Biblical Encyclopedia: E
271 entries · Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Deut. 32:11)—a well-known bird of prey, unclean under the Mosaic Law (Lev. 11:13; Deut. 14:12). Sacred writers frequently refer to its characteristic qualities: the speed of its flight, its voracity, the high and solitary places it chooses for its nests, and the sharpness of its sight when pursuing prey (Num. 24:21; Job 9:26; 39:27–30; Prov. 23:5; 30:17, 19; Jer. 49:16; Obad. 4; Matt. 24:28; Luke 17:37). In the last two passages, according to some, the Jewish people are compared to a fresh corpse lying in an open field and attracting the Roman army, whose standard, as is well known, bore an eagle. Persian standards likewise displayed an eagle.
Eagle Owl
. See Owl.
(Gen. 35:4; Exod. 32:2 and elsewhere)—ornaments worn in the East from ancient times by women and by children of both sexes. Scripture speaks directly of women and children wearing them; Exodus 35:22 may include men, though the source judges earrings to have been primarily women’s adornment among the Hebrews. Midianite and Ishmaelite men also wore them (Judg. 8:24–26). Earrings sometimes served as amulets (Gen. 35:4), and Isaiah mentions ear ornaments among objects associated with enchantment (Isa. 3:20 in the source’s enumeration).
(Gen. 1:1; Ps. 24:1 [23:1]) — in Hebrew called eretz. The Hebrews, however, had other various names for designating the word “earth.” It was otherwise called by them by the words adamah and aphar. By the names eretz and adamah was generally denoted the whole earth, or the entire globe. The word adamah, that is, “red earth,” often denotes land fit for cultivation (Gen. 4:11; Isa. 1:7; 30:23). By the word aphar is denoted dry, sandy ground (Num. 23:10), represented in the cited passage as an emblem of a numerous people.
The first man was created from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7), to which each of us shall likewise return (Gen. 3:19; Job 10:9; Eccl. 12:7). The word “earth” is often used by the sacred writers also to denote some particular country or state. Thus the expression “all the kingdoms of the earth” (Ezra 1:2) refers only to Chaldea and Assyria; not infrequently it is applied to Judea alone as well. The expression “the depths of the earth,” “the nether parts of the earth” (Isa. 44:23), may in the literal sense mean valleys, and in the figurative sense, the grave, the tomb, and sometimes serves as an emblem of deep humility (Ps. 63:9 [62:10]; Eph. 4:9).
Holy Scripture points to a threefold division of the earth among the sons of Noah, which was undoubtedly arranged by divine Providence, as the prophet Moses clearly testifies. “When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance,” he says, “when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel” (Deut. 32:8). “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,” said the Apostle Paul to the Athenians in the Areopagus, “and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (Acts 17:26).
From the first citation it appears, in some measure, that the land of Canaan was the original and divinely appointed inheritance for the Hebrew people. The posterity of Shem was to occupy Asia Minor, the posterity of Japheth to pass over into Europe, and the posterity of Ham was to people the hotter, southern parts of the earth, although we see that Nimrod and the Cushites peopled the plain of Shinar (see Babylon). The tenth chapter of the book of Genesis has a special ethnological character.
It states that from Japheth came fourteen sons, from Shem twenty-five, and from Ham thirty-one. It is, of course, not easy to trace the development of population from times of such remote antiquity; but even now some peoples can still be recognized by their forefathers, as, for example, the descendants of the Celts may be seen as descended from Gomer, the Medes from Madai, the Ionians from Javan, and so on. One of the sons of Eber was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided (v. 25).
(1 Kings 19:11; Matt. 27:51) — one of the awesome physical phenomena of nature, manifested by a subterranean rumbling, tremors, and landslides, sometimes by a rending of the earth and the swift destruction of everything existing and living upon it. The deep sense of fear that arises during earthquakes involuntarily brings to mind the omnipotence of the Lord and His righteous wrath, expressed in this truly dreadful and majestic phenomenon. In Holy Scripture, however, only a few instances of actual earthquakes are indicated.
It is thought, for example, that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the perishing of Korah and his company, were caused by a sudden earthquake (Num. 16:31–32). There was also an earthquake at the time when Elijah was on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:11, 12). An earthquake in the reign of Uzziah, mentioned by the prophets Amos (1:1) and Zechariah (14:5), is also mentioned by Josephus, with the addition that it split a mountain near Jerusalem and was so violent that it formed a very great valley between the two parts of the mountain.
An earthquake was one of the dreadful signs accompanying the Lord’s crucifixion. “Then,” says the Evangelist Matthew, “the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened” (27:51, 54). A similarly great earthquake occurred at Philippi, when Paul and Silas were in prison (Acts 16:26). Earthquakes, however, still visit Palestine not infrequently in the present day as well. Thus a comparatively recent earthquake, which occurred in 1837, was one of the most terrible, inflicting enormous damage on Tiberias, in which a full third of its inhabitants perished.
During it, one could see the earth opening and closing again. In this dreadful catastrophe many thousands of people perished, and in other places whole towns and villages were reduced to ruins. The Savior mentions earthquakes in His discourse with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, as one of the signs that were to precede the destruction of Jerusalem (Matt. 24:7), and Josephus and other historians confirm the literal fulfillment of this prediction of the Lord’s. Earthquakes, in the language of the prophets, allegorically signify various convulsions and upheavals in the life of peoples and kingdoms.
Eastern clothing, and especially that of the Hebrews
(Matt. 24:18). The art of preparing clothing has been known in the East from the most ancient times. Originally, the skins of animals were used instead of clothing (Gen. 3:21).
(Isa. 66:17)—the sharing of food and the customs surrounding the table. Egyptians would not eat with Hebrews, “for that is an abomination to the Egyptians” (Gen. 43:32). In the apostolic age some circumcised believers reproached Peter because he had entered the house of uncircumcised people and eaten with them (Acts 11:3). By contrast, tax collectors and sinners drew near to hear Jesus, and the Pharisees and scribes complained, “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:1-2).
Ebed Jobel
(servant, that is, of God) — two persons mentioned in Holy Scripture: a) (Judg. 9:26) father of Gaal, who incited the Shechemites to rebel against Abimelech, son of Gideon; b) (Ezra 8:6) son of Jonathan, one of the descendants of Adin who returned with Ezra from Babylon.
(servant of the king) (Jer. 38:7–13) — an Ethiopian eunuch, at whose intercession the prophet Jeremiah was released from the pit into which he had been cast by order of King Zedekiah. As a reward for this noble deed, he himself was saved from death at the capture of Jerusalem. It is likely that it is precisely this man to whom the Lord and Savior alludes in the Gospel of Matthew, in the words: “He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward” (Matt. 10:41).
Ebedmelech.
See Abdemelech (Ebed-melech).
(stone of help) (1 Sam. 4:1; 5:1) — a place near Mizpah, in the tribe of Benjamin, where the prophet Samuel, on the occasion of his miraculous victory over the Philistines, set up a stone in memory of this victory, which he called the stone of help, saying: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” (1 Sam. 7:12). The exact location of this place, however, is still undetermined.
(house of lambs) (1 Sam. 7:11) — a city of the tribe of Judah, on the Philistine border. “And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh,” says the writer of the First Book of Kings [Samuel], “and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came under Beth-car.” This city is mentioned by Josephus Flavius (Antiq. VI, 2, 2). In the Syriac translation this city, and Shen (v. 12), is called Beth-yashan, otherwise Beth-shen, and likewise in the Arabic. The city, it seems, formed a Philistine stronghold, situated at some distance from Mizpeh. At Beth-car, or near it, Samuel set up the stone Ebenezer (that is, “stone of help”) in memory of the victory won by Israel over the Philistines.
(traveler, sojourner): a) (Gen. 10:21, and elsewhere) son of the patriarch Shelah, great-grandson of Shem, father of all the sons of Eber, was the last of the pious patriarchs before the division and dispersion of the peoples. In his time occurred the building of the Tower of Babel and the dispersion of its builders. In the Gospel of Luke (3:35) he is likewise called Eber; b) (1 Chron. 8:12), of the descendants of Benjamin, one of the builders of the cities of Ono and Lod; c) (Neh. 12:20) one of the priests in the days of Joiakim and of Ezra and Nehemiah; d) (1 Chron. 8:22) son of Shashak, mentioned in the genealogy of Benjamin; e) (1 Chron. 5:13) a descendant of Gad, who settled in Bashan after the return from Babylon.
Ebiasaph
(gatherer) (1 Chron. 6:23–27) — a Levite of the house of Kohath, ancestor of the singer Heman, and also of Elkanah, father of the prophet Samuel. This person appears to be identical with Abiasaph, mentioned in the book of Exodus (6:24).
Ebony
(Ezek. 27:15)—a dense, dark hardwood imported by the merchants of Tyre. It came from regions south and east of the Mediterranean and was prized for fine furnishings, carved objects, and images. “Ebony” includes several tropical species rather than one single biblical tree.
Ebron Elbon
(passage, crossing) (Josh. 19:28) — a city belonging to the tribe of Asher, at the foot of Lebanon. Today the ruins of this city, called Abdeh, are pointed out at the entrance of Wadi Karn into the plain of Acco, not far from Achzib.
Ecan
(3 Esdras [1 Esd.] 14:24) — one of five ready scribes who assisted Ezra in copying out the sacred books.
— the Greco-Latin name for the Hebrew city of Achmetha, city and capital of the kingdom of Media (Ezra 6:2), and also the summer residence of the Persian and, later, the Parthian kings. The city of Ecbatana was situated at, or very near, the site of the present-day city of Hamadan, one of the most significant cities of present-day Persia. Remnants of a stone wall are still visible here. According to Herodotus, the city was built by Deioces, king of Media, and surrounded by seven concentric walls (Judith 1:1–4).
In this city, in all likelihood, was found the scroll in which Cyrus commands the Jews to rebuild the Temple. There was here a magnificent royal palace and a temple of the sun. In Ecbatana once lived Raguel, a kinsman of Tobit, to which city Tobias also removed after the death of his parents, and where he died (Tobit 6:6; 14:12). In this city, in all likelihood, the tombs of Esther and Mordecai are pointed out. The city was, as we have already noted above, the favorite residence of the Persian kings, but Alexander of Macedon, too, 324 years before Christ, spent two autumn months here and celebrated the festival of Dionysia in this place.
In the early centuries of Christianity the Gospel was preached in Ecbatana, and a church was established there. Mention of its bishops is found in the history of the Eastern Church, but a Christian community has long since ceased to exist there. It is said that a considerable number of Jews are still found here to this day.
(preacher; in Hebrew, Koheleth) (Eccl. 1:1, 11, 12, and elsewhere) — the name of a book counted among the canonical sacred books of the Old Testament. It was written by Solomon in the last years of his brilliant and remarkable reign. It consists of 12 chapters, and in it, on the one hand, is depicted the vanity and nothingness of all earthly things, which of itself cannot bring satisfaction and peace to the human soul, since it is unstable and ever-changing, as Solomon demonstrates on the basis of his own varied experience (chs.
1–6); while on the other hand it points to the proper relation of the wise man to the world. To rise above earthly things toward the eternal and unchanging, to seek amid earthly vicissitudes one’s happiness and peace in God — this, it teaches, is the true task of the wise man’s earthly life (chs. 7–12). “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem” (1:1) — thus the sacred book begins. “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun,” the Preacher continues, “and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit” (v. 14).
“I made me great works,” he says further, “I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards… I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house… I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers… and whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them… Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun… And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven… So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me… and my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge; and I knew that this also is vexation of spirit.
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow” (1:1–18). In the final, twelfth chapter, the gradual approach of old age in a person’s life, and then death, is described in a beautiful poetic form. “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,” says Ecclesiastes at the conclusion of this exalted book, “while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them… In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low… and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets… Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity.” What, then, is the true, the attainable contentment and happiness for man here on earth? “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter,” the sacred writer answers this question: “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (12:1–8, 13, 14).
(Judith 7:18) — a locality near Chusi, situated by the brook Mochmur, that is, in the hill country to the southeast of the plain of Esdraelon and of Dothan. It is mentioned only in the book of Judith. In this locality the allied forces of Holofernes were encamped during his invasion of Judea. According to the Syriac translation, by Ecrebel is meant the locality of Acrabein, mentioned by Eusebius in the Onomasticon, today Akrabeh, 9 versts southeast of Nablus.
Ed Manasse
(witness) (Josh. 22:34) — the name of an altar erected near the Jordan by the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh — an altar built not for the offering of sacrifice, properly speaking, but as a witness to the unity of faith and service to the Lord which they would maintain even across the Jordan, together with the rest of the tribes (vv. 28, 29). “The altar Ed,” said the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad, “is a witness between us that the LORD is God” (v. 34).
Eddinus Jeduthun
(2 Esdras 1:15) — one of the singers at the celebration of the Passover under king Josiah. See Jeduthun.
(delight, sweetness) (Gen. 2:8) — a region in Asia in which God Himself planted the garden of Eden (Paradise) for the dwelling of the first humans, and which was situated in the East. This word is also generally used to denote any locality remarkable for its beauty and fertility. The location of the garden of Eden is very difficult to determine with precision today. In pointing to it, the sacred writer mentions a river that flowed out of Eden to water Paradise, and afterward divided into four rivers, namely: the Pishon, the Gihon, the Hiddekel (Tigris), and the Euphrates (Gen. 2:10–14).
The last two of these rivers are known, while the first two are the subject of the most divergent conjecture and speculation. Not finding rivers corresponding to them on earth, some have transferred Eden to heaven, others have given it an allegorical meaning; some have placed Eden in Africa (Ethiopia and Abyssinia), others in Armenia and the Caucasus, others in Syria and Palestine, others in Mesopotamia and Babylonia, and some have sought it even in India, in the valleys of the Himalayas and on the island of Ceylon.
But all this is mere conjecture and supposition; the only thing that remains certain is that the land of Eden and Paradise lay in the region near the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Among various peoples, even pagan ones, many different traditions concerning Eden and the blessedness of the people who once enjoyed it have been preserved, and are preserved still. “Soon after the creation of man,” sings Hesiod, “there began a golden age, the imperishable gift of the immortals, who acknowledged Cronus as their lord.
The human race then led the life of gods, free from grievous cares, strangers to toil and sorrow. Old age was unknown to men, nor any sickness. When the hour of death came, death took upon itself the peaceful form of sleep, and there was no terror in the moment of the soul’s parting from the body. Men enjoyed complete blessedness; the fruits of the earth grew in abundance and in every variety. Universal peace reigned, and its constant companions were happiness and delight.” The human race has always, and at all times, retained some dim notion of that happiness which it lost through the sin of its forefather Adam, and has always cherished in its soul some longing for the return of this primordial blessedness; but is not a higher, a special Eden — one far surpassing that which once flourished in the East — being prepared for all who believe in Christ and do good? Shall they not all inherit, in the life to come, an “inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, for ever”?
