433 entries · Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
—a Hebrew word meaning hosts or armies. It occurs frequently in the Hebrew Old Testament but only twice in the New Testament, in Romans 9:29 and James 5:4. As a divine title it expresses God’s limitless majesty, His dominion over all creation, His omnipotence, and His glory. He is the God of hosts, the Lord of powers, exalted above all; the hosts of angels surround and serve Him, while all nature obeys Him and bears unceasing witness to His power.
—the seventh day of the week, set apart by God as a day of rest. Its name derives from ceasing. Genesis grounds it in God’s rest after creation (Gen. 2:2–3), while the Decalogue commands Israel to remember and sanctify it, giving rest to the household, servants, resident alien, and animals (Exod. 20:8–11; Deut. 5:12–15). The day was reckoned from evening to evening. Ordinary labor and kindling fire were forbidden, and the sanctuary offered an additional sacrifice (Exod. 35:3; Num. 28:9–10).
. See Measures of Distance.
(meaning uncertain) (Gen. 10:7; 1 Chron. 1:9)—the third son of Cush, son of Ham. The source reports the older supposition that his descendants settled along the coast of the Arabian Gulf.
(Gen. 10:7; 1 Chron. 1:9)—the fifth son of Cush. The source reports the conjecture that his descendants settled in Ethiopia.
(reward; wages)—the name of two persons: (1) (1 Chron. 11:35) father of Ahiam, one of David’s mighty men; 2 Samuel 23:33 calls Ahiam a son of Sharar the Hararite. (2) (1 Chron. 26:4) a Temple gatekeeper in David’s days, one of the sons of Obed-edom.
(Rev. 6:12) — a coarse, dark-colored fabric, made from goat’s hair. From this fabric were made sacks (Gen. 42:25), as well as garments worn by men and women as a sign of mourning (1 Kings 21:27; 2 Kings 6:30; Job 16:15; Isa. 32:11; Jonah 3:6; Joel 1:8; 2 Macc. 3:19). This garment was, it seems, of the simplest form, resembling a sack. Sackcloth was sometimes girded with a belt of the same fabric (Isa. 3:24); sometimes, in special mourning, it was also worn at night (1 Kings 21:27 [as given]).
From time immemorial we find the custom of offering sacrifices prevailing among almost all peoples then known. Even in the most primitive times of the human race, we see from Holy Scripture that the sons of our first parents offered sacrifices (minchah) to God: Cain of the fruit of the ground which he tilled, and Abel of the firstlings of the flocks which he raised (Gen. 4:3). The patriarch Noah, after the Flood, in thanksgiving to God for his deliverance, offered a burnt offering of every clean beast and of every clean bird (Gen. 8:20).
In the same way the patriarchs built altars at the sites of divine appearances, for offering sacrifice and calling upon the name of God (Gen. 12:7; 13:4; 26:25, and elsewhere). Until the time of Moses, the motive and underlying thought of sacrifice was not so much a sense of guilt or sin, which separates man from God, as an impulse of love and gratitude toward God for the benefits received from Him. We first meet with the atoning significance of sacrifice at the offering of the burnt offering by Job for his children (Job 1:5) and for his three friends (42:8).
The same significance of sacrifice is found in the words of Moses to Pharaoh concerning the sacrifices in the wilderness (Exod. 10:25). In general, the sacrifices of the Old Testament served as a great foreshadowing of that higher sacrifice which the Son of God was one day to offer on earth for the sins of mankind. The Law prescribed not only the material for the sacrifices and how they were to be handled, but also established various kinds and forms of sacrifice for the various circumstances of the Israelites.
The material for sacrifices consisted partly of animals, partly of the produce of the plant kingdom. The sacrificial animals, of either sex, were: the larger cattle (bull, ox, calf) and the smaller cattle (goats and sheep), among which the lamb or ram is especially specified (Num. 15:5, 6; 28:11); then birds, namely turtledoves and young pigeons (Lev. 1:14). As to the qualities required of the sacrificial animals: a certain age was required (Lev. 22:27, 29) — of the smaller cattle it had to be a year old (Exod. 12:5), and of the larger, three years old; and above all, bodily soundness was required: they had to be without any blemish, and blind, maimed, broken-limbed, or castrated animals, and the like, could not be used as sacrificial victims (Lev. 22:20–24).
Offerings to God from the produce of plants consisted of bread, meat [grain], frankincense, salt, and wine. The first was offered also in the form of ears of grain (Lev. 2:14), dried by fire and beaten out, and as wheat flour (Lev. 2:1), with oil poured upon it and frankincense placed on it, and as unleavened bread (Lev. 2:2ff.) and as wheat flour prepared in a pan with oil (Lev. 2:7). Every grain offering had to be seasoned with salt (Lev. 2:13; Mark 9:49) and could not be leavened: leavened dough and honey were not to be burned upon the fire of the LORD (Lev. 2:11). Finally, for the drink offerings, wine was used, in all likelihood of a dark red color.
(2 Esd. 8:2)—an ancestor of Ezra the priest; the standard English form is Zadok.
(Matt. 3:7)—a Jewish sect frequently mentioned in the New Testament. Jewish tradition connected its origin with a Zadok who studied under Antigonus of Socho, a president of the Jewish Sanhedrin said to have lived in the third century BC. The source also associates the name with the priestly line of Zadok. The Sadducees denied eternal blessedness and punishment in the age to come, the existence of angels and evil spirits, and the resurrection of the dead (Matt. 22:23; Acts 23:8).
Their skeptical and materialistic teaching was not widely received, though some adherents were wealthy and prominent. The source says the Pharisees exercised much greater influence among the people.
(Song 4:14)—the fragrant garden plant *Crocus sativus*. Its violet flowers bear three orange-red stigmas, which are dried to produce saffron. The spice and dye were highly valued in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East and were used in perfume, food, medicine, and coloring. The source’s description of harvesting in Egypt and southern Europe reflects nineteenth-century botany and trade.
(shoot; descendant) (Gen. 10:24; Luke 3:35–36)—a descendant of Arphaxad, identical with Shelah in the genealogies.
(Jdt. 8:1)—an ancestor of Judith from the tribe of Simeon.
(Acts 13:5)—an ancient city at the southeastern corner of Cyprus, later known as Constantia and associated by the source with Famagusta. Saul, Barnabas, and John preached the word of God there in the Jewish synagogues, and the city later became an episcopal see. It must not be confused with the island of Salamis near Greece, where Themistocles won his celebrated victory over the Persians.
(journey; wandering) (Deut. 3:10; Josh. 12:5)—an ancient city on Bashan’s eastern frontier, at the limit of Og’s territory. After Israel’s conquest it and all Bashan passed to the half-tribe of Manasseh. Its extensive ruins, called Salhad or, less correctly according to the source, Sarhad, showed that it remained an important city in Roman and later times.
(peace)—the name of several places or persons: (1) (Gen. 14:18) by common opinion the place afterward called Jerusalem (Ps. 76:2), whose king Melchizedek came with gifts to meet Abraham after his victory; the source regards Salem as an abbreviated form of Jerusalem. (2) (John 3:23) a place near Aenon where John baptized, west of the Jordan; its exact position was unknown, though some identified it with Sheikh Salim near Beth-shean and noted a place called Ainun or Aenon near the Jordan’s western bank. (3) (2 Esd. 8:1) an ancestor of Ezra; Ezra 7:2 gives Shallum.
(weighed; precious)—the name of two persons: (1) (Neh. 11:8) a leader of a Benjaminite family living in Jerusalem after the exile; and (2) a head of a priestly course in the days of Joiakim.
—the name of several persons: (1–2) (1 Chron. 9:7; Neh. 11:7) two leaders of Benjaminite families living in Jerusalem before the exile and after the return; and (3) (Neh. 12:7) a head of a priestly family that returned with Zerubbabel.
(garment) (1 Chron. 2:54)—a son of Hur, son of Caleb, in the line of Judah.
(God is protection) (Neh. 7:48)—one of the temple servants; Ezra 2:46 gives Shamlai, while 2 Esdras preserves Salmai.
(shady)—the name of three places or persons: (1) (Num. 33:41) one of Israel’s wilderness encampments; (2) (Ruth 4:20; Matt. 1:4–5) son of Nahshon, father of Boaz, and an ancestor of King David named in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ; and (3) (Acts 27:7) a cape on Crete passed by the ship carrying Paul to trial before Caesar in Rome, celebrated in antiquity for a shrine of Minerva.
(2 Esd. 9:22)—a priest of the sons of Pashhur in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah; Ezra 10:22 gives Elasa.
(1 Macc. 2:26). See Salu.
—the name of two women: (1) (Mark 15:40–41) wife of Zebedee and mother of James the Elder and John the Evangelist. She followed the Lord Jesus from Galilee and, like others, at first misunderstood the nature of His kingdom (Matt. 20:21). She was present at His Crucifixion and burial and was among the myrrh-bearing women who came early to anoint His body. Some considered her a sister of the Virgin Mary; the Church commemorates her with the Myrrh-bearing Women. (2) The daughter of Herodias (Matt. 14:6; Mark 6:22), whose name is supplied by Josephus rather than the Gospels. The source condemns her part in Herod’s beheading of Saint John the Baptist and records a later tradition about her death.
—a mineral abundant in Palestine, especially around the Dead Sea, and indispensable for seasoning and preserving food. Job asks, “Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt?” (Job 6:6). Ezra 4:14 speaks literally of those who “eat the salt of the palace,” an idiom for receiving the king’s support and therefore owing him service.
(meaning uncertain) (Num. 25:14; compare 1 Macc. 2:26)—father of Zimri, a leader of Simeon, who openly brought the Midianite woman Cozbi into Israel’s camp and was slain with her by Phinehas at the scene of the offense. See Zimri.
(2 Esd. 9:25)—one of the gatekeepers in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah; Ezra 10:24 gives Shallum.
(watch-place; watchtower)—the name of both a region and a city. (1) (1 Kings 13:32 and elsewhere) the central region of Canaan between Galilee on the north and Judea on the south, called Samaria in the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. It included the territories of Ephraim and Manasseh; the source’s contemporary districts contained Caesarea and Mount Carmel in the west and Shechem and the city of Samaria around Nablus.
(watch-place) (1 Kings 16:24)—the hill that Omri king of Israel bought from its owner Shemer and upon which he built Samaria, naming the city after Shemer. In the source’s day the summit was built over and the slopes were encircled by terraces, with higher traces that may have marked the ancient roads. The surrounding hills were largely cultivated and dotted with villages and gardens.
(2 Kings 17:29)—the people who inhabited Samaria after the Assyrian king deported much of Israel and settled colonists from his own dominions in their place. The source describes intermarriage between these colonists and the remaining Israelites. They feared the LORD while also serving their own gods, regarding Him as the protective deity of the land and retaining pagan customs. The source also reports the alternative older view that they were wholly pagan settlers. Matthew 10:5 distinguishes Samaritans both from Jews and from Gentiles.
(2 Esd. 9:34)—an Israelite of the sons of Bani who had married a foreign wife.
(friend of Nebo) (Jer. 39:3)—a title or name associated with Nergal-sharezer, one of the Babylonian princes. The source interprets it as the title of a high religious official.
(2 Esd. 8:54)—a priest in Babylon in Ezra’s day; the corresponding passages in Ezra 8:19 and 8:24 give Hashabiah in the source’s comparison.
(garment) (Gen. 36:36; 1 Chron. 1:47)—a king from Masrekah in Edom.
(2 Esd. 9:43)—a priest in Ezra’s day; Nehemiah 8:4 gives the corresponding name Shemaiah.
(Acts 20:15)—an island of the Aegean Sea near the coast of Lydia in Asia Minor, between eighty and one hundred Roman miles in circumference according to the source. Its chief city bore the same name. Pythagoras was born there, a vast temple was dedicated to the pagan goddess Hera, and the inhabitants were famed for pottery. Saint Paul passed the island while sailing from Troas to Miletus. In the source’s day it was called Susam-Adassi, and its chief settlement was described as poor.
(Acts 16:11)—an Aegean island about thirty-two English miles from the Thracian coast. Its name means Thracian Samos, distinguishing it from Samos proper. The source calls it Samothraki and sparsely populated. Paul stopped there while traveling to Macedonia.
(1 Macc. 15:23)—a place or city named among the Greek territories of Asia Minor. The source reports a harbor and active trade and conjecturally identifies it with Samsun on the Black Sea.
(sun) (Judg. 13:24)—son of Manoah and judge of Israel for twenty years. The circumstances surrounding his birth were extraordinary; see Manoah. Contrary to the wishes of his law-observant parents, Samson desired a Philistine woman of Timnah. While traveling there with them, a young lion came against him; the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he tore it as one would tear a kid, though he had nothing in his hand (Judg. 14:6). Later he found a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass, ate some, and brought some to his parents.
(asked of God)—the name of three persons: (1) (Num. 34:20) son of Ammihud, appointed to represent Simeon when the Promised Land was divided under Moses; (2) (1 Chron. 7:2) son of Tola and a leader in Issachar; and (3) (1 Sam. 1:20; 2:11; Acts 3:24; Heb. 11:32 and elsewhere) the prophet and judge of Israel. Samuel’s parents, Elkanah and Hannah, lived at Ramathaim-zophim near the hill country of Ephraim. Elkanah was a Levite descended through Kohath (1 Chron. 6:27, 34). His other wife, Peninnah, had sons and daughters, but Hannah, whom he loved, was childless and endured Peninnah’s taunts.
(heard) (1 Chron. 14:4)—one of David’s sons born in Jerusalem. The source associates him with Bathsheba and compares the form Shimea in 1 Chronicles 3:5.
(2 Esd. 5:23)—a city of the tribe of Judah named in the cited passage.
(2 Esd. 5:24)—one of the priests who returned with Zerubbabel.
(Neh. 2:10)—an official in Samaria under Persian rule, called the Horonite from his birthplace or residence. Hostile toward the Jews, he employed every measure and stratagem he could to hinder Nehemiah’s rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall.
(Gen. 22:17; Ex. 2:12 and elsewhere)—a mineral substance composed of small particles of quartz and other minerals formed by the wearing away of flint-bearing or quartz rock. In Holy Scripture sand sometimes symbolizes an innumerable multitude, as in Abraham’s descendants (Gen. 22:17), the grain Joseph gathered during Egypt’s years of plenty (Gen. 41:49), the multitude of the Canaanite army (Josh. 11:4), and birds (Ps. 78:27).
—a form of footwear mentioned once in the New Testament of the Slavonic Bible (Mark 6:9). In their simplest form sandals consisted of a single wooden sole fastened to the foot with leather straps. See Footwear.
(Matt. 5:22; 26:59; Mark 14:55; Luke 22:66; John 11:47; Acts 4:15 and elsewhere)—the supreme Jewish council at Jerusalem. The source gives it seventy-two members under the high priest’s presidency, chosen chiefly from Pharisees and Sadducees by vote or lot. The high priest, called its head or prince, summoned its meetings, and the source says that nothing was decided without him (John 11:47; Acts 5:21). According to Talmudic opinion it ordinarily met in a chamber adjoining the Temple, but in exceptional cases assembled in the high priest’s house (Matt. 26:3; John 18:24).
(Josh. 15:31)—one of the southern cities of Judah or Simeon, listed after Ziklag and Madmannah.
(container; extent) (2 Sam. 21:18)—a descendant of the giant, slain by Sibbecai the Hushathite during David’s war with the Philistines. First Chronicles 20:4 gives the form Sippai.
(2 Esd. 5:34)—one of the descendants of Solomon’s servants who returned from captivity with Zerubbabel.
(hearing; report) (2 Sam. 21)—a brother of David and father of Jonathan in the source’s form of the name; the corresponding standard biblical form is Shimea or Shimei.
(2 Esd. 5:35)—an ancestor among Solomon’s servants whose descendants returned from captivity with Zerubbabel. Ezra 2:57 and Nehemiah 7:59 preserve related but different forms in the corresponding list.
(Acts 5:1–10)—the wife of Ananias. She and her husband were struck dead after lying to the Holy Spirit. See Ananias.
(Exod. 28:18; Rev. 21:19)—a precious stone surpassed, in the source’s description, only by the diamond in beauty, brilliance, and hardness. Its deep azure or cornflower-blue color resembles the heavens and may underlie the imagery in Exodus 24:10 and Ezekiel 1:26 and 10:1. Sapphire was the second stone in the second row of the high priest’s breastplate of judgment and is numbered among the foundation stones of the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem. The ancients obtained it from Ethiopia and India.
