeral answers to our usage of “pound” or “head” (not pounds, heads) after a plural numeral.

    The governing noun is altered in termination before the governed noun, in Hebrew, instead of the governed noun being put in the genitive. The genitive in Hebrew is also expressed by a relative and a preposition before the noun; really the prefixes or affixes in other tongues marking the genitive are more connected with the governing than with the governed word, and are resolvable into relative or personal pronouns which connect the two words. Rapid utterance of the first accounts for the excision of the final consonant of the Hebrew plural noun governing another. “The song which (belongs) to Solomon” corresponds to “Solomon’s Song,” the “s” combining the demonstrative “sa” and the relative “ya”. The isolating tongues, as the Chinese, instead of the Indo-European verbal composition, employ manifold combinations of radical sounds with an elaborate method of accenting and intoning. The agglutinative, though deficient in compounds, build up words, suffix on suffix, to which their law of vowel harmony gives uniformity.

    Amidst the varieties, traces of unity appear in the original material, in the stages of formation, and in the general grammatical expression. Every word is reducible to two elements, the predicable and the formal, i.e. the root and the grammatical termination. Both consist of independent roots.

    The formal, mostly pronominal, elements are more tenacious of life; therefore agreement in inflections, which consist of these, affords a strong presumption for radical identity also. Grimm discovered a regular system of changes undergone in the transition from Greek and Latin to Gothic and low German: aspirates for tenues, h for k or c, th for t, f for p; tenues for medials, t for d, p for b, k for g; medials for aspirates, g for ch or h, d for th, b for f or ph: as heart from kardia, cor; thou from tu; five from pempe (pente ); father from pateer , two from duo ; knee from gonu ; goose from cheen ; dare from tharseoo ; bear from feroo .

    Max Muller calls the agglutinative tongues of Europe and Asia by the common name “Turanian.” This class includes the Ural Altaian, the Chinese, Burmese, and Thibetan. Some refer the American tongues to the Turanian. The essential identity of many words in Semitic and Indo- European gives a strong presumption of their original unity; thus, qeren , cornu, horn; masak , misgo, misceo, mix; karak , circa, circle; ‘erets , terra, earth (German erde); chalaq , glaber, glisco, glide (glatt); qum , gum, ‘am, cum, sun, koinos , common; malee’ , pleos , plenus, full (voll); bor , purus, pure; barah , vorare, bora, voracious; parah , ferop , barus , feroo , bear; ‘apha , epso, epula; mar, amarus; carath, curtus; zarah , serere; muth , math (Sanskrit), mor(t)s, mortal; ‘attah , tu, [su]), thou; “n” in Hebrew stands for “m” in the Indo-European, as representing the first personal pronoun; shesh , sex, hex, six; the other numerals in Hebrew and Indo-European, one to five, are probably identical.

    Indo-European or Aryan is the term which science now employs, answering to the Scripture Japhetic. The N. African languages were sub- Semitic; the inelastic Semitic remained within the limits assigned in the Bible, owing to being hemmed in by the superior expansiveness of the Aryans and Turanians. Latham alleges traces of resemblance between the sub-Semitic of northern Africa, Negro in the center, and Kaffir and Hottentot in the S.; the latter are more Turanian than the northern. Indo European comprises nine classes, Indian, Iranian, Celtic, Italian, Albanian, Greek, Teutonic, Lithuanian, and Slavonian. “The Slavonians and Teutons were the first to leave the common home of the Indo European race, and Slavo Teutonic was the earliest deviation from the common language.

    Then the Graeco-Italo-Celtic. The Celts then separated” (Schleicher). But the Celts being found most westerly, in the extremities of Europe, Ireland, the Scotch highlands, Wales, and Brittany, were probably the earliest emigrants from the primeval seat. Once they occupied Gaul, northern Italy, large Darts of Spain, Germany, Switzerland. and poured along Greece into Asia Minor, giving their name to see GALATIA ; but now they have been forced into the remote corners of Europe by successive races.

    The plateau of central Asia was the original seat of the Indo European race. The Indian offshoot is traceable to the Himalaya slopes, from the geographic allusions in the Vedic hymns (Max Muller, Lectures). The Sanskrit names of articles imported by Solomon prove the advance of the Indian Aryans into Hindustan at least before 1000 B.C. ( 1 Kings 10:22). Aryans appear on the Semitic border as early as the composition of Genesis 10 and 14. The Aryan Medes appear in the Assyrian annals B.C. The Greeks were settled in their laud, and the Italians in theirs, at least as early as 1000 B.C. The latest of the Celtic migrations had reached western Europe before the time of Hecataeus, 500 B.C. The Teutonic migration was much later; they were by the Baltic in the age of Alexander the Great (Plin. 37:11); glesum, the term for amber in that region, is Teutonic. Tentones accompanied the Cimbri in their southern expedition, 113-102 B.C.; Caesar and Tacitus more explicitly mention them. The Slavonians migrated contemporaneously with the Teutones. They may be traced to the Veneti or Venedae of northern Germany, from whence comes “Wend”; Tacitus (Germ. 46) first mentions them. The languages of the aboriginal races who preceded the Aryans in India were Turanian. The Finns, who have been since Tacitus’ time (Germ. 46) E. of the Baltic, originally were spread southward, but were thrust back by the Teutons and Slavonians. The Basque in Spain has a grammatical, though not a verbal, affinity to the Finnish. Thus the Finns in the N. and the Basques in the S. may be remnants of a Turanian migration preceding the Indo European.

    In Asia there are two great classes of tongues: (1) the monosyllabic, represented by the Chinese in the E. and the S.E., probably the earliest migration from the common cradle of mankind; (2) the agglutinative, the Ural Altaian in the N. including the five, Tungusian, Mongolian, Turkish, Samoiedic on the Arctic ocean coast, and Finnish of the Finns and Lapps, the Esthonians, Livonians, and the Hungarian Magyars: in the S. four classes, Tamul in S. Hindustan, Bhotiya of Thibet, the Tai of Siam and Pegu, the Malay originally in the isles, from whence subsequently it passed to the mainland. The lake Baikal is the center from which seemingly the Turanians passed in various directions.

    The languages of Oceania are thought to be Malay. The polysynthetic languages of N. America are related to Mongolian; and there is an affinity of tongues between the Americans and the Asiatics on either side of the straits of Corea. Probably the population passed into N. America mainly by the Behring straits. Thus the tendency of science is to discover unity amidst the manifold varieties of mankind. (See R. Ellis’ “Numerals as Signs of Primeval Unity among Mankind”).

    TONGUES, GIFT OF Mark 16:17; Acts 2:1-13; 10:46; 19:6; 1 Corinthians 12,14. The Alexandrinus manuscript confirms Mark 16:9-20; The Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts, omit it; “they shall speak with new (not known before, kainais ) tongues”; this promise is not restricted to apostles; “these signs shall follow them that believe.” a proof to the unbelieving that believers were under a higher power than mere enthusiasm or imagination.

    The “rushing mighty wind” on Pentecost is paralleled in Ezekiel 1:24; 37:1-14; 43:2; Genesis 1:2; 1 Kings 19:11; 2 Chronicles 5:14; <19A403> Psalm 104:3,4. The “tongues like as of fire” in the establishing of the New Testament church answer to Exodus 19:18, at the giving of the Old Testament law on Sinai, and Ezekiel 1:4 “a fire enfolding itself”; compare Jeremiah 23:29; Luke 24:32. They were “cloven” (diamerizomenai ), rather distributed to them severally. The disciples were “filled with the Holy Spirit”; as John the Baptist and our Lord ( Luke 1:15; 4:1). “They began to speak with other (heterais , different from their ordinary) tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Then “the multitude were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language; and they marveled saying, Behold are not all these which speak Galileans? and how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born, the wonderful works of God?” This proves that as Babel brought as its penalty the confusion of tongues, so the Pentecostal gift of tongues symbolizes the reunion of the scattered nations. Still praise, not teaching, was the invariable use made of the gift. The places where tongues were exercised were just where there was least need of preaching in foreign tongues ( Acts 2:1-4; 10:46; 19:6; 1 Corinthians 14). Tongues were not at their command whenever they pleased to teach those of different languages. The gift came, like prophesying, only in God’s way and time ( Acts 2:1-18; 10:46; 19:6). No express mention is made of any apostle or evangelist preaching in any tongue save Greek or Hebrew (Aramaic). Probably Paul did so in Lycaonia (Acts14:11,15); he says ( Corinthians 14:18) “I speak with tongues (the Vaticanus manuscript, but the Sinaiticus and the Alexandrinus manuscripts ‘with a tongue’) more than ye all.” Throughout his long notice of tongues in 1 Corinthians 14 he never alludes to their use for making one’s self intelligible to foreigners. This would have been the natural use for him to have urged their possessors to put them to, instead of interrupting church worship at home by their unmeaning display. Papias (in Eusebius, H. E. iii. 30) says Mark accompanied Peter as an “interpreter,” i.e. to express in appropriate language Peter’s thought, so that the gift of tongues cannot have been in Papias’ view a continuous gift with that apostle. Aramaic Hebrew, Greek, and Latin (the three languages over the cross) were the general media of converse throughout the civilised world, owing to Alexander’s empire first, then the Roman. The epistles are all in Greek, not only to Corinth, but to Thessalonica, Philippi, Rome. Ephesus, and Colosse. The term used of tongues (apofthengesthai , not only lalein ) implies a solemn utterance as of prophets or inspired musicians (Septuagint 1 Chronicles 25:1; Ezekiel 13:9). In the first instance (Acts 2) the tongues were used in doxology; but when teaching followed it was in ordinary language, understood by the Jews, that Peter spoke. Those who spoke with tongues seemed to beholders as if “full of new wide,” namely, excited and enthusiastic ( Acts 2:13; 15-18), in a state raised out of themselves.

    Hence, Paul contrasts the being “drunk with wine” with being “filled with the Spirit, speaking in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” ( Ephesians 5:18,19). The ecstatic songs of praise in the Old Testament, poured out by the prophets and their disciples, and the inspired musicians of the sanctuary, correspond ( 1 Samuel 10:5-13; 19:20-24; 1 Chronicles 25:3). In 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14 tongues are placed lowest in the scale of gifts ( 1 Corinthians 12:31; 14:5). Their three characteristics were: (1) all ecstatic state of comparative rapt unconsciousness, the will being acted on by a power from above; (2) words uttered, often unintelligible; (3) languages spoken which ordinarily the speaker could not speak.

    They, like prophesyings, were under control of their possessors ( Corinthians 14:32), and needed to be kept in due order, else confusion in church meetings would ensue ( 1 Corinthians 14:23,39). The tongues, as evidencing a divine power raising them above themselves, were valued by Paul; but they suited the childhood ( 1 Corinthians 14:20; 13:11), as prophesying or inspired preaching the manhood, of the Christian life. The possessor of the tongue “spoke mysteries,” praying, blessing, and giving thanks, but no one understood him; the spirit (pneuma ) but not understanding (nous ) was active ( 1 Corinthians 14:14-19). Yet he might edify himself ( 1 Corinthians 14:4) with a tongue which to bystanders seemed a madman’s ravings, but to himself was the expression of ecstatic adoration. “Five words” spoken “with the understanding” so as to “teach others” are preferable to “ten thousand in an unknown tongue.” In Isaiah 28:9-12 God virtually says of Israel, “this people hear Me not though I speak to them in their familiar tongue, I will therefore speak to them in other tongues, namely, that of the foes whom I will send against them, yet even then they will not hearken to Me.” Paul thus applies it: ye see it is a penalty to encouuter men of a strange tongue, yet this you impose on the church by abusing instead of using the tongue intelligibly.

    Speakers in foreign tongues speak like “children weaned from the milk, with stammering lips,” ridiculous because unintelligible to the hearers ( Isaiah 28:14), or like babbling drunkards ( Acts 2:13), or madmen ( 1 Corinthians 14:20-23). Thus, Isaiah (28:9-14) shows that “tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.”

    Tongues either awaken to spiritual attention the unconverted or, if despised, condemn (compare “sign” in a condemnatory sense, Ezekiel 4:3,4; Matthew 12:39-42), those who, like Israel, reject the sign and the accompanying message; compare Acts 2:8,13; 1 Corinthians 14:22; “yet, for all that will they not hear Me,” even such miraculous signs fail to arouse them; therefore since they will not understand they shall not understand. ”Tongues of men” and “divers kinds of tongues” ( 1 Corinthians 12:10,28; 13:1) imply diversity, which applies certainly to languages, and includes also the kind of tongues which was a spiritual language unknown to man, uttered in ecstasy ( 1 Corinthians 14:2). It was only by “interpreting” that the “understanding” accompanied the tongues. He who spoke (praying) in a tongue should pray that he might (be able to) interpret for edification of the church ( 1 Corinthians 14:13,26,27). Hebrew and Aramaic words spoken in the spirit or quoted from the Old Testament often produced a more solemn effect upon Greeks than the corresponding Greek terms; Compare 1 Corinthians 16:22, Maranatha, 12:3; Lord of sabaoth, James 5:4; Abba, the adoption cry, Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6; Alleluia, Revelation 19:1,6; Hosannah, Matthew 21:9,15. “Tongues of angels” ( 1 Corinthians 13:1) are such as Daniel and John in Revelation heard; and Paul, when caught up to paradise ( Corinthians 12:4).

    An intonation in speaking with tongues is implied in Paul’s comparison to the tones of the harp and pipe, which however he insists have distinction of sounds, and therefore so ought possessors of tongues to speak intelligibly by interpreting their sense afterward, or after awakening spiritual attention by the mysterious tongue they ought then to follow with “revelation, knowledge, prophesying or doctrine” ( 1 Corinthians 14:6-11); otherwise the speaker with a tongue will be “a barbarian,” i.e. a foreigner in language to the hearer. A musical tone would also be likely in uttering hymens and doxologies, which were the subject matter of the utterance by tongues ( Acts 2:11). The “groanings which cannot be uttered” ( Romans 8:26) and the “melody in the heart” ( Ephesians 5:19) show us how even inarticulate speech like the tongues may edify, though less edifying than articulate and intelligible prophesying or preaching. Either the speaker with a tongue or a listener might have the gift of interpreting, so he might bring forth deep truths from the seemingly incoherent utterances of foreign, and Aramaic, and strange words ( 1 Corinthians 14:7,11,13,27).

    When the age of miracle passed ( 1 Corinthians 13:8) the tongues ceased with it; the scaffolding was removed, when the building was complete as regards its first stage; hymns and spiritual snugs took the place of tongues, as preaching took the place of prophesying.

    Like all God’s gifts, tongues had their counterfeit. The latter are morbid, the forerunners or results of disease. The true tongues were given to men in full vigour, preceded by no fanatic madness, and followed by no prostration as the reaction. Practical, healthy religion marked the daily walk of the churches in which the tongues were manifested. Not these, but the confession of Jesus as Lord with heart and tongue was the declared test of real discipleship ( 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 John 4:2,3).

    TOPAZ From pitdah (Hebrew) by transposition. One of the hyaline corundum stones, bright yellow. Second in the first row of the highpriest’s breastplate ( Exodus 28:17; 39:10), ninth foundation stone of the wall of New Jerusalem ( Revelation 21:20). Job ( Job 28:19) represents it as from Ethiopia,; so Strabo (xvi. 770), Diodorus (iii. 39), and Pliny (xxxvii. 32).

    The king of Tyre wore it; among the nine of the 12 jewels of the high priest’s breastplate; as type of antichrist who shall usurp Christ’s king priesthood ( Ezekiel 28:13). Septuagint, Vulgate, and Josephus identify the Greek topaz with the Hebrew [pitdah]; and Smith’s Bible Dictionary identifies the topaz as our chrysolite and the ancient chrysolite as our topaz. Pliny (H. N. 37, section 8) speaks of “the green tints of the topaz,” meaning our chrysolite.

    TOPHEL Tufileh, (Robinson, Bibl. Res. ii. 570), S.E. of the Dead Sea. Ninety-nine springs and rivulets flowing into the Ghor water the neighbourhood. It is surrounded by apple, apricot, fig, pomegranate, and olive trees. It is naturally chosen as a landmark ( Deuteronomy 1:1).

    TOPHETH; TOPHET A spot in the valley of the son of see HINNOM ; S.E. and S.S.E. of Jerusalem; “by the entry of the E. gate” ( Jeremiah 19:2). Infamous by the immolation in it of children to Moloch ( 2 Kings 23:10; Isaiah 30:33; Jeremiah 7:31,32; 19:2,6,11). (See HELL ). From toph , the “drums” beaten to drown the shrieks of the children made to pass through the fire to Moloch; rather tophet means tabret, so “tabret grove,” i.e. music grove, as Chinneroth is “the harp sea”; or tuph “to spit,” less probably; or from a root “burning” (Persian, Gesenins); or “filth” (Roediger). One of the chief groves in Hinnom; forming part of the king’s gardens, and watered by Siloam; Hinnom is placed by old writers E. of Jerusalem, answering to the month of the Tyropoeon, along the southern banks of the Kedron (Jerome De Loc. Hebrew). Topheth was next defiled by idols, Baal and Moloch, with their inhuman sacrifices. Josiah threw down its altars and heaped here the filth of the city, so that, with its carcasses preyed on by worms and its perpetual fires for consuming refuse, it became a type of hell ( Isaiah 66:24). In Kings and Jeremiah the article precedes, “the Topheth” In Isaiah 30:33 it is Tophteh , “tabret grove,” as tupim in Isaiah 30:32 is “tabrets.” Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 7:32; 19:6) makes it prophetically “the valley of slaughter,” i.e. the scene, no longer of slaughter of innocents ( Jeremiah 19:4), but of the Jewish men who so richly deserved their fate. In Isaiah 30:33 Topheth symbolizes the funeral pyre of Sennacherib’s army, not that it actually perished there, but the Assyrian forerunner of antichrist is to be burnt in ignominy whereas the Hebrews buried their dead. Satan is the king finally doomed to the fire with the lost ( Matthew 5:22; 25:41; Mark 9:43,44).

    TORMAH Judges 9:31, margin for “privily.” The Septuagint, Chaldee, and Rashi translated “secretly”; Hebrew “in deceit,” as he had listened to the speech quietly with apparent assent. But Kimchi “in Tormah” a misspelling for Arumah ( Judges 9:41).

    TORMENTORS basanistai , “examiners by torture” ( Matthew 18:34; compare Acts 22:24).

    TORTOISE tsab . From tsaabab “to move slowly” ( Leviticus 11:29); rather “the great lizard.” Septuagint translated “the land crocodile”: mentioned by Herodotus iv. 192; the varan, of the desert; it subsists on beetles, etc.; of a dusky yellow color, with dark green spots and yellow claws; the waran el hard the Psammosaurus scincus or Monitor terrestris of Cuvier. Arabic dhab, a lizard often two feet long, abounding in Egypt and Syria. Tristram makes it the Uromastix spinipes (Nat. Hist., 255). Its flesh dried was used as a charm or medicine; the Arabs made broth of its flesh (Hasselquist, 220); the Syrians ate its flesh (Jerome adv. Jovin. ii. 7, 334). Several kinds of tortoise (marsh tortoises, etc.) abound in Palestine. Some have even conjectured that “the tortoise” is meant by the word translated “bittern” in the prophecies of Isaiah and Zephaniah. (See BITTERN ).

    TOWERS Used as parts of city walls, or separate, asEDAR,LEBANON, etc., to defend wells, flocks, or commerce ( 2 Chronicles 26:10; 27:4; Genesis 35:21; Micah 4:8). Also attached to vineyards, as lodges for the keepers, wherein they could watch against the depredations of man or beast ( Isaiah 5:2; Matthew 21:33; Mark 12:1).

    TOWN CLERK grammateus . An officer originally appointed to record the laws and decrees of the state, mid to read them in public; but in Asia Minor, under the Roman empire, authorized to preside over popular assemblies and submit questions to their vote, as inscriptions on marbles testify; in short, governors of single cities and districts, and named as such on the coins; sometimes also entitled “chief priests”; a kind of state secretary. The town clerk at, Ephesus appeased the mob gathered by Demetrius the silversmith against the gospel preachers ( Acts 19:35-41). His speech is a model of judiciousness, and perfectly carried his point. Such excitement, he reasons, is undignified in Ephesians, seeing that their devotion to Diana of Ephesus is beyond question. It is unreasonable, since the men apprehended are neither church robbers nor blasphemers, so ye ought to do nothing rashly; if even there were grounds against them, there are legal means of redress open, without resorting to illegal; lastly, we are in danger of being called in question by Roman authority for this uproar (see Proverbs 15:23).

    Boeckh mentions an Ephesian inscription, No. 2990 C. and H. ii. 80. “Munatius the townn clerk and ruler of Asia” (Asiarch).

    TRACHONITIS Luke 3:1. The Trachonite region (the old Bashan) included parrs of Auranitis, Gaulanitis, and Batanaea besides Trachonitis proper, which lay S. of Damascus and E. of Gaulanitis. (Josephus Ant. 17:8, section 1; 11, section 4). see PHILIP was tetrarch of Trachonitis and Ituraea.

    Trachonitis is the Greek for the Aramaic see ARGOB (“heap of stones”) , “the rugged region,” abounding in caves, some of vast extent. Jerome places Trachonitis rightly between Damascus and Bostra; having Kenath among its chief towns. Trachonitis included el Lejah and part of the western slopes of jebel Hauran. On the northern border of Trachonitis are the large ruins of Musmeih, which an inscription on a temple door identifies with Phocus (Phoeno) the old capital (Burckhardt, Trav. Syriac 117). The Lejah is bounded on the E. by the mountains of Batanaea (jebel Hauran) whereon lie the ruins of Kenath, on the S. by Auranitis (Hauran) whereon are the ruins of Bostra, on the N. by Ituraea (Jedur) and Damascus. Josephus (Ant. 15:10, section 1) says “the inhabitants dwelt in caves that served as a refuge for themselves and their flocks; they had cisterns of water, and stored granaries, and so were able to defy their enemies. The cave doors are so narrow that but one can enter at a time, while within they are incredibly large; the ground above abounds in rugged rocks with many windings, and difficult of access except with a guide.”

    From Josephus’ time until the present day it has been the haunt and asylum of robbers.

    TRADITION Greek paradosis , instructions “delivered” ( 1 Corinthians 15:3) as inspired, whether orally or in writing, by the apostles ( 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 3:6,10). The only oral tradition designed by God to be obligatory on the church in all ages was soon committed to writing in the apostolic age, and recognized as inspired by the churches then having the gift of discerning spirits. Only in three passages ( 1 Corinthians 11:2 margin; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 3:6) has tradition a good sense; in ten a bad sense, man’s uninspired tradition ( Matthew 15:2,3,6; Mark 7:3,5,8,9,13; Galatians 1:14; Colossians 2:8). Jesus charges the Jews with “making the commandment of God of none effect through your tradition.” Hilary the deacon says, “a surfeit to carnal sense is human tradition.” Tradition clogs heavenly perceptions. Paradosis is one of the only two nouns in 2,000 in the Greek Testament which numerically equals 666, the mark of the beast ( Revelation 13:18).

    Tradition is the grand corrupter of doctrine, as “wealth” (euporia , Acts 19:25, the other equivalent of 666) is of practice. Only those words of the apostles for which they claim inspiration (their words afterward embodied in canonical writing) are inspired, not their every spoken word, e.g. Peter’s dissimulation ( Galatians 2:11-14). Oral inspiration was needed until the canon of the written word was completed. The apostles’ and evangelists’ inspiration is attested by their miracles; their New Testament Scriptures had the additional test without which even miracles would be inconclusive ( Deuteronomy 13:1-6), accordance with the existing Old Testament revelation ( Acts 17:11). When the canon was complete the infallibility was transferred from living men’s inspired sayings to the written word, now the sole unerring guide, interpreted by the Holy Spirit; comparison of Scripture with Scripture being the best commentary ( 1 Corinthians 2:12-16; 1 John 2:20,27; John 1:33; 3:34; 15:26; 16:13,14).

    The most ancient and universal tradition is the all-sufficiency of Scripture for salvation, “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” ( 2 Timothy 3:15-17). The apostles never appeal to human tradition, always to Scripture ( Acts 15:2,15-17; 17:11; 24:14; 1 Corinthians 15:3,4). If tradition must be followed, then we ought to follow that oldest tradition which casts away all tradition not in, or provable by, Scripture. We receive the Christian Lord’s day and infant baptism not on the inherent authority of the fathers, but on their testimony as witnesses of facts which give force to the infiltrations of Scripture.

    Tradition can authenticate a fact, but not establish a doctrine. Paul’s tradition in 2 Thessalonians 2:15 is inspired, and only continued oral in part until the Scripture canon was completed by John; altogether different from Rome’s supplementary oral tradition professing to complete the word which is complete, and which we are forbidden to add to, on penalty of God’s plagues written therein ( Revelation 22:18). By adding human tradition Rome becomes parent of antichrist. How remarkable it is that from this very chapter ( 2 Thessalonians 2:15), denouncing antichrist, she draws her argument for tradition which fosters antichristianity. Because the apostles’ oral word, whenever they claim inspiration, was as trustworthy as the written word, it does not follow that the oral word of those neither apostles nor inspired is as trustworthy as the written word of those who were apostles or inspired. No tradition of the apostles except their written word can be proved genuine on certain evidence.

    The danger of even a genuine oral tradition (which scarcely any of the socalled traditions are) is illustrated in the “saying” that went abroad among the brethren that John should not die, though Jesus had not said this, but “if I will that he tarry until I come, what is that to thee?” ( John 21:22,23).

    We are no more bound to accept the fathers’ interpretation (which by the way is the reverse of unanimous; but even suppose it were so) of Scripture, because we accept the New Testament canon on their testimony, than to accept the Jews’ interpretation of the Old Testament because we accept the Old Testament canon on their testimony; if we were, we should be as bound to reject Jesus, with the Jews, as to reject primitive Scripture Christianity with the apostate church. See the Church of England Articles 6,8,20,22,34, on the due and the undue place of tradition in the church.

    What were once universal traditions (e.g. the epistles for centuries ascribed to 11 popes, from Anacletus, A.D. 101, to Victor I, A.D. 192, now universally admitted to be spurious) are no longer so regarded. Whately likened tradition to the Russian game a number sit in a circle, the first reads a short story in the ear of his next neighbour, he repeats it orally to the next, and so on; the last writes it as it, reaches him; the amusement is, when read and compared with the original story it is found wholly metamorphosed, and hardly recognizable as the same story.

    TRANCE Greek ekstasis ( Numbers 24:4,16). Balsam “fell” (into a trance is not in the Hebrew) overpowered by the divine inspiration, as Saul ( 1 Samuel 19:24) “lay down naked (stripped of his outer royal robes) all that day and all that night.” God’s word in Balaam’s and Saul’s dusts acted on an alien will and therefore overpowered the bodily energies by which that will ordinarily worked. Luke, the physician and therefore one likely to understand the phenomena, alone used the term. Acts 10:10, Peter in trance received the vision abolishing distinctions of clean and unclean, preparing him for the mission to the Gentile Cornelius ( Acts 22:17-21).

    Paul in trance received his commission, “depart far hence unto the Gentiles.” In the Old Testament Abram’s “deep sleep and horror of great darkness” ( Genesis 15:12) are similar. Also Ezekiel’s sitting astonished seven days ( Ezekiel 3:15), then the hand of Jehovah coming upon him ( Ezekiel 3:22). As in many miracles, there is a natural form of trance analogous to the supernatural, namely, in ecstatic epilepsy the patient is lost to outward impressions and wrapped in a world of imagination; Frank, who studied catalepsy especially, stated he never knew the case of a Jew so affected. Mesmerism also throws nervously susceptible persons into such states. Concentration of mind, vision, and hearing on one object produces it. Intense feeling and long continued thought tend the same way. Muslim’s visions and journey through the heavens were perhaps of this kind; so devotees’ “ecstasies of adoration.” In the Bible trance God marks its supernatural character by its divinely ordered consequences. Peter’s trance could not be accidental and imaginary, for while meditating on it he hears the Spirit’s voice, “behold three men seek thee, arise therefore, get thee down, go with them doubting nothing, for I have sent them.” His finding exactly three men, and at that very time, waiting for him below to go to Cornelius who had also beheld a distinct vision, could only be by divine interposition. The English “trance” comes through French from the Latin transitus, at first “passing away from life,” then the dream vision state, in which the soul is temporarily transported out of the body and abstracted from present things into the unseen world.

    TRESPASS OFFERING (See SIN OFFERING and see SACRIFICE ).

    TRIAL (See JUDGES ; see COUNCIL ; see LAW ; see PILATE ). In Acts 19:38, margin, “the court days are now being kept,” i.e. the court is now sitting, “and there are deputies.” The assembly of citizens then sitting formed the conventus, out of which the “deputy” or proconsul (anthupatos ) selected “judices” or assessors (anthupatoi ); thus the court consisted of the proconsul and his assessors.

    TRIBUTE (See TAX ). The use of the word in the Old Testament is in reference to the almost universal custom whereby the conquering nation (whether Egyptian, Assyrian, or Roman) levied large and in many cases recurring sums of money from the nations subjugated by them; and the monuments erected by the conquerors naturally present this subject very frequently. In Matthew 17:24-27, “the didrachma receivers said to Peter, Doth not your Master pay the didrachma? He saith, Yes?” Their question implies it was the religious impost; no civil tax would have been asked in such a tone, as if its payment dare be questioned. The half-shekel or half-stater or didrachma (fifteen pence) was the universally recognized due required from every Israelite grown male in support of the sanctuary services, in the benefits of which he had a share: according to Exodus 30:11-15. (See MONEY ; see JESUS CHRIST , and see PETER ). Collected both before and after the Babylonian captivity ( 2 Kings 12:4; 2 Chronicles 24:9) from all Jews wherever sojourning (Josephus 18:9, section 1; Philo Monarch. 2:2, section 224). Hence Peter at once recognized the obligation.

    But Christ, while to avoid offense (wherein Paul imitated his Master in a different case, 1 Corinthians 9:4-19) He miraculously supplied the stater in the fish, for Himself and Peter, yet claimed freedom from the payment to the temple, seeing He was its Lord for whose service the tribute was collected. As Son of the heavenly King He was free from the legal exactions which bound all others, since the law finds its antitypical realization in Him the Son of God and “the end of the law” ( Romans 10:4). The temple offerings, for which the half shekels were collected, through Him become needless to His people also; hence they, by virtue of union with Him in justification and sanctification, are secondarily included in His pregnant saying, “then are the children (not merely the SON) free” ( John 8:35,36; Galatians 4:3-7; 5:1). As children with Him, they are sons of the King and share the kingdom ( Romans 8:15-17). The legal term “the didrachma” Matthew uses as one so familiar to his readers as to need no explanation; he must therefore have written about the time, alleged, namely, some time before the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, after which an explanatory comment would have been needed such as Josephus gives (Ant. 18:10, section 1). The undesigned omission in Matthew confirms the genuineness. and truth of his Gospel.

    TROAS Alexandria Troas, now Eshki Stamboul, “old Constantinople.” A city of Mysia, S. of ancient Troy, opposite the island Tenedos. The country was called the Troad. Antigonus built and Lysimachus enlarged. Troas. It was the chief port between Macedonia and Asia Minor. The roads to the interior were good. Suetonius says Julius Caesar designed to establish there the seat of his empire (Caesar, 79); Augustus and Constantine meditated the same project. Roman sentiment attracted them to Troas, the alleged seat from whence Aeueas, the fabled progenitor of Rome’s founder, originally migrated. The rains are large, and the harbour still traceable, a basin 400 ft. by 200 ft.

    Here on his second missionary tour Paul saw the vision of the man of Macedon praying, “come over and help us” ( Acts 16:8-12). During his next missionary tour Paul rested a while in his northward journey from Ephesus, hoping to meet Titus ( 2 Corinthians 2:12,13). On his return from this his first gospel preaching in Europe, he met at Troas those who went before him front Philippi; he stayed at T. seven days, and here restored to life Eutychus who had fallen from the third loft, being overwhelmed with sleep during Paul’s long sermon: a reproof of carelessness and drowsiness in church on the one hand, and of long and late preaching on the other ( Acts 20:5-13). Here after his first imprisonment he left his cloak, books, and parchments in Carpus’ house ( 2 Timothy 4:13). Troas had then the jus Italicum. Beautiful coins of Troas are extant, the oldest bearing the head of Apollo Sminthius. The walls enclose a rectangle, one mile from E. to W. and one mile from N. to S.

    TROGYLLIUM A small town at the foot of Mycale promontory, opposite the island Samos. The strait between is scarcely one mile across, and the current is rapid. Paul stayed a night here, probably in the ship, at the close of his third missionary journey on his way to Jerusalem. From Trogyllium he sailed to Miletus. Close by is a roadstead still called Paul’s port. The darkness, owing to its being the time of dark moon, was the occasion of the ship’s stay in this sheltered spot ( Acts 20:6,15).

    TROOP BAND: gedud , “marauding companies” ( 1 Chronicles 12:21; Hosea 6:9; 7:1).

    TROPHIMUS Paul’s companion, a Gentile of Ephesus ( Acts 21:29). Accompanied him on his return from his third missionary journey through Asia to Jerusalem. While Tychicus, his associate, a fellow Asiatic, was left behind on the route ( Acts 20:4) Trophimus went forward with Paul. The Jews raised a tumult supposing Paul had introduced Trophimus a Gentile convert into the temple. Paul left Trophimus sick at Miletus just before his own second Roman imprisonment ( 2 Timothy 4:12,20). Trophimus was probably one of the two brethren who with Titus carried the Second Epistle to the Corinthians ( 2 Corinthians 8:16-24, especially Corinthians 8:22, since 2 Corinthians 8:18 refers to Luke). Trophimus was probably the brother sent before with Titus ( 2 Corinthians 12:18), and therefore must have been sent from Ephesus; he was moreover an Ephesian. A Gentile like Titus. Connected with Paul in the mission of collecting for the poor in Judaea; he was moreover with Paul on his return from this very visit to Corinth. Tradition makes him beheaded by Nero.

    TRUMPETS, FEAST OF Numbers 29:1-6; Leviticus 23:24, “a memorial of blowing of trumpets.” (See CORNET ). Besides the daily sacrifices and the eleven victims of the new moon, the ordinary feast of the first day of the month, there were offered a young bullock, a ram, and seven first year lambs, with meat offerings and a kid for a sin offering, it was one of the seven days of holy convocation, moadim ; the other new moons were not, like it, days of sacred rest and convocation, though they were marked by a blowing of trumpets over the burnt offerings. Both kinds of trumpets, the straight trumpet (chatsotsrah ) and the cornet (shophar and qeren ), were blown in the temple, and it was “a day of blowing of trumpets.” Psalm 81:3 (which modern Jews use for the feast of trumpets) does not refer to “the new moon”; transl. as Hengstenberg “blow the horn in the month at the full moon” (keseh , KJV less well “at the time appointed”); ver. 5,6,7,10 show the Passover is referred to. This feast of trumpets prepared for the day of atonement on the tenth day; compare Joel 2:15, “blow the trumpet ... sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.” It was the new year day of the civil year, the first of Tisri (about October), commencing the sabbatical year and year of jubilee. The month being that for sowing, as well as ingathering of the last ripe fruits, its first day was appropriately made commemorative of creation grain, pleted, when “all the sons of God shouted for joy” ( Job 38:7), the birthday of the world.

    See Leviticus 25:9, “cause the sound of the cornet (shophar ) to go through” (the land). As the sound of the cornet signalized Jehovah’s descent on Sinai to take Israel into covenant, so the same sound at the close of the day of atonement announced the year which restored Israel to the freedom and blessings of the covenant ( Exodus 19:16-49). The trumpets’ sound imaged God’s voice and word ( Isaiah 58:1; Hosea 8:1; Zephaniah 1:16; Revelation 1:10; 4:1). So at Christ’s coming in glory ( Matthew 24:31; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). This feast of trumpets reminds the people of their covenant, and puts God in remembrance of His promises ( Isaiah 43:26; Numbers 10:9).

    So if we would have great measures of grace we must rouse all our energies and aspirations, and cry mightily with trumpet voice to God.

    TRYPHENA AND TRYPHOSA Christian women at Rome, saluted by Paul as then “labouring in the Lord” ( Romans 16:12). Possibly they were deaconesses. The columbaria of Caesar’s house in the Vigna Codini near Porta S. Sebastiano contain the names Tryphena, Philologus, Amplias, and Julia, mentioned in this chapter (Wordsworth, Tour in Italy, 2:173).

    TUBAL Genesis 10:2; 1 Chronicles 1:5; Isaiah 56:19. Tubal, Javan, and Meshech are the associated sons of Japheth. They brought slaves (beautiful ones abounded in the Euxine coasts, and were traded in by the Cappadocians: Polyb. 4:38, section 4) and copper vessels to the Phoenician markets (copper and metals of the neighbouring Mossynaeci and Chalybes were famed, and copper mines were at Chalvar in Armenia): Ezekiel 27:13; nations of the north ( Ezekiel 32:26; 38:2,3,15; 39:1,2). Gog is their chief prince. Tubal answers to the Tibareni, as Meshech to the Moschi; close to one another, on the northern coast of Asia Minor, about the river Melanthius (Melet Irmak), in Herodotus’ and Xenophon’s days; previously among the most powerful races. The Assyrian monarchs from 1100 to 700 B.C. were often warring with the Muskai and Tuplai, E. of the Taurus range, and occupying the region afterward called Cappadocia, Rawlinson (Herodotus i. 535) makes them Turaniaus (the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, ii. 1010, calls them Scythians) who spread over the entire region between the Mediterranean and India, the Persian gulf and Caucasus. In Sargon’s time, according to inscriptions, Ambris, son of Khuliya, was their hereditary chief, and by alliance with the kings of Musak and Vararat (Mesech and Ararat) who were revolting from Assyria. drew on himself the hostility of that monarch. Xenophon (Anabasis vii. 8, section 25) says the Tibareni were then an independent tribe; 24 kings of the Tuplai in previous ages are mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions (Hincks in Rawlinson’s Herodotus i. 380 note). Rich in flocks (Apollon. Rhod., Arg. 2:377).

    TUBALCAIN Son of the Cainite Lamech by Zillah ( Genesis 4:22), “a whetter of every cutting instrument in bronze and iron.” Flint, wood, and bone were probably before this used for implements of husbandry, arts, and war; so uncivilized nations now (see CIVILIZATION ). Nations degenerating into barbarism fall back on a flint age, then progress to bronze (in S. America gold) and iron successively. The Scythian race, see TUBAL , being coppersmiths ( Ezekiel 27:13), seem related to the name. “Vulcan” may come from it. The Arabic kain is “a smith.”

    TURTLE tor ; Latin, tur-tur, from imitation of its cooing note. Abraham’s offering ( Genesis 15:9) with a young pigeon (gozal ). A pair was the poor man’s substitute for the lamb or kid, as trespass, sin, or burnt offering ( Leviticus 12:6); so the Virgin mother for her purification, through poverty ( Luke 2:24; 2 Corinthians 8:9). Also in the case of a Nazarite accidentally defiled by a dead body ( Numbers 6:10). Owing to its being migratory and timid, the turtle was never domesticated as the pigeon; but being numerous, and building its nest in gardens, it afforded its young as an easy prey to those who did not own even pigeons. The palm dove, Turtur Aegyptiacus, probably supplied the sacrifices in Israel’s desert journey, for its nests abound in palms on oases. Its habit of pairing for life, and its love to its mate, made it a symbol of purity and so a suitable offering. Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 8:7) makes its return at its proper time in spring a tacit reproof of Israel who know not the seasonable time of returning to Him when the “winter” of His wrath is past and He invites them back to the “spring” of His favor. Christ in inviting His people to gospel hopes from past legalism (“the winter is past”: Matthew 4:16; 1 John 2:8; also past estrangement through sin, Isaiah 44:22; Jeremiah 50:20; 2 Corinthians 5:17) says “the voice of the turtle is heard in the land” (Song 2:11,12). the emblem of love and so of the Holy Spirit. Love is the keynote of the new song of the redeemed ( Revelation 1:5; 14:3; 19:6; Isaiah 35:10). The turtle dove represents “the congregation of God’s poor” which the psalmist ( Psalm 74:19) prays God not to deliver “unto the wild beasts” (Septuagint, Vulgate, Arabic), or “to the greedy host” (Maurer). The turtle marks the return of spring still more than other singing birds, for it alone unceasingly sings from morn until sunset. The Turtur auritus abounds in Palestine; plaintive tender melancholy characterizes its note. The turtle is smaller, more slender and elegant, than the pigeon. It is also distinguished by having the tall feathers graduated in length, and forming together a wedge in shape; the first quill feather of the wing is narrow and pointed. A black band passes nearly round the neck of the collared species, which is of a pale hue. From its prevalence in N. Africa it is called the Barbary dove.

    TYCHICUS Acts 20:4. Paul’s companion and fellow labourer in the gospel ( Acts 20:4); accompanied him in part on his return journey from the third missionary circuit; “of Asia.” Trophimus went forward with Paul to Jerusalem ( Acts 21:29), but Tychicus stayed behind in Asia, perhaps at Miletus (Acts20:15,38). With Paul again in his first Roman imprisonment: Colossians 4:7,8, “a (Greek the, the article marks that Tychicus was well known to them) beloved (in relation to the Christian community) brother and a faithful minister (in missionary services) and fellow servant in the Lord (in serving the same Master).” Paul marks his high sense of the faithful and sympathetic character of Tychicus by his commission: “whom I have sent ... that he might know your estate (rather as the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus manuscripts ‘that YE may know OUR state,’ compare verse 7; Ephesians 6:22) and comfort your hearts,” distressed by my imprisonment as well as by your own trials. Tychicus, being an Asiatic himself, fitly carried both the epistles to the Asiatic Ephesians and Colossians, and Philemon; but was not a Colossian as Onesimus, for of the latter alone Paul says “who is one of you” ( Colossians 4:9). If the epistle to the Ephesians be a circular letter Tychicus (the only person alluded to throughout the epistle) would be a fit person to see it read. In Titus 3:12 Paul proposes to send Artonus or Tychicus (from Corinth or else Ephesus, where Tychicus was with Paul) to take Titus’ place (which his past services to Paul in the neighbouring Asia qualified him for) at Crete, and so to set Titus free to join Paul at Nicopolis. In 2 Timothy 4:12, in his second Roman imprisonment, Paul says “Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus,” implying “I need one profitable for the ministry; I had one in Tychicus, but he is gone” (Ellicott). Others make Paul send Tychicus (“I am herewith sending Tychicus to Ephesus”) to take Timothy’s place there as president of the church. Tradition made Tychicus subsequently bishop of Chalcedon. Some make Tychicus the first “brother” in 2 Corinthians 8:16-24, and Trophimus the other. Luke seems more probably the former, as “his praise in the Gospel” as Paul’s companion was “throughout all the churches.” If Tychicus be meant, remarkable integrity will be among his prominent graces.