(Amos 1:5) (house of pleasure) — a city in Syria, probably a royal residence or summer palace. It is named among the other places of Syria that were to undergo divine punishment. Places bearing a similar name still exist today and are mentioned by modern travelers. One of these is located on the eastern slope of Lebanon, near the cedar forest, at Bsharri, under the name Ehden — in a picturesque locality in which, according to the belief of eastern Christians, Paradise was situated. Another place of similar name is found on the eastern slope of Mount Hermon, and elsewhere.
Eden:
a) (2 Chron. 29:12) — a Levite, son of Joah; one of those present in the reign of Hezekiah at the purification of the house of the Lord;
Eder
(flock): a) (Josh. 15:21) one of the southernmost cities of the tribe of Judah bordering on Edom. Its location is unknown;
Edna
(delight) (Tobit 7:2) wife of Raguel. In the Vulgate she is called Anna.
Edom
(“red”) (Gen. 25:30)—a name given to Esau. When Rebekah’s twins were born, the first came out red and hairy and was named Esau (Gen. 25:24-25). Later, when Esau returned exhausted from the field, he asked Jacob for some of “that red stew”; for this reason he was also called Edom (Gen. 25:29-30).
Edrei
(probably: planting, plantation) — the name of two cities mentioned in the book of Joshua and elsewhere:
Edrin
(help of God) (2 Macc. 12:36) — one of the Jewish military commanders under Judas Maccabeus.
(Deut. 22:6)—the product from which birds hatch and also a common food. Israel’s law commanded that if a bird’s nest with young or eggs was found, the mother was to be released rather than taken with her young (Deut. 22:6-7). The law’s restraint is comparable to the command not to slaughter a cow or ewe and her offspring on the same day (Lev. 22:28), and teaches responsible care for living creatures. Jesus appeals to ordinary parental kindness: what father, if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? (Luke 11:11-12).
Eglah
(“heifer”) (2 Sam. 3:5)—a wife of David and the mother of Ithream, David’s sixth son born at Hebron.
Eglaim
(“two springs”)—(1) a place near the Dead Sea where fishermen would spread their nets in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek. 47:10), often located near the sea’s northern end; (2) a place in Moab reached by the cry of distress (Isa. 15:8). The locations are uncertain and may not be the same site.
(Isa. 15:5; Jer. 48:34)—literally “the third Eglah,” or, in some traditional renderings, “a heifer three years old.” Some interpreters treated the expression figuratively as describing Zoar or Horonaim as young, unbroken, and free; it is more likely a place-name for a settlement in southern Moab, near Edom and not far from Zoar. Its exact location and the reason for the designation “third” remain uncertain.
a) (Judg. 3:12–30) name of a king of Moab, who held the Israelites under his yoke for eighteen years. He entered into alliance with the Ammonites and took possession of the City of Palm Trees — Jericho — where he established his residence, and where he was afterward slain by Ehud. Of Eglon it is said in the book of Judges (3:17) that he was a very fat man, so that the sword which the judge Ehud thrust into his belly could not be drawn out again. After Eglon’s death, the Moabites who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan were all given over to destruction (v. 29).
(Mizraim) (Exod. 1:1) — one of the most ancient and remarkable countries on the face of the earth. Egypt is bounded on the south by Ethiopia, on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by the Red Sea, and on the west by the sandy heights of the Sahara and the Libyan desert. Concerning its northern and southern borders, information is given in the book of the prophet Ezekiel (29:10; 30:6). The country presents itself to the traveler as an immense plain, stretching nearly 600 English miles in length and bounded on the east and west by a range of hills and by extensive desert.
The river basin of the country owes its existence, fertility, and beauty to the great historic river Nile, which flows through it (see Nile); for this reason Egypt was called in antiquity “the gift of the Nile.” As for the origin of the country’s name, opinions on this differ. In the Old Testament the word “Egypt” is rendered by the Hebrew word “Mizraim,” the name of one of the sons of Ham (Gen. 10:6), who may have been the forefather
(source form Sip) (Lev. 11:18)—a bird that older naturalists grouped with eagles but depicted as a vulture. It has dark flight feathers, a bare head and neck, and feeds upon carrion and refuse. It was common in Arabia, Palestine, and Syria. Revered as sacred in ancient Egypt and treated there as an emblem of compassion and maternal care, it was not harmed and consequently was numerous. The source quotes the naturalist Hasselquist’s highly unfavorable description of its wrinkled bare face, large eyes, hooked beak, grasping feet, and filthy diet.
Ehan.
See 3 Esdras 14:24.
Ehi (Ehud)
(Gen. 46:21)—a son or descendant of Bela in Benjamin’s genealogy. A parallel list uses the form Ehud (1 Chron. 8:6); the relationship between the names and lists is textually difficult.
(adder, viper) (Job 20:16) — a poisonous serpent, some twelve feet or more in length. Its bite is very dangerous, and in most cases ends in swift and inevitable death, so that in ancient times a viper’s bite was regarded as a special punishment from God (Acts 28:1, 6). It is no wonder that the inhabitants of Malta took the Apostle Paul for a god when they saw that the viper hanging from his hand did him no harm. Hence the viper always represents whatever by its nature causes harm and destruction, and is used as a name for cunning, wicked, and godless people.
Hence the Savior’s words addressed to the Pharisees and Sadducees: “generation of vipers” (Matt. 3:7, and elsewhere) — the strongest expression of denunciation of wicked and impious men.
(strong, firm) (Judg. 3:15) — son of Gera, of the tribe of Benjamin, second judge of Israel, who delivered the Israelites from Eglon, king of Moab, who had oppressed them eighteen years. The Israelites sent Ehud with gifts to Eglon, as a token of their subjection. Under the pretext that he had a secret message for him, he obtained a private audience with Eglon, and then, being alone with him, drew a sword from his right thigh and, with his left hand (for, like many of the Benjamites, he was left-handed), gave the king a mortal wound in the belly.
The custom of delivering confidential messages privately, face to face, seems to have been so common that Eglon’s courtiers withdrew at once from the royal chambers as soon as they learned of Ehud’s request. According to travelers, this custom is preserved even to this day in Eastern countries: as soon as it becomes known that a messenger has something secret to say to the ruler, the audience hall is at once vacated by all except the one who has arrived. Ehud, having killed the king, went up to Mount Ephraim, sounded a trumpet to summon the oppressed Israelites to his aid, seized all the fords of the Jordan, and destroyed about ten thousand of the best Moabite warriors. Ehud was judge of Israel until his death, and the peace he secured lasted until his death (Judg. 3:12–30).
Ehud Aod
(1 Chron. 7:10)—a descendant of Bilhan and Jediael in Benjamin, named among the heads of ancestral houses and valiant warriors.
Eker Acor
(root, offshoot) (1 Chron. 2:27) — a man of the tribe of Judah, of royal descent through Hezron.
(in the Russian Bible sometimes Ashkelon [as given]) (uprooting) (Josh. 13:3; 15:11; Judg. 1:18; 1 Sam. 6:16) — a Philistine region and city, originally belonging to the tribe of Judah, then to Dan. The ancient inhabitants of Ekron, the Philistines, held it for a long time, and it was afterward taken by Judah. The fall of the city, once one of the richest of the Philistine cities, was foretold by the prophets Zephaniah (2:4) and Zechariah (9:5–7). From here the Ark of the Covenant was sent on the road toward Beth-shemesh.
Holy Scripture indicates that it remained under Philistine rule even in the days of David (1 Sam. 17:52), Ahaziah (2 Kings 1:2, 3, 6), Uzziah (Amos 1:8), and Josiah (Jer. 25:20). In the days of the prophet Elijah the chief pagan deity of Ekron was Beelzebub (god of flies). This city is mentioned in the First Book of Maccabees (10:89), and it still existed in the time of Eusebius. It is often mentioned also in the accounts of the Crusades. At present a small village, Akir, is scattered over the site of Ekron, and heaps of ruins can still be seen among the plowed fields of what was once a famous city. This place lies about an hour and a half’s journey south of Ramla, and east, between Ashdod and Jamnia.
Ekron.
See Accaron.
El-bethel
(Gen. 35:7)—the name Jacob gave to the altar or place at Bethel after God commanded him to leave Shechem. There he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, “God of Bethel,” because God had revealed himself to Jacob there when he fled from Esau.
El-paran Pharan
(Gen. 14:6)—a place at the edge of the wilderness near Mount Seir. Chedorlaomer and his allies struck the Horites as far as El-paran during their campaign against the peoples who had rebelled.
Eladah
(God is witness, or defender) (1 Chron. 7:20, 21) — either a son of Ephraim, or his descendant through Shuthelah.
Elah
(oak, or strong) (1 Kings 4:18) — father of Shimei, one of Solomon’s officers over Israel in the territory of Benjamin.
Elah
(oak, or strong) - the name of the following persons:
Elah
(“terebinth” or “oak”)—(1) an Edomite chief descended from Esau, named among the chiefs “in the land of their possession” (Gen. 36:41; 1 Chron. 1:52); (2) a son of Uzzi, a Benjamite family head dwelling in Jerusalem (1 Chron. 9:8).
(God is great, great God) (Num. 32:3, 37; Isa. 15:4, and elsewhere) — a Canaanite city near Heshbon, or Hesbon, thought to be the present-day El-Al — fairly extensive ruins on a hill, about half an hour’s journey from Heshbon to the northeast, on the eastern side of the Jordan. The city was rebuilt and occupied by the tribe of Reuben. From the summit of the hill on which these ruins stand, an extensive view opens out over the plain and over the whole southern region of Belka. In the days of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, the city was under the rule of the Moabites (Jer. 48:34).
Elam
(a strong, fortified place) (2 Sam. 10:16, 17) — the name of a city on the other side of the Jordan, near which David defeated the army of Hadadezer, king of Zobah. The exact location of the city has not been determined.
Elam
— name of several persons mentioned in Holy Scripture:
(Gen. 14:1, 9; Isa. 11:11; Jer. 25:25; Ezek. 32:24; Dan. 8:2) — a country or region inhabited by the Elamites, lying east of Shinar and north of the Persian Gulf. Chedorlaomer was one of the most ancient kings of this region (Gen. 14:1), and Susa was its chief city (Dan. 8:2). When the sacred writers speak of the land of Elam, they generally mean by it Susiana (present-day Khuzestan). The Elamites were a warlike people, famed for their skill with the bow (Isa. 22:6; Jer. 49:35), and were generally reckoned a very dangerous enemy (Ezek. 32:24).
Some of this people, or more likely some of the Jews residing as settlers in the region of Elam, were present in Jerusalem at the miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9). The language of the Elamites was evidently Semitic, since they themselves were of Semitic origin. After the varied fortunes of the Persian kingdom, under whose rule Elam latterly stood, the judgment of God at last came upon this country too, as the prophets had long before foretold.
Today ruins alone are to be seen everywhere here, together with the wretched remnants, scattered over the ground, of the once-magnificent temple of Diana. The expression in the book of the prophet Jeremiah (49:39), “but it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD,” is generally taken to refer to the restoration of the Persian kingdom by Cyrus, who conquered the Babylonians just as the Babylonians had earlier subjected the Persians to their rule.
Elasah
(the same as Eleasa — God has made) — names of the following persons mentioned in the Bible:
Elasah
(“God has made”) (Ezra 10:22)—one of the sons of Pashhur who had married a foreign woman in the time of Ezra.
, also called Eloth (perhaps: grove of terebinths) (Deut. 2:8; 2 Kings 14:22; 16:6) — an Edomite city and important seaport on the Gulf of Aqaba, at its northern end. Journeying from Sinai through the wilderness of Arabia, the Hebrews passed by this city, and it afterward fell under the power of David and Solomon (1 Kings 9:26; cf. 2 Sam. 8:14 and 2 Chron. 26:2), the former of whom stationed a garrison here. Elath was afterward taken from Judah, but was rebuilt and restored by Azariah, or Uzziah (2 Kings 14:22).
Some sixty or seventy years later, Rezin, king of Syria, took it from the Jews and placed in it a garrison, or colony, of Syrians (2 Kings 16:6). The Greeks and Romans called Elath “Elana,” the Arabs “Aylah,” and it still exists today as a minor town. The nearby fortress, surrounded by a palm grove, is called Aqaba, and after it the whole gulf is often called the Gulf of Aqaba. We find the city of Elath, in the reign of Solomon, associated with another important seaport lying at the head of the Gulf of Arabia, namely Ezion-geber, where Solomon built a merchant fleet whose ships sailed as far as Ophir (1 Kings 9:26–28), and for this reason it is usually mentioned together with that latter city.
(whom God knows) (Gen. 25:4; 1 Chron. 1:33) — youngest of the sons of Midian, son of Abraham by Keturah. In 1 Chronicles (7:20 [as given]) he is given as Eleadah. Eldad and Medad (God is a friend) (Num. 11:26, 27) — two of the seventy elders of Israel, appointed by Moses to assist him in governing the Hebrews in the wilderness. When the elders gathered around the Tabernacle to seek wisdom from God, Eldad and Medad, detained by some particular matter, remained in the camp; but the Spirit of God rested upon them, as upon the other elders, and they began to prophesy, though they were in the camp and not near the Tabernacle.
This was reported to Moses, and Joshua the son of Nun asked him to forbid them to prophesy, but Moses answered: “Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!” (Num. 11:29).
—heads or representatives of a family, city, people, or congregation. Under Moses seventy elders shared the burden of governing Israel (Num. 11:16–25). Cities had elders who sat at the gate, heard disputes, witnessed legal acts, and represented the community (Deut. 19:12; Ruth 4:1–12). In later Judaism elders took part in the councils that opposed Christ and the apostles, yet the title itself continued to denote lawful responsibility.
Eleasa
(1 Macc. 9:5) — a locality near Jerusalem, where Judas Maccabeus fell in battle with Bacchides.
Eleasil.
See 2 Esdras 9:28.
Eleazar
(whom God helps) — a name applied in Holy Scripture to many persons:
(Ezek. 1:4, 27; 8:2)—a traditional rendering of Ezekiel’s enigmatic term hashmal: a glowing metal, brilliant alloy, or fire-like radiance. The Septuagint used elektron, a word that could denote amber or a gold-and-silver alloy. Ezekiel saw something like gleaming metal, with fire enclosed all around, and a radiance like the rainbow in a cloud after rain (Ezek. 1:27-28). In another vision the appearance was fiery below the waist and radiant like gleaming metal above it (Ezek. 8:2).