(my princess; princess of a multitude)—the name of three women in Scripture. (1) (Gen. 11:29; 20:12) the wife of Abraham. She accompanied him when he left his homeland, and thereafter her history is closely joined with his. Their home had been Ur of the Chaldees. She was exceedingly beautiful and, during the famine that brought them to Egypt, was taken into Pharaoh’s household but delivered by God (Gen. 12).
(1 Macc. 14:28)—an otherwise unknown locality; the name occurs nowhere else in Scripture.
(burning) (1 Chron. 4:22)—a son of Shelah, son of Judah, who had dominion in Moab.
(Jdt. 8:1)—another ancestor of Judith, likewise probably of the tribe of Simeon.
(2 Esd. 9:40)—one of the Levites named in the cited passage.
(Rev. 1:11; 3:1)—a city in Asia Minor, capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, situated by the River Pactolus at the foot of Mount Tmolus. Croesus reigned there and became famous for both his wealth and his misfortunes. Cyrus plundered the city, yet it remained rich and important. Near the time of Christ’s birth an earthquake destroyed it, but it was rebuilt. One of the seven churches of Asia addressed in Revelation was at Sardis; the apostolic warning shows that it had already fallen from the height of its spiritual life (Rev. 3:1–6).
(Rev. 4:3)—a precious red stone capable of taking a fine polish. Its Greek name was probably derived from the Lydian city of Sardis, where it was first found. In Revelation its bright, fiery color serves as an image of God’s glory and majesty.
(Rev. 21:20)—a precious stone combining the red color of sardius with the whiteness of onyx, from which it takes its name. The source says that fine sardius and sardonyx were found in Judea. Genesis 2:12 names onyx as a distinctive product of the land of Havilah. Onyx stones were used for the ephod and breastplate (Exod. 25:7; 28:9), and the names of Israel’s tribes were engraved upon two such stones (Exod. 28:9, 12). Onyx also appears in Job 28:16 and Ezekiel 28:13, and sardonyx among the stones adorning the foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem. The stone was well suited to rings, seals, and carving.
(2 Esd. 5:5)—a priest, father of Josedek and grandfather of Jeshua the high priest, from the line of Aaron. The corresponding standard form is Seraiah.
(leader; commander) (Isa. 20:1)—king of Assyria, successor of Shalmaneser and predecessor of Sennacherib, and founder of the last Assyrian dynasty before the Babylonian conquest. The Assyrian royal name Sarru-kin means “the true king.” He built a palace at Khorsabad whose walls and pavements bore sculptured reliefs and cuneiform inscriptions recording his victories. His name occurs only once in the Bible, where he sent his commander Tartan to conquer Ashdod.
(refuge; place of refuge) (Josh. 19:10, 12)—a city or locality in the territory of Zebulun. Its location was unknown to the source.
(2 Esd. 14:24)—one of the scribes in the days of Ezra.
(2 Esd. 5:34)—a leader among the families descended from Solomon’s servants, whose sons returned from captivity with Zerubbabel. The source form does not correspond securely to a standard English biblical spelling.
(Jer. 39:3)—one of Nebuchadnezzar’s chief officers at the capture of Jerusalem in the days of Zedekiah; the source describes him as chief of the eunuchs.
(1 Chron. 21:1 and elsewhere)—a Hebrew word meaning an adversary or enemy. In Scripture the name is especially applied to the devil, chief of the evil spirits, enemy of God, tempter, and destroyer of human souls. The Lord’s use of the word toward the Apostle Peter in Matthew 16:23 identifies the satanic temptation expressed in Peter’s rebuke.
(2 Esd. 6:3)—one of the officials of Syria and Phoenicia in Zerubbabel’s time who earnestly assisted the Jewish priests and elders in continuing the construction of the Temple. Ezra 5:3 and elsewhere give Shethar-bozenai.
(hairy, shaggy; goat or demon) (Isa 34:14; 13:21) - Isaiah says that desert creatures shall meet with wild beasts and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; of desolate Babylon he says that satyrs shall dance there. The word literally denotes a hairy, shaggy animal, perhaps a goat, though the source considers a baboon more likely.
(asked for; desired)—the name by which the holy Apostle Paul was known before and during the beginning of his Christian life. See Paul.
(asked for; prayed for)—the name of four persons in the Old Testament. (1) (Gen. 36:37–38) an Edomite king from Rehoboth by the River, probably the Euphrates. (2) (Gen. 46:10) a son of Simeon, son of the patriarch Jacob, by a Canaanite woman; from him descended the clan of the Shaulites. (3) (1 Chron. 6:24) an ancestor of the Prophet Samuel. (4) (1 Sam. 9:2) the first king of Israel, son of Kish of Benjamin. Kish was prominent among the Israelites, and Saul was distinguished by his beauty and height: from his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.
(free gift of God) (1 Chron. 3:18)—one of the sons or descendants of Jeconiah in the source’s form of the name. The corresponding standard English lists do not preserve this spelling securely.
(2 Esd. 9:33)—an Israelite of the sons of Asom. Ezra 10:33 gives the corresponding name Zabad.
(2 Esd. 8:62)—a Levite named in the cited book. Ezra 8:33 gives the corresponding name Binnui.
—the name of an Israelite and of a month: (1) (2 Esd. 9:28) an Israelite who had married a foreign wife; Ezra 10:27 gives the name Zabad. (2) Shebat (Zech. 1:7), the eleventh month of the Hebrew year, extending from the new moon of February to the new moon of March.
(2 Esd. 9:48)—one of the Levites who instructed the people in the Law in the days of Ezra.
(2 Esd. 5:34)—one of the descendants of Solomon’s servants. Ezra 2:57 and Nehemiah 7:59 give the corresponding family name Pochereth-hazzebaim.
(Luke 2:11; John 4:42)—one who delivers from danger or ruin. Scripture can use the word for human deliverers, but in its fullest and unique sense it belongs to God and to Jesus Christ, “the Saviour of the world.” The name Jesus itself declares His mission: “for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). His salvation is not merely rescue from temporal distress but deliverance from sin and death and the gift of eternal life.
(2 Esd. 9:14)—a Levite in the days of Ezra; Ezra 10:15 gives the corresponding name Shabbethai.
(2 Esd. 9:32)—a son of Anan among the Israelites who had married foreign wives; Ezra 10:31 gives the corresponding name Shemaiah.
(Lev 16:8-10) - on the great Day of Atonement two goats were set before the LORD, and lots determined which would be sacrificed and which sent into the wilderness. The first was slain as a sin offering. Upon the head of the second, after leaving the Holy of Holies, the high priest laid his hands and confessed the sins of all the people; the goat was then driven away: 'And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness' (Lev 16:22).
The source interprets this solemn rite as prefiguring the voluntary death of the God-man for the sins of the whole human race and the grace obtained through His sufferings and death for victory over sin and death.
See Purple.
—a staff, commonly five or six feet long in ancient representations, sometimes covered with gold, encircled with ornamental bands, and finished with a decorated tip. It served as a sign of royal authority. Jacob’s prophecy, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah” (Gen. 49:10), promises the continuance of rule in Judah until the coming of Shiloh. The emblem probably arose from the shepherd’s staff; Saul’s spear likewise appears beside him as a mark of kingship. The ruler might extend the scepter as a sign of favor, as Ahasuerus did to Esther, while in other ancient literature the staff could also punish. Scripture speaks of the Messiah’s “sceptre of righteousness” (Ps. 45:6) and His “rod of iron” against rebellious nations (Ps. 2:9).
(Acts 19:14)—a Jewish chief priest at Ephesus whose seven sons practiced exorcism. When they attempted to invoke “Jesus whom Paul preacheth,” the evil spirit answered that it knew Jesus and Paul but not them; the possessed man overpowered them, and they fled wounded and naked. Fear fell upon Ephesus, the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified, and many converts openly burned their books of magic, valued at fifty thousand pieces of silver.
(raft or landing place; 3 Macc. 4:9)—a port and customs station near Alexandria at which ships arrived and tolls were collected.
(Deut. 8:15; Luke 10:19; Rev. 9:3, 5, 10)—a harmful and venomous creature found in Africa, India, Persia, Arabia, and other warm regions. It resembles a lobster in general form and carries its sting in the jointed tail. Its sting can cause intense pain and, in severe cases, death. Scorpions hide in ruins, dark crevices, and beneath stones. When curled up they can resemble an egg, a circumstance traditionally used to illustrate Luke 11:12. Moses calls the wilderness through which Israel passed “great and terrible,” with fiery serpents and scorpions (Deut. 8:15).
(John 2:15)—a whip could be made from leather straps or cords. Under the law of Moses judicial flogging was limited to forty blows, and later Jewish practice stopped at thirty-nine to avoid exceeding the command (Deut. 25:1-3; 2 Cor. 11:24). Roman scourging was not governed by this biblical limit and could inflict terrible wounds; Paul invoked his Roman citizenship when soldiers were preparing to examine him by flogging (Acts 22:24-29). Beating with rods was a distinct punishment that Paul also endured (2 Cor. 11:25).
- see Lawyer.
—see Book; Writing Materials.
(2 Macc. 4:47; 12:29; 3 Macc. 7:5; Col. 3:11)—a collective name for nomadic peoples north of the Caspian and Black Seas and farther east. The populations so named were diverse, though ancient writers often treated them as one warlike people. The encyclopedia connects them with Japheth’s descendants and recalls their raids into western Asia. Paul’s declaration that in Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian nor Scythian, slave nor free, overturns inherited boundaries of ethnicity and status (Col. 3:11).
Later tradition associated the Apostle Andrew’s preaching with Scythian lands, and old ecclesiastical usage spoke of Scythian and Cherson dioceses. The source’s references to the Russian Empire and its descriptions of Scythians as uncivilized reflect nineteenth-century geography and stereotypes.
(Judg. 1:27; Judith 3:10)—the Greek name of Beth-shean. The city lay in the territory of Issachar but was assigned to Manasseh, whose people did not initially drive out its Canaanite inhabitants. In Hellenistic and Roman times it was a strongly fortified, predominantly pagan member of the Decapolis. Jewish tradition praised the fertility of its district and the excellence of its palms and olives. The encyclopedia’s travelers describe a small source-era village of seventy or eighty houses among imposing ruins in a landscape that had become barren. These demographic and environmental observations belong to the nineteenth century. See Beth-shean.
(Gen. 1:10)—this word is applied by the sacred writers to lakes, rivers, and, in general, to every large gathering of waters, as well as to what are properly called seas (Is. 21:1, Jer. 51:36). In the first-cited passage in the prophet Isaiah it is used to designate the river Nile, at that part of it which is called the Delta. Among the Hebrews, “sea” and “west” meant one and the same thing, because of the western position of the seas relative to them, with reference to the Mediterranean Sea. The seas mentioned in Holy Scripture are the following:
(John 21:1)—another name for the Sea of Galilee, also called the Lake of Gennesaret. See Sea of Galilee.
(Lev. 11:16)—a small sea bird listed among birds Israel was not to eat. Gulls frequent coasts, islands, lakes, and rivers; they feed on fish, insects, carrion, eggs, and many other foods. They are strong fliers and capable swimmers, usually nesting in colonies and laying several mottled eggs. The source’s detailed account of their behavior, migration, and use as food or a source of down reflects nineteenth-century natural history. The exact Hebrew bird meant by the biblical term remains debated.
(1 Kings 21:8). Among the Hebrews a seal was ordinarily used to authenticate public and private documents (Jer. 32:10). If a door or chest had to be sealed, it was first tied with a cord; moist clay or wax was placed over the cord at its midpoint and then impressed with the seal.
(Matt. 21:12)—stools, chairs, couches, and other places for sitting or reclining. Ordinary Near Eastern homes traditionally used mats and rugs, while wealthier houses also had cushions, low couches, and decorated furniture. Ancient Israelites at first commonly sat on the ground; in later periods reclining at meals became familiar. Amos condemns luxurious indifference among those who lie on ivory beds while ignoring the ruin of Joseph (Amos 6:4–7). These descriptions reflect both biblical evidence and the encyclopedia’s period observations of Eastern domestic life.
(Jonah 2:5) - marine vegetation grew abundantly from ancient times along Mediterranean shores. The source says that the Arabian Gulf was called the Red Sea because abundant seaweed gave its waters a red-green appearance. Another kind of river growth was the Nile reed or rush, which grew profusely along the Nile; among it Moses' mother once hid the infant in a reed basket (Exod 2:3, 5).
(Jonah 2:6) — sea, water grass, as it is read in the Russian translation in the citation given. Seaweed is mentioned in the prayer of the prophet Jonah to God from the belly of the whale: “the weeds were wrapped about my head.” There are very many kinds of it; some are of microscopic size, while others reach gigantic dimensions, up to 200 sazhens in length. The green color of our standing waters depends on the enormous multitude of small, green, freshwater algae, which sometimes cover the surface of the water like a thick felt.
—an ancient word of uncertain origin, used in Scripture both as a personal name and as the name of a people. (1) (Gen. 10:7) a son of Cush and perhaps his firstborn. (2) (Isa. 45:14) a country, city, or people. The source identifies this Seba with an African region in Meroë, which Josephus says was anciently called Saba, and reports that its chief city bore the same name. Nineteenth-century travelers placed it among ruins about four miles from the Nubian town of Shendi in Dar al-Atbara.
—ancient names of uncertain meaning, used in Scripture both of persons and of peoples. (1) Seba (Gen. 10:7), one of the sons of Cush and perhaps his firstborn. (2) Saba or Seba (Isa. 45:14), the name of a country, city, or people; in the latter sense the plural is rendered Sabeans. The source identifies an African Saba with Meroë in Ethiopia, a prosperous trading region watered by branches of the Nile, and mentions ruins near Shendi. The kings of Arabia and Saba occur together in Psalm 72:10, while Saba is linked with Ethiopia in the source’s Psalm citation. Isaiah 45:14 likewise joins the Sabeans with Egypt and Ethiopia, supporting the older interpreters who placed this Saba in northeastern Africa.
—the promised return of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory. Jesus repeatedly called his disciples to watchfulness because the day and hour are not disclosed (Matt. 24:42-44; 25:13; Luke 17:30). At the Ascension the angels declared that the same Jesus who had been taken into heaven would come in the same manner as the apostles had seen him go (Acts 1:11). His first coming was marked by humility, suffering, and service; at his return the Son of Man will come in glory with his angels, gather his people, expose evil, raise the dead, and judge the world (Matt. 25:31-46; John 5:28-29; 1 Thess. 4:16-17).
- Paul's letter of thirteen chapters. After the first epistle he sent Titus to Corinth to learn its effect and to collect alms for poor Palestinian Christians. Titus reported that the letter had been received reverently and that conduct was improving, but also that Paul's delay in coming had given false teachers occasion to accuse him of cowardice and instability in both his promises and his doctrine.
(second; fortunate) (Acts 20:4)—a companion of the Apostle Paul on one of his apostolic journeys. Nothing more is known of him.
(1 Sam. 9:9; 2 Sam. 24:11)—a title applied to certain prophets because of their miraculous visions. In the account of Saul, Scripture explains: “Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer.” Seer was the older popular name for prophet.
(exalted; mighty)—the name of two persons: (1) (1 Chron. 2:21–22) son of Hezron and father of Jair in Gilead. (2) (1 Kings 16:34; Josh. 6:26) the younger son of Hiel the Bethelite, whose death fulfilled Joshua’s curse upon the man who would rebuild Jericho.
(rough; rugged)—the name of two mountain ranges and also of a person and a land. (1) (Gen. 14:6) a wild, winding, barren range extending from the southern shore of the Dead Sea toward the eastern gulf of the Red Sea. Mount Hor, with Aaron’s tomb, formed one of its summits. The Horites are named among its inhabitants; in Abraham’s time one of its peoples was called Seir, and the source reports that Arabs still called the range Serr, or Seir. (2) (Josh. 15:10) another Mount Seir in Judah, west of Kiriath-jearim, which the source identifies with Kuryet el-Enab. (3) (Gen. 36:20) a Horite chief of Edom and Seir, ancestor of a prominent clan (1 Chron. 1:38–42).