    TYRANNUS Acts 19:9. In whose school at Ephesus Paul discussed (dielegeto , “reasoned”; same Greek, 17:2) gospel truths with disciples and inquirers (having withdrawn from cavilers) daily for two years. A private synagogue (called beet midrash by the Jews), or rather the hall of a Gentile sophist or lecturer on rhetoric and philosophy; his name is Greek, and the “one” prefixed implies that there was no definite leaning to Christianity in him. He probably hired out his school when not using it himself. Paul in leaving the synagogue would be likely to take a Gentile’s hall to gain access to the Gentiles.

    TYRE Joshua 19:29; 2 Samuel 24:7; Isaiah 23:1; Ezekiel 26,27,28. In Phoenicia, E. of the Mediterranean, 20 miles S. of Sidon. Justin says the Sidonians founded Tyre after having been defeated by the king of Ascalon, 1209 B.C. according to the Parian marble. A double city, part on the mainland, part on an island nearly one mile long, and separated from the continent by a strait half a mile broad. Justin (xi. 10) records the tradition of the inhabitants that there was a city on the mainland before there was one on the island. Ezekiel represents the mainland city as besieged by Nebuchadnezzar’s horses and chariots, and its walls assailed with “engines of war, forts, and mounts,” and its towers broken down with axes; but the island city as sitting “in the heart of the seas” ( Ezekiel 28:2, margin).

    The former, Old Tyre, stretched along the shore seven miles from the river Leontes on the N. to the fountain Ras el ain on the S., the water of which was brought into the city by aqueducts. Pliny (N. H., v. 17) says the circuit of both was 19 Roman miles, the island city being only 22 stadia. The difficulty is that the name “Tyre,” meaning a “rock,” belongs properly to the island city, there being no “rock” in the mainland city to originate the name; yet the mainland city is called “Old Tyre.” Probably the Phoenician name of the mainland city resembled in sound but not sense the Greek Palaeo-Tyrus, and the latter name was given from a misunderstanding.

    Tyre is not mentioned in the Pentateuch, but first in Joshua 19:29 “the strong city Tyre.” From tsor came its two names, Tyre, and Sara, now Sur (Arabic). Joshua implies it was on the shore, but the city and chief temple of Hercules (Melkarth, the tutelary god of Tyre) was probably on the island. Unlike other oriental cities, space being limited on the island, the houses were built in stories. The majority of the population was on the mainland. Hiram by substructures enlarged the eastern and southern sides, so as to afford room for a public place, Eurychorus. The northern or Sidonian harbour was 900 ft. long, 700 wide, protected by walls. The southern or Egyptian was formed by a great breakwater; the barbours could be closed by a boom; a canal through the city joined the harbours. “Tyre did build herself a strong hold” ( Zechariah 9:3); so Diodorus Siculus (xvii. 40), “Tyre had the greatest confidence, owing to her insular position, fortifications and abundant stores.” A double wall, 150 ft. high, besides the sea, secured island Tyre. “Her merchants were princes, and her traffickers the honourable of the earth” ( Isaiah 23:7,8). see HIRAM , as friend and ally, supplied David with timber and workmen for his palace ( 2 Samuel 5:11), and see SOLOMON with cedars of Lebaron conveyed by floats to Joppa,74 geographical miles, after having been hewn by Hiram’s Sidonian hewers unrivaled in skill ( 1 Kings 5:6).

    The Tyrian skill in copper work appears in the lilies, palms, oxen, lions, and cherubim which they executed for Solomon. Tyrian colonists founded Carthage 143 years and eight months after the founding of Solomon’s temple. (Josephus, contra Apion 1:18). Asher never possessed Tyre; though commanded to exterminate the Sidonians along with the other Canaanites, Israel never had war with them ( Judges 1:31,32). The census takers in going to Tyre under David seem merely to have counted the Israelites resident in Tyre ( 2 Samuel 24:7). Joshua ( Joshua 11:8; 19:28) designates Sidon “great.” In David’s time Tyre assumes the greatness above Sidon. So secular history represents Sidon as mother city of see PHOENICIA , which see (Justin, Hist. xviii. 3; Strabo Geegr. 1:2, section 33). Old Egyptian inscriptions give Sidon the first place. Homer often mentions Sidon, never Tyre. The reason for his and the Pentateuch’s silence as to Tyre is, Tyre, though existing, was as yet subordinate. Secular history accords with the Bible in dating the accession of Tyre to greatness just before David’s reign. Unlike other independent commercial cities Tyre was a monarchy, not a republic ( Jeremiah 25:22; 27:3). The friendly relations between Tyre and Israel (Solomon supplying grain and oil in return for Hiram’s timber, metals, and workmen) were again renewed when Ahab married the Sidonian king Ethbaal’s (= Ithobal king of Tyre, according to Menander, in Josephus Ant. 8:13, section 2) daughter. Joel ( Joel 3:4-8) denounces Tyre for selling children of Judah and Jerusalem as slaves to the Greeks, Amos threatens Tyre with devouring fire for “delivering the whole captivity (captive Israelites) to Edom, and remembering not the brotherly covenant” (Amos 1:9,10), between David and Hiram which guaranteed safety, religious privileges, and the undisturbed exercise of their faith to the Jews sojourning in Tyre.

    Hiram’s successors were Baleazar, Abdrastatus (assassinated by his nurse’s four sons, the elder of whom usurped the throne; then Hiram’s line after a servile revolt was restored in), Adrastus, Aserymus, Phales (who slew his brother Aserymus and was slain by), Ithobaal, priest of Astarte and father of Jezebel, Ahab’s unscrupulous, cruel, and idolatrous queen. Tyre’s annals record the three years’ drought of 1 Kings 17,18. Then Badezor, Matgen, Pygmalion; he slew Acerbas, Hercules’ high priest, and the husband of Elissa or Dido. She fled with many of the aristocracy and founded Carthage. Her self immolation on a funeral pyre is essentially oriental. The next certain event after some interval is Elulaeus’ reign and Shalmaneser’s invasion.

    Shalmaneser, after taking Samaria, turned his arms against Tyre, then mistress of Sidon, and Cyprus with its copper mines (“copper” derives its name from Cyprus), 721 B.C. Menander, the translator of the Tyrian archives into Greek (Josephus Ant. 9:14, section 2), says Elulseus king of Tyre subdued a revolt in Cyprus. The Assyrian king then, assailed Pnoenicia; Sidon, Akko (Acre), and Palaeo-Tyrus submitted, and helped him with 60 ships and 800 rowers against 12 ships of Tyre. The Tyrians dispersed their opponent’s fleet, but he besieged them for five years, apparently without success. Isaiah (Isaiah 23) refers to this siege; Sargon probably finished the siege. The reference to “the Chaldaeans” ( Isaiah 23:13) implies an ulterior prophetic reference also to its siege under Nebuchadnezzar which lasted 13 years. “Behold,” says the prophet, calling Tyre’s attention to the humiliating fact that upstart see CHALDEES , subordinate then to Assyria and only in later times about to become supreme, should first as mercenaries under the Assyrian Shalmaneser, then as Nebuchadnezzar’s army, besiege the ancient city Tyre. Alexander the Great destroyed new Tyre after a seven months’ siege. Nebuchadnezzar, having no vessels to attack the island city, besieged the mainland city, but the heart of the city was on the island. To this latter God’s threat applies, “I will scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock” ( Ezekiel 26:2,4, etc.); instead of her realizing her exulting expectation on Jerusalem’s downfall, “I shall be replenished now she is laid waste,” the very soil which Tyre brought together on the rock on which she built I will scrape so clean away as to leave no dust, but only the bore rock as it was; “it (island Tyre) shall be a place for spreading of nets in the midst of the sea.” Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 27:10,11) informs us that, like her daughter Carthage, Tyre employed mercenaries, “of Persia (the first mention of Persia in ancient literature), Lud, Phut, and Arvad”; a frequent occurrence and weakness in commercial cities, where artisans’ wages exceed a soldier’s pay. Merchants of see SHEBA and see RAAMAH , i.e. Arabia. and the Persian gulf, brought Tyre gold (Ezekiel 27). see TARSHISH supplied Tyre with silver, iron, tin (from Cornwall), and lead; Palestine supplied Tyre with wheat, oil, and balm ( 1 Kings 5:9; Acts 12:20); whence the two nations were always at peace. Tyre got the wine of Helbon (Aleppo), not Judah’s wines though excellent ( Genesis 49:11). The nomadic Bedouin Kedar supplied lambs, rams, and goats; Egypt, linen; the isles of Elishah (Greece, the Peloponnese, and Elis especially), blue and purple dyes; (latterly Tyre extracted her famous purple from her own shell fish the Murex trunculus (see SCARLET ): Pliny ix. 60,61, Pausanias iii. 21, section 6; the shell fish were crushed in round holes found still by travelers in the solid sandstone there: Wilde, Voyage along Mediterr.); and Dedan on the Persian gulf, ivory and ebony.

    The exultation of Tyre at Jerusalem’s overthrow by Nebuchadnezzar might seem strange; but Josiah’s overthrow of Solomon’s altars to Ashtoreth or Astarte, the Tyrian queen of heaven, which for 350 years had been a pledge of the goodwill between Jerusalem and Tyre ( 2 Kings 23:13), had alienated the Tyrians; the selfishness of commercial rivalry further made them regard Jerusalem’s fall as an opening for Tyre to turn to herself the inland traffic of which Jerusalem had hereto been the “gate”; Tyre said against Jerusalem, “Aha, she is broken that was the gates (the commercial mart) of the people, she is turned unto me” ( Ezekiel 26:2); the caravans from Petra, Palmyra and the East instead of passing through Jerusalem, will be transferred to me. Tyre is thus the world’s representative in its phase of intense self seeking, which not so much opposes directly God’s people as exults in their calamity when this subserves her schemes of gain, pride, and ambition, however ostensibly heretofore on friendly terms with them But Tyre experienced the truth “he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished” ( Proverbs 17:5). Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of 13 years followed; “every head was made bald, and every shoulder peeled, yet had he no wages nor his army, for Tyre, for the service that he had served against it” ( Ezekiel 29:18,19). Jerome states that Nebuchadnezzar took Tyre, but had no wages for his pains since the Tyrians had removed in ships from Tyre everything precious. So God gave him Egypt in compensation; his success is implied in Tyre receiving a king from Babylon, probably one of the Tyrian hostages detained there, Merbal (Josephus, Apion 1:21, on the authority of Phoenician annals). Tyre probably submitted on mild terms, for no other authors mention its capture.

    Josephus quotes Phoenician records as stating that “Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre 13 years under their king Ithobal.” Its capture accords with Pharaoh Hophra’s expedition against Tyre not long after, probably in self defense, to prevent Tyre’s navy becoming Babylon’s weapon against Egypt.

    Under Persia Tyre supplied cedar wood to the Jews for building the second temple ( Ezra 3:7).

    Alexander the Great, in order not to have his communications with Greece cut off, wished to have the Phoenician fleet at command; the other Phoenician cities submitted. Tyre stood a “seven months’” siege, the Cyprians blockading the northern harbour, and the Phoenicians the southern harbour, so that Alexander was enabled to join the island to the mainland by a vast artificial mole constructed of the ruins of mainland Tyre remaining after Nebuchadnezzar’s siege; while Carthage, through internal commotions, was unable to help the mother city. The conqueror slew 8,000 of the brave defenders, crucified 2,000 in revenge for the murder of some Macedonians, and sold into slavery 30,000 of the inhabitants.

    Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 26:11,12) says: “Nebuchadnezzar shall slay, ... They shall break down thy walls, and shall lay thy stones and timber and dust in the midst of the water.” The overthrow of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar was the first link in the long chain of evil, and the earnest of its final doom. The change from “he” to “they” marks that what he did was not the whole, but paved the way for other’s completing what he began. It was to be a progressive work until Tyre was utterly destroyed. Alexander did exactly as ver. 12 foretells; with the “stones, timber,” and rubbish of mainland Tyre he made the causeway to island Tyre (Q. Curtius iv. 2), 322 B.C. “Thou shalt be built (re-established as a commercial queen and fortress of the seas) no more.” Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Antigonus, the crusaders in A.D. 1124, and the Saracens in the 13th century, A.D. 1291 (before whom the Tyrians vacated their city, fulfilling Isaiah 23:7), all contributed to make Tyro what she is, her harbours choked up, her palaces and fortresses in ruins and “built no more,” only a few fishermen’s humble abodes, Tyre only “a place to spread nets upon.” In Hasselquist’s day (Voyages in Levant, A.D. 1751) there were “about ten inhabitants, Turks and Christians, living by fishing.” Its present population is 3,000 or 4,000. It was for long a Christian bishopric.

    Ithobaal was king at the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege, and Baal his son at its close. Then the form of government changed to that of judges (Suffetes, Hebrew shophetim ). Tyre is a vivid illustration of vicissitudes of fortune, so that Lucan calls her “unstable Tyre.” During Tyre’s existence Thebes, Nineveh, Babylon, and Jerusalem have fallen, and Carthage and Rome have risen and fallen; she “whose antiquity is, of ancient days” ( Isaiah 23:7), who heaped up silver as dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets” ( Zechariah 9:2), is now bore and poverty stricken. Greed of gain was her snare, to which she sacrificed every other consideration; this led her to join the wicked confederacy of seven nations constituting the main body, with three accessories, which sought to oust Jehoshaphat and God’s people out of their inheritance ( Psalm 83:7). Psalm 87:4 foretells that Tyre personified as an ideal man shall be in Messianic days spiritually born in Jerusalem. Her help to Solomon’s temple foretypified this, and the Syrophoenician woman’s faith ( Mark 7:26) is the firstfruit and earnest. Isaiah’s ( Isaiah 23:18) prophecy that “her merchandise shall be holiness to the Lord ... it shall be for them that dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing,” was fulfilled in the consecration by the church at Tyre of much of its wealth to God and the support of Christ’s ministry (Eusebius Hist. 10:4). Paul found disciples there ( Acts 21:3-6), a lively instance of the immediate and instinctive communion of saints, though previously strangers to one another. What an affecting picture of brotherly love, all bringing Paul’s company on their way “with wives and children until they were out of the city, then kneeling down on the shore” under the canopy of heaven and praying! Psalm 45:12, “the daughter of Tyre shall entreat thy favor (so supply the omission) with a gift, even the rich (which Tyre was preeminently) among the people shall entreat thy favor,” begging admission into the kingdom of God from Israel ( Isaiah 44:5; 60:6-14; Psalm 72:10). When Israel “hearkens” to Messiah and “forgets her own people (Jewish ritualism) and her father’s house (her boast of Abrahamic descent), the King shall greatly desire her beauty,” and Messiah shall become “the desire of all nations,” e.g. Tyre ( Haggai 2:7).

    On the other hand Tyre is type of see ANTICHRIST (Ezekiel 28) in her self deifying pride. “I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas ... yet thou art a man and not God. Though thou set thine heart as the heart of God, behold thou art wiser than Daniel ... no secret, can they hide from thee; with thy wisdom thou hast gotten riches” (compare Daniel 7:1-25; 11:36,37; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 13:1,6; <550301> Timothy 3:1-9). The “seas” answer to the political disturbed sea of nations out of which antichrist emerges. Tyre’s “holy island,” sacred to Melkart (Sanchoniathon) answers to antichrist’s mimicry of God’s throne in the temple of God. Her self-vaunted wisdom ( Zechariah 9:2) answers to the “eyes of a man” in the little horn ( Daniel 7:8; 1 Corinthians 1:19-31) and the second beast’s “great wonders.” Man in our days by discoveries in science hopes to be so completely lord of the elements as to be independent of God, so that “no secret can be hidden from him” in the natural world, which is the only world that self-willed fools recognize.

    When just at the summit of blasphemous self glorification, God shall bring these self deceivers with their masters, antichrist, the false prophet, and Satan, “down to the pit,” as. Tyre ( Ezekiel 28:8; Revelation 16; 17; 19:20; 20:10). In Tyre’s king another example was given of man being put on his trial under most favorable circumstances, with all that beauty, sagacity, and wealth could do for man, like Adam and Eve in Eden ( Ezekiel 28:13,14). No “precious stone” was withheld from Tyre; like the overshadowing cherubim, its king overshadowed Tyre; as the beau ideal of humanity he walked up and down “in the midst of the stones of fire” like “the paved work of sapphire” ( Exodus 24:10,17) under the feet of the God of Israel. But, whereas Hiram feared the God of Israel and helped forward His temple, “iniquity” even pride was found in Tyre.

    Therefore, God “cast her to the ground” ( Ezekiel 28:17; Isaiah 23:9), “sacred and inviolate” (hiera kai asulos ) though she calls herself on coins.

    The Lord Jesus entered the coasts of Tyre, but it is uncertain whether He entered Tyre itself ( Matthew 15:21; Mark 7:24,26).

    U UCAL Agur spoke his words to see ITHIEL = “God with me”, and Ucal his disciples. From yakol “he was strong.” Keil guesses that Ithiel, “God with me,” denotes those glorying in intimate communion with God and a higher insight thereby. Ucal, “I am strong,” denotes those boasting of their might and denying God; freethinkers fancying themselves above the revealed law and in atheism indulging the lusts of the flesh ( Proverbs 30:1).

    UEL Of Bani’s family. Married a foreign wife ( Ezra 10:34).

    UKNAZ Rather “and see KENAZ ” ( 1 Chronicles 4:15, margin). Some name has been omitted before the “and.”

    ULAI A river near Shushan, by the banks of which Daniel saw the vision of the ram and the he goat ( Daniel 8:2,16). The ancient Eulaeus or Choaspes, for these are two divisions of one river, bifurcating at Paipul, 20 miles N.W. of Shushan; the eastern branch Eulaeus, the western branch Choaspes (now Kerkhah) flowing S.W. into the Tigris. The eastern branch passes E. of Shushan and at Ahwaz falls into the Kuran (Pasitigris) which flows on to the Persian gulf. The undivided stream was sometimes called Eulaeus, but usually Choaspes. In Pehlevi Eulaeus or Aw-Halesh means “pure water.” Strabo (xv. 3, section 22) says the Persian kings drank only of this water at their table, and that it was lighter than ordinary water. The stream is now dry but the valley traceable, 900 ft. wide, 12 to 20 deep. A sculpture from Sennacherib’s palace at Koyunjik represents Shushan in the time of his grandson Asshur-kani-pal, its conqueror, and the stream bifurcated. In chap. 8:16 Daniel says, “I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai,” referring either to the bifurcation or to the river and one of its chief channels, for Eulaeus by artificial canals surrounded the Shushan citadel. The upper Kerkhah and the lower Kuran were anciently united and were viewed as one stream.

    ULAM 1. Descendant of Gilead, Manasseh’s grandson, and Bedan’s father ( Chronicles 7:17). 2. Eshek’s firstborn, brother of Azel, Saul’s descendant. His sons were mighty archers (treaders of the bow), with grandsons, numbering 150.

    ULLA Of Ashen ( 1 Chronicles 7:39,40): head of a house and a mighty man of valor, a chief prince.

    UMMAH A city of Asher’s allotment ( Joshua 19:30). Now Almu, according to Thomson, in the highlands on the coast.

    UNCLEAN AND CLEAN (See LAW , see LEPER , see RED HEIFER ). See Leviticus 11; 20:25,26; 17:3-11; 7:27. The ground of the distinction was Israel’s call to be Jehovah’s special people ( Deuteronomy 14:21). Their daily meals should remind them of the covenant which separated them from the whole Gentile world as holy unto the Lord. The clean animals answer typically to God’s holy people, the unclean to the idolatrous Gentiles. So Peter’s vision ( Acts 10:11-15) of the “sheet bound by four (the number for world wide extension) rope ends (archais , Alford) containing all kinds of four looted beasts, creeping things and fowls,” of all which he was commanded to eat, was the appropriate type of the abolition of distinction, not only between meats (compare 1 Timothy 4:4; Matthew 15:11) but between Jew and Gentile. Henceforth “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” ( Romans 14:17).

    The distinction had regard, net to living, but to dead animals. The Israelite treated his unclean camel and donkey as carefully, and came into contact with them as often, as his ox or sheep. Every dead body, whether of man or beast, dying or killed in an ordinary way, was unclean. Thus, the grand opposition between life population is 3,000 or 4,000. It was for long a Christian bishopric.

    Ithobaal was king at the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege, and Baal his son at its close. Then the form of government changed to that of judges (Suffetes, Hebrew shophetim ). Tyre is a vivid illustration of vicissitudes of fortune, so that Lucan calls her “unstable Tyre.” During Tyre’s existence Thebes, Nineveh, Babylon, and Jerusalem have fallen, and Carthage and Rome have risen and fallen; she “whose antiquity is, of ancient days” ( Isaiah 23:7), who heaped up silver as dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets” ( Zechariah 9:2), is now bore and poverty stricken. Greed of gain was her snare, to which she sacrificed every other consideration; this led her to join the wicked confederacy of seven nations constituting the main body, with three accessories, which sought to oust Jehoshaphat and God’s people out of their inheritance ( Psalm 83:7). Psalm 87:4 foretells that Tyre personified as an ideal man shall be in Messianic days spiritually born in Jerusalem. Her help to Solomon’s temple foretypified this, and the Syrophoenician woman’s faith ( Mark 7:26) is the firstfruit and earnest. Isaiah’s ( Isaiah 23:18) prophecy that “her merchandise shall be holiness to the Lord ... it shall be for them that dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing,” was fulfilled in the consecration by the church at Tyre of much of its wealth to God and the support of Christ’s ministry (Eusebius, Hist. 10:4). Paul found disciples there ( Acts 21:3-6), a lively instance of the immediate and instinctive communion of saints, though previously strangers to one another. What an affecting picture of brotherly love, all bringing Paul’s company on their way “with wives and children until they were out of the city, then kneeling down on the shore” under the canopy of heaven and praying! Psalm 45:12, “the daughter of Tyre shall entreat thy favor (so supply the omission) with a gift, even the rich (which Tyre was preeminently) among the people shall entreat thy favor,” begging admission into the kingdom of God from Israel ( Isaiah 44:5; 60:6-14; Psalm 72:10). When Israel “hearkens” to Messiah and “forgets her own people (Jewish ritualism) and her father’s house (her boast of Abrahamic descent), the King shall greatly desire her beauty,” and Messiah shall become “the desire of all nations,” e.g. Tyre ( Haggai 2:7).

    On the other hand Tyre is type of see ANTICHRIST (Ezekiel 28) in her self deifying pride. “I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas ... yet thou art a man and not God. Though thou set thine heart as the heart of God, behold thou art wiser titan Daniel ... no secret can they hide from thee; with thy wisdom thou hast gotten riches” (compare Daniel 7:1-25; 11:36,37; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 13:1,6; <550301> Timothy 3:1-9). The “Seas” answer to the political disturbed sea of nations out of which antichrist emerges. Tyre’s “holy island,” sacred to Melkart (Sanchoniathon) answers to antichrist’s mimicry of God’s throne in the temple of God. Her self vaunted wisdom ( Zechariah 9:2) answers to the “eyes of a man” in the little horn ( Daniel 7:8; 1 Corinthians 1:19-31) and the second beast’s “great wonders.” Man in our days by discoveries in science hopes to be so completely lord of the elements as to be independent of God, so that “no secret can be hidden from him” in the natural world, which is the only world that self willed fools recognize.

    When just at the summit of blasphemous self glorification, God shall bring these self deceivers with their masters, antichrist, the false prophet, and Satan, “down to the pit,” as Tyre ( Ezekiel 28:8; Revelation 16--17; 19:20; 20:10). In Tyre’s king another example was given of man being put on his trial under most favorable circumstances, with all that beauty, sagacity, and wealth could do for man, like Adam and Eve in Eden ( Ezekiel 28:13,14). No “precious stone” was withheld from Tyre; like the overshadowing cherubim, its king overshadowed Tyre; as the beau ideal of humanity he walked u p and down “in the midst of the stones of fire” like “the paved work of sapphire” ( Exodus 24:10,17) under the feet of the God of Israel. But, whereas Hiram feared the God of Israel and helped forward His temple, “iniquity” even pride was found in Tyre.

    Therefore God “cast her to the ground” ( Ezekiel 28:17; Isaiah 23:9), “sacred and inviolate” (hiera kai asulos) though she calls herself on coins.

    The Lord Jesus entered the coasts of Tyre, but it is uncertain whether He entered Tyre itself ( Matthew 15:21; Mark 7:24,26).

    UCAL Agur spoke his words to see ITHIEL = “God with me”, and Ucal his disciples. From yakol “he was strong.” Keil, guesses that Ithiel, “God with me,” denotes those glorying in intimate communion with God, and a higher insight thereby. Ucal, “I am strong,” denotes those boasting of their might and denying God; freethinkers fancying themselves above the revealed law and in atheism indulging the lusts of the flesh ( Proverbs 30:1).

    UEL Of Bani’s family. Married a foreign wife ( Ezra 10:34).

    UKNAZ Rather and “see KENAZ ” ( 1 Chronicles 4:15, margin). Some name has been omitted before the “and.”

    ULAI A river near Shushan, by the banks of which Daniel saw the vision of the ram and the he goat ( Daniel 8:2,16). The ancient Eulaeus or Choaspes, for these are two divisions of one river, bifurcating at Paipul, 20 miles N.W. of Shushan; the eastern branch Eulaeus, the western branch Choaspes (now Kerkhah) flowing S.W. into the Tigris. The eastern branch passes E. of Shushan and at Ahwaz falls into the Kuran (Pasitigris) which flows on to the Persian gulf. The undivided stream was sometimes called Eulaeus, but usually Choaspes. In Pehlevi Eulaeus or Aw-Halesh means “pure water.” Strabo (15:3, section 22) says the Persian kings drank only of this water at their table, and that it was lighter than ordinary water. The stream is now dry but the valley traceable, 900 ft. wide, 12 ft. to ft. deep. A sculpture from Sennaeherib’s palace at Koyunjik represents Shushan in the time of his grandson Asshur-bani-pal, its conqueror, and the stream bifurcated. In Daniel 8:16 Daniel says, “I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai,” referring either to the bifurcation or to the river and one of its chief channels, for Eulaeus by artificial canals surrounded the Shushan citadel. The upper Kerkhah and the lower Kuran were anciently united and were viewed as one stream.

    ULAM 1. Descendant of Gilead, Manasseh’s grandson, and Bedan’s father ( Chronicles 7:17). 2. Eshek’s firstborn, brother of Azel, Saul’s descendant. His sons were mighty archers (“treaders of the bow”), with grandsons, numbering 150.

    ULLA Of Asher ( 1 Chronicles 7:39,40): head of a house and a mighty man of valor, a chief prince.

    UMMAH A city of Asher’s allotment ( Joshua 19:30). Now Almu, according to Thomson, in the highlands on the coast.

    UNCLEAN AND CLEAN (See LAW ; see LEPER ; see RED HEIFER ). See Leviticus 11; 20:25,26; 17:3-11; 7:27. The ground of the distinction was Israel’s call to be Jehovah’s peculiar people ( Deuteronomy 14:21). Their daily meals should remind them of the covenant which separated them from the whole Gentile world as holy unto the Lord. The clean animals answer typically to God’s holy people, the unclean to the idolatrous Gentiles. So Peter’s vision ( Acts 10:11-15) of the “sheet bound by four (the number for worldwide extension) rope ends (archais , Alford) containing all kinds of four footed beasts, creeping things and fowls,” of all which he was commanded to eat, was the appropriate type of the abolition of distinction, not only between meats (compare 1 Timothy 4:4; Matthew 15:11) but between Jew and Gentile. Henceforth, “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” ( Romans 14:17).

    The distinction had regard, not to living, but to dead animals. The Israelite treated his unclean camel and donkey as carefully, and came into contact with them as often, as his ox or sheep. Every dead body, whether of man or beast, dying or killed in an ordinary way, was unclean. Thus the grand opposition between life (connected with holiness) and death (connected with sin) is marked. By slaughtering in a prescribed manner, pointing to the antitypical Deliverer from sin and death, animals became exempted from the uncleanness attached to death. The blood in which is “the life of the flesh” being drawn off from the meat, the latter by being presented before Jehovah became clean as food for Jehovah’s people by His gift. The ruminating quadrupeds, fish with fins and scales, gallinaceous birds and such as feed on vegetables, and not the raptores and carnivorous; those not revolting to our instincts; those affording the most wholesome foods: all these were the foods chosen as typical symbols of Israel’s separation, from moral uncleanness, to Jehovah. Unlike the Egyptian law intended for the priests alone, or the Hindu law binding only on the twice born Brahmin, or the Parsee law for those alone disciplined in spiritual matters the Mosaic law was for all, Israel being “a kingdom of priests, an holy nation” ( Exodus 19:6), foreshadowing our Christian high calling, ministers and laymen alike ( 1 Peter 2:9; Isaiah 61:6).

    The animal kingdom teaches ethical lessons. The cloven hoof, standing firmly on the ground yet adapted for locomotion, figures the believer’s standing and walk in the world. Rumination symbolizes due meditation on and digestion of God’s law ( Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:2). The fish’s fins raise it out of the mud where the eel dwells; so do prayer and faith raise the soul out of darkness and uncleanness.

    The decree of the Jerusalem council ( Acts 15:20,21) rested simply on the desire to avoid offending needlessly the prejudices of Jews and Jewish Christians, “for Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him.”

    Mercy to the beasts pervades the law. Though it could not injure the mother to boil the dead kid in the mother’s milk, yet it was forbidden, as the milk was the kid’s “life” and had a relative sanctity resembling that of forbidden blood (Juv. xi. 68); the delicate feeling of the sentiment would suggest, general humanity toward brutes. Swine are liable to disease from foul feeding, and in Palestine are not very wholesome food; so also fat and blood; but the spiritual reason of prohibition was the main one, the swine’s uncleanness of feeding typifying moral impurity, and the fat and the blood being God’s exclusive perquisite for sacrifice on the altar.

    Uncleanness cut one off for a time from his social and religious standing among God’s people. The Old Testament divine law invested the human body with a sanctity which shadowed forth the holiness required of the whole man, “spirit, soul, and body” ( 1 Thessalonians 5:23): hence, flows the frequent addition to the several ceremonial precepts, “I am the Lord your God,” “ye shall be holy, for I am holy” ( Leviticus 11:44,45).

    The Lord’s mark of ownership, circumcision, was on them; and that ownership appeared in every ordinary act of life, the antitype to which is our New Testament rule ( 1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Peter 4:11; Colossians 3:17).

    Three degrees of uncleanness may be distinguished. (1) That lasting until even, removable by bathing and washing the clothes; as contact with dead animals. (2) That lasting seven days, removable by the “Water of separation,” as defilement from a human corpse. (3) From the diseased, puerperal, or menstrual state; lasting as long as this continued; in the leper’s case, for life. As blood shedding typified the deadliest sin, so washing typified cleansing from this ( Deuteronomy 21:6-8; Psalm 26:6; 73:13; Isaiah 1:15). Man’s passage into, and out of, his mortal state was connected with ceremonial pollution, marking his inherent corruption; the mother of a male continued unclean 40 days, of a female days ( Leviticus 12:2-5): the difference representing woman’s being first in the sin and curse ( Genesis 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:14). For the cases of male, female, and intersexual defilement, all handled in holy writ with reverend decorous purity, compare Leviticus 12; 15; 20:18. All these detailed rules, by a broad margin, separated purity from impurity. The touch of those unclean by contact with a dead body imparted defilement ( Numbers 19:22; Haggai 2:12,13). “Holy flesh” (that of a sacrifice) makes holy the skirt in which it is carried; but that “skirt” cannot impart its sanctity to anything beyond, as bread ( Leviticus 6:27), implying a sacrifice cannot make holy the disobedient. An unclean thing imparts its uncleanness to anything, whereas a holy thing cannot confer its sanctity on the unclean ( Numbers 19:11,13,22). The law of uncleanness until even, after the conjugal act, would discourage polygamy and tend toward the health of parent and child. So as to involuntary self pollution the restraint would be medically and morally salutary.

    All animals that were unclean to touch when dead were unclean to eat, but not conversely; all unclean to eat were unclean to sacrifice, but not conversely. A garment or vessel became unclean by touch of a carcass of an animal unclean for food; it must be purified by washing. So the ashes of the red heifer, the remedy for uncleanness, themselves defiled the clean ( Numbers 19:7, etc.); Deuteronomy 23:10-13 directs as to impurities of a host encamped before “enemies” ( Deuteronomy 23:14); God’s presence in the host is made the ground of avoiding every such pollution. How different from worldly camps, where the ordinary rules of morality and religion are so often relaxed! The defilement by touch of a leper or person with an issue shows the inherent holiness of Jesus, who, so far from being defiled by the leper or the woman with the blood issue, removed their defilement.

    UNICORN: reem . In Deuteronomy 33:17, “his (Joseph’s) horns are like the horns of an unicorn” (so margin rightly, not “unicorns”); “the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh,” two tribes sprung from the one Joseph, are the two horns from one head. Therefore the unicorn was not as is represented a one-horned animal, but some species of urns or wild ox.

    The rhinoceros does not “skip” as the young unicorn is represented to do ( Psalm 29:6). The unicorn’s characteristics are: (1) great strength, Numbers 23:22; Job 39:11; (2) two horns, Deuteronomy 33:17; (3) fierceness, Psalm 22:21; (4) untameableness, Job 39:9-11, where the unicorn, probably the wild bison, buffalo, ox, or urus (now only found in Lithuania, but then spread over northern temperate climes, Bashan, etc., and in the Hercynian forest, described by Caesar as almost the size of an elephant, fierce, sparing neither man nor beast) stands in contrast to the tame ox used in plowing, ver. 11,12; (5) playfulness of its young, Psalm 29:6; (6) association with “bullocks and bulls” for sacrifice, Isaiah 34:6,7; (7) lifting up the horn, Psalm 92:10, as bovine animals lower the head and toss up the horn.

    UNLEARNED Acts 4:13, Peter and John; John 7:15, “how knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” The Jewish literati did not mean without common education, reading and writing, etc., and general acquaintance with the Old Testament Scriptures, but that Christ and His disciples were not rabbiically learned, never had sat at the feet of the great doctors of the law, they were only laics.

    UNNI 1. A Levite doorkeeper; played the psaltery on see ALAMOTH in the Zion tabernacle erected by David ( 1 Chronicles 15:18,20). 2. A Levite who returned with Zerubbabel ( Nehemiah 12:9).

    UPHAZ Jeremiah 10:9; Daniel 10:5. (See OPHIR , of which Uphaz is a corruption).

    UR Of the Chaldees ( Genesis 11:28,31; 15:7; Nehemiah 9:7), from which Terah, Abraham, and Lot were called. In Mesopotamia ( Acts 7:2). Now Mugheir (a ruined temple of large bitumen bricks, which also “mugheir” means, namely, Um Mugheir “mother of bitumen”), on the right bank of the Euphrates, near its junction with the Shat el Hie from the Tigris; in Chaldaea proper. Called Hur by the natives, and on monuments Ur. The most ancient city of the older Chaldaea. Its bricks bear the name of the earliest monumental kings, “Urukh king of Ur”; his kingdom extended as far N. as Niffer. The royal lists on the monuments enumerate Babylonian kings from Urukh (2230 B.C., possibly the Orchanus of Ovid, Met. 4:212) down to Nabonid (540 B.C.) the last. The temple was sacred to ‘Urki, the moon goddess; Ilgi son of Urukh completed it. For two centuries it was the capital, and always was held sacred. One district was “Ibra,” perhaps related to “Hebrew,” Abraham’s designation. Ur was also a cemetery and city of tombs, doubtless because of its sacred character, from whence the dead were brought to it from vast distances for 1,800 years. Eupolemos (in Eusebius, Praep. Ev. 9:17) refers to Ur as “the moon worshipping (kamarine; kamar being Arabic for moon) city.” The derivation from Ur, “fire,” led to the Koran and Talmud legends that Abraham miraculously escaped out of the flames into which Nimrod or other idolatrous persecutors threw him. Ur lies six miles distant from the present coarse of the Euphrates, and 125 from the sea; though it is thought it was anciently a maritime town, and that its present inland site is due to the accumulation of alluvium (?). The buildings are of the most archaic kind, consisting of low mounds enclosed within an enceinte, on most sides perfect, an oval space 1,000 yards long by 800 broad. The temple is thoroughly Chaldaean in type, in stages of which two remain, of brick partly sunburnt, partly baked, cemented with bitumen.

    URBANE Rather Urban or Urbanus; a man, not a woman ( Romans 16:9); a Christian fellow labourer whom Paul salutes.

    URI 1. Of Judah ( Exodus 31:2; 35:30; 2 Chronicles 1:5). Son of Hur, and father of Bezaleel. 2. Father of Geber, Solomon’s commissariat officer in Gilead ( 1 Kings 4:19). 3. A temple gatekeeper; married a foreign wife ( Ezra 10:24) URIAH; URIJAH = “light of Jehovah”. (See DAVID ; see NATHAN ; and see BATHSHEBA ). 1. One of the 30 commanders of the 30 bands of David’s army ( Chronicles 11:41; 2 Samuel 23:19). A foreigner (as other of David’s officers, Ittai of Gath, Ishbosheth the Canaanite, Zelek the Ammonite, Samuel 23:37); a Hittite. Eliam son of Ahithophel being one of his fellow officers (ver. 34,39), Uriah naturally became acquainted with Bathsheba (an undesigned coincidence in Scripture confirming its truth) and married her. His tender devotion to her is implied in Nathan’s comparison of her ( 2 Samuel 12:3) to the poor man’s “one little ewe lamb ... which lay in his bosom as a daughter” (his all in all). David’s attempt to hide his sin by bringing Uriah home to his wife from the war with Ammon was foiled by Uriah’s right sentiment as a soldier and chivalrous devotion to Israel and to God: “the ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house to eat, drink, and lie with my wife?” This answer was well fitted to pierce David’s conscience, but desire of concealment at all costs urged David on. The greatest saint will fall into the deadliest sin, once that he ceases to lean on God and God withdraws His grace. Though entrapped into intoxication by David Uriah still retained sense of duty enough to keep his word and not go home. On the third day David, by a letter which he consigned to Uriah’s charge, bade his ready tool Joab set this brave soldier in the forefront of the fight. So he fell the victim of adulterous passion which was reckless of all honour, gratitude, and the fear of God; the once faithful man of God had now fallen so low as treacherously to murder his true hearted and loyal soldier and servant, whose high sense of honour so contrasts with David’s baseness. Happily Uriah fell unconscious of his wife’s dishonour; she “mourned” his death with the usual tokens of grief, but apparently with no sense of shame or remorse; her child’s death probably first awakened her conscience. Keil thinks Uriah’s answer implies some suspicion of the real state of the case, which was perhaps whispered to him on reaching Jerusalem; but the narrative rather leaves the impression of Uriah answering with guileless, unsuspicious frankness. 2. High priest under see AHAZ ( Isaiah 8:2; 2 Kings 16:10-16). As high priest, made witness to Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Maher-shalalhash- baz. An accomplice in Ahaz’s idolatry, therefore not likely to assist God’s prophet in getting up a prophecy after the event. He fashioned in unscrupulous subserviency an altar like the idolatrous pattern from Damascus furnished to him; this altar he put in the temple court E. of the place where God’s altar had stood, and let Ahaz offer thereon his burnt offering, meat offering, drink offering, and blood of his peace offering; it was probably Abaz’s pledge of submission to Assyria and its gods. God’s brazen altar Uriah put on the N. side of the Damascus altar, and Ahaz used it for his own private divinations. Uriah probably succeeded Azariah, high priest under Uzziah, and preceded the Azariah under Hezekiah. He is not named in the sacerdotal genealogy, 1 Chronicles 6:4-15; where a gap occurs between Amariah (ver. 11) and Shallum, father of Hilkiah (ver. 13).

    Uriah’s line ended probably in Azariah his successor, and Hilkiah was descended through another branch from Amariah in Jehoshaphat’s reign. 3. A priest of Hakkoz’ family (KJV Koz), head of the seventh course ( Chronicles 24:10); ancestor of Meremoth ( Ezra 8:33; Nehemiah 3:4,21). 4. Priest at Ezra’s right when he read the law ( Nehemiah 8:4). 5. Son of Shemaiah of Kirjath Jearim. Prophesied, as Jeremiah did, against the land and Jerusalem, so that the king sought to kill him; he escaped to Egypt; thence Elnathan brought him, and Jehoiakim killed him with the sword and cast his body among the graves of the common people ( Jeremiah 26:20-23). His case was made a plea for not killing Jeremiah, as the notorious condition of the state showed that his murder did no good to Jehoiakim, but only added sin to sin and provoked God’s vengeance.

    Uriah was faithful in delivering his message, faulty in leaving his work; so God permitted him to lose his life, whereas Jeremiah was saved. The path of duty is often the path of safety.

    URIEL 1. A Kohathite Levite, son of Tahath ( 1 Chronicles 6:24); if the lists proceeded from father to son, without omission of intermediate links in the genealogy, Uriel would answer to Zephaniah son of Tahath ( Chronicles 6:36). 2. Chief of the Kohathites under David ( 1 Chronicles 15:5,11), with 120 brethren brought up the ark from Obed Edom’s house ( 1 Chronicles 15:12). 3. Of Gibeah; father of Maachah or Michaiah, Rehoboam’s favorite wife ( 2 Chronicles 13:2); in 2 Chronicles 11:20 she is called Absalom’s daughter, i.e. granddaughter, Tamar, Absalom’s daughter, being her mother.