The image belongs to the prophet’s vision of the glory of the Lord enthroned above the living creatures; it signifies inaccessible majesty and divine glory rather than identifying a modern chemical substance.
Eleph Jebus
(thousand) (Josh. 18:28) — one of the 14 cities of the tribe of Benjamin, mentioned between the cities of Zelah and Jebus.
(1 Macc. 6:30 and elsewhere)—the largest land mammal, noted for its size, trunk, and ivory tusks. Ivory formed an important article of ancient trade; Solomon’s throne and Ahab’s house were adorned with it, and the Psalmist mentions palaces of ivory (1 Kings 10:18; 22:39; Ps. 45:8). Elephants appear in biblical history chiefly in the books of Maccabees, when Seleucid armies employed them in war. Ancient Assyrian monuments also depict them. Wooden towers were fastened upon their backs, and armored soldiers and horsemen guarded them on either side.
First Maccabees describes attempts to excite the animals before battle, while 3 Maccabees relates the giving of wine and incense. The source’s claim that a tower could hold thirty-two strong men belongs to ancient military report and is not presented as a normal load.
— a city not mentioned in Holy Scripture, but known as an episcopal city. According to tradition, it was located in southern Palestine, on the road between Jerusalem and Gaza. St. Justus, or Joseph, one of the Seventy Apostles, was bishop there and died a martyr’s death in that city; there too St. Ananias (of the Seventy), who baptized the Apostle Paul and afterward became bishop of Damascus, was stoned to death. Today, on the site of Eleutheropolis, stands the village of Beit Jibrin and extensive ruins of buildings belonging to various periods.
(1 Macc. 11:7) — a river in Syria, which, according to Strabo, separated Syria from Phoenicia and formed the northern boundary of Coele-Syria. According to the testimony of Pliny, the river Eleutherus at a certain season of the year abounded in turtles (9:10). There can be no doubt that the river Eleutherus is identical with the present-day river Nahr al-Kabir, or “great river.”
Elhanan Eleanan
(to whom God is gracious):
Eli
(God is mine — Jehovah): a) (2 Chron. 8:27 [as given]) a Benjamite; b) (1 Chron. 26:7) a Levite gatekeeper.
Eli
(God is high) - the name of the following persons:
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?
(Matt 27:46) - My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me? These words, spoken by the Savior on the cross in Syriac, correspond exactly to the Hebrew text of Psalm 22:1 [21:2].
Eliab
(whose father is God) — name of several persons mentioned in Holy Scripture:
Eliada
(whom God knows):
Eliahba
(God is mine) (1 Chron. 12:20) — a commander of a thousand of the tribe of Manasseh, who, among others, came over to David at Ziklag, on the eve of the battle of Gilboa.
Eliahba the Shaalbonite
(2 Sam. 23:32; 1 Chron. 11:33)—one of David’s mighty warriors, probably named from his place of origin.
Eliakim
(whom God has appointed) — name of the following persons:
Eliali.
See Ezra 9:34.
Eliam
(people of God) — name of two persons: a) (2 Sam. 11:3) father of Bathsheba, wife of David. In 1 Chronicles (3:5) he is given as Ammiel; b) (2 Sam. 23:34) son of Ahithophel, one of David’s thirty mighty men.
Eliashib
— names of several persons:
Eliashib.
See Eliashib [above].
Eliasib.
See 2 Esdras 9:1. In 1 Ezra (10:6) it is read Eliashib.
Eliasibus. Eleazurus
See 2 Esdras 9:24. In 1 Ezra (10:24) it is read Eliashib.
Eliasis.
See 2 Esdras 9:34.
Eliatha
(God is coming) (1 Chron. 25:4, 27) — one of the fourteen sons of Heman, the king’s seer, whose duties are set forth in 1 Chronicles (25:4ff.). To him, with his sons and brothers, twelve persons in all, fell the twentieth lot in the course of service of the singers.
Eliazur
(2 Esdras 9:24) — a contemporary of Nehemiah, married to a foreign woman.
Elidad Eldad
(whom God loves) (Num. 34:21) — son of Chislon, of the tribe of Benjamin, one of those who assisted Joshua and Eleazar in the division of the Promised Land.
Elidah
(God knows) (2 Sam. 5:16) — the last of the sons born to David in Jerusalem. In 1 Chronicles (3:8) he is given as Eliada, and in chapter 14 (v. 7) as Beeliada.
Eliehoenai
(toward Jehovah are my eyes) (1 Chron. 26:3) — one of the gatekeepers, a Korahite, of the sons of Meshelemiah, in David’s time.
Eliel
(whom God is strength) — name of several persons mentioned in 1 and 2 Chronicles, namely:
Eliezer, Elizer
(God is his help) — names of various persons mentioned in Holy Scripture:
Elihba
(God is a defender) (2 Sam. 23:32; 1 Chron. 11:33) — one of the thirty warriors of David’s guard, a Shaalbonite by birth, probably from the city of Shaalbim.
Elihoreph Eliaph
(God is his reward) (1 Kings 4:3) — a scribe under Solomon, son of Shisha, one of Solomon’s princes.
(God my — He, that is, Jehovah) (Job 32:2, 5, 6; 34:1, and elsewhere) — son of Barachel, one of Job’s friends. He is called a Buzite, and so was descended from the line of Buz, son of Nahor (Gen. 22:21). This supposition is supported by the description given of Job’s other friends. In his speech to Job (chs. 32–37) he calls himself young in years compared with the rest of Job’s friends. He tries to reconcile the disputants and argues that afflictions are sent upon men by God in order to move them to repentance.
In highly eloquent and poetic fashion he describes in his speech the greatness and wondrous works of the LORD the Creator and Almighty: “Behold, God is great,” says Elihu, "and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof… Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?… He covereth his hands with the light [lightning]; and commandeth it what to strike… The noise thereof sheweth concerning it (the thunder), the cattle also concerning the vapour.
Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north. By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened. Fair weather cometh out of the north
Elihu.
See Eliab.
(my God is my strength, or God is the Lord), the Tishbite, from the Gileadite village of Tishbe in the tribe of Naphtali, was, after Isaiah, the most remarkable of the Old Testament prophets and the head of the company of the sons of the prophets in the kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 17:1). We first meet Elijah in 1 Kings 17:1, standing before Ahab with the dreadful announcement of three and a half years without rain and of the famine that would follow. 'As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand,' he declared to Ahab, 'there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word' (compare Luke 4:25; Jas 5:17).
From the ancient narrative we see that soon after visiting the king, the prophet Elijah had to withdraw to the brook Cherith. There he remained for some time, miraculously fed morning and evening with bread and meat brought by ravens (1 Kings 17:5-6). When the brook dried up because of the drought, the prophet withdrew to Zarephath, a village on the Phoenician coast almost midway between Tyre and Sidon. In Jerome's day a tower stood at this place, and in later times a church stood on the site of the widow's house; there visitors were shown the room in which the prophet Elijah had lived, called in Greek Chereion (Acta Sanctorum).
Here he lodged in the house of a poor widow, whose meal and oil were miraculously not exhausted during the whole time the prophet stayed with her. During this period the widow's only son died, and Elijah restored him to life through his prayers. After this Elijah is called for the first time a man of God (1 Kings 17). Three years later, when the distress of the famine in Samaria had reached its height, and Ahab himself, together with Obadiah, governor of his house, was searching for pasture for his cattle, the prophet Elijah appeared first to Obadiah and then to the king himself.
'Art thou he that troubleth Israel?' Ahab exclaimed when he saw the prophet. 'I have not troubled Israel,' Elijah answered, 'but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim' (1 Kings 18:17-18). He then proposed that the king gather all the people of the kingdom of Israel, together with the priests of Baal and Ashtoreth who enjoyed Jezebel's special protection, upon Mount Carmel, to pray for the end of the famine.
Ahab accepted the proposal, and 850 priests of Baal and Ashtoreth stood before the pagan altar; but from morning until noon they raved in vain and begged Baal to send fire upon their sacrifice. 'Cry aloud,' Elijah told them, 'for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked' (1 Kings 18:27). In the evening Elijah himself built an altar of twelve stones and, calling upon the name of his Lord, by prayer brought down fire from the Lord out of heaven.
It consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. Struck by this miracle, the people cried out: 'The Lord, He is the God! The Lord, He is the God!' The false prophets of the idols were led down to the brook Kishon and slain by Elijah in accordance with the law of Moses, which commanded that all who seduced the people into idolatry be treated in this way (1 Kings 18:1-40). After the priests had been destroyed, Elijah said to Ahab, 'Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.' He himself went to the summit of Carmel and bowed his face between his knees in prayer to the Lord. And indeed, in answer to his prayer the sky was covered on every side with rain clouds, and torrents of rain poured down.
Ahab entered his chariot, wept, and hastened toward Jezreel; but Elijah, strengthened by the power of God, girded up his loins and ran before Ahab's chariot as far as the gates of the city (1 Kings 18:41-46). Thus, having completed the prophet's work, he rendered the king the honor due him as his subject (Luke 4:25; Jas 5:17-18; Heb 11:35). When Ahab told his wife, the idolatrous Jezebel, what fate had befallen the priests of Baal, she became furiously angry and threatened Elijah with immediate death.
Learning of this, Elijah went to Beersheba, in the kingdom of Judah, to save his life, for there he could consider himself safe from the persecution of Ahab and Jezebel. Beersheba lay about ninety miles from Jezreel, but he was not content merely to reach the city. Leaving his servant there, he went still farther south into the wilderness. There he stopped, sat beneath a broom shrub, and asked God that he might die. 'It is enough; now, O Lord,' he said, 'take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.' Then he lay down and slept.
An angel touched him and said, 'Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.' Looking about, Elijah saw at his head a cake, such as was commonly baked upon heated stones, and a jar of water. Strengthened by this food miraculously sent to him, Elijah rose and for forty days traveled through the wild, rocky, and dangerous desert of the Sinai Peninsula until he reached Mount Horeb. There he found refuge in a cave and spent the night. Then he heard the voice of the Lord: 'What doest thou here, Elijah?' 'I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts,' Elijah replied, 'for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.' The Lord commanded him to leave the cave and stand upon the mountain, awaiting the revelation of God. Terrifying signs began.
First came a mighty storm with a violent wind that rent the mountains and broke the rocks; after the storm came an earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire. After the fire came a still small voice - and there was the Lord. He revealed Himself not in the storm, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but in the cool of evening, in the still small voice. 'Return,' the Lord said to Elijah, 'and go to Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria; and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat, of Abel-meholah, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.' At the same time the Lord comforted Elijah by telling him that He had reserved for Himself seven thousand men among the Israelites who had not bowed the knee to Baal and whose mouths had not kissed the idol (1 Kings 19:1-18).
Having heard the will of God, Elijah again set out and found Elisha near Abel-meholah. He anointed him as prophet by casting his mantle upon him as a symbolic sign of consecration to the prophetic office. Elisha at once followed him and became his servant (1 Kings 19). Later 1 Kings relates that Elijah received a command from God to appear once more before Ahab and announce the dreadful judgment of God that was to fall upon him and his house because Naboth had been murdered and his vineyard seized.
'Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?' Elijah said sternly to Ahab when he appeared before him in Naboth's vineyard. 'Thus saith the Lord,' he continued, 'In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.' Ahab said to Elijah, 'Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?' 'I have found thee,' Elijah replied, 'because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon thee... and will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam...
and the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.' Hearing this, Ahab repented, rent his clothes, put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, so that the Lord deferred His righteous judgment upon Ahab's house until the reign of his son Ahaziah (1 Kings 21:17-29). After Ahab's death, the prophet Elijah was sent to his son King Ahaziah to tell him that he would die because of his ungodly life. Here the sacred writer gives several interesting details about the man of God's outward appearance.
'What manner of man was he which came up to meet you?' Ahaziah asked the messengers he had sent to inquire of Baal-zebub concerning his illness, whom Elijah, by God's command, had met on the way. 'He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins,' the messengers answered. The king replied, 'It is Elijah the Tishbite.' Twice the king then sent captains of fifty to seize the prophet, and on both occasions they and their companies were miraculously consumed by fire from heaven.
The third captain and his company were spared because of his earnest supplication to the prophet; Elijah went with him and, standing fearlessly before the bed of the sick Ahaziah, repeated God's sentence of death upon him (2 Kings 1:1-17). The time of Elijah's taking up into heaven was approaching. Elisha and the sons of the prophets knew by divine revelation what was to occur, and Elisha did not leave Elijah for a single step. They came to the Jordan River. Elijah struck the river with his mantle; the waters divided to either side, and both passed over on dry ground.
'Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee,' Elijah said. 'I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me,' Elisha replied. 'Thou hast asked a hard thing,' said Elijah; 'nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.' They continued walking and talking together. Then a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them, and Elijah was carried up into heaven by a whirlwind. 'My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!' Elisha cried; and he saw him no more.
He took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, went back, and stood upon the bank of the Jordan. Following Elijah's example, he struck the water with the mantle and cried, 'Where is the Lord God of Elijah?' The Jordan divided to one side and the other, and Elisha crossed to the western bank. The sons of the prophets searched for Elijah's body in vain for three days: he was no longer there and did not appear upon the earth again until the event of the Lord's Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, when the Lord's disciples Peter, James, and John saw him speaking with the Lord together with Moses (Matt 17:3-8).
A remarkable reference to the prophet Elijah is found in the prophet Malachi (4:5-6): 'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.' From the New Testament we know that in this passage the name Elijah refers to John the Baptist (Matt 11:14; Mark 9:11-13; Luke 1:17). The Forerunner of the Lord, John the Baptist, was to fulfill his ministry in the spirit and power of Elijah, preparing the way of the Lord; and the Gospel narrative directly and explicitly calls him by Elijah's name (Matt 17:10-12).
Finally, according to the belief of the Orthodox Church, the prophet Elijah together with Enoch will come again upon the earth before the Second Coming of the Lord (Rev 11:3-12). In conclusion, Mohammed speaks with great praise of the prophet Elijah in the Koran. Muslims, like the Jews, regard him as a mediator between heaven and earth who appears in human form to devout people on earth, visits them in mosques and synagogues, and communicates divine revelations, especially to pious men and rabbis.
In the Orthodox Church, as in the other Eastern Christian churches, the name of the prophet Elijah occupies a very high place. The name is often given to children at birth; many churches in Russia have been erected in honor of the prophet of God Elijah, and his commemoration on July 20 is celebrated by the Church as a great feast. In the Ethiopian, Coptic, and certain other churches, the prophet Elijah is likewise entered in their calendars as a saint, and his memory is celebrated on February 8 and December 1.