(hairy; wooded) (Judg. 3:26)—a place mentioned nowhere else. Its name probably came from the woods that covered it. After Ehud killed Eglon king of Moab, he escaped to Seirath, apparently in the hill country of Ephraim.
(enclosure; fence) (Josh. 15:61)—a city of Judah in the wilderness, probably south or southeast of Jerusalem.
(rock of divisions; rock of escape) (1 Sam. 23:28)—the name given to a naturally fortified refuge in the wilderness of Maon where David escaped Saul’s pursuit. It probably lay south or southeast of Hebron, though its exact position was unknown to the source.
(rock; stone) (Judg. 1:36; 2 Kings 14:7; Isa. 16:1)—the principal city of Edom. Its names in several languages all mean “rock”: Hebrew Sela, Greek Petra, and Arabic Hajar. One of the most remarkable cities of the ancient world, it stood near the foot of Mount Hor, about three days’ journey from Jericho and the same distance from Mount Sinai. High mountains rose on every side, and houses were cut into the cliffs. Judges 1:36 appears to mention it first. Amaziah besieged and captured it and called it Joktheel (2 Kings 14:7).
Isaiah calls it Sela or Petra in his prophecy against Moab (Isa. 16:1), and Obadiah says of Edom, “thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?” (Obad. 3).
(exultation) (1 Chron. 2:30)—a childless son of Nadab and descendant of Jerahmeel.
(1 Macc. 11:8; Acts 13:4)—a Syrian seaport on the Mediterranean, west of Antioch and near the mouth of the Orontes. Seleucus Nicator, king of Syria about 300 BC, either founded or renewed it, enlarged it, and enriched it with canals. It served as Antioch’s harbor. Paul and Barnabas stopped there on their first missionary journey and sailed from it to Cyprus. In the early Christian centuries it was an episcopal see. By the source’s time it lay entirely deserted, but its ruins remained notable: travelers gave its circumference as about four English miles, described its vast harbor as an extraordinary work of engineering, and observed many tombs cut into the cliffs behind the city.
It must not be confused with Seleucia on the Tigris, between the Euphrates and Tigris, or with the Seleucia near Lake Merom in Gaulanitis mentioned by Josephus.
(2 Macc. 3:3; 4:7; 5:18)—son and successor of Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. Needing money to pay tribute to Rome and hearing of the great treasure in the Jerusalem Temple, he sent Heliodorus to seize it. According to 2 Maccabees 3, God miraculously defended the treasury. A fearsome horse and rider struck Heliodorus, and two young men scourged him until he lay near death. He was saved through the prayer of Onias the high priest. On returning, Heliodorus told the king that God’s power truly dwelt there and that He who inhabits heaven guards the place and strikes down those who approach it with an evil purpose.
(1 Chron. 4:12)—a man of Judah, described by the source as a Kenizzite. The source form does not correspond securely to a standard English biblical name.
(God supports) (1 Chron. 26:7)—one of the sons of Shemaiah, firstborn of Obed-edom, belonging to the Temple gatekeepers.
(2 Esd. 9:23)—a Levite in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The corresponding form in Ezra 10:23 is Shimei.
(perhaps thorny) (Ezra 2:35; Neh. 3:3)—apparently the name of the ancestor of a family that returned from captivity, though some take it as the name of a city or locality in Judah.
(crag; cliff) (1 Sam. 14:4–5)—one of two sharp rocks between Michmash and Geba. Its exact position was unknown to the source, but it must have lain a short distance south of Michmash. See Bozez.
(armor; breastplate) (Deut. 3:9)—the Amorite name for Mount Hermon; the Phoenicians and Sidonians called it Sirion. The source reports that local people called it the Snowy Mountain, Jebel eth-Telj, and the Chief’s Mountain, Jebel esh-Sheikh. Ezekiel 27:5 names Senir as the place from which the people of Tyre obtained cypress wood for shipbuilding.
(the source explains the name as “Sin, the moon-god, has multiplied brothers”) (2 Kings 18–19; Isa. 36–37)—king of Assyria. The source calls him the son and successor of Shalmaneser, though historically he was the son and successor of Sargon II. He built a palace at Kuyunjik, opposite Mosul, on the site of ancient Nineveh. Reliefs and inscriptions on its walls, gates, and colossal bulls recounted his wars, or at least his successful campaigns; portions were already in the British Museum when the source was written.
Second Kings 18 and Isaiah 36 begin the biblical narratives of his war against Hezekiah, which continue through the following chapters. After a generally prosperous reign, Sennacherib was killed by two of his sons in the temple of Nisroch and was succeeded by his third son, Esarhaddon.
(Neh. 11:9)—a Benjaminite, father of Judah.
(1 Chron. 24:8)—head of the fourth of the twenty-four divisions into which David arranged the priests descended from Aaron’s sons Eleazar and Ithamar.
(according to Gesenius, a hill or watch-hut) (1 Sam. 19:22)—a place mentioned only during Saul’s pursuit of David. Saul went to Ramah and reached “a great well that is in Sechu,” indicating that Sepha was a known place in or near Ramah. The source’s form corresponds to the place more commonly called Sechu.
(meaning uncertain) (Gen. 10:30)—a place thought to have been in southern Arabia and perhaps identical with the modern Dhafar. Scripture calls it a mountain of the east and makes it a boundary of the Joktanites.
(meaning unknown) (Obad. 20)—a name found only in Obadiah’s promise that the exiles of Jerusalem in Sepharad would possess the cities of the south. Jewish tradition placed the land in Spain, but the source preferred a location near the Bosporus, alluding to Jerome, and noted a similarly named place near Cappadocia in ancient Persian monuments connected with Darius. It also reports that Hadrian banished many Jews to that region.
(2 Kings 17:24 and elsewhere)—an Assyrian city from which colonists were transferred to Samaria after Shalmaneser carried the Israelites into captivity. The source identifies it tentatively with Sippara, the southernmost city of Mesopotamia on the Euphrates’ eastern bank. It was the center of a small district, had its own king, and worshiped chiefly Adrammelech and Anammelech. Cuneiform inscriptions called it the City of the Sun. The dual form of the biblical name suggested to the source that Sepharvaim occupied both banks of the Euphrates.
(Gen. 46:17; Num. 26:46)—daughter of Asher and granddaughter of the patriarch Jacob through Leah’s maid Zilpah. The source notes the form Sarah in Numbers 26:46.
(leader of the LORD) (Ezra 2:2)—one of the men who returned from the Babylonian captivity with Zerubbabel and Jeshua. The corresponding source form in 2 Esdras 5:8 is Zareus.
(warrior or prince of the LORD)—the name of several persons. (1) (2 Sam. 8:17) David’s scribe or secretary. (2) (2 Kings 25:18–21) the chief priest in Zedekiah’s days, carried away by Nebuzaradan and put to death at Riblah. (3) (Jer. 40:8) son of Tanhumeth, among those who came to Gedaliah in Judah after the exile. (4) (Neh. 7:7) a companion of Zerubbabel, also called Azariah. (5) (Ezra 7:1) the father or ancestor of Ezra the priest. (6) (Neh. 11:11; compare 1 Chron. 9:11) a Temple official in Nehemiah’s days, also called Azariah.
(7) (Neh. 12:1, 12) a priest and ancestor of Meraiah. (8) (Jer. 51:59–64) son of Neriah, quartermaster to Zedekiah, whom Jeremiah charged to read in Babylon the prophecies concerning that city’s downfall. (9) (1 Chron. 4:13–14) a son of Kenaz and father of Joab. (10) (1 Chron. 4:35) grandfather of Jehu of Simeon. (11) (Neh. 10:2) a priest in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.
(interpreted by some as flame or burning, and by others as exalted or noble)—one of the nine orders of the heavenly hierarchy, nearest to God, named in Isaiah’s vision (Isa. 6:2, 6). They stand around the LORD’s throne in human form, each with six wings: with two they cover their faces as unworthy to gaze upon the LORD of hosts, with two they cover their feet, and with two they fly ceaselessly to accomplish their King’s heavenly commands. They cry without end, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory,” and at their voice the foundations shake and the house is filled with smoke.
(2 Esd. 5:22)—one of the servants of the Jerusalem Temple. The corresponding name in Ezra 2:53 is Sisera.
(fear) (Gen. 46:14; Num. 26:26)—a son of Zebulun, Jacob’s son by Leah, and ancestor of the Seredite clan.
(Acts 13:7)—proconsul of Cyprus, converted to faith in Christ through the Apostle Paul and afterward baptized. Like many Roman patricians, he had admitted the influence of magicians and false prophets who exploited the widespread expectation of a world savior. Bar-Jesus, one of them, opposed Paul’s work and was miraculously struck blind: “there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.” Seeing this, Sergius Paulus believed. The source records the patristic opinion of Jerome and Augustine that Saul began to be called Paul in remembrance of this event.
(Matt. 5-7; compare Luke 6:17-49)—Jesus’ great discourse on the character and life of God’s kingdom. Matthew places it on a mountain, where Jesus sits and teaches his disciples before the crowd. Luke records closely related sayings after Jesus descends to a level place. The source combines the two accounts and adds explanatory paraphrases; the present translation distinguishes the evangelists while presenting their shared theological center.
(source form Siron) (1 Macc. 3:13–23)—a commander in the service of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Hearing that Judas Maccabaeus had gathered a faithful company, Seron marched against him with a strong army. Judas encouraged his small force to trust in Heaven, defeated Seron near Beth-horon, and pursued his troops into the plain. Josephus also calls Seron commander of the Syrian army; the encyclopedia’s wording that makes him commander in Coele-Syria is presented as an uncertain variant.
(Gen. 3:1) — a creeping animal, distinguished by its cunning (Matt. 10:16), as well as by the panic fear it inspires in men and animals. More than 600 species of this creeping thing are known, most of which are indeed formidable in their strength and venom. The devil is called the serpent and the old serpent (Rev. 12:9, 14, 15), probably to indicate his cunning and malice, and also the fact that, in tempting Eve to taste the forbidden fruit and break her duty of obedience to God, he took upon himself the form of a serpent, in which form he is described in Holy Scripture (Gen. 3:1ff.; 2 Cor. 11:3).
The serpent serves the sacred writers as an emblem of malice (Matt. 23:33), of ferocity (Ps. 58:4 [57:5]; Prov. 23:32), and of cunning (Gen. 49:17). The charming of serpents, especially by the Arabs, dates from the most remote antiquity and can still be seen to this day in the bazaars and streets of Cairo and other cities of the East, well known to every traveler in the East. “Their poison is like the poison of a serpent… which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely,” says the Psalmist of unrighteous judges (Ps. 58:4, 5 [57:5, 6]).
“For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed,” says the LORD (Jer. 8:17). In Holy Scripture the following kinds of serpents are chiefly mentioned: the asp (Ps. 140:3 [139:4]), the deaf asp (Ps. 58:4, 5 [57:5, 6]), the cockatrice (Ps. 91:13 [90:13]), the dragon (Isa. 14:29), the flying serpent (the word “flying” probably indicates the swiftness and suddenness of this species’ movements and attacks) (Isa. 34:15), and the viper (Isa. 59:5; Matt. 3:7; 12:34, and elsewhere). See under the corresponding words.
(Gen. 11:20–23; Luke 3:35)—son of Reu and father of Nahor, one of the postdiluvian patriarchs of the Old Testament. He lived 230 years and appears in Luke’s genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(2 Esd. 9:31)—an Israelite who had married a foreign wife. The corresponding source form in Ezra 10:30 is Beseleel.
(2 Esd. 9:34)—an Israelite among the sons of Ezora who had married a foreign wife.
(appointed; foundation) (Gen. 4:25; 5:3; Luke 3:38)—Adam’s third son, born when Adam was one hundred thirty years old. Seth begot Enosh and became an ancestor of Methuselah and Noah; the source associates his descendants with the “sons of God” in Genesis 6. He lived nine hundred twelve years. Later Jewish tradition attributed the invention of letters to him, but Scripture does not do so. Luke includes Seth in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
(Josh. 19:42; Judg. 1:35; 1 Kings 4:9)—a town allotted to Dan. The Amorites remained there after Israel’s conquest and pressed the Danites into the hill country; the house of Joseph later subjected them to forced labor. In Solomon’s administrative districts the town is called Shaalbim.
—(1) a town in Solomon’s second administrative district (1 Kings 4:9), probably the Danite town named Shaalabbin; (2) a place where the Amorites persisted until the house of Joseph imposed forced labor upon them (Judg. 1:35).
(1 Sam. 9:4)—a district crossed by Saul while searching for his father’s lost donkeys. It probably lay west of the hill country of Ephraim and near Benjamin.
(Esth. 2:14)—the eunuch of King Ahasuerus who guarded the royal concubines. A young woman who had spent her appointed night with the king returned to the second house of the women under Shaazgaz and did not approach the king again unless he delighted in her and summoned her by name.
(Josh. 19:22)—a border town of Issachar between Tabor and Beth-shemesh, probably near the Jordan.
(Neh. 8:7)—a Levite who helped explain the Law to the people.
(1 Chron. 8:10)—a son of Shaharaim and Hodesh, born in Moab, in the genealogy of Benjamin.
(Heb. 10:1)—a partial or anticipatory form that points beyond itself. Hebrews calls the Law “a shadow of the good things to come” rather than their complete image, because its repeated sacrifices could not perfect worshipers as Christ’s offering does. Christian typology likewise sees the Passover lamb, exodus, manna, and other persons or events as divinely ordered patterns fulfilled in Christ. A type is not false or worthless; it is real within its covenantal setting while awaiting fuller revelation. “Shadow” also retains its ordinary senses of darkness, shade, transience, and protective shelter (Ps. 17:8; Isa. 32:2).
(royal) (Dan. 1:6–7 and elsewhere)—the Babylonian name given to Hananiah, one of the three young men carried into captivity with Daniel by Nebuchadnezzar. They refused to worship the golden image that the king had erected on the plain of Dura.
(sojourner; 1 Chron. 11:34)—father of Jonathan the Hararite, one of David’s mighty men. See Shagee.
(1 Chron. 11:34)—the Hararite father of Jonathan, one of David’s mighty men.
(1 Chron. 8:8-11)—a Benjamite who lived in Moab. By Hushim, Baara, and Hodesh he became the father of numerous descendants who were family heads.
(Gen. 10:26; 1 Chron. 1:20)—a son of Joktan in the line of Eber and Shem.
(1 Chron. 26:16)—a gate on the western side of the Temple precinct, near the ascending road. Shuppim and Hosah were assigned by lot as its keepers.
(recompense)—the name of three persons: (1) (Jer. 22:11) king of Judah after the death of his father Josiah, otherwise called Jehoahaz (1 Chron. 3:15; 2 Kings 23:30); (2) (1 Chron. 2:41) son of Sisamai in the line of Jarha the Egyptian; and (3) (2 Esd. 5:28) one of the gatekeepers who returned with Zerubbabel.
(recompense)—the name of several persons. (1) (2 Kings 15:10–13) son of Jabesh, conspirator and murderer of Zechariah king of Israel, whom he succeeded. He reigned only one month and was killed by Menahem of Tirzah. (2) (1 Chron. 6:12–13; 9:11; Ezra 7:2) a priest in Eleazar’s line, also called Meshullam, and an ancestor of Ezra. (3) (1 Chron. 9:31) a Korahite and father of Mattithiah the Levite. See also Sallum and Shallum.
—(1) a son of Shaul in the Simeonite genealogy (1 Chron. 4:25); (2) a Korahite gatekeeper, son of Kore and chief of the keepers at the thresholds (1 Chron. 9:17, 19); (3) father of Jehizkiah, an Ephraimite leader under Ahaz (2 Chron. 28:12); (4) husband of the prophetess Huldah and keeper of garments under Josiah (2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chron. 34:22); (5) ancestor of gatekeepers who returned with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:42; Neh. 7:45).
(Ezra 2:46; Neh. 7:48)—an ancestor of a family of temple servants who returned with Zerubbabel; Nehemiah gives the form Salmai.
(deprived of protection) (Hos. 10:14)—an abbreviated form which the source associates with Shalmaneser.
(2 Kings 17:3–5; 18:9)—king of Assyria, whom the source represents as deposed by Sargon after a reign of five years. Several earlier Assyrian kings also bore the name. He invaded Palestine twice, in the first and last years of his reign. On the first occasion Hoshea king of Israel submitted and agreed to annual tribute; in the fifth year Shalmaneser besieged Samaria. The source says Sargon displaced him during the siege and founded a new dynasty. The righteous Israelite Tobit lived in this king’s days. The source also reports that the royal name appears on many Assyrian monuments.