    URIM AND THUMMIM (See HIGH PRIEST and see EPHOD ). Meaning lights and perfections. The article “the” before each shows their distinctness. In Deuteronomy 33:8 the order is reversed “thy Thummim and thy Urim.” Urim is alone in Numbers 27:21; 1 Samuel 28:6 Saul is answered neither by dreams nor by Urim. Thummim is never by itself. Inside the high priest’s breastplate were placed the Urim and Thummim when he went in before the Lord ( Exodus 28:15-30; Leviticus 8:8). Mentioned as already familiar to Moses and the people. Joshua, when desiring counsel to guide Israel, was to “stand before Eleazar the priest, who should ask it for him after the judgment of Urim before Jehovah” ( Numbers 27:21). Levi’s glory was “thy Thummim and thy Urim are with thy Holy One,” i.e. with Levi as representing, the whole priestly and Levitical stock sprung from him ( Deuteronomy 33:8,9). In Ezra 2:63 finally those who could not prove their priestly descent were excluded from the priesthood “till there should stand up a priest with Urim and Thummim.” Theteraphim apparently were in Hosea 3:4; Judges 17:5; 18:14,20,30, the unlawful substitute for Urim (compare 1 Samuel 15:23 “idolatry,” Hebrew teraphim; and 2 Kings 23:24, margin).

    Speaker’s Commentary thinks that lots were the mode of consultation, as in Acts 1:26; Proverbs 16:33. More probably stones with Jehovah’s name and attributes, “lights” and “perfections,” engraven on them were folded within the ephod. By gazing at them the high priest with ephod on, before the Lord, was absorbed in heavenly ecstatic contemplation and by God was enabled to declare the divine will. The Urim and Thummim were distinct from the 12 stones, and were placed within the folds of the double choshen. Philo says that the high priest’s breastplate was made strong in order that he might wear as an image the two virtues which his office needed. So the Egyptian judge used to wear the two figures of Thmei (corresponding to Thummim), truth and justice; over the heart of mummies of priests too was a symbol of light (answering to Urim). No image was tolerated on the Hebrew high priest; but in his choshen the white diamond or rock crystal engraven with “Jehovah,” to which in Revelation 2:17 the “white stone” with the “new name written” corresponds, belonging to all believers, the New Testament king-priests. Compare Genesis 44:5,15; Psalm 43:5, “send out Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me.” Also 1 Samuel 14:19. Never after David are the ephod and its Urim and Thummim and breastplate used in consulting Jehovah. Abiathar is the last priest who uses it ( 1 Samuel 23:6-9; 28:6; 2 Samuel 21:1).

    The higher revelation by prophets superseded the Urim and Thummim.

    Music then, instead of visions, became the help to the state of prayer and praise in which prophets revealed God’s will ( 1 Samuel 9:9).

    USURY: neshek , from a root “to devour.” (See LOAN ). Any interest was forbidden to be exacted from an Israelite brother, but was permitted from a foreigner ( Exodus 22:25; Leviticus 25:35-38; Deuteronomy 23:19,20).

    Israel was originally not a mercantile people, and the law aimed at an equal diffusion of wealth, not at enriching some while others were poor. Help was to be given by the rich to his embarrassed brother to raise him out of difficulties, without making a gain of his poverty ( Psalm 15:5; Proverbs 28:8; Jeremiah 15:10; Ezekiel 18:8,17). Nehemiah (5:3- 13) denounces the usurious exactions of some after the return from Babylon; he put a stop to the practice. They took one percent per month, i.e. 12 percent per annum (the Roman centesimae usurae). The spirit of the law still is obligatory, that we should give timely help in need and not take advantage of our brother’s distress to lend at interest ruinous to him; but the letter is abrogated, as commerce requires the accommodation of loans at interest, and a loan at moderate interest is often of great service to the poor. Hence it is referred to by our Lord in parables, apparently as a lawful as well as recognized usage ( Matthew 25:27; Luke 19:23).

    UTHAI 1. Son of Ammihud, of the children of Pharez of Judah ( 1 Chronicles 9:4), called Athaiah son of Uzziah, Nehemiah 11:4; dwelt in Jerusalem on the return from Babylon. 2. Son of Bigvai; returned in the second caravan with Ezra ( Ezra 8:14).

    Uz: more correctly Huz ( Genesis 22:21). A country and a people near the Sabeans and the Chaldees ( Job 1:1,15,17); accessible to the Temanites, the Shuhites (2:11), and the Buzites (32:2). The Edomites once possessed it ( Jeremiah 25:20; Lamentations 4:21). Suited for sheep, oxen, asses, and camels ( Job 1:3). From an inscription of Esarhaddon it appears there were in central Arabia, beyond the jebel Shomer, about the modern countries of upper and lower Kaseem, two regions, Bazu and Khazu, answering to Buz and Huz. Uz therefore was in the middle of northern Arabia, not far from the famous district of the Nejd. Ptolemy mentions the Aesitae (related to “Uz”) as in the northern part of Arabia Deserta, near Babylon and the Euphrates. The name occurs (1) in Genesis 10:23 as son of Aram and grandson (as “son” means in 1 Chronicles 1:17) of Shem; (2) as son of Nahor by Milcah ( Genesis 22:21); (3) as son of Dishan and grandson of Seir ( Genesis 36:28).

    Evidently the more ancient and northerly members of the Aramaic family coalesced with some of the later Abrahamids holding a central position in Mesopotamia, and subsequently with those still later, the Edomites of the S.

    UZAI Father of Palal ( Nehemiah 3:25).

    UZAL Joktan’s sixth son ( Genesis 10:27; 1 Chronicles 1:21). The capital of the Yemen (Arabia Felix) was originally Awzal (now San’a), anciently the most flourishing of Arab communities, its rivals being Sheba and Sephar.

    The Greek and Roman writers (Pliny, N. H. 12:16) call it Auzara, a city of the Gebanitae. Uzal is situated on an elevation, with a stream running through it from Mount Sawafee; it has a citadel. Transl. for “going to and fro,” Ezekiel 27:19, “from Uzal.” This is added to “Javan” to mark which Javan is meant, Genesis 10:27.

    UZZA 1. A Benjamite, of Ehud’s sons ( 1 Chronicles 8:7). 2. Children of Uzza; Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel ( Ezra 2:49; Nehemiah 7:51). 3. A descendant of Merari ( 1 Chronicles 6:29).

    UZZA, THE GARDEN OF Manasseh’s and Amon’s burial place, attached to Manasseh’s palace ( Kings 21:18,26; 2 Chronicles 33:20). By some placed at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite; the scene of Uzzah’s death was a threshing floor ( 2 Samuel 6:6).

    UZZAH Son of Abinadab at whose house in Kirjath Jearim the ark stayed 20 years.

    Eleazar was his elder brother ( 1 Samuel 7:1), Ahio his younger brother.

    The latter and Uzzah drove the new cart wherein the ark was carried from Abinadab’s house for removal to Zion ( 1 Chronicles 13:7). The oxen drawing it stumbled, slipping over the smooth rock at “the threshing floor of Chidon” ( 1 Chronicles 13:9) or “Nachon” ( 2 Samuel 6:6), or rather “of disaster” (chidon from chid ) or “the stroke” (nachon) from naachah ). Perez Uzzah (the breach on Uzzah) was eventually the name (contrast Jehovah’s “breaking forth upon David’s enemies as the breach of waters,” Baal Perazim, 2 Samuel 5:20) Uzzah tried with his hand to prevent the ark’s shaking, but, God smote him for the offense (fault: shal ).

    David felt displeased or excited, not toward God, but at the calamity which he attributed to himself and his undertaking. Uzzah though with good intentions had in his rash act forgotten the reverence due to the ark, the earthly throne and visible pledge of the presence of the unseen God. The Lord’s service is no excuse for self-willed service. We must not in presumptuous haste try to sustain God’s cause, as if it must fall unless it have our support; God can guard His own ark. We are reverently, and in the way of God’s call, to put forth our efforts, believing that His true church is safe, however threatened, because it is His. God’s law (Numbers 4; Ezekiel 25:14) had ordained that the ark was to be carried on the Levites’ shoulders, not in a carriage. Even the Levites (ver. 15) were not to touch it, on pain of death. Instead of this David and Israel had followed the Philistines’ method ( 1 Samuel 6:7, ff). David’s excitement changed into fear of Jehovah; not daring to bring the ark near him, since a touch proved so fatal, he removed it to the house of Obed Edom the Gathite. Contrast the blessed effect of the touch of faith toward the ark’s Antitype, Jesus ( Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34). Uzzah was evidently a Levite, for otherwise the ark would not have been allowed to remain at his father Abinadab’s house 20 years. Moreover, if Abinadab had not been a Levite his son Eleazar would not have been consecrated to take charge of the ark ( 1 Samuel 7:2). (For the site see PEREZ UZZAH ).

    UZZEN SHERAH 1 Chronicles 7:24, mentioned along with the Bethherons. There is a Beit Sira N. of wady Suleiman and three miles S.W. of Beitur et Tahta, (upper Bethhoron). Ozen meaning “ear,” the name may come from all earlike projection of the ground. Built, i.e. enlarged and fortified, by Sherah, daughter of Ephraim or of Beriah.

    UZZI Contracted from Uzziah. 1. Son of Bukki, father of Zerahiah, in the high priests’ line ( Chronicles 6:5,51; Ezra 7:4). Between Abishua and Zadok in the genealogy, yet never high priest (Josephus Ant. 8:1). Contemporary with, or earlier somewhat than, Eli. 2. Son of Tola of Issachar ( 1 Chronicles 7:2,3). 3. Son of Bela of Benjamin ( 1 Chronicles 7:7). 4. Son of Michri of Benjamin, ancestor of settlers at Jerusalem after the captivity ( 1 Chronicles 9:8). 5. A Levite, son of Bani, overseer of the Levites at Jerusalem ( Nehemiah 11:22). 6. A priest, chief of the fathers’ house of Jedaiah, in the high priesthood of Joiakim ( Nehemiah 12:19). 7. A priest who assisted Nehemiah at the dedication of the wall ( Nehemiah 12:42).

    UZZIA Of David’s valiant men of the guard; of Ashtaroth beyond Jordan ( Chronicles 11:44).

    UZZIAH = “strength of Jehovah”; or see AZARIAH ( 2 Kings 14:2,22; 15:1- 7,13), = “helped by Jehovah”. The two names, as nearly equivalent, were used promiscuously; so the Kohathite Uzziah and Azariah ( 1 Chronicles 6:9,24) king of Judah (2 Chronicles 26). 1. A Kohathite, ancestor of Samuel ( 1 Chronicles 6:24). 2. Uzziah, king of Judah. After the murder of his father Amaziah Uzziah succeeded at the age of 16 by the people’s choice, 809 B.C. Energetic, wise, and pious for most part of his 52 years’ reign. His mother was Jecholiah of Jerusalem. He did not remove the high places, whereat, besides the one only lawful place, the Jerusalem temple, the people worshipped Jehovah. He recovered Elath or Eloth from Edom, which had revolted from Joram ( 2 Kings 8:20), and “built” i.e. enlarged and fortified it, at the head of the gulf of Akaba, a capital mart for his commerce. “see ZECHARIAH , who had understanding in the visions of God,” influenced Uzziah for good so that in his days Uzziah “sought God”; he must have died before Uzziah’s fall, and so cannot be the Zechariah of Isaiah 8:2, a Levite Gershonite of Hezekiah’s reign ( 2 Chronicles 29:13). Uzziah was the biting “serpent” ( Isaiah 14:28-31) to the Philistines, out of whose “root,” after that “the rod of Uzziah which smote them was broken” by their revolt under the feeble Ahaz ( 2 Chronicles 28:18), came forth a “cockatrice” and “fiery flying serpent,” namely, Hezekiah ( 2 Kings 18:8). Uzziah broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod; and built cities in the domain of Ashdod and in other domains of the Philistines; this avenged Judah’s invasion by the Philistines under Jehoram ( 2 Kings 21:16,17), when they carried away all the substance found in the king’s house and his sons, all except the youngest Jehoahaz.

    Uzziah also smote the Philistines’ allies in that invasion, the Arabians of Gurbaal, and the Mehunim of Mann (in Arabia Petraea S. of the Dead Sea); Ammon became tributary (compare Isaiah 16:1-5; 2 Kings 3:4), and Uzziah’s fame as a conqueror reached to Egypt, to whose borders he carried his conquests. He built towers at the N.W. corner gate, the valley gate (on the W. side, the Jaffa gate, now opening to Hinnom), and the turning of the wall of Jerusalem, E. of Zion, so that the tower at this turning defended both Zion and the temple from attacks from the S.E. valley; and fortified them at the weakest points of the city’s defenses. His army was 307,500, under 2600 chiefs, heads of fathers’ houses; and they were furnished with war engines for discharging arrows and great stones.

    The Assyrian Tiglath Pileser II relates that in his fifth year (741 B.C.) he defeated a vast army under Azariah (Uzziah) king of Judah. (Rawlinson Anc. Mon., 2:131.) Uzziah also built towers in the desert of Judah, in the steppe lands W. of the Dead Sea, to protect his herds, a main constituent of his wealth, against the predatory bands of Edom and Arabia. He dug many wells for cattle in the shephelah toward the Mediterranean, (not “the low country,” but the low hills between the mountain and the plain) and in the plain (the mishor) E. of the Dead Sea from the Arnon to Heshbon and Rubbath Ammon; this Uzziah probably reconquered from Ammon (verse 8) who had taken it from Israel (Keil). Husbandmen and vinedressers he had in the mountains and in Carmel, for he loved husbandry, Hosea prophesied “in the days of Uzziah” a scarcity of food ( Hosea 1:1; 2:9; 4:3; 9:2). So Amos ( Amos 1:1,2; 4:6-9; 5:16,17). The precarious state of the supply of food in Israel undesignedly harmonizes with Uzziah’s special attention to husbandry; as also the prophecy in the days of Uzziah’s descendant, Ahaz, that “on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come there the fear of briers and thorns,” etc. ( Isaiah 7:25).

    But “when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction” (compare Isaiah 14:12-15), “pride going before destruction” as in Satan’s, Babylon’s, Tyre’s, and antichrist’s cases ( Ezekiel 28:2; 17-23; Proverbs 16:18; 1:32; 2 Thessalonians 2). Uzziah wished, like Egypt’s kings, to make himself high priest, and so combine in himself all civil and religious power. Azariah the high priest, therefore, with 80 valiant priests, withstood his attempt to burn incense ( Exodus 30:7,8; Numbers 16:40; 18:7) on the incense altar. In the very height of his wrath at their resistance a leprosy from God rose up in his forehead, so that they thrust him out, yea he hasted to go out of himself, feeling it vain to resist Jehovah’s stroke. So Miriam was punished for trying to appropriate Moses’ prerogative (Numbers 12). Uzziah, being thus severed from Jehovah’s house, could no longer live in fellowship with Jehovah’s people, but had to dwell in a separate house, counted virtually as dead ( Leviticus 13:46; Numbers 12:12) for the year or two before his death, during which Jotham conducted the government for him; “a several house” ( 2 Kings 15:5), Beth ha-kophshi, “a house of manumission,” i.e. release from the duties and privileges of social and religious intercourse with the people of God; Winer and Gesenius, from an Arabic cognate root “he was infirm,” translated it “infirmary or lazar house,” but the Hebrew has only the sense “free,” and the Mosaic law contemplated not the cure of the patient, which could only be by God’s extra. ordinary interposition, but his separation from the Lord’s people. Isaiah recorded the rest of his acts first and last in a history not extant; “write” marks it as a history, “vision” is the term for his prophecy ( Isaiah 1:1). Isaiah wrote his first five chapters under Uzziah, and had his vision in the year of Uzziah’s death ( Isaiah 6:1, etc.). “They buried him with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper”; therefore not in the tombs of the kings, but near them in the burial field belonging to them, that his body might not defile the royal tombs, probably in the earth according to our mode. One great sin blots an otherwise spotless character ( 2 Chronicles 27:2; Ecclesiastes 10:1).

    A mighty earthquake occurred in Uzziah’s reign; Josephus (Ant. 9:10, section 4) makes it at the time of Uzziah being smitten with leprosy; the objection is, see AMOS prophesied “in the days of Jeroboam of Israel, two years before the earthquake” ( Amos 1:1), and Jeroboam II died years before Uzziah died; but what is meant may be, Amos’ prophesying continued all the Israelite Jeroboam’s days, and so far in the partly contemporary reign of the Jewish king Uzziah as “two years before the earthquake.” Amos thus would speak his prophecies two years before the earthquake, but not write them out in order until after it. However, Josephus may be wrong, as but for his statement the likelihood is the earthquake was not later than the 17th year of Uzziah’s reign. Zechariah ( Zechariah 14:5) alludes to the earthquake, the physical premonitor of convulsions in the social, political, and spiritual world; compare Matthew 24:7. In the century from Jehu of Israel until late in Uzziah’s reign over Judah the Assyrian annals are silent as to Scripture persons and events. Assyria’s weakness just then harmonizes with the Scripture statement of the extension of Israel by Jeroboam II and of Judah by Uzziah. Only in the time of Assyria’s weakness could such small states have attempted conquests such as those of Menahem ( 2 Kings 15:16). 3. Of the sons of Harim; took a foreign wife ( Ezra 10:21). 4. Father of Athaiah or Uthai ( Nehemiah 11:4). 5. Father of Jehonathan, one of David’s overseers ( 1 Chronicles 27:25).

    UZZIEL = “strength of God”. 1. Kohath’s fourth son ( Exodus 6:18,22; 1 Chronicles 6:2,18). Head of one of the four great Kohathite families,UZZIELITES ( Numbers 3:27; 1 Chronicles 26:23). 2. Son of Ishi, of Simeon; one of the four captains who led their brethren to Mount Seir, of which they dispossessed the Amalekites ( Chronicles 4:42,43). 3. A Benjamite, of Bela’s sons ( 1 Chronicles 7:7). 4. A musician, of Heman’s sons ( 1 Chronicles 25:4; Azareel, i.e. helped of God, in ver. 18). 5. A Levite, of Jeduthun’s sons; under Hezekiah took part in cleansing the temple from its pollution under Ahaz ( 2 Chronicles 29:14,19). 6. Son of Harhaiah, a priest who repaired the wall ( Nehemiah 3:8): “of the goldsmiths,” i.e. those priests whose hereditary office it was to make or repair the sacred vessels.

    V VAJESATHA One of Haman’s ten sons, slain by the Jews in Shushan ( Esther 9:9); from Zend vatija “better,” and zata “born.”

    VALE, VALLEY The abrupt rocky hills of Palestine admit of but few sweeps of valley between. There are valleys at Hebron, and S.E. of Gerizim, and between Gerizim and Ebal, and between Gilboa and Little Hermon the undulating and English like valley of Jezreel. Five Hebrew terms are so translated.

    Emequ, always rendered “valley,” a long broad sweep between parallel ranges of hills, such as the valley of Jezreel. Gay or gee’ , the deep hollow S.W. and S. of Jerusalem, Ge-Hinnom; implying an abrupt, steep, narrow ravine, from a root to burst, a gorge formed by a burst of water. Nachal, a wady or wide stream bed in winter filled by a torrent, but in summer dry and strewed with water worn stones and shrubs; KJV translated it also “brook,” “river,” “stream”; Biqu’ah, a plain wider than a valley, the wide plain between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon is still called Bequa’a ( Joshua 11:17; 12:7), and Megiddo ( Zechariah 12:11). Ha-shephelah, wrongly translated “valley,” a broad tract of low hills between the mountains of Judah and the coast plain ( Deuteronomy 1:7; Joshua 10:40). The ‘eemeq , “valley,” of Elah in which Israel and the Philistines pitched is distinguished from the (gay “ravine” which lay between the armies ( Samuel 17:2,3). Shaveh in Genesis 14:5 is a dale or level spot. “Bottom,” metsullah ( Zechariah 1:8), is a dell or shady bottom. The use of the words ‘eemeq and gay assists in the identification of Ai with Khirbet Haiy, one mile E. of Mukhmas (Michmash), which the survey of the Palestine Exploration Fund favors. If Sennacherib invaded Judaea from the E. as did Joshua, he would naturally come to Khirbet Haiy. Thus all the places enumerated in his approach to Jerusalem ( Isaiah 10:28-32) are visible from Geba exactly in the geographical order given in Isaiah, “Aiath, Migron (i.e. ‘the precipice’), Michmash.” Khirbet Haiy also suits Joshua 8:11-13, “the Israelites pitched on the N: side of Ai; now there was a valley ([gay]) between them and Ai ... Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley” (emek ). The “plain” N. of Khirbet Haiy suits the Hebrew creek. The gai is either the ravine between the liers in wait and Ai, or else the bed of the watercourse in the creek. (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1878, p. 132.)

    VANIAH One of the sons of Bani. Put away his foreign wife ( Ezra 10:36).

    VASHNI Samuel’s older son ( 1 Chronicles 6:28).JOEL in 1 Chronicles 6:33 and 1 Samuel 8:2. “Joel” may have dropped out from 1 Chronicles 6:28, and wesheeni will mean “and the second.”

    VASHTI Queen of Ahasuerus or Xerxes (Esther 1 and Esther 2). Refused to appear at the king’s command, to exhibit her beauty before the king’s guests at a banquet; was therefore deposed and repudiated lest a precedent should be given for insubordination of wives to husbands. Vashti may answer to Amestris the queen consort throughout Xerxes’ reign, and queen mother under his son and successor -- Artaxerxes. But more probably she and Esther were only “secondary wives” with the title “queen.” Plutarch (Conjug. Precept. c. 16, in agreement with Herodotus v. 18) says the Persian kings had their legitimate wives to sit at table, but when they chose to drink and revel they sent away their wives and called in the concubines, it was when his “heart was merry with wine” that he sent for Vashti as a concubine; but she, looking on herself as a legitimate wife, would not come. Esther 5:4,8,12, shows that it was no impropriety for wives to be at banquets in front of other men (besides their husbands).

    VEIL (See DRESS ). The mitpachath ( Ruth 3:15), tsaiph ( Genesis 24:65; 38:14,19), and radial (Song 5:7; Isaiah 3:23). Moses’ veil was the masveh ( Exodus 34:33-35), related to suth ( Genesis 49:11). An ample outer robe, drawn over the face when required. Mispachot , the false prophets’ magical veils or “kerchiefs” ( Ezekiel 13:18,21) which they put over the heads of those consulting them as if to fit them for receiving a response, that they might be rapt in spiritual trance above the world; placed “upon the head of every stature,” i.e. upon persons of every age and height, young and old. Re’ aloth, light veils worn by females, called “mufflers” ( Isaiah 3:19), from rahal “to tremble,” i.e. tremulous, referring to their rustling motion. Tzammah, translated “locks” (Song 4:1,3), the bride’s veil, a mark of modesty and subjection to her lord. Isaiah 47:2, “take off thy veil,” or “thy locks,” nature’s covering for a woman ( 1 Corinthians 11:15), a badge of female degradation. Anciently the veil was only exceptionally used for ornament or by women betrothed in meeting their future husbands, and at weddings ( Genesis 24:65).

    Ordinarily women among the Jews, Egyptians, and Assyrians, appeared in public with faces exposed ( Genesis 12:14; 24:16,65; 20:16; 29:10; Samuel 1:12). Assyrian and Egyptian sculptures similarly represent women without a veil. It was Mahometanism that introduced the present veiling closely and seclusion of women; the veil on them in worship was the sign of subjection to their husbands ( 1 Corinthians 11:4-15).

    VEIL OF THE TEMPLE.

    Suspended between the holy place and the most holy ( Exodus 26:31-33); and rent immediately upon the crucifixion of the Saviour and the consummation of His great sacrifice. There were two veils or curtains in the tabernacle (of which the temple was the continuation), one before the tabernacle door (kalumma ), the second veil before the holy of holies (katapetasma ). Hebrews 9:3,7,8,11,12: “after (i.e. behind) the second veil, ... the holiest of all.” Into this second tabernacle within the veil “the high priest alone went once every year, not without blood which he offered for himself and for the sins of the people; the Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing ... But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands ... by His own blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Therefore significantly “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” when Jesus yielded up the ghost ( Matthew 27:50,51). “From the top,” not from the bottom; for it is God who from above rends the veil of separation between us and Him, and opens heaven to man, as the hymn of Ambrose says, “when Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers”; therefore not only ministers but we all alike “have boldness (parresia , literally, freedom of speech, grounded on the consciousness that our sins are forgiven) to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh” ( Hebrews 10:19-21); rather, “which (entering) He has newly consecrated (enekainisen , ‘inaugurated’; it is a new thing, unheard of before) for us as a new (recently opened) and living way” (not the lifeless way of dead sacrificial victims under the law, but the living and lifegiving Saviour being the way). As the veil had to be passed through to enter the holiest, so the human suffering flesh ( Hebrews 5:7) of Christ’s manhood which veiled His Godhead had to be passed through by Him in entering the heavenly holiest for us. When He put off His rent flesh, the temple veil, its type, was simultaneously rent.

    Not His body, but His suffering flesh, was the veil; His body was the “temple” (naos , “the inner shrine,” not the temple building in general, hieron ) which men destroyed and He reared up again in three days ( John 2:19,21). No priestly caste therefore now mediates between the sinner and his Judge; the minister is no nearer God than the layman.

    Neither can serve God at a distance, nor by deputy, as the natural man would wish; each must come for himself, and by union with our one Royal High Priest who, as He never dies, has a priesthood which passeth not from, one to another (margin Hebrews 7:24). we become virtual “king priests unto (Him who is at once) God and His Father” ( Revelation 1:6).

    C. C. Ganneau, tracing a curious similarity between some customs of ancient Elis in the Peloponnesus and those of the Hebrews, shows that in the Olympian sanctuary there was a great woolen veil of Assyrian workmanship, dyed with Phoenician purple, given by Antiochus; so Josephus (B. J. 5:5, section 4) describes a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue and fine linen and scarlet and purple, and of wonderful contexture, as hanging before the golden doors, which were 55 cubits high and 16 broad, and which led into the holy of holies. It symbolized the universe, the scarlet signifying fire, the flax-linen earth, the blue the air, the purple the sea. This veil given to Olympian Zeus at Elis may have been the very veil taken by Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) from the temple of Jehovah (1 Macc. 1:22-24; Josephus, Ant. 12:5, section 4). The curtain or veil at the Olympian temple did not rise up but was dropped to the ground, according to Pausanias. So Josephus and the Book of Maccabees call the Jewish veil a drop curtain ([katapetasma]). Again, as the spoils of conquered deities were consecrated to the victorious ones, Antiochus naturally hung up Jehovah’s veil in the temple of Olympian Zeus; for this was the very god to whom he dedicated the temple at Jerusalem, after defiling and plundering it (2 Macc. 6:2). Curiously illustrating the similarity above referred to, he notices that the Eleans alone of the Greeks cultivated the byssus or fine flax plant. They bred no mules (compare Leviticus 19:19). They had a river Jordan near Lepreos, a city implying the leprosy prevalent among its people. Ashes of victims were suffered to accumulate (bomoi ), and were held sacred ( Leviticus 1:16; 4:12; 1 Kings 13:3). The women of Elis were forbidden to penetrate the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus; so the Hebrew women could not pass the court of women. They used to mourn round the empty tomb of Achilles (compare Ezekiel 8:14). They used to weave a peplos for Hera (compare Ezekiel 16:16; 2 Kings 23:7).

    Their Zeus Apomuios answers to Baalzebub, “god of flies” ( 2 Kings 1:3,16). (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, April 1878, p. 79).

    VERSIONS (See OLD TESTAMENT , see NEW TESTAMENT , see SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH , see SEPTUAGINT ).TARGUM is the general term for the Aramaic or Chaldee versions of the Old Testament Ezra established the usage of regular readings of the law ( Nehemiah 8:2,8), already ordained in Deuteronomy 31:10-13 for the feast of tabernacles, and recognized as the custom “every sabbath” ( Acts 15:21). The portion read from the Pentateuch was called a parasha; that from the prophets, subsequently introduced, the haphtarah. The disuse of Hebrew and the use of Chaldee Aramaic by the mass of Jews, during the Babylonian captivity, created the need for explaining “distinctly” (mephorash ), as did Ezra and his helpers, the Hebrew by an Aramaic paraphrase. Such a combined translation and explanation was called a targum, from targeem “to translate” or “explain.”

    Originally it was oral, lest it might acquire undue authority; at the end of the second century it was generally read. Midrash first used in Chronicles 13:22; 24:27, “story,” “commentary,” was the body of expositions of Scripture from the return out of Babylon to a thousand years after the destruction of the second temple. The two chief branches are the halakah, from haalak , to go, “the rule by which to walk,” and the haggadah, from haagad “to say,” legend. The targums are part of the midrash. Those extant are the Targum of Onkelos (=AQUILA, Smith’s Bible Dictionary) on the Pentateuch (so named not because written by Aquila but because in Aramaic it did what Aquila aimed at in his Greek version, namely, to counteract the arbitrary corruptions of the Septuagint and to produce a translation scrupulously literal, for the benefit of those not knowing the original language); the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel on the first and last prophets, more probably of Rabbi Joseph the blind, in the middle of the fourth century, full of invectives against Rome ( Isaiah 34:9 mentioning Armillus (Antichrist), Isaiah 10:4; Germany, Ezekiel 38:6); also his targum on the Pentateuch; the Targum of Jerusalem on parts of the Pentateuch. The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel and the Targum of Jerusalem are twin brothers, really but one work; these were written in Palestine much later and less accurately than that of Onkelos, which belongs to the Babylonian school; Jonathan ben Uzziel, in the fourth century, cannot have been the author, for this targum speaks of Constantinople ( Numbers 24:19-24), the Turks ( Genesis 10:2), and even Mahomet’s two wives ( Genesis 21:21). The targum on the hagiographa (ascribed to Joseph the blind), namely, on Psalms, Job, and Proverbs; remarkably resembling the Syriac version; the targum on Job and Psalms is paraphrastic, but that on Proverbs most literal. Targum on the five megilloth, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, Ecclesiastes.

    Two other targums on Esther; targum on Chronicles; targum on Daniel.

    EARLY ENGLISH VERSIONS. Among the pioneers of the KJV were Caedmon who embodied the Bible history in alliterative Anglo Saxon poetry (Bede H. E. 4:24); Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne in the seventh century, who translated the Psalms; Bede the Gospel according to John in his last hours (Ep. Cuthberti). Alfred translated Exodus 20--23 as the groundwork of legislation, also translated some of the Psalms and parts of the other books, and “wished all the freeborn youth of his kingdom to be able to read the English Scriptures.” The Durham Book, of the ninth century (in British Museum, Cottonian manuscripts), has the Anglo Saxon interlinear with the Latin Vulgate The Rushworth Gloss of the same century is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Aelfric epitomised Scripture history and translated part of the historical books. The Ormulum of the 12th century is a Gospel paraphrase in alliterative English verse. Schorham, A.D. 1320, translated the Psalms; Richard Rolle, of Hampole, A.D. 1349, the Psalms and other canticles of the Old Testament and New Testament with a devotional exposition. In the library of Ch. Ch. Coll., Cambridge, is an English version of Mark’s and Luke’s Gospels and Paul’s epistles.

    Arundel in his funeral sermon on Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II, says she habitually read the Gospels in English.

    WYCLIFFE, A.D. 1324-1384, began with translating the Apocalypse; in” The Last Age of the Church,” 1356, he translates and expounds Revelation, applying it to his own times and antichrist’s overthrow. Next the Gospels, “so that pore Christen men may some dele know the text of the Gospel, with the comyn sentence of olde holie doctores” (Preface).

    Many manuscripts of this age are extant, containing the English harmony of the Gospels and portions of the epistles by others. Wycliffe next brought out the complete English New Testament Nicholas de Hereford proceeded with the Old Testament and Apocrypha as far as the middle of Baruch, then was interrupted by Arundel. Richard Purvey probably revised Wycliffe’s and Hereford’s joint work and prefixed the prologue. All the foregoing are translated from the Latin Vulgate. The prologue says: “a translater hath grete nede to studie well the sentence both before and after.

    He hath nede to lyve a clene life and be ful devout in preiers, and have not his wit occupied about worldli things, that the Holie Spirit, author of all wisdom, cunnynge and truthe, dresse him in his work and suffer him not for to err” (Forshall and Madden, Prol. 60). In spite of Arundel’s opposition the circulation was so wide that 150 copies are extant, and Chaucer (Persone’s Tale) quotes Scripture in English, agreeing with Wycliffe’s translation. Its characteristics are a homely style, plain English for less intelligible words, as “fy” for Raca ( Matthew 5:22), “richesse” for Mammon ( Luke 16:9,11,13), and literalness even to a fault.

    TYNDALE begins the succession which eventuated in our authorized version. By his time Wycliffe’s English had become obsolete, and his translation being from the Latin Vulgate could not satisfy Grecian scholars of Henry VIII’s reign. At the age of 36 (A.D. 1520) Tyndale said, “ere many years I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of Scripture than the great body of the clergy now know.” Erasmus in published the first edition of the Greek Testament; Tyndale knew hint at Cambridge. in 1522 Tyndale in vain tried to persuade Tonstal, bishop of London, to sanction his translating the New Testament into English. The “Trojans” of Oxford (i.e. the friars) declared that to study Greek would make men pagans, to study Hebrew would make them Jews. Tyndale had sufficient knowledge of Hebrew to qualify him for translating Genesis, Deuteronomy, and Jonah in 1530 and 1531. But the New Testament was his chief care, and in 1525 he published it all in 4to at Cologne, and in 8vo at Worms. Tonstal ordered all copies to be bought up and burnt. Tyndale’s last edition was published in 1535; his martyrdom followed in 1536, his dying prayer being, “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.” The merit of his translation is its noble simplicity and truthfulness: thus “favour” for “grace,” “love” for “charity,” “acknowledge” for “confess,” “repentance” for “penance,” “elders” for “priests,” “congregation” for “church.” Tyndale was herein in advance of his own and the following age; the versions of the latter relapsed into the theological and ecclesiastical terms less suited to the people. His desire to make the Bible a people’s book has acted on succeeding versions, so that our English Bible has ever been popular rather than scholastic. “I call God to record (says he) against the day we shall appear before the Lord Jesus to give a reckoning of our doings, that I never altered one syllable of God’s word against my conscience, nor would this day, if all that is in the world, whether pleasure, honour, or riches, might be given me.”

    MILES COVERDALE published his Bible in 1535, probably at Zurich, and at Cromwell’s request, who saw that “not until the day after doomsday” (Cromwell’s words) were the English people likely to get their promised ‘Bible from the bishops if he waited for them. Coverdale’s version was much inferior to Tyndale’s, who made it his one object in life, whereas Coverdale “sought it not neither desired it,” but undertook it as a task given him. Coverdale followed “the Douche (Luther’s German version) and the Latine,” but Tyndale laboured for years at Greek and Hebrew.

    Coverdale returned from Tyndale’s faithful plainness to waver between equivocal and plain terms, as” penance” and “repentance,” “priests” and “eiders.” Mary is from the Vulgate hailed ( Luke 1:28) “full of grace.”

    David’s sons are “priests” ( 2 Samuel 8:18). ‘Chief butler” replaces Rabshakeh as in Luther. He includes Baruch in the canonical books, and is undecided as to the authority of the Apocrypha. Fresh editions were printed in 1537, 1539, 1550, 1553. Later he assisted in the Genevan edition.

    THOMAS MATTHEW’ S folio Bible, dedicated to the king, appeared in 1537; printed to the end of Isaiah abroad, thenceforward by the London printers Grafton and Whitechurch. This was the assumed name of JOHN Rogers, the first martyr of the Marian persecution, who became acquainted with Tyndale at Antwerp two years before his death. It is a reproduction of Tyndale’s New Testament and of the parts of the Old Testament by Tyndale, the rest being taken with modifications from Coverdale. He and Tyndale just before the latter’s imprisonment had determined to edit the complete Bible and Apocrypha, based on the original not on the Vulgate, etc., as Coverdale’s, which was the only existing whole Bible in English.

    Rogers, by aid probably of Poyntz, the Antwerp merchant who had helped Tyndale, got as far as Isaiah; Grafton and Whitechurch took up the speculation then, suppressing the name of Rogers known as Tyndale’s friend, and substituting Thomas Matthew. Cranmer approved of the Bible, saying “he would rather than a thousand pounds it should be licensed.”

    Cromwell obtained the king’s license. A copy was ordered by royal proclamation to be set up in every church, the cost being divided between the clergy and the parishioners. Henry VIII thus, unwittingly perhaps, sanctioned a Bible identical with Tyndale’s which his acts of parliament had stigmatized. This was the first authorized version. The Hebrew terms Neginoth, Shiggaion, Sheminith, are explained. The sabbath is “to minister the fodder of the word to simple souls” and to be “pitiful over the weariness of such neighbours as laboured sore all the week.” “To the man of faith Peter’s fishing after the resurrection and all deeds of matrimony are pure spiritual”; to those not so, “learning, contemplation of high things, preaching, study of Scripture, founding of churches, are works of the flesh.” Purgatory “is not in the Bible, but the purgation and remission of our sins is made us by the abundant mercy of God.” The introduction of “the table of principal matters” entities Rogers to be accounted “father” of concordance and Bible dictionary writers. Coverdale and Grafton in a Paris edition afterward diluted the notes and suppressed the prologue and prefaces which were too truthful for the age.

    Taverner’s Bible in 1539 was an expurgated edition of Matthew’s.

    CRANMER in the same year 1539 issued his folio Bible with engraving on the title page by Holbein, the king on his throne represented giving the word of God to the bishops and doctors to distribute to the people who shout, Viva rex! A preface in 1540 bears his initials T. C. In November of the same year, in a later edition, his name and the names of his coadjutors, Cuthbert (Tonstal) bishop of Durham, and Nicholas (Heath) bishop of Rochester, appear on the title page. Words not in the original are printed in different type; an asterisk marks diversity in the Chaldee and Hebrew; marginal references are given, but no notes; shrinking from so depreciatory an epithet as the Apocrypha, the editors substitute “Hagiographa,” giving Matthew’s preface to these disputed books otherwise unaltered; from whence arises the amusing blunder that they were called “Hagiographa,” because “they were read in secret and apart” (which was the derivation, rightly given in Matthew’s preface, for Apocrypha). In 1541 an edition states it was “authorized” to be “used and frequented in every church in the kingdom.” Cranmer in the preface adopts the via media tone, which secured its retention as KJV until 1568 (Mary’s reign excepted), blaming those who “refuse to read” and on the other hand blaming “inordinate reading.” The Psalms, the Scripture quotations in the homilies, the sentences in the Communion, and occasional phrases in the liturgy (as “worthy fruits of penance”), are drawn from Cranmer’s Bible. “Love” for “charity” appears in 1 Corinthians 13 and “congregation” for “church”; yet, with characteristic vacillation between Tyndale and the sacerdotalists, he has in 1 Timothy 4:14 “with authority of priesthood.”

    GENEVA BIBLE. The exiles from England at Geneva in Mary’s reign, dissatisfied with Cranmer’s version as retrograde, laboured two years day and night on the “great and wonderful work with fear and trembling.” The New Testament translated by Whittingham was printed by Conrad Badius in 1557, the whole Bible in 1560; Goodman, Pallain, Sampson, and Coverdale laboured with him. Printed in England in 1561, James Bedleigh having the monopoly; afterwards in 1576 Barker had it, and in his family the monopoly continued for a century; 80 editions appeared between and 1611. Its cheapness and greater portableness (a small 4to, instead of Cranmer’s folio), its division into verses, the Roman type then first introduced into Bibles instead of the black letter, its helpful notes, and the accompanying Bible dictionary of editions after 1578, all recommended it.

    Tyndale’s version is its basis. It is the first Bible that omits the Apocrypha.

    The calendar prefixed commemorates Scripture facts and the great reformers’ deaths, hut ignores saints’ days. The notes were Swiss in politics, allegiance to monarchs being made dependent on their soundness in the faith; James I was startled at the note applicable to his mother queen Mary ( 2 Chronicles 15:16), “herein he showed that he lacked zeal, for she ought to have died.” This Geneva Bible,as published by Barker, was called “the Breeches Bible” from its translated for “aprons” breeches ( Genesis 3:7), but Wycliffe had previously so translated. Beza’s Latin version was the basis of its New Testament according to later reprints, and the notes are said to be from Joac. Career, P. Leseler, Villerius, and Junius.

    Parker consulted eight bishops and some deans and professors, and brought out “THE BISHOPS’BIBLE” in folio, 1568-1572. The preface vindicated the people’s right to read the Scriptures. This version was based on Cranmer’s; it reprinted his prologue; it adopted the Genevan division of verses; it grouped the books together in classes, the legal, historical, sapiential, and prophetic: the Gospels, universal epistles, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews as legal; Paul’s other epistles as sapiential; Acts as historical; Revelation as prophetic. The translators attached their initials to the books which they severally translated. It never was popular owing to its size and cost, and scholars cared little for it. Its circulation extended little beyond the churches, which were ordered to be supplied with it. Guest, bishop of David’s, translated the Psalms; Cox, bishop of Ely, Sandys of Worcester, and Bishop Alley, a good Hebraist, were among its writers; the genealogical tables were ostensibly by Speed, really by the great Hebrew scholar, Hugh Broughton.

    RHEIMS AND DOUAY. Martin, Allen (afterwards cardinal), and Bristow, English refugees of the church of Rome, settled at Rheims, feeling the need of counteracting the Protestant versions, published a version of the New Testament at Rheims, based on the Vulgate, in 1582, with dogmatic and controversial notes. The Old Testament translation was published later in Douay, 1609. The language was often very un-English, e.g. “the pasche and the azymes,” Mark 16:1; “the archsynagogue,” Mark 5:35; “in prepuce,” Romans 4:9; “obdurate with the fallacie of sin,” Hebrews 3:13; “a greater hoste,” Hebrews 11:4; “this is the annuntiation,” John 1:5; “preordinate,” Acts 13:48; “the justifications of our Lord,” Luke 1:6; “what is to me and thee?” John 2:4; “longanimity,” Romans 2:4; “purge the old leaven that ye may be a new paste, as you are azymes,” 1 Corinthians 5:7; “you are evacuated from Christ,” Galatians 5:4.

    AUTHORIZED VERSION (= KING JAMES VERSION). At the beginning of the reign of James I the Bishops’ Bible was the one authorized, the Geneva Bible was the popular one. The Puritans, through Reinolds, 1604, at the Hampton Court Conference, asked for a new or revised translation. The king in 1606 entrusted 54 scholars with the duty, seven of whom are omitted in the king’s list (Burnet, Reform. Records), whether having died or declined to act. Andrewes, Saravia, Overal, Montague, and Barlow represented the sacerdotal party; Reinolds, Chaderton, and Lively, the Puritans; Henry Savile and John Boys represented scholarship. Broughton, the greatest Hebrew scholar of the age, owing to his violent temper was excluded, though he had already translated Job, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, and Lamentations. A copy of 15 instructions was sent to each translator. The Bishops’ Bible was to be as little altered as the original would permit. “Church” was to be translated for” congregation,” and “charity” for “love.”