Elijah
(“The LORD is God”)—(1) a son of Harim (Ezra 10:21); (2) a son of Elam (Ezra 10:26). Both are listed among the returned exiles who had married foreign women. They are distinct from Elijah the prophet.
Elika Rudaean
(God rejects) (2 Sam. 23:25) — a Harodite, one of David’s brave and chief warriors.
— name of the seventh camp of the Israelites after leaving Egypt, near the Red Sea, between Marah and the wilderness of Sin. The word Elim means “terebinths,” or “palm trees,” and we know that the Israelites found here 70 date palms and 12 springs of water (Exod. 15:27; 16:1; Num. 33:9, 10). There is an opinion that Elim is the present-day Wadi Gharandel. The guidebook known under the name of Antoninus the Martyr (A.D. 570) testifies that at that time Elim was called Surandela, a name resembling that of Gharandel.
In the opinion of others, Elim is to be sought at Wadi Useit, not far from Gharandel. Still others suppose that both Useit and Gharandel are meant by this name. At Wadi Gharandel palm trees and shrubs still grow to this day, and there is a permanent spring and stream of clear water, which serves almost the whole surrounding area. This circumstance, together with the situation of the place, is sufficient evidence in favor of the view that the Elim of the Pentateuch was located in this locality.
(God is king) — a resident of Bethlehem, husband of Naomi, who, on account of the famine raging in the land of Judah, settled with his family in the land of Moab. When he and his sons died childless, Naomi returned with her daughters-in-law to the land of Judah; but one of them, Ruth, refused to leave her mother-in-law, and afterward married Elimelech’s kinsman, Boaz.
Elioenai.
See 2 Esdras 8:31. In 1 Ezra (8:4) this name is read Elioenai — son of Zerahiah, descendant of Pahath-moab, who returned from captivity from Babylon with Ezra, together with 200 men.
Elioenai.
See Eliehoenai.
Elioenai.
See Judith 8:1, son of Ananias, one of the ancestors of Judith.
Eliona.
See 2 Esdras 9:32. In 1 Ezra (10:31) this reads: Eliezer.
Elionais.
See 2 Esdras 9:22. In 1 Ezra (10:22) this reads: Elioenai.
Eliphal Ararite Elphat
(whom God judges) (1 Chron. 11:35) — son of Ur, one of David’s chief warriors. In 2 Samuel (23:34) he is read as Eliphelet, son of Ahasbai.
Eliphalat
(see 2 Esdras 8:39) and Eliphalet (see 2 Esdras 9:33). These names, in 1 Ezra (8:13 and 10:33), are read as Eliphelet.
Eliphaz
(God is his strength) — name of two persons mentioned in the books of Genesis and Job:
—(1) a son of Esau by Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite. His sons were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz; by his concubine Timna he also fathered Amalek (Gen. 36:4, 10-12; 1 Chron. 1:35-36). (2) Eliphaz the Temanite, one of Job’s three friends who came to mourn with and comfort him (Job 2:11). He speaks first in each cycle of debate; see Book of Job.
Eliphelet
(God is salvation) (2 Sam. 5:16; 1 Chron. 14:7) — one of the sons of David born to him in Jerusalem. In 1 Chronicles (3:6) he is read, in agreement with the Hebrew, as Eliphelet.
— name of several persons: a) (1 Chron. 3:8). See Eliphelet [above]; b) (1 Chron. 8:39) of the sons of Eshek, descendant of Jonathan, son of Saul; c) (2 Sam. 23:34) son of Ahasbai, one of David’s mighty men, also called Eliphal, son of Ur; d) (Ezra 8:13) of the sons of Adonikam, who returned from captivity with Ezra; e) (Ezra 10:33) descendant of Hashum, one of those who had married foreign women.
Elipheleu
(whom God distinguishes) (1 Chron. 15:18, 21) — a gatekeeper belonging to the second rank of Levites, one of those appointed to accompany the Ark of the Covenant with lyres at its transfer from the house of Obed-edom.
(God is her oath) — this name occurs in the Old Testament only once (Exod. 6:23), namely as the name of the wife of the high priest Aaron, brother of Moses. She was the daughter of Amminadab, sister of Nahshon, of the tribe of Judah (Num. 2:3). In the New Testament this name belongs to the wife of the priest Zechariah, of the line of Aaron (Luke 1:5), mother of John the Baptist, who was born to her in her old age, and a kinswoman of the Most Holy Virgin Mary the Mother of God. At the visit of the Most Holy Virgin Mary to the house of Zechariah, Elisabeth, inspired from on high, was the first to greet her as “blessed among women” and the “Mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:42, 43).
(God will save) (1 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 2:1, 3, 11; 4:1, 8, and elsewhere). In the New Testament this name is mentioned only once, namely in the Gospel of Luke (4:27). A well-known prophet in Israel, disciple and successor of the prophet Elijah in the prophetic ministry, to which he was called at the time when he was plowing the land with oxen. He was the son of Shaphat, of Abel-meholah (1 Kings 19:16–21), and at the time of his call to the prophetic ministry was probably still in the years of flourishing youth; his father and mother were then still living, and he lived together with them.
The family of the prophet Elisha appears to have belonged to the class of the well-to-do, since we see from the biblical narrative that he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen when Elijah met him and cast his mantle upon him (v. 19), which, for Elisha, was a sign to leave everything and follow the prophet. Elisha immediately slaughtered a yoke of oxen, and, roasting their flesh right there in the field, distributed it to the people, who ate; and he himself went after Elijah and began to minister to him.
However, since the prophet Elisha was to become the immediate successor of Elijah the Tishbite, he appears, until Elijah’s taking up into heaven, as a figure not especially prominent in his own activity, until he received from above the double portion of Elijah’s spirit. “Behold,” we read in Holy Scripture, “Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal,” a city thought to have been located near Jericho; from Gilgal they went to Bethel, and from Bethel to Jericho. During this journey the prophet Elijah twice asked Elisha to leave him alone, but Elisha would not agree to this, and so they came to the Jordan, which miraculously parted before them at the stroke of Elijah’s mantle.
After this Elisha asked Elijah, before his being taken up into heaven, that a double portion of his spirit might be upon him (2 Kings 2:9). “Thou hast asked a hard thing,” said Elijah. “Nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so” (v. 10). Immediately afterward followed the wondrous taking up of the prophet Elijah into heaven, in a whirlwind, in a chariot and horses of fire. “My father, my father,” cried Elisha, gazing after his teacher ascending into heaven, “the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!” (v. 12).
Then he took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the Jordan with it, repeating the miracle of the river’s parting to this side and that (v. 14). After this he went back to Jericho, where some of the sons of the prophets met him. Here we see, for the last time, the community of sons, or disciples, of the prophets, in connection with the life of the prophet Elisha, and after this time they are no longer mentioned (1 Kings 20:35; 2 Kings 2:1–15). Seeing Elisha, the sons of the prophets went out to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
“The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha,” they said among themselves (2 Kings 2:15), and then asked to be allowed to go and search for the body of Elijah; he reluctantly consented to this. They searched, and of course found nothing. Soon after this Elisha worked a miracle at Jericho: he made the city’s bad water wholesome by casting salt into it. “And the waters were healed unto this day,” notes the sacred narrator (v. 22). From Jericho the prophet Elisha went up to Bethel, and as he was going up by the way, little children came out of the city and mocked him, saying, “Go up, thou bald head, go up, thou bald head!” — probably alluding to his baldness, which was then considered by the inhabitants of the East to be a disgrace.
Elisha turned and cursed them in the name of the LORD, and there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tore forty and two children of them (2 Kings 2:23, 24). From there he went to Mount Carmel, and from there returned to Samaria. The word “returned” would seem to indicate that he had previously lived in Samaria, but where exactly — whether in the city itself, or in the region of Samaria — is not clear. When Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom entered into alliance against the Moabites, Elisha was with the allied armies.
Suffering with their armies from thirst, the allied kings turned to the prophet Elisha for help. After a stern rebuke, he performed a new miracle — he supplied their armies and cattle with water that appeared miraculously, which, however, looked to the Moabites like blood (2 Kings 3:1–22). Further, among his miracles the following is especially notable: the miraculous increase of oil for the poor widow of one of the sons of the prophets. She received so much oil that its sale was fully sufficient to pay her husband’s debts and to provide for her further support (2 Kings 4:1–7).
After this we find the prophet at Shunem, in the tribe of Issachar. Here a wealthy woman took him into her house and prepared for him a chamber with a bed, table, chair, and lamp, which he could enter whenever he wished. The woman and her husband were childless, which among the Hebrews was greatly despised, and the prophet foretold to them the birth of a son. The son was born and grew up, but one day he went out to his father in the field during the harvest and suddenly fell ill.
“My head, my head!” he cried to his father, and when he was carried to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. Elisha, at the request of the mother, who came to him in person on Mount Carmel, went with her to Shunem, and after prayer miraculously restored the dead child to life (2 Kings 4:8–37). During a famine Elisha was at Gilgal and ordered his servant to prepare a pottage for the sons of the prophets. The servant found in the field a wild climbing plant (probably of the gourd family, or a wild vine), gathered fruits of this plant, which were undoubtedly poisonous, and put them into the pot.
When the dish prepared from them was tasted, all at once felt a mortal pain and cried out: “There is death in the pot, thou man of God!” Elisha called for meal, cast it into the pot, and the food became harmless (4:38–41). About the same time the prophet miraculously fed a hundred men with twenty barley loaves and fresh grain in the husk. All were satisfied, and there was still some left over (4:42–44). His next miracle consisted in the healing of Naaman of leprosy. Having bathed seven times in the waters of the Jordan, at Elisha’s command, the Syrian commander was healed of the disease that afflicted him.
The Lord Himself referred to this miracle during His preaching at Nazareth (Luke 4:27). Naaman, healed of his leprosy, came from Syria to Samaria, where the prophet was again residing at the time. Elisha firmly refused the rich gifts offered him by Naaman for his miraculous healing, but his servant Gehazi cunningly obtained from Naaman two talents of silver and two festal garments, ostensibly for poor disciples of the prophets who had come to Elisha from the hill country of Ephraim, and hid all this away for himself.
The man of God at once learned of this, and Naaman’s leprosy passed to Gehazi. “And he (Gehazi) went out from his presence a leper as white as snow” (2 Kings 5:1–27). Some time later the disciples of the prophets began building more spacious quarters for themselves, for which purpose they needed to cut timber by the Jordan. During this work one of them dropped his axe head into the river, and Elisha, by casting a piece of wood into the water, made the axe head float to the surface (6:1–7).
After this the prophet Elisha repeatedly informed the king of Israel of the secret plans and ambushes of the king of Syria, with whom the former was then at war. Learning of this and greatly enraged, the king of Syria sent an entire force to Dothan to seize the prophet, but after the prophet’s miraculous vision of horses and chariots of fire, and after his prayer, the Syrian host was struck with blindness; nevertheless, by his prayer they were healed of their blindness, and the prophet sent them back alive to their king (vv. 8–23).
Soon after this, Ben-hadad, king of Syria, besieged Samaria and brought the besieged city to such extremity of famine that a donkey’s head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver. Jehoram, blaming the famine on Elisha, sent soldiers to kill the prophet, and then himself hurried after them. To Jehoram’s reproach Elisha promised the immediate cessation of the famine, on the very next day. And indeed, that same night, the enemy, struck by sudden terror, fled from the walls of Samaria, while the officer who had not believed the prophet’s promise was trampled by the people at the city gate, in accordance with the prediction that he would see the end of the famine with his own eyes but would not eat of the bread (6:24–33; 7:1–20).
The prophet foretold to the Shunammite woman, whose son he had raised from the dead, a seven-year famine, and before its onset advised her to withdraw for a time into the land of the Philistines. Because of this withdrawal she nearly lost her house and land, which in her absence had been occupied by other owners; but when she came with her complaint to the king, at the very time when Gehazi was telling him of the prophet’s miracles, she was immediately given satisfaction (8:1–6).
After this Elisha went to Damascus, where he foretold the violent death of Ben-hadad, and anointed Hazael as his successor, remarking that he would bring much evil upon Israel (8:7–25). He had probably received this commission earlier, from the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 19:15), just as one of the sons of the prophets, by Elisha’s own direction, anointed Jehu king over Israel at Ramoth-gilead (1 Kings 19:16). His last prophecy, accompanied by a symbolic action, given to Joash, grandson of Jehu — that he would win only three victories over the Syrians without utterly destroying them — was fulfilled with striking precision.
The prophet’s miracles were not confined to his lifetime; even after his death he continued to work wonders. “And after his death his body prophesied,” notes the wise son of Sirach (48:14 [13]). By common reckoning, Elisha’s call to the prophetic ministry took place in 906 B.C., and his death in 838 B.C. Clement of Alexandria says that the period of Elisha’s prophetic ministry spanned 64 years (Stromata III, book I); in this he is nearly in agreement with the chronology of the Jews, according to which Elisha’s prophetic ministry lasted more than 60 years.
A year after Elisha’s death, some men were carrying a dead man to be buried in the city. At that moment a band of Moabites appeared, raiding the land of Israel. Those carrying the dead man were frightened and threw him into a nearby cave, in which the prophet’s remains rested (in “the sepulchre of Elisha”). At the touch of Elisha’s bones, the dead man was instantly restored to life and stood upon his feet (2 Kings 13:20–22).
(of unknown origin; in Samaritan: Elisha) (Gen. 10:4; Ezek. 27:7) — son of Javan and descendant of Japheth. This may be the name of a people or a country, since the name Javan is often identified with Ionia or Greece, and for this reason some consider Elishah to be Aeolia, Hellas, and the like. In the book of the prophet Ezekiel (27:7) Elishah is named among the cities from which Tyre received multicolored fabrics of blue and purple. “Blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee,” says the prophet Ezekiel in his prophecy concerning Tyre. It is well known that purple dye was one of the chief articles of trade exported by Greece, but trade in it was also carried on in Asia Minor and along its coasts, as we see in the person of Lydia, of the city of Thyatira, who traded in purple at Philippi in Macedonia (Acts 16:12–14).
The expression in the book of the prophet Ezekiel (27:1 [as given]) — “the isles of Elishah” — does not mean that any literal islands are meant by these words, but simply denotes a coastal region, or seaboard. The opinion that Elishah is another form denoting Hellas or Aeolia seems to have insufficient grounds, since Elishah existed long before any mention of Hellas or Aeolia.
Elishama
(God hears) — name of the following persons:
Elishaphat Elisaphan
(God judges) (2 Chron. 23:1) — one of the commanders of hundreds sent by the high priest Jehoiada to gather the Levites for the crowning of Joash.