(meaning uncertain) (Judg. 3:31)—one of Israel’s judges, son of Anath. He displayed extraordinary courage by striking down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. The source links his period with the dangerous conditions recalled in the song of Deborah and Barak: “The highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways” (Judg. 5:6). If Shamgar was not contemporary with Deborah and Barak, the source concludes that he immediately preceded them.
(1 Chron. 27:8)—the Izrahite commander of David’s fifth monthly division, comprising twenty-four thousand men.
—(1) a town in the hill country of Judah (Josh. 15:48); (2) a town in the hill country of Ephraim where Tola judged Israel for twenty-three years and was buried (Judg. 10:1-2); (3) a Levite, son of Micah, in the line of Uzziel (1 Chron. 24:24).
(desolation) (1 Sam. 16:9)—a son of Jesse whom his father presented, with his brothers, when Samuel came to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as king. Shammah later followed Saul into battle (1 Sam. 17:13). He is called Shimei in 2 Samuel 13:3 and Shimea in 1 Chronicles 20:7.
—(1) a son of Reuel and grandson of Esau, listed among the chiefs of Edom (Gen. 36:13, 17; 1 Chron. 1:37); (2) the son of Agee the Hararite who stood his ground in a field of lentils and defeated the Philistines when others fled (2 Sam. 23:11-12); (3) a Harodite among David’s mighty men (2 Sam. 23:25; 1 Chron. 11:27); (4) a son of Zophah in Asher’s genealogy (1 Chron. 7:37).
—(1) a son of Onam in Judah’s genealogy (1 Chron. 2:28); (2) a son of Rekem and father of Maon (1 Chron. 2:44-45); (3) a son of Jether in another Judahite genealogy (1 Chron. 4:17).
(heard) (Num. 13:4)—son of Zaccur of the tribe of Reuben, sent by Moses with the other spies to explore Canaan.
—(1) a Levite and father of Abda who led thanksgiving in Jerusalem (Neh. 11:17); (2) the priestly family head for Bilgah in the days of Joiakim (Neh. 12:18).
(1 Chron. 8:26)—a son of Jeroham among Benjamites who lived in Jerusalem.
—(1) a Gadite leader in Bashan, ranked after Joel (1 Chron. 5:12); (2) the royal secretary under Josiah who read the newly found Book of the Law to the king and took the king’s inquiry to the prophetess Huldah (2 Kings 22:3-14; 2 Chron. 34:8, 15-22); (3) grandfather of Gedaliah through Ahikam, whose family protected Jeremiah (2 Kings 25:22; Jer. 26:24).
(judge)—the name of two persons: (1) (Num. 13:5) son of Hori, the representative of Simeon among the leaders sent by Moses at God’s command to spy out Canaan; and (2) (2 Kings 3:11) the father of the Prophet Elisha.
—(1) a descendant of David through Shemaiah (1 Chron. 3:22); (2) a Gadite family name (1 Chron. 5:12); (3) the son of Adlai who supervised David’s herds in the valleys (1 Chron. 27:29).
(beautiful place; Mic. 1:11)—a town whose location is unknown.
(Ezra 10:40)—an Israelite who had married a foreign woman after the exile.
(2 Sam. 23:33)—the Hararite father of Ahiam, one of David’s mighty men.
(Zech. 7:2)—one of those sent by the Jews to Jerusalem during the reign of Darius to entreat the LORD through the priests and prophets and to ask whether they should continue observing the fast of the fifth month.
(2 Kings 19:37; Isa. 37:38)—a son of Sennacherib. Sharezer and Adrammelech killed their father in the temple of Nisroch and fled to the land of Ararat; Esarhaddon succeeded Sennacherib.
(plain)—the name of several places. (1) (Song 2:1; Isa. 33:9) the well-known plain of Palestine between the Mediterranean and the hill country west and northwest of Jerusalem. It was celebrated for beauty and fertility and abounded in flowers and fruit trees. Hyacinths, roses, anemones, tulips, and other flowers grew there; the flowers of Sharon are named in Song of Songs 2:1 and Isaiah 35:2. The source says that the plain was densely inhabited in antiquity but, apart from a few places, had become sparsely settled and steppe-like by the nineteenth century, applying Isaiah 33:9 to its condition.
(Josh. 12:18; 1 Chron. 27:29)—the fertile coastal plain east of the Mediterranean, extending roughly from Caesarea toward Joppa. Its pastures supported large herds; Shitrai the Sharonite supervised David’s cattle there.
(Josh. 19:6)—a city allotted to Simeon among the towns within Judah’s inheritance, often identified near Tell esh-Sheriah between Gaza and Beersheba.
(Ezra 10:40)—an Israelite who returned with Zerubbabel and had married a foreign woman.
(1 Chron. 8:14, 25)—a Benjamite, son of Beriah and father of eleven sons, described as a family head.
(Gen. 14:5)—a city of the Emim defeated by Chedorlaomer and his allies. After the conquest it was rebuilt by the Reubenites (Num. 32:37; Josh. 13:19), and later belonged again to Moab (Jer. 48:1, 23; Ezek. 25:9).
—(1) a Levite who opposed the proposal concerning foreign marriages in Ezra’s time (Ezra 10:15); (2) a leading Levite entrusted with external affairs of the house of God (Neh. 11:16). The spelling varies in the ancient versions and English translations.
(1 Chron. 18:16)—the royal scribe or secretary under David. Parallel passages give the official’s name in variant forms, including Seraiah and Sheva (2 Sam. 8:17; 20:25).
(Ezra 10:29)—a son of Bani who had married a foreign woman.
(asked of God) (1 Chron. 3:17; Matt. 1:12 and elsewhere)—father of Zerubbabel; yet 1 Chronicles 3:19 calls Zerubbabel a son of Pedaiah. The source explains the difference by supposing that Shealtiel died childless and that Pedaiah raised offspring for his brother under the law of levirate marriage, so the eldest was legally reckoned Shealtiel’s son.
(a remnant shall return; Isa. 7:3)—the symbolic name given by the LORD to a son of Isaiah. During the Syro-Ephraimite crisis Isaiah met King Ahaz with this son and announced that the hostile coalition would not prevail. The name embodies both judgment and hope: a remnant would survive or return. The source reads the following Immanuel prophecy christologically, connecting Judah’s temporary deliverance with the ultimate salvation accomplished in Christ.
(1 Chron. 8:38; 9:44)—one of the six sons of Azel in the line of Saul and Benjamin.
(oath) (2 Sam. 20:1–22)—son of Bichri, a Benjaminite. Soon after Absalom’s revolt he raised another rebellion against David and drew away much of Israel. Joab pursued him to Abel-beth-maachah. At the counsel of a wise woman of the city, the inhabitants killed Sheba and threw his head over the wall, thereby averting the siege; Joab sounded the trumpet, the army dispersed, and the revolt ended.
—(1) a son of Raamah in the Cushite line of Ham (Gen. 10:7; 1 Chron. 1:9); (2) a son of Joktan in the line of Eber and Shem (Gen. 10:28; 1 Chron. 1:22); (3) a son of Jokshan and grandson of Abraham through Keturah (Gen. 25:3).
—(1) a priest who sounded a trumpet before the ark when David brought it to Jerusalem (1 Chron. 15:24); (2) a Levite who led confession and praise and joined the covenant renewal in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah (Neh. 9:4-5; 10:10, 12).
(ruins; breach of walls) (Josh. 7:5)—a locality between Ai and Jericho, mentioned only in connection with Israel’s defeat there.
(Zech. 1:7)—the eleventh month of the postexilic Jewish civil year, corresponding approximately to parts of January and February or February and March.
(1 Chron. 2:48)—a son of Caleb by his concubine Maacah.
(Num. 21:15)—a principal city of Moab. See Ar and Ar of Moab.
(tender youth) (2 Kings 19:2; Isa. 36:3)—at first steward of King Hezekiah’s palace and later royal scribe. His pride and vanity appeared when, though outside the royal line, he prepared a tomb for himself on one of Jerusalem’s heights where royal descendants were buried. Isaiah sternly condemned him, warning that he would lose his office and be carried into exile. Eliakim son of Hilkiah replaced him as steward, while Shebna received the lower and less influential office of scribe.
—(1) the firstborn son or descendant of Gershom and Moses, appointed chief over the Temple treasuries (1 Chron. 23:16; 26:24); (2) a son of Heman, one of the singers appointed for the house of the LORD (1 Chron. 25:4-6).
(Neh. 10:24)—one of the leaders who sealed the covenant to remain faithful to God’s law and to separate from foreign marriages. The spelling varies among manuscripts and translations.
(Ezra 8:3)—father of Hattush, a descendant of David numbered among those who returned from Babylon with Ezra.
(1 Chron. 3:18)—a son of Jeconiah in the royal line of Judah.
—(1) a son of Hananiah in David’s line (1 Chron. 3:21); (2) an Aaronite whose priestly division received the tenth lot (1 Chron. 24:11); (3) a Levite who distributed sacred portions under Conaniah (2 Chron. 31:15); (4) an ancestor of Hattush, who returned with Ezra (Ezra 8:3); (5) the son of Jehiel who confessed Israel’s sin and urged Ezra to require separation from foreign wives (Ezra 10:2).
(shoulder; more precisely, the upper back between the shoulders)—the name of a person and a city. (1) (Gen. 34:2, 26) son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the land of Shechem. Simeon and Levi treacherously killed him and the men of his city after his dishonorable treatment of their sister Dinah. (2) a celebrated Canaanite city in Samaria, perhaps named after Hamor’s son and also appearing in the form Sychar (John 4:5). It is already named in Abraham’s time as the place of Shechem (Gen. 12:6) and later as the city of Shechem (Gen. 33:18).
Jacob buried the foreign gods and ornaments of his household beneath the oak near Shechem, and his sons pastured his flocks in the surrounding country (Gen. 35:4; 37:12–14).
—(1) the son of Hamor and prince of the city of Shechem. He violated Dinah and then sought marriage with her; Simeon and Levi killed the men of the city after they had submitted to circumcision (Gen. 34). The narrative records violence and covenantal failure without commending the acts of either side. (2) A son of Shemida in the Manassite genealogy (1 Chron. 7:19).
(Sirach 50:28)—the people of Shechem, or Sychar, the principal city of Samaria. Sirach calls the Shechemites, or Samaritans, a foolish people; the source understands this judgment as referring to their spiritual blindness and instability in matters of faith. See Samaritans.
(Num. 26:31)—descendants of Shechem in the tribe of Manasseh.
(Gen. 4:2). The ancient Israelite patriarchs were shepherds and occupied themselves chiefly with the raising of sheep and other small livestock. Their flocks of sheep were so numerous in the days of the patriarchs that they constituted their chief wealth. This is why, among the Hebrews, the tending of sheep was considered the most ancient and most honorable occupation (Ex. 3:1, 1 Sam. 16:11). Rebekah, Rachel, and all seven daughters of the priest Jethro occupied themselves with sheep-keeping (Ex. 3:16).
The patriarch Jacob tended the flocks of Laban’s sheep; Moses tended sheep for Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. “Mesha, king of Moab, was rich in cattle, and rendered unto the king of Israel a hundred thousand sheep” (2 Kings 3:4). The sheep of Syria were distinguished by long, broad tails (the fat tail), which grew large from the abundance and excess of fat.
(1 Chron. 7:24)—a daughter or female descendant of Ephraim who built or fortified Lower and Upper Beth-horon and Uzzen-sheerah.
(1 Chron. 8:26)—a son of Jeroham among the Benjamites living in Jerusalem.
(weight; heaviness) (Exod. 30:24; Lev. 5:15; Ezek. 4:10). See Weight; Coin.
(Gen. 38:5, 11, 26; 46:12; Num. 26:20)—the third son of Judah by the daughter of Shua. After the deaths of Er and Onan, Judah withheld Shelah from Tamar; Tamar later obtained offspring through Judah. The Shelanite clan descended from Shelah.
(Gen. 38:5; Num. 26:20; 1 Chron. 9:5; Neh. 11:5)—Shelah was Judah’s third son, and the Shelanites descended from him. Descendants of this clan lived in Jerusalem after the exile. The source’s broader ethnological remarks about Judah’s intermarriages are historically situated nineteenth-century commentary rather than conclusions required by the biblical genealogy.
—the name of three persons in the source: (1) (2 Esd. 9:34; compare Ezra 10:39) an Israelite among the sons of Bani. (2) (Jer. 36:14) an ancestor of Jehudi, who lived in Jehoiakim’s reign. (3) (Jer. 36:25) an ancestor of one of the men whom Jehoiakim ordered to seize Jeremiah and Baruch after the prophetic scroll had been burned. See also Shelemiah.
—(1) a son of Bani who had married a foreign woman (Ezra 10:39); (2) father of Hananiah, who repaired a section of Jerusalem’s wall (Neh. 3:30); (3) a priest appointed with Zadok and Pedaiah over the storehouses (Neh. 13:13); (4) the gatekeeper also called Meshelemiah (1 Chron. 26:14).
—another Israelite listed among those who had married foreign women.
(1 Chron. 7:35)—a son of Helem among the descendants and family heads of Asher.
(Lev. 24:11)—a woman of the tribe of Dan, wife of an Egyptian, whose son was stoned for blasphemy.
—(1) a daughter of Zerubbabel (1 Chron. 3:19); (2) a Gershonite Levite in the line of Shimei (1 Chron. 23:9); (3) the first son of Izhar (1 Chron. 23:18); (4) a descendant of Moses whose family supervised dedicated treasures (1 Chron. 26:25-28); (5) a son of Rehoboam and Maacah (2 Chron. 11:20); (6) an ancestor of a family of 160 men who returned with Ezra (Ezra 8:10).
(Josh. 15:32)—a town allotted to Judah in the southern Negeb near the border of Edom.
(Num. 1:6; 2:12; 7:36)—son of Zurishaddai and leader of the tribe of Simeon in the wilderness census. Simeon numbered 59,300 fighting men; Shelumiel brought the tribe’s offering at the dedication of the altar.
(name) (Gen. 6:10)—the eldest son of Noah in the source’s reckoning and ancestor of many nations. Genesis 11:10 says that Shem was one hundred years old and begot Arphaxad two years after the Flood. He, his wife, and the rest of Noah’s family were saved in the ark. His sons were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram, and he lived five hundred years after Arphaxad’s birth.
—(1) a town in the southern inheritance of Judah (Josh. 15:26); (2) a son of Hebron and father of Raham in Judah’s genealogy (1 Chron. 2:43-44); (3) an ancestor of Bela in Reuben’s line (1 Chron. 5:8); (4) a son of Elpaal who helped drive out the inhabitants of Gath (1 Chron. 8:13); (5) one of the men who stood at Ezra’s right when the Law was read (Neh. 8:4).
(1 Chron. 5:4)—a Reubenite descendant and father of Gog.
(whom God hears)—the name of four persons: (1) (1 Kings 12:22–24; 2 Chron. 11:2–4) the prophet who dissuaded Rehoboam and Judah from attempting to subdue the northern kingdom and later moved the people to repentance during Shishak’s invasion, promising release from complete destruction. (2) (2 Esd. 1:9) a leader of the Levites under Josiah who gave five thousand sheep and seven hundred oxen for the Passover sacrifice; 2 Chronicles 35:9 gives the corresponding name Shemaiah. (3) (2 Esd. 8:39) a leader among the sons of Adonikam who returned from Babylon with Ezra; Ezra 8:13 gives Shemaiah. (4) (2 Esd. 9:21) a priest who had married a foreign wife; Ezra 10:21 gives Shemaiah. For other persons, see Shemaiah.
(whom God hears) (Jer. 36:12)—father of Delaiah, one of the princes in the days of Jehoiakim king of Judah. Micaiah reported to Delaiah and the other princes all the words he had heard when Baruch read Jeremiah’s scroll.
—a very common biblical name. It belongs to a descendant of David (1 Chron. 3:22); a Merarite Levite in Jerusalem (1 Chron. 9:14); an ancestor of the Levite Obadiah (1 Chron. 9:16); the head of 200 descendants of Elizaphan who helped bring the ark to Jerusalem (1 Chron. 15:8); and the scribe who recorded the priestly lots in David’s presence (1 Chron. 24:6).