    In the case of words with divers significations, that was to be kept which was used by eminent fathers, being agreeable to the propriety of the place and the analogy of faith. No marginal notes, except for explaining Hebrew and Greek words, the principle being recognized that Scripture is its own best interpreter. Each company of translators was to take its own books, each person to bring his own corrections; the company was to discuss them, and having finished their work was to send it on to another company.

    Differences of opinion between two companies were to be referred to a general meeting. Scholars were to be consulted, suggestions to be invited.

    The directors were Andrewes dean of Westminster, Barlow dean of Chester, and the regius professors of Hebrew and Greek at both universities. Other translations to be followed when more agreeing with the original than the Bishops’ Bible, namely, Tyndale’s, Coverdale’s, Matthew’s, Cranmer’s, and Geneva. Two from each of the three groups of translators were chosen toward the close, and the six met in London to superintend the publication. The only payment made was to these six editors, 30 British pounds each for their nine months’ labour, from the Stationers’ Company. Bilson, bishop of Winchester, and Dr. Miles Smith undertook the final correction and the “arguments” of the several books.

    M. Smith wrote the fulsome dedication to James I, “that sanctified person,” “enriched with singular and extraordinary graces,” “as the sun in his strength.” The version was published A.D 1611. Calvinism appears in the translated” such as should be saved” ( Acts 2:47); “any man” is inserted instead of “he” in Hebrews 10:38; “the just shall live by faith, but if (any man) draw back,” to avoid what might oppose the doctrine of final perseverance. “Bishopric,” on the prelatical side, is used for “oversight” ( Acts 1:20); contrast the translated of the. same Greek, 1 Peter 5:2; “overseers” in Acts 20:28 (to avoid identifying “bishops” and “elders”), but in 1 Timothy 3:1 “bishop” (same Greek). This Authorized Version did not at once supersede the Bishops’ Bible and Geneva Bible. Walton praises it as “eminent above all.” Swift says that “the translators were masters of an English style far more fit for that work than any we see in our present writings.” (Letter to Lord Oxford).

    The revision now proceeding (A.D. 1878) promises to be a great step in advance toward the attainment of an accurate version. The revisers have been selected from among the ablest scholars of our times, without distinction of denomination. The main difficulty is to decide what original text to adopt for translation. Tischendorf’s Authorized English Version of the New Testament (Tauchnitz edition) with the various readings of the three most celebrated manuscripts has done much to familiarize the ordinary English reader with the materials from which he must form his own opinion. The new revision it is to be hoped will do the same in both the Old Testament and New Testament. In this, as in many other questions, God leaves men to the exercise of their own judgment in prayerful dependence on His Holy Spirit.

    VILLAGES: chatser , an enclosure of huts; chatserot ; from a root “to enclose”; unwalled suburbs outside of walled towns ( Joshua 13:23,28; 15:32; Leviticus 25:31,34). The Jehalin Arabs arrange their tents in a circle for security against attack; the village huts were often perhaps similarly arranged. Cities are often mentioned in the Old Testament with their dependent villages. So in the New Testament, Mark 8:27, “villages of Caesarea Philippi.” In Mark 1:38 “village towns” (komopoleis ) of Galilee. Caphar designates a regular village, and appears in “Caper-naum,” which subsequently became a town; from kaphar “to cover” or “protect” ( Nehemiah 6:2; Chronicles 27:25).

    VINE Noah appears as its first cultivator ( Genesis 9:20,21); he probably preserved the knowledge of its cultivation from the antediluvian world.

    Pharaoh’s dream ( Genesis 40:9-11, see Speaker’s Commentary) implies its prevalence in Egypt; this is confirmed by the oldest Egyptian monuments. So also Psalm 78:47. Osiris the Egyptian god is represented as first introducing the vine. Wine in Egypt was the beverage of the rich people; beer was the drink of the poor people. The very early monuments represent the process of fermenting wine. The spies bore a branch with one cluster of grapes between two on a staff from the brook Eshcol. Bunches are found in Palestine of ten pounds weight (Reland Palest., 351). Kitto (Phys. Hist. Palest., p. 330) says a bunch from a Syrian vine was sent as a present from the Duke of Portland to the Marquis of Rockingham, weighing 19 pounds, and was carried on a staff by four, two bearing it in rotation. Sibmah, Heshbon, and Elealeh ( Isaiah 16:8-10, Jeremiah 48:31) and Engedi (Song 1:14) were famous for their vines.

    Judah with its hills and tablelands was especially suited for vine cultivation; “binding his foal unto the vine and his ass’ colt unto the choice vine he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes, his eyes shall be red with wine” ( Genesis 49:11,12). Both Isaiah (Isaiah 5) and the Lord Jesus make a vineyard with fence and tower, the stones being gathered out, the image of Judah ( Matthew 21:33). Israel is the vine brought out of Egypt, and planted by Jehovah in the land of promise ( Psalm 80:8; compare Isaiah 27:2,3). The “gathering out of the stones” answers to God’s dislodging the original inhabitants before Israel, and the “fencing” to God’s protection of Israel from surrounding enemies. “The choicest vine” (sowreq , still in Morocco called serki, the grapes have scarcely perceptible stones; Judges 16:4 mentions a town called from this choice vine Sorek) is the line of holy patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, etc. The square “tower” was to watch against depredations, and for the owner’s use; the “fence” to keep out wild boars, foxes, jackals, etc. ( Psalm 80:13; Song 2:15). The “fence” may represent the law, the “stones” gathered out Jerome thinks are the idols; the “tower” the temple “in the midst” of Judaea; the “winepress,” generally hewn out of the rocky soil, the altar. The vine stem is sometimes more than a foot in diameter, and 30 ft. in height. “To dwell under the vine and fig tree” symbolizes peace and prosperity ( 1 Kings 4:25). When apostate, Israel was “an empty vine,” “the degenerate plant of a strange vine,” “bringing forth fruit unto himself” not unto God ( Jeremiah 2:21; Hosea 10:1). In Ezekiel 15:2-4 God asks “what is the vine wood more than any tree?” i.e., what is its preeminence? None. Nay the reverse. Other trees yield good timber; but vine wood is soft, brittle, crooked, and seldom large; “will men take a pin of it, to hang any vessel thereon?” not even a “pin” or wooden peg can be made of it. Its sole excellence above all trees is its fruit; when not fruit bearing it is inferior to other trees. So, if God’s people lose their distinctive excellency by not bearing fruits of righteousness, they are more unprofitable than the worldly, for they are the vine, the sole end of their being is to bear fruit to His glory. In all respects, except in bearing fruit unto God, Israel was inferior to other nations, as Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, in antiquity, extent, resources, military power, arts and sciences. Its only use when fruitless is to be “cast into the fire for fuel.” Gephen is a general term for the vine, from whence the town Gophna, now Jifna, is named. Nazir is “the undressed vine,” one every seventh and 50th year left unpruned. The vine is usually planted on the side of a terraced hill, the old branches trailing along the ground and the fruit bearing shoots being raised on forked sticks. Robinson saw the vine trained near Hebron in rows eight or ten feet apart; when the stock is six or eight feet high, it is fastened in a sloping direction to a stake, and the shoots extend front one plant to another, forming a line of festoons; sometimes two rows slant toward each other and form an arch. Sometimes the vine is trained over a rough wall three feet high, sometimes over a wooden framework so that the foliage affords a pleasant shade ( 1 Kings 4:25). The vintage is in September. The people leave the towns and live in lodges and tents among the vineyards ( Judges 9:27); sometimes even before the vintage (Song 7:11,12). The grape gatherers plied their work with shouts of joy ( Jeremiah 25:30). The finest grapes in Palestine are now dried as raisins, tsimuq . The juice of the rest, is boiled down to a syrup, called fibs, much used as an accompaniment of foods.

    The vine was Judaea’s emblem on Maccabean coins, and in the golden cluster over the porch of the second temple. It is still to be seen on their oldest tombstones in Europe. The Lord Jesus is the antitypical vine (John 15). Every branch in Jesus He “pruneth,” with afflictions, that it may bring forth more fruit. So each believer becomes “pure” (“pruned,” katharoi , answering to kathairei , “He purgeth” or pruneth). The printing is first in March, when the clusters begin to form. The twig formed subsequently has time to shoot by April, when, if giving no promise, it is again lopped off; so again in May, if fruitless; at last it is thrown into the fire. On the road from Akka to Jerusalem, Robinson saw an upper ledge of rock scooped into a shallow trough, in which the grapes were trodden, and by a hole in the bottom the juice passed into a lower vat three feet deep, four square (Bib.

    Res. 3:137). Other winepresses were of wood; thus the stone ones became permanent landmarks ( Judges 7:25). The vine is the emblem, as of Christ, so of the church and each believer. Vine of Sodom. Deuteronomy 32:32; Isaiah 1:10; Jeremiah 23:14. (See APPLES OF SODOM ). J.D. Hooper objects to the Calotropis or Asclepias procera, the osher of the Arabs, that the term “vine” would scarcely be given to any but a trailing or other plant of the habit of a vine, and that its beautiful silky cotton within would never suggest the idea of anything but what is exquisitely lovely. He therefore prefers the Cucumis colocynthis. Tacitus writes, “all herbs growing along the Dead Sea are blackened by its exhalations, and so blasted as to vanish into ashes” (Hist. 5:7). Josephus (B. J. 4:8, section 4) says” the ashes of the five cities still grow in their fruits, which have a color as if they were fit to be eaten, but if you pluck them they dissolve into smoke and ashes.” The Asclepius gigantea or Calotropis has a trunk six or eight inches in diameter, and from ten to 15 ft. high, the bark cork-like and grey. The yellow apple-like fruit is yellow and soft and tempting to the eye, but when pressed explodes with a puff, leaving in the hand only shreds and fibres. The acrid juice suggests the gall in Deuteronomy 32:32, “their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter.”

    VINEGAR Hebrew chomets , Greek oxos . Wine soured. Acid and unpalatable ( Proverbs 10:26), yet to thirsty labourors the acid relieved thirst ( Ruth 2:14). So it was used by Roman soldiers, pure, or mixed with water and called posca. Pourer on nitre or potash it causes effervescence ( Proverbs 25:20). Instead of cordials, Christ’s enemies gave Him on the cross first vinegar mixed with gall ( Matthew 27:34), and myrrh ( Mark 15:23); which after tasting He declined, for He would not encounter sufferings in a state of stupefaction by the myrrh; to criminals it would have been a kindness, to the Sinbearer it was meant as an insult (Luke 33:36). Toward the close of His crucifixion, to fulfill Scripture He cried “I thirst,” and vinegar was brought which He received ( John 19:28; Matthew 27:48).

    VINEYARDS, PLAIN OF (See ABEL CERAMIM ). Judges 11:33.

    VIOL A six stringed guitar, in old English ( Isaiah 5:12; 14:11; Amos 5:23; 6:5). Hebrew nebel . Elsewhere translated see PSALTERY .

    VIPER (See ADDER and see SERPENT ). Epheh ( Isaiah 59:5); viviparous, as the derivation of viper implies. Symbol of hypocrisy and malignity ( Matthew 3:7; 12:34; 23:33).

    VOPHSI Father of Nahbi, the spy from Naphtali ( Numbers 13:14).

    VOW To be taken voluntarily; but when taken to be conscientiously fulfilled ( Deuteronomy 23:21-23; Ecclesiastes 5:5; Nehemiah 1:15; Psalm 1.14; Proverbs 20:25). The see NAZARITE however was often dedicated froth infancy by the parent. For instances see JACOB ( Genesis 28:20-22 with 31:13; 35:1-4). Vows were of three kinds: (1) vow of devotion, neder ; (2) of abstinence, ‘esar (see CORBAN ); (3) of destruction, cherem ( Ezra 10:8; Micah 4:13) (see ANATHEMA ).

    A man could not devote to sacred uses the firstborn of man or beast, as being devoted already ( Leviticus 27:26). The law of redeeming vowed land is given ( Leviticus 27:15,24; 25:27). An animal fit for sacrifice could not be redeemed; any attempting it had to bring both the animal and its changeling ( Leviticus 27:9,10,33). An animal unfit for sacrifice, adding a fifth ( Leviticus 27:12,13). A devoted person became a servant of the sanctuary ( 2 Samuel 15:8). The vow of a daughter or a wife was void if disallowed by the father or husband, otherwise it was binding ( Numbers 30:3-16). The wages of impurity was excluded from vows ( Deuteronomy 23:17,18); “dog” means “Sodomite” ( Micah 1:7). In Ashtoreth’s and the Babylonian Mylitta’s worship prostitution for hire devoted to the idol was usual ( Leviticus 19:29; 2 Kings 23:7). The head was shaven after a vow ( Acts 18:18; 21:24).

    VULGATE See NEW TESTAMENT .

    VULTURE: ‘ayah (the red kite famed for sharp sight: Job 28:7); daah (GLEDE or black kite: Leviticus 11:14; Deuteronomy 14:13 raah ); dayah , the Vulturidae; the words “after his kind” mark more than one species.

    Vultures differ from eagles and falcons by having the head and neck borer of feathers, the eyes not so sunk, the beak longer, curved only at the end.

    Cowardly; preferring carrion to other food; rarely killing their prey, unless it is feeble. The griffon of the Vulturidae is noted for seeing its prey from the greatest height. Though previously scarcely known in the Crimea, during the Anglo-Russian war they remained near the camp throughout the campaign; “wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together” ( Matthew 24:28; Job 39:30). Besides the griffon, the lammergever and the Egyptian vulture, “Pharaoh’s hens,” are found in Palestine.

    WAGES Paid by Laban to Jacob in kind ( Genesis 29:15,20; 30:28; 31:7,8,41; “I served 14 years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle”). The labourer’s daily wages (misthos ) in Matthew 20 are set at one denarius (“penny”) a day, 7 3/4 d. of our money; compare Tobit 5:14, “a drachm.”

    The term opsoonia for “wages” ( Luke 3:14) and Paul’s words, Corinthians 11:8 (opsoonion ), “charges,” 1 Corinthians 9:7, imply that provisions were part of a soldier’s wages. They should be paid every night ( Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:14,15; compare Job 24:11; James 5:4; Jeremiah 22:13; Malachi 3:5); spiritually, John 4:36; Romans 6:28.

    WAGON (See CART ). Two or three planks form the floor, attached to solid wooden wheels. The covered wagons for carrying the tabernacle were probably of Egyptian build ( Numbers 7:3,8).

    WALLS (See HOUSE ). Foundations were often carried down to the solid rock, as in the case of the temple. The foundation stones are often of enormous size, 20 to 30 ft. long, by three to 6 ft. 6 inches wide, and five to 7 ft. inches thick; three at Baalbek are each 68 ft. long, and one in the quarry ft. 4 in. long, 17 ft. 2 in. broad, and 14 ft. 7 in. thick. Slabs of marble or alabaster line the walls of Solomon’s buildings, as those of Nineveh.

    WAR Israel at its exodus from Egypt went up “according to their armies,” “harnessed,” literally, “arranged in five divisions,” van, center, two wings, and rearguard (Ewald): Exodus 6:26; 12:37,41; 13:18. Pharaoh’s despotism had supplied them with native officers whom they obeyed ( Exodus 5:14-21). Moses had in youth all the training which a warlike nation like Egypt could give him, and which would enable him to organize Israel as an army not a mob. Jehovah as “a man of war” was at their head ( Exodus 15:1,3; 13:20-22); under Him they won their first victory, that over Amalek ( Exodus 17:8-16). The 68th Psalm of David takes its starting point from Israel’s military watchword under Jehovah in marching against the enemy ( Numbers 10:35,36). In Joshua 5:13--6:5.

    Jehovah manifests Himself in human form as “the Captain of the host of the Lord.” Antitypically, the spiritual Israel under Jehovah battle against Satan with spiritual arms ( 2 Corinthians 10:4,5; Ephesians 6:10-17; Thessalonians 5:8; 6:12; 2 Timothy 2:3; 4:7; Revelation 6:2). By the word of His mouth shall He in person at the head of the armies of heaven slay antichrist and his hosts in the last days ( Revelation 17:14; 19:11- 21).

    The Mosaic code fostered a self defensive, not an aggressive, spirit in Israel. All Israelites (with some merciful exemptions, Deuteronomy 20:5-8) were liable to serve from 20 years and upward, thus forming a national yeomanry ( Numbers 1:3,26; 2 Chronicles 25:5). The landowners and warriors being the same opposed a powerful barrier to assaults from without and disruption from within. The divisions for civil purposes were the same as for military ( Exodus 18:21, compare Numbers 31:14); in both cases divided into thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and the chiefs bearing the same designation (sariy ). In Deuteronomy 20:9 Vulgate, Syriac, etc., translated “the captains at the head of the people shall array them.” But if “captains” were subject to the verb and not, as KJV object, the article might be expected. In KJV the captains meant are subordinate leaders of smaller divisions. National landholders led by men already revered for civil authority and noble family descent, so long as they remained faithful to God, formed an army ensuring alike national security and a free constitution in a free country. Employed in husbandry, and attached to home, they had no temptation to war for conquest. The law forbidding cavalry, and enjoining upon all males attendance yearly at the three great feasts at Jerusalem, made war outside Palestine almost impossible. Religion too treated them as polluted temporarily by any bloodshed however justifiable ( Numbers 19:13-16; 31:19; 1 Kings 5:3; 1 Chronicles 28:3). A standing army was introduced under Saul ( 1 Samuel 13:2; 14:47-52; 18:5). (See ARMY ).

    Personal prowess of individual soldiers determined the issue, as they fought hand to hand ( 2 Samuel 1:28; 2:18; 1 Chronicles 12:8; Amos 2:14-16), and sometimes in single combat (1 Samuel 17; 2 Samuel 2:14-17). The trumpet by varied notes sounded for battle or for retreat ( 2 Samuel 2:28; 18:16; 20:22; 1 Corinthians 14:8). The priests blew the silver trumpets ( Numbers 10:9; 31:6). In sieges, a line of circumvallation was drawn round the city, and mounds were thrown out from this, on which towers were erected from whence slingers and archers could assail the defenders ( Ezekiel 4:2; 2 Samuel 20:15; 2 Kings 19:32; 25:1).

    The Mosaic law mitigated the severities of ancient warfare. Only males in arms were slain; women and children were spared, except the Canaanites who were doomed by God ( Deuteronomy 20:13,14; 21:10-14). Israel’s mercy was noted among neighbouring nations ( 1 Kings 20:31; Kings 6:20-23; Isaiah 16:5; contrast Judges 16:21; 1 Samuel 11:2; 2 Kings 25:7). Abimelech and Menahem acted with the cruelty of usurpers ( Judges 9:45; 2 Kings 15:16). Amaziahacted with exceptional cruelty ( 2 Chronicles 25:12). Gideon’s severity to the oppressor Midian (Judges 7--8), also Israel’s treatment of the same after suffering by Midian’s licentious and idolatrous wiles, and David’s treatment of Moab and Ammon (probably for some extraordinary treachery toward his father and mother), are not incompatible with Israel’s general mercy comparatively speaking.

    WASHING The high priest’s whole body was washed at his consecration ( Exodus 29:4; Leviticus 16:4); also on the day of atonement. The priests’ hands and feet alone were washed in the daily tabernacle ministrations ( Exodus 30:18-20). So Christians are once for all wholly “bathed” (leloumenoi ) in regeneration which is their consecration; and daily wash away their soils of hand and foot contracted in walking through this defiling world ( John 13:10, Greek “he that has been bathed needs not save to wash (nipsasthai ) his feet, but is clean all over”: 2 Corinthians 7:1; Hebrews 10:22,23; Ephesians 5:26). The clothes of him who led away the scapegoat, and of the priest who offered the red heifer, were washed ( Leviticus 16:26; Numbers 19:7), The Pharisaic washings of hands before eating, and of the whole body after being in the market ( Mark 7:2-4), turned attention off from the spirit of the law, which aimed at teaching inward purity, to a mere outward purification. In the sultry and dusty East water for the feet was provided for the guests ( Luke 7:44; Genesis 18:4). The Lord Jesus by washing His disciples’ feet taught our need of His cleansing, and His great humility whereby that cleansing was effected (compare 1 Samuel 25:41; 1 Timothy 5:10).

    The sandals, without stockings, could not keep out dust from the feet; hence washing them was usual before either dining or sleeping (Song 5:3).

    Again, the usage of thrusting the hand into a common dish rendered cleansing of the hand indispensable before eating. It was only when perverted into a self righteous ritual that our Lord protested against it ( Matthew 15:2; Luke 11:38).

    WATCHES OF THE NIGHT The Jews reckoned three military watches: the “first” or beginning of the watches ( Lamentations 2:19), from sunset to ten o’clock; the second or “middle watch” was from ten until two o’clock ( Judges 7:19); the third, “the morning watch,” from two to sunrise ( Exodus 14:24; 1 Samuel 11:11). Afterward under the Romans they had four watches ( Matthew 14:25): Luke 12:38, “even, midnight, cockcrowing, and morning” ( Mark 13:35); ending respectively at 9 p.m., midnight,3 a.m., and a.m. (compare Acts 12:4.) Watchmen patrolled the streets (Song 3:3; 5:7; <19C701> Psalm 127:1).

    WATER The heat of summer and many mouths of drought necessitated also appliances for storing and conveying water; and remains still exist of the see POOLS of Solomon situated near Bethlehem, and of the aqueduct near Jericho which was constructed by the Romans.

    WATER OF JEALOUSY Numbers 5:11-31. The appointed test of a wife’s infidelity; an instance of the special providence which ruled the Israelite theocracy (Numbers 5).

    An ordeal which could not injure the innocent at all (for the ingredients were in themselves harmless), or punish the guilty except by miracle; whereas in the ordeals by fire in the dark ages the innocent could scarcely escape except by miracle. The husband brought the woman before the priest, bearing the tenth of an ephah of barley meal, which was thrown on the blazing altar. As she stood holding the offering, so the priest held an earthen vessel of holy water mixed with the dust of the floor of the sanctuary, and declared her freedom from hurt if innocent, but cursed her if guilty; he then wrote the curses in a book and washed them INTO (so translated ver. 23) the bitter water, which the woman had then to drink, answering “amen” to the curse. If innocent she obtained conception (ver. 28). Thus the law provided a legal vent for jealousy, mitigating its violent outbursts, so terrible in orientals, protecting the woman if innocent, and punishing her by divine interposition if guilty. Dust is the emblem of condemnation ( Genesis 3:14; Micah 7:17; compare John 8:6,8).

    Her drinking the water symbolized her full acceptance of the conditional curse ( Ezekiel 3:1-3; Jeremiah 15:16; Revelation 10:9) and its actual operation on her if guilty ( <19A918> Psalm 109:18). The oath and the solemn ritual accompanying would deter a guilty woman from facing it. No instance is recorded of the use of this ordeal, as probably the husband of an .adulteress generally preferred the castor method, namely, to divorce the guilty wife. The Talmud says the trial lapsed into disuse 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and that because adultery was so common God would no longer inflict upon women the curses (compare Hosea 4:14).

    The Egyptian romance of Setnau (the third century B.C.) illustrates it; Ptahneferka takes a leaf of papyrus and on it copies a magical formula, then dissolves the writing in water, drinks the decoction, and knows in consequence all it contains. Moses probably, as in other cases, under God’s direction modified existing usages. A trial by red water among West Africans somewhat accords with the Mosaic institution.

    WAVE OFFERING (See SACRIFICE ). Accompanied “peace offerings”; the right shoulder, the choicest part of the victim, was “heaved” or raised, and waved, and eaten by the worshipper. On the second day of the Passover a sheaf of green grain was waved, with the sacrifice of a first year lamb; from this began the reckoning to Pentecost. Abib, the Passover month, means the month of the green ear; the birth of Israel into national life, and the birth of the earth’s fruits on which man depends into natural life, are appropriately combined in the Passover. The firstborn of men and the first produce of the earth were at once consecrated to the Lord in acknowledgment of His ownership of all. So at harvest in Pentecost the firstfruits of the ripened whole produce were waved to Him, in token of His gracious and almighty operation all around us.

    WAY Used in the sense “religious system,” course of life ( <19D924> Psalm 139:24). Amos 8:14, “the manner of Beersheba.” The new religion of Christ ( Acts 9:2; 19:9).

    WEASEL So the Mishna interprets choled ( Leviticus 11:29), meaning an animal that glides or slips away. So Septuagint and Vulgate But Bochart takes it as related to the Arabic chuld, “the mole”; chephar is the more usual Hebrew for the mole ( Isaiah 2:20). The choled was unclean.

    WEAVING (See LINEN ). The “fine linen” of Joseph ( Genesis 41:42) accords with existing specimens of Egyptian weaving equal to the finest cambric. The Israelites learned from the Egyptians the art, and so could weave the tabernacle curtains ( Exodus 35:35). In Isaiah 19:9 Gesenius translated choral (from chur , “white”) “they that weave white cloth,” for “networks” ( Esther 1:6; 8:15). The Tyrians got from Egypt their “fine linen with embroidered work” for sails ( Ezekiel 27:7). Men wove anciently ( 1 Chronicles 4:21); latterly females ( 1 Samuel 2:19; Proverbs 31:13,19,24). The Egyptian loom was upright, and the weaver stood. Jesus’ seamless coat was woven “from the top” ( John 19:23). In Leviticus 13:48 the “warp” and “woof” are not parts of woven cloth, but yarn prepared for warp and yarn prepared for woof. The speed of the shuttle, the decisive cutting of the web from the thrum when the web is complete, symbolize the rapid passing away of life and its being cut off at a stroke ( Job 7:6; Isaiah 38:12); each day, like the weaver’s shuttle, leaves a thread behind. Textures with gold thread interwoven ( Psalm 45:13) were most valuable. The Babylonians wove men and animals on robes; Achan appropriated such a “goodly Babylonish garment” ( Joshua 7:21). Sacerdotal garments were woven without seam (Josephus, Ant. 3:7, section 4); so Jesus’ “coat without seam” ( John 19:23) was appropriately sacerdotal, as He was at once the Priest and the sacrifice.

    WEEK Hebrew shabua’ , a period of sevens; Greek hebdomas . Is astronomically an appropriate division, as being the fourth of the 28 days’ lunar month (more exactly 27 days, 7 hours, and 43 minutes). In Genesis 4:3 (margin) “at the end of days” the reference may be to such a period; but Abenezra explains “at the end of the year,” namely, after the fruits of the earth were gathered in, the usual time for sacrifice. Noah’s waiting other “seven days” ( Genesis 8:10), and Laban’s requiring Jacob to fulfill Leah’s “week,” i.e. celebrate the marriage feast for a week with Leah ( Genesis 29:27), are explicit allusions to this division of time (compare Judges 14:12); also Joseph’s mourning for Jacob seven days ( Genesis 50:10). The week of seven days was the basis of the sabbatical seven years, and of the jubilee year after seven sevens of years. Pentecost came a week of weeks after Passover, and was therefore called the feast of weeks ( Exodus 34:22). The Passover and the tabernacles’ feast was for seven days each. (See SABBATH , on the beginning of this division dating as far back as God’s rest on the seventh day after creation). It prevailed in many ancient nations; all the Semitic races, the Peruvians, Hindus, and Chinese. The Mahratta week has Aditwar (from aditya the sun, and war day), Somwar (from som the moon) Monday, Mungulwar (from Mungul Mars) Tuesday, Boodhwar (from Boodh Mercury) Wednesday, Bruhusputwar (from Bruhusputi Jupiter), Shookurwar (from Shookru Venus), and Shuniwar (from Shuni Saturn). As Judah’s captivity in Babylon was for 70 years, so its time of deliverance by Messiah was to be 70 sevens of years ( Daniel 9:24-27). (See DANIEL ). Seven was a predominant number in Persia; seven days of feasting, seven chamberlains, seven princes ( Esther 1:5,10,14). Rome adopted the division by weeks.

    WEIGHTS AND MEASURES WEIGHTS: mishkol from shekel (the weight in commonest use); eben, a stone, anciently used as a weight; peles, scales. Of all Jewish weights the shekel was the most accurate, as a half shekel was ordered by God to be paid by every Israelite as a ransom. From the period of the exodus there were two shekels, one for ordinary business ( Exodus 38:29; Joshua 7:21; 2 Kings 7:1; Amos 8:5), the other, which was larger, for religious uses ( Exodus 30:13; Leviticus 5:15; Numbers 3:47).

    The silver in the half-shekel was 1 shilling, 3 1/2 pence; it contained gerahs, literally, beans, a name of a weight, as our grain from grain. The Attic tetradrachma , or Greek stater , was equivalent to the shekel. The didrachma of the Septuagint at Alexandria was equivalent to the Attic tetradrachma . The shekel was about 220 grains weight. In 2 Samuel 14:26 “shekel after the king’s weight” refers to the perfect standard kept by David. Michaelis makes five to three the proportion of the holy shekel to the commercial shekel; for in Ezekiel 45:12 the maneh contains 60 of the holy shekels; in 1 Kings 10:17; 2 Chronicles 9:16, each maneh contained 100 commercial shekels, i.e. 100 to (60 or five to three. After the captivity the holy shekel alone was used. The half shekel ( Exodus 38:26; Matthew 17:24) was the beka (meaning division): the quarter shekel, reba; the 20th of the shekel, gerah. Hussey calculates the shekel at half ounce avoirdupois, and the maneh half pound, 14 oz.; 60 holy shekels were in the maneh, 3,000 in the silver talent, so 50 maneh in the talent: 660,000 grains, or 94 lbs. 5 oz. The gold talent is made by Smith’s Bible Dictionary 100 manehs, double the silver talent (50 manehs); by the Imperial Bible Dictionary identical with it. (See SHEKEL ; see MONEY ; see TALENT ). A gold maneh contained 100 shekels of gold. The Hebrew talents of silver and copper were exchangeable in the proportion of about one to 80; 50 shekels of silver are thought equal to a talent of copper. “Talent” means a circle or aggregate sum. One talent of gold corresponded to 24 talents of silver.

    MEASURES. Those of length are derived from the human body. The Hebrews used the forearm as the “cubit,” but not the “foot.” The Egyptian terms hin , ‘ephah , and ‘ammah (cubit) favor the view that the Hebrews derived their measures from Egypt. The similarity of the Hebrew to the Athenian scales for liquids makes it likely that both came from the one origin, namely, Egypt.

    Piazzi Smyth observes the sacred cubit of the Jews,25 inches (to which Sir Isaac Newton’s calculation closely approximates), is represented in the great pyramid, 2500 B.C.; in contrast to the ordinary standard cubits, from 18 to 21 inches, the Egyptian one which Israel had to use in Egypt. The 25-inch cubit measure is better than any other in its superior earth-axis commensurability. The inch is the real unit of British linear measure: such inches (increased on the present parliamentary inch by one thousandth) was Israel’s sacred cubit; 1.00099 of an English inch makes one pyramid inch; the earlier English inch was still closer to the pyramid inch. Smyth remarks that no pagan device of idolatry, not even the sun and moon, is pourtrayed in the great pyramid, though there are such hieroglyphics in two older pyramids. He says the British grain measure “quarter” is just one fourth of the coffer in the king’s chamber, which is the same capacity as the Saxon chaldron or four quarters. The small passage of the pyramid represents a unit day; the grand gallery, seven unit days or a week. The grand gallery is seven times as high as one of the small and similarly inclined passages = 350 inches, i.e. seven times 50 inches. The names Shofo and Noushofo (Cheops and Chephren of Herodotus) are marked in the chambers of construction by the stonemasons at the quarry.

    The Egyptian dislike to those two kings was not because of forced labour, for other pyramids were built so by native princes, but because they overthrew the idolatrous temples. The year is marked by the entrance step into the great gallery, 90.5 inches, going 366 times into the circumference of the pyramid. The seven overlappings of the courses of polished stones on the eastern and the western sides of the gallery represent two weeks of months of 26 days each so there are 26 holes in the western ramp; on the other ramp 28, in the antechamber two day holes over and above the 26.

    Four grooves represent four years, three of them hollow and one full, i.e. three years in which only one day is to be added to the 14 x 26 for the year; the fourth full from W. to E., i.e. two days to be added on leap year, days. The full groove not equal in breadth to the hollow one implies that the true length of the year is not quite 365 1/4 days. Job (38:6) speaks of the earth’s “sockets” with imagery from the pyramid, which was built by careful measurement on a prepared platform of rock. French savants A.D. 1800 described sockets in the leveled rock fitted to receive the four corner stones. The fifth corner stone was the topstone completing the whole; the morning stars singing together at the topstone being put to creation answers to the shoutings, Grace unto it, at the topstone being put to redemption ( Job 38:7; Zechariah 4:7); Ephesians 2:19, “the chief corner stone in which all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy tern. pie.” The topstone was “disallowed by the builders” as “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” to them; for the pyramids previously constructed were terrace topped, not topped with the finished pointed cornerstone. Pyramid is derived from peram “lofty” (Ewald), from puros “wheat” (P. Smyth). The mean density of the earth (5,672) is introduced into the capacity and weight measures of the pyramid ( Isaiah 40:12).

    The Egyptians disliked the number five, the characteristic of the great pyramid, which has five sides, five angles, five corner stones, and the five sided coffer. Israel’s predilection for it appears in their marching five in a rank (Hebrew for “harnessed”), Exodus 13:18; according to Manetho, 250,000, i.e. 5 x 50,000; so the shepherd kings at Avaris are described as 250,000; 50 inches is the grand standard of length in the pyramid, five is the number of books in the Pentateuch,50 is the number of the jubilee year, 25 inches (5 x 5) the cubit, an integral fraction of the earth’s axis of rotation, 50 the number of Pentecost. (See NUMBER ). The cow sacrifice of Israel was an “abomination to the Egyptians”; and the divinely taught builders of the great pyramid were probably of the chosen race, in the line of, though preceding, Abraham and closer to Noah, introducers into Egypt of the pure worship of Jehovah (such as Melchizedek held) after its apostasy to idols, maintaining the animal sacrifices originally ordained by God ( Genesis 3:21; 4:4,7; Hebrews 11:4), but rejected in Egypt; forerunners of the hyksos or shepherd kings who from the Canaan quarter made themselves masters of Egypt. The enormous mass of unoccupied masonry would have been useless as a tomb, but necessary if the pyramid was designed to preserve an equal temperature for unexceptionable scientific observations; 100 ft. deep inside the pyramid would prevent a variation of heat beyond 01 degree of Fahrenheit, but the king’s chamber is 180 ft. deep to compensate for the altering of air currents through the passages.

    The Hebrew finger, about seven tenths of an inch, was the smaller measure. The palm or handbreadth was four fingers, three or four inches; illustrates the shortness of time ( Psalm 39:5). The span, the space between the extended extremities of the thumb and little finger, three palms, about seven and a half inches. The old Mosaic or sacred cubit (the length from the elbow to the end of the middle finger,25 inches) was a handbreadth longer than the civil cubit of the time of the captivity (from the elbow to the wrist, 21 inches): Ezekiel 40:5; 43:13; 2 Chronicles 3:3, “cubits after the first (according to the earlier) measure.” The Mosaic cubit (Thenius in Keil on 1 Kings 6:2) was two spans, 20 1/2 Dresden inches, 214,512 Parisian lines long. Og’s bedstead, nine cubits long ( Deuteronomy 3:11) “after the cubit of a man,” i.e. according to the ordinary cubit (compare Revelation 21:17) as contrasted with any smaller cubit, was of course much longer than the giant himself. In Ezekiel 41:8 (atsilah ) Henderson translated for “great” cubits, literally, “to the extremity” of the hand; Fairbairn, “to the joining” between one chamber and another below; Buxtorf, “to the wing” of the house. The measuring reed of Ezekiel 40:5 was six cubits long. Furlong (stadion ), one eighth of a Roman mile, or 606 3/4 ft. ( Luke 24:13), 53 1/2 ft. less than our furlong. The mile was eight furlongs or 1618 English yards, i.e. 142 yards less than the English statute mile; the milestones still remain in some places. Matthew 5:41, “compel,” angareusei , means literally, impress you as a post courier, originally a Persian custom, but adopted by the Romans.

    Sabbath day’s journey (see SABBATH ). A little way ( Genesis 35:16, kibrah ) is a definite length: Onkelos, an acre; Syriac, a parasang (30 furlongs). The Jews take it to be a mile, which tradition makes the interval between Rachel’s tomb and Ephrath, or Bethlehem (48:7); Gesenius, a French league.

    A day’s journey was about 20 to 22 miles ( Numbers 11:31; 1 Kings 19:4).

    DRY MEASURES. A cab ( 2 Kings 6:25), a sixth of a seah; four sextaries or two quarts. Omer, an Egyptian word, only in Exodus and Leviticus ( Exodus 16:16; Leviticus 23:10); the tenth of an ephah; Josephus makes it seven Attic cotylae or three and a half pints (Ant. 3:6, section 6), but its proportion to the bath ( Ezekiel 45:11; Josephus, Ant. 8:2, section 9) would make the omer seven and a half pints; issaron or a tenth was its later name; an omer of manna was each Israelite’s daily allowance; one was kept in the holiest place as a memorial ( Exodus 16:33,34), but had disappeared before Solomon’s reign ( 1 Kings 8:9). A seah ( Genesis 18:6), the third of an ephah, and containing six cabs (rabbins), three gallons (Josephus, Ant. 9:4, section 5); the Greek saton ( Matthew 13:33). ‘ephah , from ‘if to measure, ten omers, equal to the bath ( Ezekiel 45:11); Josephus (Ant. 8:2, section 9) makes it nine gallons; the rabbis make it only half. The half homer was called lethek ( Hosea 3:2). The homer or cor was originally an donkey load; Gesenius, an heap.

    A measure for liquids or dry goods; ten ephahs ( Ezekiel 45:14), i.e. gallons, if Josephus’ (Ant. 8:2, section 9) computation of the bath or ephah as nine gallons is right. The rabbis make it 45 gallons.

    LIQUID MEASURES. The log, a cotyle or half pint; related to our lake, a hollow; twelfth of the hin, which was sixth of a bath or 12 pints. The bath was an ephah, the largest Hebrew liquid measure, nine gallons (Josephus), but four and a half (rabbis). The sextary contained nearly a pint, translated “pots” in Mark 7:4-8. The choenix ( Revelation 6:6) one quart, or else one pint and a half; in scarcity a penny or denarius only bought a choenix, but ordinarily a bushel of wheat. The modius, “bushel,” two gallons, found in every household, therefore preceded by the Greek “the” ( Matthew 5:15). Metretes , “firkin” ( John 2:6), nearly nine gallons; answering to the Hebrew bath. The koros or cor, “measure” ( Luke 16:7) of grain; bath ( Luke 16:6), “measure” of oil. Twelve logs to one hin; six bins to one bath. One cab and four-fifths to one omer. Three omers and one third, one seah. Three seahs to one ephah. Ten ephahs to one homer.

    WELL (See FOUNTAIN ). As ‘ayin , “fount,” literally, eye, refers to the water springing up to us, so beer , “well,” from a root “to bore,” refers to our finding our way down to it. The Bir- and the En- are always distinct. The rarity of wells in the Sinaitic region explains the national rejoicings over Beer or the well, afterward Beer-Elim, “well of heroes” ( Numbers 21:16,17,18,22). God commanded Moses to cause the well to be dug; princes, nobles, and people, all heartily, believingly, and joyfully cooperated in the work. Naming a well marked right of property in it. To destroy it denoted conquest or denial of right of property ( Genesis 21:30,31; 26:15-33; 2 Kings 3:19; Deuteronomy 6:11; Numbers 20:17,19; Proverbs 5:15). “Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well,” i.e. enjoy the love of thine own wife alone. Wells and cisterns are the two sources of oriental supply, each house had its own cistern ( 2 Kings 18:31); to thirst for filthy waters is suicidal.

    Song 4:12: in Palestine wells are excavated in the limestone, with steps descending to them ( Genesis 24:16). A low stone wall for protection ( Exodus 21:33) surrounds the brim; on it sat our Lord in conversing with the Samaritan woman ( John 4:6,11). A stone cover was above; this the woman placed on the well at Bahurim ( 2 Samuel 17:19), translated “the woman spread the covering over the well’s mouth.” A rope and bucket or water skin raised the water; the marks of the rope are still visible in the furrows worn in the low wall. See Numbers 24:7, “he shall stream with water out of his two buckets,” namely, suspended from the two ends of a pole, the usual way of fetching water from the Euphrates in Balaam’s neighbourhood. Wells are often contended for and are places of Bedouin attacks on those drawing water ( Exodus 2:16,17; Judges 5:11; 2 Samuel 23:15,16). Oboth ( Numbers 21:10,11) means holes dug in the ground for water. Beerlahairoi is the first well mentioned ( Genesis 16:14). Beersheba, Rehoboth, and Jacob’s well are leading instances of wells ( Genesis 21:19; 26:22). They are sunk much deeper than ours, to prevent drying up. Jacob’s well is 75 ft. deep, seven feet six inches in diameter, and lined with rough masonry; a pitcher unbroken at the bottom evidenced that there was water at some seasons, otherwise the fall would have broken the pitcher.

    WHALE:

    Hebrew tannin , Greek keetos . Genesis 1:21, translated “sea monsters.”

    The crocodile in Ezekiel 29:3; 32:2; the “dragon” in Isaiah 27:1; tan means the crocodile; also Job 7:12. (See JONAH on the whale or sea monster in which he was miraculously preserved, type of Him over whose head for our sakes went all the waves and billows of God’s wrath: Psalm 42:7; 69:2; Galatians 3:13).

    WHEAT The wheat harvest (usually in the end of May) in Palestine is mentioned as early as Reuben ( Genesis 30:14), compare Isaac’s hundred fold increase (26:12). The crops are now thin and light, no manure being used and the same grain grown on the same soil year by year. Three varieties are grown, all bearded. The sickle was in use for cutting grain as well as sometimes for the vintage ( Revelation 14:18,19). Generally, the ears only were cut off, the long straw being left in the ground.