Elishua
(God saves) (2 Sam. 5:15) — one of the sons of King David, born in Jerusalem. He appears to be the same person as Elishama, mentioned in 1 Chronicles (3:6), since it is difficult to suppose that two sons of David born in Jerusalem bore the very same name.
Eliud
(Matt. 1:14–15) (God of Judah, or God of praise) — son of Achim and father of Eleazar. This name does not occur in the Old Testament. Eliud was the great-grandfather of Joseph, to whom the Most Holy Virgin Mary was betrothed.
(God protects) — name of two persons: a) (Num. 3:30; 2 Chron. 29:13) one of the Levites, sons of Uzziel, chief of the families of the Kohathites. In the book of Exodus (6:22) he is called Elzaphan. To him and his brother Mishael, Moses commanded that the bodies of Nadab and Abihu be carried out of the Sanctuary to the camp, after their miraculous destruction by fire that went out from the LORD (Lev. 10:4); b) (Num. 34:25) son of Parnach, of the tribe of Zebulun — the name of a person who took part, under Moses, in the division of the Promised Land.
Elizaphan
(whom God multiplies). a) (Num. 1:14ff.) one of the men of the tribe of Gad, son of Reuel, active in the numbering of the people in the wilderness of Sinai; b) (Num. 3:24) son of Lael, head of the sons of Gershon in the days of Moses.
Elizaphan.
See Elizaphan [above].
Elizur Elisur
(my God is a rock) (Num. 1:5; 7:30ff.) — of the tribe of Reuben, prince of that tribe, son of Shedeur.
Elkanah
(God possesses, or provides):
— a word of unknown origin — a locality which, according to the testimony of Jerome, was in Galilee, but according to ancient tradition, on the river Tigris, near Mosul; notable as the birthplace of the prophet Nahum, for which reason he is called the Elkoshite (Nah. 1:1). The tomb of the prophet Nahum is also pointed out not far from Tiberias.
(Gen. 14:1, 9) — a city, or more probably a region, over which Arioch reigned. Some identify it with Larissa, a city on the left bank of the Euphrates in lower Babylonia, but it was more probably Larsa, or Larancha, now Senkereh, between Chaldean Ur and Erech. The cuneiform inscriptions found at Senkereh point to its remote antiquity, and even suggest that it existed before Babylon.
Elmodam
(Luke 3:28) — a person mentioned in the genealogy of Joseph, betrothed of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, six generations before Zerubbabel.
Elnaam Josia Ellaam
(God of mercy) (1 Chron. 11:46) — one of David’s chief warriors.
Elnathan
— (God gives):
(Mark 15:34; Matt. 27:46)—forms of Jesus’ cry from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark preserves Eloi and Matthew Eli, reflecting closely related Aramaic and Hebrew forms and echoing Psalm 22:1. Because Eli could sound like the name Elijah, some bystanders said in mockery or misunderstanding, “This man is calling Elijah.”
Elon
(oak):
Elon:
a) (Gen. 26:34) a Hittite, whose daughter Bashemath was married by Esau, son of Isaac; b) (Gen. 46:14) one of the sons of Zebulun, son of Jacob, forefather of the tribe of Elon; c) (Judg. 12:11, 12) one of the judges of Israel, a Zebulunite, who judged Israel for ten years. He was buried at Aijalon, in the land of Zebulun.
Elpaal
(God is his reward, recompense) (1 Chron. 8:11) — son of Hushim, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Elphalet.
See Eliphelet.
Eltekeh Alcatha
, otherwise Elteke (God is terrible) (Josh. 19:44) — a city on the borders of the tribe of Dan, given with its suburbs to the Levites of the sons of Kohath (21:23) — a fact, however, not recorded in 1 Chronicles (6:66–69).
Eltekon Thecum
(God is his foundation) (Josh. 15:59) — one of the cities in the hill country of the tribe of Judah.
(kindred, or offspring of God) (Josh. 15:30) — one of the cities allotted to the tribe of Simeon; it was probably located on the borders of the tribe of Judah, and for this reason is listed among the cities of that tribe. In 1 Chronicles (4:29) it is called Tolad. The city may have received this name from Abraham on account of the birth of his son Isaac there. It is thought to have lain
Elul
(worthless) (Neh. 6:15) — the sixth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, corresponding to the latter half of our September and the first part of October. In this month, in the days of Ezra, the restoration of the wall around Jerusalem was completed.
Eluzai Azai
(God is my praise, that is, the object of my praise) (1 Chron. 12:5) — one of the brave men who came over to David at Ziklag.
Elymais
(Tobit 2:10) — the province of Elam, on the Persian Gulf, between the province of Susiana, with its capital city of Susa, and Persia, with its city of Persepolis; it is separated from the former by the river Eulaeus, and from the latter by the river Orotais.
(Acts 13:8) — the Arabic name of the Jewish sorcerer and false prophet Bar-Jesus, who belonged to the retinue of the proconsul Sergius during the Apostle Paul’s visit to the island of Cyprus. During the preaching of the Apostle Paul and Barnabas, he tried to turn the proconsul away from faith in Christ, for which he received a stern rebuke from the apostle and was struck blind by God. The proconsul, seeing what had happened and marveling at the teaching of the Lord, believed in Christ (Acts 13:6–12).
Elzabad
(given by God) — name of two men: a) (1 Chron. 12:12) one of the Gadites who came over to David at his stronghold in the wilderness; b) (1 Chron. 26:7) a Levite, son of Shemaiah, one of the gatekeepers.
Elzaphan. Elisaphan
See Elizaphan.
Emalchuel
(1 Macc. 11:39) — an Arab king, or chieftain, who lived in the days of Demetrius II and Alexander Balas, kings of Syria.
(Gen. 50:2, 26). The art of embalming was known from the most ancient times. The Hebrews borrowed the practice of embalming from the Egyptians. Since the annual flooding of the Nile kept the surface of the ground under water for two months, the Egyptians devised the best methods for preserving the bodies of the dead from decay. Others thought that embalming was practiced according to Egyptian beliefs with the purpose of preserving the body of the deceased, as the last dwelling of the soul, after it had completed its various migrations from one animal into another.
Those who performed embalming, or physicians, were regarded as sacred persons. The deceased was usually opened up in the following manner: the brain was extracted from the head through the nostrils, and the internal organs of the abdomen were extracted through an opening in the left side; then the cleaned interior was washed with palm wine, filled with fragrant substances such as myrrh, cassia, and others, and the whole body was then placed in natron for seventy days. After the said time had passed, the body (otherwise called a mummy) was wrapped in the finest linen cloths, or in bandages of fine linen covered usually with Arabian gum; finally the body was placed in a wooden form and set upright in the burial place (Gen. 50:26).
According to Herodotus, this was the most expensive method of embalming, costing about a talent of silver. In another method, costing about twenty minas, the internal organs were not removed from the body, but a considerable quantity of cedar oil was introduced into the stomach, and the body was placed in natron for a fixed time. The cheapest method of embalming, used exclusively by the poor, consisted of washing out the intestines with an infusion of Alexandrian senna and cassia, after which the body was placed for some time in natron.
The internal organs of persons of rank were placed in a separate vessel and thrown into the river, or were kept in a special vessel placed beside the corpse. Sometimes the process of embalming continued for up to 70 days, but according to the testimony of Holy Scripture, physicians used 40 days for embalming. The embalmed body was usually laid in a coffin of sycamore wood or of stone, on which the features of the deceased’s face were very often depicted; the coffin was set upright against the wall of the house, and remained in that position for many years.
Only afterward were the mummies transferred to underground vaults or rocky caves, where they are often found after the passage of 2,000–3,000 years in a state of complete preservation. Apart from the embalming of the bodies of the two patriarchs Jacob and Joseph, it does not appear from Holy Scripture that embalming was ever used among the Hebrews in the manner practiced by the Egyptians; and even these two instances took place, it seems, precisely for the purpose of preserving the remains of these patriarchs until the time of their removal to the Promised Land. The Hebrews, in preparing the dead for burial, used spices and prepared ointments (2 Chron. 16:14), and wound the body itself in linen cloths and anointed it with aromatic spices (John 19:40).
Emegar
(Judg. 16:31 [as given]). The name Emegar does not occur in the Hebrew, the Greek, or the Vulgate texts, but only in the Slavonic and Russian Bibles. It probably refers to Shamgar, son of Anath, who slew 6,000 Philistines.
Emek-keziz Amecasis
(valley of cutting off) (Josh. 18:21) — a city of the tribe of Benjamin, probably the present-day Wadi el-Kaziz, southeast of Jerusalem.
(Exod 28:17 and elsewhere) - the name of a green precious stone, the third stone in the first row of the high priest's breastplate of judgment. This stone was ordinarily brought to Palestine from Syria. According to Revelation, it forms one of the foundations of the spiritual Jerusalem (Rev 21:19), where, however, it is called smaragd. The purer an emerald's water, and the more transparent its green color, the greater the stone's value. The emerald's beautiful color, transparency, and brilliant luster have long attracted lovers of beauty to this precious stone.
Pliny says that the green of trees gives great pleasure, but no object can compare with the green of the emerald. Indeed, when the sight is wearied, it is enough to look upon an emerald for the eyes to be refreshed.
(Rev. 4:3; 21:19)—a precious stone of beautiful green color. The encyclopedia’s mineralogical discussion reflects nineteenth-century terminology and names ancient Egyptian mines near Mount Zabar as well as South American sources. In Revelation an emerald-like rainbow surrounds God’s throne, and emerald forms the fourth foundation of the New Jerusalem. Pliny praised the restful beauty of its green, while later stories associated emeralds with Cleopatra’s palace and with protection from disease; these stories and amuletic claims are historical lore, not biblical teaching.
(terrible, dreadful ones — hence: giants) (Gen. 14:5; Deut. 2:10–11) — a tall-statured people who dwelt in Moab and near the Arnon, east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. From the second passage cited it appears that the land of the Ammonites was given into the possession of the children of Lot, that is, the Moabites, while verses 20–21 state that before the Moabites occupied it, the Rephaim, “a people great, and many, and tall,” dwelt there. It is entirely unknown of what origin this people was.
In the opinion of M. de Corbeau, they belonged to the tribe of Shasu, whose images are found on Egyptian monuments. From the passage cited above, however, it is evident that the Emim, or Rephaim, had already been exterminated by the time of Moses.
Emmaus
(Luke 24:13)—a village sixty stadia from Jerusalem, roughly seven miles or eleven kilometers according to the common text of Luke. On the day of the Resurrection the risen Lord walked there with two disciples and was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:13-35).
(1 Macc. 3:40) — a city in the Shephelah, at the foot of the hills of Judah, 22 Roman miles from Jerusalem and 10 from Lydda. Near this city Judas Maccabeus won a celebrated victory over Gorgias, the Syrian commander. In Christian times there was a bishopric here; the ruins of an ancient Christian church have survived to the present day. Today it is called Amwas, or Amoas. This city must not be confused either with the Emmaus of the Gospel of Luke (24:13) or with Emmaus of Tiberias. See Emmaus.
Emmaus.
See Emmaus.
Emmirus.
See 2 Esdras 9:21. In 1 Ezra (10:20) this is given as: Immer.
En-dor.
See Endor.
En-eglaim
(spring of the two heifers) — a place mentioned in Holy Scripture only once, in the prophet Ezekiel (47:10), which, however, must not be confused with Eglaim. It evidently lay not far from the Dead Sea.
(spring of gardens) — name of two cities: a) (Josh. 15:34) a city in the plains of the tribe of Judah; b) (Josh. 19:21) a city of the tribe of Issachar, given to the Levites, identified with the present-day town of Jenin, at the southern extremity of the plain of Esdraelon. The abundant and beautiful streams of clear, fresh water flowing through the city, and the excellent gardens in its surroundings, correspond remarkably well to the city’s biblical name.
(spring of the kid) (Josh. 15:62) — a city on the western shore of the Dead Sea, in the wilderness of Judah (Ezek. 47:10). Its original name was Hazazon-tamar, according to the testimony of Josephus, owing to the abundance of palm trees in its vicinity; he also states plainly that En-gedi, or Engaddi, was located 300 stadia from Jerusalem. Today, in the valley of Engaddi, stands the celebrated Laura of St. Sabbas. Nearby were once famous gardens and vineyards, long renowned. “My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna in the vineyards of En-gedi,” says the bride of her beloved in the Song of Songs (1:14 [1:13]); but now, owing to the indolence and negligence of its inhabitants, this region has neither palms, nor vineyards, nor balsam shrubs — only cucumbers and a little barley are cultivated by the Bedouin who wander there. In the time of Moses the Amorites dwelt here (Gen. 14:7).
En-haddah Tomman
(swift brook) (Josh. 19:21) — a city mentioned in the list of border cities of the tribe of Issachar. It is listed after the city of En-gannim and was probably located near it.
En-hazor Asor
(spring of the village) (Josh. 19:37) — a fortified city belonging to the tribe of Naphtali, perhaps located near the city of Edrei, after which it follows in the list of cities.
(spring of pomegranates) (Neh. 11:29) — a city of the tribe of Judah, occupied by the Jews after their return from captivity. Its exact present location has not been established, though it is thought to have lain in the south of Judea, on the border of the kingdom of Judah and Edom (Josh. 15:21; Zech. 14:10).
(spring of the foot) (Josh. 15:7) — a spring located not far from Jerusalem, at the entrance to the valley of the sons of Hinnom, on the border of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Here Jonathan and Ahimaaz stopped and waited for news from the city to report to David concerning the movements of Absalom during his rebellion (2 Sam. 17:17). At this spring Adonijah held his feast in order to proclaim himself king over Israel (1 Kings 1:9). It was called “the spring of the foot” probably because fullers here trod cloth and garments with their feet in preparing them for bleaching; and afterward it came to be called “the Virgin’s spring,” from a hollow cut into the rock (today called by the Arabs Ain Umm ed-Daraj), that is, “the spring of the mother’s steps,” to which one descends by a stairway of 30 steps.
It is also called the spring of Nehemiah, on the supposition that this was the very spring in which the sacred fire was hidden at the time of the captivity, and afterward found by Nehemiah (2 Macc. 1:19–22). On the map of Jerusalem drawn up by Marino Sanudo, the spring En-rogel is without any doubt the spring of Job.
(spring of the sun) (Josh. 15:7) — a city on the northern border of the tribe of Judah; it is thought to be the same as the spring called the Apostles’ Spring, Ain Haud, or Ain Shems. According to tradition, the Lord often stopped here with His apostles. The spring Ain Haud is so situated that the sun’s rays fall upon it throughout the entire day.
En-tappuah Thaphthoth
(spring of the apple) (Josh. 17:7, 8) — a district and city on the border of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, by the brook Tappuah. This city has not yet been identified.