—(1) a warrior who joined David at Ziklag (1 Chron. 12:5); (2) a son of Rehoboam and Abihail (2 Chron. 11:19); (3-4) two Israelites who had married foreign women in Ezra’s time (Ezra 10:32, 41).
(watchman) (1 Kings 16:24)—the man from whom Omri king of Israel bought the hill of Samaria for two talents of silver. For other persons of the name, see Shemer.
—(1) a Levite in a genealogy of the singers (1 Chron. 6:46); (2) a descendant of Asher, also called Shomer in some forms (1 Chron. 7:34); (3) a Benjamite ancestor associated with Ono and Lod (1 Chron. 8:12).
(Num. 26:32; Josh. 17:2)—a son of Gilead and ancestor of the Shemidaites in the tribe of Manasseh.
—(1) a Levite singer appointed when David brought the ark to Jerusalem (1 Chron. 15:18, 20); (2) a Levite sent by Jehoshaphat to teach the Law throughout Judah (2 Chron. 17:8).
(tooth; hence a sharp or jagged rock) (1 Sam. 7:12)—a place named when Samuel “took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer,” meaning “stone of help.” Nothing further is known; Shen was probably a sharp rock or a place upon a rocky height.
(Hebrew she’ol) (Gen. 37:35; Num. 16:30, 33; Ps. 15 [16]:10, and elsewhere), by its derivation from the Greek [as given in the source, though the word is Hebrew], signifies a place deprived of light. In Christian teaching, under this name is understood the spiritual prison — that is, the state of spirits estranged by sin from the sight of God and from the light and blessedness bound up with it (Jude 1:6).
(Hebrew sheol; Greek hades) (Gen. 37:35). See Hades.
—(1) a point on the eastern boundary of the promised land between Hazar-enan and Riblah (Num. 34:10-11); (2) the place associated with Zabdi, overseer of David’s wine stores (1 Chron. 27:27). The location and the relation of the two forms are uncertain.
(the LORD judges)—the name of several persons: (1) (2 Sam. 3:4; 1 Chron. 3:3) a son of David by Abital. (2) (1 Chron. 12:5) a Haruphite who joined David at Ziklag. (3) (1 Chron. 27:16) son of Maacah and leader of Simeon under David. (4) (2 Chron. 21:2) a son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. (5) (Jer. 38:1) son of Mattan, one of Zedekiah’s princes who hated Jeremiah and sought his death. (6) (Ezra 2:4; Neh. 7:9) an Israelite whose 372 descendants returned with Zerubbabel. (7) (Ezra 2:57) another ancestor whose descendants are listed among Solomon’s servants returning from Babylon. (8) (Neh. 11:4) an ancestor of Athaiah of Judah.
(1 Chron. 9:8)—a Benjamite family head and father of Meshullam who lived in Jerusalem.
(lowland) (1 Macc. 12:38 and elsewhere)—the plain or low country of Palestine where Simon Maccabeus fortified Adida against attacks from the Syrian kings. From ancient times it was inhabited by the brave and warlike Philistines and contained, among other places, their five celebrated cities: Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath.
—the pastoral life of the Hebrews and their special inclination toward tending livestock are familiar to every reader of the Bible. The word shepherd occurs frequently in Holy Scripture in both its literal and figurative senses, especially in the book of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 2:8; 3:15; 10:21 and elsewhere). Abel was the first shepherd of sheep (Gen. 4:2).
(Gen. 36:23; 1 Chron. 1:40)—a son of Shobal in the Horite genealogy of Seir.
(Num. 26:39; 1 Chron. 8:5)—a son or clan of Bela in the tribe of Benjamin. The form varies among biblical books and translations.
—(1) a capable Levite brought from Casiphia with his sons and brothers to serve in the house of God; Ezra entrusted sacred silver, gold, and vessels to him and other leaders (Ezra 8:18, 24-29); (2) a Levite who explained the Law, joined the covenant, and led praise in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah (Neh. 8:7; 9:4-5; 10:12; 12:8, 24).
(casting forth, refuse) (1 Chr 7:16) - a son of Machir by his wife Maachah and a grandson of Manasseh.
(1 Chron. 7:16)—a son of Machir by Maacah in the genealogy of Manasseh.
(white; whitish) (Num. 13:22)—one of the sons of Anak living at Hebron when the spies were sent to explore Canaan. After Israel took the Promised Land, Caleb drove them out.
(Ezra 1:8, 11; 5:14, 16)—the prince or governor of Judah to whom Cyrus entrusted the Temple vessels and who laid the foundation of the restored Temple. Many interpreters identify him with Zerubbabel, but the texts do not make that identification explicit.
(Esth. 1:14)—one of the seven Persian and Median princes who had access to King Ahasuerus and sat first in the kingdom.
(Ezra 5:3, 6; 6:6, 13)—a Persian provincial official who accompanied Tattenai in investigating the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple. Their report led Darius to search the archives, confirm Cyrus’s decree, and order support for the work; Shethar-bozenai then carried out the royal command.
(oath; Gen. 26:33)—the name Isaac gave a well in memory of his covenant with Abimelech. The city was therefore called Beersheba, “well of the oath.”
. See Jephthah.
(Josh. 15:11)—a point on Judah’s northern boundary between Ekron and Jabneel.
(1 Kings 10:17; Ezek. 26:8; 39:9)—an article of ancient defensive armor. In Scripture the shield also symbolizes God’s protection: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward shall be very great” (Gen. 15:1). See Armor and Weapons.
(dark; muddy) (Isa. 23:3)—a name applied in some passages to the Nile, whose dark silt made its water turbid. Jeremiah’s expression “to drink the waters of Sihor” means seeking Egypt’s help (Jer. 2:18). In Joshua 13:3, however, “Shihor, which is before Egypt,” probably denotes the stream or wadi flowing into the Mediterranean near Rhinocolura rather than the Nile, since the territory immediately north of Sinai was not allotted to the twelve tribes. The source applies the same observation to 1 Chronicles 13:5. In Isaiah 23:3 the reference is plainly to the Nile.
(1 Chron. 13:5)—a stream or border river near Egypt, often associated with the Wadi el-Arish or an eastern branch of the Nile. David summoned Israel from Shihor of Egypt to Lebo-hamath when he brought the ark to Jerusalem.
(Josh. 19:26)—a watercourse on the southern boundary of Asher, flowing toward the Mediterranean. Its precise identification is uncertain.
(armed warrior) (1 Kings 22:42)—father of Azubah, the mother of King Jehoshaphat.
(Gen. 46:24; Num. 26:49)—a son of Naphtali and ancestor of the Shillemite clan.
(Hebrew Shiloh, here understood as the Reconciler). Ancient translators and interpreters, together with the Fathers of the Church, understand this word as a title of the Messiah. It occurs in Jacob’s prophecy to Judah: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (Gen. 49:10).
(peace; rest)—the name of a person and a city. (1) (Gen. 38:5; Num. 26:20 and elsewhere) Shelah, the third son of Judah by the daughter of Shua, ancestor of the Shelanites. (2) (Josh. 18:1; Judg. 18:31; Ps. 78:60 and elsewhere) a city in Ephraim, north of Bethel and ten or twelve miles from Shechem, near the center of the Promised Land west of the Jordan. After Israel crossed the Jordan, the Tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant were set up there and remained until the days of Eli and Samuel.
The prophet Samuel, obtained through his mother’s prayer, was brought up there at the sanctuary (1 Sam. 1–3). Later Ahijah of Shiloh foretold Jeroboam’s kingdom over Israel and afterward pronounced God’s judgment upon his idolatry. The city still existed around the time of the Babylonian exile (Jer. 41:5), but by the source’s day only slight ruins remained. Jerome had already written that scarcely any traces of ruins or foundations of the ancient altar could be seen.
(1 Chron. 9:5; Neh. 11:5)—descendants of Shelah, son of Judah, who lived in Jerusalem after the exile; among them were Asaiah and Maaseiah.
(1 Chron. 7:37)—a son of Zophah among the descendants of Asher.
—the name of several persons. (1) (2 Sam. 16:5 and elsewhere) son of Gera, a Benjaminite of Saul’s house. When David fled Jerusalem during Absalom’s revolt, Shimei met him with stones and bitter curses. Abishai asked leave to kill him, but David restrained him, saying, “Let him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD hath bidden him,” and hoping that the LORD might repay good for his present affliction. When David returned in triumph, Shimei was among the first to meet him, fell at his feet, confessed his sin, and received the king’s promise, “Thou shalt not die” (2 Sam. 19:16–23).
—a very common biblical name. It belongs to a son of David born in Jerusalem, also called Shammua (1 Chron. 3:5); a Merarite Levite in the line of Mushi (1 Chron. 6:30); an ancestor of Asaph (1 Chron. 6:39); and a brother of David whose son Jonathan killed a giant of Gath (1 Chron. 20:7; compare 2 Sam. 13:3).
(1 Esd. 9:34; compare Ezra 10:38)—one of the sons of Bani who had married a foreign wife and pledged to put her away in the reform under Ezra.
(1 Chron. 2:55)—a clan associated with the Kenites. See Kenites.
(1 Chron. 8:21)—a son of Shimei in the genealogy of Benjamin.
—(1) an ancestor of Simeonite leaders who migrated toward Mount Seir (1 Chron. 4:37); (2) father of Jediael, one of David’s mighty men (1 Chron. 11:45).
(2 Chron. 24:26)—an Ammonite woman and mother of Jehozabad, one of the conspirators who killed King Joash. She is called Shomer in 2 Kings 12:21.
—(1) a son of Issachar and ancestor of a clan (Gen. 46:13; Num. 26:24; 1 Chron. 7:1); (2) a town of Zebulun whose king joined Jabin’s coalition against Joshua (Josh. 11:1; 19:15).
(Josh. 12:20)—probably another form of Shimron, a royal city in the territory of Zebulun.
(2 Esd. 2:16 and elsewhere)—a scribe who joined hostile accusations before Artaxerxes against the Jews while they rebuilt the Temple; Ezra 4:8 and 4:17 give the name Shimshai.
(Ezra 4:8-9, 17, 23)—a Persian official and scribe who helped compose the hostile letter to Artaxerxes concerning Jerusalem’s rebuilding. The king ordered the work stopped until further authorization.
(an ancient word of unknown meaning) (Gen. 10:10; 11:2; Isa. 11:11; Zech. 5:11)—a region of Babylonia whose precise boundaries were unknown to the source. Noah’s early descendants settled on its plain, built Babel and its tower, and there experienced the confusion of languages and dispersion of peoples (Gen. 11:1–9). Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh all lay in Shinar (Gen. 10:10). Daniel likewise says that Nebuchadnezzar carried Judean captives and Temple vessels into the land of Shinar. The region was therefore commonly identified with Babylonia or southern Mesopotamia; the source connects its name with Sumer in cuneiform inscriptions.
(Josh. 19:19)—a town allotted to Issachar, traditionally placed near Mount Tabor.
(Gen 49:13) - ship and haven of ships first occur in Jacob's blessing of Zebulun: 'Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.' The Hebrews themselves were never inclined toward sea voyages and enterprises. Their trade with distant lands passed chiefly overland or through other peoples more disposed to navigation. Even in their best period they kept no permanent fleet, ordinarily using small fishing boats along the Mediterranean coast or upon the Sea of Galilee. These craft were small and roughly built and, as the Gospels show, often endangered by violent storms on the lake.
(1 Sam. 30:28)—a town in southern Judah whose elders received part of David’s spoil after his victory over the Amalekites.
(Exod. 1:15-22)—one of the two Hebrew midwives, with Puah, whom Pharaoh ordered to kill every newborn Hebrew boy. The midwives feared God and preserved the children alive. When questioned, they said that the Hebrew women gave birth before a midwife arrived. God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied. Pharaoh then commanded all his people to cast every newborn Hebrew son into the Nile while allowing the daughters to live.
(1 Kings 14:25–26; 2 Chron. 12:2–9)—king of Egypt who invaded Judah in the fifth year of Rehoboam and carried away treasures from the Temple and palace, including Solomon’s golden shields. He is commonly identified with Pharaoh Shoshenq I, founder of Egypt’s Twenty-second Dynasty. A campaign list on the Bubastite Portal at Karnak names many Palestinian places, providing important extrabiblical evidence for Egyptian operations in the region, although the list does not narrate every detail recorded in Kings and Chronicles.
(1 Chron. 27:29)—the Sharonite who supervised David’s herds grazing in Sharon.
(Exod. 25:5; Isa. 41:19)—a flexible and very hard wood used in constructing the Tabernacle and its furnishings. It is generally understood as one of the acacias abundant in deserts from northern Arabia to Ethiopia and associated with gum arabic. The tree spreads wide branches and bears fragrant flowers. Shittah wood appears among the offerings for the sanctuary (Exod. 35:5, 24), and the tree is named with myrtle and other fragrant growths in Isaiah’s vision: “I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together” (Isa. 41:19).
—the name of two places. (1) (Joel 3:18) the Valley of Shittim. The encyclopedia places it in Moab nearly opposite Jericho, but the prophetic expression may simply mean a valley known for its many shittah trees, or acacias, and may be a poetic name for barren, uncultivated ground transformed by the LORD’s blessing. (2) (Num. 25:1; Josh. 2:1; 3:1; Mic. 6:5) a place on the plains of Moab where Israel camped for a long time before crossing the Jordan, north of the Dead Sea and east of the lower Jordan opposite Jericho. It was probably Abel-shittim. See Abel-shittim.
(1 Chron. 11:42)—father of Adina the Reubenite, a chief among David’s mighty men.
(1 Chron. 4:37)—father of Ziza, a Simeonite family leader.
(Ezek. 23:23)—a people or region named among Babylon’s allies who would come in judgment against Jerusalem. The identification remains uncertain.
(2 Sam. 5:14; 1 Chron. 3:5)—one of the sons born to David and Bathsheba in Jerusalem.
—(1) a son of David and Bathsheba, also called Shammua in parallel lists (1 Chron. 3:5; 14:4; 2 Sam. 5:14); (2) a son of Caleb by Azubah or Ephrath (1 Chron. 2:18).
(2 Sam. 10:16–18)—commander of the army of Hadadezer. He led the Aramean forces summoned from beyond the Euphrates, was defeated by David at Helam, and died of his wounds.
. See Sibbecai.
(Ezra 2:42)—an ancestor of a family of gatekeepers who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel.
—(1) a son of Seir and a Horite chief in Edom (Gen. 36:20, 29; 1 Chron. 1:38); (2) a son of Hur and family head associated with Kiriath-jearim (1 Chron. 2:50, 52); (3) a Judahite family head and father of Reaiah (1 Chron. 4:1-2).
(2 Sam. 17:27–29)—a son of Nahash of Rabbah of the Ammonites. During Absalom’s rebellion he joined Machir and Barzillai in bringing beds, vessels, grain, honey, sheep, and other provisions to David and his people at Mahanaim.
(2 Kings 12:21)—the mother of Jehozabad, one of the men who killed Joash; 2 Chronicles 24:26 gives the name Shimrith.
(1 Chron. 7:32)—a son of Heber in the genealogy of Asher.
(Pss. 45; 60; 69, superscriptions)—Hebrew musical directions traditionally connected with “lilies.” They may designate a tune, a musical instrument, or a choir, but their exact meaning is unknown. The source also notes a possible relation to a named division of singers; this remains conjectural.
(Isa 30:24; Jer 15:7; Matt 3:12) - see Agriculture.
(Exod. 25:30; Lev. 24:5–9)—twelve loaves placed continually before the LORD on the golden table in the sanctuary, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. They were arranged in two rows or piles of six, with pure frankincense as a memorial portion. Every Sabbath fresh loaves replaced them, and the previous loaves belonged to Aaron and his sons to eat in a holy place.
- see Plants in Palestine.
—(1) a Canaanite whose daughter became Judah’s wife and mother of Er, Onan, and Shelah (Gen. 38:2, 12; 1 Chron. 2:3); (2) a daughter of Heber in Asher’s genealogy (1 Chron. 7:32).
(Gen. 25:2; 1 Chron. 1:32)—a son of Abraham by Keturah.
(prosperity; 1 Chron. 7:36)—one of the sons of Zophah in the genealogy of Asher.