    WHIRLWIND: suphah , from a root “sweeping away,” and searah “tossed about.” In Psalm 77:18 “Thy thunder was in the heaven,” literally, “in the wheel,” i.e. the rotation of the visible heavens phenomenally round the earth, but the Septuagint, the Chaldee, and the Vulgate “in a whirl,” whirled about. Ezekiel 10:13 translated “it was cried unto them whirling”; they were called to put themselves into rapid revolution. Jehovah speaks the word which sets the machine of providence in motion, “the wheel (cycle) of creation” or “nature”; James 3:6, ton trochon geneseos , one fourfold wheel, two circles cutting one another at right angles. A “whirlwind” moving on its own axis is not meant in 2 Kings 2:11. In Job 37:9 “out of the south (literally, chamber, God’s unseen regions in the southern hemisphere) cometh the whirlwind” ( Isaiah 21:1); the south wind driving before it burning sands comes from the Arabian deserts upon Babylon ( Zechariah 9:14).

    WIDOW Cared for specially by the law, in the triennial tithes, etc. Deuteronomy 19:29; 24:17; 26:12; 27:19; Exodus 22:22; Job 24:3; 29:13; Isaiah 1:17; Matthew 23:14. God is “judge of the widows” ( Psalm 68:5; 146:9), therefore, the judge or righteous vindicator of His church, and of Israel especially (Isaiah 54), widowed by His physical absence, against her adversary Satan ( Luke 18:1-7). For pious widows see ANNA , and the one who gave her all to the Lord’s treasury ( Luke 2:36,37; 20:47; 21:1-4).

    Three classes of widows are distinguished in 1 Timothy (1) The ordinary widow. (2) The widow indeed, i.e. destitute, and therefore to be relieved by the church, not having younger relatives, whose duty it is to relieve them (let them, the children or descendants, learn first, before calling the church to support them; to show reverent dutifulness toward their own elder destitute female relatives). (3) The presbyteral widow ( 1 Timothy 5:9-11). Let none be enrolled as a presbyteral widow who is less than 60 years old. Not deaconesses, who were chosen at a younger age (40 was fixed as the limit at the council of Chalcedon) and who had virgins (latterly called widows) as well as widows among them, compare Dorcas ( Acts 9:41). As expediency required presbyters to be but once married ( 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6), so also presbyteresses. (The feeling among Jews and Gentiles being against second marriages, the desire for conciliation in matters indifferent, where no principle was compromised, accounts for this rule in the case of bishops, deacons, and presbyteresses, whose aim was to be all things to all men that by all means they might save some: 1 Corinthians 9:22; 10:33.) The reference in 1 Timothy 5:9 cannot, as in 1 Timothy 5:3, be to providing church maintenance, for then the restriction to widows above would be harsh, as many might need help at an earlier age. So the rules that she should not have been twice married, and that she must have brought up children and lodged strangers, would be strange, if the reference were to eligibility for church alms. Tertullian (“De velandis Virginibus,” 9), Hermas (Shepherd 1:2), and Chrysostom (Horn. 31) mention an order of ecclesiastical widows, not less than 60 years old, who ministered to widows and orphans. Their experimental knowledge of the trials of the bereaved adapted them for such an office and for general supervision of their sex. Age was a requisite, as in presbyters, to adapt them for influencing younger women; they were supported by the church, but were not the only widows so supported ( 1 Timothy 5:3,4).

    WILDERNESS OF THE WANDERINGS (On Israel’s route from Rameses to Sinai see EXODUS and see EGYPT ).

    Kadesh or Kadesh Burned (= son of wandering = Bedouin, or “land of earthquake,” as Psalm 29:8, “the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Cades”) was the encampment from which the spies were sent and to which they returned ( Numbers 13:26; 32:8), on the W. of the wilderness of Zin, which was N.E. of the wilderness of Paran; S. of the wilderness of Paran was the wilderness of Sinai between the gulfs of Akabah and Suez.

    Comparing Numbers 12:16 with Numbers 33:18, and Numbers 13:3,21,26, we see that the Kadesh of Numbers 13 is the Rithmah of Numbers 33. The stages catalogued in this last chapter are those visited during the years of penal wandering. Rithmah (from retem the “broom” abounding there) designates the encampment during the first march toward Canaan ( Numbers 33:18); Kadesh the second encampment, in the same district though not on the same spot, in the 40th year (verses 36-38); N. of Mount Her where Aaron died, and to which Israel marched as the first stage in their journey when denied a passage through Mount Seir ( Numbers 20:21,22). From the low ground of Kadesh the spies “went up” to search the land, which is called the mountain ( Numbers 13:17,21,22). The early encampment at Rithmah ( Numbers 33:18,19) took place in midsummer in the second year after the exodus (for Israel left Sinai the 20th day of the second month, Numbers 10:11, i.e. the middle of May; next the month at Kibroth Hattaavah would bring them to July); the later at Kadesh the first month of the 40th year ( Numbers 20:1). At the first encampment they were at Kadesh for at least the 40 days of the spies’ search ( Numbers 13:25); here Moses and the tabernacle remained ( Numbers 14:44) when the people presumptuously tried to occupy the land in spite of Jehovah’s sentence dooming all above 20 to die in the wilderness (the name Kadesh, “holy,” may be due to the long continuance of the holy tabernacle there). After their repulse they lingered for long (“many days,” Deuteronomy 1:45,46) hoping for a reversal of their punishment. At last they broke up their prolonged encampment at Kadesh and compassed Mount Seir many days ( Deuteronomy 2:1), i.e. wandered in the wilderness of Paran until the whole generation of murmurers had died. The wilderness is called Et Tih, i.e. “of wandering,” or “Paran,” being surrounded W. and S. by the Paran mountains ( Numbers 13:26; the limestone of the pyramids is thought to have been brought from Et Tih). To this period belong the 17 stages of Numbers 33:19-36.

    Early in the 40th year ( Numbers 20:1) Israel reassembled at Kadesh and stayed for three or four months (compare Numbers 20:1 with Numbers 20:22-28; 33:38). Miriam died here. Soon the people gathered here in full number, exhausted the water supply, and were given water miraculously from the rock. Thence proceeding, they were at Mount Hor refused a passage through Edom; then by the marches of Numbers 33:41-49 they went round Edom’s borders to Moab’s plains. At Mount Hor Arad attacked them and brought destruction on his cities ( Numbers 21:3). In 20:1 the words “Israel even the whole congregation” mark the reassembling of the people at the close of the 40 years, as the same words in Numbers 13:26; 14:1, mark the commencement of the penal wandering. The 38 intervening years are a blank, during which the covenant was in abeyance and the “congregation” broken up. The tabernacle and its attendant Levites, priests, and chiefs, formed the rallying point, moving from time to time to the different stations specified up and down the country as the people’s head quarters. Qehelathah and Makhelot (“assembling,” “assemblies”) were probably places of extraordinary gatherings. At other times the Israelites were scattered over the wilderness of Paran as nomads feeding their flocks wherever they found pasture. This dispersion for foraging meets the objections raised on the ground of subsistence for such a multitude for so long. The plain er Rahah, W. of Sinai, now bare, is described by a traveler in the 16th century as a “vast green plain.” The forests then existing tended to produce a greater rainfall and therefore better pasture than at present, when scarcely any wood is left (the Bedouins burning the acacias for charcoal). Various events and enactments belonging to the 38 years’ wandering (the law of the meat offering, the stoning of the Sabbath breaker, etc., Numbers 15; Korah’s rebellion, etc., Numbers 16; Aaron’s rod budding, Numbers 17; the Levites’ and priests’ charge and portion, Numbers 18; the red heifer water of separation, Numbers 19) are recorded in Numbers 15:1--19:22. The last year in the wilderness, the 40th, is referred to in Numbers 20:1-- 36:13. During the 38 years Israel trafficked in provisions with surrounding tribes ( Deuteronomy 2:26-29). The desert of wandering was the highway of caravans between Egypt and the East. Fish was obtainable from the Red Sea. They were encamped close to it at Ezion Geber ( Numbers 33:35). Traces of a population and resources are found in parts of the wilderness where now there are neither. The hardships alluded to ( Deuteronomy 1:19; 2:3; 8:15) refer to the 4Oth year marches through the Arabah, which seemed the worse by contrast with the fertile plains of Moab which they next reached. Numbers 21:4, “the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.” Down the Arabah between the limestone cliffs of the Tih on the W. and the granite of Mount Seir on the E. they were for some days in a mountain plain of loose sand, gravel, and granite detritus, with little food or water, and exposed to sandstorms from the shore of the gulf. This continued until a few hours N. of Akaba (Ezion Geber), where the wady Ithm opened to their left a passage in the mountains northward to fertile Moab. The mauna, the quails, and the water, are but samples of God’s continuous care ( Deuteronomy 8:4 ff, 29:5). The non waxing old of their raiment means God so supplied their wants, partly by ordinary and occasionally by miraculous means, that they never lacked new and untattered garments and shoes to prevent the foot swelling. Sheep, oxen, and traffic with tribes of the desert, ordinarily (under God’s providence) supplied their need ( Isaiah 63:11-14; Nehemiah 9:21; Amos 2:10). God often besides at Rephidim and Kadesh ( Exodus 17:1, etc., Numbers 20) interposed to supply water ( Judges 5:4; Psalm 68:7, etc.; Isaiah 35:1, etc., 41:17; 49:9,10; Hosea 2:14), and the Israelites from their stay in Egypt knew how to turn to best account all such supplies. It was a period of apostasy (compare Ezekiel 20:15 ff; Amos 5:25, etc.; Hosea 9:10). The Israelites probably made somewhat comfortable booths (as the booths erected in commemoration at the feast of tabernacles prove) and dwellings for themselves in their 38 years’ stay (compare <19A704> Psalm 107:4,35,36).

    According to some they were the writers of the Sinaitic inscriptions in the wady Mokatteb, deciphered by Forster as recording events in their history at that time. Their stays in the several stations varied according to the guidance of the divine cloud from two days to a month or a year ( Numbers 9:22).

    The date palm (generally dwarf but abounding in sustenance), acacia, and tamarisk are often found in the desert. From the acacia (Mimosa Nilotica) came the shittim wood of the tabernacle and gum arabic. The retem (KJV “juniper”) or broom yields excellent charcoal, which is the staple of the desert. Ras Sufsafeh, the scene of the giving of the law, means willow head, willows abounding there, also hollyhocks and hawthorns, hyssop and thyme. The ghurkud is thought to be the tree cast by Moses into the Marah bitter waters; growing in hot and salt regions, and bearing a red juicy acidulous berry, but the fruit ripens in June, later than Israel’s arrival at Marah. Mount Serbal may be named from its abounding in myrrh (ser ).

    Spiritually, Rameses (dissolution of evil), Israel’s starting point, answers to the penitent soul’s first conviction of sin, haste to flee from wrath, and renunciation of evil. Israel’s course first was straight for Canaan; so the believer’s, under first impressions, is direct toward heaven. Succoth next, the place of booths, answers to the believer’s pilgrim spirit ( Hebrews 11:13-16). Next Etham, their strength, the believer’s confidence of never being moved ( Psalm 30:6,7). At Pihahiroth Israel, shut in between the wilderness, the mountains, and the sea, and pursued by Pharaoh’s mighty hosts, answers to the believer’s suddenly finding himself powerless, in great straits, and so driven to cry unto God. Man’s extremity becomes God’s opportunity. The month of destruction becomes “the month of deliverance” or else “wells,” as Pihahiroth means; a glorious passage is opened to him through the Red Sea, i.e. a new and living way through the blood of Christ ( Hebrews 10:19,20; 2 Timothy 4:17) He is baptized unto Christ not Moses, giving him dominion over sin through Christ’s resurrection, whereby he too is raised from the death of sin ( Corinthians 10:2; Romans 6:3-7); consequently, he sings the song of Moses and of the Lamb (Exodus 15; Revelation 15:3; Isaiah 12:1-3; Psalm 40:1-3). But he does not go far before he reaches Marah with its two bitter wells, afflictions seldom come single. He cries to Jehovah ( Exodus 15:25) who in answer shows him the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, the cross of Christ which through faith by the operation of the Holy Spirit sweetens every bitter ( Ruth 1:20 margin; John 16:14; Revelation 22:2). The shortest distance between one encampment and another is that from Marah to Elim (a park or paradise of oaks) with its twelve pure springs and 70 palms; so happy communion with God follows close upon sanctified affliction. Next, Israel goes to the Red Sea to the plain of Taiyibeh (“good”); so it is good for the believer to go back to the blood of sprinkling. Next in the wilderness of Sin (“dross”) Israel feeds on the heaven sent manna, their own resources failing; so the believer as he advances begins wholly to by faith on Christ the true counting all else but dross. Next, Dophkah signifies the believer’s knocking at the heavenly door. Next, Alush (the lion’s den) reminds us of the roaring lion Satan ( 1 Peter 5:8). Here Amalek (“your vexation”), i.e. the believer’s besetting sin, is near, ready to “smite the hindmost” or laggers behind ( Deuteronomy 25:18). Rephidim (“places of refreshment”) with its water from the smitten rock typifies Christ, by being smitten yielding the living water ( John 7:37-39; 4:14). After so drinking Israel smote Amalek ( Exodus 17:8); so faith which appropriates Jesus by the Spirit is what overcometh the world ( 1 John 5:4). The giving of the law at Sinai, and its being written by the finger of God on stone tables, typify the writing of the gospel law on the heart by the Holy Spirit. Israel’s Sinaitic Pentecost answers to the Christian church’s one, 50 days after Passover, our Good Friday and Easter (Acts 2; 2 Corinthians 3:2-7).

    Israel’s material tabernacle of God typifies the spiritual tabernacle of God in the heart ( John 14:23). Sinai with its fire marks that stage in the believer’s life when, after having believed, he is brought nearer to God than before, being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, the earnest of his coming inheritance ( Ephesians 1:13,14). Kibroth Hattaavah (“the graves of lust”) follows, the burial of remaining lusts with Christ by spiritual baptism. Then Hazeroth, “porch,” the vestibule of heaven. Kadesh (holiness) is the last stage to heaven, were it not for backslidings. Then follows a miserable, irregular course, at one time toward Canaan, then back toward the Egypt of the world or to the Sinai of legalism; a spiritual blank, marked only by the Sabbath breaking case and the Korah rebellion against spiritual authority. Still Jehovah withdraws not His pillar of cloud and fire. If the backslider return to Kadesh, weeping there for his provocations ( Deuteronomy 1:45), Jesus, the antitypical Joshua, will still bring him to the heavenly Canaan, though by a more trying way and with sore temptations, even at the hour of death, as Israel suffered from Baal-peor at the verge of Jordan ( Numbers 25:1).

    A line drawn from Gaza to the S. of the Dead Sea bounds Palestine proper.

    S. of the line is the desert now, which once contained the negeb or “S. country,” and the Gerar pastures ( Genesis 10:19; 20:1). S. of this lies the desert proper, a limestone plateau, projecting wedge-like into the Sinai peninsula, just as Sinai itself projects into the Red Sea. The cliff jebel Magrah, 70 miles S. of Hebron, terminates the hill country; et Tih, the southern portion, ends in a long cliff. It is drained on the W. by wady el Arish, “the stream of Egypt” ( Isaiah 27:12), the southern bound of Palestine, and on the E. by the wady el Deib going into the Dead Sea. The desert proper has only a few springs in the wadies, from whence by scraping holes one can bale up a little yellowish muddy water. Flints and fine black detritus form the surface, with parched brown herbage most of the year except for a brief season of verdure in spring. Stone circles and cairns attest the former existence of a primeval population. From this one ascends the plateau jebel el Mugrah, and then is in the hill country, “the South.” Here are seen the stone remains of a prehistoric race and the hazerot or fenced enclosures of a pastoral people, probably the Amalekites whom Israel found here at the time of the exodus.

    In a steep on the edge of the plateau is Ain Gadis (Kadesh according to Palmer, the starting point of the 40 years’ wandering and again after it their starting point to Mount Hor and Canaan). In Numbers 13:17,22, “they ascended by the S. (i.e. they ascended the plateau and passed through the negeb or south country) to Hebron,” which was N. In the district at the head of wady Gharundel and beyond Ain Howharah are found nawamis, which tradition makes into houses built by Israelites to shield from the mosquitoes (compare the fiery flying serpents): circular, ten feet diameter, of unhewn stone, covered with a dome shaped roof, the top closed by a stone slab, and the sides weighted to prevent their springing out, the entrance door only two feet high, the hearth marked by charred wood and bones. They resemble the Shetland shielings or bothan. A second kind consists of stone circles, some 100 ft. in diameter, a cyst in the center covered with large boulders and having human skeletons; evidently sepulchral. The homes of the living close by were a collection of circles enclosed with rudely heaped walls, the permanent camps of a pastoral people; they sacrificed at the tombs of their dead. Possibly it was here that the hungry Israelites “ate the sacrifices of the dead” ( <19A628> Psalm 106:28); but “the dead” may mean the dead idols as opposed to the living God.

    These camps are mostly below jebel el Ejmeh, made of boulders packed together. At Erweis el Ebeirig there is elevated ground covered with stone enclosures not like the former. On a small hill is an erection of rough stones surmounted by a pyramidal white block; enclosures with stone hearths exhibiting the action of fire exist for miles around. Beneath the surface charcoal was found, and outside a number of stone heaps, evidently graves. Arab tradition makes these remains “the relics of a large hajj caravan, who on their way to Ain Hudherah lost their way in the desert Tih and never were heard of again.” The Hebrew hag means a “feast” ( Exodus 10:9), which was Israel’s avowed object in going into the wilderness. No Muslim hajj ever could pass this way; the distance is just a day’s journey from Ain Hudherah. All these marks identify this interesting site with the scene of Numbers 11:33-35; “there they buried the people that lusted, and the people journeyed from Kibroth Hattaavah unto Hazeroth and abode at Hazeroth.”

    WILLOWS Used in constructing booths at the feast of tabernacles ( Leviticus 23:40). Spring up along watercourses. Spiritually it is thus made manifest to us that in using the means of grace the believer thrives ( Isaiah 44:4).

    The Jewish captives in Babylon hung their harps on the weeping willow along the Euphrates. The Salix alba, viminalis (osier), and Egyptiaca are all found in Bible lands. Before the date of the Babylonian captivity the willow was associated with joy, after it with sorrow, probably owing to Psalm 137. Babylonia was a network of canals, and would therefore abound in willows. The Jews generally had their places of prayer by the river side ( Acts 16:13) for the sake of ablution before prayer; the sad love streams, inasmuch as being by their murmuring congenial to melancholy and imaging floods of tears ( Lamentations 2:18; 3:48; Jeremiah 9:1).

    Tear bottles are often found in the ancient tombs, and referred to in old inscriptions. The willow of Babylon has long, pointed, lance-shaped leaves, and finely serrated, smooth, slender, drooping branches. Vernon, a merchant at Aleppo, first introduced it in England at Twickenham park where P. Collinson saw it growing 1748. Another tradition makes Pope to have raised the first specimen from green twigs of a basket sent to Lady Suffolk from Spain (Linnaean Transactions, 10:275).

    WILLOWS, BROOK OF THE nachal ha’arabim ( Isaiah 15:7). Southern boundary of Moab. In Amos 6:14 nachal ha’arabah “the brook of the Arabah.” Now called in its upper part wady el Ahsa, and then wady es Safieh, dividing Moab from Idumea. Flowing from E. to W. it forms the southern bound of Moab, turns to the N. in the Arabah, and flows into the southern end of the Dead Sea, so that in Amos’ time Moab’s southern bound was now become Israel’s southern bound and Israel had no enemy W. of the Euphrates.

    Wady Sufsaf, “willow wady,” is still the name of the main branch of the ravine which descends from Kerak to the N. end of the peninsula of the Dead Sea, so that Arabah in Amos 6:14 may mean “willow brook” instead of brook of the Arabah, or Ghor, the southern continuation of the depressed valley of the Jordan and Dead Sea, toward the Red Sea.

    WILLS (See COVENANT , see HEIR ). Ahithophel’s giving charge concerning his house ( 2 Samuel 17:23), and the recommendation to Hezekiah to “give charge concerning” his, are of the nature of a will ( 2 Kings 20:1); the first distinctly recorded case is that of Herod.

    WIMPLE Old English for hood or veil ( Isaiah 3:22), mitpahath . In Ruth 3:15 a shawl or broad cloak thrown over head and body. Isaiah (3:22) introduces it among the concomitants of luxury with which the women of Israel had burdened themselves, so as to copy the Egyptian and other people’s habits of braiding the hair, etc.

    WINDOW (See HOUSE ). Chalon , “aperture” with lattice work; this being opened, nothing prevented one from falling through the aperture to the ground ( 2 Kings 1:2; Acts 20:9). Houses abutting on a town wall often had projecting windows looking into the country. From them the spies at Jericho were let down, and Paul at Damascus ( Joshua 2:15; Corinthians 11:33).

    WINDS The four represent the four quarters ( Ezekiel 37:9; Daniel 8:8; Matthew 24:31; Jeremiah 49:36). The N. wind was coldest (Song 4:16). The N. wind “awakes,” i.e. arises strongly; the Holy Spirit as the Reprover of sin ( John 16:8-11). The S. wind “comes” gently; the Comforter (14:16). The W. wind brings rain from the sea ( 1 Kings 18:44,45); its precursor is cloud ( Luke 12:54), prevailing in Palestine from November to February. The E. wind is tempestuous ( Job 27:21) and, withering ( Genesis 41:23). The N. wind is first invoked (Song 4:16) to clear the air ( Job 37:22); then the warm S. wind (ver. 17; Luke 12:55); so the Holy Spirit first clears away mists of gloom, error, unbelief, and sin, which intercept the light of the Sun of righteousness, then infuses warmth ( 2 Corinthians 4:6), causing the graces to exhale their odor. In Proverbs 25:23 “the N. wind driveth away (literally, causeth to grieve, so puts to flight) rain,” so a frowning countenance drives away a backbiting tongue. So Vulgate, Chald., and Syriac less appropriately “bringeth forth rain.” The N. wind prevails from June to the equinox, the N.W. wind thence to November. The E. wind, “the wind of the wilderness” ( Job 1:19; 27:21; Jeremiah 13:24). It is parching and penetrating, like the sirocco ( Jonah 4:8). The E. wind blowing from across the Red Sea, just at the Passover time of year, was the natural agency employed by divine interposition to part the waters of the Red Sea S. of Suez ( Exodus 14:21). The E. wind meant in Genesis 41:6,23 is probably the S.E. wind blowing from the Arabian desert, called the chamsin , so parching as to wither up all grass; during it there is an entire absence of ozone in the air. The samoom blows from the S.S.E.; blowing over the Arabian peninsula, it is parching when it reaches Palestine. Lake squalls (lailaps ) are noticed Mark 4:37, Luke 8:23. The Greek ([lips]) name for S.W. wind, and the Latin (cores) N.W. wind, and the violent Euraquilon (not see EUROCLYDON ), E.N.E. wind, are noticed Acts 27:12,14.

    The E. wind symbolizes empty violence ( Job 15:2; Hosea 12:1; Israel “followeth after” not only vain but pernicious things) and destruction ( Jeremiah 18:17, Isaiah 27:8). Wind indicates speed ( <19A404> Psalm 104:4; Hebrews 1:7), transitoriness ( Job 7:7; Psalm 78:39), the Holy Spirit ( John 3:8; Acts 2:2; Genesis 3:8 margin).

    WINE Tirosh is the most general term for “vintage fruit,” put in connection with “corn and oil,” necessaries (dagan , yitshar , rather more generally the produce of the field and the orchard) and ordinary articles of diet in Palestine. It occurs 38 times, namely, six times by itself, eleven times with dagan , twice with yitshar , nineteen times with both dagan and yitshar .

    Besides, it is seven times with “firstfruits,” ten times with “tithes” or “offerings” of fruits and grain; very rarely with terms expressing the process of preparing fruits or vegetable produce. Yayin is the proper term for “wine.” In Micah 6:15, “thou shalt tread ... sweet wine (tirowsh , vintage fruit), but shalt not drink wine,” the vintage fruit, that which is trodden, is distinguished from the manufactured “wine” which it yields. Tirowh is never combined with shemen “oil”; nor yitshar , “orchard produce,” with “wine” the manufactured article. In Deuteronomy 11:14, “gather in thy grain, wine” (tirosh ), it is described as a solid thing, eaten in 12:7; compare 2 Chronicles 31:5,6. In Isaiah 65:8 “the tirowsh (vintage) is found in the cluster”; 62:8,9, “the stranger shall not drink thy tirowsh , but they that have gathered it ... and brought it together (verbs hardly applicable to a liquid) shall drink it.” Proverbs 3:10, “presses ... burst out with tirowsh ”; and Joel 2:24, “fats shall overflow with tirowsh (vintage fruit) and yitshar .” Deuteronomy 14:22-26, “tithe of tirowsh ,” not merely of wine but of the vintage fruit. Scripture denounces the abuse of yayin , “wine.” Hosea 4:11, “whoredom, wine, and tirowsh take away the heart”: the tirowsh is denounced not as evil in itself, but as associated with whoredom to which wine and grape cakes were stimulants; compare Hosea 3:1, “love pressed cakes of dried grapes” (not “flagons of wine”): Ezekiel 16:49. Yayin , from a root “boil up,” is the extract from the grape, whether simple grape juice unfermented, or intoxicating wine; related to the Greek oinos , Latin vinum. Vinum, vitis, are thought related to Sanskrit we, “weave,” viere. Chamar is the Chaldee equivalent to Hebrew yayin , the generic term for grape liquor. It literally, means to foam ( Deuteronomy 32:14, “the blood of the grape, even wine,” not “pure”): Ezra 6:9; 7:22; Daniel 5:1; Isaiah 27:2. ‘asis , from a root to “tread,” the grape juice newly expressed (Song 8:2); “sweet wine” ( Isaiah 49:26, Amos 9:13); “new wine” ( Joel 1:5; 3:18). Mesek , Psalm 75:8, translated”the wine is fermenting (‘foaming with wine,’ Hengstenberg), it is full of mixture,” i.e. spiced wine, the more intoxicating, expressing the stupefying effect of God’s judgments ( Proverbs 9:2; 23:30). Mezeg (Song 8:2), “spiced ... mixed wine,” not as KJV “liquor”; compare Revelation 14:10. Shekar (sikera in Luke 1:15), “strong wine,” “strong drink,” ( Numbers 28:7; Psalm 69:12” drinkers of shekar ,”) including palm wine, pomegranate wine, apple wine, honey wine; our “sugar” may be a cognate word to shekar , syrup. Sobe’ , related to Latin sapa, “must boiled down” (Lees), rather from a root “soak” or “drink to excess.” Isaiah 1:22, “thy sobe’ is circumcised with water,” i.e. diluted (implying that strength rather than sweetness characterized sobe’ ); the prophet glances at their tendency to rely on the outward circumcision without the inward spirit, the true wine of the ordinance. The Latin sapa answers rather to Hebrew debash , Arabic dabs, grape juice boiled down to the consistency of honey ( Genesis 43:11; Ezekiel 27:17). Nahum 1:10, Hebrew “soaked” or “drunken as with their own wine.” Hosea 4:13, chomets , “vinegar” or sour wine, such as the posca which the Roman soldiers drank, and such as was offered to Jesus on the cross ( Psalm 69:22). Instead of “flagons,” ‘ashishah ought to be translated “grape cakes” ( 2 Samuel 6:19; Hosea 3:1, etc.). In Hosea 4:18 “their drink is sour,” i.e. they are utterly degenerate ( Isaiah 1:22); else, they are as licentious as drunkards who smell sour with wine. But Maurer,”(no sooner) is their drinking over (than) they commit whoredoms.” The effects of yayin , “red eyes” ( Genesis 49:12); producing “mockers” of God and man ( Proverbs 20:1); causing error of judgment out of the way ( Isaiah 28:7); but a restorative cordial where stimulants are needed ( Proverbs 31:6). Judges 9:13, “wine ... cheereth God and man”; the vine represents here the nobler families who promote the nation’s prosperity in a way pleasing to God and man ( <19A315> Psalm 103:15). God is well pleased with the sacrificial oblations of wine ( Leviticus 15:5,7,10) offered in faith. Externally applied to wounds ( Luke 10:34). 1 Timothy 5:23, “use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake.” Bringing woe to followers of strong drink, which inflames them from early to late day ( Isaiah 5:12; Acts 2:15; Thessalonians 5:7). Noisy shouting ( Zechariah 9:15; 10:7), rejoicing, taking away the understanding ( Hosea 4:11). Causing indecent exposure of the person, as Noah ( Genesis 9:22; Habakkuk 2:15,16).

    Therefore “woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him.” Producing sickness ( Hosea 7:5), “princes made him sick with bottles (else owing to the heat) of wine.”

    Scripture condemns the abuse, not the use, of wine. In condemnatory passages no hint is given of there being an unfermented wine to which the condemnation does not apply. The bursting of the leather bottles ( Matthew 9:17) implies fermentation of the wine; so also Job 32:19.

    The wine was drawn off probably before fermentation was complete. In Proverbs 23:31 “when it giveth its eye (i.e. sparkle, Hebrew) in the cup,” the reference is to the gas bubble in fermentation. The “sweet wine” ( Acts 2:13,15) was evidently intoxicating; not “new wine,” for eight months had elapsed since the previous vintage; its sweet quality was due to its being made of the purest grape juice. In Genesis 40:11 the pressing of the grape juice into Pharaoh’s cup is no proof that fermented wine was unknown then in Egypt; nay, the monuments represent the fermenting process in the earliest times. Plutarch’s statement (Isid. 6) only means that before Psammeticus the priests restricted themselves to the quantity of wine prescribed by their sacerdotal office (Diod. i. 70). Jonadab’s prohibition of wine to the Rechabites was in order to keep them as nomads from a settled life such as vine cultivation needed (Jeremiah 35). The wine at the drink offering of the daily sacrifice ( Exodus 29:40), the firstfruits ( Leviticus 23:13), and other offerings ( Numbers 15:5), implies that its use is lawful. The prohibition of wine to officiating priests ( Leviticus 10:9) was to guard against such excess as probably caused Nadab to offer the strange fire ( Ezekiel 44:21). The Nazarites’ Vow against wine was voluntary ( Numbers 6:3); it justifies voluntary total abstinence, but does not enjoin it. Wine was used at the Passover. The third cup was called because of the grace “the cup of blessing” ( 1 Corinthians 10:16), “the fruit of the vine” ( Matthew 26:29). Moderation in wine is made a requisite in candidates for the ministry ( 1 Timothy 3:3,8; Titus 2:3).

    The vintage was in September and was celebrated with great joy ( Isaiah 16:9,10; Jeremiah 48:33). The ripe fruit was gathered in baskets, and was carried to the winepress, consisting of an upper (Hebrew gath , Greek leenos ) and lower vat (yekeb , Greek hupolenion ); the juice flowed from the fruit placed in the upper to the lower. The two vats were usually hewn in the solid rock, the upper broad and shallow, the lower smaller and deeper. The first drops (“the tear,” dema , margin Exodus 22:29) were consecrated as firstfruits to Jehovah. Wine long settled formed lees at the bottom, which needed straining ( Isaiah 25:6). The wine of Helbon near Damascus was especially prized ( Ezekiel 27:18), and that of Lebanon for its bouquet (Nos. 14:7). Jesus’ miracle (John 2) justifies the use; still love justifies abstinence for the sake of taking away any stumbling block from a brother; Romans 14:21, “it is good neither to drink wine ... whereby thy brother stumbleth.” W. Hepworth Dixon (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, May 1878, p. 67) shows that Kefr Kana, not; Kana el Jelil, answers to the Cana of Galilee (so called to distinguish it from the better known Cana of Judaea, John 2), the scene of our Lord’s first miracle at the marriage. It is five miles from Nazareth in a N.E. direction, on the main road to Tiberias. Khirbet Kana (see CANA ) is not on the road from Nazareth to Capernaum; one coming up from Capernaum to Nazareth and Cana as in the Gospel could not have come near Khirbet Kana, which is on the road from Sepphoris to Ptolemais (Acre), not on the road from Sepphoris to Tiberius. Jesus came up from Capernaum and the lake district to Cana ( John 2:2,12), then went “down” to Capernaum (so chapter 3:46,49). Cana evidently stood near the ledge of the hill country over the lake. Moreover at Kefr Kana there are remains of old edifices, but at Khirbet Kana nothing older than later Saracenic times. ”Wild grapes” ( Isaiah 5:2, beuwshim , from baash “to putrefy”) express offensive putrefaction answering to the Jews’ corruption; so Jerome. Not, as Rosenmuller; the aconite or nightshade, or as Hasselquist, “the wolf grape.”

    WITCH (See DIVINATION , see MAGIC ).

    WITNESSES Two at least were required to establish any charge ( Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15; Hebrews 10:28). So in the Christian church ( 1 Timothy 5:19). Written evidence in the case of divorce, not as among the Bedouins and Mussulmen a mere spoken sentence ( Deuteronomy 24:1,3). Also in civil contracts ( Isaiah 8:16; Jeremiah 32:10-16). The witnesses were the first to execute sentence ( Deuteronomy 13:9; Acts 7:58). False witness was punished with the same penalty as the offence witnessed to. Withholding witness was penal ( Leviticus 5:1). The term martyr, “witness,” came to mean in Christian times one who attests the truth by suffering ( Acts 22:20; Revelation 2:13; compare 1:9; 6:9; 11:3; 20:4; Hebrews 11; 12:1).

    WOLF zeeb . The Canis lupus. Fierce ( Genesis 49:27; Ezekiel 22:27; Habakkuk 1:8; Matthew 7:15); prowling in the night ( Jeremiah 5:6; Zephaniah 3:3); devouring lambs and sheep ( John 10:12); typifying persecutors and heretical leaders ( Matthew 10:16; 7:15; Acts 20:29); hereafter about to associate peacefully with the lamb under Messiah’s reign ( Isaiah 11:6; 65:25). Tawny in color in Asia Minor.

    WOMEN Enjoyed a status in Israel not assigned to them in the East now.

    Mahometanism especially has degraded women in Asia and Africa; anciently they had a liberty not now accorded them, veiling was not then required as now: e.g. Rebekah, Genesis 24:64,65; Rachel, Genesis 29:11; Sarah, Genesis 12:14-19; Miriam led a band of women with triumphant song, Exodus 15:20,21; so Jephthah’s daughter, Judges 11:34; the maidens of Shiloh, 21:21; the women meeting Saul and David after victory; 1 Samuel 18:6,7; Hannah, 2:1; Deborah, Judges 4 and Judges 5; Huldah, 2 Kings 22:14; Noadiah, Nehemiah 6:14; Anna, Luke 2:36. The virtuous matron is admirably pictured Proverbs 31:10, etc. Polygamy transferred power from the wives to the queen mother (called therefore gebiraah “powerful”), 1 Kings 2:19; 15:13; separate establishments were kept for the wives collectively or individually, “the house of the women” ( Esther 2:3,9; 1 Kings 7:8); the wives had severally a separate tent ( Genesis 31:33); the women were present at table ( John 2:3; 12:2; Job 1:4).

    WOOL tsemer (“wool”), and gez (“fleece”) meaning shearing. Mesha’s tribute to Israel ( 2 Kings 3:4). A firstfruit to the priests ( Deuteronomy 18:4).

    Symbolizing purity and whiteness ( Isaiah 1:18, “shall be as wool” restored to its original undyed whiteness; Daniel 7:9; Revelation 1:14). Snow is compared to it ( <19E716> Psalm 147:16).

    WOOLEN LINEN shatnez . Leviticus 19:19; Deuteronomy 22:11, “of divers sort,” related to the Egyptian shoutnes. Such a wool-linen mixture prevailed among the Zabii, associated with idolatrous ceremonies; their priests wore it according to Maimonides. Hence its prohibition in Israel; compare the chemarim (the black attired idolatrous priests’ ministers) and those “clothed with strange apparel” ( Zephaniah 1:4,8); contrast “the fine linen, clean and white, the righteousness of saints” ( Revelation 19:8).

    WORD, THE (See JOHN and see JESUS ). Christ’s title, as the personal Revealer in Himself of the Godhead, even before His incarnation, involving personality (not merely the Intelligence of God) and Divinity. In the introduction of John’s Gospel and that of his Epistle, and in his Revelation 19:13, at once with God and Himself God, by whom God made all things. Philo’s Logos (“word”) on the contrary excludes personality, and is identical at times with God, at other times with the world. By word man, who is in God’s image, makes known his mind; so the Word is the outcome of God’s essence ( Hebrews 4:12,13; 1 Peter 1:25; Genesis 1:3); by the Word He made the universe ( Psalm 33:6). The Medium of every external act of God ( Hebrews 1:1-3) in the physical and spiritual creations.

    WORM Not the earth worm (Lumbricus terrestris). Isaiah 51:8: “the moth (‘ash ) shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm (sas ) shall eat them like wool.” The sas is a species of see MOTH . Rimmah synonymous with toleah ; applied to the worm bred in the manna when kept more than a day ( Exodus 16:26), tolaim , answering to rimmah ( Exodus 16:24); so in Job 25:6; maggots and larvae of insects which feed on putrefying matter (21:26; 24:20; 7:5; 17:4); maggots were bred in Job’s sores produced by elephantiasis. “Herod was eaten of worms” ( Acts 12:23). Josephus tells the same of Herod the Great ( Acts 19:8), and 2 Macc. 9:9 of Antiochus Epiphanes. In Job 19:26; Hebrew “though after my skin (is destroyed) this (body) is destroyed,” Job omits “body” because it was so wasted as not to deserve the name. The tolath was to eat the grapes of apostate Israel ( Deuteronomy 28:39); also Jonah’s gourd (Jon. 4:7). see HELL is associated with the “worm that dieth not,” an image from maggots preying on putrid carcass ( Isaiah 66:24). Mark 9:44,46,48, “THEIR worm” is the gnawing self reproach of conscience, ever continuing and unavailing remorse. The Lord Jesus represents here both the worm and those on whom it preys as never dying. Symbolizing at once decay and loathsome humiliation, and this everlasting.

    WORMWOOD lanah , genus Artemisia. Four species in Palestine: Nilotica, Judaica, Fruticosa, and Cinerea. Metaphorical for bitter sorrow ( Jeremiah 9:15, fulfilled in Lamentations 3:15,19); and evil with its bitter produce, or an apostate lurking in Israel and tainting others ( Deuteronomy 29:18; Proverbs 5:4; Amos 5:7, rendered “hemlock”; Greek apsinthos , Revelation 8:11, the star which at the third trumpet fell upon the rivers and made them wormwood). Wormwood, though medicinal, if used as ordinary water would be fatal; heretical wormwood changes the sweet Siloas of Scripture into deadly Marahs (Wordsworth); contrast Exodus 15:23, etc. Absinthe is literally embittering and destroying many hundreds of thousands in France and Switzerland.

    WORSHIPPER Greek neokoros . “Temple keeper “; originally an attendant in charge of a temple. Then applied to cities devoted to the worship of some special idol, as Ephesus was to that of Diana ( Acts 19:35), In Nero’s reign about the same date, A.D. 55 or 56, a coin is extant inscribed with Neocoron Ephesion, and on the reverse Diana’s temple (Mionnet Inset. 3:93; Eckhel Doctr. Vet. Numbers 2:520). (See RELIGION ). Ancient representations strikingly confirm the picture which Isaiah gives us in chapter 44 of the man who “hath formed a god, ... he marketh it out with a line ... after the figure of a man ... he taketh the cypress and the oak ... he maketh a god and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image” ( Isaiah 44:10-15).

    WRESTLING (See GAMES ). “A wrestler with loins girt for the struggle” is the interpretation which Maurer puts upon the word translated “greyhound” in Proverbs 30:31. (See GREYHOUND ).

    WRITING Egyptian see HIEROGLYPHICS are as old as the earliest monuments centuries before Moses (see PENTATEUCH ). The Rosetta stone, containing a decree on Ptolemy Epiphanes in hieroglyphics, with a Greek translation alongside, furnished the key to their decipherment. Champollion further advanced the interpretation of hieroglyphics by means of the small obelisk found in the island of Philae by Belzoni, and brought to England by Bankes. The inscription in Greek on the base is a supplication of the priests of Isis to king Ptolemy, to Cleopatra his sister, and Cleopatra his wife. The name Ptolemy in the hieroglyphic cartouche on the obelisk itself corresponds to the Greek Ptolemy on the base and also to the similar cartouche on the Rosetta stone. Comparison of this with the cartouche which was guessed from the corresponding Greek on the base to be that for Cleopatra resulted in the discovery of several letters.

    The first letter in Ptolemeus and the fifth in Cleopatra are P. So the first character in the cartouche I and the fifth in II are a square. This then represents P. The third letter in Ptolemeus and the fourth in Cleopatra are O. The respective characters in the cartouches are the same; a knotted cord therefore represents O. The fourth in Ptolemy and the second in Cleopatra are both L; so the characters in the cartouches, the lion therefore represents L.

    The sixth and ninth letters in Cleopatra are both A, so the sixth and ninth characters in the cartouches are both a sparrowhawk; this then represents A.

    The first letter in Cleopatra, C or K, is not in Ptolemy, so neither is the first character of the Cleopatra cartouche in the Ptolemy cartouche; the triangular block therefore is C or K.

    The third character in the Cleopatra cartouche is a Nile reed blade, but the sixth in the Ptolemy cartouche is two such blades, therefore the single blade represents the short “e”, third in Cleopatra; the two reeds represent the long “e”, sixth in Ptolemeus, omitting “e” after “L.” Champollion therefore put down the fifth character in Ptolemeus a boat stand, and the seventh, a yoke, for S. Other names verified these two letters. Thus the whole name in hieroglyphics is Ptolmes.

    The eighth letter in Cleopatra is R, which does not occur in Ptolemy, so the character is not found in the Ptolemy cartouche; a human mouth therefore represents R.

    The second letter in Ptolemy and the seventh in Cleopatra are both T, but the characters in the cartouches differ; a half sphere in Ptolemy, a hand in Cleopatra. Hence it results that the same sound has more than one representative; these are called homophones, and cause some confusion in reading. (See “Israel in Egypt”: Seeley, 1854.)

    The following shows the Phonetic Letters of the Hieroglyphical Alphabet of Egypt, with their equivalents, according to M. de Ronge, Lepsius, and Brugsch. (See Canon Cook’s Essay on Egyptian words in the Pentateuch, vol. 1, Speaker’s Commentary) Champollion was able to read upon the Zodiac of Dendera the titles of Augustus Caesar, confuting Dupuis’ “demonstration” that its date was 4000 B.C.!