Enaim Aenan
(two springs) (Gen. 38:14, 21) — a city on the road from Adullam to Timnah, or Thimnathah, in the tribe of Judah. It is thought to be the same as Enam, or Gaenam (Josh. 15:34–35).
Enam
(two springs) (Josh. 15:34) — one of the cities of Judah, situated in the plain. According to the testimony of Eusebius, it lay between Jerusalem and Lydda.
Enan
(abounding in springs): a) (Num. 1:15) father of Ahira, of the tribe of Naphtali, chief of that tribe in the wilderness of Sinai; b) (Judg. 16:31) father of Shamgar [as given].
Enan
(“gift”) (1 Chron. 4:7)—a son of Helah, the wife of Ashhur. The usual Hebrew text reads Ethnan; the source preserves a variant form.
Enasib.
See 2 Esdras 9:34.
(spring of Dor, or spring of the house, dwelling) (Josh. 17:11; 1 Sam. 28:7) — a city or village in the tribe of Issachar, between Mount Tabor and the Lesser Hermon, on the stream Kishon. Near this place Jabin, king of Hazor, suffered a great defeat in the days of Deborah and Barak (Judg. 4–5). Here King Saul came by night to the well-known witch of Endor, and asked her to call up for him the prophet Samuel (1 Sam. 28:7). To this day travelers are shown a cave a few miles south of Nazareth in which this sorceress supposedly lived.
Now on the site of Endor stands a small, poor village called Endur. In the rocks there is indeed a cave, and it may be the very one in which the shade of the prophet Samuel appeared to Saul.
(Tobit 1:2, 15, 16) — the name of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria. In his reign Tobit was carried captive from Thisbe and taken to Nineveh, where he found favor and goodwill with Enemessar, became his purveyor, and did much good for his brethren. After the death of Enemessar his son Sennacherib became king.
Enijah.
See 2 Esdras 5:8. In Nehemiah (7:7) this is read: Nahamani.
Ennathan.
See 2 Esdras 8:43. In 1 Ezra (8:16) this is read: Elnathan.
Enoch
(dedicated) — name of two persons:
(man) (Gen. 4:26 [as given]) — son of Seth and grandson of Adam, who died at the age of 905. “At his birth,” notes the sacred writer, “men began to call upon the name of the LORD” — that is, perhaps, from this time public, open worship of God, consisting of prayer, faith, and hope in God’s gracious promises, was established among the descendants of Seth.
—sorrow or resentment at another person’s good and a desire to possess or diminish it. Envy violates the commandment against coveting and is opposed to love, which “does not envy” (1 Cor. 13:4). Scripture treats it not as harmless comparison but as a passion capable of producing rivalry, slander, and violence (Gen. 37:11; Mark 15:10; Jas. 3:14-16).
Eoma.
See 2 Esdras 9:35. In 1 Ezra (10:43) this reads: Levo.
Epaenetus
(praiseworthy) (Rom. 16:5). “Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus,” says the Apostle Paul of him, “who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.” One of the Seventy Apostles. According to tradition, he was bishop at Carthage. His memory is kept on January 4.
(from the Greek — perhaps: covered with foam) (Col. 1:7; 4:12; Philem. 23) — an apostle of the Seventy, a native of Colossae. The Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Colossians (1:7), speaks of Epaphras as “our dear fellowservant,” and “a faithful minister of Christ.” Tradition says that he was the first bishop of Colossae; according to ancient martyrologies, he died a martyr’s death. His memory is kept on January 4.
(beloved, excellent) (Phil. 2:25; 4:18) — one of the Seventy Apostles, companion and fellow worker of the Apostle Paul, mentioned twice in the Epistle to the Philippians; he lived in the city of Philippi and was sent by the church of that city to visit the Apostle Paul during his imprisonment in bonds at Rome and to bring him assistance. While in Rome, Epaphroditus fell dangerously ill, but soon recovered. “For indeed he was sick nigh unto death,” says the Apostle Paul of this circumstance, “but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow” (2:25 [27]). According to ancient tradition, he was the first bishop of Philippi. His memory is celebrated on January 4.
Ephah
(darkness) — name of three persons:
(Exod. 16:36; Judg. 6:19; Ruth 2:17, and elsewhere) — a Jewish measure for grain or other dry goods. It represents a tenth part of a homer, and ten ephahs make up a homer. In our own measures a homer contains about twenty chetverts [an old Russian dry measure], so that an ephah contains about two chetverts, or sixteen garnets.
Ephaim
(nose, nostrils) (1 Chron. 2:30, 31) — one of the sons of Nadab and father of Ishi, a descendant of Jerahmeel.
Epher
(young stag) — name of three persons:
Ephes-dammim Azeca Ephermen
(end, or limit, of bloodshed) (1 Sam. 17:1) — so called was Pas-dammim, a city in the tribe of Judah, near which the Philistines encamped when David slew Goliath (1 Chron. 9:13 [as given]). The site of this city is pointed out among the ruins of the city of Damum, northeast of Suwaikeh.
(desirable, longed for) (Acts 19:35) — the most celebrated of the cities of Asia Minor, situated on the river Cayster, near its mouth, thirty English miles south of Smyrna. Ephesus was the ornament and metropolis of proconsular Asia, and was famed for its renowned temple of Diana (see Artemis). St. Paul the Apostle arrived in this city in A.D. 54 and began his preaching in the Jewish synagogue. Many of those who were converted to Christianity through his preaching were baptized, and the gift of tongues and of prophecy was sent down upon them from above.
He then preached in a public building, namely in the school of a certain Tyrannus. His preaching at Ephesus continued for as long as three years and was accompanied by many miracles (19:12ff.), and its success was very great.
Ephlal Zabed Aphamel
(judgment) (1 Chron. 2:37) — of the family of Jerahmeel.
Ephod
(shoulder-piece):
(John 11:54)—a town near the wilderness to which Jesus withdrew with his disciples after the council resolved to put him to death. Its precise location is uncertain; a common identification is et-Taiyibeh northeast of Jerusalem. The source repeats a tradition that the nearby wilderness was the site of Christ’s forty-day fast, but the Gospels do not identify that wilderness so precisely.
Ephraim, Ephraimite
(to be fruitful) — a word frequently occurring in Holy Scripture:
Ephraim’s Gate
(2 Kings 14:13; Neh. 8:16) — one of the gates of the city of Jerusalem, situated, in all likelihood, on the north side of the city, that is, in the direction of the tribe of Ephraim, near, or at the site of, the present Damascus Gate.
Ephrath.
See Euphrates.
Ephrathah
(fruitful):
Ephron
(deer-like):
(Acts 17:18) — one of the Greek philosophical sects, with whose representatives St. Paul the Apostle had to hold discourse at Athens. This sect took its name from Epicurus, who was born in 342 B.C. on the island of Samos and died in 270 B.C. The basic principles of Epicurus’s philosophy were greatly distorted by his followers; they departed from the proper sense of his teaching and set up sensual pleasure as the highest good in life. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Cor. 15:32): such, in time, was the form the teaching of Epicurus’s sensualist philosophy came to take.
The Epicureans also did not believe in the creation of the world by the almighty power of God, and maintained that it arose from the chance combination of atoms; they denied the immortality of the soul, holding that it dies together with the body; they taught that all events in the world happen by chance, or depend on purely mechanical causes; they denied divine Providence, future retribution after death, and the like. From this it becomes evident how starkly their absurd atheistic teaching diverged from the true teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel, especially in the doctrine of the future resurrection of the dead.
Despite the absurdity of its teaching, the Epicurean school had many followers, and it was with these persons that the Apostle Paul had to converse at Athens. It goes without saying that the apostle’s teaching could not please the Epicureans, so sharply opposed was it to their own; and so, when he, in the very Areopagus, briefly set forth the greatness of the true God, touched on the revealed doctrine of the future judgment and resurrection of the dead, some of them mocked, while others said, “We will hear thee again of this matter,” and would hear him no more (Acts 17:16–32).
(Matt. 4:24; 17:15)—the traditional term “lunatic” reflects an ancient belief that phases of the moon caused certain seizures or mental disorders. In Matthew 17 the described sufferer has recurrent convulsions and dangerous falls; Matthew uses a term related to the moon, while Mark and Luke describe a spirit that afflicts the boy (Mark 9:17-27; Luke 9:38-42). Modern English should not imply that moonlight causes epilepsy, and neither the text nor medicine permits all such illnesses to be collapsed into one diagnosis. Jesus responds with compassion and delivers the child.
Epiphi
(3 Macc. 6:38) — the eleventh month of the Egyptian and Egyptian-Alexandrian calendar, corresponding to our June.
Epistle to Philemon
. See Epistles of Paul.
- Paul's four-chapter letter to the Colossian church. Ancient and modern commentators held that Epaphras, one of Paul's disciples, had founded the church. Having learned from Epaphras of the danger posed by Judaizing false teachers who were spreading errors and heresies, Paul wrote to confirm the truth they had received and to portray the divine majesty of the Redeemer whom they confessed and believed.
, consisting of six chapters, was written by St. Paul the Apostle at nearly the same time as the epistle to the Colossians, during the Apostle’s first imprisonment at Rome, and was sent to the Ephesians, together with this epistle, by Tychicus, a native of Asia Minor, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord (Eph. 6:21). In this epistle St. Paul, as apostle to the Gentiles, moved to the depths of his heart by his great calling, sets forth Christianity, in opposition to the murky speculations of false teachers, as the profoundest wisdom, whose source is redemption through Christ and the grace of justification through faith. In content it may be divided into two parts — doctrinal (chs. 1–3) and moral (chs. 4–6). The content and style of the epistle are especially lofty and edifying.
Epistle to the Hebrews.
See Holy Scripture.
Epistle to the Philippians
. See Epistles of Paul.
Epistle to Titus
. See Epistles of Paul.
(worthy of love) (Acts 19:22; Rom. 16:23) — one of the Seventy Apostles, who was the city treasurer at Corinth and was converted to Christianity through the preaching of the Apostle Paul. He followed the Apostle Paul to Ephesus and from there to Macedonia, and afterward returned again to Corinth (2 Tim. 4:20). From other circumstances of his life, known from tradition, it appears that he was steward of the church of Jerusalem and afterward bishop at Paneas, near the sources of the Jordan, where he labored with good success and fell asleep in peace. His memory is kept on January 4.
— one of the cities named in the book of Genesis (10:10) in the kingdom of Nimrod, in the land of Shinar; built by Nimrod on the river Tigris. The Greeks and Romans called it Orchoe, and the city of Erech is thought to have been located 82 miles southeast of Babylon, in a locality now known by the names Warka, Irna, and Irak. The name of the city (“length”) is often found on ancient bricks together with the names of various Chaldean kings, and sometimes with the image of the moon.
Such bricks, belonging to the most ancient period, are especially numerous at the present-day site of Warka. The inhabitants of Erech were resettled in Samaria by Asnapper (Sennacherib) (Ezra 4:10). Some have identified the city of Erech with Edessa, but this identification is incorrect, since the latter city was, in all likelihood, founded by Seleucus, not by Nimrod.
Erech Orech
(Gen. 10:10)—one of the four cities in the land of Shinar that formed the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom, together with Babel, Accad, and Calneh. Erech is generally identified with ancient Uruk in southern Mesopotamia.
Eri
(watchful) (Gen. 46:16) — a descendant of Gad, forefather of the tribe of Eri.
(2 Kings 19:37) (victorious, sovereign) — son of Sennacherib, one of the mighty kings of Assyria. He conquered Babylon and annexed it to Assyria, defeated Manasseh, king of Judah, and, binding him in chains, carried him off to Babylon. In Assyrian records he is called Esarhaddon. Esarhaddon built many splendid palaces and no fewer than thirty temples.
Esarhaddon
(Tob. 1:21–22)—king of Assyria, son of Sennacherib, who permitted Tobit to return to Nineveh. Ezra 4:2 and Isaiah 37:38 preserve the standard form Esarhaddon.
Esau
(hairy, shaggy) - the name of the following persons:
(seed, or sowing, of God) (Judith 1:8; 3:9) — name of an extensive plain in lower Galilee, which took its name from the city of Esdraelon (formerly Jezreel). After the ancient city of Jezreel that stood on it, the plain itself is sometimes called in Holy Scripture the plain of Jezreel, and sometimes, after the city of Megiddo, the plain of Megiddo. Josephus calls it the Great Plain. It stretches to the south and southwest of Mount Tabor and Nazareth, and is remarkable for its extent, beauty, and fertility.
In ancient times it was the scene of many bloody battles, such as that between Deborah and Barak on the one hand and Sisera, the Syrian [Canaanite] commander, on the other (Judg. 4:14), between Ahab and the Syrians (1 Kings 20:26), between Saul and the Philistines (1 Sam. 29:1), between Gideon and the Midianites (Judg. 6:33), and others. According to the testimony of modern travelers, it occupies an area of 15 square miles. One of them says that this plain seems, as it were, especially destined for the battles and warfare of every age and people, from the days of Barak to the days of Bonaparte (Napoleon I).
On it have fought by turns Hebrews, pagans, Egyptians, Saracens, Crusaders, revolutionaries, French, Persians, Druze, Turks, and Arabs. On the plain of Esdraelon the tents and pavilions of almost every conqueror and every tongue under heaven have stood and stretched out, and how often have they seen their banners drenched with the dew of the mountains of Tabor and Hermon! The soil of the plain is extraordinarily fertile, and in almost every direction picturesque views open before one — to the north, the hills of Nazareth; to the south, the mountains of Samaria; to the east, the mountains of Tabor and Hermon; and to the southwest, Mount Carmel.
The present-day Syrians have forgotten the biblical name Esdraelon, just as they have perhaps forgotten its history as well. Today the natives call it Merj ibn Amir (the meadow of the sons of Amir).
Esek Injury
(contention) (Gen. 26:18–20) — a well containing a spring, dug by the herdsmen of Isaac in the valley of Gerar. It received its name from the fact that the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac over the right to possess this well.
Eserebias. Esebrias Assanias
See 2 Esdras 8:54. In 1 Ezra (8:24) this is read: Sherebiah.
Eshbaal Asabal
— the name given in 1 Chronicles (8:39) to the son of Saul, who is called in all other places by the name Ish-bosheth. Eshbaal means “man of Baal,” while Ish-bosheth means “man of shame,” and it is likely that this latter name was given him in mockery by the friends and adherents of David.
(a cluster of grapes) (Num. 13:24, 25; Deut. 1:24) — a valley between Hebron and Jerusalem. This is the very valley from which the spies brought to Moses a branch with a single cluster of grapes so large that two men carried it on a pole. They also brought pomegranates and figs (Num. 13:23, 20; 32:9). The quality of the fruits of the valley of Eshcol, says one recent traveler, corresponds even to this day to their ancient renown; pomegranates and figs, apricots, quinces, and others, excellent in appearance and taste, still grow here in abundance.