(fox; 1 Sam. 13:17)—a district toward which one company of Philistine raiders turned from Michmash, on the road to Ophrah. It probably lay in Benjamin or the neighboring hill country; its relation to Shaalim is uncertain.
(1 Chron. 7:36)—a son of Zophah among the descendants of Asher.
—(1) a Levite in the line of Amram whose family received a division of Temple service (1 Chron. 24:20); (2) a son of Heman whose singers received the thirteenth lot (1 Chron. 25:31). The related form Shebuel also occurs.
(1 Chron. 4:11)—the brother of Chelub and father of Mehir in a Judahite genealogy.
(Num. 26:42-43)—a son or clan of Dan. In the second wilderness census the Shuhamite clan numbered 64,400.
(peaceful; Song 6:13)—the designation of the beloved woman in the Song of Songs. Some have connected the term with Shunem and therefore called her a Shunammite; others understand it as a feminine form related to Solomon or to peace. The text does not settle the etymology, and the encyclopedia’s geographical identification with Shunem is only one proposal.
(1 Chron. 26:4)—a son of Obed-edom appointed among the Temple gatekeepers; the received Hebrew text commonly gives the form Shemaiah in this position, so the source’s form is uncertain.
(1 Chron. 2:53)—a clan descended from Kiriath-jearim in Judah.
. See Shunem.
(Josh. 19:18)—a town assigned to Issachar. The Philistines encamped there before Saul’s final battle on Mount Gilboa (1 Sam. 28:4). Abishag, who attended the aged David, was a Shunammite (1 Kings 1:3, 15); and the faithful woman who received Elisha and whose son he restored to life lived there (2 Kings 4:8–37). The encyclopedia identifies it with the village then called Sulam or Solem, near the Valley of Jezreel.
(Gen. 46:16; Num. 26:15)—a son of Gad and ancestor of the Shunite clan.
—(1) a Benjamite name appearing in genealogical lists and connected with Muppim or Huppim (1 Chron. 7:12, 15); (2) a gatekeeper assigned by lot with Hosah at the Shallecheth Gate (1 Chron. 26:16).
(wall; Gen. 16:7; Exod. 15:22)—a wilderness and frontier region east of Egypt and northwest of the Sinai Peninsula. Hagar encountered the angel of the LORD by the spring on the way to Shur; Israel entered the wilderness of Shur after crossing the sea; and David’s raids reached toward it (1 Sam. 27:8). The name may reflect Egypt’s fortified eastern boundary rather than a single city.
(Neh. 1:1; Esth. 1:2; Dan. 8:2)—an ancient and magnificent city on or near the Ulai in Elam, in what is now southwestern Iran. Susa became one of the principal residences of the Persian kings after Cyrus conquered the region. Daniel’s vision is set at the citadel of Shushan, and the events of Esther unfold at the royal court there. Excavation has revealed successive Elamite, Persian, and later levels, including the remains of the Achaemenid palace complex. Later tradition placed Daniel’s tomb at Susa, but Scripture does not identify his burial place.
(1 Chron. 7:20-21)—a son or descendant of Ephraim. Men of Gath killed members of this line when they came down to seize livestock.
(Ezra 2:44; Neh. 7:47)—an ancestor of a family of the Nethinim who returned from captivity with Zerubbabel.
(2 Esd. 5:30)—one of the Temple servants in Zerubbabel’s time. The corresponding forms are Shamlai in Ezra 2:46 and Salmai in Nehemiah 7:48.
(perhaps the LORD supports) (2 Sam. 21:18; 1 Chron. 11:29)—a Hushathite, one of David’s military captains, who served for one month of the year and slew the giant Saph, or Sippai, in the battle at Gob.
(place of fragrance) (Num. 32:3 and elsewhere)—a city assigned to Reuben (Josh. 13:19) in ancient Moab east of the Jordan. Jerome placed it five hundred paces from Heshbon; the source associates it with ruins called el-Sameh. The city abounded in vineyards and balsam trees.
(interpreted by Gesenius as double hope and by Fürst as double hill) (Ezek. 47:16)—a city in Syria between the territories of Damascus and Hamath.
(1 Macc. 15:23)—an ancient city of the Peloponnese, northwest of Corinth and on the northern border of Argolis. Its ruins were placed near the modern village of Vasiliko. Once the center of the small state of Sicyon, it was celebrated for its arts and luxury.
(plain) (Gen. 14:3, 8)—a broad plain in southeastern Palestine where Sodom, Gomorrah, and the neighboring cities stood and where the Dead Sea afterward formed. Before their destruction, despite its deposits of asphalt or bitumen, the valley was beautiful and fertile, “as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt.” Lot, Abraham’s nephew, lived there. The source presents the fiery rain of brimstone that destroyed its sinful inhabitants and cities as God’s judgment, after which the Dead Sea occupied the place.
(fishing)—the name of a person and a place. (1) (Gen. 10:15; 1 Chron. 1:13) the firstborn of Canaan son of Ham and, according to the source, ancestor of the Sidonians. (2) (Gen. 10:19; 49:13; Matt. 11:21; Acts 27:3 and elsewhere) the most ancient, wealthy, and famous city of Phoenicia, perhaps founded by the preceding Sidon and therefore called Great Sidon (Josh. 11:8). It stood at the northwestern corner of Canaan, twenty or thirty English miles north of Tyre. It was allotted to Asher, but the native inhabitants were never expelled and continued to trouble Israel. Ezekiel calls them a pricking brier and grieving thorn to Israel (Ezek. 28:24). Jacob’s prophecy shows that Sidon was known before Moses (Gen. 49:13).
(interpreted by Fürst as great or mighty and by Gesenius as sweeping away or overthrowing) (Num. 21:21–31 and elsewhere)—king of the Amorites, who lost his realm after refusing Israel passage through it on the way to Canaan. Sihon was killed in battle, his capital Heshbon was taken, and his land was divided among the Israelites. This victory and the following victory over Og king of Bashan greatly assisted Israel’s conquest of Canaan. Their memory endured as a means of strengthening the people’s faith: the LORD “smote great nations, and slew mighty kings; Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan ... and gave their land for an heritage, an heritage unto Israel his people” (Ps. 135:10–12).
(Acts 15:22, 32, 40; 16:25–29)—a leader among the brethren at Jerusalem, a prophet, and one of the Seventy in the source’s ecclesiastical tradition. The source takes Silas as a shortened form of Silvanus (2 Cor. 1:19; 1 Pet. 5:12). It supposes that he was a native of Antioch and a member of the Christian Church there. He accompanied the Apostle Paul on several missionary journeys and shared his imprisonment at Philippi. According to tradition, he became bishop of Corinth and died there. His commemoration is kept on January 4 and July 30.
(Ezek. 16:10, 13; Rev. 18:12)—a costly textile long associated with luxury and royal or ceremonial dress. Ezekiel’s Hebrew term is uncertain and is rendered by some versions as silk and by others as fine fabric; Revelation clearly includes silk among the costly merchandise of Babylon. Ancient silk reached the Near East through long-distance trade from Asia.
(road; highway) (2 Kings 12:20)—a place in or near Jerusalem whose exact position was unknown to the source. Fürst understood it as the great road running from the Jaffa Gate toward the Temple area, perhaps the “causeway” mentioned in 1 Chronicles 26:16. Joash king of Judah was killed by conspirators at the house of Millo, on the way down to Silla.
(Isa. 8:6; John 9:7–11 and elsewhere)—the spring or reservoir of Siloam and the pool beside it, on the southeastern side of Jerusalem at the foot of Mount Zion and Mount Moriah. Some writers identified Siloam with En-rogel or Gihon. Scripture mentions its waters several times. John relates that the Lord made clay, anointed a blind man’s eyes, and sent him to wash in the Pool of Siloam; he went, washed, and received his sight (John 9:6–11). Luke records that the tower in Siloam fell and killed eighteen persons (Luke 13:4).
(1 Pet. 5:12 and elsewhere)—one of the Seventy in the source’s ecclesiastical tradition, and a companion and fellow worker of the Apostle Paul. According to tradition, he was the first bishop of Thessalonica. His commemoration is kept on January 4 and July 30. See Silas.
(Gen. 13:2)—a precious metal valued for beauty, usefulness, purity, and durability and known from the earliest times. It appears among the patriarchs’ riches (Gen. 44:2; Job 28:1). After the exodus, Israel used much silver for the bases, fastenings, and other parts of the Tabernacle (Exod. 26:19, 32; 27:17), for sacred vessels (1 Chron. 28:14–17), and for trumpets (Num. 10:2); it also adorned idols (Isa. 40:19). Silver was an important article of Hebrew trade with the Phoenicians and was weighed in commerce (Gen. 23:16).
(hearing)—the name of several persons. (1) (Gen. 29:33 and elsewhere) Jacob’s second son by Leah. Because Simeon took part in the cruel slaughter of the men of Shechem, Jacob foretold that his descendants would be divided and scattered (Gen. 49:5–7); they consequently received an inheritance consisting of towns within Judah’s territory (Josh. 19:1–9). (2) (1 Chron. 4:20) a man of Judah and his sons. (3) (Ezra 10:31) one of the sons of Harim who put away a foreign wife in the days of Ezra. (4) (1 Macc. 2:1) an ancestor of Mattathias and great-grandfather of Judas Maccabaeus.
(hearing; the source also gives examiner or appraiser)—the name of several persons. (1) (Sirach 50:1) Simon I, son and successor of the high priest Onias I, surnamed the Righteous for his piety and beneficence. (2) (3 Macc. 2:1, source citation) the high priest Simon II, son and successor of Onias II. (3) (2 Macc. 3:4 and elsewhere) a Benjaminite administrator of the Jerusalem Temple under Seleucus Philopator and Antiochus IV Epiphanes. (4) (1 Macc. 2:3, 65; 5:17–21; 2 Macc. 10:19–20 and elsewhere) Simon Maccabaeus, the last surviving son of Mattathias, who assumed leadership of Judea after his brother Jonathan.
(transgression of the law). “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). It passed to man from the devil, who beguiled Adam and Eve and induced them to transgress the commandment of God. From Adam’s sin came the curse and death.
(mud; marshy place)—the name of a city and two deserts. (1) (Ezek. 30:15–16) Greek Pelusium, called the stronghold of Egypt because of its naturally strong and fortified position. Near the ruins of ancient Pelusium the source located the small settlement of Tineh, whose surroundings were covered with sand and marshy mud. (2) (Exod. 16:1; Num. 33:11) the Wilderness of Sin in Arabia near Sinai, between Elim and Mount Sinai. There Israel murmured for want of food. God sent quail in the evening and manna in the morning; the manna descended daily except on the Sabbath and sustained Israel for forty years until the people entered the Promised Land. (3) (Num. 13:21; 20:1; Deut. 32:51) the wilderness south of Palestine in Arabia Petraea, the northern part of the Wilderness of Paran. This is Zin, distinct from the Wilderness of Sin. See Zin.
(rocky; craggy)—the mountain and wilderness of Arabia Petraea reached by the Israelites in the third month after leaving Egypt. From its summit God gave Israel the Law; therefore Scripture calls Sinai the mountain of God and the mountain of the LORD. The source records the Arabic names Tur and Jebel Tur Sina. Both Old and New Testaments identify it with the giving of the Law (Ps. 68:8, 17; Acts 7:38; Gal. 4:24–25), as does ancient tradition. Egyptian Christians withdrew there in times of persecution.
Tradition associated Saint Catherine with the mountain, and the monastery dedicated to her has long stood there. By the fifth century the wilderness was dotted with hermitages. The source reports a tradition that Muhammad instructed his commanders not to disturb Sinai’s monks and observes that the monastery survived under Muslim rule.
(country; land) (Isa. 49:12)—a distant country named by Isaiah in his prophecy of the future calling of the nations. The source follows the common opinion of its day in identifying it with China because the name Sinim resembles an ancient name for that country. The identification is uncertain; the Septuagint understood the word as Persia.
(rocky; craggy) (Gen. 10:17; 1 Chron. 1:15)—descendants of Canaan son of Ham.
(turning aside; departure) (2 Sam. 3:26)—a well from which Joab’s servants brought Abner back. It appears nowhere else. Its precise site was uncertain, but it evidently lay near Hebron, about twenty stadia away.
(order of battle)—the name of two persons. (1) (Judg. 4:2–5:31) commander of the army of Jabin king of Hazor and the first military commander named in the Bible during this period of Israel’s wars. His large and well-equipped force included nine hundred iron chariots, while Barak’s smaller army consisted of infantry. With miraculous help from above and through the overflowing torrent Kishon, Barak routed Sisera’s host. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot to the tent of Heber the Kenite, where Jael, Heber’s wife, killed him. Deborah and Barak praised God in song for the deliverance. The event remained long in Israel’s memory (1 Sam. 12:9; Ps. 83:9–10).
(dark) (1 Chron. 2:40)—father of Shallum and a descendant of Sheshan.
(2 Esd. 5:3–7)—governor of Syria and Phoenicia under King Darius. The source compares his name with the Syriac form Thathnai, corresponding to the biblical governor Tattenai.
(the LORD protects) (Exod. 6:22)—son of Uzziel, a Levite descended from Jacob.
(hostility; strife) (Gen. 26:21)—the name Isaac gave a well because his herdsmen quarreled there with the Philistine herdsmen. It lay in the Valley of Gerar or in that direction. The source notes a proposed survival of the name in the Wadi Shutain south of Elusa, but the identification is uncertain.
(Baruch 1:3)—the month Sivan, the third month of the Hebrew year, extending from the new moon of June to the new moon of July in the calendar described by the source. The encyclopedia treats the name as an old Persian word, perhaps connected with a pagan deity, and says that the Jews adopted it after the Babylonian captivity. See Sivan.
(Esth. 8:9)—the third month of the Hebrew year, beginning with the new moon of June, in which the Jews celebrated Pentecost. The source takes its name to be an ancient Persian word perhaps connected with a pagan deity and says it was probably adopted after the Babylonian captivity. See Year; Months.
(Exod 26:14; Job 2:4; Matt 3:4) - skins and articles made from them were widely used among the Hebrews. They served for clothing, sandals, and girdles, and later for writing parchment. Leather was especially well prepared in ancient Egypt, from which the Israelites likely learned the craft.
(Lev 13:6-8) - a rash appearing as scab or crust upon the body and often disappearing by itself after a time. It ordinarily requires no special remedy beyond removal of its cause and bodily cleanliness. The Mosaic law did not count such cases unclean; but if the eruption persisted and spread over the body, producing chronic scurf or mange, a priest so afflicted was considered unfit to officiate, and an animal with it could not be offered to God.
These diseases, in their various forms, though not very often mentioned in Holy Scripture, have always been rather widespread in Palestine even up to the present time. The most terrible of them was and is leprosy, concerning which the Law of Moses contains the strictest prescriptions and sets forth the most detailed measures (see Leprosy). There are certain localities in the East, such as Aleppo and Aintab, which suffer from particular skin diseases, perhaps owing to the poor quality of the water, but in Palestine only those diseases are found which are generally widespread in the East. A special treatise, De morbis Biblicis (On Biblical Diseases), was written by O. Bartholomew in 1672.
(Gen. 21:14, Judg. 4:19). Ancient vessels for the storage of wine and water were made from the skins of various animals, which were carefully cleaned and prepared in a particular manner for this purpose. The openings of the skins were sewn up, except for the neck, through which the liquid was poured in. Skins, of course, were of various sizes, depending on the hide of the animal from which they were made, such as goat, ox, camel, and others. According to Bruce’s account, he saw in Arabia a skin made from an ox hide, which could hold sixty gallons of water (eighteen buckets), and only two such skins could be loaded onto a camel.
The Gibeonites brought to Joshua old, torn, and patched wineskins, as if in proof that they had come from a very distant and difficult journey (Josh. 9:4). Torn skins were mended with patches. Travelers in the countries of the East frequently mention goatskins and leather vessels, in which they carried water on their journeys; where the journey became difficult and the goatskins might strike against one another, they were made of the most durable material that could be found. Skins, or vessels, used for new wine were prepared from the freshest, most stretchable hide, so that they might better withstand the process of the wine’s fermentation.
A new skin was usually soft and stretchable, as may be seen from the following expression of Job: “Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles” (Job 32:19); but old skins became hard, dry, and full of holes, and easily burst under any outward pressure. It is for this reason that the Savior says: “Men do not put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish. But they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved” (Matt. 9:17).