    The traditions of Greece point to Phoenicia as its teacher of writing. The names and order of the Greek alphabetical letters are Semitic, and have a meaning in Semitic but none in Greek. Thus, ‘aleph ( a , alpha) representing a means an ox. Beth ( b ), a house. Gimel ( g ), a camel, etc. All indicate that a pastoral people were the originators of the alphabet. In an Egyptian monument a Hittite is named as a writer. Pentaour, a scribe of the reign of Rameses the Great soon after the exodus, composed a poem, engraved on the walls of the temple of Karnak. This mentions Chirapsar among the Kheta (i.e. the Hittites) as a writer of books. So Joshua took a Hittite city, Kirjath Sepher, “city of the book” ( Joshua 15:15); he changed the name to Debir, of similar meaning. The words for “write” (kathab ), “book” (ceepher ), “ink” (deyo ), belong to all Semitic dialects (except the Ethiopic and southern Arabic tsachaq “write”); therefore writing in a book with ink must have been known to the earliest Shemites before their separation into distinct clans and nations. Israel evidently knew it long before Moses.

    Writing is definitely mentioned first in Exodus 17:14; but in such a way as to imply it had been long in use for historic records, “write this for a memorial in the (Hebrew) book.” The account of the battle and of the command to destroy Amalek was recorded in the book of the history of God’s dealings with Israel (compare Numbers 21:14, “the book of the wars of the Lord,” Numbers 33:2. Also God’s memorial book, Exodus 32:32,33). Writing was however for many centuries more used for preserving than circulating knowledge. The tables of stone written by the finger of God were laid up in the ark. The tables, as well as the writing, were God’s work. The writing was engraved (charut ) upon them on both sides. The miracle was intended to indicate the imperishable duration of these words of God. Moses’ song (Deuteronomy 32) was not circulated in writing, but “spoken in the ears of the people” ( Deuteronomy 31:19,22,30); and by word of mouth they too were to transmit it to others.

    The high priest’s breastplate was engraven, and his mitre too, “holiness to the Lord” ( Exodus 39:14,30). Under Joshua ( Exodus 18:9) only one new document is mentioned, a geographical division of the land. In Judges 5:14 Zebulun is described as having “marchers with the staff of the writer” (copeer ) or musterer of the troops; such as are frequently pourtrayed on the Assyrian monuments ( 2 Kings 25:19; 2 Chronicles 26:11, “the scribe of the host”). The scribe and the recorder (mazkir ) were regular officers of the king ( 2 Samuel 8:17; 20:25). In Isaiah 29:11,12, the multitude have to go to one “knowing writing” (Hebrew for “learned”) in order to ascertain its contents; so by that time there were some at least learned in writing. By the time of Jeremiah letters are mentioned more frequently, and copies of Scripture had multiplied ( Jeremiah 8:8; 29:25,29). The commercial and other tablets now discovered prove this.

    Under the ancient empire of Egypt the governor of the palace and of the “house of manuscripts” was a very high official. The tutelary god of writing was Saph or Sapheh (related to Hebrew ceper ); a Pharaoh of the fifth dynasty is styled “beloved of Saph.” (See ALPHABET on the Moabite stone, 896 B.C., bearing Hebrew words and idiom in Phoenician letters).

    Rawlinson fixes the invention 15 centuries B.C. The earliest monuments of Babylon reach back to 2300 B.C.; the language inscribed on them is Cushite or Ethiopian, (See BABYLON ). The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters; this was their number as early at least as David, who has acrostic psalms with all the 22; moreover, the letters expressed numbers, as the Greek letters did.

    Besides alphabetic there is syllabic writing, as the Assyrian cuneiform, which has from 300 to 4,000 letters. The process of growth and change is shown by recent studies of the Assyrian language. “The words by which these (Assyrian hieroglyphics) were denoted in the Turanian language of the Accadian inventors of the cuneiform system of writing became phonetic sounds when it was borrowed by the Semitic Assyrians, though the characters could still be used ideographically, as well as phonetically. When used ideographically, the pronunciation was of course that of the Assyrians.” (Sayce’s Assyrian Grammar.) Then to these original ideographs were added the formal parts expressive of case, pronominal, and other relations. The latest examples of cuneiform writing belong to the Arsacidae, in the century before Christ (“Academy,” August, 1878).

    The square Hebrew characters now used came from Babylon probably after the Babylonian captivity, under Ezra. The Semitic alphabets have only consonants and three consonant-like vowels, aleph, van. yod, and are written from right to left. There are two chief classes. (1) The Phoenician, as it occurs in inscriptions in Malta, the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar king of Sidon (600 B.C.), Cyprus, and coins of Phoenicia (from whence came the Samaritan and Greek characters); on Jewish coins; in Phoenician-Egyptian writing, with three vowels, on mummy bandages. (2) The Hebrew Chaldee, to which belong the present Hebrew square character (resembling those in Palmyrene inscriptions, probably brought from Chaldaea and the ancient Arabic. The Himyeritic (oldest Arabic) was possibly the same as the ancient Phoenician. The Moabite stone contains an alphabet almost identical with Phoenician, 22 letters, read from right to left; the names and order are identical with the Hebrew as may be inferred from the names of the Greek letters which came direct from Phoenicia, not prior to 1000 B.C. The various forms of the alphabetic letters and the evidence of their derivation from each other will be seen from the following comparison, copied from an illustration in “The Moabite Stone,” by Pakenham Walsh, Bishop of Ossory. (Dublin: Herbert.)

    The early Greek, as distinguished from the later, is much the same. ‘Aleph ( a ), an ox, a rude representation of an ox’s head. Beth ( b ), a house, representing a tent. Gimel ( g ), a camel, representing its head and neck.

    Daleth ( j ), a door; a tent entrance; the sidestroke of beth was to distinguish it from this. He ( h ), a lattice. Waw ( w ), a peg of a tent. Cheth ( j ), a field enclosed. Kaph ( k ), a wing, or hollow of the hand. Lamedh (L), an ox goad, curved into a handle at one end, pointed at the other end.

    Mem ( m ), water, a wavy line for the surface when disturbed. Camech ( s ), a prop, an ancient vine trellis. ‘Ayin ( [ ), an eye. Tsadde ( x ), a fish spear.

    Qoph ( q ), the hole of an axe, or eye of a needle. Shin ( v ), a tooth with its fangs. Tau ( t ), a brand marking flocks. In Egyptian the letters were similarly copies of objects to which the initials of the names respectively correspond. Thus, A is the first letter of ahom, an eagle; so an eagle is the Egyptian representative of A. So L, the first letter of lab, a lion; M the first letter of mowlad, an owl. The Israelites never required an interpreter in contact with Moab, which shows the identity of language in the main. The Moabite stone also shows that ‘aleph ( a ), he ( h ), and waw ( w ) supplied the place of vowels before the invention of vowel points; the ‘aleph ( a ) and he ( h ) express “a” at the end of a word. The he ( h ) expresses the final “o”; waw ( w ) expresses “o” and “u”; yodh ( y ) expresses “i”. The Moabite alphabet in the use of these vowel representatives harmonizes with the Hebrew, and differs from the Phoenician. Rawlinson (Contemporary Review, August 20, 1870) believes the Moabite stone letters to be the same as were used in the Pentateuch 500 years before. The Hebrew aleph and Greek A alpha are one; so, beth / beta (b ); daleth / delta (d ); he ( h )/ Greekee ”, waw / Greek F bau or digamma.

    Zayin ( z ), the ancient Greek san.

    Teth ( t ) / theta (th ).

    Yodh / iota (i ).

    Kaph / kappa (k ).

    Lamedh / lambda (l ).

    Mem / mu (m ).

    Nun / nu (n ).

    Camech / Greek sigma (s ). ‘Ayin ( [ ) / Greek omicron (o ).

    Pe / pi (p ).

    Tsade / zeta (z ).

    Qoph / Greek kappa (k ) ... on coins of Crotona.

    Resh / rho (r ).

    Shin / Greek xi (x ).

    Tau ( Ezekiel 9:4) a “mark”; so Greek tau (t ).

    MATERIALS. Stone, as the tables of the law. Plaster (lime or gypsum) with stone ( Joshua 8:32; Deuteronomy 27:2). Lead was either engraven upon or poured into the hollow of the letters, or used as the hammer, lead being adapted to make the most delicate incisions ( Job 19:23,24). The “tablet” (luwach ), inscribed with the stylus or pen of iron ( Job 19:24; Jeremiah 17:1), and the roll (megillah ), were the common materials latterly. The roll of skins joined together was rolled on a stick and fastened with a thread, the ends of which were sealed ( Isaiah 29:11; Daniel 12:4; Revelation 5:1; 6:14). Small clay cylinders inscribed were the repository of much of Assyrian history. After being inscribed and baked, they were covered with moist clay, and the inscription repeated and baked again. Papyrus was the common material in Egypt; the thin pellicles are glued together in strips, other strips being placed at right angles. Leather was substituted sometimes as cheaper. Probably the roll which Jehoiakim burned was of papyrus (Jeremiah 36); the writing there was with ink (deyo ), and arranged in columns (literally, doors; delathot ). The only passage in which papyrus (as chartes means) is expressly mentioned is John 1:12. Both sides were often written on ( Ezekiel 2:20). Parchment of prepared skins is mentioned ( 2 Timothy 4:13); the paper and ink ( 2 Corinthians 3:3; 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:13); the pens made of split reed; ink of soot water; and gum, latterly lampblack, dissolved in gall.

    In Isaiah 8:1, “write with a man’s pen,” i.e. in ordinary characters such as common “men” (nowsh ) can read ( Habakkuk 2:2), not in hieroglyphics; cheret (an engraver, Isaiah 8:1) is connected with chartumim , the Egyptian sacred scribes. Scribes in the East, anciently as now, carried their inkhorn suspended by a girdle to their side. The reed pen, inkhorn, and scribes are sculptured on the tombs of Ghizeh, contemporaneous with the pyramids. The Hebrews knew how to prepare skins for other purposes ( Exodus 25:5; Leviticus 13:48), therefore probably for writing. Josephus (Ant. 3:11, Section 6; 12:2, Section 10) says the trial of adultery was made by writing the name of God on a skin, and the 70 sent from Jerusalem by the high priest Eleazar to Ptolemy, to translate the law into Greek, that with them the skins on which the sin was written in golden characters.

    Y YARN On 1 Kings 10:28, see LINEN .

    YEAR shanah , a repetition, like the Latin annus, “year.” Literally, a circle, namely, of seasons, in which the same recur yearly. The 360 day year, months of 30 days each, is indicated in Dan, 7:25; 12:7, time (i.e. one year) times and dividing of a time, or 3 1/2 years; the 42 months ( Revelation 11:2), 1260 days ( Revelation 5:3; 12:6). The Egyptian vague year was the same, without the five intercalary days. So the year of Noah in Genesis 7:11,24; 8:3,4,13; the interval between the 17th day of the second month and the 17th of the seventh month being stated as 150 days, i.e. 30 days in each of the five months. Also between the tenth month, first day, and the first day of the first month, the second year, at least 54 days, namely, 40 + 7 + 7 (oxen. 8:5,6,10,12,13). Hence, we infer a year of months. The Hebrew month at the time of the exodus was lunar, but their year was solar. (See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES , on P. Smyth’s view of the year marked in the great pyramid). The Egyptian vague year is thought to be as old as the 12th dynasty (see EGYPT ). The Hebrew religious year began in spring, the natural beginning when all nature revives; the season also of the beginning of Israel’s national life, when the religious year’s beginning was transferred from autumn to spring, the month Abib or Nisan (the name given by later Hebrews: Exodus 12:2; 13:4; 23:15,16; 34:18,22). The civil year began at the close of autumn in the month Tisri, when, the fruits of the earth having been gathered in, the husbandman began his work again preparing for another year’s harvest, analogous to the twofold beginning of day at sunrise and sunset. “The feast of ingathering in the end of the year” ( Exodus 23:16) must refer to the civil or agrarian year. The Egyptian year began in June at the rise of the Nile. Hebrew sabbatic years and jubilees were counted from the beginning of Tisri ( Leviticus 25:9-17). The Hebrew year was as nearly solar as was compatible with its commencement coinciding with the new moon or first day of the month. They began it with the new moon nearest to the equinox, yet late enough to allow of the firstfruits of barley harvest being offered about the middle of the first month. So Josephus (Ant. 3:10, Section 5) states that the Passover was celebrated when the sun was in Aries. They may have determined their new year’s day by observing the heliacal or other star risings or settings marking the right time of the solar year (compare Judges 5:20,2l; Job 38:31). They certainly after the captivity, and probably ages before, added a 13th month whenever the 12th ended too long before the equinox for the offering of the firstfruits to be made at the time fixed. (See JUBILEE ).

    In Exodus 23:10; Deuteronomy 31:10; 15:1, the sabbatical year appears as a rest to the land (no sowing, reaping, planting, pruning, gathering) in which its ownership was in abeyance, and its chance produce at the service of all comers.

    Debtors were released from obligations for the year, except when they could repay without impoverishment ( Deuteronomy 15:2-4). Trade, handicrafts, the chase, and the care of cattle occupied the people during the year. Education and the reading of the law at the feast of tabernacles characterized it ( Deuteronomy 31:10-13). The soil lay fallow one year out of seven at a time when rotation of crops and manuring were unknown; the habit of economizing grain was fostered by the institution ( Genesis 41:48-56). Israel learned too that absolute ownership in the land was Jehovah’s alone, and that the human owners held it in trust, to be made the most of for the good of every creature which dwelt upon it ( Leviticus 25:23,1-7,11-17; Exodus 23:11, “that the poor may eat, and what they leave the beasts,” etc.). The weekly sabbath witnessed the equality of the people as to the covenant with Jehovah. The jubilee year witnessed that every Israelite had an equal claim to the Lord’s land, and that the hired servant, the foreigner, the cattle, and even wild beasts, had a claim. The whole thus indicates what a blessed state would have followed the Sabbath of Paradise, had not sin disturbed all. During 70 Sabbath years, i.e. 490, the period of the monarchy, the Sabbath year was mainly slighted, and so years’ captivity was the retributive punishment ( 2 Chronicles 36:20,21; Leviticus 26:34,35,43). Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar exempted the Jews from tribute on the sabbatical year (Josephus Ant. 11:8, Section 6, 14:10, Section 6; compare 16, Section 2; 15:1, Section 2; compare also under Antiochus Epiphanes, 1 Macc. 4:49); the institution has no parallel in the world’s history, and would have been submitted to by no people except under a divine revelation. The day of atonement on which the sabbatical year was proclaimed stood in the same relation to the civil year that the Passover did to the religious year. The new moon festival of Tisri is the only one distinguished by peculiar observance, which confirms the view that the civil year began then. The Hebrews divided the year into “summer and winter “( Genesis 8:22; Psalm 74:17; Zechariah 14:8), and designated the earth’s produce as the fruits of summer ( Jeremiah 8:20; 40:10-12; Micah 7:1). Abib “the month of green ears” commenced summer; and the seventh month, Ethanim, “the month of flowing streams,” began winter. The ‘atsereth or “concluding festival” of the feast of tabernacles closed the year ( Leviticus 23:34). Both the spring feast in Abib and the autumn feast in Ethanim began at the full moon in their respective months. (See MONTH , see SABBATICAL YEAR , see JUBILEE ). The observances at the beginning festival of the religious year resemble those at the beginning festival of the civil year. The Passover lamb in the first month Abib corresponds to the atonement goats on the tenth of Tisri, the seventh month. The feast of unleavened bread from the 15th to the gist of Abib answers to the feast of tabernacles from the 15th to 22nd of Tisri. As there is a Sabbath attached to the first day as well as to the seventh, so the first and the seventh month begin respectively the religious and the civil year.

    YOKE = mot , the wooden bow (ol) bound to the ox’s neck: the two are combined, “bands of the yoke” ( Leviticus 26:13; Ezekiel 34:27; Jeremiah 2:20, rather “thou hast broken the yoke and burst the bands which I laid on thee,” i.e. My laws, setting them at defiance, Jeremiah 5:5; Psalm 2:3). Contrast the world’s heavy yoke ( 1 Kings 12:4,9,11; Isaiah 9:11) with Christ’s “easy yoke” ( Matthew 11:29,30). Tsemed , a pair of oxen ( 1 Samuel 11:7), or donkeys ( Judges 19:10); a couple of horsemen ( Isaiah 21:7); also what land a pair of oxen could plow in a day ( Isaiah 5:10, “ten acres,” literally, ten yokes; Latin: jugum, jugerum; 1 Samuel 14:14).

    Z ZAANAIM, PLAIN OF Rather “oak” or “terebinth of Zaanaim”; ‘elown ( Judges 4:11).

    Zaanannim ( Joshua 19:33). Heber the Kenite pitched his tent unto it when Sisera took refuge with his wife Jael. Near Kedesh Naphtali; “the plain of the swamp” (Targum). The Talmud (Megillah Jerus. i.) identifies it with Agniya (agne means swamp) hak Kodesh, the marsh on the northern border of lake Huleh; still the Bedouins’ favorite camping ground. Stanley, however, conjectures the “green plain with massive terebinths,” adjoining on the S. the plain containing the remains of Kedesh. Possibly from a Hebrew root “to load beasts” as nomads do. But as the Kedesh meant in Judges 4 is that on the shores of the sea of Galilee, only 16 miles from Tabor the scene of the battle, and within the bounds of Naphtali, the place called Bessum in the plain between this Kedesh and Tabor (identical with Bitzaanaim, and near Adami ( Joshua 19:33), now ed Dameh, and Nekeb now Nakib) doubtless corresponds to Zaanaim. Thus, Sisera’s flight will be but for five or six miles from the scene of his defeat, not too far for one already fatigued, and in a line just opposite to that of the pursuit of his army toward Harosheth. (See KEDESH , see KADESH ). (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, October 1877, p. 191, 192.)

    ZAANAN Zenan, in the low hill country (shephelah) of Judah ( Joshua 15:37), meaning “the place of flocks.” Playing on its meaning Micah (1:11) says, “though in name implying thou dost come forth (yatsa ), thou camest not forth.” Maurer and Pusey construe, “the mourning of Bethezel takes away from you her shelter” (its stay or standing). Though Bethezel be at your side, according to her name, yet as she also mourns under the foe’s oppression she cannot give you shelter, or be at your side (as her name might lead you to expect), if you come forth and be intercepted by him from returning to Zaanan. Vatablus better, “Zaanan came not forth (shut herself within her walls), he (the foe) shall receive a check (literally, his standing) by you,” brought to a stand before you, in besieging, but only for a time. Zaanan too fell, like Bethezel before her.

    ZAAVAN A Horite chief, son of Ezer, Seir’s son ( Genesis 36:27).

    ZABAD contracted from Zebadijah, “Jehovah hath given him.” 1. Son of Nathan, great grandson of Ahlai, Sheshun’s daughter ( Chronicles 2:31-37). See Smith’s Dict. in proof that this genealogy ends in the time of Hezekiah. “Son” means great grandson “of Ahlai” ( Chronicles 11:41). One of David’s mighty men. Sheshan married an Egyptian husband, Jarha; of her as being the Israelite parent Zabad is called “the son,” i.e. descendant, just as Joab, Abishai, and Asahel, are called from the mother’s side sons of Zeruiah, who married a foreigner. 2. An Ephraimite ( 1 Chronicles 7:21). 3. A domestic palace servant of king Joash, one of the slayers of Joash; son of Shimeath an Ammonitess ( 2 Chronicles 24:26). Jozachar in Kings 12:20,21; Zachar is the abbreviation, and Zabad is a transcriber’s error for Zachar! One of a powerful conspiracy stirred up by Joash’s unpopularity owing to his idolatries, oppression, and foreign disasters (2 Chronicles 24). Amaziah executed him, but not his children (25:3; Deuteronomy 24:16). 4. Son of Zattu; put away his foreign wife ( Ezra 10:27). 5. Descendant of Hashum; did the same ( Ezra 10:33). 6. Son of Nebo; did the same ( Ezra 10:43).

    ZABBAI 1. Descendant of Bebai; put away his foreign wife ( Ezra 10:28). 2. Father of Baruch, who helped at the wall ( Nehemiah 3:20).

    ZABDI 1. Son of Zerah, Achan’s forefather ( Joshua 7:1,17,18). 2. Of Shimhi’s sons, a Benjamite ( 1 Chronicles 8:19). 3. Over the increase of David’s vineyards for the wine cellars, “the Shipmite,” i.e. of Shepham. 4. Son of Asaph ( Nehemiah 11:17); Zaccur in chap. 12:35, Zichri in 1 Chronicles 9:15.

    ZABDIEL = gift of God. 1. Father of see JASHOBEAM ( 1 Chronicles 27:2). 2. A priest, “son of (one of) the great men,” overseer of 128 brethren ( Nehemiah 11:14).

    ZABUD Son of Nathan ( 1 Kings 4:5). Priest (kohen , KJV “principal officer”) and “king’s friend” to Solomon, i.e. privy councillor, i.e. confidential adviser, of the king.

    ZACCHAI = pure. Hebrew of Zacchaeus; 760 of the family of Zacchai returned with Zerubbabel ( Ezra 2:9; Nehemiah 7:14).

    ZACCHAEUS (See ZACCHAI ). Luke 19:1-10. The Lord Jesus had received see BARTIMAEUS ’ application on the day of His entry into see JERICHO .

    Later in His progress, when He had passed through Jericho and had healed the blind, He met Zacchaeus, chief among the publicans or tax gatherers, i.e. superintendent of customs and tribute in the district of Jericho famed for its balsam, and so rich. The Lord had shortly before encountered the rich young ruler, so loveable, yet lacking one thing, the will to part with his earthly treasure and to take the heavenly as his portion. He had said then, “how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God;” yet to show us that “the things impossible with men are possible with God” ( Luke 18:18-27), and that riches are not an insuperable barrier against entrance into heaven, the case of the rich yet saved Zacchaeus follows.

    Holding his commission from his Roman principal contractor to the state (publicanus, manceps) to collect the dues imposed by Rome on the Jews, Zacchaeus had subordinate publicans under him. The palm groves of Jericho and its balsam gardens (now no longer existing) were so valuable that Antony gave them as a source of revenue to Cleopatra, and Herod the Great redeemed them for his benefit. Zacchaeus “sought to see Jesus who He was.” Evidently, Zacchaeus had not seen Jesus in person before, but had heard of His teachings and miracles. So, his desire was not merely from curiosity; as in the case of the young ruler, desire for “eternal life” entered into his wish to see the Saviour, but unlike the rich young ruler he had no self-complacent thought, “all the commandments I have kept from my youth up”; sense of sin and need on the contrary were uppermost in his mind, as the sequel shows. Zacchaeus could not see Jesus “for the press, because he was little of stature”; but where there is the will there is a way; he ran before (eagerness and determination, Hebrews 12:1; but God’s love ran first toward Zacchaeus, Luke 19; 15:20), and climbed up into a sycamore to see Jesus as He was to pass that way. Etiquette and social rank would suggest such an act was undignified, but faith outweighs every other consideration. Jesus, on reaching the spot, singled him out among all the crowd for His regard. He looked up and saw Zaachaeus, as His eye had rested on Nathanael under the fig tree ( John 1:48); “Zacchaeus (Zacchaeus could not but have joyfully wondered at being thus accosted by name, though a stranger before: John 10:3; Isaiah 43:1; Revelation 2:17; 3:12.), make haste, and come down, for today ( Hebrews 4:7; 3:13; 2 Corinthians 6:2) I must (for thy salvation, verse 10, John 4:4) abide at thy house” ( John 14:23). Zaachaeus made haste ( <19B960> Psalm 119:60; contrast Felix, Acts 24:25, the Athenians, 17:32) and came down (so we must, 2 Corinthians 10:4,5) and received Him joyfully ( Revelation 3:20; Acts 16:34).

    What a contrast to his joy, humility, and faith was the murmuring of the self-righteous bystanders, “He is gone to be guest with a sinner,” self invited, not merely as before eating with such by special invitation! ( Luke 15:2; 5:29,30) a further loving condescension. Zaachaeus “stood” with prompt and deliberate purpose, and said, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor (now that I know Thee as my all; not I have given, which would savour more of the self-righteous Pharisee, Luke 18:11; heretofore Zaachaeus often had taken wrongfully rather than given charitably; now he resolves from this moment to be a new man, 2 Corinthians 5:17; contrast the ruler’s disinclination to Christ’s testing command, ‘sell all that thou hast and give to the poor,’ Luke 18:22); and if I have taken anything (i.e. whatsoever I have taken, confessing now past takings) from any man by false accusation I (now) restore him fourfold,” an ingenuous confession and voluntary restitution; so the law ( Exodus 22:1). True faith always works by love, and brings forth fruits meet for repentance. Zaachaeus, as his name and Jesus’ subsequent declaration imply, was an Israelite. Jesus said then in respect to him, directing His words to the bystanders, “this day is salvation (embodied in Jesus, whose name means Jehovah Saviour) come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham, both by birth and by faith ( Galatians 3:7; Romans 4:11,12,16). The very day of conversion may often be known ( Philippians 1:5; Acts 2:41). The believer tries and often succeeds in bringing his household to Christ ( Acts 16:34; 10:2,33,44,48). “For the Son of man (sympathizing therefore with man, however fallen by sin) is come to seek (Zaachaeus sought Jesus, Luke 19:3, only because Jesus first sought Zaachaeus) and to save that which was lost.” The Lord stayed all night at the house of Zaachaeus, as the Greek implies: verses 5 and (meinai ... katalusai ). A Zaachaeus lived at Jericho at this time, father of the celebrated Rabbi Jochanan ben Zachai.

    ZACCHUR A Simeonite of Mishma’s family ( 1 Chronicles 4:26). Father of Shimei.

    ZACCUR 1. Father of Shammua the Reubenite spy ( Numbers 13:4). 2. A Merarite Levite, son of Jaaziah ( 1 Chronicles 24:27). 3. Son of Asaph ( 1 Chronicles 25:2,10); “prophesied according to the order of the king”; over the third division of the temple choir ( Nehemiah 12:35). 4. Son of Imri; aided at the wall ( Nehemiah 3:2). 5. A Levite, signed the covenant ( Nehemiah 10:12). 6. A Levite, father of Hanan ( Nehemiah 13:13).

    ZACHARIAH = “remembered by Jehovah”. 1. Son of Jeroboam II, fourteenth king of Israel. Last of Jehu’s line, according to the prophecy ( 2 Kings 10:30). Did evil in the sight of Jehovah as his fathers, worshipping Jeroboam’s calves. Reigned only six months. Slain by the conspirator Shallum ( 2 Kings 14:29; 15:8-10), B.C. (See, on the chronology of the kings, see ISRAEL ). 2. Father of Abi or Abijah, Hezekiah’s mother ( 2 Kings 18:2); Zechariah in 2 Chronicles 29:1.

    ZACHARIAS 1. Father of see JOHN THE BAPTIST ( Luke 1:5). Of the course of Abia or Abijah, eighth of the 24 ( 1 Chronicles 24:10); walking with Elizabeth his wife “in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” His lot was to burn incense, the embodiment of prayer (from whence also during the burning of incense the whole people prayed: Revelation 8:3,4; <19E102> Psalm 141:2), and esteemed so honourable an office that the same person (say the rabbis) was not allowed to discharge it twice. His unbelief (“whereby shall I know this, seeing I am old?” etc.) at the angel’ s announcement of John’s birth was retributively punished by dumbness (contrast <19B610> Psalm 116:10; 2 Corinthians 4:13), a warning to Israel whose representative he was of the consequences of unbelief if the nation should reject the gospel just coming; just as Mary on the contrary was an example of the blessedness which would flow if they believed ( Luke 1:45,38). Faith (dictating the name for his son given by the angel: Luke 1:13,63,64) opened his mouth, as faith shall cause Israel in the last days to confess her Lord, and the veil on her heart shall be taken away ( 2 Corinthians 3:15,16). Then followed his song of thanksgiving under the Holy Spirit, as Israel shall sing when turned to the Lord according to “the oath which He sware to our father Abraham,” etc. ( Luke 1:68-80; Isaiah 12:1-3; Zechariah 12:10,) “The horn of salvation in the house of David” contrasts beautifully with “the little horn” or antichrist destroying Israel before Messiah shall appear for Israel’s help ( Daniel 7:8; 8:9-14; 11; 12:1-3). 2. Son of Barachias ( Matthew 23:35). The same as the sire of Jehoiada; Joash ungratefully forgetting that he owed his throne to Jehoiada slew Zacharias for his faithful reproof: “Why transgress ye the commandments of Jehovah, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken Jehovah, He hath also forsaken you.” By Joash’s command they stoned Zacharias “in the court of the house of Jehovah!” And to it the tradition may be due which assigns the tomb in the valley of Jehoshaphat to Zacharias. Contrast Jehoiada’s reverent care not to slay Athaliah in the temple precincts ( Chronicles 23:14; 24:20-22,25). Joash slew other “sons” of Jehoiada besides Zacharias. “The Lord look upon it and requite it” was the martyr’s dying sentence, which Jesus refers to as about to be executed on Israel; “that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar,” i.e. in the interior court of the priests, in which was the altar of burnt offerings. As Zacharias’ prayer for vengeance is the judicial side of God’s word by His prophets ( Revelation 6:9-11; Luke 18:7), so Stephen’s prayer is the gospel loving side of it ( Acts 7:60). Though Urijah was slain subsequently to Zacharias ( Jeremiah 26:23), yet Zacharias is the last as the canon was arranged, Chronicles standing in it last; Christ names Zacharias as the last and Abel as the first martyr in the Scripture canon. Barachias may have been a second name of Jehoiada, meaning “the blessed,” because he preserved David’s house in the person of Joash from the murderous Athaliah, slew her, and restored the rightful king. However, as “son of Barachias” does not occur in Luke 11:51, perhaps the words in Matthew were a marginal gloss, confusing this Zacharias with Zechariah the prophet, son of Berechiah.

    ZACHER One of Jehiel’s sons ( 1 Chronicles 8:31). In 1 Chronicles 9:37, Zechariah.

    ZADOK 1. Son of Ahitub, of the house of Eleazar, son of Aaron ( 1 Chronicles 24:3). Joined David at Hebron after Saul’s death, with 22 captains of his father’s house. At Absalom’s revolt Zadok and the Levites bearing the ark accompanied David in leaving Jerusalem, but at his request returned with the ark and along with Hushai and Abiathar became David’s medium of knowing events passing in the city, through Jonathan and Ahimaaz. At Absasalom’s death David desired Zadok and Abiathar to persuade the elders of Judah to invite him to return (2 Samuel 15; 2 Samuel 17; Samuel 19). Zadok remained faithful in Adonijah’s rebellion when Abiathar joined it. Zadok, with Nathan the prophet, anointed Solomon at Gihon by David’s command (a second anointing took place subsequently: Chronicles 29:22). So Solomon put Zadok instead of see ABIATHAR , fulfilling the curse on Eli (1 Samuel 2; 3; 1 Kings 2:27,35; 4:4; Chronicles 29:22). David made him ruler over the Aaronites (27:17); their number in 12:27,28, is said to be 3,700 under Jehoiada. Zadok did not survive to the dedication of Solomon’s temple, but Azariah his son or grandson ( 1 Chronicles 6:8,9) was then high priest ( 1 Chronicles 6:10; 1 Kings 4:2). His descendants continued in the high priesthood (compare 2 Chronicles 31:10, “Azariah of the house of Zadok chief priest”) until the time of Antiochus Eupator. The double high priesthood of Zadok and Abiathar answers to that of the chief priest and second priest ( 2 Kings 25:18; Luke 3:2 “Annas and Caiaphas being high priest);” compare 2 Chronicles 31:10, “Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok.” Zadok ministered mainly before the tabernacle at Gibeon ( Chronicles 16:39). Abiathar bad charge of the ark in Jerusalem; so formerly Eleazar and Ithamar, Hophni and Phinehas, were joint chief priests. Even while the line of Ithamar in the person of Eli was foremost, Eleazar’s house held its ground on a kind of parity, Ahitub, Zadok’s father, being called “ruler of the house of God” ( 1 Chronicles 9:11; Nehemiah 11:11). 2. A second Zadok, son of a second Ahitub, son of Amariah; in king Amaziah’s time (see HIGH PRIEST ). Many links are omitted in these lists ( 1 Chronicles 6:12; 9:11; Ezra 7:1-5); the repetition of the same names in a family is natural 3. Father of Jerushah, king Uzziah’s wife ( 2 Kings 15:33; <142701> Chronicles 27:1). 4. Son of Baana, repaired the wall ( Nehemiah 3:4), signed the covenant (10:21); a chief of the people, of the tribe of Judah (for Baana was a Netophathite of Judah, 2 Samuel 23:29). Intermarriages of Judah with the tribe of Levi were frequent, Whence Zadok appears in Judah ( Matthew 1:14). 5. Son of Immer, a priest; repaired over against his own house ( Nehemiah 3:29); of the 16th course ( 1 Chronicles 24:14). 6. Nehemiah 11:11; 1 Chronicles 9:11. Son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub; some omission or error of copyists is suspected from comparing the list, Ezra 7:1-5; 1 Chronicles 6:3-14, where a Meraioth is grandfather or great grandfather of Zadok. The name is equivalent to the “Justus” of Acts 1:28; 18:7; Colossians 4:11. 7. Set over the treasuries by Nehemiah (13:13) to distribute to brethren; “the scribe.”

    ZAHAM Son of Rehoboam and Abihail, daughter or granddaughter to Eliab, David’s oldest brother ( 2 Chronicles 11:19).

    ZAIR = little. 2 Kings 8:21. A place in Idumea where Joram defeated Edom after having been first shut in, then cutting his way through; Chronicles 21:9, omit Zair and have instead im saraio, “with his captains.”

    ZALAPH Father of Hanun ( Nehemiah 3:30).

    ZALMON An Ahohite, of David’s guard ( 2 Samuel 23:28); in 1 Chronicles 11:29, Ilai.

    ZALMON, MOUNT = shady. “Black forest,” a wooded hill near Shechem, from which Abimelech brought boughs to burn the tower of the city ( Judges 9:48). (See SALMON ). Dalmanutha is thought a corruption of Zalmon.

    ZALMONAH The stage in Israel’s wilderness journey next after Mount Hor ( Numbers 33:41) on the march from Kadesh round Edom. From zelem , “image”; where the brazen serpent was set up. Same as Ma’an or Alam Na’an (Von Raumer), E. of Petra, one of the largest villages on the Meeca route, abounding in water and vineyards; where Israel, as pilgrims in our days, might traffic for provisions. Others place Zalmonah in the wady Ithm, which runs into the Arabah near Elath.

    ZALMUNNA One of the two kings (malkeey as distinguished from the princes, sareey) slain by see GIDEON for having slain Gideon’s brothers in cold blood ( Judges 8:18,5,12,26). The term in Joshua 13:21 is “princes” (nesi’ ); zekenim “sheikhs” in Numbers 22:4,7 “elders,” “kings” 31:8.

    ZAMZUMMIMS Deuteronomy 2:20. A giant race identified with the Zuzim of Genesis 14:5. Then “Ham” would be the chief city of the Zuzim and the root derivation of Ammon’s capital, Rubbath Ammon. They dwelt where Ammon, having dislodged them, afterward dwelt when Israel invaded Canaan. E. of the modern rich and undulating Belka, from whence the Amorites expelled Moab. Zamzummims was the Ammonite name for the Rephaim, N.E. of Jordan, Peraea; the Rephaim once extended S.W. as far as the valley of the Rephaim near Hinnom and Bethlehem, S. of Jerusalem.

    ZANOAH 1. A town in the low hall country (shephelah ) of Judah ( Joshua 15:34, Nehemiah 11:30; repairers of the wall, 3:13). Zanua in Jerome’s Onomasticon as in the district of Eleutheropolis on the way to Jerusalem.

    In Van de Velde’s map N. of the wady Ismail, two miles E. of Zareah and four N. of Yarmuk. Jekuthiel father or founder of Zanoah, was son of Jehudijah the Jewess and Mered; Mered’s other wife being see BITHIAH .

    Pharaoh’s daughter. Israelites from Egypt probably colonized Zanoah. 2. Za nutah is probably identical with another Zanoah; a town in the mountain region of Judah ( Joshua 15:56), enumerated with Maon, Carmel, and Ziph S. of Hebron.

    ZAPHHATH PAANEAH Egyptian title of Joseph, Zfntanch; from zaf “corn food,” nt “of,” anch “life” ( Genesis 41:45). Cook, in Speaker’s Commentary, Harkavy, from zaf “food,” net “saviour,” paaneh “life.” So a scholium on Septuagint “saviour of the world.” Not as Hebrew interpreters (Josephus Ant. 2:6, Section 1) “revealer of secrets.”

    ZARA, OR ZARAH Son of Judah by Tamar ( Genesis 38:30; 46:12; Matthew 1:3).

    ZAREAH Nehemiah 11:29, the Hebrew form which KJV elsewhere inaccurately rendersZORAH orZOREAH ( 1 Chronicles 2:53),ZAREATHITES.

    ZARED, OR ZERED (more accurately),VALLEY OF; or brook or watercourse of ( Numbers 21:12; Deuteronomy 2:13,14). Running into the Dead Sea at the S.E. corner: the boundary between the districts of Jebal and Kerek: now wady el Ahsy, between Moab and Edom (Robinson Bib. Res., 2:157), containing a hot spring called by the Arabs”the bath of Solomon.” The limit of Israel’s wandering; marking the time of the wilderness sojourn on one side as Kadesh did on the other. The Speaker’s Commentary identifies it with wady Ain Franjy, the main upper branch of wady Kerak; the first western brook that crossed Israel’s line of march. So the name marked an era in their progress; and the summons to cross it is noted in Deuteronomy 2:13,14. Zered means “osier”; and wady Safsaf, “see WILLOWS BROOK ” , is given to the tributary joining wady ain Franjy below Kerak. All the generation of the men of war had passed away by the time they reached Zared, fulfilling Numbers 14:23, that none of them should see the land.

    From the high ground on the other side of Zared (if wady Kerak) a distant view of the promised land and even of Jerusalem might be obtained.

    ZAREPHATH = tsarfa’ . Elijah’s residence during the drought ( 1 Kings 17:9,10); belonging to Sidon. A Canaanite, i.e. Phoenician city ( Obadiah 1:20).

    Sarepta in Luke 4:26. The name means smelting shop. Now Surafend, a tell or hill, with a small village, seven or eight miles from Sidon, near the Zaharain river. The ancient town however was below on the shore; there, ruins of a flourishing city are found, columns, marble slabs and sarcophagi, and a chapel of the crusaders on the presumed site of the widow’s house.

    ZARETAN, ZARTHAN, ZEREDATHA. Joshua 3:16. 1. Adam, the city by which the upper Jordan waters remained during Israel’s passage, was “by the side of Zaretan.” The name still appears in the Arabic ‘Ain Zahrah, three miles W. of Beisan. The Tell Sarem is a large mound three miles S. of Betsan. Much clay is found between this and Dabbet Sakut or Succoth. Adam means red earth.

    Perhaps this Zaretan is identical with (2) The place in the circle of the Jordan between which and Succoth ( 1 Kings 7:46) Solomon cast in clay the brazen articles for the temple; in 2 Chronicles 4:17,ZEREDATHA.

    Knobel identifies Zarthan with Kurn Sartabeh. (See ADAM ).

    Not far from this spot was apparently the “house of the ferry,” which gave its name to Bethabara. Bethabarah is evidently the modern ford ‘Abarah (i.e. passage) just above where the Julud river, flowing down the valley of Jezreel and by Beisan (Bethshean) debouches into the Jordan; here only the name is found, and nowhere else. Bethabara, “the house of the ferry,” was beyond Jordan; but the ferry or ford was doubtless the place of Christ’s baptism. The name and site did not originate from Christian tradition, for this makes the fords of Jericho the scene of John’s baptisms ( John 1:28). Christ could not possibly have traveled in one day ( John 2:1) miles from the vicinity of Jericho to Cana; but He could easily have traveled 22 miles from the ford Abarah to Kerr Kenna (Cana); no place on Jordan is nearer or more accessible to Cana. If with oldest manuscripts we read “Bethany,” John 1:28, the name will connect itself with Bashan and Batanaea, and the ‘Abarah ford is near the hills of Bashan, whereas the Jericho fords are far away. (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1878, p. 120,121.)

    ZARETH-SHAHAR One of Reuben’s towns. Joshua 13:19, “in the mount of the valley” (haemeq ). A Sara at wady Zerka Main, a mile from the Dead Sea, may now represent it. (Seetzen.)

    ZARHITES Descendants of Zerah son of Judah ( Numbers 26:13,20; Joshua 7:17; 1 Chronicles 27:11,13).

    ZARTANAH 1 Kings 4:12. By Zartanah was Bethshean in the upper part of the Jordan valley; mentioned in the list of Solomon’s commissariat districts.

    ZATTHU, ZATTU Nehemiah 10:14. The sons of Zatthu were a family of laymen who returned with Zerubbabel (Ezra, 2:8; Nehemiah 7:13). Some married foreign wives ( Ezra 10:27).

    ZAZA Son of Jonathan, a descendant of Jerahmeel ( 1 Chronicles 2:33).

    ZEBADIAH 1. A Benjamite of the sons of Beriah ( 1 Chronicles 8:15). 2. Of the sons of Elpaal (1 Chronicles 8: 17). 3. Of the sons of Jeroham of Gedor, a Benjamite who joined David at Ziklag ( 1 Chronicles 12:7). 4. Son of Asahel, Joab’s brother ( 1 Chronicles 27:7). 5. Son of Michael, of the sons of Shephatiah ( Ezra 8:8); returned with 80 males in Ezra’s caravan ( Ezra 8:8). 6. A priest, of the sons of Immer; married a foreign wife ( Ezra 10:20). 7. Third son of Meshelemiah, the Korhite ( 1 Chronicles 26:2). 8. A Levite sent by Jehoshaphat to teach the law in the Cities of Judah ( 2 Chronicles 17:8). 9. Son of Ishmael, and prince of Judah under Jehoshaphat ( 2 Chronicles 19:11). Zebadiah probably acted for the king, Amariah the high priest for the priesthood and ecclesiastical interests in the court consisting of priests, Levites, and chief men, over which they jointly presided, and which decided all causes civil and ecclesiastical.

    ZEBAH One of Midian’s two kings ( Judges 8:5-21; Psalm 83:11). Oreb and Zeeb were the prince-generals of Midian, slain by the Ephraimites at the central fords of the Jordan ( Judges 7:25). Zebah and Zalmunna were their kings slain by Gideon at Karkor, high up on the Hauran, where they had fled by the ford further to the N. and on through Gilead. Their murder of his brothers (three at least, as not the dual but plural is used) at Tabor was what, in spite of hunger and faintness, especially stimulated Gideon to such keenness in the pursuit.