The valley of Eshcol is now called by the Arabs Wadi Beit Iskahil, and the spring within it, whose water is reckoned the best in the whole country, is called Ain Eskali. In the book of Numbers (13:24) it is said: “The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence” (that is, “cluster of grapes”).
Eshcol
(Gen. 14:13, 24)—one of the Amorite allies of Abram, together with Mamre and Aner. They accompanied Abram when he rescued Lot and recovered the people and possessions taken by the eastern kings.
Eshean
(support) (Josh. 15:52) — one of the cities of the tribe of Judah, situated in the hill country. Its location has not yet been determined.
Eshek Asel
(oppression, subjection) (1 Chron. 8:39) — a descendant of Jonathan; he is not mentioned, however, in the genealogy set out in 1 Chronicles (9:40ff.).
(a path in the ravine) (Josh. 15:33) — one of the cities of Judah situated in the lowland, afterward given to the tribe of Dan (19:41). It is generally mentioned together with the city of Zorah and the camp of Dan, an important position of the Israelites during their wars with the Philistines, and lay between them (Josh. 13:25 [as given]; 18:11, 12). Between these cities lay also the burial place of Samson and his family (16:31). From this city, and from Zorah, the Danites set out, six hundred strong, to take the city of Laish (18:2, 8, 11), which they afterward named Dan. According to the testimony of Eusebius, Eshtaol lay ten English miles from Eleutheropolis to the north, on the road to Nicopolis. It is supposed that the poor village of Eshua, inhabited by Arabs, now stands on the site of ancient Eshtaol.
(obedience) (Josh. 15:50) — a city in the southern part of Judea, given to the sons of Aaron (21:14; 1 Chron. 6:57). David, during his wandering life, repeatedly visited this city (1 Sam. 30:28). Robinson and others suppose it to be the present city of es-Semua, situated on a low hill, two miles south of Hebron, and containing several notable ruins. The surrounding villages still preserve almost biblical ancient names, such as Anab, Socoh, and others. But in 1 Chronicles (4:17, 18) the head, or founder, of the population of this city is reckoned to be Ishbah, son of Mered, by his Egyptian wife.
Eshton
(womanly) (1 Chron. 4:11, 12) — son of Mehir, a descendant of Judah.
Eslim
— son of Naggai and father of Nahum, a person named in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:25).
Esora
(Jdt. 4:4)—an unidentified place warned, together with other towns, when Holofernes invaded Judea. The Israelites were told to occupy the heights, fortify the villages upon them, and store food in preparation for war.
— the name of a Jewish sect that existed around the time of the Savior’s earthly life, but which is not mentioned in Holy Scripture. Information about it is found in Josephus, in his work “The Jewish War,” book 2, chapter 8, in Philo, and partly in Pliny. According to Philo and Josephus, the number of the sect’s adherents reached as many as 4,000 persons. Their chief concern was the preservation and cultivation of purity of morals and piety; they believed in one God, in the immortality of the soul, but also in the transmigration of souls after death.
They were highly religious and led a strict, moral life. They prayed at the rising and setting of the sun; they avoided the use of oaths; they strictly observed the Sabbath day, and so on. Among earthly pursuits they occupied themselves chiefly with agriculture, and especially with the knowledge of the medicinal power of plants and the healing of the sick (hence they were called Therapeutae). According to the testimony of Pliny, the chief dwelling place of the Essenes was the western shore of the Dead Sea, above the wilderness of En-gedi.
(star) (Esth. 2:7, 9) — formerly called Hadassah (myrtle) — a young and beautiful Jewess, daughter of Abihail, of the tribe of Benjamin, who became queen, consort of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Artaxerxes) Longimanus. Left an orphan in childhood, Esther was raised by her kinsman Mordecai, who held the office of gatekeeper at the royal court in Susa. When Ahasuerus, angered at his consort Vashti, divorced her, beautiful maidens were gathered from the whole kingdom to Susa for the king to choose a wife from among them, and Esther was among them.
On her the king’s choice fell, and she took the place of the discarded Vashti. Not knowing that Esther belonged to the Jewish people, Ahasuerus permitted his chief nobleman, Haman, who hated the Jews, to put to death all the Jews in his kingdom on a certain day and seize their possessions. And since Mordecai openly showed contempt for Haman and did not render him due honor, Haman resolved at once to seek the king’s permission to hang Mordecai, for whom a gallows had already been specially prepared.
But before Haman could obtain this permission, the king recalled Mordecai’s great personal service to him, and learned from those close to him that Mordecai had never been rewarded for his deed; so, the moment Haman appeared before the king, he received orders to honor Mordecai with a special distinction. And so, by the wondrous working of God’s Providence, Haman himself soon perished on the very gallows, while all the Jews were saved from the destruction that had threatened them, and Esther and Mordecai were exalted still further.
All these circumstances are described in detail in the book of Esther. In commemoration of this wondrous deliverance, Mordecai and Esther established, on the 14th and 15th days of the month Adar (Esth. 9:21), the feast of Purim, or “lots,” because Haman had cast lots in choosing the day for the destruction of the Jews (see Purim).
, the life of the age to come — this is such a life as will follow after the resurrection of the dead and the general judgment of God. For believers, who love God and do good, it will be so blessed that we cannot now even imagine that blessedness (1 John 3:2), while unbelievers and the lawless will be given over to eternal death, or, in other words, to eternal fire, to eternal torment together with the devil (Rev. 20:15; Matt. 25:41, 49; Mark 9:47, 48, and elsewhere).
Etham
(den of beasts of prey):
Etham
(from an Egyptian word meaning: sea-boundary, limit) (Exod. 13:20) — a locality on the border of Egypt and the Arabian wilderness, where the Israelites had their second encampment after leaving Succoth, probably lying between the Gulf of Suez and the bitter waters of Timsah.
Ethan
(permanent, continual) — name of four persons:
Ethanim Athanin
(1 Kings 8:2) (unfailing) — the seventh month of the Hebrew sacred year and the first of the civil year, corresponding to September and October. In this month Solomon’s Temple was dedicated. (See Months of the Year.)
(with Baal, or friend of Baal) (1 Kings 16:31) — king of Sidon and father of Jezebel, the wife of Ahab. He is commonly confused with Ithobalus, king of Tyre, mentioned in extracts from the Tyrian annals cited by Josephus. From recent Assyrian discoveries, however, it is clear that this identification cannot be accepted with certainty; the dynasties of the Tyrian and Sidonian kings differed from one another, and although their names were, in all likelihood, similar, Ithobalus of Tyre was undoubtedly an entirely different person from Ethbaal of Sidon.
(abundance) (Josh. 15:42) — one of the cities of the tribe of Judah, in the lowland, afterward given to the tribe of Simeon (19:7). According to Eusebius and Jerome, it lay near Malatha in the district of Daroma, was a large and strongly fortified city, and was called in their time Jattir. Eusebius places it at a distance of twenty miles from Eleutheropolis, and says that in his time it was inhabited solely by Christians. But the identification of Ether with Jattir seems doubtful, since these were two distinct cities. See Jattir.
(scorched by the sun, black — from two Greek words: aitho, “I burn,” and ops, “face, countenance”) (Acts 8:27). The Hebrew word Cush, which in this citation and in other places of Holy Scripture is translated “Ethiopia,” appears to have been applied to at least three different countries. It was used very often among the Hebrews, just as the word “India” is used among the English at the present day. Where the prophet Zephaniah (3:10) speaks of the return of the Jews from captivity, the word “Ethiopia” probably denotes the country lying east of the river Tigris, the so-called land of Cuthah (2 Kings 17:24; Ps. 68:31 [67:32]; Isa. 31 [as given]).
Further on, this same land is called Ethiopia, or Cush, from which the present-day region of Khuzistan took its name. In the book of Numbers (12:1) the word “Ethiopian” or “Ethiopian woman” refers to the country of southern Arabia, lying along the Red Sea, everywhere called in Hebrew by the word Cush. “I saw the tents of Ethiopia in affliction,” exclaims the prophet Habakkuk (3:7). In many other places of the Bible (Isa. 14:14 [as given]; Jer. 13:23; Ezek. 19:10 [as given]; Acts 8:27), by this word must be understood specifically Syria, lying south of Egypt, comprising the two kingdoms of Nubia and Abyssinia.
This was a mountainous and well-watered country (Isa. 18:2; Zeph. 3:10). Its northern part was called by the Hebrews Sheba (Isa. 43:3), after Seba, the eldest son of Cush (Gen. 10:7), and by the Romans, Meroë. The inhabitants of Ethiopia, as appears from the book of the prophet Isaiah (45:14), were people of tall stature, which is confirmed by the testimony of the well-known Greek historian Herodotus, who says that they were the tallest of all peoples. The Ethiopian queen Candace (a general title of the kings and queens of that country) reigned at Sheba.
The keeper of all her treasure, an Ethiopian eunuch, received baptism from Philip (Acts 8:27–39). A translation of Holy Scripture into the Ethiopian language exists. The Ethiopian Church, planted in the fourth century by Frumentius, despite the heresies of Arianism, Monophysitism, and Jacobitism that spread there afterward, still preserves to this day traces of the Orthodox Greek confession.
Etzbon
(attentive, that is, to God):
Etzel
— the same as Azal, or Azel, a settlement near Jerusalem (Mic. 1:11), east of the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:5); according to the testimony of Ephraim the Syrian, it lay not far from Samaria.
Etzem.
See Azem.
Eubulus
(prudent) (2 Tim. 4:21) — one of the pious Roman Christians to whom the Apostle Paul refers in the cited passage, and of whom nothing further is known.
(benefactor) — a general title and honorary designation in the Greek states, so widely known that it even passed into a proverb: “and they that exercise authority upon them [the nations] are called benefactors,” said the Lord (Luke 22:25). This title was borne by two Ptolemies: Ptolemy III (247–222 B.C.) and Ptolemy VII (146–117 B.C.). One of them is mentioned in the preface to the book of the Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach — namely, that this book was translated into Greek by the grandson of Jesus, son of Sirach, the younger Jesus, during his stay in Egypt in the days of Ptolemy Euergetes, king of Egypt. But which Ptolemy, the third or the seventh, is meant here is not known.
(kindly disposed) (1 Macc. 8:8) — king of Pergamum, son of Attalus I. During the war of Rome with Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, he rendered great service to the Romans, especially at the battle of Magnesia, for which the Roman senate granted him the regions of Mysia, Lydia, Ionia, Phrygia, the Thracian Chersonese, and others. He enlarged and adorned the city of Pergamum, patronized the sciences, and enlarged the library founded by his father, which by then could rival the famous library of Alexandria.
His favor with Rome, however, continued only until the war of the Romans with Perseus, king of Macedon, with whom, according to the testimony of Livy, he carried on a secret correspondence. Eumenes II died, it is supposed, about 151 B.C. His extensive dominions, received from the Romans, are mentioned in 2 Maccabees (8:8).
(with good victory, Greek) (2 Tim. 1:5) — mother of Timothy, disciple and fellow worker of St. Paul the Apostle. Her faith is attested by the apostle as “unfeigned,” and she instructed her son Timothy from childhood in the faith and the sacred writings (2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15). In the book of Acts (16:1) it is said that she was by birth a Jewess, was married to a pagan, and afterward came to believe. Her memory is kept by the Church on October 28.
(from the Greek eunē — marriage bed, and echein — to have charge of, keep — hence “chamberlain,” “keeper of the bed”) (Isa. 56:3; 2 Kings 9:32; Matt. 19:12; Acts 8:34–39). Although castration was expressly forbidden by the Law of Moses, and castrated persons were not even permitted to appear in the Tabernacle (Deut. 23:1), the kings of Judah nevertheless considered it permissible to make use of the services of eunuchs procured from other countries. According to the testimony of Herodotus, it was customary in the East to castrate captives — a very ancient custom, the introduction of which is attributed to Semiramis.
Eastern despotism required that persons deprived of all human attachments should serve at royal and noble courts. This explains the high position of eunuchs at eastern courts. Eastern kings kept them as guards in their harems (Esth. 2:3), and also as courtiers, military commanders, and the like. At the Persian and Turkish courts the chief offices, both in antiquity and to some extent still today, are entrusted to eunuchs (Acts 8:27). On ancient monuments eunuchs can be recognized by the absence of a beard and by their swollen faces.
As for the Lord’s words, “there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake” (Matt. 19:12), what is meant here is not bodily castration, which in itself not only cannot lead to the kingdom but rather removes one further from it, but spiritual castration — that is, the voluntary, moral mortification of the flesh and its passions by strength of will.
Euodia
(Phil. 4:2) (of good passage, Greek) — a Christian woman of Philippi, a disciple of St. Paul the Apostle. The Apostle Paul entreats her, together with Syntyche, to “be of the same mind in the Lord.”
Eupator
(of a noble father, noble) (1 Macc. 6:17) — son of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria. See Antiochus.
(in Hebrew and Aramaic: Frat) (great, mighty river) (Gen. 2:14) — a well-known river of Asia, which rises in Armenia on the northern slope of Mount Taurus, receives many tributary rivers in its winding course along the borders of Syria, skirts the Syro-Arabian desert, and flows through the region of Babylon, emptying by six or seven mouths into the Persian Gulf. Joining with the river Tigris 22 miles from the Persian Gulf, it is there called the Shatt al-Arab. The entire length of the Euphrates is 1,780 miles, 650 miles longer than the Tigris and 200 miles shorter than the river Indus.
From Samosata the Euphrates is navigable for nearly two-thirds of its course (1,200 miles) for boats and even flat-bottomed steamers. The Euphrates overflows its banks every spring owing to the melting of the snows on the Armenian mountains, sometimes rising as much as 12 feet. It begins to rise in March, and the flood sometimes lasts until the end of May. Dams and canals were built at enormous expense, and great reservoirs dug, in order to preserve the waters of the Euphrates for irrigating the soil during times of drought.
The Euphrates is called in the Bible “the great river,” and formed the eastern boundary of the Promised Land (Deut. 1:7; Josh. 1:4). In some places in Holy Scripture the Euphrates is called simply “the river” (Ps. 72:8 [71:8]). Like the Nile, the river Euphrates carries with it a great many remarkable associations, beginning with its first mention in the second chapter of Genesis, as one of the four rivers of Eden (v. 14). Further on, we meet the Euphrates in the account of the covenant made by God with Abraham (Gen. 15:18).