These words show that weak, not-yet-established disciples should not be burdened with heavy commandments. Skins became black and smoke-stained from smoke; wherefore the psalmist says: “I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes” (Ps. 119:83). Skins and vessels made of other materials besides leather, such as alabaster, porcelain, and metals, are found at present among the remains of the ancient Egyptians, and were, in all likelihood, known to the Hebrews as well (Judg. 4:19).
- see False witness.
. Slavery existed among humankind from ancient times and was known before the Flood (Gen. 9:25). The ancient patriarchs possessed many slaves or servants (Gen. 12:5; 14:14). People became slaves through capture in war (Deut. 20:10–11; 21:10), inability to pay debts (2 Kings 4:1; Isa. 50:1; Matt. 18:25), inability to make restitution for theft (Ex. 22:1–3), or marriage to a person of servile status (Gen. 14:14; 15:3). In extreme need a person might sell himself into servitude (Lev. 25:39).
(Judg. 20:16; 1 Sam. 17:40)—a hand-held weapon and shepherd’s implement used to throw small stones. Known from the earliest times, it was used by shepherds, as it still was in the East in the source’s day, to drive beasts away from their flocks. With this same weapon God helped David strike Goliath (1 Sam. 17:49).
(Rev. 2:8)—a famous Ionian city on the western coast of Asia Minor, near the mouth of the river Meles. Ancient writers praised it as the crown of Ionia and the jewel of Asia for its wealth and cultivated arts. The city repeatedly suffered destructive earthquakes. The encyclopedia also records a severe plague in 1814 and cholera in 1831. The Gospel was preached there in the apostolic age, and the Church of Smyrna received one of the seven messages of Revelation. Saint Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John, served as its bishop and suffered martyrdom there.
(Ps. 58:8)—the psalmist prays that the wicked may pass away “like a snail that melteth.” The Hebrew term is commonly understood as a snail or slug, and the image probably reflects the moist trail and apparent wasting of the creature as it moves. The source’s claim that snails literally exhaust and dissolve themselves by losing bodily slime is obsolete zoology; the verse is forceful poetic imagery, not a scientific description.
—frozen atmospheric vapor falling in white flakes. In the Holy Land snow is uncommon except upon the mountains, especially Lebanon, whose enduring snow is mentioned by Jeremiah (Jer. 18:14). Scripture draws many images from its whiteness and its swift disappearance: God scatters snow like wool (Ps. 147:16); drought and heat consume the snow waters (Job 24:19); and the penitent prays, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:7). Though sins be as scarlet, divine mercy can make them white as snow (Isa. 1:18).
Leprosy is likewise described as white as snow (Exod. 4:6; Num. 12:10; 2 Kings 5:27). Benaiah slew a lion in a pit on a snowy day (2 Sam. 23:20), and the LORD commands the snow to fall upon the earth (Job 37:6).
(Jer. 2:22). If the Hebrews were not in fact acquainted with the preparation of what we properly call soap, that is, a mixture of a mineral alkaline salt with various oily substances, they were nevertheless fully acquainted with its property of cleansing and washing away various stains and impurities from the body and clothing. “For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap,” it is said in the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, “yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD” (2:22)—that is, the sinful inclination of the Israelites toward idols had taken such deep root in their very being that nothing could wash this stain from them.
(1 Pet. 5:8)—Christian self-control in food and drink together with continual vigilance over thoughts, desires, words, and deeds. “Be sober, be vigilant,” the apostle warns, “because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” Biblical sobriety is not merely abstention; it is clear-minded readiness for prayer, resistance to temptation, and faithful obedience.
—the name of two towns in Judah. (1) (Josh. 15:48) a town in Judah’s hill country south of Hebron, tentatively identified by the source with Shuweikeh. (2) (Josh. 15:35; 1 Sam. 17:1) a town in the Shephelah near Azekah, where the Philistines assembled before David’s victory over Goliath. One of Solomon’s district officers administered Socoh and the surrounding region (1 Kings 4:10), and Rehoboam fortified it (2 Chron. 11:7). The two locations and their proposed modern identifications should not be confused.
(Num. 13:10)—father of Gaddiel, the representative of the tribe of Zebulun sent by Moses to spy out Canaan.
—one of the ancient cities of the plain in the Valley of Siddim. Its king Bera joined the neighboring kings in revolt against Chedorlaomer; after their defeat Lot was taken captive, but Abraham rescued him and the people of Sodom (Gen. 14). The well-watered plain had appeared to Lot like the garden of the LORD, and he settled near Sodom, although its inhabitants were exceedingly wicked (Gen. 13:10–13).
(Gen. 19:4–5)—the inhabitants of Sodom, notorious in Scripture for arrogant impiety, violence, inhospitality, and sexual vice (compare Ezek. 16:49–50; Rom. 1:27).
(Gen. 15:13). In Scripture this word has several meanings: 1. a person living away from his native place (Gen. 23:4); 2. a person not belonging to the Jewish people, “the stranger that is within thy gates” (Ex. 20:10); 3. one outside Aaron’s line and therefore unauthorized for priestly service (Num. 3:10; 16:40); and 4. one outside the royal family, or more generally an alien and despised outsider (Matt. 17:25–26; Ps. 69:8).
In Holy Scripture, especially in the prophetic books, much detail is found bearing directly on this awesome and majestic phenomenon of nature, although the word itself is never once mentioned in the Bible. “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD,” thus do the God-inspired men describe the phenomenon of a solar eclipse, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day” (Amos 8:9). This passage probably refers to the total solar eclipse of February 9, 784 B.C., which coincided with the time of the prophecies of the prophet Amos, and which occurred at Jerusalem a little after noon.
“The sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them,” says the prophet Micah (3:6). Here, in all likelihood, is meant the total solar eclipse of June 5, 716 B.C., which is also described by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (2:56). “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come,” prophesies the prophet Joel (2:31). The note in the prophet Jeremiah, “her sun is gone down while it was yet day” (15:9), evidently alludes to a solar eclipse, one well known from Herodotus (1:74, 103), which occurred on September 30, 610 B.C. The darkness over all the land, which lasted from the sixth hour even to the ninth, at the crucifixion of the Savior, was undoubtedly miraculous and arose from an extraordinary solar eclipse, although at that time there was also a full moon.
(peaceable)—son of David and Bathsheba and third king of united Israel. The encyclopedia follows a traditional chronology that places his birth about 1033 BC. The prophet Nathan called him Jedidiah, “beloved of the LORD” (2 Sam. 12:24–25). Solomon grew up under Nathan’s care and was chosen by David to succeed him. When Adonijah attempted to seize the throne with the support of Joab and Abiathar, Nathan and Bathsheba informed the aged king. David ordered Zadok, Nathan, and Benaiah to anoint Solomon at Gihon, and the people acclaimed him king (1 Kings 1).
(2 Macc. 7)—the traditional name given to the mother of the seven brothers martyred under Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Second Maccabees does not name her. She witnessed the cruel torture and death of all her sons and strengthened each of them to remain faithful to God’s law, confessing the Creator’s power to restore life in the resurrection. She reminded the youngest that God made heaven and earth and humankind not from preexisting visible things, and urged him not to fear the executioner but to join his brothers so that she might receive them all again in mercy (2 Macc. 7:22–23, 28–29). After her sons, the mother also died.
—a title used in several senses in Scripture but belonging uniquely to Jesus Christ as the eternal Son, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, one in divine nature with the Father. At His baptism and Transfiguration the Father bears witness to the beloved Son; the apostles confess Him as the Son of the living God; and the New Testament distinguishes His eternal sonship from the grace by which believers become children of God. Psalm 2:7, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee,” is applied to Christ in the apostolic preaching (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5).
(Matt. 8:20; 26:2)—the title Jesus most often uses of Himself. It affirms His true humanity and lowly earthly condition, yet it also invokes Daniel’s heavenly figure who receives everlasting dominion (Dan. 7:13–14). Thus the title embraces humiliation, suffering, authority to forgive and judge, resurrection, and the glorious coming of the Messiah.
—a book of eight chapters attributed to Solomon. In Hebrew idiom the title expresses the superlative degree, like servant of servants, Holy of Holies, and vanity of vanities. Song of Songs therefore means the most excellent and sublime song.
(Gen. 6:2)—the designation of the figures who took wives from the daughters of men before the Flood. The encyclopedia follows the traditional interpretation that they were the godly descendants of Seth, contrasted with Cain’s line. Ancient Jewish and Christian interpreters have also understood them as angelic beings or as powerful rulers. The Hebrew expression itself does not remove the ambiguity, which should therefore be acknowledged.
(2 Kings 2:3, 5)—probably the disciples of the prophets, trained by them in the knowledge of the true religion, piety, and devotion. Schools of the prophets appear first to have been established by Samuel, and from them the Lord from time to time chose the instruments needed to accomplish His holy will.
(Ezra 2:55; Neh. 7:57)—ancestor of a family among the servants of Solomon who returned from the captivity.
(1 Chron. 2:55)—families of scribes who dwelt at Jabez: the Tirathites, Shimeathites, and Sucathites. The Chronicler connects them with the Kenites descended from Hammath, father of the house of Rechab.
(a cluster of grapes; Judg. 16:4)—the valley in which Delilah lived and ensnared Samson. It lay in or beside the territory of Dan and opened westward toward the Mediterranean. Its name accords with the vineyards for which the district was known.
(Josh. 15:59 in the Septuagint tradition)—a town in the hill country of Judah. The source tentatively identifies it with a place west of Jerusalem and south of Wadi Ali; the identification is uncertain.
—the name of two men. (1) (2 Macc. 12:19–24) a commander under Judas Maccabeus. (2) (Acts 20:4; compare Rom. 16:21) Sopater of Berea, who accompanied Paul as far as Asia on the journey toward Jerusalem. Later ecclesiastical tradition counted Sosipater among the Seventy, associated him with Iconium or Corfu, and honored him as a martyr; these details are not stated in Acts.
(Acts 18:17; 1 Cor. 1:1)—a ruler of the synagogue at Corinth who was beaten before Gallio’s judgment seat when the proconsul refused to hear the accusation against Paul. First Corinthians names a Christian brother Sosthenes with Paul. The encyclopedia identifies the two and follows a later tradition that made him one of the Seventy and bishop of Colophon, but the New Testament does not prove either identification.
(2 Macc. 4:27–29)—commander of the citadel at Jerusalem under Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He and the high priest Menelaus were summoned to Antioch to answer accusations concerning revenues and administration.
(Ezra 2:55; Neh. 7:57)—ancestor of a family among the servants of Solomon who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel.
(1 Kings 19:12)—the quiet manifestation that followed wind, earthquake, and fire when the LORD met Elijah at Horeb. The Hebrew phrase is famously difficult and may be rendered “a sound of sheer silence,” “a gentle whisper,” or “a still small voice.” The source’s “breathing of a gentle wind” preserves the traditional sense but should not conceal the ambiguity. Christian interpretation has often seen in the quiet voice an image of the gracious, peace-giving work of God in the heart.
(Song 4:16)—both a direction and, in many biblical passages, a particular region. For the Hebrews “south” could include lands lying between southeast and southwest. The Hebrew Negeb also designated the dry southern district through which the ordinary route passed between central Canaan and Egypt (Gen. 12:9; 13:1-3). The well associated with Hagar and the country of Gerar lay along this southern sphere; Kadesh was at or near its boundary. At the time of Israel’s journey from Egypt, Amalekites occupied parts of it, the king of Arad controlled another portion, and substantial areas later belonged to Judah and Simeon.
(1 Macc 8:3; Rom 15:24-28). In antiquity this name denoted the entire Iberian or Pyrenean Peninsula, together with Portugal; among other things, it abounded in silver and gold mines. On the north it is bounded by the Pyrenees, which separate it from France, and on every other side it is surrounded by water. It is separated from Africa only by the Strait of Gibraltar. The name of this country occurs only three times in Holy Scripture, although there are good grounds for thinking that the celebrated ancient city of Tarshish, to which Phoenician and Hebrew ships sailed even in Solomon's time, was located in Spain.
In his Epistle to the Romans, the holy apostle Paul expresses his intention to visit Spain and promises to travel from there to Rome; whether this desire was fulfilled is not evident from Holy Scripture, although St. Clement of Rome testifies that the apostle reached the farthest limits of the West, and consequently Spain, which the ancients called the end of the earth (Finis terrae). It may therefore be supposed that Christianity in Spain was first planted by the holy apostle Paul.
—the chief city of Laconia in the Peloponnese, famed in antiquity for its disciplined military society. First Maccabees preserves correspondence claiming kinship and friendship between Spartans and Jews: a letter from King Areus to the high priest Onias, Jonathan’s renewal of the alliance, and Spartan recognition after Jonathan’s death (1 Macc. 12:2–23; 14:16–23). Whatever the historical conventions of these letters, the text presents the relationship as one of mutual goodwill.
(Ex. 9:32)—a cereal resembling barley, whose seed is used for bread and animal feed. The source describes it as brick-red, producing a small ear with small, light grains. The Hebrews sometimes sowed spelt beside barley, and the best crop was winter spelt planted in autumn.
(Exod. 30:23; Song of Songs 4:10), whose use was very varied, such as: nard, myrrh, fragrant cinnamon, aloes, cassia, and others. For the most part, aromatic substances were made up of a mixture of various fragrant essences: sometimes in the form of a fragrant powder for burning, sometimes in the form of an ointment for anointing the body, etc. (Prov. 7:17; Luke 23:56). Some of the aromatic substances were native to Palestine, others were brought into Judea from southern Arabia and India.
The spices mentioned in the Gospel of Mark (14:3) simply mean the fragrant myrrh used for pouring on the head and anointing the feet of honored guests (Luke 7:37, 38). Among the aromatic substances of biblical times are many that, even at the present day, form the subject of considerable trade between Europe and Asia. Fragrances were especially used among the Jews for the burial of the dead. Hebrew women wore small perfume flasks at their girdles and anointed their bodies with them (Esther 2:12).
(Job 8:14)—a familiar invertebrate distinguished from other creatures by the peculiar construction of its body. With remarkable skill the spider spreads its web, whose fineness and frailty, in the words of Holy Scripture, offer a vivid image of the vain hopes and undertakings of ungodly people (Isa. 59:5).
(Ex. 35:25–26; Tob. 2:11; Matt. 6:28). It is almost entirely unknown when and where spinning was invented, but the art existed from the earliest times. The Egyptians were especially distinguished in it, as depictions on ancient monuments show. The Hebrews likewise spun various materials, chiefly hair, wool, and flax; silk and cotton became known to them only later.
In general, the word “spirit” is used in Holy Scripture in various senses: for example, in the sense of wind, a movement of air, whether gentle or violent (Gen. 8:1; Eccl. 11:5; John 3:8); sometimes in the sense of the breath of life, as the principle of the lower, animal life (Gen. 6:17; 7:15, and elsewhere; Eccl. 3:21). Sometimes this word denotes bodiless spirits, endowed with mind, will, and power (Acts 23:8; Eph. 2:2; Heb. 1:14); sometimes human souls (Gen. 2:7; Eccl. 12:7; Rom. 8:10, and elsewhere); sometimes the being of God, the divine nature of God, with all its essential attributes (John 4:24); and sometimes, finally, various gifts, ministries, and workings of the Spirit of God (Gen. 41:38; Num. 11:25; 2 Pet. 1:21, and elsewhere), and especially the gracious gifts that accomplish new life in man and serve his sanctification and salvation (John 3:5–8; Acts 2:38; Rom. 8:2; 1 Cor. 2:12–14; 1 Tim. 3:4–7, and elsewhere).
(Lev. 15:8; Isa. 50:6; Matt. 26:67)—under the Mosaic law, the spittle of a person with a discharge communicated ceremonial uncleanness. Spitting in another’s face expressed profound contempt and humiliation (Isa. 50:6; Matt. 26:67; Job 30:10), while Job’s plea that God leave him “till I swallow down my spittle” means even for the briefest moment (Job 7:19). The Gospels mention saliva in three healings: the man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, the blind man at Bethsaida, and the man born blind (Mark 7:33; 8:23; John 9:6).
The encyclopedia notes that ancient peoples also ascribed medicinal or superstitious powers to saliva, but these beliefs are not part of the Gospel’s theological claim.