    ZEBAIM The sons of Pochereth were of Zebaim which some identify withZEBOIM; others translated Pochereth hatsebaim , “the snarer (hunter) of roes” ( Ezra 2:57; Nehemiah 7:59).

    ZEBEDEE A fisherman of Galilee; father of James and John. In easy circumstances, for he owned a boat and hired servants ( Matthew 4:21; Mark 1:20).

    Salome his wife ministered to Jesus ( Matthew 27:55,56; Mark 15:40,41). His disinterestedness and favorable disposition towards Christ appear in his allowing without objection his sons to leave him at Christ’s call; Zebedee (“gift of Jehovah”) is equivalent in meaning to John (gift or favor of Jehovah); the father naturally giving his son a name similar in meaning to his own. John’s acquaintance with Annas the high priest implies the good social position of the family. In Matthew 4:21, at the call of James and John, Zebedee was alive; at Matthew 20:20 the peculiar phrase “the mother of Zebedee’s children” implies Zebedee was no longer alive, for otherwise she would be called the wife of Zebedee or the mother of James and John. In 8:21 the disciple’s request, “Lord, suffer me first to go (home) and (wait until the death of, and) bury my father,” may possibly refer to Zebedee; for the name “disciple” was given to but few, and a boat contained all the disciples (9:37; 8:23). If so, it will be an undesigned coincidence marking genuineness (Blunt, Undesigned Coincidences, Part 4).

    ZEBINA One of the sons of Nebo; took a foreign wife ( Ezra 10:43).

    ZEBOIM, VALLEY OF = hyenas. 1. A ravine (E. of Michmash) toward which the border looked, by way of which one company of Philistine marauders went. Zeboim lay “toward the wilderness” (the uncultivated mountain sides between the central district of Benjamin and the Jordan valley). The path from Jericho to Mukhmas (Michmash) runs up a gorge called by an exactly equivalent name, Shuk ed Dubba, “ravine of the hyena” ( 1 Samuel 13:18). 2. Zeboim (without the Hebrew ‘ayin ) = gazelles; one of the four cities of the plain; destroyed with Sodom, Gomorrha, and Admah ( Genesis 10:19; 14:2; Deuteronomy 29:23; Hosea 11:8). Shemeber was its king.

    ZEBUDAH Daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah; Josiah’s wife, Jehoiakim’s mother ( Kings 23:36).

    ZEBUL Chief man of Shechem; Abimelech’s officer, acting for his interests against the native Canaanites and see GAAL . When Abimelech defeated the latter, Zebul thrust out Gaal and his brethren from Shechem ( Judges 9:28,30,36,38,41). A zealous servant to an unscrupulous master.

    ZEBULUN (See ISSACHAR ). Tenth of Jacob’s sons, sixth and last of Leah’s sons ( Genesis 30:20; 35:23; 46:14). Named from Leah’s anticipation, “now will my husband dwell (‘izbeleniy ) with me, for I have borne him six sons.”

    Jacob’s blessing ( Genesis 49:13) was, “Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea, and he shall be for an haven of ships, and his border shall be unto Sidon.” Zebulun reached from the sea of Gennesareth to Mount Carmel, and so nearly to the Mediterranean. Its most westerly point reached to Mount Carmel, which brought it nigh Zidonia, the territory of Tyre and Sidon. The language of Genesis is such as no forger would from after history put as a prophecy. Though substantially accurate it suggests more of a maritime coast as belonging to Zebulun than after facts would have prompted. Zebulun had no seacoast, yet reached close to the Mediterranean, and actually coasted the sea of Gennesareth; the rich plain now the Buttauf was in its territory. Zebulun was far from Sidon yet bordering toward it. Zebulun possessed the fisheries of lake Tiberias or the sea of Gennesareth. So Moses’ blessing ( Deuteronomy 33:18), “rejoice Zebulun in thy going out,” i.e. in mercantile and shipping enterprise; “and Issachar in thy tents”; both tribes should rejoice in their undertakings a broad and at home, in their work and in their rest. “They shall call the peoples to the mountain (of the Lord’s inheritance, Exodus 15:17); there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness”; instead of making their abundance into mammon they would consecrate it to the Lord. Typically there is a reference to the conversion of the Gentiles; Isaiah 60:5,6,16; 66:11,12, “the abundance of the sea shall be converted,” etc.; and to Jesus the true Light, ministering most in Galilee, the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, the darkest and most Gentilized part of Palestine. “The way of the sea,” the great road from Damascus to the Mediterranean, traversed a good part of Zebulun ( Isaiah 9:1,2; Matthew 4:12,16). The “treasures hid in the sand” are the riches of the sea in general; possibly too referring to the then precious glass manufactured from the sand of these coasts (Tacitus, Annals v. 7; Pliny, H. N. 5:17; 36:65; Josephus, B. J. 2:10, Section 2; Job 28:17). The precious purple dye was also extracted from the murex.

    In the wilderness Zebulun was one of the foremost, marching with Issachar and Judah under the standard of Judah. Distinguished in the contest with Jabin as “jeoparding their lives unto the death in the high places of the field,” literally, “despised life even unto death” at the call of fatherland. Judges 5:14,15,18, “out of Zebulun came they that handle the pen of the writer” (see WRITING ); rather “marchers with the staff of the musterer.” David at Ziklag was joined by “50,000 of Zebulun such as went forth to battle, expert in war, with all instruments of war, which could keep rank (‘closing up together’; compare Philippians 2:2; Matthew 6:24), not of double heart.” Such spiritually are the soldiers whom Jesus seeks ( 1 Chronicles 12:33). They contributed with Issachar and Naphtali “bread on asses, camels, mules, and oxen; meat, meal, cakes of figs, bunches of raisins, wine, oil, oxen, and sheep abundantly,” to entertain David’s adherents (verse 40; contrast Psalm 12:2).

    Zebulun had three sons heads of houses ( Genesis 46:14; Numbers 26:26). The tribe had four of its cities assigned to Mesarite Levites. Elon the judge ( Numbers 12:11,12) was of Zebulun. Some of this tribe accepted Hezekiah’s touching invitation to the Passover after the fall of the northern kingdom ( 2 Chronicles 30:10,11,18). In Psalm 68:27, Zebulun’s princes represent the N. as Judah’s princes represent the S. of Israel in the procession of the ark to Zion after Ammon’s overthrow ( Samuel 11:11; 12:26-31). Zebulun shall share in the final restoration ( Ezekiel 48:26,27,33; Revelation 7:8). Its strongholds long withstood the Romans in the last Jewish war. It shared with Issachar in the possession of Tabor.

    ZECHARIAH 1. Eleventh of the 12 minor prophets. Son of Berechiah, grandson of Iddo; Ezra (5:1,6:14) says son of Iddo, omitting Berechiah the intermediate link, as less known, and perhaps having died early. Zechariah was probably, like Ezekiel, priest as well as prophet, Iddo being the priest who returned with Zerubbabel and Joshua from Babylon ( Nehemiah 12:4,16). His priestly birth suits the sacerdotal character of his prophecies ( Zechariah 6:13).

    He left Babylon, where he was born, very young. Zechariah began prophesying in youth ( Zechariah 2:4), “this young man. In the eighth month, in Darius’ second year (520 B.C.), Zechariah first prophesied with Haggai (who began two months earlier) in support of Zerubbabel and Shealtiel in the building of the temple, which had been suspended under Pseudo-Smerdis Artaxerxes ( Ezra 4:24; 5:1,2; 6:14). The two, “Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo” the priest prophet, according to a probable tradition composed psalms for the liturgy of the temple: Psalms 137; 146 to 148, according to Septuagint; Psalm 125, 126 (see NEHEMIAH ) according to the Peshito; Psalm 111 according to Vulgate The Hallelujah characterizes the post exile psalms, it occurs at both beginning and end of Psalms 146 to 150; these are all joyous thanksgivings, free from the lamentations which appear in the other post exile psalms.

    Probably sung at the consecration of the walls under Nehemiah; but Hengstenberg thinks at the consecration of the second temple. Jewish tradition makes Zecharia a member of the great synagogue. (See ZECHARIAH, BOOK OF ). 2. Firstborn son of Meshelemiah, a Korhite, keeper of the N. gate of the tabernacle under David ( 1 Chronicles 9:21; 26:2,14, “a wise counsellor”). 3. One of the sons of Jehiel ( 1 Chronicles 9:37); in 8:31 Zacher. 4. A Levite in the tabernacle choir under David, “with psalteries on Alamoth” ( 1 Chronicles 15:20); of the second order of Levites (verse 18), a porter or gatekeeper. 5. One of Judah’s princes under Jehoshaphat, sent to teach the law of Jehovah in Judah’s cities ( 2 Chronicles 17:7). 6. Son of Jehoiada, and so cousin of king Joash whom Jehoiada saved from Athaliah ( 2 Chronicles 24:20) (see ZACHARIAS ). 7. A Kohathite Levite under Josiah, an overseer of the temple repairs ( Chronicles 34:12). 8. Leader of the sons of Pharosh, returned from Babylon with Ezra ( Ezra 8:3). 9. Son of Bebai; also returned, leading 28 males, with Ezra ( Ezra 8:11). 10. A chief, summoned by Ezra to the consultation at the river Ahava, before the second caravan returned ( Ezra 8:16); at Ezra’s left, in expounding the law ( Nehemiah 8:4). 11. Of Elam’s family; married a foreign wife ( Nehemiah 10:26). 12. Ancestor of Uthai or Athaiah ( Nehemiah 11:4). 13. A Shilonite, ancestor of Maaseiah ( Nehemiah 11:5). 14. A priest, son of Pashur, ancestor of Adaiah ( Nehemiah 11:12). 15. Representing Iddo the priest’s family, in the time of Joiakim, son of Jeshua ( Nehemiah 12:16); probably the same as Zechariah the prophet, son (descendant) of Iddo. 16. A priest, son of Jonathan, blew the trumpet at the dedication of the city wall ( Nehemiah 12:35,41). 17. A Reubenite chief in Tiglath Pileser’s time, at Israel’s captivity ( Chronicles 5:7). 18. A priest who blew the trumpet in the procession of the ark ( Chronicles 15:24). 19. Son of Isshiah or Jesiah ( 1 Chronicles 24:25). 20. Hosah’s fourth son ( 1 Chronicles 26:11). 21. A Manassite, father of Iddo, chief in Gilead under David ( Chronicles 27:21). 22. Father of Jahaziel ( 2 Chronicles 20:14). 23. Son of Jehoshaphat ( 2 Chronicles 21:2), slain by Jehoram. 24. Uzziah’s prophetical counselor ( 2 Chronicles 26:5), “who had understanding in the visions of God” (“who had insight into seeing of God”); compare Daniel 1:17; as this phrase is not equivalent to “who had prophetic visions from God,” but to such “seeing of God” as was granted to the elders of Israel in Exodus 24:10, it is better to read beyireath for bireoth ; so Septuagint, Syriac, Targum Arabic, Raschi, Kimchi, etc., “who was (his) instructer in the fear of God.” 25. Father of Abijah or Abi, Hezekiah’s mother ( 2 Chronicles 29:1). 26. One of Asaph’s family who joined in purifying the temple under Hezekiah ( 2 Chronicles 29:13). 27. A ruler of the temple under Josiah ( 2 Chronicles 35:8), “the second priest” next to Hilkiah the high priest (34:9; 2 Kings 25:18). 28. Son of Jeberechiah, taken by Isaiah as one of the “faithful witnesses to record” when he wrote concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz (“hasting to the spoil he hasteth to the prey”). The other witness was Uriah, or see URIJAH , a priest, whom see AHAZ used as his tool in copying the Damascus altar. As Isaiah, in order to enforce upon Ahaz’ attention the truth symbolized, namely, that Assyria whom Ahaz trusted would soon prey upon Judah, chose one witness from the king’s bosom friends, so it is likely Zechariah the other witness was also a bosom friend of Ahaz. Now Kings 18 informs us that the mother of Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, was Abi daughter of Zechariah; hence it appears Ahaz was Zechariah’s son in law; Isaiah naturally chose him as the other of the two witnesses. The undesigned coincidence between the prophet Isaiah ( Isaiah 8:2) and the independent historian ( 2 Kings 16:10; 18:2) confirms the genuineness of both. (See Blunt’s Undesigned Coincidences, 2:2.) Thus 27 will be the same person as 25; else he may have been the same as 26.

    ZECHARIAH, BOOK OF The Jewish saying was, “the spirit of Jeremiah dwelt in Zechariah.” Like Ezekiel and Daniel Zechariah delights in symbols, allegories, and visions of angels ministering before Jehovah and executing His commands on earth.

    Zechariah, like Genesis, Job, and Chronicles, brings Satan personally into view. The mention of myrtles (representing the then depressed Jewish church, Zechariah 1:11) accords with the fact of their non mention before the Babylonian exile ( Nehemiah 8:15); contrast the original command as to the trees at the feast of tabernacles, “palms, and willows of the brook” Esther’s name Hadassah means “see MYRTLE ” . Joshua’s filthy garments (Zechariah 3) were those assumed by the accused in Persian courts; the white robe substituted was the caftan, to this day put upon a state minister in the East when acquitted. Some forms and phrases indicate a late age (as ‘achath used as the indefinite article).

    Zechariah encouraged the Jews in rebuilding the temple by unfolding the glorious future in contrast with the present depression of the theocracy.

    Matthew ( Matthew 27:9) quotes Zechariah 11:12 as Jeremiah’s words. Doubtless because Zechariah had before his mind Jeremiah 18:1,2; 32:6-12; Zechariah’s prophecy is but a reiteration of the fearful oracle of Jeremiah 18--19, about to be fulfilled in the destruction of the Jewish nation. Jeremiah, by the image of a potter’s vessel (the symbol of God’s absolute power over His creatures: Romans 9:21; Isaiah 45:9; 64:8), pourtrayed their ruin in Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion. Zechariah repeats this threat as about to be fulfilled again by Rome for their rejection of Messiah Matthew, by mentioning Jeremiah, implies that the field of blood now bought by “the reward of iniquity” in the valley of Hinnom was long ago a scene of doom symbolically predicted, that the purchase of it with the traitor’s price renewed the prophecy and revived the curse.

    The mention of Ephraim and Israel as distinct from Judah, in chapters 10 to 14, points to the ultimate restoration, not only of the Jews but of the northern Israelite ten tribes, who never returned as a body from their Assyrian captivity, the earnest of which was given in the numbers out of the ten tribes who returned with their brethren of Judah from the Babylonian captivity under Cyrus.

    There are four parts: (I.) Introduction ( Zechariah 1:1-6), a warning resting on the previous warnings of Haggai ( Haggai 1:4-8). (II.) Symbolical ( Zechariah 1:7 to chapter 6), nine visions in one night. (III.) Didactic (Zechariah 7; 8), answer to a query of Bethelites concerning a, certain fast. (IV.) Prophetical (Zechariah 9 to 14). In the second part the interpretation of the visions is given by the angel who knows Jehovah’s will, intercedes with Jehovah for Israel, and by whom Jehovah speaks ( Zechariah 1:9), “the angel that talked with me,” or “in me”; compare 1:Pet. 1:11, “the Spirit of Christ which was in the prophets.” The Angel of Jehovah the Man upon the red horse among the myrtle trees, is apparently identical with the interpreting angel through whom Jehovah communicates with His servants ( Zechariah 1:8,10,11,12). The Angel of Jehovah is the Second Person in the Godhead. The first vision represents Jehovah’ s messengers announcing that after walking to and fro through the earth they found it at rest (in contrast to and counterworking Satan who “walks to and fro upon the earth” to hurt the saints, Job 1:7); this secure rest of the pagan earth is the interceding Angel’s plea for the desolate temple and Judah, and elicits Jehovah’s great jealousy for Zion, so that He returns to her with mercies and with judgments on the pagan oppressor ( Haggai 2:20-23).

    The second vision states how Jehovah will repair Jerusalem’s breaches namely, as the four (the four cardinal points of the horizon marking worldwide extension) great world powers, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, scattered Judah and Israel, so four “destroying artificers” shall fray (strike terror into) and cast out the horns of the Gentiles which lifted up their horn over Judah ( Psalm 75:4,5; Ezekiel 34:21; Luke 21:24).

    The third vision is the man with line measuring Jerusalem; Messiah, its coming Restorer ( Ezekiel 40:3; 41:42). Instead of Jerusalem’s past limiting wall, her population shall spread out beyond into the open country and need no wall, Jehovah Himself being “a wall of fire round about, and the glory in the midst of her” ( Zechariah 2:1-5; Ezekiel 38:11), The next two (fourth and fifth) visions (Zechariah 3--4) show Joshua the high priest’s (representing Jerusalem) trial and vindication against Satan, being justified by Jehovah through Messiah the Righteous Branch, though unclean in himself (compare <19A906> Psalm 109:6,31; Luke 1:11; Jude 1:9,23; Romans 8:33,34; Isaiah 64:6; 61:10; 66:21; Revelation 19:8; Luke 15:22). Jehovah saith “I have laid the (foundation) stone (as the chief architect) before (in the presence of) Joshua,” by the hand of Zerubbabel, so that your labour in building the temple shall not be in vain.

    Antitypically Christ is the stone ( <19B822> Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 28:16; Daniel 2:45; 1 Corinthians 3:11; 1 Peter 2:6,7). The “seven eyes upon the one stone” are carved on it; not so much the eyes of the Father (the eye symbolizing providence, seven perfection) and of angels and saints ever fixed on Him ( Zechariah 4:10; 1 Timothy 3:16; John 3:14,15; 12:32; 8:66), as His own sevenfold fullness of grace, and of the Spirit’s gifts put “UPON Him” by God, so that “He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes” ( Isaiah 11:2,3; 42:1; John 1:16; 3:34; Colossians 1:19; 2:9); He is the living stone who not only attracts the eyes of His people, but emits from Himself all illumination. Contrast the “little horn” with the “eyes of a man” ( Daniel 7:8). The fifth vision ( Zechariah 4:1-9), the candlestick or chandelier with seven lights, fed by seven tubes apiece, borrowed from the tabernacle ( Exodus 25:31, etc.), implies that the real motive power in the work of God (as Zerubbabel’s building of the temple)is God’s Spirit. The seven times seven imply the manifold modes by which the Spirit imparts grace to the church in her manifold work of enlightening the world. The “two olive trees” supplying oil to the “bowl” answer to the Holy Spirit supplying with infinite fullness Jesus the fount (bowl) at the head of the church, for the twofold function of bringing the grace of atonement as our Priest, and of sanctification and glorification as our King, Every mountain in Zerubbabel’s way must yield; so, antitypically, the “destroying mountain” antichrist ( Jeremiah 51:25; Daniel 2:34,45; Matthew 21:44; Isaiah 40:4; 49:11) must give place to the “stone cut out of the mountain without hands”; and the top stone shall crown the completed church “with shoutings, Grace, grace unto it.”

    The sixth vision ( Zechariah 5:1-11) is the curse upon a flying roll, recorded against sin, over Judaea primarily and ultimately the whole earth; it shall extirpate the fraudulent and perjurers; compare in Zechariah’s time Nehemiah 13:10; Malachi 3:5,8. Seventh vision. The woman in the ephah symbolizes wickedness and idolatry removed for ever from the Holy Land to Babylon (from whence Israel is redeemed), there to mingle with kindred elements. The ephah, their instrument of fraud, shall be the instrument of their punishment; idolatry and sin shall cease from Israel ( Isaiah 2:18, 4:4). Eighth vision. Four chariots, symbolizing the fourfold dispensations of Providence as regards the contact of the four great world powers with Judaea, come out from between the two mountains Zion and Moriah (the seat of the temple, representing the theocracy) where the Lord is ( Zechariah 2:10), and from whence He sends His ministers of judgments on the pagan; the red horses in one represent carnage; the black, sorrow and famine ( Revelation 6:5,6); the white, joy and victory; the grisled or piebald, a mixed dispensation, partly prosperity, partly adversity; all alike working together for good to Israel. The red go northward to bathe in blood, Babylon; the white go north after the red, to conquer Medo-Persia; the grisled go south to deal with Graeco-Macedonian Egypt; the bay or rather fleet “walk to and fro through the earth” to counterwork “Satan’s going to and fro in the earth” in connection with Rome, the last of the four world powers ( Job 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 2:8,9; <540401> Timothy 4:1). Ninth vision. The double crowning of Joshua symbolizes the union of the priesthood and kingship in Messiah ( Zechariah 6:13; <19B001> Psalm 110:1,2,4; Hebrews 5:10; 6:20; 7:1-21). The crowns were made of silver and gold, presented for the temple by Heldah, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, coming from Babylon, and should be deposited in the temple’ as a memorial of the donors until Messiah appear; and as typifying Israel’s return from afar to the King of the Jews at Jerusalem ( Isaiah 60:9), and secondarily the conversion of the Gentiles from “far off” (Zechariah 6; 2:11; 8:22,23; Isaiah 60:10; 57:19).

    The didactic part (Zechariah 7--8) lays down that God loves obedience rather than fasting; the fate of Israel’s fathers, but still more God’s present promise of coming blessedness to Jerusalem, should stimulate the Jews to obedience, even as adversity attended them while neglecting in build the temple.

    Prophetical (Zechariah 9--14). Alexander’s conquests in Syria and Philistia ( Zechariah 9:1-8). God’s people safe because her King cometh lowly, yet showing Himself a Saviour and about to create universal peace ( Zechariah 9:9,10). The Maccabean deliverance a type hereof ( Zechariah 9:11-17). The Jewish exiles in affliction in Egypt, Greece, etc., under Alexander’s successors, especially Antiochus Epiphanes who profaned the temple, slew thousands, and enslaved more, should be delivered under the Maccabees by looking to the Lord. Antitypically so shall Israel be delivered from her last oppressor, antichrist, by looking to Messiah. Zechariah 10 urges prayer, and promises in answer to it rulers coming out of themselves (the Maccabees, Judah’s governors and deliverers from Antiochus, typifying Messiah), conquest of enemies, restoration of both Israel and Judah in their own land in lasting peace.

    Zechariah 11 foretells the destruction of the second temple and Jewish polity for the rejection of Messiah ( Zechariah 11:4,7, the “flock” doomed to slaughter by Rome, whom Messiah “fed,” but they rejected Him “the Bread of life”). The Roman buyers (qonehen , KJV “possessors”), did “not hold themselves guilty,” as they were but the instruments of God’s righteous vengeance ( Jeremiah 50:7). Judah’s “own shepherds” (verses 3,5, and 8) by selfish rapacity sold their country to Rome ( John 11:48,50). The climax was the sale of Messiah through Judas to Rome for 30 pieces of silver (verse 13). The breaking of the two staves Beauty (Israel’s peculiar excellence above other nations: Deuteronomy 4:7; Daniel 8:9; 11:16; <19E719> Psalm 147:19,20; and the temple beauty of holiness, Psalm 29:2) and Bands (the brotherhood between Judah and Israel: Nehemiah 10:29) answers to the destruction of the temple, which constituted the chief visible beauty and He of brotherhood uniting the nation. Not even Titus could save the temple from the fury of his soldiery, Julian was unable to rebuild it. The three shepherds ( Zechariah 11:8) cut off in one month answer to the three last princes of the Asmonaean line, Hyrcanus, Alexander, and Antigonus (the last conquered by Rome and Herod, and slain by the executioner, 34 B.C.), whose violent death in a brief space transferred Judaea from native princes to the foreigner. Henceforth God’s covenant was not “with all the people “but only with the elect ( Zechariah 11:10,11). When Messiah demanded His” price” for pastoral care of Israel during the whole theocracy, and especially in the three and a half years of His ministry in person, they gave only shekels, the price of a gored bond servant ( Zechariah 11:12,13; Exodus 21:32). The despicable sum was cast to the temple potter, plying his trade in the polluted valley of Hinnom ( 2 Kings 23:10) because it furnished clay, the scene of Jeremiah’s (2 Kings 18--19; Matthew 27:9) symbolical prophecy as to the same period. The breaking of the bands between Israel and Judah, and between the members of Judah itself, illustrated in the fratricidal factions in Jerusalem’s last siege, will last until the reunion ( Romans 11:15). Jehovah gave them up to a foolish (wicked) shepherd ( Zechariah 11:15-17) since they would not have the good Shepherd; namely, Rome pagan and papal, and finally the blasphemous antichrist ( John 5:43; Daniel 11:35-38; 12:1; 9:27; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; Revelation 13:5,6,13-18). But he shall perish, and Judah and Israel be saved. Zechariah 12 foretells that Jerusalem shall be the instrument of God’s judgment on her foes, after that He pours on her the spirit of grace and supplication. Chap. 13 the cleansing of her sin and removal of her idolatry and the unclean spirit ( Revelation 16:13; 1 John 4:6). At Zechariah 13:7 the prophecy of Messiah’s betrayal (11:4,10,13,14) is resumed, “Awake O sword against My Shepherd and against the Man that is My Fellow (the mighty Man of My union, ‘geber amithiy ,’ one indissolubly joined by a common nature; contrast the Levitical law against injuring one’s fellow. How extreme the need which required God not to spare His own Fellow: Romans 8:32!), saith the Lord of hosts”; and the consequent punishment of the Jews. Zechariah foretells Jerusalem’s last struggle with the hostile world powers. Messiah- Jehovah shall save her and destroy the foe of whom the remnant shall turn to Him reigning at Jerusalem. Such an interposition certainly did not take place at the last siege by Rome, though looked for by the zealots within Jerusalem; Zechariah 13:9 and Zechariah 14 must refer to the future.

    The reference to the glorious millennial feast of tabernacles to come is in undesigned coincidence with Zechariah’s assisting Zerubbabel who kept the typical feast ( Zechariah 14:16; Ezra 3:4; 5:1,2).

    The difference in style between the earlier and the last chapters (Zechariah 9--14) is due to the difference of subject: the first eight being symbolical, occasionally oratorical and practical, the last six transporting the prophet into the glorious future; the style of the latter is naturally therefore more elevated. The notes of time in the former ( Zechariah 1:1,7; 7:1) and the references to the temple are accounted for through the prophet’s busying himself here with his own time, but in the latter with the far off future. The same phrases recur in both: as “passeth by and returneth” (meobeer umishab ) in Zechariah 7:14, also in 9:8; “to remove” (hebir ), Zechariah 3:4, and Zechariah 13:2; “the eye of God,” 3:9; 4:10; 9:1,8; Israel’s return from exile and ruling the foes, by the law of righteous retribution ( Zechariah 2:10; 9:12; also compare Zechariah 2:10 with Zechariah 9:9; 14:4); Jehovah’s coming to Zion and dwelling there.

    Compare also similar phrases in Zechariah 2:9,11, and Zechariah 11:11; 2:4 and Zechariah 14:10; 8:20-23 and Zechariah 14:16.

    Chaldaisms occur: tsaabaa , Zechariah 9:8; raamah , Zechariah 14:10; bahal , millee qesheth ( Zechariah 9:13) for darak qesheth .

    Zechariah, even in his later chapters, shows his familiarity with the prophets of the exile, Jeremiah and Ezekiel; Zechariah 9:2 alludes to Ezekiel 28:3; Zechariah 10:3 to Ezekiel 34:17; Zechariah 11:4 to Ezekiel 34:4; Zechariah 11:3 to Jeremiah 12:5; Zechariah 13:8,9, to Ezekiel 5:12; Zechariah 14:8 to Ezekiel 47:1-12; Zechariah 14:10,11, to Jeremiah 31:38-40; Zechariah 14:20,21, to Ezekiel 43:12; 44:9. It is not necessary for unity of authorship that the introductory formulas of the first eight chapters should occur in the last six. The non-reference in the last six chapters to the completion of the temple, and to the Jews’ restoration after captivity, is just what we should expect if those chapters were written long after the completion of the temple, and restoration of the Jews’ polity, under different circumstances from the former eight chapters. The style is conversational or poetical, according to the theme. Explanations accompany the enigmatical symbols. The prose is diffuse and abounds in repetitions, the rhythm somewhat uneven, and the parallelism not always symmetrical. But Zechariah is often elevated, as the earlier prophets; and the style generally accords with the subject. His merit is graphic, vivid power; spiritual being’s are often introduced.

    Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are the three prophets of the restoration, best illustrated by comparison with Ezra and Nehemiah; Haggai and Zechariah are at the beginning of the period, Malachi at the close. The altar was built by Sheshbazzar or Zerubbabel and Jeshua, 536 B.C. ( Ezra 2:64). After 14 years of interruption under Smerdis the rebuilding of the temple was resumed, 70 years after the fall of Solomon’s temple; Haggai and Zechariah encouraged Zerubbabel and Jeshua amidst apathy on the part of the younger generation who were accustomed to the absence of Mosaic ritual in Babylon, and who undervalued the humble beginnings of the restored temple, in contrast with the gorgeous pomp of the Babylonian temples. As the work of Haggai and Zechariah was that of restorers, so Malachi’s was that of a reformer, cooperating with Ezra 458 B.C. (80 years almost after Zerubbabel’s first expedition from Babylon to Jerusalem), and Nehemiah 445 B.C., who rebuilt the city wall and restored the civil and religious polity of the theocracy and corrected the various abuses in church and state.

    ZEDAD A landmark on the N. of Israel ( Numbers 24:8; Ezekiel 47:15).

    Grove conjectures the present Sudud, E. of the N. end of Antilibanus, miles E.N.E. of Baalbek.

    ZEDEKIAH 1. Judah’s last king, 599 to 588 B.C. (See JEREMIAH .) Youngest son of Josiah and Hamutal ( Jeremiah 1:3; 37:1), brother to Jehoahaz ( Kings 24:17,18; 23:31). Ten years old when his father died,21 when he mounted the throne. Originally named Mattaniah; Nebuchadnezzar changed his name to Zedekiah when he deposed Zedekiah’s nephew Jehoiachin. This proves that Nebuchadnezzar treated his vassal kindly, allowing him to choose a new name (Zedekiah is Hebrew, “righteousness of Jehovah”) and confirming it as a mark of his supremacy; this name was to be the pledge of his righteously keeping his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar who made him swear by God ( Ezekiel 17:12-16; Chronicles 36:13). In 1 Chronicles 3:15 Johanan is oldest, then Jehoiakim, Zedekiah is third in order, Shallum fourth, because Jehoiakim and Zedekiah reigned longer, namely, 11 years each; therefore Shallum, though king before Jehoiakim, is put last; on the other hand Zedekiah and Shallum were both sons of Hamutal, therefore put together. Had Zedekiah kept his oath of fealty he would have been safe, though dependent. But weak, vacillating, and treacherous, he brought ruin on his country and on himself. It was through the anger of Jehovah against Judah that Zedekiah was given up to his own rebellious devices, “stiffening his neck and hardening his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel” who warned him by Jeremiah; like Pharaoh of old ( 2 Chronicles 36:12,13), he would “not humble himself” ( Jeremiah 38:5; 39:1-7; 52:1-11; and Jeremiah 21; 24; 27; 28; 29; 32; 33; 34; 37; 38). In Jeremiah 27:1 read “Zedekiah” for “Jehoiakim” with Syriac, Arabic, and one of Kennicott’s manuscripts (compare verses 3,12, and 28:1, “in the fourth year ... of the reign of Zedekiah”) The kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon sent ambassadors in his fourth year to urge Zedekiah to conspire with them against Nebuchadnezzar. But Jeremiah symbolized the futility of the attempt by sending “yokes” back by the ambassadors. Hananiah, who broke the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck, died that year according to the Lord’s sentence by Jeremiah. Baruch (1:8) represents Zedekiah as having caused silver vessels to be made to replace the golden ones carried off by Nebuchadnezzar; possibly this may have been owing to the impression made on Zedekiah by Hananiah’s death. In his eighth year (Josephus Ant. 10:7, Section 3) Zedekiah actually leagued with Egypt in treacherous violation of his compact with Nebuchadnezzar. But evidently (Jeremiah 27,28) Zedekiah had been secretly plotting before, in his fourth year; in that year he had gone to Babylon to allay Nebuchadnezzar’s suspicion ( Jeremiah 51:59), and also sent messengers to Babylon ( Jeremiah 37:5-11; 34:21; Ezekiel 17:13-20). Zedekiah disregarded Jehovah’s words by Jeremiah, notwithstanding the warning given in Jeconiah’s punishment. Still while the issue between the Chaldaeans and Pharaoh Hophra was undecided, he sent begging Jeremiah, Pray now unto the Lord our God for us. Nebuchadnezzar on learning Zedekiah’s treachery had sent a Chaldaean army which reduced all Judaea except Jerusalem, Lachish, and Azekah (Jeremiah 34). Zedekiah had in consequence induced the princes and people to manumit their Hebrew bond servants. But when Pharaoh Hophra compelled the Chaldaeans to raise the siege of Jerusalem, the princes and people in violation of the covenant enslaved their Hebrew servants again. So God by Jeremiah gave the enslavers a “liberty” ( Jeremiah 34:17) fatal to them, manumission from God’s free service ( <19B945> Psalm 119:45; John 8:36; 2 Corinthians 3:17), to pass under the bondage of the sword, pestilence, and famine. Then followed Jeremiah’s attempt to escape to his native place and his arrest. Zedekiah sent and took him out of prison, and asked, Is there any word from the Lord? to which the prophet, without regard to his personal interests, replied, “there is, for thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” Zedekiah showed his sense of Jeremiah’s faithfulness by ordering bread to be given him out of the bakers’ street until all the bread in the city was spent ( Proverbs 28:23; Psalm 37:19). However, in consequence of his prophesying death to those that remained in the city and life to those who should go forth to the Chaldaeans, who had returned to the siege in the tenth month of Zedekiah’s ninth year ( Jeremiah 52:4), Jeremiah was again imprisoned. Zedekiah was too weak to resist, but answered his princes “the king is not he that can do anything against you.” At Ebedmelech’s intercession Zedekiah rescued him, and again consulted him.

    Again Jeremiah told him his only hope was in going forth to the Chaldaeans. But Zedekiah was afraid lest the Chaldaeans should give him up to Jewish deserters, who would treat him ignominiously. Jeremiah told him in reply that, by not going forth, he should bring burning upon the city, and upon himself the very evil he feared if he went forth, ignominious treatment from not only the deserters but the very women of the palace (Jeremiah 38). So afraid was Zedekiah of his princes that he imposed on Jeremiah a subterfuge, concealing the real purpose of his interview from the princes. The terrible concomitants of a siege soon followed ( Jeremiah 38:9), so that mothers boiled and ate the flesh of their own infants ( Lamentations 4:5,8,10) and the visage of their nobles was blacker than coal, their skin clave to their bones and became withered. On the ninth day of the fourth month in the middle of July (Josephus) after a year and a half’s siege (from the tenth month of the ninth year to the fourth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah) about midnight a breach was made in the wall The Babylonian princes took their seats in state in the middle gate, between the upper and the lower city. Zedekiah fled in the opposite direction, namely, southwards, with muffled face to escape recognition, and like one digging through a wall to escape ( Ezekiel 12:12,6), between the two walls on the E. and W. sides of the Tyropoeon valley, by a street issuing at the gate above the royal gardens and the fountain of Siloam. Zedekiah was overtaken in the plains of Jericho. He was taken for judgment to Riblah at the upper end of Lebanon; there Nebuchadnezzar first killed his sons before his eyes, then caused the eyes of Zedekiah to be “dug out” (Jeremiah 39; 52:4-11). Thus were fulfilled the seemingly inconsistent prophecies, “his eyes shall behold his eyes,” Jeremiah 32:4, and Ezekiel 12:13 “he shall not see Babylon, though he shall die there.”

    Zedekiah was put “in prison,” literally, “the house of visitations” or “punishments,” where there was penal work enforced on the prisoners, as grinding, from whence Septuagint reads “in the house of the mill.” So Samson “did grind” ( Judges 16:21). He probably died before Evil Merodach, successor of Nebuchadnezzar, treated kindly Jehoiachin in the 37th year of his captivity,26 years after the fall of Jerusalem; for no mention is made of him ( Jeremiah 52:31). 2. Son of Chenaanah. (See MICAIAH , son of Imlah). 1 Kings 22; Chronicles 18. He is distinguished by Jehoshaphat (“is there not here besides a prophet of Jehovah, that we might inquire of him?”) from Jehovah’s prophets. Zedekiah therefore was one of the “400 prophets of the GROVES” , (Asheerah Ashtaroth) who apparently were not slain when Elijah slew the 450 prophets of Baal ( 1 Kings 18:19,22,24), or rather a prophet of the calves symbolizing “Jehovah,” for they spoke in Jehovah’s name (22:8). Compare as to his assumption of horns Amos 6:13.

    Josephus adds (Ant. 8:15, section 3) that Zedekiah denounced Micaiah as contradicting Elijah, who foretold that dogs should lick up Ahab’s blood in the vineyard of Naboth of Jezreel; and defied Micaiah to wither the hand with which he smote his cheek, as the prophet from Judah had done to Jeroboam. 3. Son of Maaseiah, a false prophet in Babylon, among the captives with Jeconiah. Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 29:21,22,25) denounces him for adultery and lying prophecies, buoying up the captives with delusive promises of a speedy restoration. A proverbial formula of cursing should be taken up by all the captives, “Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!” ( Isaiah 65:15.) Brother of Zephaniah. 4. Son of Hananiah. One of the princes assembled in the scribes’ chamber when Micaiah announced that Baruch had read Jeremiah’s words to the people ( Jeremiah 36:12). He was not much better than his father, who died by God’s visitation (28:10-17). 5. Son of Jeconiah ( 1 Chronicles 3:16).

    ZEEB = wolf: name for a warrior. One of the two general “princes” of Midian, inferior to the king Zebah. Named with Oreb ( Judges 7:25; 8:3; Psalm 83:11). Slain at what was in consequence called “the winepress of Zeeb,” at the ford of Jordan, near the passes descending from Mount Ephraim.

    ZELAH = rib. One of the 14 towns that originally belonged to Benjamin ( Joshua 18:28). The last resting place of the bones of Saul and Jonathan ( Samuel 21:14); probably therefore the original seat of the Kish family.

    Gibeah was Saul’s residence after becoming king.

    ZELEK An Ammonite, of David’s guard ( 2 Samuel 23:37).

    ZELOPHEHAD Son of Hepher; descendant of Manasseh by Machir ( Joshua 17:3). Died in the wilderness without male issue. He had no share in Korah’s rebellion.

    His five daughters at the close of the second numbering came to Moses begging for their father’s inheritance ( Numbers 26:33,27). Their petition was granted, and subsequently it was ordained that they and females under like circumstances should marry in their own tribe, that the tribal inheritances might not be confounded (Numbers 36).

    ZELOTES The Greek equivalent to the Aramaic “Canaanite” (a corrupted form for Cananoean);. “Zealot” applied to Simon ( Luke 6:15; Matthew 10:4).

    ZELZAH 1 Samuel 10:2. On Benjamin’s boundary, close to Rachel’s sepulchre.

    The first point of Saul’s homeward journey after his being anointed by Samuel.

    ZEMARAIM A town of Benjamin’s allotment ( Joshua 18:22); the name appears now in Khirbet el Szomra (Seetzen), four miles N. of Jericho, or es Sumrah (Robinson). Also aMOUNT on which the prophet Abijah stood in addressing Jeroboam ( 2 Chronicles 13:4); in the hilly part of Ephraim, extending into Benjamin’s territory. Both town and mount are memorials of the former presence of the Zemarites.

    ZEMARITES A Hamite tribe related to the Hittites and Amorites. Sons of Canaan ( Genesis 10:18). The targums identify with Emesa, now Hums. Bochart conjectures Samyra, a city of Phoenicia, on the sea coast, on the river Eleutherus; its ruins still are called Samra. (See ZEMARAIM ).

    ZEMIRA Son of Becher, son of Benjamin ( 1 Chronicles 7:8).

    ZENAN A town in the low hills of Judah (the shephelah ) ( Joshua 15:37).

    Probably the same as see ZAANAN ( Micah 1:11).

    ZENAS Contracted for Zenodorus. Titus 3:13. A “lawyer,” i.e. Jewish scribe, learned in the Hebrew law, who after conversion still retained the title. Paul commends him to Titus, that he should bring Zenas and Apollos on their journey diligently, so that nothing might be wanting to them of necessaries.

    ZEPHANIAH = Jehovah hath hidden ( Psalm 27:5; 83:3). 1. Ninth of the minor prophets; “in the days of Josiah,” between 642 and 611 B.C. “Son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah.” The specification of his father, grandfather, and great grandfather, implies he was sprung from men of note. The omission of the designation “king,” or “king of Judah,” is against the notion that the “Hizkiah” means king Hezekiah (compare Proverbs 25:1; Isaiah 38:9). He prophesied in the former part of Josiah’s reign. In Zephaniah 2:13-15 he foretells Nineveh’s fall (625 B.C.), therefore his prophesying was before 625 B.C.; and in Zephaniah 1:4-6 threatens “cutting off” to “the remnant of Baal” and “the name of the see CHEMARIMS with the priests “; see Hosea 10:5 margin, “and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham.” Fulfilled by Josiah ( 2 Kings 23:4,5).

    Josiah’s reformation was begun in the 12th year of his reign, and was completed in the 18th. Zephaniah in denouncing the different forms of idolatry paved the way for Josiah’s work, and probably cooperated with the king from the 12th to the 18th year. Jewish tradition says that Zephaniah had as his colleagues Jeremiah, labouring in the thoroughfares and market places, and Huldah the prophetess in the college in Jerusalem.

    His position among the prophets, and his quotations from Joel, Amos, and Isaiah, indicate the correctness of the date assigned to him in Zephaniah 1:1. In chap. 1:8, “I will punish the king’s children” must refer to coming judgments on the foreseen idolatries of the younger members of the royal family ( Jeremiah 22:19; 39:6; 2 Kings 23:31,32,36,37; Chronicles 36:5,6; 2 Kings 20:18). Not only the masses, but even princes, should not escape the penalty of idolatry. “The remnant of Baal” ( Zephaniah 1:4) implies that Josiah’s reformation was already begun but not completed. 2. “The second priest” or sagan , next to the high priest. Son of Maaseiah.