In this passage the whole land, from the great river, the river Euphrates, to the river of Egypt (the Nile), is promised to the chosen people. In the prophets, as the river of the Assyrians and Babylonians, the Euphrates appears on the one hand as a symbol of the overwhelming fullness of the power and might of the king of Assyria (Isa. 8:7), and on the other as an instrument in the hand of God for the crushing of the pride of Judah and Jerusalem (Jer. 13:4–9). The waters of the Euphrates, of course, are meant by the Psalmist when he depicts the Jewish captives sitting and weeping by the rivers of Babylon (Ps. 137:1–2 [136:1–2]), and with the fullness of the Euphrates, Jesus the son of Sirach (24:28) compares the abundant fruits of true wisdom and knowledge: “He,” that is, the Lord, says the Wise Man, “maketh understanding to abound like the Euphrates, and like the Jordan in the time of harvest.” “And the passages are stopped,” prophesies Jeremiah of the fall of Babylon (51:32), “and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.” The Euphrates mentioned in Revelation is represented as the place from which, by God’s command, the bound destroying angels are to be released, prepared to strike mankind with various plagues.
In the Apocalypse, without doubt, this points very closely to the manner in which the Persians entered Babylon and took the city, and corresponds closely with Herodotus’s account of the fall of Babylon. The Euphrates still carries to the sea the same volume of water as in the days of the prophets, but a great part of it is lost through human neglect and indolence. The numerous watercourses that once irrigated the fields have dried up; the main channel has become shallow, and the stagnating water forms fetid marshes, harmful to health.
Eupolemus
(fortunate in war) (1 Macc. 8:17) — an envoy to Rome from Judas Maccabeus, in the year 161 B.C., for the conclusion of a friendly alliance with the Romans.
(Acts 27:14)—the violent wind that struck the ship carrying the apostle Paul after it sailed from Crete. The name has traditionally been connected with Greek words for an east or southeast wind and for surging waves; many modern texts read Eurakylon, probably indicating a northeaster. It belonged to the fierce Mediterranean winds that sailors called Levant winds. The storm drove Paul’s Alexandrian grain ship for fourteen days before it reached Malta. The source compares the “great wind” in Jonah 1:4 and cites a nineteenth-century traveler caught by a severe storm on a similar route, but those comparisons do not establish that every such storm was the identical wind.
(fortunate, prosperous, Greek) (Acts 20:9) — the name of a young man of Troas who, during the lengthy discourse of the Apostle Paul, sitting in a window, sank into a deep sleep and, overcome by drowsiness, fell down from the third story and was taken up dead; the Apostle Paul, however, miraculously restored him to life. Judging by the construction of present-day eastern houses, undoubtedly very similar to the houses of the most ancient times, it may be thought that such an occurrence could easily have happened, since windows among the Hebrews were usually covered with curtains, screens, or lattices, and sometimes stood open altogether (see House, dwellings).
, otherwise Obal (bare, stripped of leaves) — name of two persons: a) (Gen. 10:28) eighth son of Joktan, forefather of the Joktanite Arabs. The region they inhabited is unknown. In Bochart’s opinion they are identical with the Avalites of Ethiopia, but this opinion has insufficient grounds (Gesenius). b) (Gen. 36:23; 1 Chron. 1:40) of the sons of Shobal, son of Seir.
(bringers of good news) (Eph. 4:11) — the name given to those apostles and their fellow workers in the Christian Church who not only preached the Gospel by word, but also set it down in writing, namely: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The first and last were of the Twelve, the second and third of the Seventy Apostles. In the early Church this title was applied also to other fellow workers of the apostles and their successors who served the work of gospel preaching, though they left no writings behind them — such as, for example, the deacon Philip (Acts 21:8), and Timothy, disciple and companion of the Apostle Paul (1 Tim. 4:5), “the brother, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches” (2 Cor. 8:18); he assisted St. Paul in gospel preaching and probably for this reason belonged to the number of the evangelists.
On the basis of the words of the Apostle Paul (Eph. 4:11) it may be thought that evangelists generally held a high place in the Apostolic Church, since in the passage cited they are placed immediately after the apostles and prophets, and above pastors and teachers of the Church.
(life) (Gen. 3:20) — the name given by Adam to his wife. This name derives from the Hebrew word Chavvah, meaning “life,” since she was to become the mother of all living upon the earth. Eve was formed by God from Adam’s rib during his sleep (Gen. 2:21, 22), and afterward, deceived by the devil, who had taken on the form of a serpent, she broke the one commandment given by God to the first humans. Having tasted of the forbidden fruit, she induced Adam to do likewise (2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:13, 14).
When, convicted by God, they confessed their sin before Him, He, in His mercy, before pronouncing His judgment upon them, first laid a curse upon the serpent-tempter and gave to mankind the comforting promise of the crushing of the serpent’s head by the seed of the woman, and only then pronounced His judgment upon Adam and Eve. “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee,” the Lord said, among other things, to the woman (Gen. 3:1–16).
The subsequent life of Eve, who became the mother of the human race, is not described in Holy Scripture; it is only mentioned that, having borne her first son, she named him Cain (acquisition), saying, “I have gotten a man from the LORD” (Gen. 4:1), probably in the expectation that she had borne the Redeemer promised by God (3:15); but disappointed in her hope, she named her second son Abel (vanity, mourning), probably as a token of her disappointed hope, and as if with a presentiment of his unfortunate end.
Eve’s third son was named Seth (foundation), because in him was laid the foundation of a new, pious line in place of Abel. Afterward Adam and Eve had still more children, sons and daughters (Gen. 5:4). Vague traditions concerning the first humans, their origin, their fall, and so forth, are preserved in one form or another among various ancient peoples, such as the Persians, Indians, Egyptians, and others.
Evi
(desire) (Num. 31:8) — one of the five kings of Midian put to death by the Israelites for having seduced them into the impious worship of Baal-peor (25:17). The lands of these kings were afterward given to the tribe of Reuben (Josh. 13:21).
Eviezer
(father of help) (2 Sam. 23:27) — an Anathothite, of the sons of Benjamin, one of the mighty men of David’s army. In 1 Chronicles (27:12) he is given as Abiezer.
(2 Kings 25:27) — king of Babylon, evidently son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar. His reign began upon his father’s death and lasted only two years. During this time he showed favor to Jehoiachin, king of Judah, releasing him from the prison in which he had languished 37 years, treating him kindly, speaking with him graciously, and making him a permanent guest at his royal table. About 559 B.C. he was killed by Neriglissar, a Babylonian nobleman married to his sister, who thereby seized the Babylonian crown. Ancient writers say little of this king, and speak unfavorably of his character and manner of life (Berossus).
Evil, unclean spirit.
See Devil.
Evnii
(gift of God) (1 Chron. 6:41 [as given]) — a Levite of the family of Gershon.
Excommunication from the Church; curse
. See Anathema.
Exodus
—consisting of forty chapters, it tells of the miraculous exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt under the leadership of Moses and of the law given to the people on Mount Sinai, and continues the history of the chosen people of God from the death of Joseph to the building of the Tabernacle.
—the hairs bordering the eyelids. Proverbs warns a young man not to be captured by an adulterous woman’s eyelashes, an image of seductive glances (Prov. 6:25). Job poetically calls the first rays of dawn “the eyelids of the morning,” and the fire-breathing Leviathan’s eyes are compared to them (Job 3:9; 41:18). Ancient women could darken the eye area with cosmetic pigment, as Jezebel did before appearing at the window (2 Kings 9:30; compare Jer. 4:30; Ezek. 23:40). Scripture does not specify a single universal cosmetic mixture.
Ezbai Azobai
(glimmering, shining) (1 Chron. 11:37) — father of Naarai, one of the chief warriors of King David. In the parallel passage (2 Sam. 23:35) he is called Paarai the Arbite.
(Ezek 1:3 and elsewhere) - the third of the major prophets, son of Buzi, who, like Jeremiah and Zechariah, belonged to a priestly family. According to Jewish tradition he was a servant of the prophet Jeremiah, and some even identify his father Buzi with Jeremiah; there are, however, insufficient grounds for this. Ezekiel was born during the reign of Josiah, king of Judah, and at the age of twenty-five, about 600 BC, was taken captive to Babylon together with King Jehoiachin (Ezek 1:2; 2 Kgs 24:6-12), probably settling with the other captives on the banks of the river Chebar in Chaldea.
There he saw the manifestation of God's glory in the cherubic chariot and was called to the prophetic ministry (Ezek 1:2-28; 2-3). Nothing certain is known of his later fate or death. From his prophetic book we know only that he lived in his own house at Tel-abib (Ezek 3:24; 8:1), that he was married and tenderly loved his wife, that she died suddenly (24:16-18), and that his prophetic ministry continued for twenty-two years (29:17). Tradition adds that one of the Jewish princes whom he rebuked for idolatry put him to death; that his tomb near ancient Babylon continued even in the source's day to be a place of pilgrimage for Eastern Jews; and that Muslims too regarded it as a special shrine.
The tomb's construction was attributed to King Jehoiachin, who, according to tradition, placed in it the autograph manuscript of Ezekiel's prophecies, before which a lamp was said to burn continually. A full description may be found in the diary of the twelfth-century Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela and in the later Travels of Niebuhr.
Ezem
(firm) (Josh. 15:29) — a city on the extreme south of the tribe of Judah, originally belonging to this tribe, but afterward included in the territory of the tribe of Simeon (Josh. 19:3). It is also called Ezem (1 Chron. 4:29).
Ezer
(help, protection) — name of five persons mentioned in 1 Chronicles and the book of Nehemiah:
Ezer
(union) (Gen. 36:21, 27, 30) — one of the sons of Seir, a chief of the Horites in the land of Edom.
(backbone of a man, or of a person generally) — a seaport on the eastern arm of the Red Sea, at its northern extremity, adjoining Elath. It served as one of the camping places for the Israelites during their forty years’ wandering in the wilderness (Num. 33:35, 36). Here Solomon built his merchant fleet (1 Kings 9:26), for which he hired sailors from Tyre (2 Chron. 8:17, 18) for trade with Ophir. The ships of Jehoshaphat were wrecked at this place (1 Kings 22:48). It is said that the presumed ruins of the city can still be seen in the sea at low tide, near Akaba, but this is very doubtful. It is far more likely that the actual site of Ezion-geber lies somewhat inland, in the direction north of the head of the Gulf of Akaba.
Ezor.
See 2 Esdras 9:34.
(help): a) (Ezra 7:1) son of Seraiah and descendant of the high priest Hilkiah, who lived in the days of King Josiah. All that is known about Ezra is contained in the last four chapters of the book of Ezra and in chapters 8 and 12 of the book of Nehemiah. From these passages we see that Ezra, who was of the line of Aaron, was a pious and learned priest living in Babylon under king Artaxerxes Longimanus; further, they tell us that in the seventh year of that king’s reign he received permission to go up to Jerusalem, and took with him all the Jews who wished to return to their homeland, as well as priests, Levites, singers, and others.
The number of those who wished to accompany Ezra to Judea came to 1,734 persons (Ezra 8; Neh. 7). Their journey from Babylon to Jerusalem took four months. “And we came to Jerusalem,” says the sacred writer, “and abode there three days. Now on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Meremoth… and all was reckoned by number and by weight, and all the weight was written at that time” (Ezra 8:32–34). These offerings were designated for the future Temple at Jerusalem and for the purchase of sacrificial animals.
Ezra then entered upon the discharge of his ministry, and did very much to establish good order and discipline among the people and to preserve the law of God in all its purity. Learning that not only ordinary Jews, but even Levites and priests, contrary to the Law of Moses, had entered into marriage with pagan women, he showed on this occasion a particular zeal for God and His law, and bound the people and the priests by oath to put away these unlawful marriages, as a result of which more than a hundred unlawful marriages were dissolved at that time (Ezra 9, 10).
His prayer, uttered on this occasion, was so moving that the whole people wept bitterly. With this account of his pious reforms, the biography of Ezra breaks off rather abruptly. Nothing more is said of him for a period of thirteen years, up until the very arrival of Nehemiah in Jerusalem (Neh. 2:11; 5:14; 8). Ezra probably spent all this time in Persia, and returned to Jerusalem again under Nehemiah, in the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes. Of Ezra’s part in the restoration of the wall of Jerusalem, which was Nehemiah’s special concern (Neh. 2, 3, 4, 6), nothing is said, but at the dedication of the wall he is clearly mentioned (Neh. 12:26–36).
Ezra went up onto the wall with the leaders of Judea, and on that day of rejoicing for the Jews, in the presence of all the people gathered in the street, he read aloud, amid the utmost universal reverence and attention, the words of the Book of the Law; and since he read in the original Hebrew, the other priests present at the time translated his words into the Chaldean [Aramaic] language, which was native to Babylon and common to the Jewish captives. This considerably eased Ezra’s labor, for he read from morning until noon, which continued also on the following day.
The reading of the Book of the Law was accompanied by the solemn celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, which lasted eight days, during which Ezra read and explained the Law to the people every day (Neh. 8, 9, 10). Some time after this, according to the testimony of Josephus, Ezra died in old age and was buried with great magnificence in Jerusalem. According to Jewish tradition, he died during his last journey from Jerusalem back to Persia, and was buried on the border of Persia at Nehar Samora, on the lower Tigris, where his tomb is pointed out to this day.
Among the other great achievements accomplished by Ezra for the good of his homeland, according to Prideaux, two important deeds especially claim our attention: namely, the restoration of the observances of Jewish law according to the ancient customs that had been in use among the Jews before the Babylonian captivity and were in accordance with the indications of the prophets; and, further, the gathering and combining of the sacred Old Testament books into a single collection — the establishment of their canon — in the course of which he undoubtedly corrected errors that had crept into the copies then in use through the carelessness or ignorance of copyists, and replaced obsolete place-names with their more modern equivalents.
Besides this, Ezra is credited as the author of 1 and 2 Chronicles, the book of Ezra, and the second part of the same — the book of Nehemiah. He is also credited with founding the Great Synagogue and other synagogues, and with introducing into use, for the writing of Holy Scripture, the Chaldean [square Aramaic] script.
Ezra Esdras
(“help”) (1 Chron. 4:17)—the father of Jether, Mered, Epher, and Jalon in a Judahite genealogy. He is distinct from Ezra the priest and scribe.
Ezrahite Zarite
(native, home-born, indigenous) (1 Kings 4:31; Ps. 88:1 [87:1], and elsewhere) — so were called Ethan and Heman, sons of Zerah, distinguished for their wisdom, though Solomon, says the sacred writer, was wiser still than they and than all other men (1 Kings 4:31).
Ezri Esdri
(God is my helper) (1 Chron. 27:26) — son of Chelub, one of the overseers of David’s estate, having charge of the work of the field.
Ezril. Esril
(See 2 Esdras 9:34.)
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