(Matt. 27:48; Mark 15:36; John 19:29)—the absorbent skeleton of a marine animal, used from antiquity to hold and transfer liquid. At the Crucifixion a sponge was filled with sour wine and lifted to Jesus, John specifying that it was raised on a branch of hyssop. The Gospel narratives make the sponge part of Christ’s final suffering and the fulfillment of Scripture (compare Ps. 69:21); outdated classifications of sponges as “zoophytes” and inaccurate descriptions of their anatomy are not retained.
(a strong man) (John 1:40) — one of the Twelve Apostles, son of Jonah, and brother of Simon Peter. He was a native of Bethsaida, in Galilee, and was originally a disciple of John the Baptist, whom he left in order to follow the Lord. When he found the Messiah, he immediately sought out his brother Simon and brought him to Jesus. From that time they followed Him until His death on the cross. The Gospel events with which the name of the Apostle Andrew is especially connected are mentioned in the following places: Matt. 4:18–20; Mark 13:3; John 1:40; 6:8; 12:22. According to tradition, after the wondrous events of the day of Pentecost, he preached in Scythia and went as far as Kiev, where, on the hills, he planted a cross with the prophetic prediction: “Do you see these hills?
Believe me, the grace of God shall shine forth upon them.” The same tradition says that he ended his life as a martyr in the city of Patras in Achaea, where he was crucified. The year in which he suffered is unknown to us; but the last day of the month of November has always been reckoned, both by Eastern and Western Christians, as the day of his martyrdom.
(Rom. 16:9)—a Christian at Rome greeted by Paul as “my beloved.” Later tradition numbered him among the Seventy, made him the first bishop of Byzantium under the Apostle Andrew, and commemorated him on January 4 and October 31; Scripture supplies none of those later biographical details.
(Exod. 30:34)—one of the aromatic substances prescribed for the sacred incense. The Greek word staktē means something that drips or flows and was commonly understood as the finest spontaneously exuding myrrh. Other identifications, including a preparation from storax, have been proposed; the ancient substance cannot be identified with certainty.
. See Measures of Distance.
(Deut. 4:19) — by this term the Hebrews understood all constellations, planets, and heavenly bodies — in short, all the luminaries except the sun and moon — created by God together with the sun and moon on the fourth day of creation. The Psalmist, depicting the omnipotence and omniscience of God, says that He telleth the number of the stars and calleth them all by their names (Ps. 147:4 [146:4]). The sacred writers, to express an immeasurable multitude, use expressions such as: “Count the stars, if thou be able to number them: so shall thy seed be” (Gen. 15:5), said the LORD to Abraham; or another expression of equal force: “as the sand of the sea.” Nothing in the visible world speaks so eloquently of the glory and omnipotence of the Creator as the starry heavens (Ps. 19:1 [18:1]).
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork… When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” cries the Psalmist (Ps. 8:3, 4). In the book of Job it is written that when the LORD laid the cornerstones of the earth’s foundation, then, amid the universal rejoicing of the morning stars, all the sons of God shouted for joy (Job 38:7).
The star of Bethlehem, which appeared to the wise men and led them to the birthplace of the Savior, was evidently not a natural phenomenon, but a miraculous one: having fulfilled its purpose, it then vanished from the sky. St. John Chrysostom says that in the form of the star that guided the Magi there was an angel. “The stars shall fall from heaven” (Matt. 24:29), said the Lord Savior, pointing to this as one of the signs of His second coming and of the dreadful Judgment. In Holy Scripture the following stars in particular are mentioned: the morning star (the planet Venus), called by the prophet Isaiah (14:12) the day star, or son of the morning; the Pleiades, Orion, and the Bear. “Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south” (the constellations corresponding to these at the present time), it is said in the book of Job (9:9).
“Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?” God said to Job. “Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?” (38:31, 33). The dragon, or serpent: “His hand hath formed the crooked serpent” (Job 26:13). In the prophecy of Balaam: “There shall come a Star out of Jacob” (Num. 24:17) — by this star is meant the Messiah, Christ, who is also called in the Revelation of John the bright and morning Star (22:16), since He illumined the earth with the light of the day of the Gospel and fully revealed to men the mysteries of the kingdom of God.
(Matt. 17:27)—a Greek coin worth four drachmas, equivalent in the Gospel’s setting to the shekel required for two persons’ Temple tax. Christ directed Peter to find the coin in the fish’s mouth and pay “for me and thee.” Staters could be struck in different metals and standards, but a silver coin is intended here.
. See the entries for the individual places.
—a hardened alloy of iron whose properties depend chiefly upon controlled carbon content and treatment. The encyclopedia’s description in terms of repeated melting and burning reflects the metallurgy of its period. See Iron.
(1 Cor. 1:16; 16:15–18)—a Corinthian Christian whose household Paul baptized. His household was the firstfruits of Achaia and devoted itself to serving the saints. Paul urged the Corinthians to recognize such laborers and rejoiced that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus had refreshed his spirit.
(Acts 6:5)—the first named among the seven men chosen by the Jerusalem Church for the daily ministry, “a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,” and the Church’s Protomartyr. Full of grace and power, he performed wonders and spoke with wisdom that his opponents could not withstand. False witnesses accused him of speaking against Moses and the Temple, and he was brought before the council (Acts 6).
(Job 13:27)—a wooden restraint in which a prisoner’s feet, and sometimes hands or neck, were secured. The jailer at Philippi put Paul and Silas in the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks (Acts 16:24). Job uses the image to lament that God has restricted his movement and watched every path.
(Acts 17:18)—members of the philosophical school founded by Zeno of Citium around 300 BC and named from the painted portico, or Stoa, in Athens. They taught that virtue is the true good and sought freedom from passions through life according to reason and nature. At Athens certain Stoic and Epicurean philosophers disputed with Paul, calling him a setter forth of strange gods because he preached Jesus and the resurrection. Paul’s address begins from truths his hearers could recognize but summons them beyond philosophical speculation to repentance before the risen Judge (Acts 17:18–31).
(Gen 35:14) - Hebrews commonly built houses and other structures of stone, the best using large squared and dressed blocks. Amos warned luxurious Israelites that they would build houses of hewn stone but not live in them (Amos 5:11). For Solomon's temple, great, costly, dressed stones were brought for the foundation (1 Kgs 5:17). In ancient times stone knives were used (Exod 4:25; Josh 5:2), and Egyptians used them in preparing bodies for embalming. Christ's disciples are called living stones (1 Pet 2:5), expressing their spiritual union with Christ as cornerstone and source of life.
—an aromatic resin obtained from trees of the genus Styrax and traded in the ancient Near East. It has sometimes been proposed for one of the biblical perfume terms and for the substance translated “stacte” in Exodus 30:34, but the identification is uncertain. Styrax officinalis grows as a small tree or shrub with white flowers and provides shade; the encyclopedia’s botanical description and reports of its use in Gilead reflect the scholarship of its period.
(Gen. 24:25; Exod. 5:7-18)—dried stalks remaining after grain harvest, used for animal bedding, fodder, fuel, and brickmaking. Chopped straw mixed with mud helps bind and strengthen sun-dried bricks. Pharaoh’s order forced the Israelites to gather their own straw while maintaining the same brick quota, intensifying their oppression. The labor failed not because every brick without straw immediately broke, as the source suggests, but because the withheld material made the required production far more difficult.
(Gen. 19:2)—streets in ancient Near Eastern towns varied greatly, though many ordinary lanes were narrow, unpaved, and crowded. Larger cities also possessed broad ways, gates, squares, and market streets. Individual streets could bear names, as did the Straight Street in Damascus (Acts 9:11). Gates and public squares served as places of judgment, trade, conversation, and news; the poor and travelers might also spend time or sleep in open public spaces.
(Isa. 5:11; Luke 1:15)—fermented intoxicating drink other than ordinary grape wine. The biblical Hebrew term shekar can include beer and beverages made from dates or other fruit. Wine and strong drink are distinguished in the priestly and Nazirite regulations (Lev. 10:9; Num. 6:3). Ancient peoples did not possess modern distilled spirits in the form now commonly called hard liquor, so the term should not be read as a precise modern category. Scripture repeatedly condemns drunkenness and enslavement to drink; the force of each passage must be determined from its setting.
(1 Chron. 2:55)—one of the families of scribes who dwelt at Jabez, belonging to the Kenite group associated with the house of Rechab. See Sopherites.
(booths of the daughters; 2 Kings 17:30)—the deity or cult object made by Babylonian settlers transplanted to Samaria by the Assyrians. Older writers connected the name with a Babylonian goddess, but the precise identification and meaning remain uncertain.
(Bar. 1:4)—a river or canal beside which Jewish exiles are said to have lived when Baruch’s book was read. Its location is unknown, and the name may preserve a textual or geographical variant.
(1 Esd. 5:29; compare Ezra 2:44; Neh. 7:47)—ancestor of a family of Temple servants who returned from Babylon. The variant names reflect differences among the ancient textual traditions.
(Job 2:11)—the designation, from ancestry or residence, of Bildad, one of Job’s friends.
(2 Chron. 12:3)—a people who accompanied Shishak of Egypt in his campaign against Judah. Greek and Latin versions understood the name as referring to cave dwellers, while other interpreters connected it with tent dwellers or an African region. Their exact identity is unknown.
(Ps. 32:4; Hag. 1:11)—the dry season in the land of Israel, normally extending from late spring into early autumn. Grass withers, soil hardens, and both people and animals depend heavily on stored water and nighttime dew (Deut. 28:23; Ps. 102:4). Haggai presents drought not merely as climate but as covenant judgment calling the returned community to reorder its life before God. The source’s single nineteenth-century thermometer reading is omitted as anecdotal and not representative climate data.
—the great luminary appointed by God to rule the day (Gen. 1:16). The Hebrew word shemesh appears in place-names such as Beth-shemesh and Ir-shemesh. Sun worship was widespread in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Canaan, Greece, and Rome, and Israel was repeatedly warned not to worship the sun, moon, or host of heaven (Deut. 4:19; 17:3). Job describes looking upon the shining sun and secretly kissing the hand as an iniquity that denies the God above (Job 31:26–28). Josiah destroyed the horses and chariots dedicated to the sun and suppressed the incense offered to heavenly bodies (2 Kings 23:5, 11).
(reeds; Deut. 1:1)—a locality named in the description of the place where Moses addressed Israel. It has often been related to Yam Suph, the biblical “Sea of Reeds,” a name used of waters including the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba, but Deuteronomy’s precise geographical reference is uncertain.
. See Meal.
(Ezra 4:9)—a people named among the groups whose representatives opposed the rebuilding at Jerusalem. The source associates them with colonists from Susa, but their exact origin is uncertain.
—the name of two women. (1) (Susanna 1–64, the Greek addition to Daniel) the beautiful and devout wife of Joakim, falsely accused of adultery by two elders after she rejected them. Condemned on their testimony, she was vindicated when the young Daniel questioned the accusers separately and exposed their contradiction. The story survives in Greek and is absent from the Hebrew-Aramaic form of Daniel. (2) (Luke 8:3) one of the women who, having been healed, accompanied Jesus and supported Him and the Twelve from their own resources. Later church calendars preserve commemorations not supplied by Luke.
(Ps 84:3; Prov 26:2; Jer 8:7; Isa 38:14) - the familiar migratory songbird of the passerine order. It builds nests under the roofs and cornices of temples, houses, towers, and other structures. Hence the psalmist says: 'Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God' (Ps 84:3).
- the name of this noble and peaceful ruler of the lakes occurs twice in Scripture (Lev 11:18; Deut 14:16), where the traditional rendering places it among unclean birds. Scripture says nothing about the dying swan's final song, so beloved by ancient Greek poets; the source takes this as evidence that biblical natural history does not support superstition or popular error. Swans are found on the Jordan and other rivers and lakes of Syria, especially the Sea of Galilee.
(Exod. 30:23; Ezek. 27:19)—an aromatic plant used in the sacred anointing oil and traded with Tyre. The Hebrew qeneh bosem means fragrant cane or reed, but the precise botanical species remains debated. Ancient interpreters associated the finest material with Arabia or lands farther east; confident identification with a single modern European plant is unwarranted.
(Deut. 14:8; Lev. 11:7–8)—the domestic pig. Pork from this animal, regarded as especially unclean, was so abhorrent to Jews and to Muslims known to the source that many avoided even pronouncing its name and instead said “that beast” or “that animal.” Thus the prodigal son’s occupation feeding swine represented the most contemptible labor (Luke 15:15). Isaiah 65:4 names eating swine’s flesh among Israel’s sinful practices.
(1 Kings 10:27; Amos 7:14)—a tree well known in Judea and throughout the East. In Scripture the sycamore generally means the Egyptian fig. Its fruit resembles a fig and was highly valued; gathering it was entrusted to appointed overseers (1 Chron. 27:28; Amos 7:14). The wood was used in construction. Though valued far below cedar (1 Kings 10:27; Isa. 9:10), it was remarkably durable: Egyptian coffins made from it were found sound after thousands of years. The broad tree has many branches and wide, glossy green leaves.
It grew chiefly on the maritime plains and in the hot Jordan Valley. The Psalmist says that the LORD destroyed Egypt’s “sycomore trees with frost” (Ps. 78:47). Because it gives excellent shade, it was planted beside roads for travelers and around Egyptian dwellings.
(John 4:5)—the Samaritan city near Jacob’s well. Many identify it with Shechem; others regard it as a separate settlement. The Old Syriac version has a form like Shokhar, which was sometimes interpreted as “drunken” and explained as a Jewish term of reproach for a Samaritan city. The Bordeaux Pilgrim in the fourth century appears to distinguish Sychar from Shechem, whereas the sixth-century pilgrim Antoninus identifies the place with Neapolis and Jacob’s well and reports a church connected with John the Baptist there.
If Sychar was not Shechem, the source suggests a small Samaritan settlement north of the well, perhaps near Askar. The encyclopedia ultimately prefers the common identification of Sychar with Shechem, while acknowledging that the evidence does not settle the question.
(Ezek. 29:10; 30:6)—a city at ancient Egypt’s southern boundary, identified with modern Aswan. The source describes remains of temples, columns, inscriptions, and vast granite quarries from which Egyptian monuments were cut; the stone called syenite takes its name from the place. Syene stood near the Tropic of Cancer and was famous in antiquity for the near disappearance of the noon shadow at the summer solstice.
(Matt. 12:9)—an assembly and, by extension, the building in which Jews gathered for worship and religious instruction. There is no certain evidence for established synagogues before the Babylonian exile, but afterward such assemblies became common. At first Jews probably met in private houses or in the open air. Tradition claimed that Jerusalem possessed at least 480 synagogues before its conquest by Rome; the source itself calls the number exaggerated, while regarding a large total as plausible.
Building a synagogue was considered an act of piety and beneficence (Luke 7:5), and one could be established wherever a sufficient number of Jewish worshipers lived.
(Phil. 4:2–3)—a devout Christian woman at Philippi who labored with the Apostle Paul in the proclamation of the Gospel.
(Acts 28:12)—a wealthy and important city on Sicily’s eastern coast, traditionally founded in 735 BC. The Apostle Paul stopped there for three days on his voyage to Rome. It once had two great harbors and a population of one hundred thousand and was the birthplace of Archimedes. The source reports that its ancient ruins, though limited, still testified to its former greatness; its modern city had about thirteen thousand inhabitants and a harbor partly obstructed by sand. Local tradition called Marcian its first bishop, while Saint Lucy was especially venerated there.
(2 Sam. 8:12)—called Aram in the Hebrew text. In its broadest sense Syria extended from the Mediterranean and the river Cydnus to the Euphrates, and from the Taurus Mountains southward to Arabia and Egypt’s border. The source divides it into Palestinian Syria, including Canaan and Phoenicia; Coele-Syria, between the two ranges of Lebanon; and Upper Syria, which was called Syria in the narrower sense. Syrian kings frequently fought Israel, sometimes submitted to it, and sometimes entered alliances with it.
The land successively came under Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, Roman, and Muslim powers. The source distinguishes the names Syria and Assyria and follows an older etymology connecting Syria with Tyre or Sur, while Assyria derives from Asshur.
(Mark 7:26; compare Matt. 15:22)—a Gentile woman from the Phoenician part of Syria. Mark calls her a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, which may refer to her language and regional origin; Matthew calls her a Canaanite woman, indicating descent from the ancient Canaanite population. She was not wholly unacquainted with Jewish faith, and her great faith in Christ received His mercy when He delivered her daughter from an unclean spirit.