    Sent by Zedekiah to consult Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 21:1). Succeeded to Jehoiada who was in exile. Appealed to by Shemaiah in a letter from Babylon to punish Jeremiah with imprisonment and the stocks for declaring the captivity would be long ( Jeremiah 29:25,26,29). Zephaniah read the letter to Jeremiah. This fact and Shemaiah’s upbraiding Zephaniah for want of zeal against Jeremiah imply that Zephaniah was less prejudiced against Jeremiah than the others. This was the reason for the king’s choosing him as messenger to the prophet ( Jeremiah 37:3). Slain by Nebuchadnezzar as an accomplice in Zedekiah’s rebellion ( Jeremiah 52:24,27). 3. Father of Hen or Josiah ( Zechariah 6:14). 4. Ancestor of Samuel and Heman; a Kohathite Levite ( 1 Chronicles 6:36), called Uriel 1 Chronicles 6:24.

    ZEPHANIAH, BOOK OF The bulk of the book forms the introduction to the grand closing consummation under Messiah ( Zephaniah 1:2 to 3:8; 3:9-20).

    I. Threat of judgments ( Zephaniah 1:2-7). On whom they shall fall ( Zephaniah 1:8-11). Nearness and awfulness of the day of the Lord, and impossibility of escape ( Zephaniah 1:12-18). Call to the apostate nation to repentance, and to the meek and righteous to exercise those graces which may avert the day of wrath ( Zephaniah 2:1-3). Motive to it:

    God’s coming judgments on Israel’s foes, the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites (the land of which three nations the remnant of Jehovah’s people shall possess), Ethiopians, and Nineveh, which shall be a desolation; “He will famish all the gods of the earth (by destroying the nations worshipping them), and men shall worship Him” each in his own house ( Zephaniah 2:4-15). The call being slighted and even Jerusalem being unreformed of her filthiness by the judgments on surrounding nations, the just God is constrained to chastise her ( Zephaniah 3:1-7). In all this the Chaldaeans’ name, the executioners of God’s vengeance on Judah, is not mentioned as in Jeremiah, for the latter being nearer the fulfillment prophesies more explicitly.

    II. After her chastisement Jehovah invites the pious remnant of the Jews to wait upon Him, as He is about to interpose for Judah and Jerusalem against the nations gathered against her (Zechariah 12--14). “The remnant of Israel shall no longer do iniquity. The Lord her God shall rejoice over her with joy, and make her a praise among all people,” who in consequence shall “all call upon Him and serve Him with one consent” ( Zephaniah 3:8-20).

    The style is graphic and vivid, and the language pure and free from Aramaisms. Zephaniah 2:14 corresponds to Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:15 to Isaiah 47:8; Zephaniah 3:10 to Isaiah 18:1; Zephaniah 2:8 to Isaiah 16:6; Zephaniah 1:5 to Jeremiah 8:2; Zephaniah 1:12 to Jeremiah 48:11. Romans 15:6 apparently refers to Zephaniah 3:9.

    ZEPHATH = watchtower ( Judges 1:17). A Canaanite town, called after its destruction by Israel see HORMAH . In the extreme S. or wilderness of Judah. Now the pass es Sufa from the Arabah border up to the high level of the S. country (Robinson). But Speaker’s Commentary, “Rakhmah,” an anagram of Hormah, some miles E. of Sebatah which is on the road to Suez, quarter of an hour N. of Rohebeh or Ruheibeh. Rowlands identifies Zephath with Sebata, whose ruins extend 500 yards in length, 300 in width, 20 miles from Ain Gadis which Palmer makes Kadesh. Then the fort el Meshrifeh would command the only pass to Sebaita. The name of the low mountains 15 miles S.W. of Meshrifeh; Ras Amir marks the hill country of the Amorites. Palmer makes Sebaita the city of Zephath, and Meshrifeh, three miles off, its protecting tower.

    ZEPHATHAH, VALLEY OF Where Asa encountered Zerah the Ethiopian ( 2 Chronicles 14:10). It “belonged to see MARESHAH ” .

    ZEPHI 1 Chronicles 1:36.ZEPHO Genesis 36:11,15. Son of Eliphaz, son of Esau; “duke,” i.e. tribe chief, of Edom.

    ZEPHON, ZIPHON Son of Gad, from whom sprung the Zephonites ( Numbers 26:15).

    ZER A fortified town of Naphtali ( Joshua 19:35). From the names which succeed in the list Zer is supposed to be S.W. of the lake of Gennesareth.

    ZERAH 1. Younger twin son with Pharez of Judah and Tamar ( Genesis 38:30; 1 Chronicles 2:6; Matthew 1:3). 2. Son of Simeon ( 1 Chronicles 4:24). see ZOHAR in Genesis 46:10. 3. A Gershonite Levite, son of Iddo or Adaiah ( 1 Chronicles 6:21,41). 4. The Ethiopian (Cushite) invader defeated by ASA . About this very time there reigned a king Azerch Amar in Ethiopia, whose monuments are found at Napata. The Hebrews abbreviated the name into Zerah. Also an Ozorchon occupied the throne from 956 to 933 B.C. Ozorchon II. succeeded to the throne in right of his wife, sister of the previous king, and so may have been an Ethiopian; but the former is more probable. The defeat of the army of such a great world power as Egypt or Ethiopia is unparalleled in Israel’s history, and could only have been through the divine aid. “Jehovah smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled, and Asa pursued them unto Gerar, and the Ethiopians were overthrown that they could not recover themselves, for they were destroyed before Jehovah and before His host, and they carried away much spoil” ( 2 Chronicles 14:9-13). The greatness of Egypt which Shishak had caused diminished at his death. His immediate successors were of no note in the monuments. Hence Asa was able in the first ten years of his reign to recruit his forces and guard against such another invasion as that of Shishak had been. Zerah seems to have taken advantage of Egypt’s weakness to extort permission to march his enormous force, composed of the same nationalities (Ethiopians and Lubims: 16:8; 12:3) as those of the preceding invader Shishak, through Egypt, into Judah.

    ZERAHIAH A priest, son of Uzzi; ancestor of Ezra ( 1 Chronicles 6:6,51; Ezra 7:4).

    ZERED See ZARED .

    ZEREDA Hebrew the Zeredah. Jeroboam’s native place ( 1 Kings 11:26). The Septuagint has: Sareira, and the Alexandrinus manuscript has: Sarida, and make it a strong town in Mount Ephraim which Jeroboam fortified for Solomon, and where on his return from Egypt he assembled the tribe of Ephraim. If this Septuagint view be rejected, and if it be identified with\parZARTHAN, then it lay in that part of Ephraim which was in the Jordan valley.

    ZEREDATHAH In 2 Chronicles 4:17 only. (See ZARTHAN ).

    ZERERATH Judges 7:22. One point in the flight of Midian from Gideon, probablv the same asZEREDATHAH. Identified (Palestine Exploration) with Ain Zahrah.

    ZERESH Haman’s wife, who instigated him to erect a high gallows and to prevail on the king to hang on it Mordecai, then to go in merrily with the king unto the banquet, but predicted Haman’s own fall when she heard Mordecai was a Jew ( Esther 5:10,14; 6:13). Every tongue that shall rise against Jehovah’s people in judgment they shall condemn ( Isaiah 54:17).

    ZERETH Son of Ashur and Helah ( 1 Chronicles 4:7).

    ZERI Of the sons of Jeduthun in David’s reign ( 1 Chronicles 25:3,11 IZRI).

    ZEROR A Benjamite, ancestor of Kish ( 1 Samuel 9:1).

    ZERUAH Mother of Jeroboam ( 1 Kings 12:24). Septuagint adds she was a harlot, and names her Sarira.

    ZERUBBABEL = dispersed to Babylon. Head of Judah in the Jews’ return in the first year of Cyrus. Son of Shealtiel (Salathiel) ( Ezra 3:2,8; 5:2; Haggai 1:1,12; Matthew 1:12; Luke 3:27); but in 1 Chronicles 3:19 “son of Pedaiah,” Shealtiel’s brother. “Son” probably means next heir, the direct line failing; by the Levirate law Shealtiel’s widow would marry her brotherin- law Pedaiah, who would raise seed to his brother Shealtiel ( Deuteronomy 25:5-10; Matthew 22:24-28). Matthew deduces his line from Jechonias and Solomon, Luke deduces it through Neri and Nathan, because Zerubbabel was the legal successor and heir of Jeconiah’s royalty and at the same time the grandson of Neri and lineal descendant of Nathan the son of David. At Babylon he bore the Babylonian or Persian name Shesh-bazzar, being governor or tirshatha there ( Nehemiah 8:9; 10:1; Ezra 1:8-11; 5:14-16; Nehemiah 7:65). His name Zerubbabel occurs in Ezra 2:2; 3:2; “prince (nasi’ ) of Judah,” Ezra 1:8.

    Sheshbazzar laid the foundation of the temple ( Ezra 5:16), answering to Zerubbabel ( Zechariah 4:9); “governor of Judah” ( Haggai 1:1,14; 2:2). To him Cyrus, by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, had committed the precious vessels of the temple to bring to Jerusalem; at the same time he, Zerubbabel, with the chief of the fathers, the priests, and the Levites whose spirit God had raised, led back from Babylon the first caravan, consisting of 42,360 besides servants, etc. All they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with precious things willingly offered. The chief of the fathers also, when they came to the house of God at Jerusalem, offered freely for it after their ability ( Ezra 2:68,69). He and Jeshua in the seventh month (wherein they kept the feast of tabernacles less formal than the celebration, Nehemiah 8), first built the altar of burnt offering, the nucleus and central point of the temple. In the second year of their coming, in the second month, having by Cyrus’ decree timber, (including cedars from Lebanon brought by sea to Joppa,) and stone for the building, and money for the builders ( Ezra 6:4), they laid the temple foundations with sounding of trumpets by the priests, and of cymbals by the Levites, and mingled shouts of joy and of noise of weeping in remembrance of the past ( Ezra 3:7-13). They used the same psalm of praise, “because Jehovah is good, for His mercy endureth forever toward Israel” ( <19D601> Psalm 136:1; 2 Chronicles 5:13; 1 Chronicles 16:7-34), as David had delivered to Asaph for public liturgy, and as Solomon had used at the dedication of His temple; making use also probably of the same style of instrument, to some extent affected by their Babylonian and Assyrian experience. Soon after the work was interrupted by the opposition of the Cuthaean settlers or Samaritans. They had wished to join in building the temple, as sacrificing unto the same God as the Jews; but Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the chief fathers said, “ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God, but we ourselves together will build,” etc. So by hired counselors, in the third year of Cyrus, and by a letter influencing Artaxerxes, they caused the work to cease until the second year of Darius, i.e. for 16 years ( Ezra 4:24), namely, the seven remaining years of Cyrus, eight years including Cambyses (Ahasuerus) and Smerdis (Artaxerxes) joint reigns, and one year of Darius. Haggai and Zechariah roused the Jews from the apathy as to God’s house which had crept over them while they were keen about building and ceiling their own houses ( Haggai 1:4). Haggai drew their attention to the tokens of God’s displeasure manifested in the adversity which attended all their undertakings and the drought affecting their crops ( Haggai 1:5-11). “Jehovah hereby stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel ( Haggai 1:14,15) and of Joshua, so that they rose up, came, and did work in the house of Jehovah of hosts, their God, in the 24th day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king,” “and with them were the prophets of God helping them” ( Ezra 5:1,2). They made this bold venture even before Darius had made any decree revoking Smerdis’ prohibition. Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shethar Boznai and their companions interrogated them, “who hath commanded you to build this house? ... what are the names of the men that make this building?” and reported their answer to Darius, and requested that search should be made at Babylon for the alleged decree of Cyrus in their favor. The decree was found at Achmetha (see ECBATANA ), a delicate proof of Scripture accuracy, that being Cyrus’ court residence; and Darius decreed anew the building of the temple with three rows of great stones and a row of new timber at the king’s expense, and the restoration of the golden and silver vessels, and the supply of young bullocks, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings, and wheat, salt, wine, and oil, that they might offer sacrifices of sweet savours unto the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and of his sons. So the house was completed four years after its recommencement, in the third day of the month Adar, the sixth year of Darius ( Ezra 6:15). This successful issue was mainly under God due to the prophets who strengthened the hands of Zerubbabel and Jeshua. “They prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo.” Compare Haggai 2:4-9,21-23; Zechariah 4:6-10, directly addressed to Zerubbabel.

    Zerubbabel also restored the courses of the priests and Levites, and appointed for them, the singers, and the porters, maintenance ( Ezra 6:18; Nehemiah 12:47). Moreover he registered by genealogies the returning Jews ( Nehemiah 7:5-7). The last public act of this great man, whose name marks a leading epoch in Jewish history, was his causing the returned children of the captivity to keep the Passover with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful ( Ezra 6:22). The priestly power after the time of Zerubbabel overshadowed the royal line of David, notwithstanding the previous prominence of the latter in the person of Zerubbabel. Finally Messiah combined both in Himself the Antitype ( Zechariah 3:7-10; 6:13).

    ZERUIAH Mother of Abishai (called so from Ishai = Jesse), Joab, and Asahel, “the sons of Zeruiah”; sister of Abigail and of the sons of Jesse ( 1 Chronicles 2:13-17). The father of her three sons is nowhere mentioned, because their more famous mother challenged the greater attention. Josephus preserves a tradition that he was named Souri (Ant. 7:1, Section 3). see NAHASH was father of Zeruiah and Abigail. At his death their mother married Jesse, by whom she bore David ( 2 Samuel 17:25; 1 Chronicles 2:16).

    Therefore Zeruiah and Abigail are called “David’s (half) sisters,” but not Jesse’s daughters.

    ZETHAM Son of Laadan, a Gershonite Levite ( 1 Chronicles 23:8); in Chronicles 26:21,22 the son of Jehieli, and so Laadan’s grandson.

    ZETHAN A Benjamite, of the sons of Bilhan ( 1 Chronicles 7:10).

    ZETHAR One of Ahasuerus’ seven eunuchs who brought Vashti before him ( Esther 1:10).

    ZIA A Gadite who dwelt in Bashan ( 1 Chronicles 5:13).

    ZIBA A servant of Saul’s house, according to Josephus (Ant. 7:5, Section 5) a freedman of Saul. He had 15 sons and 20 servants ( 2 Samuel 9:10; 16:1-4; 19:17,29). (For the rest see MEPHIBOSHETH ).

    ZIBEON Father of see ANAH , and grandfather of Aholibamah, Esau’s wife ( Genesis 36:2).

    ZIBIA A Benjamite, son of Shaharaim by Hodesh ( 1 Chronicles 8:9).

    ZIBIAH Of Beersheba, mother of king Joash ( 2 Kings 12:1; 2 Chronicles 24:1).

    ZICHRI = famous; not as KJV,ZITHRI. 1. Son of Izhar ( Exodus 6:21). 2. A Benjamite, of the sons of Shimhi ( 1 Chronicles 8:19). 3. A Benjamite, of the sons of Shashak ( 1 Chronicles 8:23). 4. Of the sons of Jeroham ( 1 Chronicles 8:27). 5. Son of Asaph ( 1 Chronicles 9:15). 6. Descended from Moses’ son Eliezer ( 1 Chronicles 26:25). 7. Father of Eliezer, the chief of Reuben under David ( 1 Chronicles 27:16). 8. Of Judah; his son Amasiah commanded 200,000 under Jehoshaphat ( 2 Chronicles 17:16). 9. Father of Elishaphat, Jehoiada’s helper against Athaliah. 10. An Ephraimite mighty man under Pekah, who slew in battle Maaseiah Ahaz’ son, Azrikam prefect of the palace, and Elkanah next to the king ( 2 Chronicles 28:7). 11. Father of Joel ( Nehemiah 11:9). 12. A priest of Abijah’s family, contemporary of Joiakim, Jeshua’s son ( Nehemiah 12:17).

    ZIDDIM A fortified town of Naphtali ( Joshua 19:35). Jerus. Talmud identifies it with Kerr Chittai; probably Hattin at the N. foot of Kurn Hattin, “horns of Hattin,” a few miles W. of Tiberias.

    ZIDKIJAH i.e.ZEDEKIAH, a priest who signed the covenant ( Nehemiah 10:1).

    ZIDON See SIDON .

    ZIHA 1. Chief of the Nethinim in Ophel ( Nehemiah 11:21). 2. The children of Ziha were Nethinims who returned with Zerubbabel ( Ezra 2:43; Nehemiah 7:46).

    ZIKLAG A city in southern Judah, associated with Chesil and Hormah ( Joshua 15:31; 19:5; 1:Chronicles 4:30). Lieut. Conder identifies it with Zehleika or Khirbet Zuheilikah in the middle of the plain N. of Beersheba, 200 miles square, just where the narrative concerning David would lead us to look for it. The ruins are on three small hills, forming an equilateral triangle, almost half a mile apart; among the ruins are several cisterns. Simeon possessed it. Assigned by Achish king of Gath to David, for the Philistines had taken it. Thence David went up against the Geshurites, Gezrites, and Amalekites ( 1 Samuel 27:8,9; 30:14,26), for these tribes occupied the plateau overhanging the Philistine plain to the W. and wady Murreh to the S. He resided there a year and four months; it was there he received daily new accessions of forces ( 1 Chronicles 12:1,20), and heard of Saul’s death ( 2 Samuel 1:1; 4:10); thence he went to Hebron ( 2 Samuel 2:1). Thus Ziklag lay at the confines of Philistia, Judah, and Amalek. Its position probably was in the open country, pastoral and amble, reached from the S. after passing out of wady er Ruheibeh. The term used in Samuel 30:11 is “the field (sadeh ) of the Philistines”; sadeh is applied to the country of Amalek ( Genesis 14:7). Reoccupied after the Babylonian captivity by the men of Judah ( Nehemiah 11:28).

    ZILLAH = shadow, i.e. protection. One of see LAMECH ’S (see ADAH = ornament) two wives ( Genesis 4:19-23). Mother of Tubalcain and Naamah (= lovely). The names mark the growing voluptuousness and luxury of the Cainites. It was the period of transition to art and refinement, attended with the evils which often accompany such times.

    ZILPAH Leah’s handmaid, given by Laban ( Genesis 29:24) and by Leah to Jacob, who by her begat Gad and Asher ( Genesis 30:9-13; 35:26; 37:2; 46:18).

    ZILTHAI 1. A Benjamite, of the sons of Shimhi ( 1 Chronicles 8:20). 2. A captain of thousands of Manasseh; joined David at Ziklag ( Chronicles 12:20).

    ZIMMAH 1. A Gershonite Levite, son of Jahath ( 1 Chronicles 6:20). 2. Another, son of Shimei ( 1 Chronicles 6:42; compare 1). 3. Father or ancestor of Joab ( 2 Chronicles 29:12); the same collocation of names is in 1 Chronicles 6:20,21. The same names are often repeated in one family.

    ZIMRAN Oldest son of Abraham by Keturah ( Genesis 25:2). Settled in the E. country. Zabram, an ancient city between Mecca and Medina (Ptolemy 6:7, Section 5), and the Zamereni a tribe in the interior of Africa, are names comparable with Zimran.

    ZIMRI 1. Numbers 25:8-14. Son of Salu, a chief of Simeon. When Israel were being plagued for the impure worship of Baal Peor, and were weeping and craving mercy before the tabernacle, Zimri shamelessly brought a Midianitess, Cozbi daughter of Zur, into the dome-shaped tent (qubbah , the al-cove, or arched inner recess appropriated to the women, or else a tent appropriated to Peor’s vile worship) in sight of Moses and the congregation. Phinehas gained his “everlasting priesthood” by his zeal in thrusting both through, so that the plague was stayed. 2. Fifth sovereign of northern Israel; originally captain of half Elah’s chariots; reigned only seven days, after having slain Elah son of Baasha, (while drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, steward of his house in Tirzah), and then all the house of Baasha, fulfilling the prophet Jehu’s words: 929, 930 B.C. ( 1 Kings 16:1-4,8-13,15-20.) But the army then besieging the Philistine town Gibbethon proclaimed their captain Omri king; he marched against Tirzah and took it. Then Zimri burnt the palace over him and died. Thus treason punished treason; the slayer is slain. As Baasha conspired against Nadab, so Zimri against his son, and Omri against Zimri ( Revelation 13:10; Matthew 26:52). 3. One of Zerah’s five sons ( 1 Chronicles 2:6). 4. Jehoadah’s son; sprung from Saul ( 1 Chronicles 8:36; 9:42). 5. A tribe of “the sons of the East” ( Jeremiah 25:25); some identify them with the Zubra between Mecca and Medina ( Genesis 25:2).

    ZIN, WILDERNESS OF The N.E. portion of the wilderness of see PARAN . The spring of see KADESH lay in it ( Numbers 20:1; 27:14; Deuteronomy 32:51). It probably stretched from the Arabah on the E. to Kadesh on the W. The wilderness of Zin formed the immediate boundary of Canaan ( Numbers 13:21; 34:3), and comprised also the whole rugged mountain region S. of wady el Murrah, and wady el Fikrah as far E. as the Arabah, and as far W. as Ain Kadeis (fountain of Kadesh) and wady el Arish (“the river of Egypt”). The Arabah separated it from the mountains of Edom. On the declivity of a commanding hill within Edom’s territory stands the village Dhana which may correspond to Zin. Though the wilderness of Zin does not strictly belong to Edom, yet it was connected with Edom; hence Judah’s cities are said to lie “toward the coast of Edom” ( Joshua 15:21). The wilderness of Kadesh is identical with the western part of the wilderness of Zin ( Numbers 33:36). Kadesh was “in the uttermost border of Edom,” i.e. in the uttermost W. of the wilderness of Zin which borders Edom ( Numbers 20:16). The name Zin, i.e. coldness, however may be given from some cold fountain at the head of wady el Murrah. Do not confound it with “the wilderness of Sin.”

    ZINA, ZIZAH Second son of Shimei ( 1 Chronicles 23:10,11).

    ZION (See JERUSALEM ). Lieut. Conder (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, Oct. 1877, p. 178) takes Zion for a district name, like “Mount Ephraim.” It means sunny mountain. Hezekiah brought his aqueduct ( Chronicles 22:30; 33:14) from Gihon, the Virgin’s fountain, to the western side of the city of David (which is thus Ophel). Zion was the city of David ( 2 Samuel 5:9; 1 Chronicles 11:7; 2 Chronicles 5); even the temple was sometimes said to be on Zion (1 Macc. 4:5:2); so was Millo ( Chronicles 32:36-39). The name thus appears to have had a somewhat wide application; but it mainly applies to the eastern of the two main hills on which Jerusalem latterly was built. W. F. Birch (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1878, p. 129) remarks that ancient Jerusalem stood on a rocky plateau enclosed on three sides by two ravines, the king’s dale on the W. and S., the brook Kedron on the E. Another ravine, the valley of Hinnom, cleft the space thus enclosed. Between the “brook” and “valley” was the ridge on the southern end of which stood at the beginning of David’s reign the hereto impregnable fortress of Jebus (afterward called Zion). In the valley W. of the ridge lay the rest of the city, once captured by the Israelites, but now occupied by the Jebusites. On its eastern side near the” brook” was an intermittent fountain, called then Enrogel, once Gihon in the “brook,” afterward Siloah, now the fountain of the Virgin.

    The inducement to build on the southern part of this ridge rather than on the northern part, or on the higher hill on the W., was the water supply from the fountain at its base. Moreover some Hittite, Amorite, or Melchizedek himself, engineered a subterranean watercourse extending from the fountain for 70 ft., and then by a vertical rock-cut shaft ascending 50 ft. into the heart of the city, so that in a siege the inhabitants might have a supply of water without risk to themselves, and without the knowledge of the besiegers. So secure did the Jebusites seem, that they defied David, as if “the lame and the blind” would suffice to defend the fortress ( Samuel 5:6). David promised that whoever should first get up the tsinor , “gutter,” as the subterranean aqueduct was called, should be commander in chief. Joab ventured and won. How David heard of the secret pas- sage, and how Joab accomplished the feat, is not recorded; but Capt. Warren (3000 years subsequently) found the ascent of the [tsinor] so hard (Jerusalem Recovered, p. 244-247) that the conviction is forced on one that Joab, who was as cunning as he was valiant, must have had some accomplice among the Jebusites to help him in his perilous enterprise, just as occurred at Jericho and at Bethel (Joshua 2; Judges 2:22-26). In subsequent years Araunah, a Jebusite of rank, owned the threshing area and lands just outside the city of David, and sold them at an enormous price to David for an altar and site of the temple. If he was the traitor to the Jebusites, by whose help Joab entered the city, we can understand the otherwise strange fact that he was left in possession of such valuable property in such a situation ( 2 Samuel 24:18-24). Josephus’ testimony rather favors this conjecture (Ant. J. 7:3, Section 1-3): “Araunah was a wealthy man among the Jebusites, but was not slain by David in the siege because of the goodwill he bore to the Hebrews, and a particular benignity and affection which he had to the king himself” (7:13, Section 4). “He was by his lineage a Jebusite, but a particular friend of David, and for that cause it was that when he overthrew the city he did him no harm.” (See TEMPLE ).

    ZIOR A town in the mountain region of Judah ( Joshua 15:54). A village between Aelia (Jerusalem) and Eleutheropolis, according to the Onomasticon Eusebius and Jerome.

    ZIPH 1. In southern Judah (negeb ) ( Joshua 15:24). In the Imperial Dictionary the name is connected with Sufah, and the site is supposed to be at the ascent of Akrabbim. 2. A town in the hill country of Judah ( Joshua 15:55); mentioned between Carmel and Juttah. David took refuge in a wood, then in a wilderness (midbar , an unenclosed pasture ground) adjoining ( 1 Samuel 23:14-24; 26:2). On both occasions the Ziphites discovered him to Saul.

    The last interview of David and Jonathan was in the wood here. A round hill, 100 ft. high, about three miles S. of Hebron, is still called Tell Zif.

    Three miles further S. is Kurmul (Carmel), and between them to the W. of the road is Yutta (Juttah). Rehoboam fortified Ziph ( 2 Chronicles 11:8), probably Tell Ziph. Half a mile off eastward are ruins at the head of two small wadies running off toward the Dead Sea. Lieut. Conder disputes the existence of a wood at Ziph; there are no springs of any size, and the soil is chalky. Septuagint and Josephus substitute “the new place” for “the wood of Ziph.” The village Khirbet Khoreisa, one mile S. of Ziph, answers to “the wood of Ziph” as KJV translates; the difference between the Hebrew choresh and the Septuagint reading is a difference merely of points; the choresh of Ziph was a village belonging to the larger town at Tell Ziph.

    ZIPH Son of Jehaleleel ( 1 Chronicles 4:16). AlsoZIPHAH, another son.

    ZIPHION Zephon, son of Gad ( Genesis 46:16).

    ZIPHRON On the northern boundary of the promised land ( Numbers 34:9).

    Between Zedad (Sudud) and Hazar Enan (Kurietein). Hazar Hatticon is apparently substituted in Ezekiel 47:16,17, for Ziphron.

    ZIPPOR = a little bird. Father of Balak ( Numbers 22:2,4). Tradition makes Moab and Midian one kingdom ruled by a king chosen alternately from each. Zippor is seemingly related to the Midianite name Zipporah; thus Balak may have been a Midianite. The language of Balaam about Balak’s “house full of silver and gold” ( Numbers 22:18) harmonizes curiously with the latest revelations concerning Midian’s metallic wealth. (See METALS , see PARAN ).

    ZIPPORAH Daughter of Reuel, priest of Midian; wife of see MOSES ; mother of Gershom and Eliezer ( Exodus 2:21; 4:25; 18:2,6). The Cushite wife mentioned in Numbers 12 as the object of Miriam’s jealousy can hardly have been Zipporah who was then long before married to Moses, but probably a second wife taken after Zipporah’s death. Josephus (Ant. 2:10, Section 2.) makes him marry at Meroe one Ethiopian princess. Zipporah as a Midianitess had delayed the circumcision of her son; her perversity well nigh brought divine vengeance on Moses. With reluctance and anger she circumcised him, exclaiming, “A bloody husband art thou to me because of the circumcision,” which binds thee to me afresh. Zipporah recovered her husband’s life at the cost of her child’s blood. This event at the inn seemingly induced Moses to send her back to her father as one unable to brave the trials of God’s people. Jethro brought her back to Moses in Rephidim during the first year’s sojourn in the wilderness, the last time she is mentioned. Miriam’s jealousy was in the second year. Zipporah’s marriage must have been between the first and the second years. Habakkuk (3:7) connects Midian and Cushan, so that some think Zipporah is meant by the Cushite wife; but probabilities are on the other side. Only Canaanite wives were forbidden ( Exodus 34:11-16). Moses’ marriage to a Midianitess and a Cushite successively typifies the extension of God’s covenant to the Gentiles ( Psalm 45:9, etc.; Song 1:4, etc.); Miriam’s and Aaron’s murmuring answers to that of the Jews at the comprehension of the Gentiles ( Luke 15:29,30).

    ZITHRI HebrewSITHRI. Son of Uzziel, son of Kobath ( Exodus 6:22); in verse 21 for Zithri read Zichri.

    ZIZ the cliff of. The ascent (ma’aleh ), or pass, by which the hosts of Moab, Ammon, and the Mehunim, according to the announcement of the prophet Jahaziel, proceeded from the Dead Sea to the wilderness of Judah near Tekoa ( 2 Chronicles 20:16,20); “they come up by the ascent of ha-Ziz, and ye shall find them at the head of the wady”; now the pass of Ain Jidy, the route of Arab marauders to the present day. The name appears in Husasah, the tableland above Ain Jidy, between it and Tekua, and may be related to Hazezon Tamar, the ancient name of Engedi (Ain Jidy). Condor (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, Jan. 1875) identifies Ziz with Khirbet’ Aziz. Wady Khubara, the main valley S. of Engedi, runs W. toward this ruin to which the ascent, would be by this watercourse.

    ZIZA 1. Son of Shiphi, chief of Simeon; in Hezekiah’s time made an inroad upon the peaceable Hamite shepherds of Gedor ( 1 Chronicles 4:37, etc.), destroyed them utterly, and dwelt in their room “because there was pasture there for their flocks.” 2. Son of Rehoboam and Maachah ( 2 Chronicles 11:20).

    ZIZAH A Gershonite Levite, second son of Shimei ( 1 Chronicles 23:11). ZINA in 1 Chronicles 23:10.

    ZOAN Tanis. Now San. From Hebrew root, “moved tents,” i.e. the place of departure. On the E. of the Tanitic branch of the Nile. “Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt” ( Numbers 13:22), a notice implying the two had a common founder. Zoan was probably built, or rebuilt, by the Hyksos or shepherd kings (Salatis is named as the builder), connected with the Palestinian Anakim, as a fortress of defense on their eastern frontier.

    Thothmes II great-grandson of Aahmes, the original persecutor of Israel, resided at Zoan. Psalm 78:12,43, speaks of “the field of Zoan” as the scene of Jehovah’s marvelous deeds, signs, and wonders in Egypt. It was a very large city, strongly fortified The remains of edifices and obelisks (ten or twelve,) the stone of which was brought from Syene, are numerous covering an area a mile in diameter N. to S., bearing mostly the name of Rameses II. It was the rendezvous for the armies of the Delta, and an imperial city in the 12th dynasty. It answers to Avaris the capital of the Hyksos, who gave it its Hebrew name; both Avaris (Ha-Awar, Pa-Awar, “the house of going out”) and Zoan mean “departing.” This Pharaoh had warred successfully against the Shasous, the nomadic tribes adjoining, and so his residing in N.W. Egypt would be important at that time. Moses’ exposure must have been in a branch of the Nile not infested by crocodiles, for neither would the parents have exposed him nor would Thermuthis (= the great mother, a designation of Neith the deity of Lower Egypt), Pharaoh’s daughter, have bathed in a place infested by them; therefore not at Memphis where anciently they were common, but at Zoan on the Tanitic branch, near the sea, where crocodiles are never found, probably the western boundary of the district occupied by Israel. Amosis or Aahmes captured Zoan or Avaris from the shepherd kings, their last stronghold after ruling see EGYPT for 511 years. It was well adapted as the place from whence to carry out measures for crushing Israel (Exodus 2). Tanis was famous for flax (Pliny, 19:1), compare the mention of flax, Exodus 9:31. Anciently a rich plain, “the marshes” or “pasture lands,” stretched due E. as far as Pelusium 30 miles off, gradually narrowing toward the E. and watered by four of the seven branches of the Nile, the Pathmitic, Mendesian, Tanitic, and Pelusiac. Now it is in part covered by the lake Menzeleh through the subsidence of the Mediterranean coast. Here came the ambassadors of Hezekiah seeking alliance ( Isaiah 30:4). On Sevechus’ withdrawal from Lower Egypt Tethos of the priestly caste became supreme, having Zoan for his capital, 718 B.C. In his contests with the military caste “the princes of Zoan became fools,” though famed for wisdom (19:13). God threatens ( Ezekiel 30:14), “I will set fire in Zoan,” etc., namely, by Nebuchadnezzar. It is now a barren waste, the canal through it giving no fertility; the capital of several Pharaohs, now the abode of fishermen, exposed to wild beasts and malignant fevers. The oldest name found is Sesertesen III, of the 12th dynasty; the latest is that of Tirhakah. The 21st dynasty was called Tanite from it.

    ZOAR Originally Bela; still called so when Abram first settled in Canaan ( Genesis 14:2,8,10). Connected with the cities of the plain, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim ( Genesis 13:10). The southern division of the Dead Sea (apparently of comparatively recent formation), abounding with salt, and throwing up bitumen, and its shores producing sulphur and nitre, answers to the valley of Siddim, “full of slime pits,” and to the destruction of the cities by fire and brimstone, and to the turning of Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt. The S. bay is probably the vale of Siddim.

    Scripture does not say the cities were buried in the sea, but overthrown by fire from heaven ( Deuteronomy 29:23; Jeremiah 49:18; 50:40; Zephaniah 2:9; 2 Peter 2:6). Josephus speaks of Sodomitis as burnt up and as adjoining the asphaltite lake (B. J., 4:8, Section 4). All ancient testimony favors the position of the cities being at the southern end. The traditional names of Usdum, etc., the traditional site of Zoar (called by Josephus, Ant. 1:11, Section 4, Zoar of Arabia), the hill of salt traditionally made Lot’s wife, all favor their site being within or around the shallow southern bay. Tristram however identifies Zoar with Zi’ara at the northern end. Jerome (ad Jos. 15, and Quaest. in Genesis 14) and Theodoret (in Genesis 19) say Zoar was swallowed up by an earthquake probably after Lot had left it. So Wisdom (10:6) says five cities were destroyed; so Josephus (B. J. 4:8, Section 4). But Deuteronomy 29:23 mentions only four; and Eusebius says Bela or Zoar was in his day garrisoned by Romans.

    It is the point to which Moab’s fugitives shall flee ( Isaiah 15:5; Jeremiah 48:34). Lot’s view from the mountain E. of Bethel between Bethel and Ai ( Genesis 13:3,10; 12:8) is not to be pressed as though he could see all the plain of Jordan as far as to the S. of the Dead Sea; he saw only the northern end, but that sample assured him of the well watered character of the whole. From Pisgah or Nebo ( Deuteronomy 34:3) Moses saw from “the plain of the valley of Jericho” southward as far as “unto Zoar”; not that Zoar was near Jericho, for Jehovah showed him “all the land of Judah and the South.” It was probably on the S.E. side of the Dead Sea, as Lot’s descendants, Ammon and Moab, occupied that region as their original seat. Tristram’s statement that the ground of Zi’ara falls in terraces for 3,000 ft. to the Jordan valley is at variance with Lot’s words, “I cannot escape to the mountain: behold this city (evidently not a place so hard to get up to as 3,000 ft. elevation) is near to flee unto, and it is a little one”; its inhabitants are so few that their sins are comparatively little, and so it may be spared. (Rashi.)

    Subsequently Lot fearing Zoar was not far enough from Sodom, nor high enough to be out of danger, fled to the mountains to which the angel originally urged his flight ( Genesis 19:17-23,30). God’s assurance “I will not overthrow this city ... for the which thou hast spoken” ought to have sufficed to assure Lot; his want of faith issued in the awful incest of the mountain cave; compare the spiritual lesson, Jeremiah 3:23.

    Abulfeda spells it Zoghar. Fulcher, the crusading historian (Gesta Dei, 405), found Segor at the point of entrance to the mountains of Arabia, S. of the lake; probably in the wady Kerak, the road from the S. of the Dead Sea to the eastern highlands. Irby and Mangles found extensive ruins in the lower part of this wady, which they name Dera’ah, perhaps corrupted from Zoar.

    ZOBA, ZOBAH A Syrian kingdom that warred on Saul and David successively ( Samuel 14:47; 2 Samuel 8:3,7,8; 10:6,19). It adjoined the Damascus territory, and stretched toward the Euphrates; probably E. of Coelosyria.

    David gave so effectual a blow to its power that it became his tributary; and the only trouble which it afterward gave was when Rezon of Zoba became master of Damascus, and was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon. see HADAREZER had several petty kings as his vassals (see HADADEZER ). So wealthy had his kingdom been then that some of his servants bare shields of gold, which David took. Its cities Betah or Tibhath, and Berothai or Chun, yielded David “exceeding much brass.” David in his first conflict with Zoba slew of the Syrians of Damascus, allies of Hadadezer, 22,000, and took from Hadadezer 1,000 chariots, horsemen, and 20,000 footmen, and houghed his chariot horses except which he reserved. In his second conflict Zoba was called in as ally by Ammon, and Joab defeated both. Then Hadadezer made a last effort, and drew forth the Syrians from beyond the river Euphrates. David fought in person at Helam, and slew 7,000 fighters in chariots, 40,000 footmen, and Shophach captain of the host ( 1 Chronicles 19:16, etc.).

    ZOBEBAH Son of Coz ( 1 Chronicles 4:8).

    ZOHAR 1. Father of Ephron ( Genesis 23:8; 25:9). 2. Son of Simeon ( Genesis 46:10; Exodus 6:15); Zerah in 1 Chronicles 4:24.

    ZOHELETH, STONE OF By Enrogel ( 1 Kings 1:9). Here Adonijah slew sheep and oxen when seeking the throne. The targums make it “the roiling stone,” which youths tried to roll, displaying their strength (Jarchi); others “the stone of the conduit” (mazchelah ), from its nearness to the rock conduits that poured into Siloam; Bochart from zohel “a slow motion,” the fullers here pressing out the water dropping from the clothes which they had washed in the well Rogel, as they do to the present day. Ganneau finds in the village of Siloam a rocky plateau, its western face cut perpendicularly, with rude steps up it, which the natives call ez Zehweile, like Zoheleth.

    ZOHETH Son of Ishi of Judah ( 1 Chronicles 4:20).

    ZOPHAH Son of Helem or Hotham ( 1 Chronicles 7:35,36), of Asher.

    ZOPHAI A Kohathite Levite; son of Elkanah; ancestor of Samuel ( 1 Samuel 6:26; 35ZUPH).

    ZOPHAR The Naamathite (some region in Arabia Deserta); one of Job’s three friends ( Job 2:11; 11:1; 20:1; 42:9).

    ZOPHIM field of. Near the top of Pisgah, from which Balaam had his second view of Israel’s encampment ( Numbers 23:14); it was N. of his former station and nearer Israel. It means “watchers.” A tableland on the Abarim or Nebo range, where watchers in times of danger looked out for the foe, or else augurs watched for omens. Grove suggests its identity with Mizpah Moab.

    Porter, identifying Attarus with Pisgah, says a fertile plain, namely, Zophim field, surrounds the ruins of Main at the mountain’s foot.

    ZORAH, ZOREAH Joshua 15:33. Colonized by Kirjath Jearim ( 1 Chronicles 2:53; 4:2).

    Now Sur’ah: ten Roman miles from Eleutheropolis toward Nicopolis.

    Originally of Judah; in the shephelah or low hills ( Joshua 15:33).

    Subsequently assigned to Dan (19:41) as a suitable border fortress, just below the brow of a sharp conical tell at the shoulder of the ranges which form the northern side of the wady Ghurab. Manoah’s residence ( Judges 13:2,25) and Samson’s birthplace was between Zorah and Eshtaol. Possibly Manoah commanded the military post at “the camp of Dan” (the place of encampment of the Danite emigrants: 18:8,11,12) between Zorah and Eshtaol; this post was a check on the Philistines, in force at Timnath three miles off (14:1-4; 15:6). Here was the family burial place (16:31). The charge that Samson was not to drink wine nor strong drink, nor eat what came of the vine, was the severer test of faith because Zorah was famous for its vines; the valley of Sorek and the Philistine plain generally abounded in choice vines ( Judges 15:5; 16:4; Hebrews Genesis 49:11; Isaiah 5:2; Jeremiah 2:21). Fortified by Rehoboam as being at the entrance of the valley, which is one inlet from the great lowland ( 2 Chronicles 11:10); reinhabited by the men of Judah after the return from Babylon. ( Nehemiah 11:29ZAREAH.)

    ZORITES Descendants of Salma of Judah, near related to Joab ( 1 Chronicles 2:54).

    ZOROBABEL Matthew 1:12,13; Luke 3:27. (See ZERUBBABEL ).

    ZUAR Father of Nethaneel, chief of Issachar, at the exodus ( Numbers 1:8; 2:5; 7:18,23; 10:15).

    ZUPH, LAND OF At which Saul arrived from Shalisha, Shalim, and the Benjamites ( Samuel 9:5). Containing the city where he met Samuel, not far from Rachel’s tomb, a little N. of Bethlehem. Zuph was one of Samuel’s ancestors ( 1 Samuel 1:1; 1 Chronicles 6:35). Soba is the only name like it, seven miles W. of Jerusalem, and five S.W. of neby Samwil. If Shalim and Shalisha were N.E. of Jerusalem near Taiyibeh, Saul’s route to Benjamin would be S. or S.W. to Soba.

    ZUPH Samuel’s ancestor ( 1 Samuel 1:1);ZOPHAI in 1 Chronicles 6:26.

    ZUR 1. One of Midian’s five princes, slain with Balaam by Israel ( Numbers 31:8). Father of see COZBI . Subject to Sihon ( Joshua 13:21). 2. Son of Jehiel ( 1 Chronicles 8:30; 9:36).

    ZURIEL Son of Abihail; chief of the Merarite Levites at the exodus ( Numbers 3:35).

    ZURISHADDAI Father of see SHELUMIEL ( Numbers 1:6).

    ZUZIMS (See GIANTS ). Chedorlaomer attacked the Zuzims in Ham ( Genesis 14:5). Gesenius identifies with the Zamzummim of Ammon. Connected with the Horim in Genesis 14:6 as the Zamzummim are in Deuteronomy 2:20.

    DEO GLORIA. AMEN.

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